The Truth About Fats and Carbs

In talking with people all over the world about food, I've come to the realization that most people truly do want to eat for excellent health and be at a normal weight. But everything they hear conflicts with everything else they hear The word "healthy" depends on who you're listening to and what their motives are.

For instance, on a trip to the grocery store the other day, I noticed the words "healthy snack" on a product box. So I looked at the ingredients and noticed four known carcinogens and toxins that are anything but healthy. That means this stuff is known to cause cancer.

Healthy? Healthy!?

So just know that the food manufacturers will say whatever they need to in order to sell products--your health be damned. They'd try to convince us that eating shredded cardboard is healthy if they think we'd believe it. Heck, we believe everything else, so that's probably next. You watch.
But by far the biggest blunders in the 'healthy eating advice' world are:

"Carbs are no good--they make you fat." (Usually spoken by companies that sell low carb processed foods.)
and
"Fat is the enemy. Low fat is the only way to go."

Well, I don't sell low fat foods or low carb foods. So you can take this to the bank...
Neither bit of drivel could be further from the truth.

Here's why:

Your body NEEDS both.

Depending on the source, carbohydrates provide fiber, B-complex vitamins and vitamins A and E, plus the minerals magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron and selenium.

These nutrients are not "optional" when it comes to your body--they're essential, and you pay a dear price when you're lacking them.

For instance, being low in B vitamins can cause fatigue, muscle degeneration, mental deficiency, depression, skin eruptions and headaches, among other things.

A zinc deficiency can lead to learning disabilities, poor digestion, rashes, menstrual problems, depression, delayed sexual development in kids, prostate problems, and erratic behavior.
So low carb diets can cause these problems!

The same thing can be said about fats.

Fats are critical to your body for cellular function, protecting your brain and nervous system, absorbing vitamins and nutrients and maintaining fertility.

Not having enough of the right fats causes brittle, aged-looking skin, hair and nails, repeated infections, moodiness and--get this--weight GAIN. (I'll explain why in a moment).

The key to eating for blubber loss and great health is NOT to stay away from carbs and fats... but to make sure the carbs and fats you are consume are GOOD ones.

Good carbs vs. bad

GOOD CARBS are natural, unprocessed and unrefined whole grains. They include whole wheat, oat, rye, spelt, quinoa, barley, millet, buckwheat and brown (not white) rice.

These grains and products made from them provide the essential nutrients I mentioned above, plus they taste delicious.

BAD CARBS, on the other hand, include white flour, white rice and white sugar, and all products made from them.

The bleaching and processing of the grains strips away ALL of the naturally occurring nutrients and fiber. Some may be added back after processing, but only a fraction of the amount that was originally in the grain.

Refined carbohydrates are quickly converted to sugar in your body and are easily stored in your body as fat. I once heard the phrase, "The whiter your bread, the quicker you're dead."
That's true.

However, WHOLE grains contain balanced amounts of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. They're broken down more slowly by your body and used more efficiently. Plus their fiber helps encourage regular bowel movements and can decrease your risk of colon cancer.

So next time you find yourself blindly counting carbs, think instead about looking for good vs. bad carbs.

Fats--the good, bad and the ugly
A moderate amount (2-3 tablespoons) of good fat each day is VITAL.

Good fats include olive oil (preferably extra-virgin, cold pressed), avocado, butter (yes--I said butter and NOT margarine), flaxseed oil, fish oil, nuts and even meats and dairy products in limited amounts.

These fats help you lose flab by turning off your body's hormone messengers that direct fat storage, especially around your midsection.

Healthy fats also help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels
WITHOUT lowering HDL (good) levels. Plus regular consumption of them can help lower your risk of heart disease, stroke and cancers.

Bad fats are processed fats--also known as HYDROGENATED or partially hydrogenated fats and oils.

They contain trans-fatty acids, which are fats that are not found in nature, so your body CANNOT metabolize them.

Instead, they just accumulate, clog your arteries, and cause inflammation, cell damage and heart attacks.

