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Festivals are around the corner and there could be no time better than this to start that much thought about diet plan. And it is actually possible within a week. Wondering how to lose weight in 7 days? Give this diet plan a try and see the difference on your own. After all, being a women you want to fit in that lehenga of yours and show off that much dreamt of flat belly. So pull up your socks for getting that flat stomach really fast, by following these simple food rules: 1) Chuck that C.R.A.P. out of your body Wondering what C.R.A.P. is? Well, it is a group of food that does no good to your body. C for caffeine, R for refined sugar, A for alcohol and P for processed food. If you remove these four food groups from your life, you can live your dream of a flat belly. One of the biggest enemies of a flat stomach, these groups cling to your bodies and make it difficult for you to lose fat. 2) Treat yourself You are already doing good by resisting unnecessary food cravings but a mere treating wont do any harm. Enjoy a cheat meal once a week, be it creamy pasta, chocolate fudge or anything delightful, it will actually help you speed up your metabolism.

3) Go for fish-oil supplementsFound in sardines and salmons, fish oil is a bliss food. Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for everyone, it should definitely be included in your diet. If not consumed directly, there are a lot of fish oil supplements available in the market too. These supplements help in burning fat, thus, leading to a flat belly.

4) Never skip breakfast We all know the importance of a healthy breakfast and there is a reason it is called one of the most important meals of the day. Breakfast should be consumed within an hour of waking up and should be containing all the essential nutrients our body requires.

5) Avoid eating after 8pmEat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. Dinner is something, which should be as light as possible because it is that time of the day when your digestive system is preparing to shut down. So avoid eating after 8 pm so as to give your body enough time to digest.

8 Food Swaps that will flatten your belly in a week

Mere swapping some food items with their healthy versions can actually change your life. It can help you in getting a flat belly with less effort. Try the following pointers and notice the difference on your own.

1) Say bye-bye to fizzy drinksWhen we talk about fizzy drinks, the only thing it brings along with it besides taste is gas. These carbonated drinks actually fatten your belly. To prevent yourself from those unnecessary fats, swap them with flat drinks like green teas and juices.

2) Ditch raw vegetablesVegetables are extremely healthy and must be included in your diet. But your body struggles to break it down when it is eaten raw. So it's better to have steamed veggies instead of eating them raw. Itll cut the extra efforts your stomach and gastrointestinal tract have to undergo in order to break those vegetables down.

3) Cut the saltWater retention induces a puffed belly. And as salt is something which is attracted to water, it contributes in gaining extra fat. To avoid this unnecessary fat, switch to salt-free seasonings like cayenne pepper and notice the difference on your own.

4) Probiotic yogurtBacteria present in the gut have a very crucial role in the digestion of food. Its imbalance can actually disrupt the digestion system leading to a puffed belly. Indulge in probiotics like Greek yogurt in order to meet those sugar cravings without gaining extra pounds. It helps in improving intestinal mobility and thus eases digestion.

5) Drink more fluidsFluids are essential for a healthy body. Especially when it comes to bloating, hydrating really helps. And what better fluid can there be than water? Drink at least 8 glasses of water to get a healthy bloat-free body to substitute those sugary drinks.

6) Avoid the gumSome people have a strange habit of chewing something or the other all day long. For meeting this craving of chewing, they often end up eating gums, which do no benefit to the body at all. An amazing swap is to try munching on dry fruits like almonds, which will actually be beneficial to your body and provide it with those necessary nutrients at the same time.

7) Chuck the carbsOur muscles are habitual of storing a kind of carbohydrate known as glycogen. This stored carbohydrate is only consumed when our body does some extra exercise. When we get rid of carbs, we can actually access this stored fuel and consume it off. For this avoid consuming carbs after lunch and substitute with low-carb food so that no new fat is stored.

8) Eat your fiberFiber is amazing when it comes to helping digestion. Organic fiber cereals actually prevent constipation and help you get that flat stomach quickly if consumed regularly in breakfast. Substitute high fiber oats with any traditional cereal and that flat belly isn't far.

Food PlanSticking to a meal plan besides working out is of equal importance. Follow this diet plan for 7 days and notice the difference on your own. Its suggested to start on a weekend so that you have time for yourself to be prepared.

Day 1

Breakfast: Omelette made with three egg whites and filled with 75g chopped mixed peppers and a handful of spinachMid-morning snack: 100g chicken with red pepper, slicedLunch: One grilled chicken breast, mixed salad leaves, red peppers, green beans and tbsp olive oilMid-afternoon snack: 100g turkey breast with cucumber, slicedDinner: 100g grilled chicken breast with steamed broccoli

Day 2

Breakfast: Baked chicken breast with a handful of stir-fried kaleMid-morning snack: 100g turkey breast and green pepper, slicedLunch: Baked haddock fillet with mixed green salad, with tbsp olive oilMid-afternoon snack: 100g turkey breast with 75g steamed broccoliDinner: One salmon steak with chopped dill and steamed green beans

Day 3

Breakfast: 100g smoked salmon, plus spinachMid-morning snack: 100g chicken breast with yellow pepper, slicedLunch: One grilled chicken breast with garden salad and tbsp olive oilMid-afternoon snack: 100g turkey slices with avocadoDinner: One grilled lamb steak (or two cutlets); steamed broccoli and spinach

