Graham O'Regan transforms life with healthy diet and gym regime

Graham O'Regan, 28, was 17-and-a-half stone with a 42-inch waist when he finished school in 2004

Before: Graham O'Regan had ballooned to more than 17 stone

A warehouse worker has changed his life for the better after shedding seven stone.

Graham O'Regan, 28, was 17-and-a-half stone with a 42-inch waist when he finished school in 2004.

Graham, from Glanmire, Co Cork, said: 'I did very little exercise and I was eating junk food.

'I'd eat dinner at home, but then when I went out with my friends I would eat fast food about two or three times a week. I felt terrible.

'Towards the end of school I was working in a Chinese restaurant doing deliveries, so I was taking food home three nights a week. I'd have been big into the chocolate and crisps too.

'I had no confidence and if I went to the shop with the lads I wouldn't even go in. I fell out of playing hurling for a year and I never went back to it.'

After school Graham got a job working night shift in the warehouse of a logistics company.

It was a manual job involving a lot of heavy lifting and he lost two stone, but was unable to shed anymore.

Meanwhile, his fondness of fast food continued while he turned to chocolate and sweets to keep his flagging energy levels up at work.

Graham O'Regan after

The turning point came in November 2012, six months before Graham and his fiancee Elzbieta's wedding day.

He saw an ad for Educo Gym on Facebook and signed up for a three-month diet and exercise programme in January.

It involved going to the gym every day for the first 12 days and then three times a week for the next 10 weeks.

He said: 'I was on a strict diet. I had a protein shake in the morning, three healthy meals and three litres of water every day and the gym gave me a list of recipes which was a help.

'It was really hard but I was 100% dedicated. I had good personal trainers. They knew what I wanted and they pushed me. I could see the results every week. It just kept me going.'

By the end of March Graham was down to a weight of just more than 10 stone.

He said: 'Physically I felt fantastic, unbelievable, on top of the world.'

Two months later the couple tied the knot and he has managed to keep the weight off.

They went to Poland on honeymoon where he had to buy a new wedding ring as the original one was six sizes too big.

Today Graham plays soccer with his friends on Wednesday and says he has a 'totally different life' to before.

He said: 'Before I didn't even want to go out. I had a lack of confidence and my energy was low.

'Now I'm definitely much more confident. I'd go anywhere and do anything because I feel good.'

Entities 0 Name: Graham Count: 5 1 Name: Graham O'Regan Count: 4 2 Name: Chinese Count: 1 3 Name: Co Cork Count: 1 4 Name: Elzbieta Count: 1 5 Name: Glanmire Count: 1 6 Name: Poland Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: graham Score: 51 1 Name: stone Score: 30 2 Name: regan Score: 30 3 Name: 17-and-a-half Score: 20 4 Name: 42-inch Score: 20 5 Name: gym Score: 18 6 Name: food Score: 15 7 Name: chocolate Score: 13 8 Name: warehouse Score: 13 9 Name: waist Score: 13 Authors Media Images 0

This Doctor Changed His Life with Intermittent Fasting and High Intensity ...

Content:

Is there such a thing as a fast diet? Dr. Michael Mosley, a physician like me, wrote a best-selling book on this subject, aptly called The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting, which answers that question.

As a journalist for BBC in the UK, Dr. Mosley has really helped popularize one of the most powerful medical interventions I've ever encountered for helping people normalize their weight, namely intermittent fasting.

I've previously featured some of his TV documentaries on intermittent fasting and high intensity exercise in this newsletter. In those programs, Dr. Mosley reveals his own health journey, showing how he went from being overweight, diagnosed with diabetes and high cholesterol, to regaining his health.

'My doctor wanted to start me on drugs. But I said, 'I want to see if there's something better and alternative out there,'' he says. 'I started exploring, and came across intermittent fasting...

I ended up testing all sorts of different forms of fasting, including alternate-day fasting. Eventually, I came up with something that I called the 5:2 Diet, which is really counting calories two days a week and eating normally the other five days. I stuck to that for about three months. During that period, I lost about 20 pounds of fat, my body fat went down from 28 percent to 20 percent, and my blood glucose went back to normal. That was two years ago and it stayed completely normal since... I have to say it's been absolutely life-changing.'

