A Poor Diet Is Tied To Health Problems

I wrote about losing body fat, exercising, and diet so when I found this post on WebMD I wanted to reblog it. I wrote a similar post this week on another blog. I was emphasizing the need for a good diet. You can't tell immediately that your body isn't functioning properly. It takes time, sometimes years and by that time you just think your condition is because of your age, but it not. Your bodies condition is due to a bad diet and lack of exercise or just not active enough. Read the post below for more information on a bad diet.

Study explores which foods and nutrients may be helpful or harmful

By Karen Pallarito

HealthDay Reporter

Nearly half of all deaths from heart disease, stroke, and diabetes in the United States are associated with diets that skimp on certain foods and nutrients, such as vegetables, and exceed optimal levels of others, like salt, a new study finds.

Using available studies and clinical trials, researchers identified 10 dietary factors with the strongest evidence of a protective or harmful association with death due to "cardiometabolic" disease.

"It wasn't just too much 'bad' in the American diet; it's also not enough 'good,'" said lead author Renata Micha.

"Americans are not eating enough fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, vegetable oils or fish," she said.

Micha is an assistant research professor at the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.

The researchers used data from multiple national sources to examine deaths from cardiometabolic diseases -- heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes and the role that diet may have played.

"In the U.S. in 2012, we observed about 700,000 deaths due to those diseases," Micha said. "Nearly half of these were associated with suboptimal intakes of the 10 dietary factors combined."

Too much salt in people's diets was the leading factor, accounting for nearly 10 percent of cardiometabolic deaths, according to the analysis.

The study identifies 2,000 milligrams a day, or less than 1 teaspoon of salt, as the optimal amount. While experts don't agree on how low to go, there is broad consensus that people consume too much salt, Micha noted.

Other key factors in cardiometabolic death included low intake of nuts and seeds, seafood omega-3 fats, vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and high intake of processed meats (such as cold cuts) and sugar-sweetened beverages.

We are killing ourselves because of what we eat. Lose your body fat, eat the right foods and walk more and you can live a longer, healthier life.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of website looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

Gaining Weight As We Age

This is a topic I could write a whole book on. But I want to give you a quick explanation in less than 1000 words. First, this happens to all of us. And maybe the body is programed to do just that, because you will loss the ability to fight off disease as you get older and having more body fat can sustain the body during illness. But today we don't need body fat to provide energy. We learned the hard way that excess body fat only slows down body functions. We don't have to gain weight. The body needs less food as you get older.

Most of us don't think constantly about our health. We have other things on our minds and, let's face it, life is complicated today. And if the truth be known, we were not raised to deal with the pressures in today's world. Most of us have difficulty coping with our lives. Some of this we bring on ourselves by trying to absorb too much information and trying to do more than we can possibly handle. But in today's society, we are all most forced to keep pace with others even if that's not possible.

If you're working like most of us, you have to keep the pace that your co-workers set. The theory behind that is, "if they can do it, I can do it" and that's what causes the pressure on us to perform better. For most of us to perform better, we usually have to put more stuff on the back burner. If this sounds like something you 've heard before, putting things on the back burner is the term most of us use instead of saying that I'll put that off till later and then never do it.

Taking care of your personal appearance is usually close to the top of the list. If you know someone who dresses like they're on their way to the gym, the way you might dress at 7 am, and it's after lunch, this might be someone who just wants to dress comfortably or someone who has too much on their to-do list.

The first commitment you have is to yourself and if you have to get up earlier, then do it. Anyone who is running all day like some crazy person, driving over the speed limit all day long is someone who isn't taking care of themselves and setting a bad example to others.

Taking care of yourself is about eating the right way, staying in shape, and setting a good example for others. You will have to work on that but this is all part of living a long happy life. Regular exercise like walking or jogging or maybe a yoga class a long with a good diet and you like before a happier, healthier person and you will slim down. All of this takes time but losing body fat is worth the effort.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of website looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com.  Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

The Reasons You're Addicted To Junk Food

By Shereen Lehman, MS 

This is a good post to read. The mistakes you're making when you make those food choices will affect your life, your performance, and your health for years to come. You can straighten out your health by eating better and exercising more, but in most cases, you can't reclaim all that you lost.

