Dietician’s Blog

Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin

Teenagers who live in cities or towns with strict smoking bans are 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (May 2008). The study also reported that youths with smoking parents or friends are at high risk for smoking themselves, but strong smoking bans in restaurants reduce the chance that they will become smokers.

Massachusetts passed a workplace smoking ban that included restaurants in 2004. Since then, high school smoking rates in Massachusetts have dropped from 21percent of students in 2005 to 18 percent in 2007. At least 23 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now require most public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars, to be smoke free.
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Submitted by Keys to Good Nutrition and Tips to Eating Healthy Feast on Organic Whole Food

Weight Loss for Carb Addicts Pt 15

There’s a lot of us out there,

CARBOHYDRATE ADDICTS, that is,

and losing weight is always a challenge for us.

Here’s a secret I’d like to share with you that I used
when I lost my 23+ pounds and no longer fit into my pants.

CARB ADDICT WEIGHT LOSS SECRET:

When you sit down to eat a meal,
divide your plate into thirds.

One third, your favorite third, will of course,
be CARBS! I’m talking starchy carbohydrates like
pasta, brown rice, whole grain bread, potatoes, etc.
Enjoy that one third of your plate
because that’s all the starchy carbs you’ll get for the meal.

One third will be a protein food
such as a healthy organic natural meat,
organic raw cheese, peanut butter, etc.

One third of your plate will be fresh organic vegetables
such as green beans, corn, broccoli, peas, etc.
Remember, the best way to eat your vegetables is raw.
However, if you feel you need to cook them,
then the best way is to lightly steam them in spring water.
No canned vegetables are allowed (they’re dead food).

In addition to the three thirds on your plate,
you also get to eat a fresh salad with each lunch and dinner made from fresh, organic, raw greens and vegetables
with a big squeeze of fresh lemon for your dressing
(avoid salad dressings that are loaded with carbs)
or you can make your own home made dressing
with apple cider vinegar, virgin olive oil, and spring water.

Eating your meal in this way will help balance out the carbs you’re eating and keep your blood sugar from spiking. In other words, the veggies, salad, and protein will help to offset the effects of 1/3 of your plate being carbs. In this way you will learn to limit your starchy carbs to just one third of your meal, which in turn will help you to lose weight.

No more sitting down to a huge bowl of pasta or rice
or potatoes and pigging out on carbs. That will (or should I say
“has” made) make you fat.

Carbs are good for your body IN MODERATION!

Carbs are good for your body when properly balanced out
with equal amounts of greens, vegetables, protein, and salad.

Carbs are good for your body when you eat
small portions of the right kinds of healthy whole food carbs
such as brown rice, whole grain breads, organic potatoes, etc.

IF you will learn to apply this secret to your eating habits,
no matter if you’re eating at home or at a restaurant,

THEN you will enjoy the benefits of being able to enjoy
at least a small portion of your favorite carbs each meal,
while at the same time losing weight because you’re
eating them in the right proportions and amounts.

When I first learned this secret,
I started planning ahead and looking forward to
upcoming meals just to be able to enjoy my favorite carbs.
For example, I planned on 1/3 plate of pasta on Monday,
with the rest of my meal of course,
and 1/3 plate of my favorite Persian rice on Tuesday,
and 1/3 plate of my wife’s homemade mashed potatoes on Wed.,
and 1/3 plate of fresh organic whole grain bread on Thurs.

In this way, I was not completely depriving myself of
all of my favorite and beloved carbs.
Instead, I was learning to space them out,
eat them in proportion to vegetables and proteins,
and keep everything in balance.

One final secret to remember:

Eat your whole meal in one hour or less.
Don’t let your meal continue on past an hour
because if you do, a second round of insulin
will kick in to your system and spike your blood sugar.

Carb addicts have a way of eating way too many carbs
in one meal, at one sitting,
which tends to kick in too much insulin,
which in turn spikes their blood sugar,
all of which eventually will start to
set them up for some kind of diabetes condition.

My philosophy is this:

YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CARBS, AND EAT YOUR PROTEIN & VEGETABLES TOO! ALONG WITH A GOOD SIZE SALAD.

One final note.
You can have as much salad as you want.