Thank the processed food manufacturers for that wonderful invention!
These bad fats are found in deep fried foods, margarine, baked goods, powdered and artificial coffee creamers, and most processed (packaged) foods.

Look for the words "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" on package labels. If you see them, do NOT buy the product.

And don't be fooled by products that profess to be "low fat." All that means is that they're lacking good, essential fat, and the fat has probably been replaced by sugar (a bad carb).

Isn't that incredible, what the food manufacturers do to try to fool us in order to make billions? And the effects are passed down to our children in our DNA. That's right, studies show that processed foods are a major reason for the skyrocketing numbers of birth defects and infertility otherwise known as "being sterile."

Click Here! to find out more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Desire_Moore

Take Responsibility for Your Health and Weight

While most of us know we need to exercise and eat healthy to lose weight, we often blame our inability to do so on things like overloaded schedules, low energy, confusion and boredom. Playing the blame game not only gives us more excuses to skip workouts, it also distances us from the fact that how we live our lives is a choice. Taking responsibility for your own choices may be the most important step you take to lose weight.
Why We're Fat
Obesity is on the rise, despite our obsession with six-pack abs and movie-star bodies. There are many things that contribute to our current weight problems including:

• Sedentary jobs
• Computers and the Internet
• Hundreds of TV channels to keep us entertained for hours
• Long hours spent in cars
• Neighborhoods that aren't exercise-friendly
• Technology that makes it possible to do almost everything from a chair
• Medical advances that let us off the hook (such as plastic surgery)
• Busy schedules
• Lack of physical activity in schools as well as easy access to junk food for kids
• Denial - Most people know that quick fix pills and gadgets don't work but they keep trying them anyway to avoid exercise.
• Confusion - There are so many rules about eating and exercise that we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed by the choices and don't do anything.
• The belief that, if we can't meet the exercise guidelines, why exercise at all?
• Fear of failure, doing the wrong thing, injury or even making fools of ourselves.

Of course, there are other factors involved with obesity, such as genetics or certain medical conditions that preclude weight loss, but for most of us, we're overweight because of our own choices. If you're tired of making excuses for your health, now is the time to take control.
How to Take Control of Your Own Choices
Losing weight means creating a calorie deficit by exercising more and eating less, but the first step in doing that is taking a look at how you live each day and asking yourself: Where am I going wrong? What am I really in control of? Take a moment to make a list of all the choices you make each day that can affect your weight such as:

• What, when and how much you eat
• Whether you exercise or not
• How active you are throughout the day
• How you deal with stress

Looking at that list or your own list, what comes to mind? Do you feel like you're in control of these things and, if not, why not? You may feel that your choices are limited (or even nonexistent) because you're overwhelmed by a busy schedule, trapped by a job that doesn't allow for much movement each day or you're simply too tired to workout.
However, even with the busiest life or the most sedentary job, there are always healthy choices you can make. Even one good choice can put you on the right path and, more importantly, make you feel more in control of your weight, your health and your future.
Think about one healthy choice you could make each day, something that would give you back control without having to overhaul your entire life. Some ideas:

• Bring your own healthy lunch to work
• Use part of your lunch hour for a brisk walk
• Incorporate simple office exercises into your work day
• Look for one task, appointment or to-do item you could delete in favor of a workout session
• Find 10 minutes each day for a quick workout
• Get up 10 minutes early for a walk around the block or a short yoga workout

No More Excuses
To take control of your health and fitness is to take full responsibility for what you're doing or not doing. It isn't easy to change how you live. In fact, it takes tremendous courage, strength and will to look at your life, see where you're going wrong and switch directions. However, the more you do it, the more you realize you can do it and that's what you really need to lose weight.

2 Simple Natural Weight Loss Drinks to Effective Fat Loss

t sounds unbelievable that you can actually loss weight just by taking some natural drinks, normally you expects to gain more weight by drinking more liquid. Well guess what? You are wrong! The truth is that, you can actually lose weight by drinking some two simple natural drinks. One advantage of losing weight through this mean is that because they are natural, they do not have any side effect neither do they pose any danger to your health.

However, before I discuss about these natural drinks, I would like you to understand that there are some basic things about weight lose you have to know and these can compliment your other efforts when losing weight.

