5 fish that can cause Cancer: 5 fish that can heal you
5 Fish

 

5 Simple Fat-Loss Rules

By Daniel Moser

Owner Sweat's Fitness Center 

There is an old saying in the health and fitness industry, “You can't out train a bad diet.”  In other words, the diet is 80% of how much weight you lose, of how you feel and look, how much energy that you have, etc.  I firmly believe that you are what you eat.  If you eat a diet of empty calories (junk) that is how you will feel and look.  I always say if you can't pick it off a tree, dig it out of the ground, shoot it with a rifle, catch it with a hook and sinker then you should not eat it.  Sure, there are times when the temptations of opening a bag of chips or going to a fast food restaurant are almost unavoidable but make sure that they are planned ahead of time.  I believe that being healthy and staying healthy is very simple process.  Take a look at these five simple steps:

1. Take a look at how much you are eating now.

2. If you are not losing weight or heading toward your goals, adjust your diet accordingly.

3. Eat plenty of fruits, nuts, fish, chicken, eggs and vegetables. Don't eat from a box or a bag, These foods are dead and have no or  very little nutritional value.

4. Give your self one treat "meal" per week to look forward to.  Don't make it a treat "day". Just one meal to look forward to.

5. Plan ahead by spending a few hours on the weekend to plan your meals for the week. Try cooking it all at once and putting the  prepared food in containers for later.  All it takes is a little effort for a big return.

Most people really do pretty good on steps 1-3 but mess up on step 4.  Don't continue eating all day long, just one meal per week.  By following my advice, you won't really feel like you are depriving yourself of eating some of the foods that you want.  Secondly, if you know that you can have a bowl of ice cream on Saturday you will be more committed on your diet on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Also, watch your snacking around the house when relaxing or watching T.V.  Plan ahead with snacks like fresh vegetables, hot air popcorn or other low calorie foods.  Remember to stay away from fruit drinks or other condensed drinks which usually have high concentrations of sugar and low nutritional value.

Combine my 5 Simple Rules with a least 3 workouts per week (resistance and interval training) and you will have a very manageable fat-loss plan.

 

 

Why Cardio Doesn't Work

 

 

By Craig Ballantyne

 

 

 

 

They classified the subjects into two groups: those who lost the least amount of weight (the "Compensators") and those who lost the most (the "Non-Compensators"). Turns out the cardio exercise made the Compensators hungry. As a result, they wound up consuming more than 250 extra calories per day... all but wiping out their weight-loss efforts. The Non-Compensators, though, did not experience an increase in their appetites.

 

If your cardio program is not working for you, check your post-exercise appetite level and calorie intake to see if you are a "Compensator." If you are, you might be better off with a program of high-intensity resistance and interval training.

 

 

Measure Body Fat, Not BMI

Measuring body fat, rather than body mass index, appears to more accurately identify people who need lifestyle interventions to lose weight, study findings suggest.

Excess body fat is a risk factor for many major health problems such as heart disease and diabetes, researchers note in the Nutrition Journal.

When evaluating individuals for lifestyle recommendations to minimize such health risks, body mass index (BMI) under identifies risk, said Dr. Ottavia Colombo of the University of Pavia in Italy.

"The use of BMI alone does not discriminate between fat mass and fat-free mass, nor reflect the fat mass distribution," Colombo told Reuters Health.

Colombo and colleagues recruited 23 men and 40 women, aged 20 to 65 years, to undergo body composition analysis in the Human Nutrition and Eating Disorders Research Centre at the university. The volunteers were healthy, but led sedentary lives and were not following a low-calorie diet.

The researchers obtained each person's BMI as well as body-fat measurements including waist circumference and total percent body fat. The also calculated a measurement similar to BMI that identifies fat mass called body fat mass index. The investigators then compared the percentage of the study group that would be told to lose weight according to each calculation.

BMI calculations, they found, identified 11 percent of the group as needing strong recommendations to lose weight and 41 percent as needing basic recommendations to lose weight. By contrast, waist circumference measurements indicated about 25 percent would need strong recommendations to shed pounds and 36 percent would need basic weight loss recommendations, Colombo said.

Moreover, 29 percent and 48 percent would have received similar weight loss recommendations according to total percent body fat measurements, while 21 percent and 54 percent would receive the same, according to body fat mass index.