Question: If junk food is so bad for the body and bad quality overall, why is it so popular? You'd think no one would touch it."

Answer: That's an excellent question, and I certainly can't say that I have the answer. I do have some thoughts on the subject -- and maybe one or more are correct, so here goes:

First, let me back up and define 'junk foods.' It's the stuff you eat that has little to no nutritional value, usually combined with ingredients that are bad for you, or is high in calories when consumed in excess.

So that means candy, chips, cookies, cake, sugary soft drinks, greasy burgers, hot dogs, French fries, ice cream, and most things that served at fast food restaurants qualify as junk foods.

So why do so many people eat junk foods? Here are three possible reasons:

#1 It's Cheap

I think one big reason junk food is popular is because a lot of it is cheap to buy. I mean you can go to most any fast food restaurant and order something off a 'dollar' menu of some sort. If you have a couple of bucks in your wallet, you can buy a full meal. 

Same story at the grocery store. Cheap snacks, inexpensive high-sodium and high-fat meals can be found on the shelves. Healthier foods -- like fresh fruits and vegetables-- tend to be more expensive. Those bags or cups of instant ramen noodles cost less than 50 cents, whereas an orange costs a dollar. 

Although a lot of junk food is cheap to buy up front, I think the argument can be made that cheap junk foods end up being more expensive in the long run due to their negative impact on health.

#2 It's Easy

This reason goes along with the being cheap part. Junk food is lurking in vending machines, convenience stores, and even stores that don't typically sell food items might have snacks and sodas near the cashiers. And those instant meals I already mentioned? They're easy to prepare, and you can store a bunch of them in your kitchen cabinets for a long time.

Of course, fast foods live up to the name. You can order a fast food meal and then eat it a minute or two later. Or you can order your meal from your car to can save time by wolfing it down while you drive away.

That drive-thru thing isn't good, though. Not only is the food bad for your health, but dropped fries can accumulate in your car, under the seat. And that gets kind of gross.

#3 It's Sweet, Fatty or Salty (Or All Three)

Rarely do junk foods tempt you with delicate or complicated flavors. They pretty much hit you hard with sweet, fatty and salty flavors. I think those simple flavors might be preferred by people who are picky eaters -- it could be the slightly bitter flavor of many vegetables turns some people off, especially kids. 

But it's more than flavor. Various combinations of sugar and fat make for textures people like. Fat makes foods feel smooth and creamy, like ice cream. Starchy potato and corn chips cooked in hot oil have a satisfying crunch. That's not to say that healthy foods don't have a nice texture, but sometimes the textures of fresh fruits and vegetables take a little getting used to.

Then It Becomes a Habit

Since junk foods are easy to find, easy to make, and a lot of them just flat out taste good, consuming them becomes a habit. That's the real problem. I mean eating a candy bar now and then or snarfing down a bag of fries once in awhile isn't all that big a deal. But when junk foods make up a big part of your daily diet, then you run the risk of becoming overweight and obese, plus you're not going to get enough of the nutrients and fiber your body needs for good health.

So, next time you find yourself standing in line at a burger joint or staring at a vending machine, think about how your choice could affect your health. Then walk away and find something better.

Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight. The internet is full of free information.

But the quickest way and cheapest way is to buy an ebook online and get everything you need in one short read. I have two ebooks on Amazon:

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight

Getting To A Healthy Weight

Check out one of them, I think you can find all the info you need and plenty of tips on how I lost my body fat. 

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. 

Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find these e-books. These books give you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my books at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.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. 

Not Exercising Is Just As Bad For Your Health As smoking

New studies show how bad immobility can be. Some people just don't believe working out is necessary. "My grandmother lived to 92 and I never saw her do any exercise." I hear that a lot. I understand but people from that generation lived a hard life. Physical demands on even the housewife were pretty tuff. There was no dishwashers, no washing machines just a tub and a ringer. Before World War II a lot of families didn't have hot water,  the only heat was a coal burning furnace. Homes had no TV's until the 50's and no supermarkets. A housewife worked about 16 hours a day. Most men worked some type of blue collar job. 

