Low Carb Diets

The aim of the low fat diet is to force the body to use fat as its main source of energy; the body will produce ketone bodies when this happens to fuel parts of the body that cannot use fat as a source of energy such as the red blood cells and the brain.

When these ketones bodies are produced the body goes into a state of what is termed ketosis which produces side effects such as bad breath, nausea and tiredness.

Children & Healthy Eating

School meals have always been something to be joked about but recent studies showed that many of our schools did indeed need a shake up when it came to providing healthy nutritional meals for children and their diet needs.

Reports showed that meals being served in schools were far from healthy, with meals such as burgers and fries being served on a regular basis with very few fresh vegetables.

Dieting Fads

There are literally hundreds of variations on diets out there; there are books, DVDS, videos and clubs on offer. How do we know which ones to choose and do any of them work, if so which are the most successful? Some of them do have credence in helping a person lose weight others can pose a significant risk to our health and some are nothing more than scams.

Fad diets

In this group diets that leave out major food groups are included:

High protein diets – The high protein diet reduces by significant amounts the percentage of carbohydrates in the diet, these carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy diet and can cause problems if our body lacks them

Celebrities & Their Dieting Faves

The zone diet

The basis of the zone diet requires that you maintain the level of insulin in the body in a certain zone, it is said that by doing so you can lose up to 10 pounds in 5 weeks. On this diet you eat three main meals a day plus two snacks in between never going more than 5 hours in between eating.

One third of your meal is made up of a protein food which should be no bigger than the size and thickness of the palm of your hand. The other two thirds should consist of carbohydrates which can be fruit and vegetables and a touch of fat which can be nuts, olive oil or avocado.

Dieting & Your Body

Although fiber is not an actual nutrient it is essential for our body’s well being, there are two types of fiber, insoluble and soluble.

Insoluble Fiber

This type of fiber provides us with bulk in our diets and is found in cereals such as wheat bran or bran flakes for example. Fiber helps us to move food through our bodies more quickly and when we drink plenty of water it helps with the prevention of constipation.

Diet Success

Many of us go on diets time and time again only to give up and very often we even regain the weight we lose and so we begin again after a few weeks. Even the slightest weight loss can make a huge difference to the person who is overweight or obese.

The reason many of us fail fad diets is that losing weight is a slow process so in the long term crash diets do not work. Fad diets may work in the short term but once interest is lost we soon regain the weight, this can often discourage us from dieting.

Healthy Eating

We all know the importance of eating a well balanced healthy diet but what exactly is a healthy diet? A healthy diet consists of 6 basic components, such as:

Protein – This can be fish, meat, poultry, dairy products and eggs

Fats – This is found in animal products, dairy, nuts and oils

Carbohydrates – Vegetables, fruits, pasta, rice and beans

Vitamins – These are vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K

Minerals – Iron, calcium and potassium

Water

Cut Out The Fat From Your Diet

There have been many diets promising to work wonders for us while still eating fatty foods but health experts still insist that to lose weight and keep your heart healthy a low fat diet is the way to go.

A report published in 1993 linked heart disease with the diet, since then guidelines have been set out to help reduce our intake of sugar, salt, fat and saturates.

Obesity Health

The percentage of people who are overweight and obese is on the increase, there are more than 1 billion adults in the world who are over weight and 300 million of these are obese.

The percentage of young people who are over weight has more than tripled over the last few years and among children in the age group 6 to 19 years, over 9 million young people are thought to be over weight.

Obesity Health

A recent study has shown that a startling 1 in every 5 children in the USA is over weight, children who are over weight or obese have fewer health related problems than adults do, however they stand the chance of carrying their weight problem over into adulthood.

Doing so then places them at risk of developing heart disease and diabetes later in life. A child who is over weight or obese is a prime target for bullies, often as a result of the weight problem, they can become a loner who develops a sense of low self esteem.