olufemiladeinde.com

Archive for March, 2010

The Atkins diet is very popular, but is it right for you? Before you start down the low carbohydrate road, you should take some time to decide whether it is the right way for you to lose weight. The fact that it has been effective for others doesn’t make it right for you. No specific diet works for everyone, and you may even find that one type of low carbohydrate diet works better for you than another. There are many things to consider before you start the Atkins diet.

First, evaluate your history with diets. If you’ve been trying to lose weight for a long time, you would have tried a number of diets. Examine the different diets you’ve tried over the years. Write down the basics of each diet, what worked and what didn’t. Also, write down why you didn’t stay on a particular diet. Evaluate your experience with high carbohydrate diets, if any. These types of diets include most low-fat and calorie controlled diets. How did you feel while on these types of diets? Were you hungry, obsessed with food or experiencing negative reactions? Or did you feel full of energy and generally good?

If you’ve had any experience with low carbohydrate diets, write that down as well. Ignoring the negative effects of the first week, how did eating low carbohydrates make you feel? Why did you stop using the diet?

The answers to these questions will help you decide whether Atkins is right for you or not. If you’ve had good experiences with low-fat diets and bad experiences with other low carbohydrate diets, then Atkins is probably not for you. If other low-carbohydrate diets have worked but not without difficulty, then you may have been on the wrong type of low-carbohydrate diet and Atkins might work better. If you’ve had bad experiences with both types of diets, then you may have better success with a modified Atkins diet.

Your food and eating behaviours may also give you a clue as to whether or not Atkins might be buy cheap amoxil a good choice for your weight loss programme. Carbohydrate sensitivities are indicated by a certain set of behaviours. You may be carbohydrate sensitive if you feel like eating right after you’ve finished a meal. You would also have strong urges to eat throughout the day. You may feel dizzy, fuzzyheaded and fatigued without getting a sugar boost either from sugar directly or another simple carbohydrate. Carbohydrate sensitivity is also shown when you feel sluggish or sleepy after eating. This occurs especially after you eat a meal rich in sugars. If you experience these symptoms frequently, you may have carbohydrate sensitivities. Try paying close attention to how carbohydrates affect you and if you continue to experience these symptoms, a online amoxil low carbohydrate diet may work for you.

Your success on the Atkins diet may also be determined by your medical and family history. If you have any pre-diabetic symptoms, or diabetes itself, a reduced carbohydrate diet like Atkins may be right for you. Significant weight gain can also be helped by the Atkins diet. Usually, the more overweight you are, the more likely you are to have high blood pressure, high triglycerides and high blood glucose.

If any member of your family has suffered from diabetes or is significantly overweight, this may also put you at risk for these conditions. Your tendency toward these conditions on a genetic level can mark a necessity for a low carbohydrate diet like Atkins. The Atkins plan has been shown to improve weight and control blood sugar issues. If these are problems in your family history, then you may want to consider the Atkins diet.

There are a lot of good reasons to try the Atkins diet. If you have responded well to other low carbohydrate diets in the past or you have a medical history that demands a carbohydrate controlled diet, the Atkins diet can meet your needs.

Popularity: 55% [?]

When it buy amoxil comes to the Atkins diet, your success will lie in your planning. Making sure you have the proper foods to hand when you begin your diet will go a long way towards supporting your weight loss programme. There are many suggestions for Atkins diet meals in the Atkins books, and there are plenty of resources online for Atkins and other similar low-carbohydrate recipes.

Planning your meals and snacks will become an important part of your life when you are on this diet. That advice really goes for any diet. Eating whatever you like, whenever you like will make you gain weight. Your current weight and health problems came as a direct result of letting your eating habits get the better of you.

As with all diet plans, becoming used to the Atkins way of eating is going to take some time and adjustment. The standard western European/American diet relies heavily on carbohydrates and other highly processed foods. Those kinds of diets are not acceptable if you have a view to improving your lean mass/fat ratio. In the past few decades, many people have grown up on carbohydrate heavy favourites like spaghetti and meatballs, meat and potatoes and pasta casserole. It is going to take some effort and patience to get used to eating in an entirely new way.

There are two different approaches you can take to adjust your diet. You can find replacements for your favourite foods with “mock” carbohydrates. For example, lasagne made with eggplant or zucchini instead of pasta is much more carbohydrate-friendly than the regular variety. Spaghetti squash noodles make a good substitute for spaghetti noodles. There are also many low-carbohydrate or carbohydrate-free replacements for bread, pasta and sugar products.

