How to maintain glucose levels
May 8, 2013
When the glucose level falls too low
the hormone adrenaline is released from the adrenal glands and glucagon is
produced from the pancreas. Glucagon works in the opposite way to insulin
and increases blood glucose by encouraging the liver to turn some of its
glycogen stores into glucose to give us quick energy. If the blood glucose level
stays low for a period of time hypoglycemia - low blood sugar level - can
occur. Symptoms include: irritability, aggressive outbursts, palpitations, lack of
sex drive, crying spells, dizziness, anxiety, confusion, forgetfulness, inability to
concentrate, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, muscle cramps, excess sweating
and excessive thirst.
When the glucose level rises too high, insulin is produced by the pancreas to lower it. If the blood sugar level remains too high, this causes the symptoms of hyperglycemia - high blood sugar level. The extreme form of this is diabetes which is a medical condition needing expert attention and often entailing regular insulin injections. Weight cycling - weight gain, loss, then gain - may make you more prone to diabetes. Obese people have a 77 times higher chance of developing diabetes than a person at their correct weight - the greater your weight, the higher your risk of developing diabetes. During a normal day, the amount by which our blood sugar level rises and falls depends on what and when we eat.
When we eat any food in refined form its digestion is very fast. Refined foods have been stripped of their natural goodness by various manufacturing processes. Two of the most widely-used refined foods are sugar and white flour. When digestion is too fast glucose enters the bloodstream too rapidly. This also happens when you take in any food or drink that has a stimulant effect, like tea, coffee, sugar and chocolate. This sharp, fast rise in blood glucose makes you feel momentarily good, but the 'high' quickly passes, plummeting you to a low point, making you feel tired and drained. So what do you need? Another stimulant like a bar of chocolate or cup of coffee (or both!) to give you another boost.
If there is a long gap between eating, the blood glucose will drop to quite a low level and you will feel the need for a quick boost, for instance a cup of tea and a biscuit. At the same time, the adrenal glands will make the liver produce more glucose. The combination of these two acts causes high levels of glucose in the blood which again calls on the pancreas to over-produce insulin in order to reduce the glucose levels. The vicious cycle starts all over again and the adrenal glands and pancreas become ever more exhausted. To solve this problem try:
- Grazing - develop a 'grazing' habit in your eating patterns, eating little
but often. Leave behind the dieting philosophy of no food between
meals.
- Avoid skipped meals - maybe you thought that if you ate less by missing meals you would lose weight but the resultant swings in blood sugar are setting you up to fail. They create a biological urge that must be satisfied and you shouldn't ignore your body's demands even if you were strong enough.
Make it easy for yourself. If you stop what is causing the biological urge then you won't be constantly at war with your own body.
Fat burning vegetables
February 14, 2013
Study after study has confirmed that
people who eat more vegetables than other folks have a lower risk of
developing chronic diseases and stand a good chance of maintaining a
high quality of life well into their senior years. From asparagus to zucchini, vegetables offer us a wealth of vitamins,
fiber, and minerals, all of which are necessary for our wellbeing.
Because our bodies can't stockpile these nutrients, we need to eat a
variety of vegetables every day to ensure optimal health. Arecent study
by the National Cancer Institute found that Americans are indeed eating
more vegetables than they did 25 years ago. Sadly, at least one
fourth of those additional vegetables are French fries.
Asparagus contains a special carbohydrate called inulin that is not digested but that helps feed the friendly bacteria in the large intestine. When we consume inulin regularly, these friendly bacteria proliferate, keeping the intestinal tract clear of unfriendly bacteria. In addition, asparagus is an excellent source of glutathione, an important anticarcinogen, and rutin, a substance that protects small blood vessels from rupturing. Asparagus provides vitamins A and C, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. It's also a good source of fiber, the B-complex vitamins, and zinc.
Detoxification contributes to weight loss while helping to prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure. Worried about your cholesterol? Broccoli is known to contain a certain pectin fiber that binds to bile acids and keeps cholesterol from being released into the bloodstream. Does diabetes run in your family? At the USDA's Human Research Laboratory, a diabetes expert found that the chromium in broccoli may be effective in preventing type-2 diabetes by maintaining stable blood-sugar levels. Broccoli is also a good source of folic acid, which scientists now believe serves as a defense against Alzheimer's disease. In addition, broccoli has been singled out as one of the few vegetables that significantly reduces the risk of heart disease.