1. You need understand that a successful weight loss starts from the mind. If you fail to align your mind set to whatever you are doing to lose weight, you will have a long way to go. Next you have to forget about dieting, and concentrate on healthy eating. Going on a hunger strike in the name of "Dieting" is not going to take you anywhere, if anything, you may be doing more harm than good to your body. So try to follow a food plan that is providing your body with ample nutrition in the form of protein, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, etc. If any one of these components is missing in your diet plan then it is not a healthy diet plan.

2. I don't know of any healthy weight loss program that does not include exercise. As much as you hate exercises, you cannot ignore the fact that if you want to lose weight quickly, you need to workout at least twice per week; the more the better, however, you don't need to stress yourself with special abs workouts, sit-ups, push-ups. Simple abdominal crunches, Cardio and weight lifting are some of the best workouts available for quick weight loss. Exercises will help you lose weight in two ways: first, it will help you burn fat, and secondly, it will help you build muscles, which will result in even more fat burning!

3.You need adequate sleep: We all have lots of work to do; none of us can afford to be lazy, thanks to cut-throat competition and rising inflation. Nowadays, we need to work more than our bodies would permit us to! At the same time, we need to make sure that we giving our bodies adequate sleep at least seven to eight hours per day. If you don't get your due sleep, you will feel hungry all the time. The result would be rapid weight gain! Lack of sleep also adds to your stress level, and as you might know already, stress is one of the major factors behind obesity!

Now, let's get back to the two weight loss drinks that I was talking about at the start of this article.

1. Apple Cider Vinegar: Yes, I agree that it tastes awful, but Apple Cider Vinegar is one of the most powerful, natural appetite suppressants available. When you are trying to lose weight, hunger is your biggest enemy. In order to defeat this enemy, you need to take the help of some sort of appetite suppressants. Instead of relying on prescription drugs that come with harmful side effects, why not try out Apple Cider Vinegar? It is 100% natural and safe to take!

How do you do it; well you can add just three tablespoonfuls of Apple Cider Vinegar juice with eight ounces of water, and drink just before having your meal. Apple Cider Vinegar will also boost your metabolic rate and keep you energetic throughout the day!

2. Green Tea: The second drink I want to discuss is green tea, you may have already heard about the great health benefits of green tea, especially with regards to weight loss. It is no wonder that most of the weight loss supplements available out there contain green tea. Green tea helps you burn fat by accelerating your metabolic rate. You can drink green tea on its own but I prefer to mix with a bit of lemon juice and honey tastes great! I would suggest you drink at least one cup of green tea daily - it would do you a lot good than those energy boosters!

When you take these natural drinks daily couple with regular exercises and eating the proper healthy foods, there's no way you will not achieve great result losing weight. You can get more info about different diets combination you can choose from, ever with shopping list if you go to: Strip That Fat [http://www.squidoo.com/weightlossreviewforall]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Austin_Odeon

Is Exercise Good For Weight Loss?

There are different weight loss methods. Each one of them has its own benefits and drawbacks. Some people prefer using weight loss drugs/supplements, others use diet to lose a few pounds, yet others rely on exercise to lose weight. Herbal medicines and advanced equipments are a few other extensively used methods. Today, I will be focusing on exercise and how good it is.

According to a study, around 72 percent of the people do exercise for the purpose of reducing weight. But the number of people who actually succeed in losing weight is very low as compared to the overall population. There are several reasons as to why people do not reach their goal (of weight reduction) when they follow workout route.

Generally, there are two types of people who do exercise:
a. Type A: People who solely rely on workouts for weight reduction and do not focus on any other method.

b. Type B: People who use multiple methods along with exercise to aid the fat burning process.
It has been noted that Type A people do not lose weight as significantly as Type B. So it simply means that if you solely use exercise for weight loss, it will not going to work. In order to lose weight quickly and effectively, one must not focus upon a single weight loss method rather one has to use multiple methods.