The second approach is to find out how to make new recipes that centre on meats and other low-carbohydrate foods. There is a wide variety of meats that are acceptable on the Atkins plan. If you are used to just eating ground beef or chicken on a weekly basis, you’ll be surprised by the variety of meats that buy generic amoxil are out there. Try adding pork, lamb and ham into your weekly routine. If you are looking at cured meat, do be careful because of the high salt content that goes along with the curing process. You can also experiment with game fowl like Cornish hen, quail and pheasant. If you’ve never been a fan of fish, try a different variety from what you may have been used to. Some people who don’t like trout find they love salmon or another fish. Don’t forget shellfish like mussels, clams and shrimp. These foods are all acceptable and would add variety to your diet.

Make sure you have some easy to prepare foods on hand for snacks and quick meals. For example, thin sliced cucumbers, radishes and celery mixed with lemon mayonnaise makes a great low-carbohydrate meal or dinner salad. Fried peppers, mushrooms and garlic served on arugula with feta cheese is another great option. You can also keep a variety of nuts handy for those moments when you feel peckish. They contain essential fatty acids and oils that would support your body.

Research and try out different low-carbohydrate recipes so you have a good base of knowledge of what to prepare for meals. The most important step you can take if you really want to lose weight is planning. Getting a good arsenal of easy to prepare meals will prevent you from hitting the drive through for a meal that would do damage to your programme or going to a restaurant to eat a meal that would be a backward step.

If you have delicious food to look forward to everyday, you’ll be less bored with your diet. Even during the restrictive induction phase, there are many food combinations that you can use. At first glance the vegetable and meat options may seem restrictive, but this is only in comparison to what you have been used to eating. With a little planning and creativity, you can find something interesting to eat every day.

Popularity: 53% [?]

The Atkins Diet is probably one of the most successful diets of the last few years. The diet is based on four general principles of weight loss, weight maintenance, good health and disease prevention.  Its popularity has sparked dozens of similar diets which use the same principles of high-protein, low-carbohydrate meals. The body uses glucose derived from carbohydrates as its preferred energy source and when these are removed, the body starts to use fats and protein instead; a process called gluconeogenesis.

Several studies have shown that low-carbohydrate diets have many benefits.  Results show that low-carbohydrate diets like Atkins do create significant weight loss without severe restriction of calories. There are studies that also show that low-carbohydrate diets improve triglycerides, reduce blood glucose for diabetics and pre-diabetics and increase good cholesterol (HDL) levels. Low-carbohydrate diets have been proven to improve insulin sensitivity, while lowering insulin levels and also reduce blood pressure. When compared with low-fat diets, low-carbohydrate diets lead to less muscle mass losses.

Anecdotal reports show many common benefits reported by people who have followed the Atkins diet or a variant of it. These include an increase in energy, a reduced craving for sweets, better concentration, improved mood and a reduction of depression type symptoms. However, there are some benefits that are specific to the Atkins diet. If you have ever been a follower of the low fat diet, you would enjoy eating all of those “forbidden foods” that you once had to go without. generic amoxil Steak, butter and cream form a regular part of Atkins diet. There is a certain pleasure derived from eating foods that were once off limits. Atkins diet encourages meals containing rich meats, cheeses and fats and oils.

Atkins is simple to use, compared with some other low-carbohydrate diets on the market. You may need to learn about which types of carbohydrate are acceptable, but after that you are free to eat from the acceptable food lists.

Dr. Atkins believed that too many carbohydrates in your diet encourage your body to retain fat. When the body absorbs simple carbohydrates quickly, it generates an insulin response that increases the conversion of calories to fat. The diet focuses on consuming nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods. Dr. Atkins also emphasised finding your own personal carbohydrate level. Different people have different levels of carbohydrate tolerance. While some gain weight on just 90 carbohydrate grams a day, others can live comfortably at 120 carbohydrate grams. During the ongoing weight loss and pre-maintenance phase of the diet, you will learn your personal carbohydrate count that will help determine your carbohydrate goal for life.

There is a lot of information available on the Atkins diet, which makes it easy to find resources and support. There have been many books written on it with an endless stream of websites that offer tips and group support. However, while almost everyone has heard of Atkins and probably has an opinion on it, there are some big misconceptions out there about the nature of the diet. The most popular of these is that you eat mostly red meat and can never eat carbohydrates. Many people view the diet as a steak, burger and butter diet; however one of the real benefits of the Atkins diet is that it gets you away from eating too much sugar and processed foods. It reduces rather than excludes your carbohydrate intake. Another misconception says that you can eat all you want while following the Atkins diet. This is not strictly true. The diet follows the philosophy of moderation. Eating a well-portioned and satisfying meal is an important part of the Atkins diet. It teaches you to control your portion sizes.

