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Hara Hachi bu: Have you heard of this Japanese diet rule for weight loss? – The Indian Express
By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Published: June 3, 2020 11:40:18 am Hara Hachi bu diet can increase life expectancy. (representative image, source: getty image)
The people of Okinawa Island traditionally practice a kind of diet whereby they eat till they are 80 per cent full. The Okinawans are known to have been following this rule for a long time, known as Hara Hachi bu.
This form of diet plan is derived from the Confucian teaching that instructs people to eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full. As per the diet, Okinawans are known to consume about 1800 to 1900 calories per day, which is known to improve life expectancy. Okinawa is known to have the worlds highest proportion of centenarians.
Read| Life expectancy in India down by 2.6 yrs due to air pollution: Study
The diet is designed to restrict calorie intake. It keeps the average body mass index (BMI) low, due to the delay in the stomach stretch receptors that signal satiety. Research suggests their BMI is about 18-22 as compared to the typical BMI of 26-27 for adults over 60 in the United States.
An article in the Hindustan Times explains that when the stomach is not entirely full, it has extra space. This, in turn, allows the stomach to digest to food quicker.
Interestingly, this principle of eating is also known to be advocated by Ayurvedic medicine, dating back to the 4th century BCE, which suggests one should fill one-third of the stomach with liquid, another third with food and leave the rest empty.
According to Medium, this diet not only extends life expectancy but also delays the appearance of aging. By avoiding over-eating, this diet helps avoid obesity, acid reflux and gastrointestinal problems. It also promotes weight loss through balanced eating. Here are some foods you can eat to keep obesity at bay.
Clinical psychologist and author Susan Albers mentions in a Cleveland Clinic article that when one begins to feel slightly full, they should stop eating. The idea is to feel satisfied and not hungry anymore, rather than full. So while you eat, it is important to slow down and allow the body to register how much you have eaten.
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Hara Hachi bu: Have you heard of this Japanese diet rule for weight loss? - The Indian Express
What Is the Body Reset Diet, and Does It Work for Weight Loss? – LIVESTRONG.COM
Created by Harley Pasternak, a celebrity personal trainer who has worked with everyone from Kim and Khloe Kardashian to Jessica Simpson, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, the Body Reset Diet is a 15-day program that promises to "power your metabolism, blast fat, and shed pounds," according to The Body Reset Diet book, published by Pasternak in 2013.
The Body Reset Diet encourages replacing some meals with smoothies.
Image Credit: ilona titova/iStock/GettyImages
The diet is built to "reset" your body and give you a jumpstart on your weight-loss goals. Pasternak attempts to provide solutions through his diet to solve for the many reasons why other diets fail.
The "rules" of the diet include:
The Body Reset Diet lasts for 15 days, which is broken up into three phases, lasting five days each.
During phase one (days one through five), smoothies are consumed three times a day along with two snacks. The meals are structured to be high in volume so that you'll still feel like you're eating a lot of food when in fact the calorie count is closer to 1,200 per day.
Workouts like CrossFit or SoulCycle are discouraged during phase one. Instead, you should aim to walk 10,000 steps each day.
During phase two (days six through10), you continue eating five times a day. The one big change is that you reduce the number of smoothies from three to two per day, and you add one solid meal instead. So, your meals include two smoothies, one healthy, whole foods meal and two snacks between meals each day.
Rigorous exercise is still discouraged, but in addition to your daily steps, a 5-minute resistance training program is added, to be completed three times a week.
During this phase (days 11 through 15), you continue with the pattern by reducing the number of smoothies again. Now you'll enjoy just one smoothie a day, along with two meals and two snacks.
Exercise is increased again. The goal is still to take 10,000 steps a day, and the 5-minute training programs are increased to five times a week.
Curious exactly how many calories you burn during your workouts? Download the MyPlate app for a more accurate and customized estimate.
What Can You Eat on the Body Reset Diet?
Sample Phase One Menu
During Phase One, the three smoothies you consume must follow this order: white smoothie for breakfast, red smoothie for lunch, green smoothie for dinner. There are recipes for each color-specific smoothie in the book, as reported by U.S. News and World Report.
