Nutrition & Fitness

Recipe for Quick Weight Loss, Must Try

Recipe for Quick Weight Loss, Must Try and Share

This red drink, whose basic ingredients are cranberry juice, ginger and lemon, will breath in new life to your liver, cleaning it from toxins and thereby improve the performance of the whole organism. The liver is the largest internal organ that purifies the blood, supports the digestive system, regulate blood sugar and eventually helps for fat deposition and protein production.

Ingredients:

  • Cranberry And Lemon2 liters of cranberry water
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Stevia (1-3 packages)

Preparation:
Boil the cranberry water and reduce the heat to be able to add the spices.
Cook for another 15 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature.
Dilute the juice of oranges and lemons and add stevia. Then store in refrigerator.

The secret in this miracle potion is hidden in the cranberries juice – effective antioxidants and herbs that reduce hunger and juice from oranges and lemons that are real vitamin bomb providing fast weight loss.

 

Do you suffer from the most common eating disorder?

Do you suffer from the most common eating disorder

Have you ever done that thing with food? You know, that thing where you’ve been dieting all day, and you’ve been doing awesome… not one carb, drinking nothing but water with lemon squeezed in, even power walking on your lunch break… and then comes the night

You’re ready to go to sleep. You’ve had an awesome day, you stayed on your diet all day long. The only problem is you can’t sleep. You lay there listening to your stomach grumble, feeling tired, very, very tired. But you’re also wired and your eyes are wide open. You’re staring at the ceiling, obsessing about food and trying really hard not to get out of bed. Finally you get up and go to the fridge. Just a slice of turkey will kick this. Maybe a bite of cereal. Maybe a bowl of cereal. Maybe another bowl of cereal. Maybe the rest of the pint of ice cream. Maybe a peanut butter sandwich or two. And this all happened in front of an open refrigerator in just under 30 minutes. Been there? Been there a lot? If so, you might be dealing with Binge Eating Disorder.

Binge Eating Disorder is the most common eating disorder, affecting 5.5 percent of the adult population. So, if you are doing this, you are not alone. You feel alone because you do these behaviors in secrecy, but so are millions of other people. When you suffer from binge eating and emotional eating attacks, food is your drug. You try to stop using by going on diets, but inevitably you wind up back on the streets… or in the Oreos.

But there is hope and it is totally possible to be free from this. Here are some tips to break free from binge eating, stress eating, compulsive eating and emotional eating.

1. Stop dieting right this instant

Diets give you a false sense of control. You’re feeling bad about yourself and you vow to go on a diet. The diet makes you feel as though you have some control but inevitably you don’t. Every time you go on a diet, you set yourself up for bingeing. The 20-billion-dollar weight-loss industry thrives when you mess up your diet and sign up for a new one. Instead, vow to leave the industry behind and get off the hamster wheel of bingeing and dieting.

Do you suffer from the mos2

2. Learn intuitive eating

It’s a little more complex than “eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.” Someone who has been a chronic dieter doesn’t quite know when they are hungry because they have fought to push their hunger away for so long. The best thing to do is to is to start just by paying attention to what is going on in your body. Remember that your body is constantly looking for a fuel source to run on. When it is digesting food, it has fuel. When you are no longer digesting, you are hungry and you need fuel; you are running on empty. Take a few moments out of your day, several times a day, to check in with your body and notice how it’s feeling. When you begin to feel empty in your belly, but before you get to the point of really having your fuel light on, check in with your body and ask it what it needs. Just close your eyes, put your hand over your heart, let your mind sync up with your heartbeat and ask “what do I need?”; your body will tell you.

3. Let go of black-and-white thinking

Chronic dieters tend to have an all-or-nothing approach to food. They talk about “good” days and “bad” days. Like if you were to have a day where you ate ice cream or cookies it would be a bad day, if you had a day where you ate salads and drank water, it would be a good day. Food does not hold a moral value. A cookie doesn’t make you a bad person and a salad doesn’t make you a good person. When a chronic dieter goes off her diet by eating a couple of cookies, it can make her feel like, “Oh well, the whole day is ruined, I might as well finish off the bag now.” When you feel as though you’ve behaved in an unhelpful way with food (unintentionally eating an entire box of cookies), rather than spending the rest of the day bingeing ask yourself, “what’s the next right thing that I can do?” It might be going out and taking a walk, it might be brushing your teeth, it might be calling a friend or making your bed. Rather than making it worse for yourself, make it better. Do the next right thing. Get right back on your bicycle and ride rather than spending the rest of the day laying on the ground.

