Should I Go Gluten-Free To Lose ?

There are many opinions on this subject. If there's no medical reason, why do it. If you read the post below from VeryWell.com you'll find that gluten is used in man-made foods. It's there to enhance the taste.

Gluten is a protein naturally found in many grain-containing foods, a simple product of food chemistry: gliadin and glutenin combine to form gluten, which is responsible for many of the wonderfully tasty properties foods like bread and pasta provide.

Only about 1 percent of Americans have celiac disease, a rare autoimmune disorder, and about 6 percent have a gluten sensitivity; both lead to a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms.

If you don't have celiac disease, are there benefits to going gluten-free? The True Health Initiative Council of Directors weigh in.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC
Clinical Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Wayne State University School of Medicine

If you are not celiac you should enjoy, not avoid, whole grains. Published data in large studies identify that whole grains

improve heart health and lower the risk of heart attack
lower Type 2 diabetes risk
reduce cancer risk
support optimal body weight, and
promote a long life free of chronic diseases.

The recommendation of both the USDA and the Harvard School of Public Health is to fill 25 percent of your plate with whole grains and I agree. It's likely that increased whole grains in the diet often replace calorie-dense processed foods low in nutrients. The health implications of eating more whole grains in place of nutrition-poor options and the potential to reduce rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are enormous.

I prefer organic grains whenever possible because of reports of using Roundup before harvesting to prevent spoilage.

P.K. Newby, ScD, MPH, MS
Principal and Owner, The Nutrition Doctor; Adjunct Associate Professor of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health

The prevalence of celiac disease and related gluten disorders has risen in recent years, and many have jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon as a result.

Are you among them?

The simple fact is that whole, unprocessed grains that retain their nutrients and fiber are part of a healthy diet for most people. Indeed, many Americans don’t consume the amount recommended for optimal health and disease prevention—and going gluten-free makes it even harder. As a result, those supplanting whole grains with other foods can end up having a less nutritious diet, perhaps forgetting about non-gluten containing options like quinoa or amaranth. Moreover, there is no evidence to show that gluten-free diets are particularly beneficial for weight loss, though you can lose weight on any diet as long as calories expended are fewer than those consumed.

Considering how what you eat makes you feel is always important, so if you’ve noticed a correlation with gluten-containing foods, it’s worth paying attention: gluten-related disorders are uncomfortable, and under-diagnosed. But seeing a physician for clinical testing, keeping a food diary, and thinking about your diet as a whole should be the first steps you take before cutting out entire food groups that might otherwise make it harder for you to eat a nutritious, balanced, and diverse diet.

Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD
Nutrition Expert

Even though it is hip to go gluten-free, many people who are doing so don’t need to follow this type of restrictive diet plan. A gluten-free diet eliminates gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and is the primary mode of therapy for anyone with celiac disease. It is not a weight loss plan nor will it boost energy or treat autism.

However, some people have non-celiac gluten sensitivity and have shown improvement by limiting gluten in their diets. If you have symptoms associated with gluten ingestion, try eliminating it and see if the symptoms subside. Be forewarned that gluten lurks in all kinds of products and going gluten-free can be challenging and expensive.

It’s best to consult your healthcare provider if you suspect you are intolerant or sensitive to gluten to rule out celiac disease before going gluten-free, too.

You've read the "pros", now read the "cons". Many of the foods containing grain, like bread and pasta, don't use whole grains. They use a manufactured version or "processed flour" or "processed wheat" that has been stripped of any nutrition that you would normally find in wheat. And if you notice in the labels that everything from donuts to cake, bread, pie crust, and any other bakery goods or snack food like chips all contain processed wheat flour.

So what, you might ask? Processed flour is just another food stuff with no nutrition that will elevate you blood sugar levels the same as "refined sugar", which by the way is another manufactured product.

When you actually eat the plant food, "like organic rice", you get all the nutrition in the grain. Any grain that has been refined or processed has had the nutrition stripped during the processing.

