10 Easy Ways to Cut Calories

1. Read labels before you buy
You'll be astounded at how many calories some foods contain. Don't just check out the amount per 1oz or per 100g but the amount the whole package contains and think about how much of it you would normally eat. Then decide whether to leave it on the shelves or take it home to add to your waistline.
2. Use low fat dairy foods
Choosing low fat does not always reduce calories. Many foods are pumped with sugar or thickeners to make up for the lack of fat. However, low fat dairy products do usually offer substantial calorie reduction over their full-fat counterparts and, with most, there is little difference in taste or texture. This was not always the case. If it's a while since you tried low fat cheese for example you'll find it much improved!
3. Eat more vegetables
Instead of making meat the main event in your meal pile your plate high with veggies or salad. In general you should be looking to fill at least half your plate with these. Add vegetables to soups and stews to increase bulk without adding much to the calorie count. Stir fries and curries are also great for making a little meat and a lot of vegetables into a delicious meal.
4. Watch your portion sizes
Take note of the serving size on packaging and follow the guidelines by measuring out your food. Take care especially with snack foods and baked goods. Take a serving size out of the packet and put the rest away. For home cooked meals, a piece of meat should be about the size of a standard deck of cards not half an ox and a meal (excluding any separate servings of vegetables or salad) should be about the size of two clenched fists. You can always have more veggies if that doesn't fill you up.
5. Eat at home
Restaurants and fast food places make it their business to get you to eat more food than you really need. That's how they make their money after all. Instead, eat fast simple food at home. You can control what you serve. You can control how you prepare it. You can control your portion sizes. When you eat at home you choose exactly what and how much you eat.
6. When you do go out
Choose restaurants which serve healthy food and choose the healthiest dishes you can find on the menu or ask for something healthy to be prepared for you. You can request a smaller portion or a kid's size or eat a couple of starters instead of a massive main course. Choose dishes prepared under the grill and with tomato-based rather than cream-based sauces. If you must have something sweet after your meal have coffee and a chocolate or two in place of dessert.
7. Cut down on alcohol
There are a huge number empty calories in alcoholic drinks. If you drink a lot it can really pile on the pounds. And then as often as not you'll end up snacking on peanuts or other high calorie nibbles along with your drink. A huge added danger with alcohol is that it lowers your inhibitions, mysteriously dissolving your willpower and making healthy eating the last thing on your mind.
8. Choose your snacks with care
It makes sense to eat something about every three hours so that you don't get too hungry and make poor food choices at meals, grabbing a hamburger and fries because you let yourself go too long without eating. But choose your snacks wisely because those calories can mount up. It's best to snack on fruit or chopped vegetables if you can or maybe a cracker or two and not overload on calories with potato snacks and chocolate.
9. Cooking not baking
There's nothing like a baking session for piling on the pounds is there? Because you never bake just for others or eat just one serving do you? Turn your culinary talents to serving up delicious healthy main meals instead. Take pride in your fantastic lunches and dinners and not in your double-choc chip cookie recipe.
10. Plan your food
Use low-calorie and healthy cookbooks to plan your food with care each week before you go shopping. You'll be less tempted by food you don't need in the shops if you have a list and as you'll know exactly what's for dinner each evening, you won't ever have to send out for pizza!
Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

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By Janice Elizabeth Small

Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach, slimming club owner and author of "The Diet Exit Plan", an 8 week coaching program for automatic permanent weight loss. Request her FREE 15 page report "How to lose weight without dieting - 7 secrets the diet industry doesn't want you to know" at http://www.SimplySlimming.com TODAY!

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Substitutes for Butter

Instead of Butter: Use top quality, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil, from the first pressing, or flaxseed oil. The taste of virgin olive oil is appealing to millions of people around the world, so why not adopt it to your taste?
Flaxseed oil is prized for health reasons and not for its taste. You can always compensate for that by adding spices to the appropriate dish.
Let’s say you want to add a little flaxseed oil to mashed potatoes, instead of butter. You could add basil, oregano, rosemary, curry, garlic, or any other spice that agrees with your palate.
You can use a little virgin olive oil on mashed potatoes with basil and roasted garlic, but it's up to the individual's own taste. At home, we use a little olive oil on toast, instead of butter. Again, you could spice it, but try to avoid salting.
Depending on whose study you read, flaxseed oil contains Omega-3, Omega-6, and Omega-9 Oils.
Olive oil has some Omega-6 value, but it tastes great.
If you want to learn a lot more about beneficial oils, visit:
http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~ebender/Health%20&%20Nutrition/Nutrition/oil_good.html
To name a few of the many conditions improved by Omega-3 Oils: High Cholesterol Levels, Prevention of Strokes and Heart Attacks, Cancer Prevention and Treatment, Multiple Sclerosis, Allergies, Angina, High Blood Pressure, Arthritis, and Asthma.
To read a little more about the link between cancer prevention and Omega-3 fatty acids, please visit:
http://www.seapet.com/EFA_cancer.htm#AICR
It goes without saying any further, that omega-3 fatty acids should be boosted in most of our diets.
You will notice, I did not mention, margarine as a dietary recommendation. Trans-fats are formed as a result of chemical hydrogenation. Depending upon the brand you buy, margarine may contain up to 45 percent trans-fats.
"The problem with trans fatty acids is that your body doesn't know what to do with them," said Brian Olshansky, M.D., University of Iowa Health Care professor of internal medicine.
Trans fatty acids (trans-fats) are linked to diabetes, high cholesterol, sudden cardiac death, obesity, and heart disease.
Expect to see a warning on the labels of food containing trans-fats in the near future. New labeling for foods is expected soon, and total trans-fats contained within a product serving, will be listed.
Believe it or not, at least one trans-fat, CLA (conjugated linolenic acid), is considered beneficial, but that is another story.
Suffice to say, it would be wise to avoid margarine until all the research is in. At that point, the composition of margarine will probably change for the better.

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By Paul M. Jerard Jr.

Paul Jerard, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at Aura Wellness Center in North Providence RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the Providence area. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher.

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Brazilian Cuisine

It began as most ‘ethnic food movements’ do – with small restaurants in the neighborhoods where immigrants settled, diners and lunchrooms and tea rooms opened by those who wanted to offer a taste of home to their fellow émigrés. Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Thai – from family run bistros, the cuisine spread as those outside the cultures of the ‘neighborhood’ learned of the good food and the word spread. The latest ‘new cuisine’ that is spreading like wildfire is Brazilian – a delicious blending of three separate cultures that comes together in dishes and delicacies that aren’t found anywhere else in the world.
To understand the cuisine of Brazil, one must understand a little of its history. The base of Brazilian cuisine is in its native roots – the foods that sustained the native Brazilians – cassava, yams, fish and meat – but it bears the stamp of two other peoples as well: the Portuguese who came to conquer and stayed, and the African slaves that they brought with them to work the sugar plantations. Brazilian cuisine today is a seamless amalgam of the three influences that interweave in a unique and totally Brazilian style.
The staples of the Brazilian diet are root vegetables, seafood and meat. Manioc, derived from cassava root, is the ‘flour’ of the region, and is eaten in one form or another at nearly every meal. The bitter cassava root is poisonous in its raw state, but when prepared properly, the cassava root yields farinha and tapioca, bases for many dishes of the region. The Portuguese influence shows in the rich, sweet egg breads that are served at nearly every meal, and in the seafood dishes that blend ‘fruits de mer’ with coconut and other native fruits and vegetables. The national dish, bobo de camarao is one of these, a delicious mingling of fresh shrimp in a puree of dried shrimp, manioc (cassava) meal, coconut milk and nuts, flavored with a palm oil called dende.
It is the African influence that is most felt, though – as is to be expected of the people who worked in the kitchens. Pineapple and coconut milk, shredded coconut and palm hearts worked their way into everyday dishes, flavoring meat, shrimp, fish, vegetables and bread. Brazilian food, unlike the cuisines of many of the surrounding countries, favors the sweet rather than the hot, and more than any other South American cuisine, it carries the savor of tropical island breezes rather than the hot wind of the desert.
The most common ingredients in Brazilian cuisine are cassava, coconut, dende, black beans and rice. Bacalao – salt cod – features in many dishes derived from the Portuguese, but flavored with typical Brazilian insouciance with coconut cream and pistachio nuts it becomes an entirely different food. It is typical of the Brazilian attitude toward food – an expression of a warm and open people to whom feeding and sharing food is the basis of hospitality. Brazilian cuisine is like its people – all are welcome, all are welcomed and all make their mark – without ever overwhelming the contributions of the other.

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by: Kirsten Hawkins

Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit http://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.