Different Types of Fasting Regimens

Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term that covers an array of different fasting schedules. As a general rule however, intermittent fasting involves cutting calories in whole or in part, either a couple of days a week, every other day, or even daily, as in the case of the scheduled eating regimen I use myself.

In his explorations, Dr. Mosley tried a number of these different approaches, including a five-day fast, alternate day fasting (promoted by Dr. Krista Varady), and the 5:2 fast.

The five-day fast was very effective in that he lost weight and improved some of his biomarkers. But it was quite difficult to go a full five days without nearly any food whatsoever. The alternate day fasting also worked, but he found it to be a bit inconvenient.

'And then I came across some work done in England by Dr. Michelle Harvie, which was [fasting] two days a week. I thought, 'I can handle two days a week.' In a way, I kind of combined a number of different techniques together and ended up with the 5:2 plan. One of my inspirations was the Prophet Muhammad because he had told his followers they all need to fast on a monthly basis for Ramadan but also cut your calories two days a week - Mondays and Thursdays. That's what I did. I'm not a very religious person, but I do believe that great religions have a lot to teach us, whether it is mindful meditation or indeed some of the benefits of fasting. I think the reason that these ideas persist is there is something very profound about them.'

On the 5:2 plan, you cut your food down to one-fourth of your normal daily calories on fasting days (about 600 calories for men and about 500 for women), along with plenty of water and tea. On the other five days of the week, you can eat normally.

Yet another version of intermittent fasting, and the one I personally recommend for most people who are overweight, is to simply restrict your daily eating to a specific window of time, such as an eight-hour window. It is more aggressive and, as a result, people will see results sooner.

I too have experimented with different types of scheduled eating for the past three years, and this is my personal preference as it's really easy to comply with once your body has shifted over from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel.

It is important to note that this is not a permanent eating program and once your insulin resistance improves and you are normal weight, you can start eating more food as you will have reestablished your body's ability to burn fat for fuel.

Intermittent Fasting Actually CURBS Your Hunger

Many are hesitant to try fasting as they fear they'll be ravenously hungry all the time. But one of the most incredible side effects of intermittent fasting that I've found is the disappearance of hunger and sugar cravings.

I'm a fellow of the American College of Nutrition and have studied nutrition for over 30 years, and I'd never personally encountered or experienced hunger cravings just disappearing like they did when I implemented intermittent fasting.

Dr. Mosley had the same experience once he began fasting. Others have also contacted him saying they're astonished to realize that hunger no longer dominates their lives; they're back in control. Now, you get hungry because your body needs fuel. But the vast majority of people in the world, certainly in the developed world, are eating foods that severely inhibit their ability to produce lipase and use fat as an energy source. Lipase is inhibited because of high insulin levels, and your insulin rises in response to eating foods high in carbohydrates.

'Absolutely. I think we're just beginning to discover what insulin is capable of -not just in managing blood glucose but also in managing fat deposition and probably its link with cancer and dementia. I think we're just beginning to grasp just how important it is,' Dr. Mosley says. When fasting, I recommend paying attention not only to the timing of your meals but also the quality of the food you eat. I believe it's important to eat a diet that is:

• High in healthy fats. Many will benefit from 50-85 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthy fat from avocados, organic grass-fed butter, pastured egg yolks, coconut oil, and raw nuts such as macadamia, pecans, and pine nuts


• Moderate amounts of high-quality protein from organically raised, grass-fed or pastured animals. Most will likely not need more than 40 to 70 grams of protein per day


• Unrestricted amounts of fresh vegetables, ideally organic

Dr. Mosley on Intermittent Exercise

Dr. Mosley is also a proponent of high intensity interval training (HIIT), and recently finished a new book called Fast Exercise.

'The reason I got into high-intensity exercise (and this was three years ago) was because I was making a documentary for the BBC called The Truth About Exercise. I met a professor and he said, 'I can give you many of the benefits of exercise for just a few minutes a week.' I didn't believe him. I did the program; it changed my life.'

