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Posts Tagged ‘Hormones’

Why cortisol destroys your healthy weight loss diet

January 22nd, 2010

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What you eat and what you do can influence your hormones dramatically. When this happens you can either gain weight or lose weight. Avoid these key areas to make sure you lose weight with your healthy weight loss diet. Don’t take for granted just how powerful hormones like these are in determining your weight loss success.

This one hormone that can cause so many problems is called Cortisol. Excess cortisol will stimulate your appetite and prompt more calories to be stored as fat, so it is very influential in your weight loss plan. These are 2 things you don’t want when trying to follow a healthy weight loss diet. Cortisol also increases protein breakdown within the muscle, which means a slower metabolism and less calories burned. A key to successful weight loss is keeping your metabolism running at a fast rate so that you are always burning calories.

It decreases glucose utilization and increased insulin resistance, which means the glucose or sugars in your body are not used for energy as much as they should be. Instead they float around and eventually get stored as fat. This is strike two against your healthy weight loss diet and healthy eating plans.

One thing that directly increases cortisol is stress. Stress is the culprit in increasing cortisol levels and resistance to insulin and leptin. Stress can come from work issues, family issues, medical problems and even unhealthy foods. Higher cortisol levels come from stress-induced insulin resistance and increased leptin. Well, when you have higher cortisol levels your leptin and insulin resistance get worse. It is a vicious cycle that keeps feeding on itself until you are overweight or obese. Despite all your healthy eating plans and healthy diet plans if stress is dominating your life then your healthy weight loss diet may be for nothing.

Those with extra fat in your belly, a round face, high blood sugars or high blood pressure most likely have elevated cortisol levels. These are tips for how to lower your cortisol levels.

Eat every few hours. When you wait longer than five hours between meals your body may start to release extra cortisol, which then increases your appetite. By eating every few hours not only are you going to keep your cortisol levels low you are going to stimulate other hormones that help you feel full for a longer period of time and reduce that urge to keep eating. Also, eat lean protein at every feeding opportunity to trigger certain hormones that will help you to eat less food and burn more calories.

Of course you need to make sure that you also control your stress as I have discussed how important this is to controlling your cortisol levels. Reduce stressors in your life, set a regular sleeping schedule, and get plenty of exercise to maximize the benefits of your healthy weight loss diet.

Jayson Hunter is a Registered Dietitian with more than 10 years of experience helping people breakthrough and discover a healthier life. Learn more powerful nutrition tips at healthy eating guidelines.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/why-cortisol-destroys-your-healthy-weight-loss-diet-1768404.html

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About Milk For Health in Life