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Middle Eastern Cuisine

‘Middle eastern cuisine’ is a broad term that encompasses many different cooking styles from a number of different countries. Moroccan, Syrian, Greek, Arabian – the various cuisines of the middle east share a great deal – and have many differences.
The food of the Middle East is a celebration of life. No matter which country, the staples are the fresh fruits and vegetables that grow in the hills. The spices and flavorings of Middle Eastern food are those that awaken the senses, sparkling against the thicker, richer tastes of the main ingredients. Mints, lemon, garlic, rosemary – all have a fresh, astringent quality that cleanses the palate and refreshes the taste buds. Throughout the region, the cuisine varies – but these things remain the same: fresh ingredients, astringent and piquant spices, olive oil, and little meat.
Lebanese
The tiny country – about the size of Connecticut – is nestled into the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, at the very crook of the fertile Crescent. Its contributions to the cuisine of the entire Middle Eastern region of the world are unmistakable. The flavors that spice the foods of all the surrounding lands can be found here in abundance – olive oil, lemon, garlic and mint. Lebanese cuisine features such staples as kibbeh (ground lamb with bulghur wheat) and tabouleh (parsley, mint and bulghur wheat salad). The food is simply prepared, with the flavors blending together into a complex medley of earthy, fruity tastes and scents.
Syrian
If Syria had contributed nothing else to the world cuisine but pita bread and hummus, it would still be worthy of note. There’s far more to the cuisine of this small Middle Eastern country, though. Baba ganoush (pureed eggplant), stuffed olives and figs, peppers in olive oil – Syrian food celebrates the fruits of the earth and blends them to bring out the textures and flavors in surprising ways. Shish kebab and rice pilaf are two of the more well-known dishes, and while most people think of Greece when they hear baklava, the Syrian claim that it is based on their own dessert of batwala.
Arabian
The Bedouin of the desert once based their diets on dates and yoghurt with the occasional camel or goat to provide meat. Over the centuries, the nomadic tribes incorporated spices, meats and vegetables from other cultures into their cuisine. Today’s Arabian cuisine is a mingling of influences from India, Lebanon and further west. Lamb is the meat most often used in cooking, and it is prepared in a number of ways including shish kebab, spit-roasted, or stewed. The cuisine relies heavily on mint, turmeric, saffron, garlic and sesame. Rice and kasha are the most commonly consumed grains, and the spicing is fresh and astringent – meant to awaken and refresh the palate rather than burn it out.
Throughout the Mediterranean Middle East, the cultures and people have intermingled and carried with them their foods and traditions of eating. In no other place in the world can there be found a blending of cultures that has mingled so much – yet maintained such distinct, national flavors. Healthful, fresh, delicious and life-enhancing, it’s little wonder that the cuisine of the Middle East is among the most popular with diners the world over.

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by: Kirsten Hawkins

Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit http://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.

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Pizza

The pizza pie is an ubiquitous symbol of both Italian cooking and Americana. Oven-baked, thin-crust or deep-dish, round or square, it is a common favorite throughout the United States, with a wide number of regional variations.
The most traditional pie is the pizza Napolitano, or Neapolitan pizza. Made of strong flour, the dough is often kneaded by hand and then rolled flat and thin without a rolling pin. The pizza is cooked in an extremely hot wood-fired stone oven for only sixty to ninety seconds, and is removed when it is soft and fragrant. Common varieties of Neapolitan pizza include marinara, made with tomato, olive oil, oregano, and garlic, and margherita, made with tomato, olive oil, fresh basil leaves, and mozzarella cheese.
New York was home to the first pizza parlor in the United States, opened in Little Italy in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi. It is not surprising, then, that New York-style pizza dominates in the Northeastern part of the country. It is thin-crusted, and made with a thin layer of sauce and grated cheese. The dough is hand-tossed, making the pie large and thin. As a result, it is served cut into slices, traditionally eight, which are often eaten folded in half. It can be served with any number of toppings, including pepperoni, the most popular topping in the United States, or as a “white pizza”, which includes no tomato sauce and is made with a variety of cheeses, such as mozzarella and ricotta.
Chicago is also home to a major variety of pizza.The Chicago-style pizza is deep dish, meaning it is made in a pan with the crust formed up the sides, or even with two crusts and sauce between, a so-called “stuffed” pizza. The ingredients are “reversed” in a Chicago pizza, with cheese going in first, and then sauce on top. This particular form of pizza was invented in 1943 at Uno’s Pizzeria in the River North neighborhood of Chicago.
The Midwest also plays host to the St. Louis style pizza. This thin-crust delicacy is made using local provel cheese instead of mozzarella, and is very crispy. Heavily seasoned with oregano and other spices, with a slightly sweet sauce, it is difficult to fold because of the crust and is often cut into squares, instead of served in slices.
A Hawaiian pizza is an American invention that has nothing to do with Hawaii save that one of the main ingredients is pineapple. The pineapple is put atop the pizza, along with Canadian bacon, giving a rather sweet taste very different from pizzas closer to the Italian original. Hawaiian pizza is very common in the Western United States.
In fact, a number of esoteric pizzas are common on the West coast, and “gourmet” pizza is often referred to as “California-style” pizza. This is an example of fusion cuisine, and many of the pizzas go far beyond the common tomato sauce and cheese. Thai pizza, for example, can include bean sprouts and peanut sauce, while breakfast pizza, as the name implies, may be topped with bacon and scrambled eggs. As a “gourmet” food, California pizzas are often individual sized, serving two people at most, and are not cut in slices like other common types of pizza pie.
Pizza is as diverse as America itself, with almost infinite variations – all of them delicious.

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by: Kirsten Hawkins

Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit http://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.

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Don't Drink Your Calories--Expanded Version