4. Find support

Talk to a therapist who specializes in treating eating disorders, or find other people who are dealing with the same thing that you are. You can search for a binge eating support group either online or in person. You can do a 12-step group or go to ANAD to find free in-person groups. Because Binge Eating Disorder thrives in isolation, it suffocates when the light is shined on it.

5. Keep binge food out of your home

When you are beginning the process of letting go of binge eating, it is best to take the binge foods out of your house. Make your house a safe zone for a little while. If you were recovering from cocaine addiction, you wouldn’t keep cocaine in your cupboards. It’s the same thing. It’s okay to clear out your home to make it a more hospitable environment for your recovery. It’s not forever, it’s just until you are feeling stronger and more settled in your recovery.

6. Be gentle with yourself

This is a process. The dieting mentality will have you believe that you can lose 10 pounds in two weeks. It thrives on a quick-fix mentality. But let yourself take this process slowly and learn from it. You can recover and you can get through this. Just allow it to take time, and be kind to yourself. Food and diets have been your coping mechanism up to this point. Now it’s time for you to integrate loving kindness as a coping mechanism.

Source: sheknows

Home Remedies for Obesity

home remedies for obesity

Obesity, which is excessive accumulation of fat in the body, is determined by measuring a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI). Generally, a BMI between 18.5 and 25 is considered desirable. If your BMI is 30 or more, you are considered obese.

You can calculate your BMI using the following:

BMI=(Weight in lbs / (Height in inches x Height in inches)) x 703, or if you measure with the metric system use BMI= Weight in kg / (Height in meters x Height in meters)

This problem is mostly attributed to poor lifestyle choices, such as eating processed foods high in fat, oversized food portions, overeating, excessive drinking, lack of physical activity, lack of sleep, and other similar habits. Genetic factors and hormonal problems also tend to increase the risk of developing obesity.

Obesity is a great concern not merely because of the excess weight, but also because it makes you susceptible to a number of serious health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and others.

It is important to adopt healthy lifestyle changes to combat this problem. In addition, you can use some easy yet effective natural remedies to help with your weight loss efforts.

Here are the top 10 home remedies for obesity.

1. Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is one of the best home remedies for fighting obesity. It helps improve digestion and aids in detoxification. Healthy digestion is an essential pre-requisite for weight loss as it helps your body get the nutrients required to burn fat. Furthermore, it helps remove toxins from your body that slow down your metabolism.

Mix three teaspoons of lemon juice, one teaspoon of honey, and one-half teaspoon of black pepper powder in one cup of water. (If you use freshly ground black pepper, then just add one-quarter teaspoon.)
Drink it in the morning on an empty stomach.
Do this daily for at least three months.
Alternatively, you can simply have a cup of warm water mixed with a teaspoon of lemon juice.

2. Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is another popular home remedy to reduce excess weight. Though the actual weight loss benefits of it are still unknown, preliminary research has shown that it can help protect against obesity. It helps breakdown fat and hence prevents the accumulation of body fat.

Mix two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water. Drink it daily in the morning and preferably before meals.
You can also drink a cup of water mixed with one teaspoon each of apple cider vinegar and lemon juice.

You can have up to two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a day. Do not exceed this amount, as it may reduce your blood potassium levels over time and lower your bone mineral density.

3. Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is useful in treating obesity because it stimulates the metabolism, increases energy consumption, and mobilizes unused fat in the body. It contains natural collagen proteins that make the body work harder in order to absorb the proteins. In addition, it helps remove toxins from the digestive system and colon.

Take two fresh aloe vera leaves, peel them, and scoop out the pulp.
Put it in a blender along with one cup of citrus juice, such as orange or grapefruit juice, or simply water. Blend it for two to three minutes. Drink this daily for at least a month.