November 3rd, 2009

Most of us have been raised on milk. Not only that, many of us have been raised with the “Basic Four Food Groups” and other dietary guidelines that recommend milk as one or our daily food needs. However, there is much we need to understand about milk and how if affects our bodies, what it does and does not provide, and how today’s dairy milk differs from the milk that used to be found on the farm or in the past.
Let’s first understand that we as humans are mammals. We are the only mammals who drink milk after we are weaned. We are the only mammals who drink milk from another mammal. We are the only mammals who drink pasteurized milk!
Humans and other mammals were created to produce nourishment for their young. That’s how it was meant to be and that’s how it should be. Horses produce milk to feed their young. Sheep produce milk to feed their young. Cows produce milk to feed their young. Humans produce milk to feed their young too. That is nature’s way of starting a baby on the right and proper nourishment. But none of the mammals are meant to produce milk forever. We/they begin to dry up after a year or so. In order to produce more milk, it takes producing another baby. Yes, cows and goats have to be bred on a yearly basis in order to continue to produce milk – it wouldn’t happen any other way. (And by the way, I’m glad I am not a cow having to get pregnant on a yearly basis for my milk production, with my new baby yanked away from me as soon as it arrives!)
Today’s dairies greatly differ from the farm milk cow when I was a child. I remember my father going out and rounding up our milk cow, morning and evening, to milk her. A dairy milk cow today does not need to be rounded up twice daily. They will usually come in voluntarily three or more times a day! Why? Because they are fed hormones as well as their own bi-products to increase milk production and are so engorged that their milk bags often drag, or almost drag, the ground. They come to get milked to find relief. And just as engorgement causes breast infections in humans, it will likewise in cows. They are given good doses of antibiotics and vaccines to “keep them healthy”. If not, there is blood and pus that will show up in the milk. All milk is tested in every dairy before it is taken each time. They will know where the blood and puss level is. Don’t worry though. You won’t be drinking anything but “Grade A” milk from the store. However, any “Grade B” milk (which can have up to 5% blood and pus) will be made into cheese. Rest assured, if your cheeses, sour cream, cream, etc. does not say “Grade A”, then you know it is most likely from “Grade B” milk.
Nut, soy and rice milks have often been discounted in being termed “substitutes” to the real thing. However, it is all in how you look at it. Would you rather be nursing from the utter of a cow to get that milk to pour on your cereal, or would you rather get it from raw nuts, soybeans, rice or other vegetable proteins? These other “milks” do differ in protein, calcium, fat, and nutritional content, but they can be great sources of nutrition.
If we would focus more on these kinds of foods in our diets – leafy greens, whole grains, beans, sprouts, raw nuts and seeds –instead of the meat, milk, fast foods, processed and prepared foods (that are high in calories yet lacking real digestible nutrition) we would not only feel better, but we would look better (having better weight control), and not have to experience all the diseases and disorders that we do as a people. Good sound nutrition from wholesome foods is the real key to better health!

Understanding Milk’s important in life For Health in Life.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/about-milk-for-health-in-life-1414710.html

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You On A Diet The Owners Manual for Waist Management

March 11th, 2009

You On A Diet The Owners Manual for Waist Management




For the first time in our history, scientists are uncovering astounding medical evidence about dieting — and why so many of us struggle with our weight and the size of our waists. Now researchers are unraveling biological secrets about such things as why you crave chocolate or gorge at buffets or store so much fat.

Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, America’s most trusted doctor team and authors of the bestselling YOU series, are now translating this cutting-edge information to help you shave inches off your waist. They’re going to do it by giving you the best weapon against fat: knowledge. By understanding how your body’s fat-storing and fat-burning systems work, you’re going to learn how to crack the code on true and lifelong waist management.

Roizen and Oz will invigorate you with equal parts information, motivation, and change-your-life action to show you how your brain, stomach, hormones, muscles, heart, genetics, and stress levels all interact biologically to determine if your body is the size of a baseball bat or of a baseball stadium. In , Roizen and Oz will redefine what a healthy figure is, then take you through an under-the skin tour of the organs that influence your body’s size and its health. You’ll even be convinced that the key number to fixate on is not your weight, but your waist size, which best indicates the medical risks of storing too much fat.

Because the world has almost as many diet plans as it has e-mail spammers, you’d think that just about all of us would know everything there is to know about dieting, about fat, and about the reasons why our bellies have grown so large. YOU: On a Diet is much more than a diet plan or a series of instructions and guidelines or a faddish berries-only eating plan. It’s a complete manual for waist management. It will show you how to achieve and maintain an ideal and healthy body size by providing a lexicon according to which any weight-loss system can be explained. YOU: On a Diet will serve as the operating system that facilitates future evolution in our dieting software. After you learn about the biology of your body and the biology and psychology of fat, you’ll be given the YOU Diet and YOU Workout. Both are easy to learn, follow, and maintain. Following a two-week rebooting program will help you lose up to two inches from your waist right from the start.

With Roizen and Oz’s signature accessibility, wit, and humor, YOU: On a Diet — The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the food you consume, so that you’ll diet smart, not hard. Welcome to your body on a diet.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Very informative
The book goes into great detail about the body and the effect of food on it. Much more than a “diet” book. It does have a sensible eating plan too.

I liked it so much I got my sister one too.

