Search Weight Loss Topics:

Page 92«..1020..91929394..100110..»

Home » Diet » Page 92

Industrial farming is having a catastrophic impact on the planetand our health. It's tough to separate the two given how dependent we are on the environment for survival. While author and farming industry executive Philip Lymbery strikes an apocalyptic tone, his message is not overstated.

"Every day there is a new confirmation of how destructive, inefficient, wasteful, cruel and unhealthy the industrial agriculture machine is. We need a total rethink of our food and farming systems before it's too late."

Earth is not resource-infinite. We're destroying entire ecosystems to feed our destructive food habits. Nutrition isn't the only concern. One of the major culprits of deforestation is palm oil, which is widely used in skincare products as well. Everywhere we turn, we're decimating ecosystems and species for personal gain.

While a plant-based diet isn't the solution to every problem, it can certainly help. Whether you're concerned about your own health or that of the planet, transitioning to a plant-based diet isn't impossible. In fact, it can be quite delicious. Below are six strategies to help the process along.

Quarantine offered an entire world the opportunity to get into the kitchen and put on a chef's apron. Complaints about "not enough time" are the biggest barriers to preparing home-cooked meals. Of course, pandemic fatigue has resulted in a number of recent chefs ordering out more. That said, this is the perfect time to try your hand at new dishes. With infection rates increasing across the country, stocking up on seasonal vegetables is a great idea.

Simple seasonal ways to begin your plant-based exploration include roasted kabocha squash, Bombay potatoes, and no-chop pumpkin soup. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, Masoor Dal Tadka will keep you warm into the winter months. A delicious sweet potato salad will never fail you. This round-up of 25 vegetarian recipes will keep you busy for a few months (or a month if you're ambitious).

Education is essential for beginning any endeavor. Weeding through propaganda and bunk science to find credible evidence of any diet is difficult, though many experts agree that for individual and societal health, a plant-based diet is key.

Even vegetarianism has its pitfalls. For example, one-fifth of all calories consumed by Americans come from nutritionally-worthless white flour. If you're eating processed bread every day, you're missing out on the benefits of a rich and varied diet.

Many of the "diseases of affluence," such as cardiovascular and obesity-related ailments, originate with a poor diet (and lack of exercise). Meat has been an essential component of the human diet throughout our evolution. Today, we eat too much of itand too much of it is produced in factory farms. Transitioning to a plant-based diet could help cut down on carbon emissions and the aforementioned diseases.

Plants are full of valuable phytochemicals and antioxidants that support a strong immune system. A (non-processed) plant-based diet reduces inflammation and offers plenty of fiber. It has been shown to reduce your risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart diseases. Those are all great reasons to transition.

Going cold turkey rarely works for addicts. The same is true of diets. If you're interested in a plant-based diet, try to eat veg every other day for a few weeks. Notice how your body reacts on days you eat this way compared to other days. Gradually phase out meat products. Attempt meat-free weekdays and see if your craving for meat persists on the weekend. Try using meat as a garnish instead of the main course.

More importantly, have a replacement plan. Dropping all meat products to consume frozen dinners isn't the best course of action. Filling your cart with bags of foods you've never eaten before will overwhelm you. Prepare meals as you taper off of meat; arm yourself with a broad knowledge of healthy plants and vegetables. At some point, you might forget what you've been missing.

Photo: anaumenko / Adobe Stock

The good news is that you likely have a number of plant-based side and main dishes that you love. Transitioning into a new diet requires a certain level of enjoyment. Otherwise, you're going to loathe eating, and eating should bring some level of satisfaction.

Try a one-to-one ratio to begin. On one night, cook a meal you love. Then try something completely new the next night. Follow that up with old faithful. This way, you constantly have new dishes to look forward to yet don't get stuck in thinking you have to be creative every single day. You'll likely find some winners and decide not to repeat other dishes. Regardless, you'll have a broader menu to work from.

The produce section of your grocery store provides almost everything you need to survive. You can likely pronounce every ingredient in this section. There's a vast difference between food and foodstuffs. Plenty of plant-based companies offer too much of the latter. Potato chips are technically vegetarian, and some use simple ingredients, yet it's easy to fill your cart with foodstuffs. The health benefits of this are not only negligible but potentially dangerous.