It may well be that soda pop is mankind’s worst ever discovery. If you drink soda pop, especially the caffeinated kind, it could kill you, as shown recently when a man’s death seems to have been associated with his overconsumption of diet soda. But most especially, it can go right after your kids’ health. Pop gives the average teenager approximately 12.5 teaspoons of refined sugar a day. It works out to that much more than what our US government has determined people need in unrefined sugar per day. Also, your kid and you are using soda pop, in all probability, as a food. In 1977-78, teenagers drank twice as much milk as soft drinks, but by 1994-96, it had turned around; they were drinking twice as much soda as they were drinking milk. And such consumption is linked with lower intake of nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Meanwhile, empty calories are all those soda pops contain, aside from ulcer-causing acids. The ingredients in both regular and diet pop can eat away the inner lining of your stomach, eventually causing severe digestive problems. And the average small bottle or can of soda contains over 200 calories, none of which harbor any real nutrients for your health whatsoever. If you consume one can of pop per day, you will gain 12 pounds in only one year. Pop is contributing to major health problems, particularly obesity. Such a condition has been proven to injure your health by the USDA Economic Research Service. Several studies by them have shown that weight gain is directly related to soft drink consumption. Weight gain itself is the prime risk factor for Type Two Diabetes, which can make you go blind, cause lifelong paralysis and finally death. It can be controlled only through a daily regimen of diet or medication. Do you want that sort of thing in your life? If not, cut back on your drinking of soda pop.
Also, fruit juices and drinks like iced tea, Gatorade, Snapple, and other such common drinks which are promoted to be “healthier” than soda pop are often no such thing. Check the label before you buy fruit juice. It may contain only 10% real fruit juice. And the drinks that claim to contain 100% real fruit juice have just as many calories as soft drinks and are not that much more nutritious, either. Many fruit juices are simply loaded with sugar, either refined or unrefined. A glass of apple juice holds 10 teaspoons of sugar, as the juice is concentrated from a much larger amount of apples. You’re much better off eating a single apple and getting the smaller amount of calories and the roughage instead. The sugar in apple juice is concentrated, unlike when in the original apple, and it will raise your insulin level, making your body burn excess blood sugars rather than fats.
And our average alcohol intake is certainly not any better. Hard liquors contain a high amount of calories, and even a light beer has about 100 calories—all empty. Alcohol is quite dense in calories; one gram of alcohol is worth seven calories. Although an occasional glass of fine vintage red wine is good for your heart, it contains a high amount of alcohol, which is high in calories and contains no nutrients. And alcohol does not satisfy your body’s hunger cravings, as your body will burn alcohol for fuel before it begins to burn your body fat. So you will continue to eat commensurate to your hunger, thus piling on the calories. This is not to mention the facts that alcohol also destroys your brain cells and causes a remarkable amount of vehicle accidents and deaths.
It may well be that soda pop, alcohol and other such empty calorie consumption is a major problem in America, especially for teens and adults. That’s why they’re trying to remove it from the schools. And as you get older, being overweight can give you coronary disease, strokes from blood clots building up in your arteries, and cancer. Cancer is like being eaten away by your own body, literally a piece at a time.
Also, always downing that two-liter of soda pop increases the risk of osteoporosis in both men and women when they drink soda pop instead of milk, which is rich in bone-building calcium, and dentists are especially keen on people not drinking sugar-laden, no calcium, hopelessly empty soda pop. All it seems to do is taste good, it would appear. Dental experts say that if you drink it between meals to quench your thirst, you get tooth decay and dental erosion due to the sugars and the acids in pop.
Some of your desire for pop puts you at a risk for kidney stones and a slightly higher risk of heart disease. There needs to be more research done in these two areas, but there has been a fair degree of documentation done by the University of California at Berkeley.
Caffeine, on the same hand, has been proven to be a highly addictive drug. If you drink a cup of coffee or more per day, day in and day out, you are technically addicted to coffee. It’s a stimulant and has been proven to help people’s sex lives somewhat, but it also increases the excretion of calcium. Other ingredients in soda pop such as Yellow Number Five promote attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in some children. Yellow #5 also induces allergic reactions such as asthma in a sizeable portion of individuals.
Soft drinks are one of the most heavily promoted items in all of human history. You can find them in gas station stores, the 7-11 or the AM-PM, vending machines are everywhere, and they are lining the school halls also. You need something wet to quench your thirst, and that’s the secret reason people are going to bars anyway. To get a drink. But neither the soda pop nor the booze, as both caffeine and alcohol are addictive drugs.
US companies spend $700 million or more per year on media advertising for soda pop per year, and hundreds of millions on other promotional activities. They even make contracts with your public school systems to sell soda pop in the halls. Parents and educators have recently, however, been making a concerted attempt to reign in that form of merchandising. Several states have banned at least the non-diet soft drinks from some or all schools, but that could be more of a step backward than a step forward. It does cut the calories, and diet soda has been proven to not quench hunger by some studies, again done at the University of California. Your kids will not do much better on diet soda, but at least they’ll be more prone to eating or drinking something else…unless they don’t. Diet soda is still full of those same acids they mentioned, and have no sugar in them to help them along in your digestive cramp. They can cause nausea, diarrhea and constipation, not to mention those same allergic reactions, including asthma, as regular soda does. Diet soda alone is not an “easy way out.”
Nonetheless, the Center for Science in the Public Interest makes these recommendations: that governments should require chain restaurants to declare the calorie content of soft drinks and all other items on menus and menu boards; the Food and Drug Administration has been told by them to require labels on non-diet soft drinks to state that frequent consumption of sugar-laden drinks promotes obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, osteoporosis and other health problems; governments should provide water fountains in schools, government buildings, parks and other public places; school systems and other organizations, and all those organizations which cater to children should stop selling soft drinks, candy and junk foods in hallways, shops and cafeterias.
Until this month of September, 2005, there was no hard and clear evidence through science that soda itself alone can make kids fatter. But reporting in The Lancet, a British medical journal, a team of Harvard researchers had found the first evidence absolutely linking soda pop drinking to childhood obesity. Twelve year olds who drink soft drinks regularly are far more likely to become or to be obese than those who don’t.
Obesity experts at Harvard found this to be highly important and spent 19 months following the children rather than simply following them around for a week or so like many studies gone before have done. Statistically through many similar studies it’s been found to be more important to use a lengthy study than a sporadic or shorter study. And in this study, it was found that schoolchildren consume who drink pop take in some 200 calories per day more than children who usually don’t. It supports the notion that long-term obesity is an ingrained behavior, starting in childhood, and that we don’t compensate well for calories in liquid. In short, water or milk is simply better.
In fact, the answer to this problem is patently obvious: drink water, and more water. Milk is good, but you should always remember that it’s a food, and not that useful for thirst purposes. Whole milk especially is high in both fat and calories, so go easy on the milk. Water, on the other hand, has no calories and is the very thing you should drink to quench your thirst. You should drink a minimum of six eight-ounce glasses of water per day, say all the experts who have studied this subject. And water, without adding on any calories, can take the edge off your hunger and help you fill up. A good time to drink a glass of water is just before a big, calorie laden meal; it will slow you down. One strategy that works is to always carry a bottle of fresh, clean water with you, and to take sips from it frequently. This also helps prevent daily dehydration, which can be exacerbated by overconsumption of alcohol, soda pop and coffee or tea, which all produce excess thirst.
A small daily consumption of coffee and/or tea is fine, as long as you don’t add lots of sugar to your caffeinated or decaffeinated beverage. Both coffee and tea contain antioxidants, which are anti-cancer agents benefiting your overall health. Green tea has been discovered to have terrific health benefits, less caffeine, and to boost your metabolism, helping you to burn fat. You can even drink it before you go to bed, calming hunger cravings for that “midnight snack” which might cause you to gain weight. But avoid the “designer drinks” you find at Starbuck’s and other such shops which are loaded with high amounts of milk fat and sugar. If you must have your latte, put cinnamon in it, which helps slow down your absorption of sugar--and which also has no calories and tastes delicious. And add honey or turbinado sugar and low-fat milk to your drink.
Although fruit juices are not the best bet to quench your hunger and your thirst, as they contain too high of amounts of insulin-raising sugars, vegetable juices such as V-8, Welch’s, and Heinz tomato juice are fine, as they are both low in calories and do not have a high sugar concentration. However, don’t depend on them too heavily, as they are high in salt content, which again like soda pop, alcohol and caffeinated beverages make you thirstier. Too high of salt intake is also associated with major health problems. And you should not substitute “veggie” juices for fresh fruits and vegetable, which contain fibers and other nutrients than you will find in the juices from them. In fact, if you eat fresh fruit and vegetables in large quantities, they will help you with your thirst problem and fill you up with proper food and nutrients as well. Have a slice of watermelon instead of a beer. Fruits and veggies will help quench your thirst, as well as drinking plenty of water.
But soda pop has been shown to make you thirstier, and that does lead to the further drinking of it as you attempt to quench your thirst. Something about the combination of chemicals in many soda pops dries out people. So then they reach for another can of soda, thus becoming committed to a vicious cycle. And that greatly increases their calorie intake, especially since pop today is now coming supersized as well, filling up those larger and larger plastic single-serve looking bottles. It might not be a bad idea to try to follow the serving suggestion, at least, on the bottle. And it might be a better idea to drink either soda pop or alcohol of any kind from a plastic or glass bottle than an aluminum can, as the aluminum has been shown to seep into the can. This may have something to do with the formation of Alzheimer plaques in the human brain, as aluminum may be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease, a dreadful illness that causes people to forget everyone and everything that holds any meaning whatsoever in their lives.
Is it worth it, to worship a can of a kid’s drink that was invented as a snake oil remedy in a poor man’s fireplace by bubbling a concoction of chemicals together that tasted good? He only intended to sell it in small amounts to adults as a tonic, as it did seem to settle people’s stomachs, and stimulate them. That’s because original formula Coke’s main ingredient was cocaine, not caffeine, but eventually cocaine became illegal. Caffeine and alcohol are both heavily addictive drugs which have been overly promoted as beverages. Water is not. Water is good for you, where caffeine and alcohol can actually hurt your body and eventually cause long-term health problems leading to great pain and death.
The Coca-Cola Company finally removed cocaine from its product. Perhaps someday, we should follow suit on caffeine and alcohol. But until that day ever comes, we are stuck having to police ourselves and our children. Please do it wisely.
Many of the statistics and facts in this article are from:
1) The Amazing Statistics and Dangers of Soda Pop
http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/10/soda_pop_dangers.htm
By Sally Squires and Dr. Joseph Mercola
2) From Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming America’s Health
The Center for Science in the Public Interest
http://www.cspinet.org/liquidcandy/

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By Karen Peralta

RAINBOW WRITING, INC. -- featuring Karen Peralta, copy editor, ghost writer and book author -- EXPERT FREE DOWNLOAD COMPUTER FIXER PROGRAM! We also offer inexpensive professional freelance and contracted writing, editing, copy editing and writing, rewriting, ghost writing, graphics design and CAD, Internet marketing, publishing assistance, search engine optimization, professional free services and supercheap dedicated web hosting and website development services. http://www.rainbowriting.com/

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Healthy Cakes – How to Adapt Recipes and Enjoy Healthy Cakes

Eating cakes as part of a healthy diet isn't a problem, but it’s virtually impossible unless you make your own cakes. That way, you know exactly what's in them and can enjoy them, knowing there are no unhealthy fats or additives lurking. There's nothing unhealthy about a cake made with wholewheat flour, organic butter, free-range eggs - as long as you don't eat the lot at one sitting! The taste and texture will be far superior to anything you can buy at the supermarket.
*Home-made cakes generally contain far less sugar than commercial cakes. Inspect the labels of bought cakes, and you'll find all sorts of food additives that you'd probably rather not eat, especially the spectacularly unhealthy trans fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils, present in many manufactured cakes, which have a proven link to the development of coronary heart disease.
*Home-made cakes are good value for money. Bought cakes are often very meanly sized. A home-made cake usually goes a lot further.
*Be selective about the recipes you use, and go for healthy cake recipes. Save the chocolate fudge cakes, or cakes with thick frostings for special occasions. Look for recipes that use fruit, nuts or carrots. It’s a good way of getting extra fruit and veg into your diet.
*Use good, wholesome ingredients for truly healthy cake recipes. Choose organic when you can for ingredients such as sugar, flour, oats, fruits including candied and dried fruits, milk, eggs, butter.
*Use wholewheat flour instead of some, or all, of the flour in your recipe.
*Beware soft margarines sold specifically for cake making. These are often made with hydrogenated vegetable oils, and will render your lovely home-made cake as unhealthy as a greasy take-away muffin. Softened organic butter works fine in most recipes, or use a soft spread made from healthy olive or sunflower oils.
*Replace some of the sugar in recipes with fruit puree. Use apples, prunes or apricots. Stew in a little water until tender, blend, and use to replace an equal volume of sugar in your recipe.
*You can also replace some of the fat in the same way. Try replacing half the fat and half the sugar in a recipe with pureed apple. It's very successful, and adds moistness and a subtle fruity flavour.
*Cake making is very satisfying, and if you choose simple healthy cake recipes, it's also very quick. Making a large cake takes about 10-15 mins to get the mixture together, plus baking time. Not long, for something that's so much pleasanter to eat, and so much better for you than manufactured cake.
*Cakes made from healthy cake recipes have a habit of disappearing. Before offering them, cut them into squares, or mark them out into slices, depending on the shape.