So "going gluten free" for most people on that type of diet is simply a way to avoid processed flour and if you want to lose weight differently avoid processed flour and only eat whole grains like rice or Quinoa.

I write several blogs and ebooks, check out some of my other sites.

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com
howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com
blogonweight.blogspot.com

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebooks at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my ebooks.

There are two Ebooks. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my Ebook. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new Ebook is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Your Pants Don't Lie

I read several posts every day and the one I thought was the best one today was on Wordpress.com. The author BandedGirl writes about her battle with weight and her last post is worth a read. "Your pants Don't lie" and I copied a small part:

"so after all these things happened, i gave up
i started eating more
drinking more
not exercising
eating more than i know is right
and stopped believing in myself
what is the end result..
my pants not buttoning do NOT lie
it speaks the truth
it is UP to me to get back on track
i can say and write what i want to
but until i do..actually do something about it..
my pants will continue to tell the truth.."

Just that small part of her post gives you an insight into her battle with weight loss. Many of the celebrates that advertise those weight loss products on TV looked good for a while but most of them have gained the weight back. It's easy to start to cheat after you started to lose weight. You can liken losing weight to stop smoking. There's a type of addiction to some foods mostly because of the food additives manufacturers use in their products.

That's why the only way to lose weight permanently is to learn to eat differently. It's the food we eat that adds the weight. Eating all natural food like fresh fruits, vegetables, and fresh meat and seafood will change the way you metabolism works and your body will start to burn your body fat.

Losing weight is about losing body fat. Don't worry about the pounds, worry about the inches around your waist. As your waistline slims down other body fat will also shrink

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Can You Just Cut Back On Alcohol Or Quit?

When I was actively working on losing my body fat I did have to  practically stop all alcohol. Alcohol has too many calories. If you have been drinking at a level that is considered high-risk or heavy drinking, you may want to consider making a change in your drinking patterns -- or quit altogether. But which is the best choice for you? Should you try moderating your alcohol consumption, or should you try to quit?

Some studies show that alcohol in any quantity will shut-down your metabolism and keep you from burning calories. How long will the effects of alcohol last? I don't know I never saw or read anything about quantity or time. If your interested do some research, I'm sure there's information out there. 

Many people do learn to moderate their drinking and are successful in returning to a pattern of low-risk drinking.

Just as there are support groups for those trying to quit drinking, there are support groups for those who are trying to cut down or moderate their drinking.

When Cutting Down Doesn't Work

If you try to cut down, but find that you cannot stay within the limits that you set for yourself, it may be best to quit instead. One of the main reasons that people decide to quit drinking and seek help to do so is because they find they have lost the ability to control the amount they drink.

You are the person who is in the best position to make the decision of whether to cut down or quit. If you can consistently drink one or two drinks and no more, then you may be able to cut down to a low-risk drinking pattern. But if you find that those first two drinks usually trigger an urge for more and you rarely drink only two, chances are moderation is not an option.

When Quitting Is Advised

There are other reasons that quitting drinking may be a better option for you than moderation or cutting down, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA):

• If you have been diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder, or you currently have symptoms of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence.
• If you have certain medical conditions, such as cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis C, chronic pain, certain heart conditions, or mental disorders such as bipolar disorder.
• If you are taking certain medications that can negatively interact with alcohol.

• If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.

Other Reasons to Quit

If you are planning to make a change in your drinking, it is best if you discuss the decision with your healthcare provider. According to the NIAAA, even if you do not fit into any of the above categories, your physician may recommend that you quit drinking based on other factors, such as:

• A family history of alcoholism
• Your age
• If you have had alcohol-related injuries
• Alcohol-related sleep disturbances or sexual dysfunction

It's Your Decision

Whatever your decision - to cut down or to quit drinking - there is support available to help you met your goals. If you decide to quit, you may want to seek help. You do not have to do it on your own.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Losing Weight Made Easy

It’s not that hard to lose weight but there’s a “but” clause in here. There’s many different ways to lose weight and not every way will work for you. That’s the BUT CLAUSE, "not every way is going to work for you". There's going to be some "trial and error” if you’re going to find the best way for you. 