Qi Sun, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explains. "If you eat a vegan diet, but eat a lot of french fries, refined carbs like white bread, white rice, that's not healthy." He suggests "emphasizing fruits and vegetables. Not fruit juice but whole food. And nuts."

There's a lot of terrible adviceand worse, propagandaon the internet. While you likely don't want to eat eggs every day, they're not "toxic," as one popular documentary claims. Eggs are one of the best low-cost, high-value foods around.

Read websites like Everyday Health, which uses clear language, like "may improve" and "may decrease," with links to credible studies. This way you follow the going science without becoming fanatical about a particular diet or being disappointed if it turns out the research doesn't hold up. Good science evolves with evidence. And right now, the evidence points to more vegetables in our diets.

--

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook. His new book is "Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

See original here:
6 easy ways to transition to a plant-based diet - Big Think

Are obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular illnesses and more the result of a mismatch between the meals we eat and the foods our bodies are prepared for?

The mismatch hypothesis argues that each of our bodies has evolved and adapted to digest the foods that our ancestors ate, and that human bodies will struggle and largely fail to metabolize a radically new set of foods.

Humans evolved in a very different environment than the one were currently living in, said Amanda Lea, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics (LSI), and the first author on a study in the current issue of the journal Science Advances. No one diet is universally bad. Its about the mismatch between your evolutionary history and what youre currently eating.

A new study led by Princetons Julien Ayroles and Mpalas Dino Martins supports the mismatch hypothesis. They found that obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses increased among Turkana people whose diet changed from animal-based to carbohydrate-based.Here, researchers gathered at the Mpala Research Centre in 2019. Standing, from left: Jethary Rader, Sarah Kocher,Jeremy Orina, Dino Martins and Julien Ayroles. Seated: Charles Waigwa.

Photo by Christian Alessandro Perez, University of Missouri-Columbia

The mismatch idea has been around for years, but its hard to test directly. Most experiments focus on comparing Westerners to members of hunter-gatherer societies, but that inevitably conflates any effects of diet with other genetic or lifestyle differences.

Enter the Turkana a subsistence-level, pastoralist population from a remote desert in northwest Kenya. In the 1980s, an extreme drought coupled with the discovery of oil nearby led to rapid transformation of the region. Large segments of the population abandoned their nomadic lifestyle, some to live in villages and others in cities. Traditional Turkana still rely on livestock dromedary camels, zebu cattle, fat-tailed sheep, goatsand donkeys for subsistence, while Turkana living in cities have switched to diets that are much higher in carbohydrates and processed foods. This is a trend that is widely observed across the world, a result of increasing globalization, even in remote communities.

We realized that we had the opportunity to study the effect of transitioning away from a traditional lifestyle, relying on almost 80% animal byproducts a diet extremely protein-rich and rich in fats, with very little to no carbohydrates to a mostly carbohydrate diet, said Julien Ayroles, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and LSI who is the senior researcher on the new paper. This presented an unprecedented opportunity: genetically homogenous populations whose diets stretch across a lifestyle gradient from relatively matched to extremely mismatched with their recent evolutionary history.

Mpala researchers Simon Lowasa and Michelle Ndegwa interview a Turkana study participant at a school in Lakipia, Kenya, in 2019.

Photo courtesy of the authors

To address the question, the researchers interviewed and gathered health data from 1,226 adult Turkana in 44 locations. The interviewers included Lea and Ayroles as well as the research team based at the Mpala Research Centrein Kenya, led by Dino Martins. Mpala is best known as a site for world-class ecological studies, but with its research into the Turkana, it is also breaking new ground on anthropology and sociology and in genetics and genomics, using a new NSF-funded genomics lab.

This is a very important first paper from the Turkana genomics work and the Mpala NSF Genomics and Stable Isotopes Lab, Martins said. Doing research like this study involves a huge amount of trust and respect with our local communities and with more remote communities: how we access them, how we interact. And the reason Mpala and Turkana can be a hub for this is because we have a long-term relationship. What has happened in many parts of the world where some of this research has been done, and it's gone wrong, is when you have researchers parachuting in and out of communities. That does not make people trust you it just creates a lot of an anxiety and problems. But here, the communities know us. Weve been there for 25 years. Our research staff are drawn from local communities.

BenjaminMbau, an Mpala-based research assistant in the Turkana Genome Project, uses the centrifuge in the lab.

