Nutritional Aspects of Healthy Weight Loss (Part 3)

Micronutrients
Because of the nutritional deficiencies in the soil due to modern farming techniques and the presence of toxins, chemicals, additives, and preservatives, the need for micro nutritional supplementation is very important in our diet.
Micronutrients are found within the macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber) of whole foods and include such substances as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants.
The depletion of vitamins and minerals in our soils today makes it necessary to supplement your diet with the core vitamins and minerals you need for a healthy lifestyle. For example, you would need to eat 75 bowls of spinach to get the amount of iron found in one bowl of spinach in 1935. Obviously eating 75 bowls of spinach is impractical, not to mention nearly impossible. The alternative is to take a supplement that would provide you with the necessary amount of iron.
The vitamins and minerals you take need to be high quality. That is, they need to be pharmaceutical grade and have no colors, bonders, fillers, dyes, sugars, or flavors. A review of the benefits, dietary sources, and symptoms of deficiency for each of the specific healthy weight loss micronutrient essentials is provided for your review. A comprehensive list of other essential vitamins and minerals will be provided in the food and recipe booklet.

Vitamin A (Retinol)

• Functions
• Rebuilding of body tissues.
• Formation of teeth and bone.
• Retards the onset of senility and prolongs lifespan.
• Important in maintaining good vision, healthy skin, and healthy mucous membranes.
• Necessary for proper immune system function.

Dietary sources

• Found only in foods from animal sources, especially beef, calf, and chicken liver and eggs.
• Dairy products such as milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream.
• Beta-carotene, a nutrient found in fruits and vegetables, can be converted to vitamin A in the body as needed. Symptoms of deficiency
• Frequently tired.
• Susceptible to infection.
• Rough, dry skin.
• Decrease in appetite or sense of smell.
• Night blindness.
  

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

Functions

• Important antioxidant essential for stopping the damage caused by free radicals, which are the major causes of aging and disease.
• Vitamin C is needed for the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of your body.
• Essential in the maintenance of immune function,
• Necessary in the formation of collagen, an important protein used to make skin, scar tissue, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels.
• Assists in wound repair.
• Needed to form and repair cartilage, bones, and teeth.
• Boosts your body's resistance to the common cold and viruses. Dietary sources
• Your body does not store vitamin C so you must consume enough each day to maintain good health.
• Excellent sources include oranges, green peppers, watermelon, papaya, grapefruit, cantaloupe, strawberries, mango, broccoli, tomato juice, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage.
• Vitamin C is also found in raw and cooked leafy greens (turnip greens, spinach), canned and fresh tomatoes, potatoes, winter squash, raspberries, and pineapple. Symptoms of deficiency
• Slow healing wounds and fractures.
• Swollen, painful joints.
• Bleeding gums.
• Nosebleeds.
• Severe deficiency results in clinical scurvy.
  

Vitamin E (Tocopherol)

Functions

• A powerful antioxidant that protects LDL cell membranes from oxidation damage.
• Helps maintain healthy DNA in the interior of cells.
• Important in supporting good cardiovascular health and a strong immune system.
• Required for respiration on the cellular level.
• Helps the lungs function normally and inhibits the clotting of blood. Dietary sources
• Vegetables and seed oils including soybean, safflower, and corn; sunflower seeds; nuts; whole grains; and wheat germ.
• Leafy vegetables also supply an appreciable amount of this nutrient. Symptoms of deficiency
• Larger than normal deposit of fat within the muscles
• Rupturing of red blood cells are symptomatic of a deficiency of vitamin E.
  

Beta Carotene

Functions

• Anti oxidant that is converted by the body only as needed.
• It acts to protect cells from attack by free radicals. Dietary sources
• The richest sources of beta-carotene are yellow, orange and green leafy fruits and vegetables such as carrots, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cantaloupe, and winter squash.
• In general, the greater the intensity of color of the fruit or vegetable, the more beta-carotene it contains. Symptoms of deficiency
• Loss of appetite.
• Susceptibility to colds.
• Dryness of the hair.
• Insomnia
  

Calcium

Functions

• Maintains bone mineral density.
• Critical to nerve conduction, muscle contraction, blood clotting, neural function, cell division, and electrical conduction in the heart.
• Helps regulate blood pressure
• Essential for producing and activating enzymes and hormones that regulate digestion, energy, and fat metabolism. Dietary sources
• Dairy products
• Vegetables Symptoms of deficiency
• Osteoporosis.
• Back and leg pain.
• Uncontrolled, painful muscular contractions.
  

Living Longer, Looking Better Healthy Lifestyle & Weight Loss Program Micronutrient Consumption Recommendations

• Take 1 multivitamin 3 times per day.
• Take an additional 1000 mg vitamin C 2 times per day
• Take an additional 400 IU of vitamin E with breakfast.
• Take an additional calcium supplement 2 times per day.
  

The goal of Micronutrient Supplementation plan is to help you achieve nutritional balance. The benefits of having proper nutritional balance include looking better, feeling better, having more energy, having greater mental clarity, and being less stressed.
This investment in your health will provide you with a higher quality of life and will pay dividends for many years to come.

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By Malton Schexneider
For more information on healthy weight loss programs go to www.livinglongerlookingbetter.com.