The reason I bring up this hard life that those people had from that World War I generation is because they were much healthier because they were much more active than people today. They were actually more active then and healthier than their children. We have to workout today because today we work with our minds and do little physical work compared to our grandparents. Read the short article below 

When you see someone smoking, you might question “Why would you do that to yourself when you know it could kill you?” Do you react the same way when you know someone doesn’t exercise? You should.
When I was at a recent medical conference, one of the presenters reminded the audience that research has shown physical inactivity to be as deadly as smoking. I was shocked at this when I first heard it a couple of years ago, but I think I was just as shocked hearing it the second time. My guess is you are too. It’s hard to imagine being inactive could be comparable to smoking, but it is.
You wouldn’t dream of smoking (and if you do smoke, you’re likely trying to quit), so why poison yourself with inactivity? But many of us do. Nearly 80% of us don’t get the recommended amount of exercise. Many experts agree the inactivity epidemic is more concerning than the obesity epidemic.
The benefits of exercise are numerous and irrefutable. It helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, dementia, depression, and more. If you exercise, chances are you’ll live a longer, healthier life. Period.
What’s so powerful about exercise? Take heart disease, for example. Heart disease is associated with inflammation in the body. Exercise is a natural inflammation fighter. When you move, your muscles send out anti-inflammatory chemicals.
Also, every time you get up and move, your blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides improve. When you sit down, they get worse. It’s just about moving more.
If you’re not active now, I’m sure it sounds overwhelming to start an exercise program. The good news is you can see health benefits with even a small amount of activity. Even taking a daily 5-minute walk around the office will improve your health. Slowly build up from there.
Ultimately, you want your goal to be 30 minutes at least 5 days a week of moderate exercise. We’re talking about a brisk walk– hard enough that you can talk comfortably but not able to sing. But take your time getting there. Throw in resistance exercises a couple of days a week, and you’re on track.
If you’ve tried exercise before and didn’t lose weight, don’t be discouraged. You are still getting health benefits even if you’re not shedding weight. If you’re overweight but active and fit, you can expect to live as long and healthy as someone who is normal weight and fit. Even if you’re obese, being active helps you live a longer, healthier life than a normal weight person who isn’t active.
Think you’re too old for it to matter? Hardly. Regardless of your age, getting active has enormous benefits even in your 80s and beyond. We’re not just talking about living longer, but living better with a higher quality of life.
As British-American anthropologist, Ashley Montagu once said, “The idea is to die young as late as possible.” Stay fit and healthy as long as you can.

Over Weight And Out Of Shape, Now What?

I'm not going to paint a rosy picture about how easy it's going to be to lose that your fat, but losing that fat is essential. You don't have to worry that much about what the scale says, your goal should be to lose inches in the truck section of your body. The rest will take care of itself. The bad fat your doctor doesn't want you to have is the fat around your waist. When you measure your waist at the navel it should be half your height. I'm 72 inches tall, my waist should be a 36. I don't mean a 36 pant size, I mean 36 inches at the navel.

So even if your weight is in the normal range, and you can check your range on several different websites, if your waist is too large you need to lose some of that fat. There are two ways fat can build-up, over the top of your muscles or under the muscle layer. Under the muscle layer is very dangerous. You may think that your stomach is solid muscle but if you have excess fat under that muscle then it's surrounding your organs. The body will only add about one inch of fat under the skin, maybe a little more around the waist and then it will start to fill the fat cells under the muscle layer. Your liver and your heart are where your doctor doesn't want excess fat. That excess fat around your organs will slow down body functions. That doesn't mean you move slower, it means that instead of your liver being able to work on all the body function (more than 100 functions), it might only have time for the critical ones. Fat around the liver causes "fatty liver disease, fat around your heart causes "heart disease".

So what can you do about it now? First, you'll have to change your diet and not just temporarily. You have to start eating healthy and that means eating fresh and eating clean. So what does that mean? You can probably get more info from "health and fitness" websites than I can give you in one post, but just to simplify things. "Fresh" means you stat buy only produce (fruits and veggies) that are fresh, not frozen. Meat and fish that's fresh and whole grains nothing processed. That means cereals, pasta, and bread that's whole grain. Whole wheat is not whole grain. Whole wheat is processed flour that strips out the nutrition during the processing. You want to avoid anything containing processed or enriched flour.