"Using criteria based on body adiposity (fatness) rather than body weight would result in a much greater proportion of the study population receiving recommendations for weight loss," Colombo said.

Studies that focus on changes in body fat among larger groups of people recommended for lifestyle change, might better identify which body fat index is most clinically relevant, the investigators say.

SOURCE: Nutrition Journal 2008.

 

 

New Superfoods Help Prevent Illness

Tired of spinach, bored with broccoli? Experts say there’s a new generation of
superfoods that promise to do double or triple-duty when it comes to preventing illness.

At the top of the list — kiwi. “In a recent study, kiwi was found to be one of the most
nutritionally dense fruits out of 27 fruits,” says Stephanie Dean, R.D., dietitian with Baylor
University Medical Center at Dallas.

Kiwis are full of antioxidants, vitamin E and lutein. They ward off vision problems, blood
clots, and even lower cholesterol — almost as effectively as the second new superfood on the
list — barley.

“The USDA found that barley specifically could lower your LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol by 17.4
percent which is a phenomenal percentage,” adds Dean.

Barley, a wheat, can be added to soups or even eaten instead of oatmeal for breakfast.

Next on the list is a traditional Thanksgiving favorite — cranberries.

“The crimson color of cranberries signal that they are full of flavonoids,” explains Dean.

Flavonoids — high in antioxidants — help prevent everything from infections to strokes and
cancer.  drink milks the next spot on the list — kefir. “Kefir is a wonderful source of calcium.

Everyeight ounce glass has about 300 milligrams
which is a little less than one-third of the recommended daily intake for adults,” says Dean.

Kefir not only contains just as much calcium as milk, but also packs more beneficial bacteria
than yogurt. And finally — a close cousin to an old superfood — broccoli sprouts.

“Broccoli sprouts have been shown to actually contain 20 percent more anti-cancer agents
than regular broccoli,” says Dean. Broccoli sprouts are sold by the package and can be thrown on

top of salads or can be a great addition to sandwiches.

Are these considered specialty foods or can you find them in most grocery stores? You can
find them in most grocery stores; however, some are usually seasonal.

 

Weight-Loss Trick

By Craig Ballantyne

When it comes to losing weight, we often need to use every trick in the book.
And according to researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
one of those tricks might be having a little H2O before you eat.

Researchers had young (ages 21-35) and old (ages 60-80) subjects drink 1.5 to 2 cups
of water 30 minutes before a meal. They were then allowed to eat as much food as they
wanted. The researchers compared the results to the amount they ate during a meal without
the water.

Drinking the water did not affect how much food the younger subjects ate, but it reduced
the older subjects' food intake by about 10 percent. And it worked particularly well to
curb the appetites of older men.

If you're over 35, grab a glass of water before you sit down to eat. It won't replace the
need for a good diet and exercise. But it might help you control your appetite.

 

 

 The Diet That Cardiologists Are Being Urged to Recommend

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN    

What would you do if you were a researcher and you realized that a diet that had been accepted for years is all wrong? Would you write letters and more letters, urging your colleagues to be aware that research is showing the need for a change? That is exactly what some of the country's top researchers have been doing, including Dr. Walter Willett (who chairs Harvard's Department of Nutrition) and Dr. Frank B. Hu.

Research has clearly shown that the low-fat and low-cholesterol diet that many doctors have been recommending since the late 1980s has done almost nothing to prevent heart disease. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered that a diet with high levels of carbohydrates, specifically those with a high glycemic index and load, is hard on the heart.

Studies as far back as the 1940s show that low-carb diets are effective for fat loss. And epidemiological studies from the 1970s showed a correlation between high carbohydrate intake and the risk of coronary heart disease. But those results were ignored, because everyone thought fat was the lone culprit.

Low-carb diets have now been validated in study after study - not only for weight management, but to control insulin and glucose elevations. This means they are also very effective for controlling Type II diabetes and hypertension. And that is why researchers and some members of the medical community are urgently calling for a change. But will anyone hear them?