Can You Lose Weight on the Body Reset Diet?
Yes. While it may encourage less exercise than you're used to, it's likely the amount of calories you're consuming is drastically cut, too (around 1,200 to 1,300 per day).
Also, 10,000 steps a day may not seem like a lot as your only exercise, but it may be more difficult to achieve than you think if you're used to sitting for most of the day for work.
Pros and Cons
There are a few pros of the Body Reset Diet.
1. Promotes blending vs. juicing. Smoothies are a main component of the diet. It's a plus that the diet encourages blending instead of juicing, which is the direction many weight-loss diets take. By blending, you're keeping fiber in the equation, which promotes satiety, supporting overall weight-loss goals, according to a November 2015 paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2. It doesn't require expensive meal delivery or other diet-specific packaged foods. Some weight-loss plans promote or require their own food products or meal delivery services to be successful with the diet (and these are often costly). The Body Reset Diet relies on everyday foods you can find at your local supermarket.
3. Encourages eating five meals a day, with a focus on fiber and protein. The diet encourages eating every couple of hours, along with consuming ample protein and fiber, which helps keep you feeling satisfied.
Here are some of the potential cons to following the Body Reset Diet.
1. Very regimented and restricted. The diet is very regimented and specific as to what and how much you can eat when and on what day. It doesn't leave much room for flexibility.
2. Time consuming. Because the diet is so strict, you have to plan and shop for every meal, exactly as prescribed. This can be both mentally and physically time-consuming.
3. Eating smoothies two to three times a day can get monotonous. Enough said.
4. Not sustainable. Eating so few calories in such a regimented way is not sustainable for most people (read: 99.9 percent of humans). The diet is only intended to be a 15-day reset, so it was never intended to be a long-term solution, but there is little merit in eating a certain way for two weeks to just go back to eating the way you were before.
5. Not appropriate for everyone. If you have a history of disordered eating, are pregnant or are breastfeeding, you should avoid this diet. Also, you should consult your doctor before trying the Body Reset Diet if you have any blood glucose control issues or any chronic illnesses.
As a dietitian, I'm not a fan of short-term, quick-fix diet plans. They tend to lead you right back where you started, with perhaps a few extra pounds (restricting tends to lead to binging) and maybe even some shame and disappointment in yourself.
Instead, incorporate some of the positive tenets of the diet, like eating more whole foods fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, lean proteins while limiting highly processed foods, alcohol, candy and sugary beverages. There's also no harm in adding one of the smoothie recipes into your daily menu rotation, but there's no need to consume three a day.
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What Is the Body Reset Diet, and Does It Work for Weight Loss? - LIVESTRONG.COM
Cheating on Keto: Effects and Recovery – Healthline
The keto diet is a very low carb, high fat diet thats popular for its weight loss effects.
It encourages ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body burns fat as its primary source of energy instead of carbs (1).
As this diet is very strict, you may find yourself tempted by the occasional high carb food.
As such, its natural to wonder whether youre allowed to have cheat meals or cheat days on keto or whether this will kick you out of ketosis.
This article explains whether you can cheat on the keto diet.
Cheat days and cheat meals are common strategies for strict diets. The former allows you to break the diets rules throughout the day, while the latter lets you have a single meal that breaks the rules.
The idea of planned cheating is that by allowing yourself short periods of indulgence, youre more likely to stick to the diet over the long term.
While cheating may be helpful for some eating patterns, its far from ideal for the keto diet.
Thats because this diet relies on your body staying in ketosis.
To do so, you need to eat fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day. Eating more than 50 grams can kick your body out of ketosis (2).
As carbs are your bodys preferred energy source, your body will use them over ketone bodies the main source of fuel during ketosis, which are derived from fats as soon as a sufficient number of carbs are available (2).
Because 50 grams of carbs is relatively few, a single cheat meal can easily exceed your daily carb allowance and take your body out of ketosis while a cheat day is almost certain to surpass 50 grams of carbs.
In addition, some research suggests that suddenly reintroducing a high carb meal to a ketogenic diet may damage your blood vessels (3).
Its also worth noting that its easy to overeat while cheating, which may sabotage your weight loss efforts and promote unhealthy eating habits (4, 5).