Also, you have to be careful how you cook food. Cooking oil is your enemy when you're trying to lose fat. First of all, no fried foods, no foods or drinks that are sweet. Fruit is your new dessert. Nuts and seeds are good in moderation, but you need some every day. Cooking oils can be deceiving, most of them are blended oil, some might be good oils but some are bad. They can blend oils in one bottle and call it "olive oil" as long as it's mostly olive oil. And they do the same thing with other oils like "canola". Companies will use 20% palm oil or a mix of other tropical oils and they don't have to put that on the label. When I buy oil for cooking I buy 100% extra virgin olive oil. That means the olive oil is from the first or second press of the olive. Even if the oil is a blend it's all from the first or second press and you're getting all the goodness from the olives. If you buy the oil that comes from Italy or Spain you want the oil that's bottled over there. I say that because Italy and Spain have laws to protect the quality of their oils. Government inspections are a serious thing and no one wants to lose their license to export olive oil. Spain has better control and purer Spanish olive oil. Italy is actually the biggest importer in Europe of olive oil, from other countries. So I would think that Italian olive oil must be blended with oil from other countries, whereas Spain is more real Spanish olive oil. Be careful buying cheap brands. The very best and very expensive olive oil comes from Morroco, but Spain is my pick for high quality for a reasonable price.

So after you straighten out your diet, you will start to have more energy.You have to be on your new diet for a few weeks before you start to feel better. Just being on your new diet will make you feel healthier and then you should start a walking routine, about 30 minutes a day more than you walk now. You want to build up to 10,000 steps a day. That's what you want to do every day to lose inches. 10,000 steps can be a big increase for some of you, so build up to it slowly and don't try to do the whole thing at one time. Try and do some walking early in the morning and then finish up after dinner.

75% of your food should be vegetables and fruit, 15% fish, poultry and some meat and the rest whole grain. Drink mostly water, some coffee or tea and a glass of red wine a couple time a week. Try and go heavy on the fish and don't be afraid of mercury. Go on the internet and look for seafood low in mercury and you'll be surprised how long the list is.

If you stick to this new diet and do the walking every day in just 3 months you'll feel much better and look much better and if you stick with it, you will lose that fat and you'll love yourself for doing it. Good health is a one-way road so you can't go back. If you want to live a healthy life, you have to work at it every day and never look back.

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.

Skipping Dinner Might Boost Your Metabolism

Overweight people who eat during a much smaller window of time each day than is typical, report fewer hunger swings and burn slightly more fat at certain times during the night, according to a new study. But the study was small and it's not yet clear what effect, if any, this approach might have on weight.

I personally understand the reasoning and I do believe that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat most of your calories early in the day. Breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner should be all the food you need for the whole day. It's a type of "fasting". Eat all your calories in a 6 or 8 hour window and the other 16 or 18 hours you can't consume any more calories. This gives your body time to digest all the calories you ate and burn some of your body fat. But if you don't eat healthy food it doesn't work and you won't lose or if you binge food during the eating hours it won't work.

The assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham thinks the idea is worth examining as a potential weight-loss approach and hopes to conduct a larger study.

The approach is called early time-restricted feeding. It's been tested in animals, where researchers have found that it reduced fat mass and the risk of chronic disease.

Body mass index is a rough measure of a person's body fat based on height and weight. A BMI of 30 is considered obese. Someone who is 5 feet 9 inches tall would need to weigh 203 pounds to have a BMI of 30.

All of the study participants tried each approach -- the early restricted-eating and the typical pattern. During one four-day period, participants ate between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. only; during another four-day period they ate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The participants ate the same number of calories during each approach and they ate only the food given to them by the researchers and under supervision.

Researchers then tested the impact of the longer fast time on calories burned, fat burned and appetite. The restricted eating time didn't change the total number of calories burned, she said.

Personally, I do think there's merit to the theory. One very big problem that overweight people have is night-time eating. Snacking at night and eating that big meal at 6 pm or later and then not being active enough after dinner will cause weight gain and most of that is simply bad habits.

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. 

Is Your Diet Aging You?

This is a great post that we could all take advice from. A poor diet can age your body because you're not getting enough nutrition from your food.

Simple strategies to keep you young, inside and out.