4. Green Tea
Green tea is another popular natural remedy to promote weight loss. A study at Penn State revealed that epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a compound found in green tea, helps slow down weight gain by limiting fat absorption and increasing the body’s ability to use fat.

Furthermore, green tea is packed with nutrients such as vitamin C, carotenoids, zinc, selenium, chromium, and other trace minerals.

Drink about three to four cups of green tea daily to combat obesity. You can also combine it with ginger tea or cayenne pepper.

5. Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne pepper helps control obesity and aids in weight loss. It contains capsaicin that stimulates your body to burn fat and increase energy expenditure. In addition, it stimulates digestion and suppresses excess appetite caused by malabsorption of nutrients in the body.

Make cayenne pepper tea by pouring a glass of hot water over cayenne pepper (start with one-tenth of a teaspoon or just a dash of cayenne pepper and gradually increase its quantity to one teaspoon). Squeeze the juice from half a lemon in it. Drink this tea regularly at least for a month.
Mix two tablespoons each of lemon juice and maple syrup in 10 ounces of water (one glass contains 8 ounces). Stir in a dash of cayenne pepper and drink it.
Use cayenne pepper and other spices, such as ginger, black pepper, and mustard seeds, generously in your meal preparations.

6. Curry Leaves
Eating 10 fresh curry leaves daily in the morning works as a great Ayurvedic remedy to deal with obesity and diabetes caused by obesity. Continue this treatment regularly for at least three to four months.

Research shows that curry leaves contain mahanimbine, an alkaloid that has anti-obesity and lipid-lowering effects. Thus, it helps lower body weight and reduces total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

7. Tomatoes:

Eat a couple of tomatoes every morning on an empty stomach. Make sure you eat the peels and seeds as well because they contain dietary fiber. Tomatoes contain compounds that tend to alter the levels of hormones that affect your appetite.

Furthermore, being rich in vitamins A, C, and K, and magnesium, manganese, choline, folate, and other nutrients, they are good for your health. Also, they are packed with antioxidants that protect against cancers.

8.  Cabbage:

Make raw or boiled cabbage an integral part of your weight loss diet. It contains tartaric acid that inhibits the conversion of sugar and other carbohydrates into fat. Moreover, it is rich in vitamin C and low in calories but high in fiber and water content.

Being a cruciferous vegetable, it contains phytochemicals that help improve the imbalance of estrogen metabolism that not only causes your body to store fat but also promotes breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and others. Other cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and Swiss chard are also beneficial in this regard.

9. Fennel seeds

Fennel seeds are believed to be useful in weight loss because of their diuretic properties. Diuretics help you lose weight quickly by reducing water retention. They do not cause long-term weight loss though.

Slightly dry roast and grind fennel seeds. Sieve the powder. Take one-half teaspoon of this powder twice daily with warm water. This remedy will also help relieve abdominal gas, indigestion, and constipation.
You can also drink fennel tea 15 minutes before meals.

10. Honey and Cinnamon

Include honey and cinnamon tea in your diet to boost your metabolism, increase your energy, and detoxify your body. All of these effects support weight loss. Honey fights obesity by promoting fat metabolism. Cinnamon helps you avoid overeating by fighting insulin resistance and also reduces oxidative stress associated with metabolic syndrome.

Pour a cup of hot water over one-half teaspoon of cinnamon powder (you can also use cinnamon sticks). Let it steep for half an hour. Mix in one teaspoon of organic honey.

Drink half of it in the morning on an empty stomach, about half an hour before breakfast. Store the rest in the refrigerator and drink it at night before going to bed.

Along with these remedies, make sure you drink eight glasses of water throughout the day to flush toxins out of your body.

Studies have found that plant-based foods can help fight obesity becausethey contain phytochemicals that prevent oxidative stress, which contributes to obesity. So, opt for more plant-based foods rather than processed, fast foods. Plus, include grapes, peaches, figs, carrots, and blueberries in your diet.

Another very important yet ignored tip to fight obesity is to have a proper breakfast. Research shows that those who have a big breakfast are more likely to lose weight and even a few inches off their waistline compared with those who eat a large dinner.