Photo by Ken Gitau, Mpala Research Centre

The project originated when Ayroles visited Martins, a friend from their years at Harvard University, at the Turkana Basin Institute, where Martins was based. On a brutally hot Christmas Day, deep in the desert, miles from any known village, Ayroles had been surprised to see a group of women carrying water in jars on their heads. Martins had explained that the women were carrying water back to share with their fellow Turkana, and added that these few vessels of water would be all they would drink for a week or more.

Julian says, That's not possible. Nobody can survive on that little water, Martins recalled. And so his scientists brain gets thinking, and he comes up with this project to say, How is it that humans can survive in this incredibly harsh environment? And I turned it around by saying, Actually, I think the question is, how is it that we've adapted to survive in other environments?'Because of course, this is the environment that we all came out of.

The project grew from there, taking shape as a study of health profiles across 10 biomarkers of Turkana living in cities, villages and rural areas. The researchers found that all 10 were excellent among Turkana still living their traditional, pastoralist lifestyle and among the Turkana who were leading in rural villages, making and selling charcoal or woven baskets, or raising livestock for trade.

But Turkana who had moved to cities exhibited poor cardio-metabolic health, with much higher levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular illness and high blood pressure. The health metrics also showed that the longer Turkana had spent living in the city, the less healthy they tended to be, with life-long city dwellers experiencing the greatest risk of cardiovascular disease.

We are finding more or less what we expected, Ayroles said. Transitioning to this carbohydrate-based diet makes people sick.

Theres a cumulative effect, added Lea. The more you experience the urban environment the evolutionarily mismatched environment the worse its going to be for your health.

Turkana women in northern Turkana carry water back to their dwelling.

Photo by Kennedy Saitoti, Mpala Research Centre

Ayroles cautioned that the research should not be interpreted as favoring a protein-based diet. One of the most remarkable things about the Turkana is that if you and I went on the Turkana diet, we would get sick really quickly! he said. The key to metabolic health may be to align our diet and activity levels with that of our ancestors, but we still need to determine which components matter most.

The researchers have continued their surveys and data gathering, and they plan to expand the study to incorporate different indigenous peoples, in Pacific islands and elsewhere, who are also experiencing these shifts away from traditional lifestyles.

We can learn so much about evolution and human health from the many traditional and subsistence-level populations around the globe, said Lea. They are experiencing this extraordinary, rapid environmental change, and we can witness it in real time.

Urbanization and market integration have strong, nonlinear effects on cardiometabolic health in the Turkana, by Amanda J. Lea, Dino Martins, Joseph Kamau, Michael Gurven, Julien F. Ayroles appears in the Oct. 21 issue of Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb1430). Their research was supported by an award to J.F.A. through Princeton Universitys Dean for Research Innovations Funds and the Mpala funds. A.J.L. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation.The Mpala Research Centre is administered as a trust by a partnership among trustee agencies based in the USA (Princeton University and the Smithsonian Institution), and Kenya (the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife Service).

Original post:
Princeton and Mpala scholars link obesity and disease to dramatic dietary changes - Princeton University

JeaniceSkousen, a clinical dietitian withNortheast Georgia Medical Center Braselton,works with cancer patients and their families focusing on diet and nutrition.

I work with mainly on referrals or patients who are at risk while theyre receiving radiation, such as those who are getting treated in an area that affect how they are able to eat, she said.

Patients may experience problems chewing or swallowing or may have appetite loss during treatment.

I usually work with all the patients with head and neck cancer, as well the abdominal region, Skousen said.

Generally, our primary goal of nutrition care is to prevent nutrition deficiencies, achieve and maintain a healthy weight and preserve their lean body mass, she said.

Johnson said special care must be taken for patients undergoing chemotherapy that may increase risk of infectionand increase chances for heartburnand nausea.

We advise those patients to avoid things like raw meats and wash vegetables, he said.They should eat more of a bland diet, avoiding anything tomato-based.

Also, drinking lots of water is important to help clear some of the medications out of the body, Johnson said.

Eating healthier benefits any of the cancers, Battle said.

That means eating fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes same as what people should be consuming to prevent cancer.

But a healthy diet is not enough, Battle said.

Its not just nutrition. Its a healthy lifestyle of exercise, not smoking, not drinking and keeping yourself at a healthy weight, she said.

How much of a role nutrition plays in preventing or causing cancer, versus other factors, such as a heredity or the environment, is hard to say, Johnsonsaid. Certainly, smoking is the highest-risk thing that you can do.