Day 4

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (one whole, two whites), tomatoes, green beansMid-morning snack: 100g turkey slices with cucumber, slicedLunch: Baked cod fillet with salad, tomato, spinach and tbsp olive oilMid-afternoon snack: 100g chicken breast with grilled courgetteDinner: 100g chicken breast stir-fry made with tsp oil and green veg

Day 5

Breakfast: 200g turkey breast with avocado and cucumber, slicedMid-morning snack: Two hard-boiled eggs with red pepper, slicedLunch: 150g grilled prawns with a green salad and tomatoes, tbsp olive oilMid-afternoon snack: 100g turkey breast with five almondsDinner: 100g chicken breast with steamed broccoli

Day 6

Breakfast: One grilled haddock fillet with roasted peppers and courgettesMid-morning snack: 100g chicken with one tomato, slicedLunch: 150g turkey with green salad, steamed broccoli and tbsp olive oilMid-afternoon snack: 100g chicken with five pecan nutsDinner: 150g-200g steak served with steamed green beans and broccoli

Day 7

Breakfast: Three-egg-white omelette, grilled tomatoes and steamed spinach

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7 Day Flat Belly Diet Plan - The Perfect Weight Loss Tips ...

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So, do the experts recommend the Master Cleanse? While many professionals have their own opinions, the verdict from McGrath and Seltzer is clear: It's best to proceed with caution.

According to McGrath, the risks outweigh the benefits. "It's not sustainable, it does not help you make a permanent lifestyle change, it can cause muscle loss, and it's not an enjoyable way of eating."

"In regards to detoxification, the body's kidneys and liver are natural detoxifiers, meaning that structured detoxes are not necessary," she continues. Instead, she recommends focusing on eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more water to maximize your vitamin and mineral content. All of these essential nutrients play an important role in your body's natural detox process.

More specifically, McGrath recommends cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts, along with allium veggies like garlic and onions, which contain certain sulfur-based compounds that help activate detoxification enzymes and promote other detox-related functions.

Seltzer also recommends avoiding this plan, despite the touted weight loss benefits. "You should avoid cleanses, especially for weight loss. This plan doesn't address the issues that get people into trouble in the first place, so they will still be there when the cleanse is over. If you are going to do it anyway, talk to your doctor first to make sure it is not going to be dangerous for you."

If you're trying to lose weight, Seltzer says your best bet is to eat healthier foods and move more. "How you should do it depends on your lifestyle, food preferences, activity level, and other unique factors," he says. For example, some people do well with intermittent fasting, whereas others must eat breakfast to maintain a calorie deficit. The bottom line is this: You would be better off experimenting with what works best for your body. You might lose water weight, but that weight usually comes back on once you start eating regularly."

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Is The Master Cleanse Diet Actually Healthy? Here's What The Experts Say - mindbodygreen.com

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Sounds wonderful, right? Well, a new version of keto aimed at upping all of these perks has keto fanatics buzzing, but some health and nutrition pros say it may be even more unsustainable than the keto diet you already know. The new version is called Speed Keto, and dietitians aren't exactly recommending it if you're looking to lose weight or start eating healthier.

Still, if you're curious about the eating plan and its origin, here's what you need to know.

Basically, Speed Keto is a combination of the traditional keto diet (made up of 60 to 70 percent fat, 15 to 30 percent protein, and 5 to 10 percent carbs) and intermittent fasting (IF), which involves alternating between various periods of fasting and eating. One of the most common styles of IF is the 16:8 method , in which you fast for 16 hours and can eat during the 8-hour period that follows.

When it comes to Speed Keto, the goal is to get the dieter down to one meal per day, which also has to fit into the keto guidelines of being high-fat and low-carb. The goal of eating less carbs is to get the body into a state of ketosis, which is when your body burns fat, instead of carbohydrate stores, for fuel, which can lead to weight loss.

Speed Keto, which you can buy as a digital program , was created by Harlan Kilstein, an expert coach and motivator with a doctor of education degree, according to his website. Per the site, Speed Keto is meant to simplify the dieting process and help people get past weight-loss plateaus that might occur after eating a traditional keto diet for a few weeks.

"I think keto and 'Speed Keto' diets will result in weight loss," says Hillary Cecere, registered dietitian at Eat Clean Bro . "Any time food is restricted and a calorie deficit occurs, so will weight loss, and when your eating window is smaller, you are more likely to consume less calories."

That being said, Cecere doesn't support the diet as a healthy way of eating. "This diet is unsustainable. Once it's no longer being utilized, weight gain will happen," Cecere says. "I also think it eliminates a lot of nutrient-dense foods . This diet is not for health or longevityit's only for quick weight loss."

In order to maintain weight loss, it's crucial that the diet you follow is something you can sustain long-term, notes Cecere. And if eating keto in general isn't your cup of tea, that's totally fine, too. "You don't need to be in ketosis to lose weight," she says. "Weight loss is determined by calorie deficitthere are plenty of other healthy, sustainable ways to lose weight if that's something you're interested in."

It's also worth noting that combining keto and intermittent fasting isn't exactly new. Many people have been following a diet that combines the two because eating mostly fats and proteins does fill you up and make it easier to fast between meals. The difference here is that Speed Keto recommends a specific IF schedule and one meal a day.

"Combining a super restrictive diet with long periods of non-eating is not good," Scott Keatley, RD, of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy , previously told WH . The body will cannibalize its own muscle for energy if intake from food is too low but the body does not differentiate between something like a calf muscle or a heart muscle. Keatley added that all your important organs are made of smooth muscle, "and going on a diet like this may harm something like your bladder or lungs just as much as provide fat loss."