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By Elizabeth Martyn

This article is by http://www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com
Good Food Matters

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1 Free and Simple Step to Boosting Your Energy

Breathing Exercise Boost Your Energy with the Power of Breath
Taking ten minutes each day to practice deep, cleansing and energising breathing is something that we should all be doing. Not only does it give incredible health benefits, but it is also free!

Deep Breathing and the Lymphatic System
There are many benefits that arise from making deep breathing a part of your daily routine, most of which are due to the fact that deep, cleansing breaths give your lymph system a helping hand in clearing out the toxins from your body.

What is the lymphatic system?
The lymph system is commonly referred to as the body’s sewerage system. It works by acting in harmony with the blood, surrounding every cell in the body and protecting each one by removing dead cells, blood proteins and any other toxins and excreting them from the body. The toxins are then removed from the body through our waste products, mucus, or our skin.
The body is hugely dependent upon the lymph system, to the point whereby if the lymph system was shut down for 24hrs you would die as a result of the trapped toxins and proteins surrounding our cells.
In addition to deep breathing, rebounding can be a further way to stimulate your lymphatic system.
The lymph that is collected around the body drains through two ducts into the blood, which are located at the base of the neck (around the thoracic duct). By breathing we stimulate the flow of the lymph, and through deep breath we can encourage the flow to be both cleansing and powerful. Once we breathe, the duct sends the lymph into our blood flow, then onto the liver where it metabolises and then onto the kidneys where the toxins are filtered.
Deep breathing is so important because, unlike our blood flow, the lymph system does not have a ‘pump’ to push the lymph fluids around our bodies. Rather, the lymph system requires the muscular movement which is created by breathing.
As well as acting as a filter, the lymph system is also able to destroy bacteria, viruses and abnormal cells, such as cancer cells. The lymphatic system also plays a huge role in the effectiveness of our immune system.

The Tony Robbins Breathing Exercise
If you are able to give yourself five to ten minutes each day to practice deep, cleansing ‘power breathing’ then you will definitely reap the rewards. This is one of the best, most effective exercises you can do for free, every day.
The Tony Robbins breathing exercise is mentioned in the excellent book Unlimited Power and basically consists of breathing in the following ratio:

- Breath in for 1 count

- Hold for 4 counts

- Breath out for 2 counts

For example – if you were to breath in for four seconds, then you would hold your breath for sixteen seconds and then breath out for eight.
If you are able to do this ten times, three times a day (morning, evening and before bed) you will notice a huge difference to your energy, your clarity and your ability to ward off illnesses.

____________________________________

By Ross Bridgeford

Energise for Life offer every resource you need to achieve optimal health and energy including free guides, resources, recipes, nutritional supplements, equipment and superfoods.
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Red Meats and a Therapeutic Diet

There are many reasons to not include red meats in a therapeutic diet ranging from slowing down the process of elimination to increasing the chances of colon cancer.
Meat digestion and assimilation uses more of the body’s energy than other foods. This use of energy in a person whose system is weak may well tip the scales into them becoming ill.
If a person is on a detoxifying diet, meat will slow down the process of elimination because it uses a lot more energy than other foods. Meat is known as a suppressing food; in fact a heavy meat eater may not have any elimination whatsoever.
Another effect that increases the suppressing value of meat is the promotion of putrefying and unfriendly bacteria; these are form due to the increase of alkalinity in the gut which meat proteins promote.
If meat proteins reach the colon in an undigested form they will putrefy, the result of this rotting is the release of toxins into the colon and offensive gas. Research has shown that protein in meat cause putrefaction twice as fast as vegetable protein.
Autointoxication happens due to the putrefaction and toxin production. The liver recycles the toxins into the bile instead of eliminating them.
By eating meat the high protein value is counterbalanced by the high fat value of the saturated fats within meat.
The risk of colon cancer increases with a diet high in fat. There are many reasons for this.
A fatty diet increases the secretion of bile salts into the gut, whilst in the gut the bacteria there convert the bile salts in carcinogens which are link to liver and other cancers. A low-fibre meat diet causes constipation which lengthens the contact of toxins against the lining membrane of the colon which increases the risk of cancers.
Fruit and vegetables have protective values against cancer, people who are big meat eaters tend not to eat enough fruit and vegetables which results in there protective values being low. Also when meat is cooked or preserved in a certain way (i.e. barbecued) carcinogens are created.
Meat has iron in it; people with high iron amounts increase their chances of certain forms of cancer such as colorectal and lung cancer. In fact cancer sufferers with high iron amounts actually decrease their survival time which suggests that tumours like an iron-rich environment.
Eating too much meat causes excessive uric acid; this may lead to gallstones, gout, kidney stones, Bright’s disease and rheumatism. This is a major concern in meats which are not of an organic origin. Meat can easily be contaminated by bacteria and also contains toxins such as herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, various hormones, adrenalin, phenolic acid, creatine, creatinine, uric acid, urea, chemicals and parasites. For example a one-pound well done steak contains 4 to 5 micrograms of benzopyrene. This is equivalent to a person smoking 300 cigarettes. Benzopyrene is one of the major cancer causing substances found in tobacco smoke. In Iceland where a lot of smoked fish is eaten and benzopyrene is found in the fish from the smoking, the population suffer from high rates of stomach and intestinal tract cancers.
The meat industry is just that, it is an industry and many of us are not aware that cattle, pigs, chicken and sheep are raised intensively to produce cheap meat quickly. To do this they are raised in a carefully controlled mechanized assembly line environment where they are frequently given antibiotics and other disease fighting medicine. This unnatural way of raising livestock leads to cheap meat but this meat tends to be nutritional deficient and full of chemicals.
Because of the way intensively reared meat is produced it is prone to bacteria and parasites such as salmonella and clostridia (which lead to botulism). If meat is not refrigerated and cooked properly than these bacteria and parasites can lad to major ill health.
To keep meat looking fresh, healthy and pink, food additives are used. Sometimes Nitrates are used which can change to nitrosamines which are highly carcinogenic. Sulphur dioxide and benzoates are other ways of chemical preservation that have been linked to food intolerance in sensitive people. Sulphur dioxide and other forms of inorganic sulfites are collectively known as sulfiting agents. Sulfites have an adverse effect on vitamin B1.
Food colourings and flavouring are also added to meat products to make them more appealing and to enhance flavour; these too can have a negative affect on people who are prone to food intolerances. To enhance the colour in process meats, antioxidants are used in the form of chemicals such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).
The reason for adding food additives, colourings and flavouring to meat is to conceal their inferior quality and extend shelf life. Normally this type of meat is high in fat content and low in nutritional quality. These deficiently in nutrients can cause many different ailments in people.
Antibiotics are used extensively in rearing livestock, low doses of antibiotics causing animals to put weight on faster as well as keeping bacteria diseases in check. Unfortunately these diseases are becoming resilient to the antibiotics and are becoming more prevalent. The antibiotics most given to animals are penicillin, chlortetracycline and tetracycline, these are also used to treat human health problems. It is now becoming evident that the antibiotic resilient bacteria are being pasted onto humans which are causing disease in humans that is resilient to antibiotics.
As highlighted the process of rearing meat, preserving and making it look fresh for market can produce a product which is high in chemicals and toxins and low in nutritional value. The body takes a long time to process and elimination meat. This results in the body becoming in contact with a toxic food product for a long time. A healthy body mostly copes with this but if a body is unhealthy it could lead to major health problems. This is why it is best to keep to a vegetarian diet and to abstain from eating red meat when on a therapeutic diet.
Stewart Hare C.H.Ed Dip NutTh
Bespoke consultations for a healthier natural life

_____________________________________

By Stewart Hare

website: http://www.newbeingnutrition.com Get a free initial nutritional therapy diagnosis now...

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Fortunate Lemon Chicken

A delicious chicken meal for you to prepare at home. The lemon sauce is fresh and tangy and somehow I always end up eating too much :-).
It takes a bit to prepare but is worth the effort. I usually make it once in a while as a special meal for my husband and I.