After that, he began looking into the science behind it, again discovering that there's a huge body of science showing the benefits of HIIT. Dr. Mosley has also started doing a form of high intensity weight training, which is like the strength-training equivalent of HIIT, based on research he found from the University of Texas. But there's also another piece of the fitness puzzle that many are still unaware of, and that is the importance of avoiding sitting. When I first started seeing the studies showing that even fit people had an increased risk of dying if they sat for long periods of time, I couldn't believe it.

I researched it and eventually came across Dr. Joan Vernikos, who's a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research scientist. She wrote the book Sitting Kills, Moving Heals. She really drove home the point of how important it is to engage in intermittent non-exercise movement throughout the day. As it turns out, your body needs to interact with gravity in order to function properly.

Ideally, you shouldn't sit down for more than 15 minutes or so at a time. Personally, I set a timer to go off every 15 minutes. Once I got used to the routine of standing up several times an hour, I started adding some simple exercises to it. I've compiled a list of 30 videos for ideas about what you can do when you stand up, to maximize your benefits.

'I'm familiar with the work of Dr. James Levine from the Mayo Institute. He's been shouting, 'The chair is a killer!' for a good 10 years now,' Dr. Mosley says. 'I met him first about 10 years ago. He had very compelling evidence that you should get off your bottom and move around every 20 minutes or so, even if it's only for a minute, and that being sedentary is itself a killer. It doesn't matter if you go to the gym. You're not going to undo 13 hours of sitting.'

Intermittent Fasting Benefits Your Brain

'What really impressed me is when I went to the National Institutes on Aging and I met Dr. Mark Mattson. He's got these genetically engineered mice. They've been genetically engineered so they will develop Alzheimer's or dementia. Normally they'll develop dementia around a year, which is the equivalent of about 40 or 50 in humans. But when he put them on an intermittent fasting diet - alternate-day fasting diet in fact - they developed it at around two years, which is equivalent to being 90. When he put them on a junk diet, a junk food diet, they developed it at about nine months. When he looked into their brains, he discovered that the ones who had been on intermittent fasting diet have grown 40 percent new brain cells particularly in the area associated with memory. He identified this thing called BDNF or brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which seems to be driving those changes and also protecting the brains. He's doing this big study in humans at the moment to see if the same thing happens with fasting humans.'

There's exciting research indicating that intermittent fasting can have a very beneficial impact on your brain function, too. It may even hold the key to preventing Alzheimer's disease.

Mattson's research suggests that fasting every other day (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories) tends to boost BDNF by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent, depending on the brain region. BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.) So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue - and why the combination of intermittent fasting with high intensity exercise appears to be a particularly potent combination.

Eating Like Our Ancestors Helps Optimize Biological Function

One of the arguments for intermittent fasting is that it mimics the way our ancestors ate. They didn't have access to food 24/7, and underwent alternating intervals of 'feast and famine.' The human body is adapted to this, and research shows that abstaining from food now and then actually optimizes biological function all-around.

'As Dr. Mark Mattson said to me, in terms of the brain work, the time when you need to be smart is not when you have food. Because if you're in a cave and you've got food, you reach out and grab it. You don't have to be clever. The time you have to be smart is when you don't have food. Because then you've got to get up, you've got to get out, you've got a plan, you've got to remember where you left the food before or where you found the berries, and how to hunt. It's actually being without food that makes you smarter.'

'We know, for example, that it's only in the periods when you don't have food that your body goes into a sort of repair mode, because most of the time it's going flat out. Your body's really only interested in procreating, growing cells, always going on and on. But when you go without food for 12 to 14 hours, your body starts to think, 'Well, let's do a little bit of repair now.' Some of the proteins get denatured. New ones get created. Your mitochondria cells originate. There's a lot of fundamental biochemistry, which completely validates this argument,' Dr. Mosley says.

'At the moment, I'm in contact with a group in Ireland who are doing research trying to combine the two approaches, because as far as I know, it hasn't been properly tested together. I believe that together it's going to be much more powerful than separately. It would be nice to have this sort of scientific basis for that [recommendation].'

Optimizing your brain function is yet another amazing benefit of applying these two powerful approaches - intermittent fasting and intermittent exercise. You're actually able to think clearer, get more done, and be far more efficient. It's a phenomenal side effect of following this type of program.