There is one constant that applies to any diet, YOUR BODY HAS TO BURN MORE CALORIES THAN YOU CONSUME. The way the body works is what we might call “real time”. In other words, We are suppose to first eat (that first hour after we wake-up from a nights sleep) and then use that food for energy and then eat again and use that food for energy and so on. You want to eat first thing because your body has been working all night on repairing the body and doing the basic organ functions like pumping blood and breathing air. So you need some nutrition and you need to drink a full glass of water to hydrate your body after that long sleep.

As I mentioned before you have to burn more calories then you eat. So the big question is "how many calories do I burn?” That’s the part that most everyone gets wrong. And if you get that wrong you won’t lose weight. 

Statistics show the the average women who works 8 hours a day may only burn about 1200 calories all day, because most working women will spend most of that 8 hours sitting at a desk.  While the average mother with school age children will burn a little more because there more active and have more time to workout, so the average goes up to 1500 calories for non-working or unemployed women. For men the number are a little different. Actually most men not working out of the home will burn less calories, about 1500 and men working out of the home will burn closer to 1800 calories. 

Now these are marly averages, and that’s were most dieters go wrong. I thing the numbers may be correct if your of normal weight, but if you’re overweight you’ll burn less calories. Why, you might ask. As you gain body fat you tend to burn less calories. You may not realize it, but you’re slowing down as you add weight. It’s a gradual process so in most cases you don’t realize that you’re slowing down. Most people don’t realize their overweight until their 30+ pounds over. 

So what has really happened is that you may be only burning 800 or 900 calories a day. At this point you have to cut your calories down to 800 a day to see if you can start losing fat. I understand that it’s not going to be easy and here is were exercise can help. If you don’t exercise now and you want to lose weight, one hour a day of real heart-pumping exercise will burn about 300 calories, so if you were burning an extra 300 a day you could eat more calories.  So now you would be up to 1100 calories. If you change your meal plan and go with 5 small meals a day about 3 hours apart, eating 200 calories per meal, you can stay under 1100 calories and control food cravings. 

Now you have to find 200 calories that will give you nutrition to hold you for that 3 hours. Your in luck, just GOOGLE “200 calorie meals” and there’s several websites to help you. Remember to spend your 200 calories wisely, that’s all you get for 3 hours. If you just eat a snack and think that if you save 200 calories now so I can eat more later, that doesn’t work. It takes your body time to process food and if you eat say 500 calories for one meal, your food won’t have fully processed in 3 hours and your body will have to store some of those calories in fat cells so it can begin to process the next meal. 

If you find that your losing weight and you want to increase calories, I suggest 6 small meals a day about 2 hours apart. This is better for cutting out food cravings but you have to be the judge of which plan will help you lose weight.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

More People Than Ever Want To Get Fit

I was watching the news this morning and sports wear, the clothes you exercise with, is taking over the casual clothing market. We all know that exercising has been shoved down our throats for the last couple decades but it hasn't been until recently that more people of all ages are actually taking exercise seriously. You can go to the "Y" or any health club and you can see people of all ages. So why is being thin gotten so popular?

We know people are working longer now, and the competition for jobs is getting much harder. It's no secret that today the slim and trim people are doing better in the job interviews. They just look like their a more serious applicant. They look like their a harder worker. Your perception is a big part of a job interview and if you give the perception that you're a harder working employee than you might have the advantage.

We still have a majority  of overweight adults  but this might be the last generation. I think in twenty years you will see a big change in what we eat and how we take care of ourselves. Young people are adopting this new lifestyle and some of the over 40 group are all in. It's not that fast food is on the way out, but all food will be changing. I thing that finely all of us realize that we need more from the food you're eating. A new trend has started with younger adults and instead of looking for comfort food they're looking for healthy food. I'm not saying that comfort food is on the way out, but I thing in years to come we will see less of it.