It's also worth noting that following a regular keto diet can already have some not-so-pleasant side effects . At the end of the day, whether you want to follow a keto eating plan is up to you, but experts generally warn against pairing keto with an extreme intermittent fasting schedule in the way that the Speed Keto diet does, experts caution. Whatever you choose diet-wise, it's always wise to talk to a dietitian or trusted MD before you drastically overhaul your eating plan.

The bottom line: Speed Keto may not be a sustainable option when it comes to weight loss.

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What Is Speed Keto? Everything To Know About The Buzzy Keto-Plus-Intermittent Fasting Plan - Pulse Nigeria

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By Jonny Lupsha, News Writer

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the JAMA Network website determined that the most effective diets can rarely, if ever, be determined by our DNA. Some studies have reported that genotype variation could predispose individuals to differential weight loss that varies by diet type, the study said. However, the diet-genotype interaction for weight loss was not statistically significant. The finding of no significant difference in weight loss in genotype-matched vs. mismatched groups in the current study highlights the importance of conducting large, appropriately powered trials such as DIETFITS for validating early exploratory analyses.

In other words, statistically speaking, matching a diet to your DNA rarely works and shouldnt be considered a winning method for weight loss. The relationship between your unique body physiology and the foods you eat determine your level of nutrition: Certain types of foods affect our cells on a molecular level, regardless of our genetic make-up.

What you eat will ultimately make up portions of your cells, skin, hair, blood transportation systems, muscle, fat, and more, said Dr. Michael Ormsbee, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Assistant Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University.

The nutrients you eat are not just being transported around throughout our digestive systems and in the blood; they are also an ingrained part of every cell tissue that makes us who we are and what we do. Our bodies are, to a significant extent, composed of the foods that we eat.

Dr. Ormsbee said that our cells bond together to make tissues, which make up our organs, which combine to make our entire bodies function properly. If your cells are not healthy, they will not work properly; and if the cells dont work properly, then the tissues wont work properly; and if tissues arent working, then the systems begin to fail, he said.

The best way to prevent this detrimental snowball effect is to keep our cells healthy by feeding them the right nutrients.

The structures of your cells are made up of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, Dr. Ormsbee said. The foods we eat every single day are made up of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The foods you eat have a major influence on your cellular function because they ultimately become your cells.

If this idea seems a bit coincidental, there are several examples to shed light on the relationship between your diet and your cells. Dr. Ormsbee said that unsaturated fats are one such example. Cell membranes are semi-permeable, and this is due to the fluid structure of the fats, as he called it. Trans fats and saturated fats are more rigid than unsaturated fats.

They dont function the same way as the unsaturated fats, and they cause membranes to be much more rigid than is optimal, potentially limiting the functionality of the cells, Dr. Ormsbee said. Diets that are too high in one type of fatfor example, trans fatsmight lead to a rigid, brittle cell membrane that cannot communicate as well as if they were comprised of a better mix of fat types.

This is one reason why many nutritionists recommend eating all types of fats so that one type doesnt predominate in the diet and end up altering the optimal functioning of those cells.

So, even though our diets help determine who we are, that doesnt mean that our genotypes should determine our diets.

Dr. Michael Ormsbee contributed to this article. Dr. Ormsbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Assistant Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics from East Carolina University.

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Fad of Matching Diet to DNA Ineffective, New Study Shows - The Great Courses Daily News

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There's a switch inside every cell in your body. Flip it on and you're in growth mode. Your cells start dividing but in the process, they make a lot of junk like mis-folded proteins, which help create the conditions for our biggest diseases (including cardiovascular, Alzheimer's and the big C). Flip the switch off, though, and your cells literally take out the trash leaving them clean, renewed, effectively young.

We know how to flip the switch. The trick is figuring out when. Because leaving your body in cleanup mode for too long can also be extremely bad for your health, in the much shorter term. Doing so has been the cause of anxiety, misery and disorder, for decades. It's also known as starvation.

The delicate dance of food consumption is at the heart of The Switch, a new book about new body-energy science and how it can help us live longer. Author and research scientist James Clement studies people who reach the age of 110; Harvard's David Sinclair, who recently wrote a groundbreaking book on the end of aging, is his mentor. As Clement's book hit shelves, an unrelated study in Nature confirmed its premise: mTOR (your genetic "on" switch) cannot coexist with autophagy (trash removal), and that is "implicated in metabolic disorders, neuro-degeneration, cancer and aging," the study said.

In other words: We age faster, get sicker and harm our brains when we fill the hours we're awake with food, day in and day out. Organic beings need more of a break than just a good night's rest in order to properly take out the trash. We're the opposite of automobiles. We break down eventually unless we run out of fuel. (Glycogen, which is what the body converts food into, is our gas.)

These revelations shed a new spotlight on fasting, the main way to induce autophagy (you can also kickstart it with intense exercise on a mostly empty stomach). But this is where we run into problems, and not just because autophagy literally translates to "eating yourself." (It can be hard for scientists to explain that this is actually a good thing and that all living things do it, from simple yeast all the way up to primates; we were designed to work this way by millennia of feast and famine.)