Source: top 10 home remedies

10 Amazing Health Benefits of Lettuce

10 Amazing Health Benefits of Lettuce

10 Health Benefits:

1. Low Calorie Content and Almost Zero Fat.
Lettuce has only 12 calories for one shredded cup.
This is why it is so good for weight loss.

2. Helps Weight Loss
Lettuce contains fiber and cellulose. Besides filling you up, fiber improves your digestion. Improving your digestion may not sound like a good thing for losing weight, but it is actually essential for long term weight control.
Fiber also helps remove bile salts from the body. When the body replaces these salts it breaks down cholesterol to do so. This is why lettuce is also good for your heart!

3. Heart Healthy
Lettuce’s vitamin C and beta-carotene work together to prevent the oxidation of cholesterol. This prevents the build up of plaque.

4. Omega-3 Fatty acids.

Romaine lettuce has a two to one ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. That’s a great ratio.
The fat content in lettuce is not significant UNLESS you eat a lot–but we actually suggest you do!

5. Complete Protein
Romaine lettuce’s calories are 20 percent protein. Like all whole foods, much of this protein is complete, but the amount can be increased by combining with balancing proteins.

6. Helps with Insomnia
The white fluid that you see when you break or cut lettuce leaves is called lactucarium.
This has relaxing and sleep inducing properties similar to opium but without the strong side effects. Simply eat a few leaves or drink some lettuce juice.

7. Lettuce is Alkaline Forming
The minerals in lettuce help remove toxins and keep your acid/alkaline balance in order. Once you are balanced on this level there are a host of benefits including greater energy, clearer thinking, deep restful sleep, and youthful skin. To browse more benefits check out Benefits of An Alkaline Body.

8. Low Glycemic Index
Lettuce has an average glycemic index of 15, but because it has so few calories, its glycemic load is considered zero. Foods with low glycemic indexes are great for anyone watching their blood sugars for medical reasons, or for weight management.
Of course, lettuce has no refined or white sugars and the host of problems that come with them.

9. Whole Life Food
Lettuce is almost always eaten raw, providing us with many micronutrients not found in cooked or processed food. Eating raw food also adds vital energies not recognized by nutritional science.

Large food corporations have not found a way to package lettuce long term or stick it in cans or boxes. Let’s hope they never do!
In fact, lettuce is one of the few foods which can be found organic and prewashed already in bins for you to eat immediately.

10. Lettuce Tastes Great.
Even though lettuce is very low in calories, many varieties still have a sweet taste. To maximize benefits from your food you should really WANT to eat it with your whole body–not just your mind saying it is good for you. If you like the bitter taste you can find more bitter lettuce options, too!

Source: health digezt

Revealed — 12 shocking reasons why you are gaining weight!

12 shocking reasons why you are gaining weight

You are not eating more than usual, maybe you are consuming even less calories. You have not stopped exercising. Then why do you find yourself gaining weight?

About 5 years ago I started putting on weight after being slim my whole life. 115 – 120 lbs was my consistent, no effort required weight. The gain coincided with first year university. I gained up to about 130-135 before saying, enough, I have to change. I ate a bit healthier, dropped back to 115 in short order and felt good, maintained that for two years no issue. The last 2 or three months though, I’ve started putting weight on again. The funny thing is, my eating habits didn’t change – or if they did, I was eating less than before. Does anyone have experience with this?

This is Jess’s cry for help regarding unexplained weight gain. She then indicates that ‘there is a lot of new stress’ in her life.

Consuming less calories than usual?

Sometimes, consuming less calories than usual can cause weight gain. Strange but true. This is mainly because your body considers not getting sufficient food (nutrients) as ‘famine’ and starts stocking up in the form of fat, especially in the belly region, for later use as energy. Well, after some time you get back to your usual portions of diet, the ‘stocked’ fat is not used and you gain weight.

Pregnant and eating for two?