When we get comfort food and other fried foods out of the schools and replace it with healthy food and healthy snacks that's when you'll see a difference in the way young people look at food in general. That's where we have to start making a change in eating habits. The government had a good idea when they wanted to change the food in schools but they didn't know how to implement it. Those changes have to be done on the local level. Parents have to get involved and demand change and then you'll see results. We also need to teach physical education again. Elementary School in particle stopped physical education due to budget cuts, so parents are finding outside activities for their kids and it's expensive and time consuming and most kids can't join in. Most of the schools in the suburbs have gym classes and other after school sports but inner city school have often been forced to cut out those programs.

Learning good health like diet and exercise has to be taught in schools from the earliest age if you want to create healthy habits that the child will care with them for life.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Dr Oz Says "Skip Breakfast", What?

Of Course, this is taken out of context. Read the whole thing.

Dr. Oz Says “Skip Breakfast!” 

Should We?

Jan 17, 2020

In a video-taped interview this week with Fox News, Dr. Oz admits that doctors don’t learn much about nutrition in med school. I wondered then, how did he discover this remarkable “new” idea of skipping breakfast? He learned this dietary concept through Hugh Jackman. A terrific, talented and one of my favorite actors, but hardly an expert on physiological nutrition.



Dr. Oz went on to claim the average person eats continually over a 17 hour day. Very few healthy people I know eat “continuously.” If consuming potato chips at 11pm is a habit, then we have a counseling problem.

I do agree that eating before bedtime is not beneficial to sleep. Sleep releases beneficial growth hormones – lack of it leads to mental deterioration, internal stress and illness.

“I think for 2020, the first thing I’m going to do is ban breakfast,” the celebrity doctor recently told TMZ. “I don’t think we need to eat breakfast. That’s an advertising ploy.”
Well that settles it doesn’t it? If that bastion of newsworthy journalism, TMZ broadcasts it – then it must be true.

Dr. Oz goes on: “Unfortunately, a lot of the dogma that we were fed for decades came out of advertisements. It wasn’t really based on the truth around our health.”
Well that’s true – advertisements are meant to manipulate the public into purchasing their product; but let’s break his statement down.

Never did the doctor clarify what a healthy versus unhealthy breakfast is. Eggs contain countless nutrients which I’ve written about, whole wheat French toast is better than white. There’s a huge distinction between sugary Honey Smacks with a quarter teaspoon of fiber and 5 teaspoons of sugar and Shredded Wheat with a quarter teaspoon of sugar and two teaspoons of fiber. Add a banana, berries and cinnamon for nutritious fructose and added fiber because fiber also allows the body to rid itself of toxins through bowel movements.

Thankfully Mark Wahlberg (who wakes up at 2:30am and eats breakfast at 3:15) and Dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick, the manager of wellness nutrition services at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute respectfully disagreed with Dr. Oz’s finding.

In response, Dr. Oz shot Mark down, “Well, powerful medical literature and lots of athletes support me and show that intermittent fasting flips the switch so it bolsters your physical and your mental performance.”

Great, I can recruit just as many athletic directors and dietitians who would declare the opposite. But the response of “Oh yeah, did not,” “Did too,” is kind of childish isn’t it? Even if 5,000 men are wrong, they’re still wrong! (old Chinese saying.)

We are all uniquely created. I don’t eat breakfast immediately either – I like to be awake. I don’t measure portion sizes anymore – after measuring several times, usually you’ll know how much is normal.

I DO eat for nutrients. My morning begins around 7am with two cups of coffee, creamer, cinnamon and turmeric, an hour later, ¾ cup of quality yogurt, walnuts, berries and milled flaxseed. About 1/2 to 1 hour later, whole grain cereal and a half banana. At lunch I’ll have variety: a small salad, a half sandwich or planned-overs from the night before. Dinner consists of 3-4 ounces of meat with 5xs more veggies. A small dessert is eaten about 2 hours later. Sometimes in the afternoon I’ll eat a square of dark chocolate.