Finding an Eating Schedule That Works

There are many reasons to implement an intermittent fasting schedule. Adding high intensity interval training and making sure you stand up at regular intervals (several times per hour) can go a long way toward eliminating not only unwanted weight, but also metabolic syndrome and most chronic disease-including heart disease and dementia.

Dr. Mosley and I have both had bouts of diabetes, and close family members have struggled with it as well. Both of us were able to completely reverse our diabetes and regain normal insulin and leptin sensitivity through diet, intermittent fasting, and exercise. Type 2 diabetes is basically 100 percent curable, but you have to give it a sincere effort, and not quit after a few days.

If you struggle with food cravings, especially sugar, know that once you make this shift to burning fat instead of sugar as your body's primary fuel, your hunger for unhealthy foods will vanish, and you will not have to exert enormous amounts of self-discipline to resist unhealthy foods any longer. You will be back in control!

Perhaps best of all, intermittent fasting is not something you have to do non-stop for the rest of your life. I believe that most who are insulin/ leptin resistant would benefit from doing it continuously until the resistance resolves. However, once your weight is ideal, and you have no high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol ratios, or diabetes, then you can have more meals until or unless the insulin/leptin resistance returns.

*Image of 'exercise' via Shutterstock

Entities 0 Name: Dr. Mosley Count: 11 1 Name: BDNF Count: 5 2 Name: BBC Count: 2 3 Name: Dr. Mark Mattson Count: 2 4 Name: Ireland Count: 1 5 Name: American College of Nutrition Count: 1 6 Name: University of Texas Count: 1 7 Name: Dr. Joan Vernikos Count: 1 8 Name: Dr. Michael Mosley Count: 1 9 Name: Dr. Michelle Harvie Count: 1 10 Name: Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting Count: 1 11 Name: Mattson Count: 1 12 Name: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Count: 1 13 Name: Mayo Institute Count: 1 14 Name: England Count: 1 15 Name: Dr. James Levine Count: 1 16 Name: Dr. Krista Varady Count: 1 17 Name: Ramadan Count: 1 18 Name: Stay Healthy Count: 1 19 Name: Muhammad Count: 1 20 Name: NASA Count: 1 21 Name: UK Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/YvlPew Title: Why Are We So Fat? The Multimillion-Dollar Scientific Quest to Find Out | Magazine | WIRED Description: Adam Voorhes In January of this year, the first subject checked into the metabolic ward at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to participate in one of the most rigorous dietary studies ever devised. For eight weeks, he was forbidden to leave. He spent two days of each week inside tiny airtight rooms...

Doctor prescribes more salt in patient's diet

Originally published Sunday, August 31, 2014 at 6:18 AM

Q. I cut my salt intake many years ago, just for good health. Now I have low sodium in my blood and suffer from low blood pressure and fainting spells.

When I needed surgery, the surgeon was concerned about my low sodium level and its effect on healing. I have had three doctors advise me to eat more salt! How can this be?

A. Public-health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association and the Food and Drug Administration all have recommended that people limit salt intake to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart and kidney disease and stroke. Guidelines suggest that most middle-aged people should not exceed 1,500 mg of sodium daily. That's less than a teaspoon of salt daily.

A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine (Aug. 14, 2014) involving 17 countries and more than 100,000 participants determined that fewer than 4 percent achieved a sodium intake in that range.

A daily intake of 3,000 to 6,000 mg of sodium a day 'was associated with a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes) than was either a higher or lower estimated level of intake.'

When sodium levels are too low, stress hormones kick in to conserve this vital mineral. That can have negative health consequences. You should follow your doctor's advice to get a bit more salt in your diet.

Q. My vitamin D level was low, so my doctor prescribed vitamin D-2 in a dose of 50,000 IU once a week. Within a day, I was experiencing terrible nausea and heartburn.

It took a couple of weeks for me to figure out the pill was causing my reflux. I never suffered from it before. Is there a good way to get enough vitamin D without causing such misery?

A. Although doctors frequently prescribe a once-weekly dose of 50,000 IU of vitamin D-2, some readers report side effects from this formulation. Don't ignore low levels of this nutrient, though, because deficiency is associated with arthritis, asthma, cancer, infections, depression, diabetes and dementia.

