December 19, 2011  

Best Diet Tips & Hacks 2011!

diet-hacks

Weight Loss Tips:

Weight Loss Supplements

Fat Burning Tips:

Holiday Weight Tips

Exercise For Weight Loss

April 25, 2011  

The Dukan Diet Plan: Is it for you?

The Dukan Diet is the latest diet craze to hit North America.  The creator of this diet plan, Pierre Dukan, is the most widely read nutritionist in France who’s written 19 books and has 25 years of experience.

The Dukan Diet plan seems to have its roots in paleo diet principles which refers to evolutionary dieting or eating a ‘hunter gatherer’ type of diet.

It also claims to let you lose weight while eating as much food as you like.  Sound too good to be true?

Though there are 4 distinct phases to the Dukan Diet, the first of which focuses on eating high protein foods.

To find out if the Dukan Diet might be for you, see this review of the Dukan Diet Plan.

December 9, 2010  

How to beat the common cold?

During the winter months, one of the most common complaints aside from the cold weather itself is the common cold.  To be certain, the common cold is caused by one of more than 100 different viruses which means that antibiotics are an ineffective treatment option.

In most cases, the common cold is cause by rhinoviruses, but there are others you have to worry about too.  Of course, you want to ensure that you wash your hands regularly and get plenty of rest.  You’ll also want to ensure that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables during the winter months.

Some researchers suspect that one reason for the increase in colds during the winter months is due to a lack of vitamin D.  Vitamin D is produced by your body in response to sunlight which is lacking in the winter, of course.

Herbal and dietary remedies for the common cold:

  1. Echinacea
  2. Siberian Ginseng
  3. American Ginseng
  4. Vitamin D
  5. Vitamin C
  6. Garlic
  7. Zinc
  8. Elderberry extract

For more info on these and other natural cold remedies, follow the link.

December 8, 2010  

Dietary Supplements for Diabetes?

The incidence of diabetes has increased dramatically over the past 20 years.  According to the CDC, the incidence of diagnosed diabetes is now 8.2 per 1000 population which represents roughly a 150% increase from 20 years ago!

One of the major reasons for the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes is the concurrent rise of obesity in what’s been dubbed the “diabesity epidemic.”  As such, maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise program are two of the most important steps to reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Though more research is needed in the area of dietary supplements that lower blood sugar, there is increasing evidence that some supplements actually help with blood sugar control.  There are also some simple dietary interventions such as eating more onions that may also help lower blood sugar.

Dietary Supplements for diabetes:

1.  Do Onions Help Lower Blood Sugar in Diabetics:

They also noted that the sample size in their study was too small to reach concrete conclusions but it seems apparent that Allium cepa or red onion does indeed have glucose lowering properties which may be beneficial to those with diabetes.

2. Does creatine monohydrate improve blood sugar control?

The study authors concluded that creatine supplementation along with routine exercise significantly improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (compared to exercise + placebo).

3.  Cinnamon improves blood sugar control

Both type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure are significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease.  New research suggests that adding cinnamon to your diet (for those with type 2 diabetes) may be effective at helping to lower your blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

4. Eat more dietary fiber to combat the metabolic syndrome?

For those with BMI’s greater than 25, it’s important to consume 30g per day of fiber from dietary sources. This study suggests that in addition, daily consumption of 12 g/day of psyillium will have additional health benefits.

5.  Green Tea and Glucose Tolerance and Diabetes?

  • Green tea may actually have an antidiabetic effect which suggests that people who do have diabetes or are borderline diabetic may want to consider drinking a cup or two of green tea each day.
  • Considering that blood sugar levels rise following a meal, it may be optimal to try drinking green tea either just prior to eating a meal or during a meal–then see if it helps you to control your blood sugar.

6. Blueberries improve insulin resistance

The study authors noted that previous research involving subjects consuming whole blueberries resulted in glucose reductions over time in a preclinical study. Essentially, the study results suggest one more benefit of consuming blueberries themselves.

November 29, 2010  

Fitness Tips and Advice

Though New Year’s is still another month or so away, many of us will start thinking about getting back into shape really soon.  In most cases, that’s going to involve shedding a few pounds–especially those gained during the holiday season.  For others, some might be interested in increasing their muscle size and strength too.