The problem isn't the science, it's the culture. For most of history, fasting was locked into human lives at a steady, healthy pace in some form of ritual, religious or otherwise. But in the modern world, we make our own rituals, and they easily shade into obsessions. This happens a lot with new diets: We get the zeal of the convert. We bore our friends to death with the particulars. And we take it too far, which in the case of fasting can be dangerous.

In a column published this week, the New York Times' veteran health columnist Jane Brody came around to the value of intermittent fasting. But she sounded a personal note of caution: "For people with a known or hidden tendency to develop an eating disorder, fasting can be the perfect trigger, which I discovered in my early 20s. In trying to control my weight, I consumed little or nothing all day, but once I ate in the evening, I couldnt stop and ended up with a binge eating disorder."

Something similar, at least to the first part of that story, seems to have happened to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Last year Dorsey boasted about fasting for 22 hours, eating just one meal at dinnertime, and skipping food for the whole damn weekend. "I felt like I was hallucinating," he enthused, boasting of his increased focus and euphoria.

But as many withering articles pointed out, Dorsey's words would have triggered concern if they came from the mouth of a teenage girl since focus and euphoria can also be early signs of anorexia and bulimia. Clearly there is a tangled set of gendered assumptions at play here. "Its both remarkable and depressing to watch Jack Dorsey blithely describe a diet that would put any woman or any non-wealthy man into the penalty box of public opinion," wrote Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse.

That's not what The Switch is about. Clement doesn't endorse Dorsey's extreme approach, since the research shows benefits diminish after 16 hours of fasting. "I have friends who are bulimic, I know how serious a problem it is," he said when I raised the issue. "The kind of fasting that I'm talking about is just making sure your mTOR and autophagy are in balance."

Indeed, The Switch is a very balanced book, with plenty of nuanced suggestions for how you can make your food situation just a little bit better without making too many radical changes. (That probably explains why it hasn't taken off on the diet book media circuit, which tends to favor rules that are extreme, unusual, and headline-friendly.)

Here's a breakdown of Clement's advice.

Like most medicine, the mTOR switch is good for you if used at the correct dose, and poison at high doses. There's a reason it exists: It's your body's way of saying "times are good, let's grow muscle and fat!" Fat isn't inherently bad for you, either on your body or in your diet. Indeed, the good fats are what Clement suggests we consume the most fish, avocados, plant-based oils and nuts, macadamias especially alongside regular greens, most legumes and a little fruit.

If you're cutting down the amount of time you eat, then the content of your meals matters more. Clement himself gets good results from a meatless version of the ketogenic diet, which he says makes him less hungry but he doesn't rule out other diets that focus on good fat and fiber.

At the very least, be sure to avoid the stuff that spikes blood sugar. It will make you too hungry too soon, which will make autophagy impossible. You didn't think this whole Switch thing was going to give you permission to snarf on soda and hot dogs, did you?

Well, it does, actually just very occasionally.

Clement brings a lot of science on protein to the table, and the bad news is you're probably eating way more of it than you think you need. Animal protein flips the mTOR switch into high gear (which is why Clement is into mostly vegan keto). Sadly, so does regular dairy, and as a milk fan I found the new studies on this particularly hard reading.

But it makes evolutionary sense. Cow milk is designed to make calves grow many sizes in a short space of time, and the way you do that is by activating the mTOR pathway. So it's hard to switch into autophagy if you're chugging milk all the time. (Non-cow milks and cheeses seem to be fine, mTOR-wise.)

Which isn't to say you can't have meat and milk at all. This isn't one of those fundamentally restrictive diets we always break. Clement suggests dividing the week or month or year into growth and fasting phases. You might decide to eat as much as you want for three months of the year (which takes care of the holidays problem), say, or try doing the fasting thing for five days a month.

Whichever way you do it, the sweet spot seems to put you in growth mode around 20 percent of the time. But that's not a hard and fast number, because again, this isn't one-size-fits-all. (It certainly doesn't apply to kids, who need to grow more like calves.) I told Clement that after reading the book I was thinking of only allowing myself meat or milk on the weekends; he enthusiastically endorsed the idea.

Ready to turn on autophagy for its disease-fighting benefits? Ready to avoid doing it too much? Ready to eat more nutritious food when you break your fast? Then it's time to figure out how long you want to fast for and you'll be surprised about how little time it takes to see the effects.

The math varies from human to human, but "you only have about six to 10 hours worth of glycogen stored in your body at any given time," says Clement. "So you can actually burn through those overnight if you didn't load up with carbs in your evening meal or 11 o'clock snacks."

That provides one particularly effortless way to fast for those of us who don't wake up hungry (and if you're eating the right stuff, you generally won't). Let's say you ate your last bite at 9 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m. Congratulations, you're already out of glycogen and in autophagy! Now the question is: How long is it comfortable for you to stay foodless, bearing in mind you don't want to go past a total of 16 hours? (In this example, that would be 1 p.m.)

You'll definitely want to hydrate immediately, of course: Sleep literally shrivels your brain. You might want to drink some coffee, which enhances autophagy (the all-time Guinness World Record oldest human, Jeanne Calment of France, took no breakfast but coffee, and died at 122). If you can stand to do so, this would be a great time to work out. Exercise seems to act like an autophagy power up; one study suggests working up a sweat might boost our cells' trash-cleaning effectiveness all the way up to the 80-minute mark.

So if you went from 9 p.m. to 1 p.m., or whatever 16-hour period suits your schedule (7 p.m. to 11 a.m. seems to be a popular one for fasters who don't make late dinner reservations, and it is easily remembered as "7-11"), then congratulations. You just did the maximally beneficial fast. Take that, Jack Dorsey.