Your attitude during pregnancy can also cause you to gain weight that might prove difficult to shed. Overweight pregnant women who ‘eat for two’ are likely to experience excessive weight gain, according to researchers from Penn State College of Medicine. Normal weight pregnant women need only 300 extra calories per day and 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week. The researchers found women who gained weight ate more unhealthy food, that too, as a result of craving, and exercised less than usual when pregnant.

There can also be a number of underlying health issues that is causing you to gain weight.

Food sensitivity / food intolerance

Do you think you are eating the ‘right’ foods, but still seem to gain weight? Your favourite food may be the culprit. Although you may have intolerance to any food, scientists have found that 40 percent of offenders are milk or dairy products and 25 percent is wheat. Eggs, yeast and nuts follow closely.

Food sensitivities can arise when you eat the same foods with too little variety. This causes your body to become sensitized to that particular food/s. Food sensitivities involve immune system antibodies IgG (not IgE that cause true food allergies) that create a reaction that raises insulin and cortisol, both of which make you better at storing fat, especially around the midsection. This immune reaction also makes you crave the very foods that are hurting you, and the vicious cycle goes on, and you gain weight.

Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is a disorder in which the thyroid gland doesn’t make enough of its hormone and is one of the commonest reasons for unexplained weight gain. Other symptoms include dry skin, low energy, and constipation.

There is a complex relationship between thyroid hormone and body metabolism. Metabolism is the amount of oxygen used by the body over a specific amount of time. When the body is at rest, the measurement of metabolism is the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Thyroid hormone regulates metabolism by helping the body use energy, stay warm, and keep the brain, heart and other organs working properly.

When the thyroid hormone is present in low levels, the BMR also decreases, causing your body to excessively accumulate salt and water, leading to weight gain. This is just one of the ways thyroid hormone causes weight gain. Actually, there are many other hormones, proteins, and other chemicals that control energy expenditure, food intake, and body weight and all these substances interact on brain centers in different ways to increase body weight.

Cushing’s syndrome

Cushing’s syndrome is a group of signs and symptoms that involves exposure to high levels of hormone cortisol for a long time. The hallmark signs of the syndrome are a fatty hump between your shoulders and a rounded face caused by weight gain and fatty tissue deposits on the face (moon face) and between the shoulders (like a buffalo hump), and pink or purple stretch marks on your skin.

Slow healing of cuts and infection, acne, a fragile skin that bruises easily, and irregular periods in women are other symptoms of the syndrome.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands and it has a number of functions –

  • It helps regulate your blood pressure and keeps the cardiovascular system working properly.
  • It helps your body respond to stress.
  • It metabolizes proteins, carbohydrates, and fats into fast usable energy.
  • It also stimulates insulin release and maintains blood sugar levels.
  • The last two functions are possibly the reason for increase in appetite, as more the cortisol, faster the metabolic rate, and greater your appetite that consequently makes you gain weight.

Stress

Eating habits can be difficult to maintain when you are under stress. Excess cortisol is secreted during times of physical or psychological stress. Actually, cortisol has been nicknamed ‘stress hormone’. So, what is the link between stress, cortisol and appetite? Studies have shown that cortisol directly influences food consumption by binding to receptors in the brain region called hypothalamus. This can stimulate an individual to eat food that is high in fat and sugar. Cortisol also increases the levels of CRH (corticotrophin releasing hormone) and neuropeptide-Y, and decreases the levels of leptin, all of which are released during stress and also known to stimulate appetite.

The same reasoning applies to anxiety disorders and depression.

Cortisol concentrations are controlled by specific enzyme that converts inactive cortisone into active cortisol. Scientists have found that more of this enzyme is present in the middle region than anywhere else in the body. Thus, higher the enzyme, greater the cortisol levels in the tissues. That’s why you tend to put on more fat in the belly region.

Lack of sleep

Your weight gain could be the result of sleep deprivation, that is, if you don’t get enough sleep at night, say 7 – 8 hours a day.

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology indicated that lack of sleep could affect metabolism, which in turn causes weight gain. In the long-term study, women who slept five hours or less a night gained an average of about 2.5 lbs more than those who slept seven hours.