Tomatoes are an excellent source of vitamins C and A, providing detoxifying antioxidants to neutralize dangerous free radicals that could otherwise damage cells and escalate problems with atherosclerosis, diabetic complications, asthma, and colon cancer. In addition, tomatoes supply fiber, which has been shown to lower cholesterol levels, control blood-sugar levels, and help prevent colon cancer. Tomatoes offer a trio of notable heart-healthy nutrients: potassium, vitamin B6, and folate. In addition, studies in the U.S. and Europe have concluded that lycopene, a phytonutrient found in tomatoes, lowers cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of heart disease.6 Tomatoes improve your body's energy production by supplying a bounty of biotin and help maintain bone health by serving as a source of vitamin K.
One of the world's oldest vegetables, cabbage continues to be an inexpensive dietary staple. A member of the cruciferous family, which includes broccoli and kale, cabbage is rich in cancer-fighting nutrients, including Vitamin C, fiber, and two phytochemicals, sulforaphane and indoles. These two compounds help detoxify the body, ridding it of cancer-producing substances, including excess estrogen.
Popular diets for weight loss
February 10, 2013
There are a growing number of popular diets on the market that are used
today. Diets are divided into categories based on their macronutrient content. These categories include high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets, moderate-fat, balanced
nutrient reduction diets, and low- and very-low fat diets.
High-fat, low-carbohydrate diets are probably the most popular diets used today. These diets consist of 55 - 65% fat, and < 20% of calories from carbohydrates or < 100 g of carbohydrates a day. The rational behind these diets is that high carbohydrate intake causes a rise in blood sugar, which raises insulin levels in the blood. This leads to weight gain by increasing fat deposition and by increasing hunger. Advocates of these types of diets recommend stopping the 'vicious cycle' of carbohydrate addiction and restrict carbohydrates severely enough to produce ketosis. Ketosis is a good indicator of fat mobilization. In this condition, blood glucose and blood insulin is reduced, and appetite is suppressed. The potential effects of lowcarbohydrate diets on bone health, renal function, and cancer risk have not been well established. Further, these diets typically are not nutritionally adequate, are usually low in several vitamins and minerals, such as calcium and potassium, and very high in saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein.
Moderate-fat, balanced nutrient reduction diets contain 20 - 30% fat, 15 - 20% protein, and 55 - 60% carbohydrates. The rationale behind these diets is that weight loss occurs when the body is in a negative energy balance. The goal is to provide the greatest variety of food choices to allow for nutritional adequacy and compliance, while still resulting in a slow but steady rate of weight loss. The 'Flex Plan' assigns points to each food. Each person has an individualized point budget to spend on any food they choose and the weight loss occurs if the person stays within the point budget. The 'Core Plan' controls eating without counting points by focusing on wholesome foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains and starches, lean meat/poultry/fish, and low fat dairy. With both approaches, dieters will find themselves choosing mainly high fiber, low-fat foods to stay within the guidelines. Several studies have shown that moderate-fat, balanced nutrient reduction diets reduce LDL-cholesterol, normalize plasma triglycerides, and normalize the ration of HDL/TC.
Very-low-fat diets are those containing less than 10% of calories from fat and low-fat diets contain 10 - 19% of calories from fat. Both are very high in carbohydrates and moderate in protein. The original purpose of these diets was to help slow down and even reverse the effects of dietary fat and cholesterol on heart disease. However, as Americans became fatter, they changed their focus onto the program's effect on body weight. These diets both promote lifelong changes in diet, exercise and lifestyle. The rationale behind these diets is looking at the calorie density of fat (9 cal/g) vs. carbohydrates and protein (4 cal/kg). Although these diets are very high in fruits and vegetables and whole grains, they are low in vitamins E, vitamin B12, and zinc. Further, many people struggle with sustaining a very low fat vegetarian diet over an extended period of time.