Smith started her journey back to wellness with diet and nutrition, but she got stronger afterrecovering fromadouble mastectomy. She began by walking more, and that led to running and participating in races.

I started setting goals and I still do (races) to this day, she said. Ive scheduled two half-marathonswithin the next year.

See original here:
What your diet should look like to prevent and fight cancer - Gainesville Times

There's a lot going on right now that is causing uncertainty, but if there's one thing that is for certain, it's that people who like Diet Coke are people I can get along with. Diet Coke is one of the most universally beloved beverages out there and if there's someone in your life who deserves a pick-me-up, you can now nominate them online to win a year's supply of the stuff.

The promotion is in celebration of National Boss's Day, which takes place every October 16. Since this year has many people working from home and fulfilling different roles in their households, Diet Coke believes everyone is a boss this year, meaning everyone deserves to be nominated. If there is someone special who comes to mind for you, you can head over to DietCoke.com to nominate them.

This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Nominations can be submitted through November 16, and the winners will be announced by December (some good news ahead of the new year!). There will be three grand prize winners who will win a free supply of Diet Coke for an entire year. The first shipment will reach the winners in January of 2021 and will include a mini fridge so a refreshingly cold can of Diet Coke will always be within reach.

The nomination form is quick and easy to fill out; all it requires is a little description about your nominee and why you think they deserve the grand prize and all the Diet Coke their heart could desire. So go ahead, brag a little, and cross your fingers that your boss gets chosen for the big prize.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

See the original post here:
Diet Coke Is Giving Out A Years Supply Of The Beverage As Well As A Mini Fridge - Delish

Misfits Market is a service that delivers organic produce directly to your door for up to 40% less than grocery store prices.

It can not only help you save money but also reduce food waste and make it easy and fun to eat more fruits and vegetables.

This article reviews the pros and cons of Misfits Market to determine who should try it.

Misfits Market is a delivery service that sources organic fruits and vegetables that cant be sold at stores or farms.

These items typically have slight imperfections and may have cosmetic blemishes or other alterations in size or appearance.

You can select from different box sizes and adjust your order frequency on the Misfits Market website.

You can also submit your weekly selections during a specific window each week to customize your box.

Currently, Misfits Market is only available in select states, but its quickly expanding throughout the United States.

You can find out whether Misfits Market delivers to your area by entering your zip code on its website.

There are two sizes of boxes available.

The smaller starter box, which is called Mischief, includes about 1013 pounds (4.56 kg) of organic produce each week, or enough for 2 people.

Meanwhile, the Madness box is designed for larger households and families. It contains 1822 pounds (810 kg) of produce, which serves up to 5 people per week.

A list of produce that may be included in upcoming boxes is available on the website. You customize your weekly box based on your preferences or receive a variety of seasonal items selected for you.

Misfits Market partners with farms and food hubs across the Americas to source its ingredients.

All produce from Misfits Market is certified organic and free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

You can also customize your selections each week or opt to receive a mix of seasonal produce to experiment with new ingredients.

Misfits Market is committed to providing high quality, organic produce.

It even has a team on-site to inspect produce and ensure quality control.

Although many fruits and vegetables may have minor cosmetic imperfections, theyre still fresh, healthy, and edible.

Boxes are also packaged with recyclable and compostable packaging, insulation, and gel packs to ensure that theyre delivered fresh.

If items arrive damaged, you can submit a request for review to receive a refund within 5 days.

Misfits Market provides a wide assortment of fruits and vegetables.

It also allows you to customize your weekly selections, making it easy to find options that suit any dietary pattern.

In fact, you can enjoy the ingredients from Misfits Market as part of nearly any diet, including vegan, vegetarian, paleo, or Mediterranean diet plans.

You can also customize your box and opt for low carb fruits and vegetables if youre following a low carb or ketogenic diet.

However, keep in mind that Misfits Market cannot guarantee that produce is allergen-free. The company notes that items are typically processed and packaged in facilities that may also handle common allergens.

Therefore, it may be unsuitable for those with severe food allergies or intolerances.

The Mischief box is $22 and includes enough produce for 2 people.

Meanwhile, the Madness box is $35 and provides fruits and vegetables for up to 5 people per week.

You can also order select add-on foods or packaged products through the Marketplace for an additional fee.