5 Stars You on a Diet. . . . .
The book is in excellent condition as stated on the internet; it arrived in stated time frame.

Very happy with all

Kathleen Baker

5 Stars A cut above
This is not your typical run of the mill, heard it all before kind of diet book. This book explains in user friendly scientific terms how the body works and it’S humorous approach makes the book entertaining and highly informative at the same time. I’ve read plenty of diet books through the years and this one leaves them all in the dust. Throw all your diet books away and get this one. You won’t be sorry!

2 Stars I’m so disappointed in this book!
I’m really glad that I got this book from the library and didn’t buy it. I really dislike the writing style and presentation — what a disappointment! Dr. Oz is so interesting when he appears on Oprah and this book is nothing like what I would expect from him, it’s just awful. Another reviewer said that they can understand adding some levity to what might otherwise be very dry content, but in EVERY paragraph! I agree. The constant quips become very distracting!! Here are some examples of what you’ll read a LOT of…(pg. 78) “They say that a woman thinks with her heart, and a man thinks with his personal periscope, but when it comes to sheer anatomy, the organ closest to your brain isn’t the one that flutters over a midnight serenade or the one that tingles over a lingerie catalog. It’s the one that coils through your gut like a sleeping python.” (Pg. 129) “So, while you may think that spinning class or Bikram yoga is the primary pathway to frying fat, physical activity is only a fraction of it. You burn most of your calories by keeping your heart pumping, your brain remembering your spouse’s birthday, and your liver disposing of last night’s vodka concoction.” (pg. 130) “Sure, we all know that raging hormones can make a teenage boy become sex obsessed or give a menopausal woman hot flashes so bad she feels as though she’s in Death Valley in August. But you may not know that your hormones have a lot to do with whether or not you’re going to look good in a Speedo.” What on Earth is that all about? Perhaps I prefer a more straightforward writing style and you might enjoy that type of writing, but I still can’t help but wonder what their editor was thinking when he read this nonesense. In addition to that, the “Factoids,” “Myth Busters” and other tidbits of information that could have been very helpful to the reader, instead are inserted in the middle of paragraphs on every page are just all over the place. I suggest that you check this book out from the local library before buying it because you might save yourself some money. I’m glad I did. Sorry, Dr. Oz!

5 Stars Fabulous!
Always great advice from these authors…medically sound, safe and very matter of fact. I read everything I can get my hands on by these guys. They break everything down so there is no confusion and they insert humor to make it enjoyable to read…this isn’t just another “diet” type book that reads blah, blah, blah, blah. Buy it, you’ll love it.

Buy/More Info

My Heart Life Book , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You On A Diet The Owners Manual for Waist Management

March 4th, 2009

You On A Diet The Owners Manual for Waist Management




For the first time in our history, scientists are uncovering astounding medical evidence about dieting — and why so many of us struggle with our weight and the size of our waists. Now researchers are unraveling biological secrets about such things as why you crave chocolate or gorge at buffets or store so much fat.

Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, America’s most trusted doctor team and authors of the bestselling YOU series, are now translating this cutting-edge information to help you shave inches off your waist. They’re going to do it by giving you the best weapon against fat: knowledge. By understanding how your body’s fat-storing and fat-burning systems work, you’re going to learn how to crack the code on true and lifelong waist management.

Roizen and Oz will invigorate you with equal parts information, motivation, and change-your-life action to show you how your brain, stomach, hormones, muscles, heart, genetics, and stress levels all interact biologically to determine if your body is the size of a baseball bat or of a baseball stadium. In , Roizen and Oz will redefine what a healthy figure is, then take you through an under-the skin tour of the organs that influence your body’s size and its health. You’ll even be convinced that the key number to fixate on is not your weight, but your waist size, which best indicates the medical risks of storing too much fat.