Cheat meals or days are discouraged on the keto diet because they can easily break ketosis the metabolic state thats the hallmark of this diet.
If youve cheated on keto, youre likely out of ketosis.
Once out, youll need to strictly follow the keto diet to reenter ketosis. This process takes several days to 1 week, depending on your carb intake, metabolism, and activity levels (6, 7, 8).
Here are a few tips to help you get back into ketosis:
The best way to know if youve reached ketosis is to test your ketone levels.
You can use tools that measure your bodys ketone levels, such as ketone breath meters, blood ketone meters, and keto urine strips which tend to be the cheapest and easiest method.
If youve cheated on keto, youll need to strictly adhere to the diet to reenter ketosis. A few techniques, such as intermittent fasting, fat fasting, and exercise, may help you reach ketosis faster.
You can implement several simple strategies to help curb the urge to cheat on the keto diet. Some tips include:
To resist the urge to cheat on keto, try keeping carbs out of the house, planning out your meals and snacks, and practicing mindfulness.
You should avoid cheat meals and days on the keto diet.
Consuming too many carbs can kick your body out of ketosis and it takes several days to 1 week to get back into it. In the meantime, your weight loss may be disrupted.
To resist cheating on keto, you can keep tempting foods out of the household, rope in an accountability partner, practice mindfulness, and make a strong daily diet plan.
Note that if youre feeling prolonged symptoms of dizziness, stomach upset, or decreased energy, stop your keto diet and consult your doctor.
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Cheating on Keto: Effects and Recovery - Healthline
Want to live beyond 100 years? Adopt the Blue Zone diet – TheHealthSite
It is often said that what you eat defines you. So, if you want to live a long and healthy life, you must pay attention to what you put on your plate. The Blue Zone diet advocates longevity. So, what is this diet all about? Also Read - Follow a low-FODMAP diet for better digestive health
First, it is important to understand what a Blue Zone is. Basically, there are five areas across the world where people live longer than their counterparts in other areas. They have one common thing and that is their diet. According to Dan Buettner, who studies these areas, many people here live beyond 100 years. He also noticed that these areas have a very low rate of chronic ailments like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity. Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Ikaria in Greece and Loma Linda in California fall under the Blue Zone. Also Read - Try the lacto-vegetarian Indian diet for sustained weight loss
Despite being separated by geography, people in the blue zones follow a similar diet. In fact, in four of the five Blue Zones, people consume some meat, but they do so sparingly. Most people have it only about five times in a month. The portions are also very small. Also Read - Fresh food may be scarce now: Smart ways to eat healthy during quarantine
The main food here are vegetables and fruits. Other than this, they also consume a lot of beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas, whole grains, nuts and seeds. The focus here is on natural and nutrient dense whole foods. You may consume water, coffee, tea and wine if you follow this diet. In fact in all the five Blue Zones, tea is a daily requirement and most people also have one to three small glasses of antioxidant-rich red wine every day.
Cows milk and products made from it are not very popular. But some add goat and sheep milk products to their diet but in moderation. But plant milk or yogurt, and nut-based cheeses are better than dairy. Eggs are also eaten two to four times a week. But this is mostly as a side dish. You will also need to limit your fish intake to three small servings per week. One other food that you need to keep away from is sugar. But you can have an occasional treat to satisfy your sweet tooth.
You must stop eating when you are 80 per cent full. This will prevent you from overeating. To follow this rule, you need to eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly. This way your brain will able to figure out when you are almost full. Make breakfast a hearty affair and dinner your smallest meal.
This is a fibre-rich diet that includes a whole lot of nutrient-dense foods. It improves overall health and is particularly good for your digestive well-being. This diet also improves heart health and brings down your risk of many chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. And, this is precisely why people who follow this diet plan live a long and healthy life.
Published : June 2, 2020 10:50 pm | Updated:June 3, 2020 11:44 am
Excerpt from:
Want to live beyond 100 years? Adopt the Blue Zone diet - TheHealthSite
Alicia Silverstone Says She Doesnt Have to Discipline Son Bear Because of His Vegan Diet: Hes a Calm Boy – Us Weekly
No discipline needed! Alicia Silverstone revealed that she doesnt need to lay down the law with her son Bear, 9, because of the positive impact a vegan diet has on his behavior.