Shipping and delivery fees also vary depending on your location.

There are several alternatives to Misfits Market.

For instance, Imperfect Foods is a similar service that also delivers groceries with cosmetic blemishes or imperfections.

Unlike Misfits Market, Imperfect Foods provides both conventional and organic produce and offers other types of food as well, including meat, fish, grains, dairy products, and snacks.

However, both are similar in price. An 1113-pound (56-kg) box of organic produce from Imperfect Foods costs $24, while a 1013-pound (4.56-kg) box of produce from Misfits Market costs $22.

There are also several other produce box subscription services, including Farm Fresh to You, Farmbox Direct, and Farm to People.

However, these services are not available in all areas, nor are they solely focused on imperfect fruits and vegetables like Misfits Market.

Misfits Market is a great way to include more produce in your weekly menu while helping combat food waste.

It can also add more diversity to your diet and encourage you to start experimenting with new fruits and vegetables, including many that you may not be familiar with.

Plus, it can help save time and money compared with shopping at the grocery store.

Still, given that Misfits Markets selection is somewhat limited, it may not be the best choice for picky eaters.

Its also not completely allergen-free and may be unsuitable for those with severe food allergies.

Misfits Market is a company aimed at reducing food waste and providing fresh and affordable produce.

Its a subscription-based service that delivers weekly boxes of organic fruits and vegetables that may have minor cosmetic imperfections but are otherwise healthy and high quality.

Misfits Market can not only be a great way to save money but also help add more variety to your diet and allow you to experiment with new fruits and vegetables.

Get started with Misfits Market here.

Read this article:
Misfits Market Review: Pros and Cons - Healthline

Erie Times-News

Q: What should I feed my new baby parrot? Her veterinarian recommends a pelleted food, but I heard seeds were better.

A: The idea that birds need only seeds for a complete and balanced diet is one of those myths that keeps hanging on. Seeds are high in fat and don't provide the nutrition that birds need. Feeding only seeds is like giving your kids a diet of hamburgers, hot dogs, and mac and cheese every day. Birdswho eat only seeds are prone to obesity and other health conditions caused by poor diet.

Pellets are a mixture of grains, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and provide appropriate levels of vitamins and minerals. Different types of pellets are made for different species and sizes of birds. But not even pellets offer a complete meal for every bird. Many species have unique nutritional requirements. Adding fresh foods such as vegetables, fruits, pasta and various types of protein including lean poultry or cooked eggs is important for giving your bird a well-rounded diet.

Birds enjoy fun foods that they have to work at: think corn on the cob, a slice of watermelon, the core of a bell pepper, sprouts, or a nut in the shell. Your bird-savvy veterinarian can advise you about the proper percentage of pellets and fresh foods for your bird's species, but in general, pellets should make up about 80 percent of your bird's diet.

When are seeds OK? I'm not saying you can never give seeds to your bird; in very small amounts, they are a great reward when you are teaching her something new, or when she has just done something you like. Just remember that they should be a special treat, not a large percentage of her intake.

THE BUZZ

Travelers arriving in Finland's Helsinki-Vantaa Airport will now be greeted at a distance, of course by coronavirus-sniffing dogs, who will check to see if they are infectious. The dogs, trained to recognize the virus that causes COVID-19, are located at specially built sniffing stations. Passengers swipe their skin with small pieces of gauze, then put the samples in a beaker and pass it to a dog handler on the opposite side of the booth. The dog sniffs the beaker and indicates any samples that may belong to an infectious person. Results for the free, voluntary tests are available within 10 seconds, and the entire process takes less than a minute. Dogs and passengers don't come in contact with each other, which helps to protect the dogs from potential infection.

Teens in Hungary who participated in a program that involved working with horses two days a week had fewer emotional and behavioral problems, and better "prosocial behavior" actions that benefit other people or society as a whole than students in the control group, who did not work with horses, according to a report in the journal Environmental Research and Public Health. Researchers' analysis found that equine-related activities were a significant factor in development of the positive traits. Working with horses requires students to understand equine communication and behavior. The relationship-building skills they learn translate to developing trust, acceptance and understanding with humans as well.

Burmese cats, with their unique brown coats, were known as copper cats in Southeast Asia. Smart, funny and playful, they enjoy interacting with people and have a loyal, loving temperament. Burmese aren't as talkative as their Siamese cousins, but they will carry on a conversation with you in their raspy voices. The medium-sized cats have eyes ranging in color from yellow to gold and a short, glossy, solid-colored coat.