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Weight Loss - Why Reducing Calories Is Not The Whole Story

Add the calories up that you take in in your food and drink, subtract the calories you expend in your physical activities, if the answer is a positive number you'll put on weight and if it's a negative number you'll lose weight.
The trouble is, your body doesn't see it like that. If it were that simple, early Man would never have survived from one unpredictable meal to the next. He survived because his body had a mechanism which would store energy when food was plentiful and release it again when it was scarce. His body also had a way of recognizing when energy intake was low, and economizing on its use of fuel. These two mechanisms were his blood sugar/insulin control system and his metabolic rate.
You differ little from early Man in your genetic makeup. Your body still retains the blood sugar/insulin and metabolic rate control system that enabled your ancestor to survive. The problem is, you probably don't eat like your ancestor. Your ancestor never had the carbohydrate-dense, highly refined foods that most of us eat so much of today, such as sugar, flour and all the manufactured products that are made with them. Unfortunately for you, your energy storage system works a little too well. You put on weight easily when you eat these carbohydrate-dense foods, because they send your blood sugar/insulin control system into overdrive. They may still do this, even when the calories you are taking in are not excessive.
Even worse, if you reduce your calorie intake to a level where you have a calorie deficit, you are in danger of triggering the other mechanism -- the slowing of your metabolic rate. This is often called 'starvation mode', but you don't have to be literally starving for your metabolic rate to slow down. And if your metabolic rate slows, your body needs less food to supply your daily energy needs. In other words, the more you diet, the less food you need.
This means that losing weight is very often a precarious balance between reducing food intake and exercising enough to produce a calorie deficit, while eating enough to keep your body from going into 'starvation mode'. And if you are one of the up to sixty per cent of the population which is believed to have a very sensitive blood sugar/insulin control system, then basing your diet on carbohydrates, especially the refined sort, may also hinder your weight loss.
The importance of these survival mechanisms is only now starting to be recognized in the medical world. It is becoming understood that losing weight is not just a simple matter of eating less. There is also mounting concern about very low calorie diets -- the sort that supply less than 500 calories per day -- because of the risk that they will depress your metabolic rate if followed long term. If you are not losing weight on a restricted calorie diet, then these mechanisms may well be at play. These and many other factors which may be preventing your weight loss are explained further in the book "Why Can't I Lose Weight -- The Real Reason Diets Fail And What To Do About It".

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By Jackie Bushell
Jackie Bushell is passionate about raising awareness of the role of diet and nutrition in good health and helping those who are affected by obesity. Via her website at GoodDietGoodHealth.com, she provides information, support, cookbooks, how-to guides and a newsletter for those wishing to understand more about how to improve their health and achieve a healthy weight in a natural way. Amongst the resources she has developed are a low carb/low GI diet cookbook and a book called 'Why Can't I Lose Weight' for those who experience common problems such as not losing weight on their diet or becoming stuck on a 'diet plateau'.

Copyright GoodDietGoodHealth.com 2006

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Two Foods to Avoid If You're Trying to Lose Weight

Everybody is different especially when they go on a weight loss plan. The “diet” that works for one person may not necessarily work for another person. Your genetics or chemical makeup can affect how you lose weight. Some people do very well on calorie-counting diets while others almost seem to gain weight when they go on restrictive eating plans.
But there are two foods that, if you minimize or eliminate them from your diet, you will lose weight, no matter what your physical type.
Processed Carbs
If you think about how bread and pasta (the most popular processed carbs) are made, you will realize how deadly this food is to your body’s healthy weight. It doesn’t matter if they end up on your table as whole grain bread, brown rice or White Wonder Bread, they are processed in the same way and contain the same basic density of calories.
To make bread or pasta, you start with grains that are processed into flour. Each one of those grains has calories so when you have a few ounces of pasta or a slice of bread, you are actually eating concentrated calories in the form of grains. Then your body has to work hard to process it and your metabolism becomes sluggish as a result. Not only that but all those concentrated grains cause your insulin to spike which will also slow your metabolism.
One more reason for grains to be eliminated from our diets is the fact that our bodies were not designed to eat grains. But our ancestors managed to find a way to process them so that we ended up with them in our food supply. Through a complicated process, eating grains allows incompletely digested proteins into our bodies and that can cause problems for your immune system. If grains can cause serious autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s Disease, it’s probably not a good idea to eat it regularly in your diet. (Read The Protein Power Lifeplan written by Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, MD. for more information.)
Dairy
Dairy foods like milk, cheese and yogurt are not a good food to eat if you are trying to lose weight. It doesn’t matter if it’s low fat, it’s still fat. You already have fat on your body that you are trying to lose, why would you eat more?
Plus, milk naturally has sugar in it which means your insulin level goes up whenever you drink it. If you are eating animal protein, your body is getting plenty of fat from those food sources. If you cut back on the fat you are eating, your body will use up the fat your body already has to fill its needs to function and you will end up losing weight.
Don't worry about depriving yourself. Remember that as you cut back on these foods, the goal is to lose weight. Once you lose the weight you want to lose, you can add these foods back in with moderation.

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By Eunice Coughlin
Eunice Coughlin is the founder of http://www.healthy-living-for-moms.com, a resource for moms of all ages and stages who seek spiritual and physical health and wellness. Find out how to lose 5 pounds fast at http://www.healthy-living-for-moms.com/lose_5_pounds_fast.html .

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