I can tell you that from the get-go, I think of him as a brown rice baby because I ate brown rice when he was conceived, when he was in my belly and when he was on my boob, and now he eats brown rice, the Clueless star, 43, said this month via the virtual #BlogHer20 Healthy at Home event. The centering, grounding energy of that nourishment in his organs has left him such a calm boy.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid star welcomed Bear in May 2011 with her then-husband, Christopher Jarecki. The pair divorced in 2018.
Even though Silverstone noted her little one has more energy than anything, his centeredness prevails, which she credits to his plant-based diet. I dont have to yell or scream or discipline. None of that is necessary, she explained. All I have to do is say, Oh, Bear, no thank you, and he goes, OK, mom. Hes got it.
The California native added: We just can talk like that because hes not feeling crazy. When [kids] feel bad, when they eat unhealthy food and they dont feel good, then they dont act good. Same as us.
Silverstone, who is also vegan, noted that her diet makes her a more attentive and patient parent. If I dont eat well, I dont sleep well, and if I dont sleep well, Im a grumpy mama, she said. Whereas if Ive eaten well and I sleep well, everythings a joy thats all food.
Aside from allowing her to be more present and available for Bear, the Kind Diet author explained that living a plant-based lifestyle has helped her in a myriad of ways. I know for sure that the thing that keeps me stay the most sane and the most balanced and feeling my best inside and really my moods, my health, everything is my food, she declared. That is my foundation for everything in this life, because when I eat super-clean superhero recipes from The Kind Diet, I feel amazing. [Its] truly life-changing.
Silverstone even credits her animal-free diet with having a major positive effect on her health. At one point in my life, I had an asthma inhaler, I had allergy shots twice a week, I had cystic acne, I was chubbier, I had my moods, she recalled. And since changing my diet, all of that went out the window. I ditched my asthma inhaler, I never needed allergy shots again.
As for those looking to make the switch to a plant-based diet? Silverstone, who is the founder of the lifestyle website, The Kind Life, has a few suggestions. I would say you want to make sure that youre eating whole grains, brown rice, quinoa. I want to make sure that youre eating greens, steamed, sauted, blanched, kale, bok choy, collards, broccoli, getting all the greens into you And then beans, you want to eat beans every single day.
With reporting by Lexi Ciccone
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Alicia Silverstone Says She Doesnt Have to Discipline Son Bear Because of His Vegan Diet: Hes a Calm Boy - Us Weekly
Pucker up : The goodness of gooseberry in your diet – The Hindu
Shall I send you some nellikai? The question triggers memories of my paatis home in Mysuru. Hot June, vacation time, and as the rest of the house slumbers, my playmate Uma and I head to the gooseberry tree with low-hung branches where we pick the light green berries, pretend they are vegetables and cook with them using our Chennapatna toy kitchen set.
We giggle as we watch each others faces pucker at the tartness, but that does not deter us. Older cousins have taught us well and we quickly chase the gooseberry down with a tumbler of water. We marvel at the sweet taste in our mouth and go aaaaah.
For the sake of nostalgia alone, I buy the nellikai (called amla in the North). After deliberation with my mother (who suggests sweet morabba) we finally decide to make it into thokku a healthier and the less ambitious choice. This, of course, is followed by nellikai talk with several friends on WhatsApp.
In the know
Latha Anantharaman harvests nellikai from her farm near Palakkad, and bottles them in brine. On hot days, she dashes into her garden, picks leaves from the ajwain plant, plucks Kandhari chillies and grinds them all with coconut and the homegrown gooseberry. She adds curd to it for a refreshing, healthy raita.
Murabba
Her family recipes of pickles and even supari made of gooseberry have sheltered them from the demonic summer loo winds of summer, Smita Shakargaye from Bhopal is convinced. Smita, who makes her own papads and pickles, says one of her favourites is wedges of berry spiced with black salt, cumin, pepper and sugar and sundried into a digestive supari. Bengaluru-based Usha Girish shares a morabba recipe (box).
Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty in Coimbatore, sends me organic gooseberries sourced from her farmer friend Manju Ilango, who grows them in a 30-acre organic farm at Thalavadi in Erode district. I wish more people would consider making jams, pickles, juices and powders with them, she says, Our kids should be as familiar with nellikai as they are with oranges or apples.
The drought-resistant gooseberry is one produce that ticks all the boxes of being local, therefore sustainable, and of course great for boosting immunity, says Dr Abhilash Anand of Maitreyi Vedic Village at Aliyar on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. He is the managing director and chief Ayurveda physician there.
Thokku
There are endless benefits, if used wisely. In Ayurveda it is used to restore balance in the body, boost metabolism and rejuvenate organs. It de-toxes. he says. The gooseberry can be a part of ones daily diet, but in moderation, he cautions. In rare cases, it may lead to acidity.
According to gerontologist Dr Rahul Padmanabhan, Vitamin C does complement the immunity mechanism in our bodies. It helps prevent and fight infections.
The season for gooseberry is from April to August and some of the best berries are harvested now, in May and June, says Manju. She is sad that she has not been able to visit her farm this year. Our manager there says the harvest is bountiful and the boughs of the trees are sagging with the weight of the fruits. In the good years we have harvested thousands of kilograms.
Ironically, says Manju, there are few takers for something that grows so profusely here. We should use the nellikai a lot more instead of chasing expensive supplements and unseasonal and exotic alternatives. We should be bottling it and pickling it. Whatever we do with our mangoes, can be done with gooseberry.
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Pucker up : The goodness of gooseberry in your diet - The Hindu
How to live longer – the cheap spice to lower your risk of early death and bowel cancer – Express
You could lower your risk of an early death by eating a healthy, balanced diet, including at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, said the NHS.
Regular exercise is also crucial for boosting your lifespan. Everyone should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every week.
But making some small dietary changes could also help to increase your life expectancy.
One of the best ways to protect against an early death is to add more ginger to your diet, it's been revealed.
READ MORE: How to live longer - tiny food type to boost life expectancy
Studies show ginger fights nausea, stimulates bile production, relieve stomach discomfort, and speeds transit through the digestive tract, they said in their book Eat Better Live Longer - Understand What Your Body Needs To Stay Healthy.
It also helps to break up and dispel intestinal gas, to counter bloating.
Gingers strong anti-inflammatory action may help to relieve pain associated with conditions such as arthritis, they said.
A review of five studies found taking ginger reduced pain by nearly a third and disability by 22 percent in people with osteoarthritis.
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How to live longer - the cheap spice to lower your risk of early death and bowel cancer - Express
Cranberries may enhance metabolic and liver benefits of weight loss diet: RCT – NutraIngredients-usa.com
NAFLD is the most prevalent liver abnormality in Western countries and parallels the epidemic of metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes. Frequently disabling and occasionally leading to cirrhosis, fatty liver disease currentlycosts the US health care system about $32 billion annually.
The new double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial used 288mg per day of a cranberry extract for 12 weeks, which is equivalent to 26g of dried cranberry.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first randomised clinical trial that has investigated the effect of cranberry consumption on NAFLD characteristics, wrote the authors in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition.
As the most common liver disease, NAFLD is usually associated with underactivity and overnutrition, visceral obesity, insulin resistance, dysglycemia, and dyslipidemia. In managing NAFLD, a dietary change is essential for decreasing body weight, improving metabolic status, and normalising biochemical parameters.
In this study, we found that co-administering cranberry with a weight loss diet for 12weeks improves conditions by reducing ALT, insulin, and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in patients with NAFLD.
Researchers from Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Iran recruited 41 people with NAFLD to participate in their study. All participants were assigned to the same weight loss diet, but 20 were given the additional cranberry supplement, while the other 21 received placebo for 12 weeks.
Results showed that both groups experienced improvements in steatosis grade (the amount of fat in the liver) and anthropometric measurements (weight, BMI, body fat, waist circumference, hip circumference, and visceral adiposity index), with no differences between the groups for these measures.