Pet Connection is produced by a team of pet-care experts headed by veterinarian Marty Becker and journalist Kim Campbell Thornton of Vetstreet.com. Joining them is dog trainer and behavior consultant Mikkel Becker. Send pet questions toaskpetconnection@gmail.com.

Link:
Pet Connection: Parrots need more than seeds to be healthy - GoErie.com

Alex Kaminsky, who works in real estate marketing, shared her weight loss journey with Womens Health. She shared that through a plant-based diet she was able to lose 105 pounds!

Kaminsky, who lives in Colorado, said of the transition from college to a desk job, which led to significant weight gain, I just felt so horrible all the time. I slept poorly, had no energy, was always lethargic, and just felt sluggish. As a 22-year-old, I would think to myself, This is not how it should be. This is not the life I want to live.

Using diet and exercise, Kaminsky was able to begin losing weight and feeling better. She told the outlet, I eat a mostly plant-based diet about 90 percent of the time.Eating primarily plant-based makes me feel amazingI have so much energy, I sleep great, and my athletic endurance has skyrocketed. I also never feel bogged down or overly full. I dont track calories or macros. I just fuel my body as much as it needs with amazing whole foods.

She shared her daily diet and said she eats crispy potatoes, eggs and avocado for breakfast, followed by a smoothie bowl for lunch.Check out our breakfast and smoothie bowl options:

Kaminsky snacks on fresh fruit, chips and salsa, nuts and protein shakes. She finishes the day with a cauliflower rice stir fry and some Nada-Moo icre cream!

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer and has many side effects.

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some resources to get you started:

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!

More:
Woman Loses 105 Pounds and Gets Super Healthy on Plant Based Diet! - One Green Planet

I have had ulcerative colitis and countless flare-ups for the past 12 years. During that time, I like to think that I have tried it all.

Various biologics, steroids, procedures, and diets all come to mind when I think of the different treatment options I researched and tried over the years.

I always heard great things about the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet, an elimination diet used to treat symptoms of autoimmune diseases like ulcerative colitis, but never thought it was for me.

It wasnt until I was in the middle of a never-ending, yearlong flare-up that I decided to give it a try and see if it could help me get into remission. Here is my experience.

The AIP diet is similar to the paleo diet, which focuses on removing refined grains and sugar. Its designed to remove foods that may trigger autoimmunity, inflammation, and imbalances in gut bacteria that occur in conditions such as Hashimotos disease, lupus, and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis.

The diet begins by eliminating foods that may trigger inflammation and development of autoimmunity, including:

Whats left is basically fruits and vegetables, minimally processed meats, fermented foods, teas, and other natural foods that dont fit into any of the categories above.

After adhering to the AIP diet for at least one month (ideally longer), the eliminated foods are gradually reintroduced into the diet, one at a time, to see what your food triggers may be.

Thanks to ulcerative colitis, my body is incredibly sensitive toward anything I put in it, so I will not try anything new with my diet unless its backed by science and hard facts.

The reason I was willing to give the AIP diet a try was because I discovered there were several research studies conducted specifically to find out if the AIP diet was effective for people with IBD.

For example, a 2017 study in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases found that, in people with IBD, inflammatory markers decreased and IBD symptoms significantly decreased after following the AIP diet.

I am coming out of a yearlong flare-up of ulcerative colitis, which is approximately 49 weeks longer than my typical flare-up.

It was a tough period of my life where I was sick, in agonizing pain, and no drug my doctor gave me seemed to get me back into remission.

I was desperate and I tried almost everything, including acupuncture, Chinese herbs, five different biologics, two steroids, and so many over-the-counter treatments.

To drive the point home even further, my best friend was my heating pad. You get the picture.

I kept hearing all about the AIP diet through my circle of friends with Crohns and colitis, so I became curious to learn more.

I am a huge believer in the power of food to heal the body. At that point, I was barely eating anything at all, so an elimination diet couldnt be that hard for me. I thoroughly researched the protocol and decided to go for it.

For me, the hardest part was sticking with the protocol for the first two weeks. It was more challenging than I anticipated and I struggled with staying on track more than I thought I would.

However, I began to find snacks that I liked and recipes I enjoyed making, and eventually got into a groove that worked for me.

