Body Image Mastery – The Truth

THURSDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) — You know you need to lose
weight. And you know you're ready, which is more than half the battle. But
you still have to pick from a seemingly endless array of weight-loss
plans.

How to decide?

Experts who counsel overweight patients say there are two keys:

Know yourself. That means being honest about what you will and won't
do, long-term.
Evaluate and pick the diet that best suits you, watching out for key
phrases or promises that are probably too good to be true.

Choosing a weight-loss plan that's going to work “takes some
self-reflection,” said Amy Jamieson-Petonic, a registered dietitian who
directs wellness coaching at the Cleveland Clinic and is a spokeswoman for
the American Dietetic Association.

“Are you an online type who likes to chat?” she said. “Or do you want a
formal meeting?”

Some people find that plans that offer prepared meals help them stick
to the plan because it takes the whole portion-control task out of their
hands, said Suzanne Farrell, a registered dietitian in Denver who also is
an association spokeswoman.

As far as accountability, Jamieson-Petonic said, it's important to
figure out if you'll do all right by weighing yourself at home — and can
be honest about it — or if you would do better by going somewhere where
your weight would be charted by someone else.

“Think about and analyze how you currently eat,” said Judy Rodriguez, a
professor of nutrition at the University of North Florida and author of
The Diet Selector, in which she rates diets based on long-term
flexibility and other factors.

“We are all unique in our food preferences, values, lifestyle, etc., so
it seems like trying to 'fit' yourself into someone else's plan is likely
to have only short-term benefits, if any,” Rodriguez said.

Once you know what features you need in a weight-loss plan, look
closely at the plans that seem to fit. And be sure that ones you are
interested in are scientifically sound, Farrell said.

Key factors to look for, she said, include:

Does the plan include a variety of foods?
Does it include high-fiber foods?
Does it educate you on the value of foods that are low in saturated
fat?
Does it tell you about “good” fats, such as olive oil?

In addition, Farrell said, “look for a plan that emphasizes physical
activity and encourages eating regularly throughout the day.”

And watch out for claims and promises that sound too good to be true,
Farrell added. A common one, she noted, is rapid weight loss. “It should
be no greater than two pounds a week,” she said.

She's also skeptical of plans that say no exercise is needed. Weight
loss means a lifestyle change, she said, and maintaining the loss is best
done by keeping an eye on food intake and on staying active.

Another red flag, Farrell said, is a plan that totally eliminates foods
or food groups.

But whatever plan you choose, focus on making small changes to your
eating and activity habits, Rodriguez said. Look at what you currently eat
and then figure out how you could make small healthy changes.

Just substitute low-fat crackers for the doughnut you usually eat, she
said.

“Do this for one to two weeks, then go back and make another small
change,” Farrell said. “Keep doing this. Continuing self-improvement is a
great thing.”

Then do the same for physical activity, she said. Try tracking the
steps you take in a day with a pedometer, and then increase them.

The bottom line? The experts agreed that if your diet plan is suited to
you, chances are you'll follow it longer, take the weight off at a slow
but steady pace and maintain the loss.

More information

The American Dietetic Association has more on healthy eating.

I'm debating between these two products, I dont want safety tips, or warnings, Just Answers Has anybody here tried these.

Here are the titles for the two products ive listed on a site i found on google.

2. Ephedrasil Hardcore is by far the most effective diet pill and “Feel Good Pill” legally available today. **Ephedrasil Hardcore is 100% Ephedra-Free. It's the only product reviewed that received a 100/100 on weight loss potential. If You want to lose weight quickly and feel like a million dollars Ephedrasil Hardcore is a weight loss pill well worth the money. It would have been our #1 rated on our list of diet pills if it had not been for its low safety rating (76/100). Having thoroughly reviewed Ephedrasil Hardcore, it has been found to contain no traces of any illegal or banned substances. Ephedrasil Hardcore does however give users a feeling of a “Natural High” which helps suppress ones appetite and overall feeling of well being. Their are rumors that Ephedrasil Hardcore will soon be taken off the market so finding bottles in the U.S. is rare

4. testoripped is a the #1 rated diet pill for men. TestoRipped was scientifically formulated to help men get rid of body fat extremely fast as well as build lean muscle tissue and enhance sexual vigor. TestoRipped is not an anabolic steroid and is 100% ephedra-free. TestoRIPPED is available in the U.S., Canada, and United Kingdom.Testoripped retails for $149.99

the first one is ranked #2

the second is ranked #4

whats ur say ?