Both groups also displayed reductions in ALT (alanine aminotransferase), a key liver enzyme, but the reductions were significantly greater in cranberry group versus placebo.
Insulin also decreased significantly in both groups, with the cranberry arm of the study again showing greater decreases, compared to placebo.
Both groups also displayed significant improvements in HOMA-IR, a measure of insulin resistance, but the cranberry group experienced significantly greater improvements compared to placebo.
Also, there was an improvement in steatosis grade and anthropometric measurements in both groups (p<.05), and there was no significant difference between the two groups in regard to these factors (p>.05). It seems that 288mg of cranberry extract might improve managing NAFLD, which is equivalent to 26g of dried cranberry.
Many pharmaceutical agents have been investigated specifically for the treatment of fatty liver. However, the beneficial effects of intaking herbal extracts along with complementary medicine in NAFLD patients have received considerable attention in recent years, wrote the researchers.The use of this management strategy has many advantages, including minimal side effects and wide application due to worldwide availability and low treatment costs.
Source: International Journal of Food Sciences and NutritionPublished online ahead of print, doi: 10.1080/09637486.2020.1746957 Combined cranberry supplementation and weight loss diet in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trialAuthors: R. Hormoznejad, et al.
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Cranberries may enhance metabolic and liver benefits of weight loss diet: RCT - NutraIngredients-usa.com
Weight loss: Five breakfast ideas to help you burn belly fat – what are they? – Express
Breakfast foods are good sources of important nutrients such as calcium, iron as well as protein and fibre.
It is protein and fibrous meals that will help you burn belly fat. Fibre helps you keep full but tends to be in foods that are low in calories and when you eat high fibre foods, you have less room in your diet for foods that are not as nutrient dense, like refined carbohydrates.
When you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight. When you eat breakfast, you activate a process called thermogenesis which stimulates your metabolism.
Eating a big meal at breakfast will keep you fuller for longer which will mean you will be less inclined to snack throughout the day, reducing your overall daily intake.
READ MORE:Mediterranean diet: Expert reveals how to lose weight without cutting out favourite foods
Bananas
Incorporating this high fibre fruit into your breakfast meals is a great alternative to sugary breakfast cereals because a banana will still satisfy your sweet tooth first thing in the morning.
One medium sized banana has just over 100 calories but contains 12 percent of your daily fibre needs. Fibre helps slow the emptying of the stomach to curb cravings and keep you feeling fuller for longer.
Bananas are also a good source of resistant starch, a type of starch that your stomach and small intestine dont digest. Research suggests that resistant starch may help reduce food intake and reduce belly fat.
Berries
Fruits including berries like strawberries, raspberries and blueberries have very few calories but are packed with fibre. Eating these with your breakfast will help you stay full until lunch time.
Berries are packed with antioxidants which help regulate blood sugar levels and keep sugar from being sent to your fat cells.
Research shows people who eat more antioxidants, especially in the morning have better success with weight management.
You can add berries to a smoothie or you can top porridge with berries to make a super healthy breakfast meal.
Avocado
The high fat content present in avocados causes many to avoid the food. However theyre packed with healthy fats, which every breakfast needs.
They contain both fibre and oleic acid, which help alleviate the feelings of hunger and you can incorporate avocado into your breakfast very easily.
You can have avocado on toast or you could even blitz it up in a smoothie which creates a creamy taste.
Avocados are also burned at a higher rate than any other type of fat and they can cause your body to continue to burn more calories even after eating.
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Weight loss: Five breakfast ideas to help you burn belly fat - what are they? - Express
Safety of sugar substitutes remains inconclusive | Health – The Union Leader
On a June day in 1878, Constantin Fahlberg, a research chemist conducting experiments in a Johns Hopkins University lab, sat down to eat, bit into a roll some accounts say it was bread and found it amazingly sweet.
Because he had forgotten to first wash his hands, he assumed something hed touched in the lab had contaminated his food. He searched his workspace, tasting vials, beakers and dishes until he found it. A beaker had boiled over, mixing o-sulfobenzoic acid with phosphorus (V) chloride and ammonia.
The result was benzoic sulfimide or, as we know it today, saccharin.