There are some disadvantages to using the Atkins diet. The metabolic processes involved in using fat for energy instead of carbohydrates can lead to increase in uric acid and ketones which may cause kidney problems, gout and headaches. This however can be overcome by increasing your water intake and understanding that the physiological ketosis which occurs happens during the induction stage and by the time you reach you maintenance level the problem would have disappeared. There can also be low amounts of dietary fibre on the Atkins Diet leading to constipation and chronic bowel disease if you do not choose the right type of complex carbohydrates.

Induction can be difficult to get through if you’ve had a diet that centred on processed carbohydrates and sugar. Also, many people try Induction and mistakenly believe that this is the way that the whole diet is going to be. They then give up before they get into the actual Atkins plan. Sometimes, although this is not common, people will experience a carbohydrate crash on the 3rd to 5th day of the diet. This reaction amoxil cheap is a result of their body experiencing ketosis which comes from burning fat instead of glucose for energy. The effects are transient, but many people have gone off low-carbohydrate diets entirely because of this occurrence.

Overall, Atkins is one of the most popular low-carbohydrate diets for a reason. It works. Thousands of people have had success with the approach. Generally, critics are sceptical about how a high-protein, high-fat diet can result in weight loss. What they forget is that the Atkins approach advices a change in lifestyle and not only in the diet. The success you get still depends on you not returning to the way of life that got you to the problem point in the first place.

Popularity: 65% [?]

Alzheimer’s disease is a terrible condition in which a person loses his capacity to reason, think, recognise and function. Accumulation of beta amyloid has been found to be responsible for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There are steps you can take to avoid the accumulation of beta amyloid. These include:

1. Increase omega-3 fatty acid intake. Omega 3 fatty acids are poly-unsaturated fatty acids. Studies show that a diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids may help lower triglycerides and increase HDL cholesterol. Omega 3 fatty acids may also prevent blood from clotting while helping to lower high blood pressure. Omega 3 fatty acids may also protect against buy amoxil online the accumulation in the body of a beta amyloid, the protein believed to be linked to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in March 2005. This study tested one kind of omega 3 fatty acids – Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and the results are encouraging.
2. Exercise daily. While there is no proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s buy cheap amoxil disease a fairly new study provides some of the strongest evidence yet that regular exercise can protect the brain and improve cognitive performance in adults who have shown signs of mental decline. After six months of testing those who performed aerobic exercise showed significant gains in mental agility, while a non-aerobic group showed continuing decline in tests of thinking speed, fluency with words and ability to multi-task. It remains unknown whether fitness training can prevent Alzheimer’s, but many scientists firmly believe it is more likely to help than existing drugs or supplements, which have failed to show preventive effects in clinical trials.
3. Increase the intake of vitamin B6, B12 and Folate. Intake of these vitamins reduces homocysteine which has been linked to amyloid formation. Folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 play key roles in recycling homocysteine into methionine, one of the amino acids from which the body builds new proteins. Without enough vitamin B6, B12 and folate this recycling process becomes inefficient and homocysteine levels increase. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that people who have high blood levels of homocysteine are the ones most likely to suffer Alzheimer’s disease.
4. Use supplementary curcumin which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that is believed to break up amyloid. It was reported in 2009 that a form of vitamin D, together with a chemical found in turmeric spice called curcumin, may help stimulate the immune system to clear the brain of amyloid beta, which forms the plaques classically indicative of Alzheimer’s disease. The curcumin actually prevented the aggregation of the beta amyloid fibrils.
5. Increase the intake of Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a green tea flavonoid which is a potent antioxidant that may have therapeutic properties for many disorders including cancer. Green tea has been touted as a potential cure for a myriad of conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson. Scientific evidence has been presented by researchers that EGCG, a polyphenol found in green tea, prevents both beta amyloid and ?-synuclein from forming toxic oligomers.
6. Increase Leptin intake. High levels of the energy-regulating hormone leptin were associated with lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease in a study which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Leptin is believed to remove amyloid and keep synapses flexible. The higher the level of leptin the lower the risk of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia it is believed.  MRI images have also linked low leptin levels to reduced brain volume, a typical Alzheimer trait. Leptin has been found to be higher in people who regularly get enough sleep.
7. Check your history. Has any member of the family suffered from dementia? If so, start taking preventative action by assessing and removing, where possible, other risk factors which contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. A genetic predisposition may remain latent until a critical decline in nutrition occurs.

While it is a fact that we are not yet able to claim that it is possible to prevent this dreaded decline in mental function and ability it is nonetheless pertinent to point out that if the 7 steps above are followed there is a  very good chance of avoiding Alzheimer’s. If all it does is remove the horror of seeing a loved one “pass away” before your eyes, it would have been worth it.

Popularity: 79% [?]