You Did Not Know

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Dieting Mistakes You Are Making Part 2

You exercise too much:

Yes, you read that right. Exercise is important, but Villacorta maintains that being too focused on it can backfire.

"People think that if they exercise they will magically lose weight, and then they get frustrated," he cautions.

In fact, about 80% of dieting time and energy should be focused on nutrition and 20% on exercise, he says. "If I have a client who’s exercising six times a week, sometimes I’ll cut that in half and have them spend the extra hours shopping and planning meals."

You always choose the salad:

Contrary to popular belief, heading for the salad bar may not be your best option.

Salads may not contain enough carbohydrates to help control hunger hormones, according to Villacorta. He suggests a healthy soup and sandwich instead, or tossing a serving of brown rice, lentils, or garbanzo beans into your greens. And beware of high-calorie salad bar additions like blue cheese and candied walnuts.

Add enough of those and "you may as well just have a burger," he says.

You’re a high-calorie health nut:

Just because a food is healthy doesn’t mean you can eat a mountain of it.

Switching from white bread to whole wheat bread, eating nuts instead of chips, using olive oil instead of butter —these are all healthy changes. But they aren’t low-calorie substitutions, so portion control is still key.

Source: health.yahoo.net

Dieting Mistakes You Are Making Part 1

Eating less, but not losing:

Trying to slim down and feeling frustrated?

If you’re giving it your all but the number on the scale still isn’t budging, you may be sabotaging yourself in spite of your best intentions.

Here are a dozen dieting don'ts to help save your weight-loss efforts.

You eat fake foods:

We admit that prepackaged weight-loss products like shakes and bars are convenient, but they may not be helping you to lose weight in the long run.

"You never feel satisfied after you eat something like that, because it’s just a bunch of processed stuff," says Manuel Villacorta, a registered dietician and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

There are lots of healthier, more filling options with the same or fewer calories, like a cheese stick or a serving of plain nonfat Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries.

You burn the midnight oil:

Sure, you need to log time at the gym, but to lose weight, you also need to log time in your bed.

Skimping on sleep, especially sleeping less than five or six hours a night, can slow your metabolism and cause hormonal changes that hurt your weight-loss efforts.

Being tired may also make you eat more. One recent study found that people who are sleep-deprived consume a whopping 500 extra calories a day.

Source: health.yahoo.net

Monday, April 23, 2012

Hidden Dangers of Gum Disease | Stroke & Heart Attack

Stroke & Heart Attack:

Dental plaque (bacteria that live on the tooth and between the gum and the tooth) may arise from poor dental habits. If you're susceptible that plaque (which is in infection), part of fighting off an infection is an inflammatory response.

People with gum disease (inflammation of the gums, or gingivitis) are more prone to have strokes and heart attacks, Jeffcoat says. There's emerging evidence that a lot of inflammation in the vessels to the brain can make you more prone to a stroke and a lot of inflammation in the vessels to the heart can make you more prone to a heart attack.

Source: health.yahoo.net

Friday, April 20, 2012

The Worst Habits for Your Heart: Ignoring Snoring

Frequent loud snoring can trumpet obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a dangerous disorder that magnifies heart attack and stroke risk, if untreated. OSA (bouts of interrupted breathing during sleep) frequently goes undiagnosed because people don’t recognize the symptoms, which include waking at night for no apparent reason and unexplained daytime drowsiness.

If you fit this profile, ask your doctor to order a sleep study. Because OSA, which affects 18 million Americans, is most common in people who are heavy, treatment typically involves weight loss and in some cases, continuously positive airway pressure (CPAP), a device that blows moist, heated air in your nose and mouth as you sleep.

Source: health.yahoo.net

Here Are Some Useful Forum Sites | You Did Not Know

The Worst Habits for Your Heart: Having a Negative Attitude | You Did Not Know

While stress and depression have long been linked to higher heart disease risk, a new Harvard review of more than 200 earlier studies, published this month in Psychological Bulletin, highlights the benefits of turning that frown upside-down: An optimistic outlook may cut heart disease and stroke danger by 50 percent.

And while you may think that happy people are just healthier, the researchers found that the association between an upbeat attitude and reduced cardiovascular risk held true even when they took the person’s age, weight, smoking status, and other risk factors into account.

Research also shows that laughter literally does the heart good, by expanding the linings of blood vessels and boosting blood flow. A fun way to add more joy to your life—and defuse stress--is laughter yoga, an exercise program that combines self-triggered mirth with deep yogic breathing to draw oxygen deeper into the body.

Source: health.yahoo.net

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Smash Your Stress: How you cope Down a dessert | You Did Not Know

There's a reason you equate sugar with serenity. When you consume the sweet stuff, your prefrontal cortex, a part of your brain that helps control emotions, is activated, says Herman. The danger of a sugar binge: Men with higher anxiety are also more likely to have elevated glucose levels, according to scientists in Japan. In fact, the American Diabetes Association warns that long-term stress may push your blood-sugar levels into the diabetic range if they're already higher than normal.

Do this instead: Savor a small portion of ice cream

The stress-busting benefits of dessert are due more to the flavor than the fat and calories, says Herman. "High-calorie foods often taste better, but calories aren't necessary for food's effects on stress." Buy a single-serve treat and take half an hour to eat it; savoring the flavor can extend the calming effect.

Source: health.yahoo.net