But if you didn't? No sweat. If you only made it until 10 a.m., or 8 a.m. before needing food, your entire body still got a boost of cleanup time. And if you needed an immediate breakfast, that's fine too. Fasting doesn't have to happen every day; in fact it's imperative that it doesn't. Every morning is an opportunity to listen to your body and see if it's ready for a quick restorative food break.

Everyone who's ever tried to diet knows the terrible guilt that comes after grabbing obviously bad food. Don't stress over it, says Clement. Don't be maniacal. The whole point is to be in balance. We all need mTOR-boosting feasts from time to time. "It's fine to have one pepperoni pizza on a Sunday, or whatever," he says. So long as you're eating well most of the time and fasting every now and again, you'll see positive effects.

And if you can't fast at all and can't stop snacking? No worries, just change what you're eating. "If you switch over to snacking on either very low glycemic veggies like broccoli tops or carrots, or nuts, then you're not going to be replenishing your glycogen stores," Clement says. Stick a small bowl of almonds and blueberries in the kitchen and you'll be surprised, over time, at how little it takes to satisfy supposedly giant cravings.

That was what I learned, not from Clement's book, but from David Sinclair's. The Harvard geneticist and Clement mentor doesn't focus so much on lengthy fasts, although he takes a number of fast-mimicking supplements. His dieting approach is to simply eat less, to "flip a switch in your head that allows you to be OK with being a little hungry." For some of us, such small moves may be more effective than going all-out on a new diet.

If youd like to talk to someone about your eating behaviors, call the National Eating Disorder Associations helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text NEDA to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit NEDA's website for more information.

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Not fasting is killing us, but fasting can hurt us too. Here's what to do. - Mashable

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Does the thought of eating bugs make you cringe?Youre not alone,especially in further north areas likeMichigan.

We have these harsh winters, [so] insects arent available, says Julie Lesnik, an anthropology professor at Wayne State University who specializes in the evolution of the human diet and using insects as a food source. Its not a part of a lot of traditional diets in higherlatitudes.

This isnt just something that primitivepeople eat, this is a food resource that has been smartly used for millions of years and in a lot of ways we are silly for ignoring it. - Julie Lesnik,professor

But Lesnik makes the argument that eating and farming insects may make sense for a growing population where our food system leads to growing inequity, hunger and obesity.Bugs are also an environmentally-friendly food source and rich in nutrients, and a culture built around it with recipes and even a business in metroDetroit.

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Still not ready to join the ranks of the entovegans,individuals who only eat insects and plant-based foods? WDETs Anna Sysling spoke to Lesnik on the colonialist history of our bug aversion, the case for an insect-based farming systemand how you can start dabbling in thisdiet.

Otherwise, how did you get here? 101.9 WDET wants to connect with metro Detroiters who are concerned about climate change and want to take action. Sign-up to be contacted by our editorial team to learnmore.

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Lesnick says the problem with our current food system is wastedresources.

Its about how much resources we put into cows versus what we get back out of them, saysLesnik.

Lesnik says according to estimates, it takes about 22,000 liters of water to cultivate a kilogram of edible mass for cows, which is a little over twopounds, and it takes a couple hundred liters of water to produce that same kilogram of edible mass forcrickets.

Soreally fresh water is one of the things we should be thinking about as a very precious resource and so adjusting how we farm our animals is an important part, shesays.

Insects are something we have been eating for millions of years, but fallen off here in the U.S.

Lesnick points to a conflicted history of colonialism as one reason why, as evidenced by correspondence and letters shes uncovered through herresearch.

By eating the whole insect youre actually getting a greater variation of nutrients than if you were just eatingmeat.

In a journal entry from [Christopher]Columbusscompanion on his second voyage, they highly scorn the use of insects as food, Lesnik explains.As Europeans,their only association with insects and food might be maggots with rottenmeat.

Lesnik says that Columbus and other colonizers uses indigenous peoples diets as one way to dehumanize and eventually enslave them to work on sugarplantations.

But she notes that right now there is a lot of excitement about farming crickets andmealworms.

She adds that both of these insects are great alternatives when thinking about different options forfood.

Lesnik says one thing about eating meat in our diet is that its a really easy way to get all the complete proteins that weneed.

That means you can easily getall the essential amino acids from one place, explains Lesnik, whereas if youre a vegetarian you need to be very smart about pairing all your foodsources.

By having strong disgust reactions at the idea of eating insects we are eliminating that asa possible resource for these futuregenerations.

She says insects offer that same animal protein, so they have that same benefit. But unlike eating the flesh of a cow or a pig, we are eating the entire insect so even if you are eating it powdered we get iron, dietary fiber. By eating the whole insect youre actually getting a greater variation of nutrients than if you were just eatingmeat.

Insects also offera unique ethical alternative for vegetarians, saysLesnik.

Cows are roaming animals and we put them into these small areas, but crickets naturally live in dark and cramped spaces, so to farm them in these containers for food is not far removed from their natural habitat, Lesnik continues.They are not nearly as stressed as other animals that wefarm.

Even with these facts, Lesnik says you may run into opposition among theuninitiated.

They might have a real honest disgust reaction, she says, complete with a churning stomach and gag reflex. Its hard to tell that person that their reaction iscultural.