Also, if you’re really still hungry after
eating your complete meal and salad,
you can have more carbs at that point,
AS LONG AS you also eat equal size portions of more protein and more vegetables.
In this way, everything is kept in proper proportion
and nutritional balance that protects your health
and your waist line.

Now that you know these secrets,
GO AND PRACTICE THEM!

I learned these secrets from two carb addicts who were both
grossly overweight and learned how to overcome their addiction.
Their book is entitled,

“The Carbohydrate Addict’s Lifespan Program,”
by Dr. Richard Heller and Dr. Rachael Heller.

I would recommend this book to all carb addicts
who want to learn how to lose weight
and take control of their health and weight
and overcome their carbohydrate addiction.

Thank you so much for visiting my health and nutrition blog. Please check back often for my most recent postings on good nutrition and on eating healthy, and consider adding my RSS FEED so that you can be kept up to date on all of these health and nutrition articles. As a defender of your health, I am dedicated to providing you with the Keys to Good Nutrition and Tips to Eating Healthy. I’m also devoted to encouraging you to eat 5-9 servings of fresh organic fruits and vegetables every day, and the next best way to do that is by drinking the Feast, by Uri International, which is a live whole food based InstaFresh juice powder drink by Yuri. For more information, click here: http://www.livesuperjuice.com

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Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin

They’re supposed to prevent pregnancy, and they do, but intrauterine devices (IUDs) also reduce uterine cancer risk by more than 40 percent (Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, May 6, 2008).

An IUD is a small, T-shaped plastic device inserted into the uterus. Only two percent of women who use contraception in the United States choose an IUD, despite the proven safety and effectiveness of this long-term method. Worldwide, however, IUDs are the most widely used reversible contraceptive. Most IUD’s prevent pregnancy by releasing small amounts of the hormone progesterone into the uterus. This is also why they help to prevent uterine cancer.

The ovaries of healthy women are supposed to produce two hormones: estrogen and progesterone. Many women lack progesterone and they are the women who are at increased risk for uterine cancer. Estrogen stimulates the uterus to grow, and progesterone stops the stimulation. If a woman has estrogen and no progesterone, her uterus is stimulated all the time, which can lead to uncontrolled growth which is cancer.

The woman most likely to get uterine cancer has high blood levels of insulin. Insulin acts directly on the ovaries to stop them from releasing eggs. Women who do not release eggs have no progesterone and therefore are at high risk for uterine cancer. A woman can find out if she has high insulin levels just by getting a blood test, called C peptide, that measures insulin production by the body. If it is above 3, her body makes too much insulin.

However, you can usually tell if a woman has too much insulin just by looking at her. Insulin causes a person to lay down fat primarily in the belly. Women with big bellies and small hips usually have high insulin levels and are also at high risk for diabetes. Most people who will develop diabetes usually stop responding to insulin. This causes the pancreas to release increasing amounts of insulin, until the pancreas eventually dies and then the person must take insulin.

If you are a woman who stores fat primarily in your belly, you should get blood tests called C peptideand HBA1C to see if you are already diabetic. You can also tell if you are pre-diabetic if your good HDL cholesterol is low, your triglycerides are high, or your liver shows excessive amounts of fat. Start a supervised exercise program, lose weight, and restrict refined carbohydrates. You may also want to see if your doctor advises using an IUD to help prevent uterine cancer.
More on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
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Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin

The issue of vitamin supplements is far from settled. Most doctors take multivitamins themselves and recommend them to their patients. However, I continue to believe that it is better to get vitamins in whole foods than in pills.

Most vitamins are parts of enzymes that start chemical reactions in your body. Each chemical reaction produces end products that are changed by further chemical reactions from other vitamins to other products that benefit your body. When you take a vitamin that has been isolated from the hundreds of other substances found in foods, that enzyme causes a chemical reaction that accumulates a disproportionate amount of its end products. If the substance that acts as an enzyme for the next chain of chemical reactions is not available, you can accumulate end products that may be harmful.

For example, people who take niacin to lower cholesterol show a marked elevation of homocysteine, a major risk factor for heart attacks. Homocysteine levels are raised by a deficiency of B12, folic acid and pyridoxine. When you eat your niacin in whole grains, all of those components are present, along with many others whose functions we may not yet understand.