Sleep deprivation decreases leptin levels, a hormone responsible for regulating appetite and metabolism. On the other hand, it increases hormone ghrelin levels that tend to stimulate appetite.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

PCOS is a disease of the endocrine system where the ovaries don’t make enough hormones for the eggs to mature fully. Instead the ovaries develop many fluid-filled sacs called cysts because of high levels of male hormone androgens that are found in women with PCOS.

PCOS makes it more difficult for the body to use the hormone insulin resulting in insulin resistance. This causes insulin and sugar to build up in the bloodstream. High insulin levels increase the production of male hormones called androgens. And androgen is known to trigger weight gain, especially abdominal obesity.

Cancer and cancer treatment

Women with cancers like breast cancer and ovarian cancer undergoing treatment tend to gain weight which is difficult to shed.

This weight gain may be because of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which is controlled by insulin. LPL is attached to the surface of the fat cells. The enzyme pulls out fat from the blood stream and passes it on to the cells making them fatter. Estrogen suppresses LPL activity on fat cells. But breast cancer treatment, ovarian cancer treatment viz. chemo and steroids, dramatically decreases estrogen levels. This causes the weight gain.

Apart from these medical conditions, the following factors too could make you gain weight.

Menopause: Estrogen helps regulate body weight. Low estrogen levels means you will eat more and exercise less – a perfect equation for weight gain. Estrogen levels reduce drastically with menopause. Lack of estrogen also causes insulin resistance which increases fat storage and induces weight gain.

Medications: Tricyclic antidepressants, antihistamines (cetirizine, Allegra), antipsychotics, beta-blockers (high blood pressure drugs), oral corticosteroids, oral medication for type2 diabetes, anti-seizure drugs for epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraine prevention.

Family history: If your parents are overweight, you are more likely to carry the genes for obesity. But health practitioners believe that weight gain can be countered by modifying your faulty lifestyle choices.
Basically, it is the hormonal imbalance that is causing your weight gain – excess cortisol levels, increased insulin release, low levels of leptin, low estrogen levels, high androgen levels, and so on. So, see an endocrinologist first, who can then refer you to the concerned specialist if required.

Source: the health site

12 Foods That Control Your Appetite

12 foods

When you’re trying to lose weight, cutting back on the amount you eat is a given—but feeling hungry all the time is one of the major reasons why most diets fail within a week.

Still, you can silence your grumbling stomach without consuming extra calories. In fact, eating certain foods sends a signal to your brain that you’re done eating, and quiets your appetite.

Shut out the ice cream pint that’s calling your name by eating these healthy and satisfying foods.

Apples

Chomp on an apple approximately a half hour before a meal—the fiber and water from the apple will fill you up, so you’ll eat less, says Debra Wein, RD, president of Wellness Workdays, a leading provider of worksite wellness programs.

Avocado

Eating half of an avocado with your lunch may help you feel full for the rest of the afternoon, according to a study published in Nutrition Journal. Women who did that felt 22% more satisfied and had a 24% lower desire to snack three hours later than on days they ate a calorically equivalent lunch without the avocado.

Beans, chickpeas, lentils

Dietary pulses such as chickpeas, lentils, beans, and peas are protein-rich superfoods that also pack in fiber, antioxidants, B vitamins, and iron. Eating more of them may also help you control your appetite. A recent meta-analysis published in the journal Obesity found that people were 31% more satisfied after a meal when it included pulses.

Soup

In a Penn State study, people who slurped a bowl of low-calorie, broth-based soup before their lunch entrées reduced their total calorie intake at the meal by 20%. “Soups can take the edge of your appetite since they take up a lot of volume in your stomach, but with very few calories,” says Beth Saltz, RD, owner of nutritionskitchen.com.

Pickles

Pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented foods have short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and recent research in the Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences found that they help strengthen the bond between the gut and the brain. SCFAs stimulate production of hormones that cross the blood-brain barrier and improve appetite signaling. Fermented foods also boast probiotics, the healthy bacteria that help digestion. Some experts believe probiotics may reduce appetite and aid weight loss, though research is inconclusive.