Sharing this information with your doctor should help the two of you reach a decision about the best way for you to replenish this essential vitamin.

Q. I am utterly confused about aspirin. I read recently that the FDA discouraged the use of aspirin to prevent heart attacks. Now I read that regular aspirin use lowers the risk of cancer. So, should people take aspirin or not?

A. This spring the FDA determined that aspirin should not be used to prevent a first heart attack. According to the agency, the benefit is too low and the risk of internal bleeding is too high.

More recently, an analysis of 200 aspirin studies found that a daily dose of this old drug can significantly lower the risk of several common cancers (Annals of Oncology online, Aug. 5, 2014). The researchers concluded that the benefits outweigh the harms when it comes to cancer prevention, especially in high-risk individuals. Please discuss your individual risks with your primary-care provider.

In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., 15th floor, New York, NY 10019 or via their website: http://ift.tt/OnneyF Entities 0 Name: FDA Count: 2 1 Name: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Count: 1 2 Name: American Heart Association Count: 1 3 Name: Food and Drug Administration Count: 1 4 Name: New York Count: 1 5 Name: Joe Count: 1 6 Name: New England Journal of Medicine Count: 1 7 Name: Teresa Graedon Count: 1 8 Name: Features Syndicate Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1tlWekU Title: Healthcare outsiders fuel digital health startups #healthIT Description: A gold rush inevitably lures outsiders, and digital health is no different. People with tech talent but little to no healthcare experience are encamping in the booming sector. | Cardiovascular News & Updates

Rickets returns as poor families find healthy diets unaffordable

Poverty is forcing people to have dangerously poor diets and is leading to the return of rickets and gout - diseases of the Victorian age that affect bones and joints - according the UK Faculty of Public Health.

The public health professionals' body will call for a national food policy, including a sugar tax, as concerns rise over malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies in British children. It will also appeal for all political parties to back a living wage to help combat the illnesses.

Doctors and hospitals are seeing a rise in children suffering from ailments caused by poor diet and the faculty has linked the trend to people's inability to afford quality food. Latest figures show there has been a 19% increase in people hospitalised in England and Wales for malnutrition over the past 12 months but experts say this is only the extreme end.

Dr John Middleton, from the FPH, said the calls would come in the faculty's manifesto to be published next month and warned that ill-health arising from poor diets was worsening throughout Britain 'through extreme poverty and the use of food banks'.

He saidthat obesity remained the biggest problem of food poverty as families are forced into choosing cheap, processed high fat foods just to survive. 'It's getting worse because people can't afford good quality food,' he said. 'Malnutrition, rickets and other manifestations of extreme poor diet are becoming apparent. GPs are reporting rickets anecdotally in Manchester, the East End of London, Birmingham and the West Midlands. It is a condition we believed should have died out.

'The vitamin deficiency states of gout, malnutrition being seen in hospital admission statistics are extreme manifestations of specific dietary deficiencies or excesses, but they are markers of a national diet which is poor. Food prices up 12%, fuel prices up double-figure percentages and wages down is a toxic combination, forcing more people to eat unhealthily.'

He said many policy makers forgot the impact of rising energy prices on diet. 'That is the bit people dont really appreciate - a processed meal from a supermarket will need less feeding the meter as of course will a fast food take out. Poor people are having to pay out more of their income on food compared to the better off. There are difficult choices for people on low income.'

Carmel McConnell, founder of the Magic Breakfast charity, which provides a free breakfast to 8,500 British schoolchildren in need each morning, said teachers in the schools she worked in expected to see a dramatic decline in the health of their pupils as they return after the holidays: 'Teachers tell us they know even with free school meals it will take two to three weeks to get their kids back up to the weight they were at the end of the last school term because their families cannot afford the food during the holidays.'

McConnell and Middleton both welcome the Nick Clegg-led intiative to start universal free school meals in schools for younger children, although critics are claiming that schools, already facing a dire shortage of places, may find it difficult to accommodate when the scheme is rolled out later this week.