The study I mentioned in the previous post is in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews More

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Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin

Injuries often occur when people start a new exercise program, change to a different sport, or return to exercise after a long break. In the enthusiasm to get started, it is easy to overstress muscles that have not been used before. That’s why “background before peaking” is one of the most important principles of training. It takes several weeks or even months to build up strength and endurance for any new sport.

Competitive athletes in all sports use this principle. First they spend many months in background training, working out for long hours, mostly at low intensity, followed by a shorter period of peak training in which they do far less work, but at a much greater intensity. A few months before an important race, they reduce their workload but go as fast and hard as possible two or three times a week.

Start your new exercise program at very low intensity and low volume. Gradually increase your workload for several months before you try to run fast, lift heavy or exercise intensely. If you are just beginning to exercise, go at a relaxed pace until your muscles feel heavy and then stop. For the first several days or weeks you may be able to exercise only for a few minutes at a time. If your muscles feel sore the next day, take the day off. Increase the amount of time gradually until you can exercise 30 minutes a day at a relaxed pace and not feel sore. You may progress rapidly to the 30-minute goal, or it may take you two, four, six weeks or more. No matter how long it takes, don’t get discouraged. Exercising too much or too hard, too soon will set you up for injuries. More

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Submitted by Keys to Good Nutrition and Tips to Eating Healthy Feast on Organic Whole Food

GTF CHROMIUM Supplement

One of the things that I did when I was changing my diet and losing a lot of weight was to add GTF Chromium to my daily supplements.

Chromium is something that we all need in our diet, but unfortunately,
it is usually greatly lacking given the way people eat today
and given the poor soil that most of our produce is grown in.

CHROMIUM is an essential nutrient that provides
nutritional support for normal, healthy insulin action
and glucose utilization.

The Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF) is a biological test
of this ability.

Chromium is an essential mineral that your body needs
but can’t produce.

Chromium works with insulin to improve the transportation
of glucose out of the blood and into the cell.

This function improves health in many ways, including:

1. Decreasing blood sugar - Chromium may reduce the amount of sugar
circulating in your blood, thereby decreasing your risk of diabetes
and metabolic syndrome.

2. Decreasing LDL (bad cholesterol)
3. Increasing the good HDL cholesterol

4. Decreasing blood pressure
5. Decreasing the risk of heart disease and stroke

6. Decreasing body fat - Chromium may improve your body’s insulin
sensitivity, helping to reduce body fat.

7. Increasing lean body mass

I would personally recommend taking 200 mcg per day.

I only recommend “GTF CHROMIUM” that is biologically active.

I DO NOT recommend Chromium Picolinate because it has not
stood the test of time and has not been proven to be as effective
as the GTF Chromium.

I would recommend that you first consult your physician or other
health or nutritional professional before adding this to your diet.

Thank you so much for visiting my health and nutrition blog. Please check back often for my most recent postings on good nutrition and on eating healthy, and consider adding my RSS FEED so that you can be kept up to date on all of these health and nutrition articles. As a defender of your health, I am dedicated to providing you with the Keys to Good Nutrition and Tips to Eating Healthy. I’m also devoted to encouraging you to eat 5-9 servings of fresh organic fruits and vegetables every day, and the next best way to do that is by drinking the Feast, by Uri International, which is a live whole food based InstaFresh juice powder drink by Yuri. For more information, click here: http://www.livesuperjuice.com/
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin

When you want to become very strong, you try to lift very heavy weights. Weight lifters have known for a long time that you don’t pick up the heaviest weight you can move, raise it once and then quit for the day. They do their weightlifting in sets. For example, they lift and lower a weight in three sets of ten or one set of six.

If you exhaust your muscles by bench pressing a weight for three sets of ten, is there any benefit to try to do another set? Researchers from Australia showed that you gain nothing if you force extra lifts after your muscles are exhausted (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, August 2007). This study should serve as a warning particularly to young lifters. Plan your workouts. When your muscles are tired or sore, don’t try to keep on lifting through the soreness. After a hard workout, go easy for as many days as it takes for your muscles to feel fresh again. More

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