Exercise itself is not bad at all, rather it is very effective for weight loss. You have to use proteins as much as you can so that your muscles build and reshape. If you will not going to increase the intake of proteins along with the workouts, it will adversely affect your body. Not only that proteins are needed, but you must take care of your diet as well. Water and juices are very important. You must drink water to avoid dehydration as it has been seen that mostly people get dehydrated during or after exercise.

All in all, exercise is very good for weight loss but you must give a lot of importance to your diet as well. You can use different supplements to get all the necessary proteins and elements that your body and muscles need. Raspberry ketone is an effective compound that, if used with exercise, will increase the fat burning process, and thus your muscles will grow significantly.

No weight reduction method or technique is good or bad, it is all about how you use it.

Find out more about the benefits and effects of raspberry ketone ingredients.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sabih_Javed

Weight Loss Drinks And Foods That Help You Lose Weight

It's not easy to find credible weight Loss drinks and foods that help you lose weight. But they are out there and this article will show you just where to get them. But before we get into the topic itself, it is important to note that most diet foods and weight loss drinks are lies. They do not work.

Statistics constantly show that diet foods including weight watchers meals, low carb foods and most other mainstream products do not work. And when it comes to drinks that help you lose weight, the same can be said. Most diet drinks with low calories and low carbs are also false and do not work. To find the foods and drinks that do help you lose weight, you have to go natural. So let's begin.

Weight Loss Drinks
1. Apple cider vinegar. This isn't the tastiest drink but it's VERY powerful when it comes to weight loss and most of all health improvement. In addition to having many healthy nutrients and vitamins, apple cider vinegar also helps remove undigested food in your body. This will not only get rid of undigested food that will cause weight loss, but it will also prevent any weight gain in the future because it will continually clean your body from the inside. Generally apple cider vinegar should be consumed 2-3 times a day with 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar mixed with a cup of water. No less, no more.

Results may vary but in general most people can see weight loss and health improvement results within less than a month.

2. Water. Now earlier I had said to avoid drinking low calorie, low carb drinks but this is just plain water. Water has and always will be the source of life and refeshment. Therefore it is very important that your body be "fed" with water because 70% of your body contains it! The cleaner and more natural the water is, the better your body functions. With it you can lose a lot of weight. Some of the most healthiest celebrities such as Halle Berry say their secret to looking good is drinking a lot of water. It's a simple procedure! Just drink 8 glasses of water daily and you'll see results in less than a month as well!

3. Cranberry juice. This is one of the most powerful weight loss drinks in existence today. It is also as powerful as water. The health benefits of canberry juice are explained below in the foods section. But if you're confused as to how much water and cranberry juice to drink, don't worry! Mix it up. Drink water one day and cranberry juice another. The most important thing here is that you drink more of the above drinks and less of the processed mainstream drinks. Then weight loss will happen very quickly!

Foods That Help You Lose Weight
1. Flaxseeds. Flaxseeds are small seeds that when eaten help digest food better, stoping constipation, bloating and more. In addition this will help digest the foods you eat better causing weight loss to occur. In addition flaxseeds contain omega 3's which help with blood circulation which also help in weight loss.

2. Cranberries. Cranberries contain man health benefits including many vitamins and nutrients that help prevent urinary tract infections, diseases such as cancer and heart disease. How does this lead to weight loss? The more canberries you eat, the healthier you body gets. The healthier your body gets, the better it's metabolism. And fast metabolism = weight loss.

3. Lemons. They may be sour but they are VERY powerful. Though I can't go into the full details of lemons and weight loss, I can however state that they are one of the best ways to lose weight. Lemons cleanse the kidney and many other areas of the body. Cleanse means the cleaning of the body from the inside which can lead to 10-20 pounds of weight loss in a week. More information on lemon cleanses are explained on the page linked below!

The products described above are just a tiny sample of the healthy foods and drinks out there that you can use to lose weight and improve your health at the same time.

If you'd like to discover more foods, drinks and diets which help you lose weight fast, then click here [http://www.squidoo.com/Quick-Weight-Loss-Diets-10] to find the most powerful all natural diets, products and methods, all of which will help you lose weight, keep it off and improve your health!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vitaliy_Gershfeld