Tips To Help With Stress

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Trans Fats

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Benefits of A High Fiber Diet

If two groups of people eat virtually the same number of calories and similar foods—but one group's diet is high in fiber and the other's is low in fiber—the group eating the high-fiber foods will lose more weight than the group consuming little fiber. In fact, those in the high-fiber group may lose more than 10 pounds in a year just by raising the fiber content of their diets. Fiber helps cleanse the body by taking unabsorbed fat with it, including up to 5% of dietary fat. Over time, this reduction of calories absorbed adds up. Also, fiber makes extra work for the body because it is harder to digest than other foods.

Eating fiber helps control appetite by giving a satiated feeling with fewer calories—and all weight loss/gain is based on calories. Low-fiber carbohydrates are quickly converted to glucose by the body, causing spikes in insulin levels and leaving you craving more low-fiber carbohydrates. Because it takes longer for high-fiber carbohydrates to be digested, glucose enters the blood more slowly and more evenly. Avoiding glucose spikes helps control food cravings.

Eating high-fiber carbohydrates throughout the day, divided between three moderate meals and two snacks, will help keep blood glucose and insulin in balance. This discourages binge eating and unhealthy snacking and reduces agitation. Fiber in fruits, vegetables, and other foods may decrease insulin resistance.

Please don't skip meals or snacks. Breakfast is the most important meal. Most calories should be consumed early in the day. Eating raises the metabolism and evens out glucose levels. The metbolism has been very slow all night during sleep and you need some "fuel" in the morning to get things running again.

How To Redesign Middle Age

Food Ad Tricks

Now you know how they make fast food look so good on television and in magazines. This is what makes people want to go out and buy one....I guess when you know how it is done, it doesn't make it as appealing.

Why Is Fast Food Bad For You?

Fast food is very tempting to buy because of its taste and convenience. It’s so easy to swing through the drive thru on your way home from work, starving, and order a super size extra value meal for yourself, spouse, and kids. The food is fairly cheap and you usually won’t spend more than five minutes in line. If the food that fast food companies are serving were actually good for you this would be an ideal situation. However this is not the case. Instead, fast food companies are profiting off of clogging your arteries resulting in heart disease.

The first problem with fast food is that over the decades they have been increasing the serving sizes available. Now when you order a small fries, you actually get what would have been a medium just five years ago. The larger serving size you are served the harder it is for you to know when to stop. From the time we are children our parents teach us to clean our plates because there are those less fortunate who have no food. So if we are given an extra large fry, we should be thankful and eat the whole thing.

Fries, burgers, nuggets, shakes, pop, and other items you can find at fast food establishments are usually three times larger than the amount you should be consuming. This means that you could easily be consuming 1,000+ calories per meal when you super size it. If you are trying to stick to a healthy 2,000 per day calorie diet, you will have consumed over ½ of your entire daily food allowance.

Another problem with the foods you are served at fast food restaurants is that these foods are not nutritious. The foods that you are served at fast food restaurants are high in fat and high in sugar. By regularly consuming these high calorie meals that do not have any nutritious value is basically poisoning your body and making you gain weight.

There are even some studies that have shown fast food may be addictive. The high levels of salt and sugar content found in most fast food items cause the brain to seek them out and you end up wanting more of that same type of food.

Junk food does not contain vitamins and minerals or most of the nutrients that our bodies need. Packaged junk food contains preservatives and coloring both of which are bad for your overall health. In the long run, junk food actually increases the rate at which you age because you continuously expose your body to bad nutrition.

Also, exercise is a vital aspect that is missing in most people’s daily lives. This is an essential piece of the puzzle to reverse the effects of high calorie fast food diets. Incorporating some type of a daily exercise routine will decrease your risk of heart disease substantially.

Exercise does not have to be a very strenuous endeavor either. Simply going for a half hour power walk after a healthy meal is enough for starters.

Cartoon

This is a cartoon that I have cut out and posted on my bulletin board in my office (which happens to be in a doctor's office).