Fortunate Lemon Chicken

• 4 whole boneless chicken breasts, skin off
• ½ cup cornstarch (corn flour)
• 3 tbls water
• 4 egg yolks - beaten
• salt, pepper
• shallots - chopped

Lemon Sauce

• ½ cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp powdered chicken stock
• 2 tbls cornstarch (corn flour)
• 2 tbls honey
• 2½ tbls brown sugar
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1¾ cups water
  

For the sauce combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until it boils and then thickens.
Cut chicken breast fillets into 3-4 pieces, lay flat and pound slightly.
Place cornstarch in a bowl and slowly add the water and egg yolks. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
Dip chicken pieces into this batter, drain well.
Place a couple pieces of the battered chicken at a time into deep hot oil and fry until lightly browned.
Drain on absorbent paper.
Slice chicken further if required.
Arrange on plates, sprinkle with shallots and spoon over hot lemon sauce.
Enjoy!
Then end the meal with these home-made Chinese Fortune Cookies from http://www.chinese-fortune-cookies.com

____________________________

by: Francis Chang

Webmasters - Please feel free to add this article to your site. Just remember to ensure the links remain live and static back to http://www.chinese-fortune-cookie.com
Everything about Chinese Fortune Cookies. Recipes, Sayings, History and Customs.

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To Fry Or Not To Fry?

Here's a little known factoid - did you know that KFC changed its image by retiring the slogan Kentucky FRIED Chicken. Instead, they became known as serving up Kitchen Fresh Chicken. Long are the days of Wesson Oil commercials that proudly encouraged yummy fried chicken for dinner. When was the last time you saw a splatter screen? How about a Fry Daddy? It must be a pretty big sin to eat fried foods these days. Or is it?
Look at the menu at Long John Silvers; nothing but fried foods. Look at any menu for that matter, deep fried beer battered shrimp, fried clams, french fries, fried potatoes, fried eggs. Outback restaurant has the Blooming Onion, that puppy is soaked in oil. Fried Fried Fried.
So perhaps no one is trying to say that fried foods are good for you, but nations sure are indulging in the grease laden foods, especially Americans. Perhaps this isn’t a good time to bring up the Obesity statistics. But here’s the kicker, "It tastes so good!" Granted, some fried foods are just too greasy, but a majority of them just taste delicious. That’s why loads of indulgers treat themselves to a so many artery-closing delicacies!
First there were the french fries, now there are deep fried dill pickles and deep fried Oreos? How did THAT leap happen? Don’t forget deep fried ice cream and deep fried peaches. Of course what menu isn’t complete without the deep fried mushrooms, deep friend cheese sticks, and deep friend cauliflower? Perhaps if you deep fry vegetables, it’s a little healthier? Is that how it works? Or if you deep fry already fattening nibbles, such as ice cream and Oreos, then it doesn’t really matter because you’re already cheating?
Nevertheless it continues. There’s deep fried strawberries, Snickers, potato salad, zucchini, tofu, cheesecake, rice balls, bananas, corn, shrimp, and even deep fried turkey. Product flyers claim the winged bird is "so much juicier when cooked in a deep fryer!" So we got rid of the little table top Fry Daddy and went for the floor model turkey fryer. Umm, ok.
Then there’s the big decision about what kind of oil to use? Olive, peanut, vegetable, canola, lard, butter, margarine or Valvoline 10-40? Certainly don’t forget to check out your saturated fats against your polyunsaturated fats versus the monounsaturated fats.
Maybe you should say fats. Did we ever decide if fried was a bad word? Perchance the better word is Sautéed. Indeed. Sautéed Oreos - much healthier!

___________________________

by: Eileen Church

Eileen Church is the webmaster for http://www.finechickens.com a wonderful resource on the subject of all things chicken. Be sure to visit http://www.finechickens.com for more information on chicken!

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Bread Baking Made Easy

Don’t you just hate it when you follow a recipe to the letter and when the bread baking is finished the bread not only looks nothing like the recipe book’s picture, but tastes terrible as well?
There is no denying that bread baking as with baking anything is a delicate process.
Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves.
Little do they realize that if they only possessed the professional Baker’s secrets bread baking would be so easy that the bread would practically make itself!
For instance: How many amateur bakers know the secret to keeping bread from sticking to the pan every time?
None! So when they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try to force it out.
Then they cry and give up thinking that the problem lies with them.
The shocking truth is that it doesn’t!
The problem lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker’s bread baking secret.
The secret professional chefs and bakers won’t tell you, the secret they guard so jealously.
My father happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger baking days (which is no surprise since his great great grandfather was a chef for the White House and owned his own bakery) and has passed it on to his children ever since.
Okay, okay, I know you’re probably screaming at me by now “Beth, get on with it! Tell us the bread baking secret already!”
So here it is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply CORNMEAL (you shouldn’t need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread).
“Cornmeal?” you ask doubtfully. “YES, cornmeal!”
No, you do not add the cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread baking secret.
What you do is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom of the bread pan.
Now you can safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of it sticking to them.
While your bread is baking instead of sticking to the pan, your bread will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done baking.
You may need to use a butter knife and slide it in between the pan and the bread before turning the pan over and allowing your bread to pop out.
A lot of the time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down.
You will probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not care for the taste of cornmeal.
This bread baking secret will work whether you’re baking a batter bread or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it for both.
Here is another treasured bread baking secret, this one only for batter breads:
On the last ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking.
This will keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on top. You may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on according to how your batter bread usually looks when it is finished.
If it is a very dark brown on top and difficult to slice because the top is so hard, then 20 minutes will work best. But if it is just a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should suffice.
Do not cover the bread at all if it usually comes out golden and soft on top after the baking is completed.
You may also glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked coconut or sliced nuts on top of that.
To glaze you start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes before the required baking time is finished, then spread the butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes.
Here is another useful bread baking tip for rising breads...
If your bread loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top.
You may then use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls.
Rise them for another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Do yourself a favor and put these tried and tested bread baking secrets immediately to use in your kitchen, and your family will rave over the results.

________________________________

by: Beth Scott

Beth Scott teaches bread baking how-to’s so simply that with her new eBook ANYONE can bake their own bread. Visit her website now at: http://breadmaking.apt-products.com
Or subscribe to her FREE Healthy Baking Tips & Recipes Newsletter at: http://www.APT-Publishing.org/Breadmaking/opt-in/index.html

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Diabetes and Depression: Can Hypnosis Help?

Discussed in this article:

1) The Quiet Crisis Within Diabetes.

2) A Hidden Danger of Diabetes.

3) Are Physicians Aware Of This Danger?

4) Does Depression Cause Diabetes?

5) The Formation of Depression Post-Hypnotic Suggestions.