The UK has 3.8 million children in extreme poverty. Charities such as the Trussell Trust report growing need for food banks but say that some of the items donated can be of poor quality.Dr Middleton said: 'If the nutritional diseases are markers of a poor diet, the food banks are markers of extreme poverty - the evidence from Trussell Trust suggests the biggest group of users are hard working poor families who have lost benefits, live on low and declining wages and or they have fallen foul of draconian benefits sanctions which propel them into acute poverty and hunger. This is a disastrous and damning indictment on current welfare policy and a shame on the nation. The food banks are providing a real and valued service staving off actual hunger - they are actually keeping people alive.'

Entities 0 Name: Trussell Trust Count: 2 1 Name: Magic Breakfast Count: 1 2 Name: West Midlands Count: 1 3 Name: England Count: 1 4 Name: Manchester Count: 1 5 Name: FPH Count: 1 6 Name: British Count: 1 7 Name: Carmel McConnell Count: 1 8 Name: Britain Count: 1 9 Name: Middleton Count: 1 10 Name: Birmingham Count: 1 11 Name: McConnell Count: 1 12 Name: UK Count: 1 13 Name: Wales Count: 1 14 Name: London Count: 1 15 Name: John Middleton Count: 1 16 Name: UK Faculty of Public Health Count: 1 17 Name: Dr Middleton Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1tPMfCo Title: Junk Food Diet Keeps Rats from Seeking Out New Foods Description: It's no secret that high-fat and calorie-rich foods are a major contributor to weight gain and obesity. But a junk food diet doesn't just pack on the pounds - it may actually reduce a person's desire to eat a more diverse diet.

Rickets returns as poor families find healthy diets unaffordable

Poverty is forcing people to have dangerously poor diets and is leading to the return of rickets and gout - diseases of the Victorian age that affect bones and joints - according the UK Faculty of Public Health.

The public health professionals' body will call for a national food policy, including a sugar tax, as concerns rise over malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies in British children. It will also appeal for all political parties to back a living wage to help combat the illnesses.

Doctors and hospitals are seeing a rise in children suffering from ailments caused by poor diet and the faculty has linked the trend to people's inability to afford quality food. Latest figures show there has been a 19% increase in people hospitalised in England and Wales for malnutrition over the past 12 months but experts say this is only the extreme end.

Dr John Middleton, from the FPH, said the calls would come in the faculty's manifesto to be published next month and warned that ill-health arising from poor diets was worsening throughout Britain 'through extreme poverty and the use of food banks'.

He saidthat obesity remained the biggest problem of food poverty as families are forced into choosing cheap, processed high fat foods just to survive. 'It's getting worse because people can't afford good quality food,' he said. 'Malnutrition, rickets and other manifestations of extreme poor diet are becoming apparent. GPs are reporting rickets anecdotally in Manchester, the East End of London, Birmingham and the West Midlands. It is a condition we believed should have died out.

'The vitamin deficiency states of gout, malnutrition being seen in hospital admission statistics are extreme manifestations of specific dietary deficiencies or excesses, but they are markers of a national diet which is poor. Food prices up 12%, fuel prices up double-figure percentages and wages down is a toxic combination, forcing more people to eat unhealthily.'

He said many policy makers forgot the impact of rising energy prices on diet. 'That is the bit people dont really appreciate - a processed meal from a supermarket will need less feeding the meter as of course will a fast food take out. Poor people are having to pay out more of their income on food compared to the better off. There are difficult choices for people on low income.'

Carmel McConnell, founder of the Magic Breakfast charity, which provides a free breakfast to 8,500 British schoolchildren in need each morning, said teachers in the schools she worked in expected to see a dramatic decline in the health of their pupils as they return after the holidays: 'Teachers tell us they know even with free school meals it will take two to three weeks to get their kids back up to the weight they were at the end of the last school term because their families cannot afford the food during the holidays.'

McConnell and Middleton both welcome the Nick Clegg-led intiative to start universal free school meals in schools for younger children, although critics are claiming that schools, already facing a dire shortage of places, may find it difficult to accommodate when the scheme is rolled out later this week.

The UK has 3.8 million children in extreme poverty. Charities such as the Trussell Trust report growing need for food banks but say that some of the items donated can be of poor quality.Dr Middleton said: 'If the nutritional diseases are markers of a poor diet, the food banks are markers of extreme poverty - the evidence from Trussell Trust suggests the biggest group of users are hard working poor families who have lost benefits, live on low and declining wages and or they have fallen foul of draconian benefits sanctions which propel them into acute poverty and hunger. This is a disastrous and damning indictment on current welfare policy and a shame on the nation. The food banks are providing a real and valued service staving off actual hunger - they are actually keeping people alive.'

