diet
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Can Dieting Give You a Flat Belly?
Posted by Tel on 05 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: diet
Dieting for health is a common sense way of keeping on top of your life, prolonging it and helping to stave off illness by building a strong body with a healthy immune system. But with the current weight loss craze sweeping the West with its surge in obesity cases, dieters often ask the question, “”Can dieting give you a flat belly?” Let’s explore that question and see what answers it brings us.
Dieting for weight loss in itself is a proven means of losing some of the extra pounds that you have gained by eating the wrong foods in too large amounts for your body to naturally burn off through its normal daily routine. There is even a flat belly diet that targets exactly that aspect of this. But can this actually cause your belly to become as flat as the models seem to be able to easily display every time you see them on the catwalk, or in TV ads or in glossy magazine photographs?
Well, in extreme cases, it can. But I emphasize the word extreme, here. You would have to diet to the point of almost causing malnutrition or suffer from anorexia to achieve this state and either of these are dangerous situations to place yourself in. catwalk models are by the nature of the job they do, extremely thin and underweight for their height and build and are not good role models for the general public to emulate.
In actual fact, for most people who wish to retain their health and obtain a flat belly, the only really successful way of doing this is through a combination of diet and exercise. Exercises can specifically target the muscles in the belly region so that the pull tight and create good posture while allowing the person to display a flat belly. There are many that are very effective and are usually done in combination with whole body exercise work outs such as Pilates or aerobic exercises, or tough workouts in the gym with weights or resistance training methods.
The accompanying diet must include plenty of proteins as you will effectively be building the strength into the muscles groups in your torso to achieve the flat belly look. You would actually eat more than a person merely on a diet that would not be combined with hard training, because your body would demand more nutrients, not less to strengthen the muscle groups needed for the goal to which you have set about to achieve.
As with all diets, it is recommended to consult with a professional dietitian or nutritionist to identify the right diet combinations for you personally rather than relying on off-the-shelf diets that may not be right for you and also to identify any problems that may arise before they occur.
Healthy Eating Part 4
Posted by Tel on 14 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: diet
It’s time to follow up my last post here at Health Image, where I looked at the health giving properties of the humble onion. Well, in this instalment of this exciting series on health foods I’ll take another one to look at more closely. In fact, this is not so much a food item as in the sense of a vegetable or fruit as such, but its used more as a spice, or flavouring. I’m talking about ginger.
Ginger is commonly known as root ginger. However it is not actually a root, but the under soil “stem” of the plant that throws up its sword-like leaf bearing branches from ground level.
Ginger has for many centuries been used as a healing medicine. The Chinese used ginger to cure many ailments. The ancient Greeks also made use of its healing powers, in fact Pythagoras was known as a great supporter of this plant.
Today, modern medicine has come to know that ginger possesses some extremely useful healing properties.
A formal study on motion sickness at the Phytotherapy Research Laboratory in Salt Lake City was done by spinning motion sickness-prone students. They were divided into two groups – the first group was given Dramamine, the propriety motion sickness drug. The other group was given ginger.
The results found that the group given ginger withstood the full six minute spin with little nausea and dizziness. The other group stopped the ride within four and a half minutes!
In Japan, researchers believe the chemicals known as gingerols found in ginger may be the active ingredients that are responsible for blocking the body’s vomiting reflex. A quarter of a teaspoon of ginger taken 20 minutes prior to a car or boat ride should last for around 4 hours. By way of an alternative, the ginger can be cut into slices and boiling water poured over to make a healthy ginger tea.
In Denmark, researchers have discovered that ginger has the ability to block the effects of prostaglandins. These are substances which cause inflammation of the blood vessels in the brain that lead to migraines. Results are still in the experimental phase, but a third of a teaspoon of fresh or powdered ginger can be taken as you feel a migraine approaching to help stop pain before it starts.
Ginger has also been found to bring a marked relief from arthritis pain. Danish researchers recommend using a dose of half a teaspoon of fresh or dried ginger (or drinking as a ginger tea) is a great relief for arthritis pain.
A researcher at the Cornell University Medical College discovered that ginger has a similar effect on blood clots as that of aspirin. It also appears that high cholesterol levels can be lowered using the same active ingredient, which is thromboxane.
Ginger has always been used as a digestive aid, so adding to cooking will not only give bland food a real bite, it will help you to digest it better too!
Ginger tea is particularly useful taken with honey and lemon in order to help combat colds and flu. It works as a mild decongestant and loosens catarrh. Ginger’s natural warming action also helps the body to sweat, so it is important to remember to keep well wrapped up against the cold.
Here is a neat storage tip:
As fresh ginger isn’t always available in shops, you can keep a large piece of the stem in the freezer. When you want to use it in cooking, simply grate it over your food as you cook with a fine cheese grater while its still frozen. Then return what’s left to the freezer for the next time you need it. Now that’s a better way of making use of your freezer instead of cramming it full of food you’ll probably never get around to eating!
Healthy Eating Part 3
Posted by Tel on 27 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: diet
Well we got back to the healthy food kick in the last post here at Health Image, where we looked at the incredible health giving properties of broccoli. Now I’ll continue this series by taking another top health giving vegetable and give you the lowdown on… Onions.
Onions are well known for their blood cleansing properties. They have been used for centuries to liven up what would otherwise be bland tasting food with their strong flavour. From the top chefs to family cooks of Italy, France, Greece and Spain they have been used as the base for countless popular and tasty dishes. They have also had a hand in the renowned longevity of people with Mediterranean diets which makes them a must have ingredient in your cooking.
Scientists have recently discovered many more health giving properties of onions.
One of these is their ability to give our brains a real boost by enabling them to fight off debilitating diseases such as Altzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
These diseases exist because toxins enter the bloodstream from many sources, such as car exhaust fumes, tobacco smoke as well as industrial pollution. These toxins find their way to the brain where they can cause much damage to the sensitive tissue.This in turn can cause problems related to cognitive functions.
Onions have sulphur compounds which actually “cleanse” the brain of these damaging toxins by binding with them, then clearing them away via a process that is known as chelation. This cleaning process has also been found to have the potential to prevent memory impairment.
The down-side is that these delicate compounds are destroyed by high temperature cooking. That includes frying – one of the most common methods of preparing cooked onions in so many dishes. To obtain the full health giving benefits of onion’s properties, they should be eaten raw.
Which is good news for lovers of salads – just add extra sliced or chopped raw onion to add zest and flavour to any salad and enjoy a healthy life!
I’ll be looking at more healthy foods in future posts here as there are plenty to choose from, so don’t be a stranger…