Popularity: 8% [?]

Technorati Tags: diet, weight loss

Does cutting out even diet sodas make you loose weight?

I am addicted to diet coke and drink it constantly but I know sodas bad for you but if i stopped drinking diet and replaced it with water would it help me lose weight?

Children who eat three or more burgers a week may be at a higher risk of asthma and wheezing, but a healthy diet rich in fruit and fish seems to stave off the risk, according to a large international study.

Researchers from Germany, Spain and Britain who studied data on 50,000 children across the world found the link between burgers and asthma was strongest in rich nations where diets with high levels of junk food are more common.

A meat-heavy diet itself has no bearing on the prevalence of asthma, according to the scientists who conducted the study. Yet, frequent burger eating could be a signal for other lifestyle factors which raise asthma risk.

“This is a sign that the link is not strongly related to the food itself, but that burgers are a proxy for other lifestyle and environmental factors like obesity and lack of exercise,” said Gabriele Nagel of the Institute of Epidemiology at Ulm University, Germany, who led the study.

She added, however, that there were “biologically plausible” links for the positive effects of a healthier diet, which could be down to the antioxidants found in fruit and vegetables, and the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish, which have anti-inflammatory properties.

“Fruit and vegetables contain antioxidants and other biologically active factors which may contribute to the favorable effect…in asthma,” Nagel said.

In particular, she added, foods rich in vitamin C have been linked to better lung function and fewer asthma symptoms.

Around 1.1 million children currently receive treatment for asthma in Britain, while in the United States it is the most common chronic childhood disease, with around 10 million children diagnosed with it.

Nagel's team looked at data on 50,000 children aged between 8 and 12 years from 20 rich and poor countries around the world.

While diet was not linked to children being more prone to allergies in general, it did seem to influence the prevalence of asthma and wheezing, they found.

“Overall, more frequent consumption of fruit, vegetables and fish was associated with a lower lifetime prevalence of asthma, whereas high burger consumption was associated with higher lifetime asthma prevalence,” they wrote in the study, which was published in Thorax, a British Medical Journal title.

This study adds to an existing body of evidence showing the health benefits of a so-called Mediterranean diet — rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fish — including reduced risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and depression.

(Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Popularity: 14% [?]

Technorati Tags: diet, weight loss

At many large, national health meetings you will see an almost
comical presence of representatives from the salt industry. They are
there to promote the virtues of salt, and they have their little
pamphlets and booths set up next to the milk people, the American Heart
Association, and the myriad veterans of the scientific conference scene.

But the salt industry is nervous these days. The FDA announced in
April a plan to reduce the amount of sodium in restaurant and processed
foods gradually over the next decade.

The reason is that the FDA, along with most public health experts and
the Institute of Medicine – comprising the most lauded biomedical
researchers and doctors in the United States – are alarmed that most
Americans consume two to five times the amount of sodium they need each
day. They argue that reducing dietary sodium can save 150,000 lives per
year, largely by preempting high blood pressure, or hypertension.

A counter argument is shared, not surprisingly, by the salt industry,
most food manufacturers, and a sprinkling of admittedly earnest
biomedical researchers and epidemiologists.

This counter argument, which many of the mainstream media outlets
have bought into, is that reducing sodium at a population level to stave
off hypertension is a risky experiment lacking scientific merit. A
parallel and even more popular counter argument is that government
experts are food Nazis out to control our lives.

Sure, we need salt, which contains sodium, an essential mineral. But
we don't need more than 1,500 milligrams a day. Most of us consume 3,000
to 8,000 milligrams daily. It's a sad joke that the food industry is
fighting efforts to curb salt.

When it rains it pours

Most consumers have little idea how much sodium they consume and how
this is irrefutably linked to high
blood pressure, stroke and cardiovascular disease – and likely
linked to ulcers and heartburn.