How to banish cravings
September 15, 2012
There's hardly a dieter in the world who hasn't experienced overwhelming
cravings. You can stick quite happily to a diet for days, sometimes for weeks,
then suddenly all the good work is blown in one stupid ten minute eating
frenzy. It is like having two voices inside your head where one is saying 'you
know you don't really need that bar of chocolate' and the other one is saying
'a little bit won't make any difference'. If you listen to the second voice it
doesn't stop at a little bit. Before you know it you've eaten the whole bar,
maybe even a second. You dread your scale check, you are filled with anger,
and having decided that you've ruined that particular day's dieting you might
as well make it a complete day of food fun and have chips and syrup pud for
dinner. But why? Why do we suddenly go off the rails like that? Is it just
greed getting the better of us or is it much more fundamental?
Occasionally cravings can be put down to greed, but in my opinion it's much more likely that a craving is a biochemical urge that's very, very difficult to control. The body is demanding a particular type of food, usually sugar, because it has a need for it. And when the body has a need it certainly lets us know!
Diet gurus will tell you that the way to banish cravings is to keep all tempting foods out of sight and out of reach. When a craving strikes, they'll suggest you suffer through it, which, as anyone who has experienced cravings knows, is sheer torture! It is also totally non-productive. For as well as anger and guilt, it fosters feelings of self-denial and eventually a dieter can end up feeling useless, worthless and deserving of being fat and ugly.
Rather than banish tempting foods from sight it is better to change your biochemistry so that your body does not have such uncontrollable needs. Sounds difficult? No, it is so simple that you will wonder why nobody explained it to you before. Cravings are linked with mood swings and if you adjust your biochemistry you will find yourself in control of those cravings. This chapter contains the key to controlling those Jekyll and Hyde mood swings - including pre-menstrual ones - and will help you on your way to successful weight loss.
Almost all dieters have an underlying blood sugar imbalance. Blood sugar can be the most important factor in losing and maintaining a healthy weight. Nutrition is the key to stabilizing the levels of blood sugar. After a meal, glucose from the breakdown of food (digestion) is absorbed through the wall of the intestine into the bloodstream. At this point, there is, quite naturally, a high level of glucose in the blood. The body takes what it immediately needs for energy and then produces insulin from the pancreas in an attempt to lower the level of excess glucose. Any glucose that is not used immediately for energy is changed into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles to be used later. The glucose level in the blood then reduces to normal.
Is beef an effective fat burning food
September 3, 2012
For years, the media gave beef a bad rap, causing many people to shy
away from buying even the leanest cuts of beef. Much to my delight,
the current popularity of high-protein diets has boosted sales of beef
across America, yet we still consume 25 percent less beef than we did
in the mid-1970s. When was the last time you enjoyed some beef? I'm
not talking about a fast-food hamburger, but rather a lean, tasty piece
of steak, fillet, or roast. This nutrient-rich food promotes a strong
immune system, provides energy to every cell, and helps build those
all-important fat burning muscles.
Beef is hearty and deeply flavored and ranks high as a source for protein, vitamin B12, zinc, and the potent fat flushing fat burner, l-carnitine. A3-ounce serving of beef supplies as much iron as 3 cups of raw spinach and as much zinc as 30 ounces of tuna. Beef also ranks high in iron, phosphorus, selenium and the B-complex vitamins. In addition, about half the fat in beef is healthy monounsaturated fat, which does not raise cholesterol levels.
Beef's vitamin B12 content helps the body convert the potentially dangerous chemical homocysteine into harmless molecules, decreasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and even osteoporosis. Organic beef is also a very good source of the trace mineral selenium, which helps reduce the risk of colon cancer and supports antioxidant activity in the liver and throughout the body. In addition, the zinc in lean beef helps prevent blood vessel damage that can lead to atherosclerosis and is also needed for proper functioning of the immune system.
Most of the beef available today is raised on grass and fattened on feed lots with feed consisting of corn and molasses, plus a hefty dose of antibiotics and other additives. For meat that is free of antibiotics, added hormones, and pesticides, consider buying organically certified beef. Another option is to look for grass-fed beef, which is rich in essential fatty acids, vitamin E, and beta-carotene. Grassfed beef contains significant amounts of two "good" fats, monounsaturated oils and stearic acid, but no artificial trans-fatty acids. Grass-fed beef is also the richest known natural source of CLA and is lower in total fat and calories than conventional beef.