Because the world has almost as many diet plans as it has e-mail spammers, you’d think that just about all of us would know everything there is to know about dieting, about fat, and about the reasons why our bellies have grown so large. YOU: On a Diet is much more than a diet plan or a series of instructions and guidelines or a faddish berries-only eating plan. It’s a complete manual for waist management. It will show you how to achieve and maintain an ideal and healthy body size by providing a lexicon according to which any weight-loss system can be explained. YOU: On a Diet will serve as the operating system that facilitates future evolution in our dieting software. After you learn about the biology of your body and the biology and psychology of fat, you’ll be given the YOU Diet and YOU Workout. Both are easy to learn, follow, and maintain. Following a two-week rebooting program will help you lose up to two inches from your waist right from the start.

With Roizen and Oz’s signature accessibility, wit, and humor, YOU: On a Diet — The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the food you consume, so that you’ll diet smart, not hard. Welcome to your body on a diet.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Very informative
The book goes into great detail about the body and the effect of food on it. Much more than a “diet” book. It does have a sensible eating plan too.

I liked it so much I got my sister one too.

5 Stars A cut above
This is not your typical run of the mill, heard it all before kind of diet book. This book explains in user friendly scientific terms how the body works and it’S humorous approach makes the book entertaining and highly informative at the same time. I’ve read plenty of diet books through the years and this one leaves them all in the dust. Throw all your diet books away and get this one. You won’t be sorry!

5 Stars You on a Diet. . . . .
The book is in excellent condition as stated on the internet; it arrived in stated time frame.

Very happy with all

Kathleen Baker

2 Stars I’m so disappointed in this book!
I’m really glad that I got this book from the library and didn’t buy it. I really dislike the writing style and presentation — what a disappointment! Dr. Oz is so interesting when he appears on Oprah and this book is nothing like what I would expect from him, it’s just awful. Another reviewer said that they can understand adding some levity to what might otherwise be very dry content, but in EVERY paragraph! I agree. The constant quips become very distracting!! Here are some examples of what you’ll read a LOT of…(pg. 78) “They say that a woman thinks with her heart, and a man thinks with his personal periscope, but when it comes to sheer anatomy, the organ closest to your brain isn’t the one that flutters over a midnight serenade or the one that tingles over a lingerie catalog. It’s the one that coils through your gut like a sleeping python.” (Pg. 129) “So, while you may think that spinning class or Bikram yoga is the primary pathway to frying fat, physical activity is only a fraction of it. You burn most of your calories by keeping your heart pumping, your brain remembering your spouse’s birthday, and your liver disposing of last night’s vodka concoction.” (pg. 130) “Sure, we all know that raging hormones can make a teenage boy become sex obsessed or give a menopausal woman hot flashes so bad she feels as though she’s in Death Valley in August. But you may not know that your hormones have a lot to do with whether or not you’re going to look good in a Speedo.” What on Earth is that all about? Perhaps I prefer a more straightforward writing style and you might enjoy that type of writing, but I still can’t help but wonder what their editor was thinking when he read this nonesense. In addition to that, the “Factoids,” “Myth Busters” and other tidbits of information that could have been very helpful to the reader, instead are inserted in the middle of paragraphs on every page are just all over the place. I suggest that you check this book out from the local library before buying it because you might save yourself some money. I’m glad I did. Sorry, Dr. Oz!

5 Stars Fabulous!
Always great advice from these authors…medically sound, safe and very matter of fact. I read everything I can get my hands on by these guys. They break everything down so there is no confusion and they insert humor to make it enjoyable to read…this isn’t just another “diet” type book that reads blah, blah, blah, blah. Buy it, you’ll love it.

Buy/More Info

My Heart Life Book , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Night Shift Makes Metabolism Go Haywire

March 2nd, 2009
By closely monitoring people with disrupted sleep patterns, researchers have documented the metabolic disarray produced by working at night and sleeping during the day. As soon as their circadian rhythms became separated from a day-night cycle, test subjects' levels of key metabolic hormones went haywire — the most compelling evidence yet that shift work isn't just an inconvenience, but an occupational hazard. "Normally, the body clock prepares the body for certain activities at a cert

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