Entities 0 Name: Trussell Trust Count: 2 1 Name: Magic Breakfast Count: 1 2 Name: West Midlands Count: 1 3 Name: England Count: 1 4 Name: Manchester Count: 1 5 Name: FPH Count: 1 6 Name: British Count: 1 7 Name: Carmel McConnell Count: 1 8 Name: Britain Count: 1 9 Name: Middleton Count: 1 10 Name: Birmingham Count: 1 11 Name: McConnell Count: 1 12 Name: UK Count: 1 13 Name: Wales Count: 1 14 Name: London Count: 1 15 Name: John Middleton Count: 1 16 Name: UK Faculty of Public Health Count: 1 17 Name: Dr Middleton Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1tPMfCo Title: Junk Food Diet Keeps Rats from Seeking Out New Foods Description: It's no secret that high-fat and calorie-rich foods are a major contributor to weight gain and obesity. But a junk food diet doesn't just pack on the pounds - it may actually reduce a person's desire to eat a more diverse diet.

Rickets returns as poor families find healthy diets unaffordable

Poverty is forcing people to have dangerously poor diets and is leading to the return of rickets and gout - diseases of the Victorian age that affect bones and joints - according the UK Faculty of Public Health.

The public health professionals' body will call for a national food policy, including a sugar tax, as concerns rise over malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies in British children. It will also appeal for all political parties to back a living wage to help combat the illnesses.

Doctors and hospitals are seeing a rise in children suffering from ailments caused by poor diet and the faculty has linked the trend to people's inability to afford quality food. Latest figures show there has been a 19% increase in people hospitalised in England and Wales for malnutrition over the past 12 months but experts say this is only the extreme end.

Dr John Middleton, from the FPH, said the calls would come in the faculty's manifesto to be published next month and warned that ill-health arising from poor diets was worsening throughout Britain 'through extreme poverty and the use of food banks'.

He saidthat obesity remained the biggest problem of food poverty as families are forced into choosing cheap, processed high fat foods just to survive. 'It's getting worse because people can't afford good quality food,' he said. 'Malnutrition, rickets and other manifestations of extreme poor diet are becoming apparent. GPs are reporting rickets anecdotally in Manchester, the East End of London, Birmingham and the West Midlands. It is a condition we believed should have died out.

'The vitamin deficiency states of gout, malnutrition being seen in hospital admission statistics are extreme manifestations of specific dietary deficiencies or excesses, but they are markers of a national diet which is poor. Food prices up 12%, fuel prices up double-figure percentages and wages down is a toxic combination, forcing more people to eat unhealthily.'

He said many policy makers forgot the impact of rising energy prices on diet. 'That is the bit people dont really appreciate - a processed meal from a supermarket will need less feeding the meter as of course will a fast food take out. Poor people are having to pay out more of their income on food compared to the better off. There are difficult choices for people on low income.'

Carmel McConnell, founder of the Magic Breakfast charity, which provides a free breakfast to 8,500 British schoolchildren in need each morning, said teachers in the schools she worked in expected to see a dramatic decline in the health of their pupils as they return after the holidays: 'Teachers tell us they know even with free school meals it will take two to three weeks to get their kids back up to the weight they were at the end of the last school term because their families cannot afford the food during the holidays.'

McConnell and Middleton both welcome the Nick Clegg-led intiative to start universal free school meals in schools for younger children, although critics are claiming that schools, already facing a dire shortage of places, may find it difficult to accommodate when the scheme is rolled out later this week.

The UK has 3.8 million children in extreme poverty. Charities such as the Trussell Trust report growing need for food banks but say that some of the items donated can be of poor quality.Dr Middleton said: 'If the nutritional diseases are markers of a poor diet, the food banks are markers of extreme poverty - the evidence from Trussell Trust suggests the biggest group of users are hard working poor families who have lost benefits, live on low and declining wages and or they have fallen foul of draconian benefits sanctions which propel them into acute poverty and hunger. This is a disastrous and damning indictment on current welfare policy and a shame on the nation. The food banks are providing a real and valued service staving off actual hunger - they are actually keeping people alive.'