She says that the disgust reaction is developed when we areyoung.

Think of a two-year-old, they put anything in their mouth and it requires the adults around them to say oh no dont put that in your mouth, and she says that our learned reactionhelps form the pathways in our brains as toddlersas to what is disgusting. So by having strong disgust reactions at the idea of eating insects we are eliminating that asa possible resource for these futuregenerations.

She says ultimately we need to change the narrative around bugs andinsects.

This isnt just something that primitivepeople eat, this is a food resource that has been smartly used for millions of years and in a lot of ways we are silly for ignoringit.

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Bug Burgers? Crickets Replace Cows in the Future of Sustainable Food - WDET

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Cole's Bakery offers many keto-friendly baked goods like these cupcakes.

Anyone who pays attention to diet fads knows that sometimes fat's out, and whole grains are in. Eggs are good, then bad, then good again. Now, for those adopting the increasingly popular keto diet, fat is king bacon is totally OK but carbs and sugars are almost completely out.

Originally formulated to prevent seizures in people with epilepsy, ketogenic diets have actually been around for about a century, gathering and losing steam over the decades with different versions of the low-carb, high-fat diet (think Atkins, the Oprah-promoted Last Chance Diet and others). Once again, it's undeniable that keto is getting another heyday.

Many have found incredible success on the diet, which kicks the body into a survival state where fat is burned for energy in the near absence of carbohydrates. It's not uncommon to find people who've lost 50, 80, 150 pounds on the diet in months to a year.

Spokane-based physician Kyle Varner says he was initially suspicious of the diet, but after reading the research behind it, he says it made sense based on everything he'd learned about the human body in medical school.

After his own bariatric surgery, Varner says he'd lost about 70 pounds and was doing everything he'd been told by his doctors, including eating six small meals a day. But he still had about 50 pounds left to reachhis goal. So he switched to keto, a change that's given him those results and personal insight as he helps patients deal with obesity and metabolic syndrome.

"I'm a big keto and intermittent fasting evangelist. I think it's a very healthy diet," Varner says. "Keto is a more doable diet for the lifestyle we've come to lead as busy professionals in the United States, and a major improvement on what almost everybody is eating today."

Fats are very satiating, which can help prevent that urge to go check the fridge every few hours, he explains. The diet relies on people eating only about 35-40 grams of net carbs per day, he says, but it's important to note that fiber doesn't count.

"A lot of people don't realize you can eat a lot of things like broccoli and asparagus and mushrooms and peppers. The number one mistake is people aren't eating enough vegetables," Varner says. "It's really not necessary for most people to count them. If it's broccoli or cauliflower, I don't even count it, that's a food I'm allowed to have."

Cooking keto at home can be more expensive than other diets, and it can be a challenge to make substitutes for baked goods. Luckily, some Inland Northwest eateries are providing more keto-friendly options.

COLE'S BAKERY

Cole's Gluten Free Bakery and Cafe, located in North Spokane at 521 E. Holland Ave., has an entire menu designed for people with special dietary restrictions. The store also stocks several cases with tasty baked goods, breads and rolls for gluten-free and keto dietary needs.

Owner Jeanine Smith, who opened Cole's about six years ago, says she decided to bring on keto-friendly options after learning how helpful the diet is for children with epilepsy, as well as people with diabetes or autoimmune diseases.

"We have a whole keto section on our menu, with burgers, mozzarella sticks, chicken strips and breakfast sandwiches, and we have two full cases of keto products," Smith says.

Desserts made with a keto-friendly monk fruit sweetener include "fat bombs" in flavors like chocolate chip and lemon raspberry.

Smith's interest in gluten-free baking started with her own gluten issues and dissatisfaction with store-bought options. Many hours of baking experiments have ensued to create alternative breads.

Because baking substitutes can be difficult to craft, Cole's also offers mixes.

"What I hear a lot of is that people try to bake at home and then it just fails miserably," she says. "My advice is don't give up. If you love baking, you will find a way. But if you need a little help to get started, we've got options to help on the shelf, including bread mix, pancake mix, brownie mix and cookie mix."

FIRST AVENUE COFFEE

At First Avenue Coffee in downtown Spokane, at 1011 W. First, customers can also find a menu filled with gluten-free, paleo, vegan and keto-friendly options made at the in-store bakery.

But you won't necessarily find them labeled that way.

"For the first year, we advertised we have keto, we have vegan, we have gluten-free, and people would not try any of those items because they were afraid they were going to taste funky," explains owner Deborah Di Bernardo.

"So we took all the labels off our products and just featured them visually," she continues. "Once [people] told us they liked it, we'd say, 'Well that is vegan,' or 'that is keto,' and now just in the last few months, people actually come in asking for keto."

Keto options include donuts, grab-and-go snack packs with hard-boiled eggs and cheese, a roast beef wrap made with cheese, microgreens, mustard and salt rolled up in the meat, and a similar turkey wrap made with cranberry sauce, cream cheese and greens.

But cheddar biscuits are the most popular.

"People just go nuts over this one," Di Bernardo says. "I do an almond flour, cheddar cheese, green onion biscuit, with egg as the binder. This is how I got through my first year of changing my diet."

Di Bernardo started her own grain-free diet after being diagnosed with breast cancer and having a double mastectomy.

"I eat organic, which is why I only feature organic coffees here, and almost everything we use here is organic," she says.

Di Bernardo also confirms that keto items everywhere can be more expensive.