6) Summary

5) Next Issue Highlights.
The Quiet Crisis Within Diabetes
Depression is a 'quiet crisis' facing diabetics, their families and their health care providers. Financially and emotionally this crisis is exacting a terrible cost.
The purpose of this and following articles is to share important information about depression and how a hypnotist can responsibly and effectively help a diabetic with depression. This assistance will help to improve a diabetic's life by (a) reducing the suffering from this painful state of mind and being and (b) thus enhance their diabetes management skills which will therefore result in a state of enhanced health.
Bear in mind the importance of your contribution as a hypnotist. You can make an incredible difference because even a small reduction in a diabetic's long term blood sugar levels can result in a marked decrease in the likelihood of diabetic complications.
A Hidden Danger of Diabetes
A largely unknown hence, hidden danger of diabetes is that diabetics have twice the risk of non-diabetics for becoming depressed. Dr. Richard Surwit of Duke University states that: "Diabetes more than doubles the odds of suffering from depression at some point. One third of people with diabetes have been diagnosed with significant depression and 11 percent with major depression--twice the rate in the non-diabetic population (1)."
What is obvious and yet, not really obvious about the preceding statement is that being diagnosed with a major disease is traumatic. This, in and of itself, can lead to depression--never mind all the other contributing factors that are related to diabetes and depression.
For example, a contributing factor to depression in a diabetic can be their physiological state. As noted by Dr. Surwit, there is research indicating that high blood sugars cause biochemical changes in the brain that can lead to depression. (2)
Are Physician's Aware Of This Danger?
Physicians by and large, are extremely busy and the demands on them are greater than most can imagine. It is no wonder that many of them are simply not aware that their diabetic clients are two times more likely to suffer from depression. If they knew this, they would probably be more likely to refer their diabetic clients with poor blood sugar control to someone who could help.
When appropriate, a hypnotist can help in key ways because a hypnotist is trained to be a motivational coach and stress management consultant. One way a trained hypnotist can help a depressed person with diabetes will be explained later in this article. But first, let's look at an important question.
Does Depression Cause Diabetes?
This is an important question for many reasons. Probably one of the more compelling reasons to deeply consider this idea is because, if true to some degree, then it begs this question: Wouldn't the validity of this concept make the majority of treatment efforts inappropriate and/or ineffective to some degree? Consider the plight of many frustrated nurses and doctors who will attest that no matter what they do for their patients, nothing seems to work.
This statement is not meant to denigrate in any way the efforts of so many. It is meant to highlight the importance of timely consideration of the depression-diabetes connection before the cost for all concerned becomes not only debilitating, but also tragically unnecessary.
Consider this: Evidence, that will be discussed shortly, shows there is a strong connection between depression and diabetes. This is important because, unless diabetes treatment programs are sculpted to target a largely unaddressed cause and exacerbating feature of diabetes, many of those at risk will only become worse. Those at risk include person's with pre-diabetes as well as those with diabetes.
This pragmatic approach also prompts one to think about the idea that perhaps with re-targeted treatment methods, many of those with diabetes may actually experience a remission of symptoms. And, dwell on the idea of how many may be able to avoid developing diabetes.
Bear with me a moment while I explain. Untreated depression in those with diabetes is a personal tragedy for all family members but most especially children. I state this because children have no coping skills to handle the emotional burden of a depressed and diabetic parent.
Imagine being a child helplessly watching your mother (as in my case) being slowly, inexorably, taken apart emotionally and physically by the deadly combination of poorly controlled diabetes and untreated depression.
It is because of this searing pain that I am driven to reach whomever I can with my Diabetes Motivational Coaching TM training so that perhaps some little boy somewhere doesn't have to watch his mother go blind emotionally and physically.
I realize this may sound disingenuous or dramatic to some and I understand but I make no apologies because it is true. In fact, my feelings go far deeper than what I have communicated here. You see, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and now that hypnosis has helped me to put my life on a previously undreamed of healthy course, my motivation is intensified because I think so many times: "What if my mother had been able to have access to these methods? How much better would her life be now?"
Now, to tie all this in to my point that perhaps an innovative approach can actually prevent diabetes: The challenge with current diabetic treatments is that no amount of chemical management (including anti-depressants as well as insulin, etc.) will ever ameliorate this significant cause of diabetes. (Depression) This is because these treatments do not address the root of the problem. Furthermore, no amount of medication given to one individual will ever prevent another from developing diabetes.
The last point seems odd until you consider a landmark Swedish study (3) in which it was discovered that there is a disturbingly high correlation between traumatic childhood life events (4) and diabetes-related auto-immune activity. This study involved 17,000 children born between 1997 and 1999. One of many conclusions in this study is that: "Experiences of serious life events (e.g., parental separation, serious illness, or death in the family) has been suggested to trigger type 1 diabetes(5) or the auto-immune process behind the disease.(6)"
An additional interesting point to take away from the preceding considerations is that current treatment programs treat one person. Limited efficacy and high cost. However, if a patient were to receive Diabetes Motivational Coaching TM then more than one person can receive the positive benefits because a healthier, non-depressed diabetic parent is less likely to have a precipitating influence on their child. Two for the price of one. A win-win situation from so many angles. Obviously more study is required but the premise is intriguing and the evidence it is based on is reasonably sound.
Another win-win benefit of appropriate, innovative treatment is that the exacerbating (and ultimately very costly) effects of depression on those with diabetes can likely be reduced or eliminated.
So, what can a properly trained hypnotist do? One key way a properly trained hypnotist can help is to reduce or eliminate depression in an individual (diabetic or not) by helping them to eliminate depression activating post-hypnotic suggestions.
The Formation of Depression Activating Post-Hypnotic Suggestions A post-hypnotic response is a cause-effect belief program that powerfully dictates behavior. Another way to look at this is that when a specific stimulus becomes uniquely associated with a strong internal state, you have a post-hypnotic suggestion and effect. (stimulus/response)
For example, the physical lethargy and mental apathy that accompanies very high (or low) blood sugars can be a contributing factor to inappropriate cause-effect belief formation. To illustrate, let me share with this case: Shortly before I was diagnosed with diabetes, my cognitive functions were significantly reduced and my affect was severely depressed.
In layman's terms this means I felt like garbage due primarily to out of control blood sugar levels that were causing me to lose my vision as well as feel awful. (What is interesting to note is that diabetes and its attendant emotional/physical affects can go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years.)
Now, when a person has a strong emotional feeling, that affect state can then become associated with whatever situation and/or thoughts they are currently experiencing. I.E., uncontrolled diabetic consequences coupling with a relationship break-up, a job loss or any other stressful situation. These are common events but note that even a small, insignificant incident can also be implicated. This confluence of events is called an I.S.E. or Initial Sensitizing Event. (Please note that, as in the case of many phobias, some initial sensitizing events can have a profound post-hypnotic impact after only one learning event.)
The next stage in deepening the power of this erroneous belief programming occurs when a person is next exposed to the same stimuli that were initially associated with a powerful, negative state of mind.
The result? Generally, with enough repetition and enough time, feelings can become facts cognitively and physically. And then, a pseudo-depression cycle is perpetuated.
As a quick illustration imagine a large spider near your foot. Now, if you are a person who becomes upset when big, hairy spiders with lots of eyes and big fangs are near you, then your body will respond to some degree.
Now, imagine being unconsciously reminded (triggered or post-hypnotically influenced) to thinking and therefore feeling, many times a day that there is a nasty spider about to crawl up your leg. Ultimately, this could become a panic disorder that can even attach itself to unrelated objects and/or events. In fact, this is not uncommon.
Hopefully, this example will help to illustrate why I call it pseudo-depression. I do this because the belief syllogism is: "I feel depressed (like garbage) therefore there must be reasons."
And, when feelings happen, a person must make sense out of their world. So, they justify this unconscious, powerful, emotional experience with a conscious understanding that usually takes the form of inappropriate cause-effect associations. I.E., "I am feeling depressed because of my job--spouse--life--" or whatever seemingly reasonable explanation is available.
In other words, one's feelings of depression can be in part or whole, built on erroneous beliefs or, post-hypnotic suggestions. Therefore, all a depressed person may need are the tools and coaching in order to be able to disable erroneous cause-effect belief programs.
To finalize this point, please consider a quote from Breaking The Patterns of Depression, by Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D.: "For most people, depression is the product of a hurtful way of interpreting and responding to life experiences."
Summary
In this article I have attempted to share information that will raise awareness on a number of different levels. If you are a person with diabetes and you are hitting a 'wall', consult with your physician to discover whether or not you have depression.
If you are a nurse or physician and you have patients who don't seem to want to take care of themselves, then perhaps there are hidden forces at work. And, there are alternatives that you may not have been aware of before now.
If you are a hypnotist and you wish to help those with diabetes, please remember four things:
1) You must always obtain a fully informed referral from your client's doctor. If you suspect your client is depressed, never diagnose. In fact, if you think they are depressed, it is incumbent upon you that you suggest they see their physician for an official assessment before you can help them further. Be sure to obtain an additional referral so that you can help them appropriately with their depression if your help is suitable. If you feel you cannot help, don't.
2) Should a physician or nurse, have time to chat with you, please remind them that if you are only allowed one approach to helping their patient, stress management alone can produce incredible blood sugar lowering benefits over time. This is attested to by an article in a January, 2002 issue of Diabetes Care in which a study done by Dr. Surwit shows that: "stress management techniques, when added to standard care, helped reduce glucose levels”. Surwit notes also that: "The change is nearly as large as you would expect to see from some diabetes-control drugs”.
3) By acting in a responsible manner as part of your client's health care team, you can in your way, make a big difference, even if only by reducing stress. Please note that stress is a contributing factor to depression. Therefore, as your client is reducing their stress levels they may also experience a reduction in depression. This will in turn create a need for your client to reduce their diabetic medication needs . This is because there is evidence that a reduction in depressive symptoms correlates with a reduction in blood sugar. This was demonstrated in a study conducted by Patrick Lustman, a psychologist at Washington State University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
4) Finally, before helping a person with diabetes or depression, you really need to know a great deal about both subjects.
In the next article, we will discuss several things:
1) More Ways A Hypnotist Can Responsibly Help.

2) When A Hypnotist Should Never Help.

3) The Depression-Diabetes-Pain Connection.