For my dietary advice I will go to The Great Physician. He lovingly created us individually according to Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1:5. In Exodus 16:21, God ordered the Israelites to gather manna every morning. Even God believed in breakfast! I’ll cast my lot with my LORD. I believe God’s smarter than any man.

I copied the above from another blog I read when I can. Everyone loses weight differently, but losing weight does have a lot to do with calories and when you eat those calories. A popular method of losing weight today is to consume all your daily calories in a small part of your overall day. In other words, some people try to restrict eating and drinking calories to 8 hours in the middle of the day and consume nothing the other sixteen hours except water. This is popular with those people who skip breakfast anyway. Others will only eat one meal a day and consume nothing except water the other 23 hours. I have even heard that some people will eat normally 3 days a week and "fast" the other 4 days. I believe you have to experiment and do what works for you.

In reality, we all consume too many calories and don't get enough nutrition from the foods we are eating. So how do you get enough nutrients? You eat whole foods. Fresh produce, fresh meat in small amounts, more seafood and consume all your calories in just part of your day. Don't be a "grazor", someone who picks on food in small quantities all day long.

Your body needs time to do other functions besides digesting food. We might think our bodies are good at "multi-tasking" but if you have too much body fat the way you're eating has to change. You are creating your body fat because of the way you eat and things you eat.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Why Keep A Food Log

A cookie here. A bowl of pasta there. A handful of veggies drenched in ranch dressing. We think we know what we're taking in nutritionally, but reality is often pretty far off base. If you have trouble keep weight off, there's usually a simple reason why. 

Most of us that watch the scale often know pretty quick that we're gaining weight. Gaining weight, if your not a body builder like those people on Venice Beach in California, probably means your increasing body fat. And if you're like most of us when we want to lose weight, we cut back on food. That's wrong. Most of us don't overeat, we just eat the wrong things. 

In particular, calorie intake when dining out -- which, let's face it, most of us do more often than we should -- is usually grossly underestimated. Even so-called "healthy" meals can get derailed in a hurry, thanks to poor nutritional choices. Salad dressing is the number-one source of fat in [many] women's diets, which attests to how many women turn a good salad into a cardiac disaster. Most restaurant salads with dressing are about 800 calories, some can be even more, like a Chef Salad, Taco Salad, or a Cobb Salad.

When it comes to diet, we do a lot of things right, but most of us manage to make some serious blunders. Keeping a food log can help us get back on track, and it's not as difficult as you might think. See if any of these excuses sound familiar:

But... I don't understand what the point of a food log is. You know those contests where people fill a huge jar with jellybeans and you guess how many the jar holds, but you're wayyyyyyyyy under? That's pretty much what happens when it comes to "eyeballing" your calorie, fat and sodium intake. We think we know what we're consuming, but we're usually light years away from reality. A food log will help you keep track.

But... I don't have time to keep a food log. Back before the World Wide Web, my dad had a book full of foods and their calorie content. He painstakingly researched and recorded each and every meal and added up the calories himself. Let's all raise our voices in thanks for apps that now do the work for us. (I particularly love My Fitness Pal.)

But... I already eat healthy. Keeping a food log isn't only about the obvious culprits, like calories and fat. Most people unknowingly put away far more sodium than they realize in a given day, and we often overestimate our fruit and veggie consumption. A food log can be a wake-up call to improve habits we didn't even know needed fixing.

Fruit and Vegetables should be 3/4 of every meal. When watching calories, never drink anything with calories. You might not realize it but half the calories we consume come from drinks. If your gaining weight it's all about the calories. You can't exercise away a bad diet. Keeping a food log with an App is the quick easy way to keep track of calories. 

Someone was telling me, you can find an App that tells you the calories in any item on any menu. If I find the App I will post it. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.