WebMD Feature

What you put on your plate might affect what you see in the mirror. But a few tweaks to your dining habits can go a long way to keeping your skin youthful and your body healthy.

The key approach? Eat better.

"Poor-quality foods, like trans fats, cause inflammation -- and aging is basically a chronic inflammatory state," says Timothy Harlan, MD. He's assistant professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine. "Can you look older because you're eating crap? Absolutely."

For example, eating too much sugar and processed carbohydrates (like pasta, bread, and baked goods) can lead to damage in your skin's collagen, which keeps your skin springy and resists wrinkles, says Andrea Giancoli, MPH, RD. She's a policy analyst for Beach Cities Health District.

What's more, these foods put your overall health on the line. They are tied to diseases like heart disease and diabetes, she says.

Other foods, like fruits and vegetables, are good for your skin.

Foods to try and cut-out

Potato chips and french fries. Anything that's deep-fried in oil can add to inflammation throughout your body. Especially avoid trans fats. It can raise your LDL "bad" cholesterol and lower HDL "good" cholesterol, which increases your risk for heart disease.

Check food labels on baked goods and crackers, and avoid "partially hydrogenated oils" and "vegetable shortening."

Donuts and sugary pastries. They're packed with sugar, which Giancoli says may be linked to the development of wrinkles.

Hot dogs, bacon, and pepperoni. Processed meats are usually high in saturated fats and have nitrates in them. Both of those can lead to inflammation.

Fatty meats. These are also high in saturated fats. The key with meat is to keep it lean. Tenderloin cuts tend to be leaner. Look for ground beef that is at least 95% lean. Ground turkey breast and chicken breast are other lean options.

Alcohol. Moderate drinking may be good for your heart, but heavy drinking can rev up the aging process. "Moderate" is one drink per day for women (such as a 5-ounce glass of wine or 12-ounce glass of beer) and two drinks for men.

Foods to Favor

Go for a Mediterranean-style diet, Harlan says. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean protein can help fight inflammation and keep you looking your best, he says.

Eat whole foods that are closest to their natural state as possible, says Giancoli. For example, instead of apple sauce, try a fresh whole apple.

Try eating more of these foods:

Romaine lettuce. It's high in vitamins A and C, which curb inflammation. Also, try broccoli, spinach, arugula, watercress, escarole, kale and endive.

Tomatoes. They're rich in a nutrient called lycopene. So are watermelon, grapefruit, guavas, asparagus, and red cabbage.

Salmon. It's high in omega-3 fats, which fight inflammation. Tuna is another good choice.

Lentils and beans. These are good sources of protein and are loaded with fiber and nutrients. Try black beans, split peas, limas, pintos, chickpeas, and cannellini beans.

"Your skin is essentially made of protein, so if you don't get enough healthy protein in your diet, your skin will reflect that," Giancoli says. "Along with fish, beans are a great way to get it."

Oatmeal. Whole grains such as oatmeal, whole wheat breads and pastas, brown rice, and quinoa help curb inflammation.

"These also have B vitamins in them, like thiamine and riboflavin, which are important for  your skin as well," Giancoli says. If you don't get enough. Go for a variety and make this way of eating a habit. Look at your food when you're buying and think about what you'll get out of it. Your paying for the food, you want to get something back.

"If you're not getting enough of the good stuff on a regular basis, you won't be able to produce healthy new skin cells in the way that you should," Giancoli says. Eating the good stuff will give you the nutrition to stay healthy. If you're not feeling healthy or you're tired all the time, we often blame a cold or virus but the first thing we need to look at is our diet. 

I know this post talks a lot about your skin, and what most people don't realize is that your skin and your eyes will tell the story of your bodies health. Skin problems like an ache or any sores or rashes can all be caused by your diet. Your eyes should be clear and white around the pupil. And if you're using an eye wash every day, maybe you should see a doctor, you might have a bigger problem.

Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight. The internet is full of free information.

But the quickest way and cheapest way is to buy an ebook online and get everything you need in one short read. I have two ebooks on Amazon:

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight

Getting To A Healthy Weight

Check out one of them, I think you can find all the info you need and plenty of tips on how I lost my body fat. 

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. 

Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find these e-books. These books give you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my books at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com,

 iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.