4) Additional Interesting Ideas and Studies.
Thank you for reading this article. It is greatly appreciated and I welcome comments.
Warm Regards,
Devin Hastings
REFERENCES AND AUTHOR INFORMATION BELOW
1. The Mind/Body Diabetes Revolution, Richard S. Surwit, Ph.D. Page 43
2. Ibid. Page 44
3. Psychological Stress May Induce Diabetes-Related Autoimmunity in Infancy --Anneli Sepa, PhD; Jeanette Wahlberg, MD; Outi Vaarala, MD, PHD; Ann Frodi, PhD; Johnny Ludvigsson, MD, PHD
4. Ed. Note: It is fascinating to note that in 1684, English physician and anatomist, Thomas Willis wrote that diabetes was the result of "sadness, or long sorrow." Apparently like DaVinci, he was ahead of his time.
5. Hägglöf B, Blom L, Dahlquist G, Lönnberg G, Sahlin B: The Swedish childhood diabetes study: indications of severe psychological stress as a risk factor for type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in childhood. Diabetologia 34:579-583, 1991
6. Thernlund GM, Dahlquist G, Hansson K, Ivarsson SA, Ludvigsson J, Sjöblad S, Hägglöf B: Psychological stress and the onset of IDDM in children. Diabetes Care 18:1323-1329, 1995

________________________________

By Devin Hastings

Devin Hastings is the owner of MindBody Hypnosis and the founder of the Diabetes Research Association of America.
Devin was going blind from diabetes in 1992. He has since regained 20/20 vision using hypnosis and other mind/body methods.
To learn more please visit either: http://www.MBH4U.com or http://www.draa.NET

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Nutrition and the Fats Myth

Looking at your belly you probably might have felt that the real enemy is the fat. Nope, there are two kinds of fats, the unsaturated fats and the saturated . It’s the saturated fat that is the real enemy and that we don’t want.
We do not want the unwanted fat but we keep eating it. Want a definition of insanity, Keep doing the same things and you keep getting the same results.
Instead of blaming the fats, the food lets look at our eating habits. A great body does not come with that new book, that new training program and they will not teach you anything new. You know it all. You know that you got to diet and exercise and have a calorie cut down especially fats to look and feel the way we do. That’s what that lucratively pitched sales letter of that new book or training program tells us. They say finally the 100% guaranteed method and all that. But we should remember that the simple formula of health and fitness success. Its this--Diet and exercise not for a day or week but week after week consistently is the only way to achieve that great and fit body. Period. Case closed.
Lowering your fat consumption is the way to go not only for the look of it but also for the health of it.
Fats do a lot of things in our body, which we cannot without fats. Most importantly of all fats provide energy. When body runs out of carbohydrates it turns to fat for energy.
There are different types of fats. Triglycerides, Phospholipids and cholesterol, which may be further, low density {LDL} Or High density {HDL}.
The recommended guidelines is that the total fat intake should not exceed 25% and make sure most of it comes from poly unsaturated fatty acids.
That’s the way to go.

_________________________

By Abdul Matynne

http://www.nutritioninfopage.com

http://www.homegymsforyou.com

http://www.exercise-equipments101.com

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Weight Loss with Hoodia Gordonii

Hoodia gordonii is a natural succulent plant that looks like a cactus. It grows in the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. It is said that the bushmen used to eat hoodia gorodnii stem to curb their hunger and thirst during their nomadic hunting trips. Hoodia gordonii is believed to contain the natural appetite suppressant property. Some studies have reported its hunger suppressant effect.

Why Hoodia gordonii supresses the hunger?

Hoodia gordonii contains steroidal glycosides that affects nerve cells in hypothalamus in the brain. The brain thinks that there is no need to eat any more as there is enough sugar in the blood and disables the hunger mechanism. The overall effect of this is to reduce the appetite.

An Example:
An average adult needs about 2200 calories per day. To burn 1 pound (2.2 kg) of body fat, you need to burn 3500 calories. This number of calories can be burnt by doing exercise or by consuming less calories (due to lower appetite) over a period of say 1 week. Then in one week you will lose 1 pound of body fat.
Copyright 2005 P. Mehta, www.FatFreeKitchen.com
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By P. Mehta

This article has been written by http://www.fatfreekitchen.com
Visit the web site http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/weightloss/hoodia-gordonii.html, Hoodia gordonii weight loss, and weight loss for more information.

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Many Health Benefits of Green Tea

As you may know, the benefits of green tea are abundant and far-reaching. Green tea is used by many to lose weight, improve cardiovascular condition, or simply as a preventative health measure. Bottom line, studies show that those who drink green tea enjoy a longer, healthier life.

The general benefits of green tea may include:

• Lowers total cholesterol and LDL (bad)-cholesterol levels
• Increases HDL (good)-cholesterol levels
• Reduces blood pressure
• Lowers blood sugar
• Acts as "blood thinner"
• Reduces the risk of cancer
• Reduces the risk of heart attack
• Decreases the risk of stroke
• Decrease the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis
• Protects against Parkinson's disease
• Enhances immune function
• Acts as an antibacterial and antiviral agent
• Helps burn extra calories
• Prevents dental cavities and gum disease
• Builds stronger bones
• Boosts longevity
  

Green Tea - Increase Metabolism Naturally
A University of Geneva medical study showed that over a 24-hour period, green tea extract increases the metabolic rate by 4%. This increase in fat oxidation was higher than in subjects who used a placebo or caffeine. In addition, this stimulation of thermogenesis and fat oxidation by the green tea extract was not accompanied by an increase in heart rate. Thus, green tea extract has a distinct advantage over stimulant diet drugs, which can have adverse cardiovascular effects, especially for obese individuals with hypertension and other cardiovascular complications. The Green Tea 300 Weight Loss System provides a safe way to burn fat for healthy weight loss.
Green Tea - Suppress Appetite Safely
Scientists at the University of Chicago have found that green tea caused rats to lose up to 21 percent of their body weight. Rats injected with a green tea extract lost their appetites and consumed up to 60 percent less food after seven days of daily injections. The lead scientist on the study explained that a person would have to drink green tea almost constantly to obtain these results. Thus, the Green Tea 300 Weight Loss System was designed to provide the constant supply of high potency green tea needed to achieve these weight loss results.
Green Tea and Polyphenols
Green Tea is the #1 source of polyphenols, chemical compounds found in fruits and vegetables. These extremely high levels of polyphenols deliver green tea's unique results in several ways. Just one example is a subgroup of polyphenols, exclusive to green tea, called catechins. EGCG, the most abundant and powerful of green tea's 5 main catechins, is dubbed the 'super antioxidant' because it is 200 times more powerful than the popular antioxidant vitamin E. This super antioxidant eliminates free radicals, the unstable molecules in the body that are the major cause of both aging and disease, which are continually attacking the body. Unfortunately, polyphenols have a quick life span (short half life) of about 3 hours, thus the scientific reason behind researchers' recommendation to drink green tea a minimum of 8 times a day.
So try green tea today to take advantage of what many people have already discovered and live a happier healthier life.

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By Gerald Meyer

More information on the benefits of green tea can be found at http://www.natural-weight-loss-programs.com/greentea.htm. Free trials of green tea patches and instant beverages are available while supplies last. Find out the benefit of green tea for yourself today. And, learn more about the new superfood – the amazon super berry – acai. Acai may be the most nutritious and powerful food in the world. MonaVie is the next generation of health food.