Here’s a list of some useful fitness tips and advice:

  1. Best method for gaining strength:  Auto Progressive Resistance Exercise is being heralded as the latest training method to improve your muscle strength.
  2. Static Contraction Training:  If you’ve hit one of those inevitable exercise plateaus, static contraction training might be the answer for you to improve your strength.
  3. If you’re just lacking in motivation, having an exercise partner can be a great way to keep you motivated.
  4. Top 4 Chest Training Mistakes – This article is a must-read if you regularly perform bench press exercises.  Find out why you’re not getting the proper results.
  5. Muscle Building 101 – Provides all of the basics that you need to plan your training regime.
  6. Tabata Training – If you’ve never heard of tabata training, that’s okay.  Find out now why it’s a great way to help you lose body fat.
  7. Speaking of losing body fat, high intensity interval training or HIIT training is also an excellent method to get that lean sculpted look.
  8. Find out why the reverse grip bench press can be your secret weapon for packing on more chest muscle.
  9. Though not for everyone, particularly if you workout at a commercial gym, weight lifting with chains can be a great way to improve upper body strength.
  10. Now that you’re considering exercising, make sure that you don’t do make some of these common exercise mistakes.

 

November 26, 2010  

10 Healthy Living Tips

For many of us, we’re looking to get fit and stay in shape.  If you fit into that category, here’s a list of 10 healthy living tips to help make that task just a little bit easier.

10 Healthy Lifestyle Tips:

  1. Find out how Extreme Free Running can help get you back into shape without spending time engaging in boring workouts at the gym.
  2. If Extreme Free Running sounds a little too dangerous for you, maybe you’d like to try a safer form of exercise such as Ceroc Dance classes.
  3. If Ceroc Dancing is a little too slow for your lifestyle, you might want to try the more up-beat Zumba Dance Classes instead.
  4. Okay, so maybe you’ve had enough of watching Dancing with the Stars and you’d rather stick to the gym.  If that’s the case, maybe the Ryan Reynolds Workout is more your style.
  5. Though not a humors topic, if you’re young and fit and still have problems …  here’s some major causes of erectile dysfunction in young men.
  6. If you own a cat, your cat could be making you sick.  Find out if you have any of these Toxoplasmosis Symptoms to make sure that you’re okay.
  7. Several people suffer from anxiety symptoms or stress.  You might want to find out if the Slow Cow beverage will work to lower your stress levels.   Slow Cow is known as an anti-energy drink which has the opposite effect of typical energy drinks such as Red Bull.
  8. For those who’re on the wrong side of 50, you might want to read more about how you can shrink your prostate naturally, particularly if you’re already experiencing symptoms of an enlarged prostate.
  9. Speaking of workouts, most people that spend time at the gym are looking to pack on some extra muscle.  Here’s a guide that should help you get bigger muscles faster:  Build Muscles 101.
  10. On the other hand, if you’re looking to shed fat instead, you should try out high-intensity interval training to get that toned look.
November 22, 2010  

Coffee and Your Health?

For those of you who drink coffee regularly, you may be relieved to hear that coffee consumption is not associated with an increased risk of brain tumors.   In fact, researchers at Imperial College in London actually found that coffee consumption was inversely associated with the risk of a specific type of brain tumor, gliomas [1].

CONCLUSIONS: In this large cohort study, we observed an inverse association between total coffee and tea consumption and risk of glioma that was consistent with the findings of a recent study. These findings, if further replicated in other studies, may provide new avenues of research on gliomas.

In other related coffee news, is coffee bad for your health, is an article which covers a review of the effects of coffee consumption on diabetes and cardiovascular risk.

For a more detailed evaluation of the cancer risk associated with coffee consumption, the aforementioned article highlights the associations between common forms of cancer and coffee or tea consumption.

Lastly, coffee extracts have been shown to promote weight loss, though no coffee mannan products are currently available on the market yet.

Reference:

  1. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Nov;92(5):1145-50. Epub 2010 Sep 15.
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