Johan

Johan Oosthuizen is a full-time internet marketer and provides people with guidance on how to better themselves, by showing them how to live a healthier life, make more money and how to improve their relationship with other people

nutrition

Fasting Can Break the Food Cravings Habit

Healthy Nutrition / By

nutritionThe modern custom of eating three meals per day with a regular snack in between differs a lot from the way that ancient peoples lived for thousands of years. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle meant that people were constantly adjusting from feasting to starvation mode as their food supply allowed. For them, it was not an option but that lifestyle has affected processes in our bodies that are helpful for weight loss and for strengthening the immune system.

The health benefits attributed to fasting are numerous including reduced cardiovascular disease, lower risk of cancer, disease resistance, weight loss and recovery from stress. That last one is one of the main reasons that fasting works. Our bodies are designed to repair genes, cells tissues and nerves after stress, which may be physical or emotional anxiety. Frequent intake of food slows down our body’s repair cycle as it works to process the food instead. If the food is nutrient-rich rather than sugar-rich, we still benefit from this. If, however, your lunch was a pizza and you followed it up with a chocolate covered candy bar at 3:00 PM, your body will be too busy producing and fighting the insulin rush to have any time to repair the damage.

 

 

Taking short breaks from food helps your body to use fat as a source of energy, instead of relying on the insulin producing sugars in so many packaged foods. Insulin also stimulates production of hormones in the body that make you feel hungry. Keeping insulin levels low normalizes these hormones. Fasting also stimulates the body to increase human growth hormone production, which is essential for weight loss and to keep you looking younger.

Looking younger, healthier skin and cardiovascular systems occurs because the body gets better control over oxidative stress, which is stimulated by excess glucose. Your brain benefits by this process too. When your body consumes fat, your brain uses the released ketones to support healthy neuron generation. This keeps your brain healthy and reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s and other mental disorders.

A few concerns about overdoing it are worth noting. If you feel strong food cravings at the end of a fasting period, resist the urge to overeat during that first meal. Keep the meal small and loaded with vegetables and healthy sources of proteins and essential fatty acids, like Omega-3 and the cravings will disappear quickly. Some people report that their sleep is disturbed while fasting. Sleep deprivation can lead to a variety of health issues so please slow down on the fasting if you experience this.

Extended fasting periods longer than a day or so can result in a lack of important nutrients that support a healthy body and prevent inflammation. One consequence of being starved for nutrition is that the body will not only turn to fat for energy, it will also break down muscle tissue. Start slow and be prepared to back off at any sign of discomfort.

If you have not been on a calorie-restricting plan or fasting program of any sort before, then the best way to start is to take small steps. Try skipping breakfast one day per week at first and then add another day if you seem to manage that without any problems. Slowly increase the number of days and meals that you skip eating. You may work your way all the way up to alternating entire days of fasting, but don’t rush into this. A good mode to maintain is to skip breakfast several days per week and to keep your eating to within an eight-to-ten-hour timeframe on the fasting days. You will find that the food craving quickly fades away and you don’t need as much food with each meal to feel full.

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Beware of Diet Fads When Trying to Shed Pounds

Self Improvement Articles / By

It might be actresses such as Suzanne Sommers and Jane Fonda, or models such as Christie Brinkley or Kathy Ireland.  It seems that a number of celebrities today offer their own weight loss programs.  The programs are appealing because we see these various svelte celebrities and we want to have bodies just like them.  The celebrities are also highly likable, so we have a predisposition to be accepting of their products.

However, did you ever stop to think whether these celebrities have any nutritional training?  Do they have medical training?  Is the information that they offer nutritionally sound?  Or is it just a good sales pitch?

Nutrition experts Annette B. Natow and Jo-Ann Heslin, authors of the book Get Skinny the Smart Way, say that consumers should be leery of celebrity-inspired diet books.  They point out that such books are often based upon nutritional fiction and that, while the diets outlined in these books may result in short-term weight loss, they can be far from healthy in the long run.  Therefore, you might consider passing up the celebrity diet books and opting for those written by nutritional experts instead.

But celebrities aren’t the only ones preaching fad diets.  For instance, there’s the so-called grapefruit diet which recommends consuming a grapefruit prior to each meal.  Another fad is the cabbage soup diet, which requires you to consume all the cabbage soup you can handle.  Other fads call for eating all the eggs you can…consuming only raw foods…or fasting every other day.  Such diets are not only based on nutritional misinformation—they can also be dangerous.

For instance, let’s take a closer look at the cabbage soup diet.  No major health organization has endorsed it.  Moreover, the American Heart Association disapproves of it, noting that it can actually harm you.  Promoters of this diet say that you can lose as much as 15 pounds a week by following it—what they don’t say is that most of that weight is water weight.   Once you begin eating normally again, you will see your weight rise once more.  Some of the side-effects of the cabbage soup diet include a feeling of weakness, stomach pains, and diarrhea.

Yet another questionable diet approach is what’s known as food combining.  Such a diet assumes that you are overweight because you are not eating the right combination of food.  The requirements of such a diet can seem quite arbitrary.  For instance, you might be told that you can eat a banana only in the morning.  This is rubbish, since your stomach can deal with a variety of different foods at one time.  The idea behind such a diet is to eat food with fewer calories, but there are other methods you can use to accomplish the same goals.

Some companies even claim that you can shed pounds while you dream.  They say that, if you use their product right before bedtime, you will lose weight.  In actuality, no company can make such a claim with any degree of credibility.  It is impossible to burn a large number of calories while snoozing.  In other cases, you may be tempted to try to lose weight by consuming special milkshakes or candy bars.  In essence, these products are just milk and candy with certain vitamins and minerals added.  However, one rarely feels satisfied after consuming these products.  As a result, you may find yourself actually consuming additional calories during the rest of the day.  While you might be able to theoretically lose weight in the short-term, you’ll find it difficult to maintain the weight loss over the long haul.

The fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of money that can be made through the sale and marketing of diet products.  As long as America has a large contingent of overweight people, companies will try to make a profit off of overeating.  It is up to you to be savvy enough to recognize a diet fad when you see it and opt for a different approach to losing weight.  You’ll find that there are really no short-cuts to weight loss.  Any successful diet program takes time, patience, and determination, along with a willingness to change your eating patterns.

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