The daily recommended allowance for sodium often is stated at 2,300
milligrams. But that level is for about a dozen or so Americans. The
real level for the rest of us – all children, all African Americans, all
adults over age 40, and anyone with high blood pressure – is 1,500
milligrams.

Food labels go by the higher level, of course, and you can easily be
deceived. Consider how Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup has 890
milligrams per serving, which the company calculates to be 37 percent of
the daily allowance for sodium. This seems marginally acceptable, one
of three meals providing a third of the sodium limit. But the math is
fuzzy.

First, recalculate for the real level of 1,500 milligrams. That's 60
percent of your daily sodium – per serving, which is 8 ounces (half of
which is water). The 10.75-ounce can plus water makes about 2.5 servings
with about 2,300 milligrams of sodium, or 150 percent of your daily
limit.

If you add Saltines, well, forget it. That's another 40 milligrams of
sodium per cracker.

Dining out is usually far worse, where meals – and particularly
fast-food meals – often contain 5,000 or more milligrams of sodium.

Changes to come

The salt is there because the food would otherwise taste bad.
Processed food is a science project made in a laboratory, not real food
made in a kitchen. The salt compensates for the blandness of cheap food
that's not ripe.

Also, various chemicals added to preserve shelf life, crispiness,
texture integrity when frozen and defrosted, or the many other problems
inherent in creating food in a factory that won't reach consumers for
weeks or months.

So what's a company to do? You can see how this board meeting will
unfold: Some gruff and embattled CEO will stand before the board, slam
his fist on the table, and demand answers for how they can reduce the
amount of salt in their processed foods and still have them taste good.
Some young visionary will stand up and say, “I know, why don't we use
only the freshest ingredients and get up early every day to cook and
deliver our food to local supermarkets.”

The visionary promptly will be fired, and the discussion will turn to
finding a chemical that can replace salt.

What you can do, whenever possible, is cook
for yourself with whole foods so that you can control the level of
sodium. There are various tricks, too, like using sea salt or sea
products such as seaweeds that contain more of a salty taste with less
sodium.

A dash of truth

While less nefarious than the corn and sugar industries, with their
sunny ad campaigns promoting the natural goodness of these sweeteners,
the salt industry is nonetheless trying to redirect the argument.

When experts say there is no proof that reducing sodium levels would
reduce hypertension nationwide and subsequently reduce strokes and heart
attacks, they are correct. There's no proof, because such a suicidal
study to confirm this – placing a large group of healthy adults on a
high-salt diet and comparing them with a group on a low-salt diet –
would never be approved by an institutional review board, or IRB, a
committee that assures human studies aren't exceedingly dangerous.

Instead we have studies such as that published in February 2010 in
the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that reducing dietary
sodium by 1,200 milligrams per day would reduce the annual number of new
cases of heart disease by 60,000 to 120,000, stroke by 32,000 to
66,000, and heart
attacks by 54,000 to 99,000. This analysis is based on studies
showing the benefits of placing those with high blood pressure on a
low-salt diet.

Billions would be saved in health care costs, too. If food industry
magnates are worried about the rising cost of food manufacturing by
lowering sodium, surely they would be pleased that hundreds of thousands
of people will still be alive to buy their healthier products.

10
Good Foods Gone Bad

7
Diet Tricks that Really Work

7
Biggest Diet Myths

Christopher Wanjek is the author of the books “Bad
Medicine” and “Food
At Work.” His column, Bad Medicine,
appears each Tuesday on LiveScience.

Original Story: Diet Debate Obscures Truths About Salt Intake
LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

I saw this banana diet on youtube by howcast and i thought of trying it, but then i thought does it work on children and is it dangerous for children(10-12 years old). Please answer!
Quick please cause I'm gonna start tomorrow.

P.S: I did one question like this one before but i don't think anyone watched the movie. It said EAT ANYTHING FOR LUNCH AND DINNER BUT DON'T EAT SWEETS, all of you said don't eat only bananas, or it's bad to eat banana for the whole DAY! THANK YOU!

Popularity: 15% [?]

Technorati Tags: diet, weight loss