Lets be honest, eating at a restaurant is challenging with IBD no matter what, but AIP makes it even more challenging. For most of this time, I did not eat out at restaurants and chose to cook at home instead.

Its not forever and I believe it was worth sacrificing a few meals out for my overall health. Plus, I saved a few bucks by eating at home, so it was a win-win.

One thing that really helped me was filling my cabinets with AIP-approved foods and ingredients before I started the protocol. If I had to figure it out after I started AIP, I would have never made it, or I would have had a meltdown in the grocery store.

By doing it in advance, I already had everything I needed when I was hungry or ready to cook dinner.

I want to start this by saying that the Autoimmune Protocol isnt a miracle diet. It takes consistency over a longer period of time to get the full effects. After about the fourth week on the AIP diet, I really started noticing a difference.

Prior to following the AIP diet, I was bloated with everything I ate and for almost an entire day afterward. Now, I am no longer bloated after every bite of food.

I was having trouble sleeping, which is something I have never struggled with in my life. Now, I am able to sleep through the night and feel rested in the morning.

I was also running to the bathroom multiple times a day with no relief in sight. With AIP, I had much less urgency to go to the bathroom. The urgency and rushing to the bathroom didnt go away completely, but it did reduce the number of times significantly.

Overall, my quality of life greatly improved after the fourth week of consistently following the AIP diet.

I think it is important to note that, at the time, I was also on a high dose of prednisone and Stelara, a biologic used to treat IBD. This was not a food-only treatment plan, but rather a combination of traditional medicine and dietary elimination.

After the 5-week mark, I started reintroducing foods and found that I was still sensitive to corn. I bloated almost instantly after eating a homemade arepa, which is only made with water, corn, and a little salt.

On the other hand, I responded well to almonds and chocolate.

Outside of these three reintroductions, I started loosening the diet more and more and reintroduced all the other trigger foods around the same time. That means I couldnt tell which foods were still triggering me.

It should be noted that experts recommend reintroducing one food item at a time, with a few days in between reintroductions. This way, you can identify what specific foods may be causing symptoms.

If I had to do it over, I would have been more patient in the reintroduction phase and slowly reintroduced each potential trigger food.

Overall, I highly recommend the AIP diet to anyone struggling with inflammation caused by an autoimmune disease.

Following the AIP diet can be challenging in the beginning, but a little prep work ahead of time will go a long way.

If you decide to try it, I recommend being patient and taking the time to do both the elimination and the reintroduction phases properly. If I choose to redo the elimination phase in the future, I will make sure to go slower on the reintroductions so I know which foods are still triggering me.

Working with a registered dietitian or another healthcare provider who specializes in autoimmune diseases is a good idea for those interested in AIP. A healthcare provider can give you tips, answer questions, and make sure that the diet is safe and appropriate for your specific needs and overall health.

Excerpt from:
I Tried the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet for Ulcerative Colitis - Healthline

You might have seen celebrities endorsing meat-only diets, claiming it's cured them of chronic diseases and, of course, helped them stay lean.

To people who are tuned in to health research, these diets seem ... iffy.

They certainly go against the Australian dietary guidelines that prioritise fruit, vegetables and grain foods, and recommend limiting animal products to a couple of serves a day.

And for some people, eating meat or even any animal products is absolutely off the table for ethical or environmental reasons.

But let's say you did choose to follow an all-meat diet. Would it be possible to get everything you need from it? And how new is this idea really?

The carnivore diet takes the low-carbohydrate approach of paleo, keto or Atkins to a new level, cutting out everything but animal products.

There are variations: some people eat only beef, some eat a wider variety of meat, and whether cheese and butter are on the menu also varies between followers.

But if we approach the question from strictly a health perspective, is it even possible to get all the nutrients your body needs from only animal products?

The answer is yes, or pretty close to it, says Veronique Chachay, a nutrition scientist from the University of Queensland.

She put versions of a carnivorous diet through dietary composition analysis software and found that, depending on the particular mix of animal foods included, pretty much all the necessary vitamins and minerals were accounted for.

"From purely a micronutrient point of view, we can't say people cannot meet their requirements," Dr Chachay says.

Get the latest health news and information from across the ABC.

Ticking the boxes on nutrients is only part of the story. We know that fibre is important for digestive health and fostering a diversity of health-promoting gut bacteria and fibre is notably absent in carnivorous diets.