"Almond flour is literally 400 percent more expensive than white flour, so you know, our items are more expensive than the average donut," she says.

OTHER CHOICES

While there are still relatively few restaurants advertising that they cater to keto diets, low-carb options have made their way onto most menus in recent decades.

Doctor Varner suggests tweaks such as ordering a burger without the bun, or getting a Chinese vegetable and meat dish, with a flavorful sauce thats not sugar-based. Tacos can be made with lettuce wraps instead of tortillas, and many restaurants offer steak with vegetables on the side.

For cooking at home, cauliflower is a powerful substitute.

I love to make a taco casserole where I take the hamburger and mix it with cauliflower rice, cheese, vegetables and bacon, Varner says. Ill also make cauliflower rice paella or fried rice. Anything that has rice, you can swap out for cauliflower rice and you wont notice a big difference in flavor.

Keto adherents should ensure theyre getting necessary vitamins and minerals. Its a good idea with any major dietary change to work with your doctor. And the best success is seen in lifelong dietary changes, Varner says.

There is no diet that can be successful if it is a short term endeavor, Varner says. You have to decide every day for a long time what youre having for breakfast, lunch and dinner to see those results, and thats when you have long-term success.

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As more people try a keto diet, restaurants in the Inland Northwest begin catering to the high-fat, low-carb trend - Pacific Northwest Inlander

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Women are particularly prone to poor sleep quality and sleep disturbances.

Women who dont get enough sleep are more likely to both overeat and have a lower-quality diet than women who get a good nights sleep, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Not getting enough sleep was found to be particularly associated with eating more added sugars and more food in general.

By providing new insights into the interconnected relationship between sleep and diet, these findings highlight how poor-quality sleep can increase the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

In our modern society, we oftentimes work late, we eat our meals late and sometimes sleep is kind of put by the wayside in terms of how important it is to our overall healthy lifestyle, said Brooke Aggarwal, the studys senior author and an assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University, in an interview with CNN reporter Kristen Rogers.

Our study really highlights the importance of good, quality sleep for the management of body weight as well as potentially preventing heart disease among women, she added.

As background information in the study points out, women are particularly prone to poor sleep quality and sleep disturbances. They are also at increased risk for obesity.

The study involved 495 women from the New York City area who had volunteered to participate in the American Heart Association Go Red for Women research initiative. The women ranged in age from 20 to 76, and most (61 percent) were members of a racial or ethnic minority group. Almost half (49 percent) had a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight or obese categories.

The women filled out detailed questionnaires about their sleep patterns, including how long it took them to fall asleep, how often they woke up during the night, and how long they slept overall. More than a fourth of the women slept less than seven hours a day (the minimum amount sleep experts recommend for adults), and a third of them reported poor sleep quality or insomnia.

The women also provided details about their dietary habits, including the types and amounts of foods they typically ate. On average, the women exceeded the recommendations for added sugars and total and saturated fats. They also failed, on average, to meet the recommendations for whole grains, fiber and dairy intakes.

The researchers analyzed all that data to see if they could identify any correlations between sleep patterns and dietary habits. They found the following:

That last finding is important, according to the researchers, because when eaten in moderation, unsaturated fats (found in olive and other liquid vegetable oils, as well as in fish and some plant-based foods, such as avocados and walnuts) are believed to help lower cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease. (The premise that unsaturated fats are healthier than saturated ones is not without controversy, however.)

Our interpretation is that women with poor-quality sleep could be overeating during subsequent meals and making more unhealthy foods choices, says Aggarwal in a released statement.

The studys participants provided the researchers all the information on both their sleep patterns and dietary habits. Such self-reports can be subjective and, thus, inaccurate.

In addition, this was an observational study, so it cant prove that poor-quality sleep led to unhealthier food choices.

Its also possible that poor diet has a negative impact on womens sleep quality, explains Faris Zuraikat, the studys lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, in a released statement. Eating more could also cause gastrointestinal discomfort, for instance, making it harder to fall asleep or remain asleep.

Still, a connection between insomnia and overeating does make biophysiological sense.

Poor sleep quality may lead to excessive food and calorie intake by stimulating hunger signals or suppressing signals of fullness, Zuraikat says. Fullness is largely affected by the weight or volume of food consumed, and it could be that women with insomnia consume a greater amount of food in an effort to feel full.

Given that poor diet and overeating may lead to obesity a well-established risk factor for heart disease future studies should test whether therapies that improve sleep quality can promote cardiometabolic health in women, adds Aggarwal.

FMI: You can read the study in full on the Journal of the American Heart Association website. For tips on how to get a better nights sleep, go to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions website.

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Women who get too little sleep are more likely to overeat and have poor diets, study finds - MinnPost

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DEAR DR. ROACH: Does eating strictly organic food and drinking only bottled water help in a meaningful way to prevent diseases and contribute to a long and healthy life? -- M.T.

ANSWER: There is no consistent high-quality evidence that consuming organic foods lead to improvement in health outcomes, including longer life. Some but not all studies have found slightly higher amounts of nutrients in organically grown produce. Organic foods are made without synthetic pesticides, but may use pesticides found in nature. There is not convincing evidence that natural pesticides are any safer, nor that the small amount of residual pesticides left in conventional produce leads to significant health risks. However, there is preliminary evidence that consumption of mostly organic food led to a decrease in the risk of one type of cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but not an overall decrease in cancer. Based on current available evidence, I don't recommend organic food consumption for health benefits.