A diet that is higher in good fats (not harmful trans-fats) and protein but lower in high glycemic index and high glycemic load foods is the diet that is best for lowering what is now being called cardio-metabolic risk. This new term implies what I and other ETR experts have been teaching for years. The best way to control your weight and reduce your risk of diabetes and coronary disease is to control your glycemic response.

If you haven't yet gotten serious about a low-carb approach to health, it is time for a change.

[Ed. Note: By modifying your diet, medications, lifestyle, and exercise habits, and with nutritional supplementation, your health is largely in your control. James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN - the founder of the LaValle Metabolic Institute and a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies - has come up with an approach to health that has worked for thousands of patients. And it can help you, too.

  
Do-it-yourself Cardiac Bypass Surgery

When cholesterol-clogged plaque narrows an artery that feeds the heart, the body responds by trying to bulk up tiny blood vessels in the heart. As these so-called collateral vessels grow more muscular and interconnected, they begin to reroute some of the blood flow around the blockage. Scientists have been trying for years to nudge collateral blood vessels to develop and prosper, but without great success. However, you can do it at home without anything more high-tech than a comfortable pair of shoes, reports the Harvard Heart Letter in its January 2008 issue.

Growing new collateral blood vessels can ease chest pain (angina), limit heart attack damage, improve survival, and perhaps even offer extra time for emergency therapy in the case of a heart attack. And exercise can boost these blood vessels.

Exercise dramatically increases blood flow through the coronary arteries. The inner lining of the arteries responds to this "stress" much as it does to the stress of atherosclerosis, by stimulating collateral blood vessels to elongate, widen, and form new connections.

The Heart Letter notes that a little bit of exercise won't do the trick. You need to push your heart. If you aren't used to exercising, that may mean brisk walking. Any activity that gets your heart beating faster will do as long as you keep it up for 20 to 30 minutes at a time and do it several times a week.

Exercise is a great way to prevent heart disease, and a host of studies show that it can help some people with narrowed coronary arteries safely avoid bypass surgery or angioplasty. The Harvard Heart Letter asks: Why not give yourself a natural bypass before you need a surgeon to perform a more painful and hazardous one?

 

 
Vitamin D May Block Cancer and Other Diseases

It sounds too good to be true … a little inexpensive pill that could block the development of some cancers, strengthen bones, prevent multiple sclerosis and alleviate winter depression.

But it’s not science fiction. The “new aspirin” could be Vitamin D. Just as we discovered that aspirin can guard against heart disease, Vitamin D could become a useful weapon in the fight against MS, osteoporosis, mild depression and one of the most devastating diseases of our time — cancer.

“As time has gone by, Vitamin D has raised its head as a sort of ambrosia for cancers,” says Dr. Louise Parker, an epidemiologist and a world expert in the environmental exposures that can lead to cancer. Or, in the case of Vitamin D, the lack of exposure.

“One of the most important sources of Vitamin D is from the sun and through your skin,” says Dr. Parker.

The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that during the winter, Canadians take at least 1,000 units a day of Vitamin D, dubbed “the sunshine vitamin.” Those units can be contained in a tiny pill that comes in a bottle of 100 tablets ranging from $5 to $10, depending on the brand name.

Dr. Parker says 1,000 units a day is well beyond what you can obtain from your diet. Vitamin D is a bit of a rare vitamin, appearing only in fatty fish, cod liver oil and egg yolks. Even if you were to sunbathe in southern climates, you would not take in 1,000 units.

She notes Vitamin D as a factor is turning up in study after study. It turns out people with lung and colon cancer are Vitamin D deficient. And it helps the body absorb calcium. In a study examining whether women who took Vitamin D had a lower risk of osteoporosis, it was found the women taking Vitamin D had stronger bones than those who did not take the vitamin. Years later, researchers went back to that study and found that the women who took Vitamin D also had fewer cancers.

But before Vitamin D becomes the “new aspirin,” more research needs to be carried out.

Meanwhile, there is very little evidence that taking Vitamin D can harm you. Perhaps in huge doses it could cause kidney stones, but that has not been proven.

“On the average, 1,000 units a day is safe and is probably effective in reducing the risk of colon cancer, and maybe other cancers as well,” says Dr. Parker.

So does she take Vitamin D and recommend it? Absolutely.

“I take 1,000 units of Vitamin D — one day on and one day off,” she says