Chili powder

You may already know that capsaicin, the compound in chilis that gives them their kick, fires up your metabolism. Recent research from Maastricht University in the Netherlands shows that adding heat to your meal may also control your appetite. The study, which was published in the journal Appetite, found that adding 1/4 tsp of chili pepper to each meal increased satiety and fullness. What’s more, some participants were only allowed to consume 75% of their recommended daily calorie intake, but didn’t feel any more desire to continue eating after dinner than those who were given 100% of their daily calories.

Dark chocolate

When you’re craving something sweet, reach for dark chocolate. Research suggests dark chocolate can help reduce blood pressure and protect the heart and brain. It’s also more filling than milk chocolate and may help curb cravings for both sweet and salty foods, according to a study in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes. In fact, participants consumed 17% fewer calories at a meal following a dose of dark chocolate.

Eggs

Starting your day with eggs will leave you satisfied until lunch. The power’s in the protein: research from the University of Missouri at Columbia suggests that eating a 300-calorie breakfast made up of 30 to 39 grams of protein (think: eggs and sausage) reduces hunger pangs and increases fullness during the time between breakfast and lunch. What’s more, the research revealed that high-protein breakfast eaters consume fewer calories throughout the day.

Nuts

Nuts are another filling food that may help you eat less. In a British Journal of Nutrition study, obese women who paired either 1.5 ounces of peanuts or 3 tablespoons of peanut butter with Cream of Wheat cereal and orange juice felt fuller for up to 12 hours after finishing breakfast than those who didn’t eat the peanut products. “Nuts are essentially designed by nature to control appetite because they’re rich in healthy unsaturated fat, along with bonus protein and fiber,” says Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, Health contributing nutrition editor. Together, the three nutrients slow digestion and regulate blood sugar when combined with carbs like fruit, oatmeal, or brown rice.

Oatmeal

Consider ditching cereal for warm, gooey oatmeal. Oatmeal will keep you feeling fuller longer, suggests a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Participants were served 250 calories of cereal or oatmeal with 113 calories of milk. The oatmeal-eaters were satiated longer, and they also experienced a greater reduction in hunger and a decreased desire to eat compared to ready-to-eat cereal eaters. Why the difference? Oatmeal is higher in fiber and protein and also has higher amounts of beta-glucan–the sugars that give oatmeal its heart-healthy properties, hydration, and molecular weight compared to ready-to-eat cereals.

Water

Being low on H2O can trick you into believing you’re hungry. Why? The symptoms of hunger are similar to those of being dehydrated: low energy, reduced cognitive function, and poor mood. So next time you’re craving an afternoon snack, drink a tall glass of water and wait 10 minutes. Chances are, your hunger pangs will pass, and you’ll have saved hundreds of calories.

Source: yahoo news

6 Snack Habits for Healthy Weight Loss

6 Snack Habits

Snacks, finger foods, tapas, amuse-bouche—however you term them, there’s something endlessly satisfying about munching on little hand-held bites of heaven. Problem is, America’s favorite snacks aren’t little; nor are they heavenly.

In fact, a recent study in the journal Hepatology found that 27 percent of kids’ diets come from high-fat, high-sugar snacks, and the frequent grazing is directly linked to belly fat accumulation. Fortunately, there’s also research to suggest we can snack smartly—and slim down.

Here are seven tips that will help you Eat It to Beat It! Snack-tastic!

Watch the clock

Having a bite to hold you over til lunch is common practice, but a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that mid-morning snackers tended to snack more throughout the day than afternoon snackers, resulting in hindered weight-loss efforts.

Afternoon snacking was associated with a slightly higher intake of fiber and fruits and vegetables.

Color code your snacks

A recent study suggests you can avoid a mindless binge by adding visual traffic lights to your snack.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University gave one set of students a bowl of uniform yellow chips, while another group had their regular snack layered with differently colored chips. Students who had their snack segmented ate 50 percent less than those with a uniform bowl.

Muscle up your munchies

Make sure your snack contains protein, which requires more energy to burn than carbs or fats and thus keeps you fuller longer.

But don’t take it from me: In a study in the journal Appetite, researchers from the University of Missouri compared the satiety effects of high-, moderate-, and low-protein yogurts on 24- to 28-year-old women, and found Greek yogurt, with the highest protein content, to have the greatest effect.