The quality of tap water varies greatly across North America, but most locations have high-quality water available at extremely low cost with minimal environmental impact compared with bottled water. Even if tap water is unpalatable in a person's location, I recommend a filter system rather than resorting to bottled water, again for environmental concerns as well as cost. Bottled water is rarely the only option, and if so it is usually due to contamination of tap water with microbes or heavy metals, which should be known to the community. My own municipality mails me a water quality report yearly, and it is outstanding quality.

Two additional points are worth considering. The first is that organically prepared foods have been the cause of foodborne illness due to contamination at a much higher level than expected. The second is that organic farming prohibits nontherapeutic antibiotics, a practice with which I strongly agree as a means of reducing the potential for antibiotic resistance.

Until further evidence is available, my opinion is that most people would do better eating more produce, whether conventionally or organically grown. Locally grown fresh produce may have more benefits than organically produced due to freshness.

DEAR DR. ROACH: All of the latest information states that an adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Is this "unbroken" sleep? For example, I sleep for four hours, wake up for one to two hours, and then sleep three to four more hours almost every night. If the sleep is to be continuous, is it better to take a sleeping aid or continue with the current pattern? Nothing I read indicates if sleeping seven to nine hours with a sleeping aid provides the same benefit as not sleeping continuously for that time period. -- P.M.

ANSWER: While it is true that people who sleep seven to nine hours per night tend to live longer than those who sleep less (or more), it is likely that there are some people who need more or less sleep than the average. Further, it isn't clear whether the apparent improvement in longevity is due to better sleeping, or whether people who don't sleep well have an underlying medical condition that is really responsible for the harm seen.

As far as whether continuous sleep is better than interrupted sleep, there isn't good evidence to compare the two. There is strong historical evidence that prior to artificial lighting, two distinct sleep periods separated by an hour or so was considered normal.

Most sleeping aids adversely affect sleep quality, and increase risk of falls and accidents the next day. If interrupted sleep is working for you, I'd recommend continuing versus using a sleeping pill.

Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.

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HEALTH: Risks and rewards of a strictly organic diet - Rockdale Newton Citizen

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From the outside, Demi Lovato seems to be living a dream life, debuting an emotional new single at this year's Grammy, and achieving her lifelong goal of performing the national anthem at the Superbowl.

But internally, the star has undergone consistent struggles with body image and self-acceptance, she told model Ashley Graham in a podcast that aired on Tuesday. Lovato suffered a drug overdose in July 2018 that was preceded by her struggles with an insidious form of eating disorder, in the form of an obessesion with healthy eating and exercise.

"I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder when it actually was just completely falling into it," Lovato told Graham on the podcast.

Lovato said that during the peak of her disorder, she was exercising as much as three times a day. This included working out after every meal, to the point where it was disrupting other activities in her life.

"There were times I lived at the gym," Lovato told Graham."I'd eat a meal, go work out. And that's not happiness to me, that's not freedom."

This compulsion to work out is known as exercise addiction. People with exercise addiction may work outto the point of injury, at the expense of their health, social relationships, and even finances.

Although it can occur with or without eating disorders, recent research found that people with eating disorders are 4 times more likely to develop exercise addiction that the general population.

Lovato also said that after previously struggling with "extreme diets," she later realized she had more suble signs of an eating disorder.

"I realized my symptoms weren't as obvious but it was definitely an eating issue," she told Graham.

One example of an insidious eating disorder is orthorexia, defined as an compulsion to eat only "clean" or "healthy" foods. On the surface, the obsession can seem innocuous who doesn't want to eat healthy?

But taken to an extreme, that can lead toward diet that severely restricts certain types of foods labeled as "bad,"including many that are in fact harmless, such as carbs, dairy, or fruit. It can also cause feelings of guilt, shame or anxiety attached to eating certain foods.

Orthorexia can also occur alongside other types of disordered eating.

Eating disorders can be dangerous or even life-threatening, and should be treated by professionals.

Lovato said her recovery has involved extensive work with experts, including therapists, dietitians and other medical professionals.

Part of coming to terms with her body image involves a practice of acceptance, Lovato said. Rather than saying she finds herself beautiful, sexy, and flawless, even if that isn't true, Lovato said she's worked on recognizing she isn't perfect, and that's ok.

"I see myself in the mirror and I say ... 'Nope, you're healthy and I accept you.' And that's all I need to do," she said. "It's expressing gratitude in the health and reality in accepting yourself rather than trying to convince yourself of something you don't believe."

Lovato also said that it's been helpful for her to focus on engaging forms of exercise she genuinely enjoys, such as jiu- jitsu, a martial art involving intense strategy and technique.

"I feel sexiest when I'm doing jiu jitsu because I'm not thinking about my body. I feel sexy when i'm showing my strength, showing intelligence," she told Graham.

And, she added, it's been a long time since she even stepped on a scale.

"I don't know what I weigh and it's the most free i've felt in my whole life," Lovato said.

Read more:

People with eating disorders are 4 times more likely to develop a dangerous addiction to exercise, study finds

'Intuitive eating' is on the rise, and experts say it's because people are fed up with diet culture

Khloe Kardashian promoted Flat Tummy shakes again, and influencers are warning they promote risky dieting habits

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Demi Lovato opens up about exercise addiction: 'I lived at the gym' - Insider - INSIDER

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