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You Are What You Eat

Have you noticed how many diet and nutrition books there are in the bookshops these days?
It seems that the areas of weight control and nutrition are amongst the most popular of all reading materials, with many well-known stores stocking no fewer than 80 different dietary plans espousing the various virtues of high fat vs low fat, high protein vs low protein and high carb vs low carb. There quite simply has never been a time in history when so much information has been made readily available to us in the fields of human nutrition and biochemistry. As fitness professionals we should be jumping for joy!
Yet, before we pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for a job well done we would do well consider the fruits of our collective labour.
Despite (or perhaps because of) our increasing knowledge of the chemical qualities of foods, it is a sad fact that there are currently more clinically and morbidly obese people on the planet than at any other point in history, with statisticians from many first world countries predicting worse yet to come. And it’s not just obesity that’s on the rise; Diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, mental illness and even cancer have reached record levels too, signifying that the human metabolism has finally reached breaking point and can no longer cope with the excessive demands placed upon it.
Clearly, our understanding of nutrition is lacking. It is time to examine the wisdom of our current nutritional strategies and change our paradigms regarding the dietary advice we give our clients.
The Problem
As fitness professionals we are often called upon to make judgements about the quality and quantity of food that our clients eat in order to maintain and improve their health. Armed with our nutritional advisor certifications and a little extra reading we often find ourselves advising our clients about the foods that they should or should not eat, classifying some foods like fruit and vegetables as ‘good’ whilst we advise that red meats and saturated fats are ‘bad’ and should be avoided at all costs.
These generalisations allow fitness professionals to offer non-prescriptive advice to the masses, for what is generally regarded as ‘healthy eating’ or a ‘balanced diet’. The advice we give our clients has become so accepted as fact that rarely, if ever, do we stop to question the efficacy of this advice, the wisdom behind it and the effect it will have on those that follow it. Rarer yet do we ask the most important question of all;
Good or bad for whom?
The Case For Biochemical Individuality
When Lucretius first said ‘One man’s food is another man’s poison’ he hit the nail right on the head as far our individual nutritional requirements are concerned.
Indeed, the ancient Romans of Lucretius’ time, the ancient Greeks of Hippocrates era and the ancient practitioners of Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine were very well-studied in human health and were fully aware of food’s amazing power to heal and revitalise as well as it’s potentially destructive properties. Yet, far from the prescriptive ‘one size fits all’ approach offered by modern nutritional experts, these healers of yesteryear recognised that the healing powers lay not in the food itself but more specifically, how that food interacted with the individual.
In more recent times, researchers like Dr Weston A. Price and Dr Royal Lee have noted from their observations of the indigenous cultures from around the globe, that macro and micro nutrient intake varies greatly from region to region without impairment to the health and well-being of those that survive on their own native diets.
For example, the Inuit Eskimo’s of Northern Alaska subsist almost exclusively on seal and whale meat and fat with kelp, nuts and berries forming the remainder. This diet, high in saturated fats and protein breaks every ‘rule’ of modern western diets yet the Inuit people living on it lead healthy, vital lives and are virtually disease-free. Similarly, yet at the other end of the nutritional spectrum, are the Quetchus Indians of South America who live on predominantly vegetarian diets and yet are still afforded the same benefits of disease-free good health.
It is interesting to note that in each of these cases, that the indigenous peoples surviving on very different and even what would be considered extreme dietary variations are able to maintain a level of health and wellness that is virtually unheard of in western society and yet, when introduced to foods not native to their own geographic regions they exhibit the same illnesses and diseases that are now so rife in the industrialised world.
Quick to pick up on this fact was Dr Roger Willams Ph.D an outstanding biochemist who noted that just as we all have unique fingerprints, iris patterns and external physical characteristics, so too do our internal environments exhibit a distinct individuality also. In fact, Williams discovered that on every level from organ size and shape, to acid/alkaline balance to endocrine system dominance we are each individually unique with unique responses to each and every stimulus that is presented to us…including food.
It would seem that Lucretius was right all along!
Metabolic Typing – Identifying the biochemical types
Our modern knowledge of biochemical identification owes a lot to the work of three men in particular, Dr William Kelly, Dr George Watson and William Wolcott. These men, through extensive research and more than a little trial and error, spent years identifying and recording the characteristics of foods and their interactions with human biochemistry. This accumulated knowledge has resulted in the science that we now call metabolic typing.
Far from the trial and error that it once was, metabolic typing has developed into a science founded on strict principles that allow practitioners to identify specific biochemical interactions that are of benefit or hindrance to each individual. In particular, metabolic typing advisors are trained to identify and understand nine separate systems that are responsible for maintaining biochemical homeostasis.
These are:
• The oxidative system – The rate at which fuels are oxidised after consumption. For example, fast oxidisers will use up glucose rapidly and run out of available energy for maintenance and repair. These individuals will require diets that are higher in fat and protein, providing a ‘slow-burn’ of fuel. Slow oxidisers on the other hand will not be able to get their energy from fat and protein fast enough and will require greater carbohydrates in their diets in order to remain balanced.
• The Autonomic Nervous System – The ANS controls all ‘automatic’ bodily functions such as heart rate, respiration and digestion. Divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, the ANS can provide either an excitatory stimulus ‘fight or flight’ or an inhibitory one ‘rest and digest’. We are usually more dominant in one of these areas than the other and can have our balance thrown out further still by ingesting foods that stimulate either branch.
• Catabolic/Anabolic balance – The human body regularly fluctuates between anabolic and catabolic cycles as part of its natural diphasic rhythm. Often though, as a result of a stress that the body cannot cope with it becomes locked into one cycle with energy system disruption occurring as a result. In response to this disruption the cell membrane will either increase or decrease in permeability making nutrient provision and retention difficult.
• Acid/Alkaline Balance – George Watson’s excellent book ‘Nutrition and your mind’ highlighted the importance of acid/alkaline balance in treating psychological disorders without drugs. Specifically, he noted that rather than the acid/alkaline qualities of the foods consumed it was their interaction with the biochemistry of the individual that determined their effects. Imbalances here will often cause respiratory and renal stress to increase.
• Endocrine type – Research has found that we are each dominated by one of our four endocrine glands. For some it will be adrenal or thyroid whilst for others it may be pituitary or gonads. These glands determine how much excess weight may accumulate on the body. In addition, it is known that specific foods can stimulate specific glands into over or under-production and create unnecessary weight retention.
• Prostaglandin Balance – Prostaglandins are made from fatty acids and are involved in virtually every metabolic activity. Disruption to prostaglandin balance can affect hormone production, neurotransmission, immune efficiency, circulation and inflammatory processes as well as others. It is vital to regain balance of PG1 through the reduction of trans-fatty acids (PG2 –vegetable oils) and the correct ratio of PG1(omega6) to PG3 (Omega 3).
• Blood Type – In Dr Peter J. D’amo’s book ‘Eat Right for your type’ he introduces the concept of blood-group biased diets that identify our nutritional requirements based upon our ancestral genetic biochemistry. Metabolic typing recognises this as a contributory factor to biochemical balance yet due to global migration and inter-racial breeding across the last few generations this is seen as less important. However, blood typing gives us a good idea about foods that you should avoid.
• Constitutional Type – Probably the least ‘proven’ yet still highly effective area of metabolic typing relates to your constitutional type. Based upon ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine this relates to the elements wood, fire, earth, metal and water and how they present within the individual foods and the individuals themselves.
• Electrolyte/fluid balance – When the body fluids become imbalanced or depleted the ability to transport vital nutrients is also seriously affected. In the case of dehydration for example, fluids become more concentrate and ‘sluggish’ affecting the delivery of nutrients to where they are needed. This can alter endocrine response, acid/alkaline balance and create further negative consequences ‘downstream’.
The resulting information from a metabolic typing assessment will lead the advisor to steer their clients to one of three primary dietary protocols:
The carbohydrate type, for example is instructed to eat from carbohydrate rich food groups with plenty of starch and moderate glycemic index values. Although encouraged to eat proteins at every meal their quantity will be low-moderate and ALWAYS of the lower purine, leaner types.
Protein dominant type on the other hand is encouraged to eat diets high in fat, high in protein from heavier, darker meats and lower in carbohydrates.
Mixed types as you may well guess are allowed to eat from both ends of the spectrum.
Far from these three base types however, are myriad permutations allowing for individual factors to be addressed in relation to specific foods and macronutrients ratios. It is this flexibility and adaptability to individual needs that makes metabolic typing such a powerful tool in the arsenal of the health and fitness professional.
In short, metabolic typing is NOT about addressing the effects of ill health such as obesity, hypertension and heart disease, rather it focuses on the simple premise that “…the quality of every activity in the body, whether it be physiological, psychological or biochemical in nature, depends on the rate, quality and amount of energy available”. In other words it addresses the root cause of our clients’ health problems and focuses on building health rather than tackling disease.
The question that we should be asking ourselves then is this; ‘if the cause of ill health no longer exists, how can there possibly be an effect?’
I think you know the answer to that one!

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By Dax Moy

Dax Moy is a master personal trainer, performance enhancement specialist and wellness consultant working from his own studios in and around London.
As an International Lecturer and journalist and voted as one of the UK’s top fitness experts, Dax is much sought after for his knowledge in the fields of holistic health and fitness.
For a FREE subscription to Dax's newsletter THE POWER PRINCIPLES visit http://www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk or email Daxmoypts@aol.com for more advice about health strategies that work.

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Can a Fad Diet Ever Be Useful?

What is a fad diet? Walking the less resistant way seems to be a part of our nature. Of course most over-weight people want to get rid of their excessive pounds yesterday, if possible. Many more or less serious weight loss e-diet or online diet makers know this and try to take advantage of a person's various diet needs. The weight loss diet industry is so big and competitive that dietary sensations can seem necessary to stand out from the crowd. This is what we call fad diets.
Fad-diets often promise to bring instant weight loss. Most fad-diets are not diets for life. They are normally short time diets, not balanced at all and are not designed for obtaining a sustainable weight loss. What a crash diet might do for you however, is get you started with your dieting. A fad crash diet might be the flying start of the weight loss proccess that you need. If you only use fad diets as starters, like a catapult for changing your eating and exercise habits permanently, it shouldn't do you any harm. If you decide to start up a fad or any diet for that matter always consult your physician first. I take no responsibility whatsoever for any health damages it may cause you.
Don't over-exert yourself whether it be exercise, working and other things that may require an effort.This might be too stressful on your system even if you're feeling fine during the diet. If you get an acute attack of hunger during the dieting, drink a glass or two of water. It will fill up your stomach and remove the worst hunger feeling. Another tip is to suck on ice when you're dieting.
If you haven't yet built up your will power, stay away from social activities like going out dining with friends, birthday or wedding parties with lots of food and alcohol when dieting. Since the duration of most fad diets are very short, it should be possible to avoid such situations. Try to limit the period of dieting to maximum 7 days at a time. Most of these fad diets are not meant to be kept for longer periods of time. Non balanced diets will not supply you with the nutrition your body need to function normally.
When the diet period is over, don't run to the closest MacDonald and eat 3 Big Macs with triple servings of french fries and a gallon of Coke or sit in front of your TV eating Pizza and Beer. Celebrate the end of your dieting, but not with food.
Now you can start up with a balanced diet. This crash diet hopefully gives you a flying start of a sustainable and healthy weight reduction.

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By Terje Ellingsen

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet marketer. He runs the website 11-Weight-Loss.net. Terje enjoys to give advice and help people with fad diets for fast weight loss like negative calorie food as a starter for severe over-weight people.

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