Swap hands

Want to snack less without going snackless? Try the left-handed diet (or right-handed…)

A study printed in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found moviegoers grabbed for less popcorn when doing so with their non-dominant hand.

I tested the hypothesis myself earlier this year with the ABC World News team and came to the same conclusion: Eating with your non-dominant hand makes you think about what you’re doing, and may help you eat less.

Use smaller bowls

Grabbing handfuls from the bag is never a good idea, but munching from a punch bowl won’t do much for weight loss either.

Research in The FASEB Journal suggests that overeating may be associated with the size of our serveware. Participants who were given larger bowls, served and ate 16 percent more than those given smaller bowls. Not only that, the big-bowlers underestimated just how much they were eating by 7 percent!

Take advantage of the visual illusion with belly-friendly bowls or ramekins.

Source: yahoo news

Is Your Gym Making You Sick?

At home gym istock

Want to know the places inside a gym that are most likely to get you sick? Sure you do!
Barbells, dumbbells, and weight plates. A basic sneeze can send 100,000 infectious particles into the air at 200 miles an hour–when someone catches those buggers with their hand instead of a tissue (or even an elbow), they can transfer easily to handheld gym equipment. Before you lift weights, spray down the equipment (gym etiquette says to do this after you’re finished with your set, but how many people really follow that?).

Water fountains. A study from the University of Arizona found that 28 percent of gym surfaces are gym havens, and water fountains scored high on the list. One way to head off those bacteria? Bring your own water bottle!

Locker room floors. The moist floors are ripe for fungal and wart viruses . Bring your flip-flops for showering, and never reuse the sweaty socks you’ve just worked out in

Source: yahoo shine

Food for weight loss: Cinnamon or dalchini

cinnamon

 

You may have believed that dalchini or cinnamon is simply added to a pulav or biryani to spice up their taste but that’s not the only things these little barks do. Cinnamon is one of those magical ingredients that helps you to heal from cough and cold and also lose weight!

Cinnamon does this by activating insulin receptors and stimulating various enzyme systems involved in the carbohydrate metabolism in your body, eventually regulating the level of blood sugar and increasing metabolism. It also helps to delay the passing of food from stomach to the intestines which keeps you satiated for a longer period of time and eventually reduces your food intakes.

How to add cinnamon in your diet

Tip#1: Include about one teaspoon of cinnamon in your daily diet by sprinkling cinnamon powder on food you eat – breakfast cereal, tea and coffee, fruits such as apples and pears or curds.

Tip#2: Combine cinnamon with honey in the form of a tea by mixing one tablespoon of each in half a cup of hot water. This tea should be drunk about 30 minutes before breakfast every day to see a noticeable weight loss.

Source: yahoo news

Tart cherry juice good for cyclists

cherry

Researchers have said that cyclists who drank Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate before a three-day simulated race experienced less inflammation and oxidative stress compared to those who drank another beverage.

A research team led by Dr. Glyn Howatson with PhD student Phillip Bell at Northumbria University gave 16 well-trained, male cyclists about 1 ounce (30 ml) of Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate mixed with water (equivalent to 90 whole Montmorency tart cherries per serving), or a calorie-matched placebo, twice a day for seven days.

On days five, six and seven, the participants performed prolonged, high-intensity cycling intervals – exercise that was designed to replicate the demands of a three-day race.

The researchers collected blood samples and found that markers of inflammation and oxidative stress were significantly lower in the cyclists who consumed the tart cherry juice concentrate compared to those who did not.

At one point during the trial, oxidative stress was nearly 30 percent lower in the tart cherry group compared to the other group.

Strenuous exercise can cause temporary inflammation and oxidative stress that can lead to muscle damage, muscle soreness and reduced capacity to recover quickly, explains research lead Glyn Howatson, Ph.D., laboratory director at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University. He attributes the recovery benefits shown in the study to the natural compounds in Montmorency tart cherries. One of the natural compounds found in Montmorency tart cherries is anthocyanins.

The study has been published in the journal Nutrients.

Source: Times of India