Fahlbergs discovery ushered in a burgeoning new industry that promised hope for millions struggling to lose weight, and for people with diabetes who needed to control their blood sugar.
Saccharin provided the sweetness they craved, but without the sugar or calories. Other sugar substitutes followed, including more than a half-dozen products approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (The use of sugar alcohols such as sorbitol and xylitol also sweet, but which contain about half the calories as sugar also became popular.)
Yet, if something seems too good to be true, maybe it is.
In recent years, studies have questioned the safety of sugar substitutes collectively called artificial sweeteners, although some come from natural substances and whether consuming them helps or harms the body.
The research still is inconclusive. Even saccharin came under scrutiny during the 1970s after research suggested it might cause bladder cancer in rats, and the government attempted to ban it. Subsequent studies, however, could not prove the link in humans, and saccharin remains on the market.
Because of the ongoing confusion, experts suggest consumers use them with caution.
I advise my patients to use them sparingly because we do not fully understand the scope of their impact on our bodies and our health, says Jessica Murgueytio, a dietitian in Bethesda, Md. I tell them to use them in moderation, so they dont get used to consuming sweet foods in excessive quantities. The poison is most likely in the dose, so while a pack of Stevia in your coffee should be OK, I would suggest not having a large amount of diet soda routinely.
Donald D. Hensrud, associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, suggests that the first goal for consumers should be to try to avoid the real thing sugar as much as they can.
Sugars should be restricted in the diet as they are a quadruple whammy, he says. They provide extra calories, do not provide any nutritional value, have direct adverse effects on health for example, dental cavities, inflammation and heart disease and displace other nutrients and foods that are more beneficial, such as drinking milk.
Nevertheless, sugar substitutes might be useful for weight loss when used in an overall weight loss plan, he says, noting that consumers save about 150 calories by drinking a diet soda instead of a sugar-sweetened one.
However, if used less rigorously, for example, as part of a meal that includes a double cheeseburger, a large order of fries and a diet soda, it probably will not be of much help, he adds.
The American Diabetes Association says that these products can be great alternatives to sugar for some people, saying that they could improve blood sugar, weight, and cardiovascular and metabolic health.
However, the group also warns that definitive evidence is still lacking over their long-term benefits. Using them doesnt make an unhealthy choice healthy, the organization adds. It just means its less unhealthy.
Studies raise doubts over whether they have an impact on weight loss, including some that suggest they actually may contribute to weight gain. One study, in fact, found there were differences among four sweeteners in how much weight was gained.
A 2009 study found a relationship between drinking diet sodas and developing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms, including hypertension, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels, all of which raise the chances for type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Other research indicates artificial sweeteners may alter gut microbes and, in doing so, actually contribute to developing diabetes and other diseases.
How do nonnutritive sweeteners increase body weight when they have no calories? One working idea is that they trick the brain into craving other sources of simple sugars, thus increasing overall caloric intake, experts say. Another theory, experts say, is that they alter the microbiome intestinal bacteria in ways that promote glucose intolerance, which results in higher than normal blood sugar levels.
Although some clinical studies report they help in decreasing overall calorie intake, the studies may not reflect reality, Hensrud says. In real world situations, other mechanisms emerge that promote increased calorie intake from other foods, he says.
At least one study suggests that problems caused by sweeteners could be the result of their being consumed in combination with other foods, namely carbohydrates such as pasta, rice, french fries and snack foods.
Dana Small, director of the modern diet and physiology research center at Yale University, found that drinking diet sodas with carbohydrates changes how the body reacts to insulin, and reduces the brains response to sweet taste.
We think whats happening is that the presence of the artificial sweetener causes the carbohydrate to be mishandled in some way that changes how the brain responds to sugar, she says. She did find, however, that drinking an artificially sweetened beverage in small quantities by itself wasnt harmful. So go ahead and have your diet drink in moderation, but dont do it when you are eating lunch, she says.
Although a diet soda has neither sugar nor calories, while a can of regular soda has both, consumers would be far better off avoiding sodas entirely, if they can. The best candidate may not be new or exciting, but it is effective plain old water, Hensrud says.
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Safety of sugar substitutes remains inconclusive | Health - The Union Leader