So experts are keen to know more about the science of why some people report feeling good on such diets, even after following them for a long time.

But we don't know much about the long-term impacts of this diet, and scientists are calling for more research.

The Inuit First Nations people from northern North America have a traditional diet made up almost exclusively from animal products.

They're often held up as evidence that a carnivorous diet can be healthy. So what does the Inuit diet actually look like?

Researchers in 2004 conducted surveys in 18 Indigenous communities in Canada where people followed the traditional diet, or pretty close to it.

They found community members ate well over a kilogram a day of animal products, and between 28 and 160 grams a day of plant foods.

The research shows it is possible to thrive on a very animal-heavy diet, says Clare Collins, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at the University of Newcastle.

"[The Inuit people] had a really low carbohydrate intake, a really low vegetable intake on their traditional diet, and they ate some stuff that we wouldn't eat, for example, they ate the organs of a lot of animals, they ate a heck of a lot of seafood, and they ate some of their meat raw, which is actually higher in vitamin C," she says.

"With some of those nutrients, because they ate a lot of those foods, they could meet their requirements."

But Inuit people aren't particularly long-lived. And while the factors that affect life expectancy are hard to tease out, especially when studying First Nations people during modern times, Professor Collins says big drivers do come from diet.

"Life expectancy is not high and they have very high rates of some cancers. It's partly attributable to their genetics. And that's exacerbated by a really high salted, smoked food diet."

In contrast, the traditional diets of the longest-lived peoples in the world have very high vegetable intake, she points out.

But whichever traditional diet you look at: "They're all less refined foods," Professor Collins says.

"And that's the big thing that people don't really want to want to look at."

As with many fad diets, proponents of the carnivore diet often hold it up as the ideal way to eat.

And that's simply not true, Dr Chachay says, because there is no one optimal diet.

We humans are similar to each other, but we're not clones. We have genetic differences. And just like some humans can digest the lactose in milk and others can't, it could be there are other differences that explain why some people report that they thrive on a carnivorous diet.

For a vegan diet to meet all your nutritional needs, you really need to understand your food. Here are the critical nutrients to look out for.

Dr Chachay's research deals in part with the potential for personalised diets based on an individual's unique genetic makeup, and even the makeup of their microbiome. We're not there yet, but she hopes to see it begin to happen in the near future.

"We will be able to tailor diets and ideal ratios of the micronutrients that would fit with the optimal health for the individual."

And, while the evidence around carnivore diets is sparse, she suspects it may be the case that for some individuals, it works for their bodies.

"What I'm interested in knowing is, these people that practise it, obviously they didn't die after a year. They didn't lose their hair. They didn't start to become completely crazy. They are functioning," she says.

"There's going to be some mechanism behind the scene."

See the original post here:
Carnivore diets can tick boxes when it comes to nutrients, but that doesn't mean they're optimal - ABC News

Photo: tirc83 (Getty Images)

Earlier today, we learned that Temptations, a brand of cat treats, had produced its very own horror movie for cats calledwhat else?Scaredy Cat. Clocking in at four minutes and seven seconds, its a film intended to not only promote catnip but also to entertain and thrill the felines of your household. Makes sense; cats should be able to enjoy this season as much as the rest of us.

This got our staff talking about what our own pets enjoy watching on TV all day. Joe the lab-coonhound mix tends toward 90s romcoms like Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You (who doesnt, honestly?), while Archie the beagle is less specific in his tastes: he will happily tolerate anything without loud sudden noises or ominous music. That probably disqualifies just about every Halloween-appropriate film, but as long as he has access to a warm lap, he doesnt really mind. Griff the terrier, perpetually distracted, ignores the TV screen completely, opting to chew on his own foot in front of cinemas greatest achievements rather than glance over at them even for a moment. The jury is still out on Nugget the cat, who is always the last one to hear about good movies and hasnt watched Scaredy Cat yet but intends to catch up tonight, so no spoilers.

Do your pets seem to enjoy particular channels, shows, or movies more than others? Does your goldfish emit a happy stream of bubbles when presented with HGTV versus QVC? Will your cat flee the room upon hearing Guy Fieris opening monologue on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, shouted over the wind from the drivers seat of his red Camaro as it speeds down the open road?

See more here:
Last Call: What is your pets media diet? - The Takeout

Page 92«..1020..91929394..100110..»

Home » Diet » Page 92