Entities 0 Name: Trussell Trust Count: 2 1 Name: Magic Breakfast Count: 1 2 Name: West Midlands Count: 1 3 Name: England Count: 1 4 Name: Manchester Count: 1 5 Name: FPH Count: 1 6 Name: British Count: 1 7 Name: Carmel McConnell Count: 1 8 Name: Britain Count: 1 9 Name: Middleton Count: 1 10 Name: Birmingham Count: 1 11 Name: McConnell Count: 1 12 Name: UK Count: 1 13 Name: Wales Count: 1 14 Name: London Count: 1 15 Name: John Middleton Count: 1 16 Name: UK Faculty of Public Health Count: 1 17 Name: Dr Middleton Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1tPMfCo Title: Junk Food Diet Keeps Rats from Seeking Out New Foods Description: It's no secret that high-fat and calorie-rich foods are a major contributor to weight gain and obesity. But a junk food diet doesn't just pack on the pounds - it may actually reduce a person's desire to eat a more diverse diet.

Katie Price Returns to Size Eight After Giving Birth

Katie Price has been gorging on biscuits and curries, despite returning to a size eight just three weeks after giving birth.

Katie Price still enjoys gorging on calorie treats of curries and biscuits despite returning to a size eight.

Katie Price says she still enjoys gorging on high calorie treats such as curries and biscuits despite returning to a size eight just three weeks after she gave birth.

The former model welcomed her fifth child into the world on August 4 and while she isn't sure how she has shed her pregnancy pounds, the star insists she is certainly not on a diet because she can't go without eating biscuits at night and she still likes to consume a curry every Friday.

She said: 'My body's shrunk back already, but I'm not really sure how. I certainly didn't ping back into shape after Jett was born.

'I'm looking after myself by being healthy in the day - but I can't stay away from the biscuits at night.

'I'm still wearing the size eight leggings I wore throughout my pregnancy under my bump and haven't changed dress size.

'I'm 100 per cent not on a diet.

'I'm not breast-feeding but don't think having a baby is an excuse to sit and eat junk food - I've done that before and I know it doesn't make me feel healthy or give me energy. However, I still have a chicken korma, rice and naan on a Friday night and proper Sunday roast, too.'

The 36-year-old star discovered her husband Kieran Hayler had cheated on her with two of her friends while she was expecting, and she believes part of the reason why she didn't pile on the pounds during her latest pregnancy is because she was 'under a lot of stress'.

Writing in her Now magazine column, she added: 'I know people may be surprised but don't forget, I was under a lot of stress during the pregnancy and didn't pile on the weight like I did with Jett.

'I've also been pregnant for nearly two years, so I think my body was ready to start getting back to my natural size.'

Katie also has 12-month-old son Jett with Kieran, as well as daughter Princess, seven, and other sons Junior, nine, and Harvey, 12, from previous relationships.

by Matt Shine for http://ift.tt/16S7MNu find me on and follow me on

Entities 0 Name: Katie Price Count: 3 1 Name: Jett Count: 3 2 Name: Matt Shine Count: 1 3 Name: Kieran Count: 1 4 Name: Harvey Count: 1 5 Name: Kieran Hayler Count: 1 6 Name: Katie Count: 1 7 Name: Junior Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: biscuits Score: 41 1 Name: jett Score: 30 2 Name: size Score: 24 3 Name: gorging Score: 24 4 Name: curry Score: 23 5 Name: pregnancy Score: 22 6 Name: katie Score: 21 7 Name: kieran Score: 16 8 Name: eight Score: 13 9 Name: calorie Score: 12 Authors Media Images 0

Diet Care opens its new refurbished offices at its main Sharq branch

Free walk in consultations at the branch on 3rd September 2014 from 9:00 am - 7:00 pm.

Kuwait, 27 August, 2014: Diet Care, Kuwait's leading provider of health and nutritional programs and services today announced the opening of its new refurbished offices at its main branch in Sharq. The renovated and redecorated branch comes complete with new furniture and a new reception area accentuated by dedicated sections designed to cater to customers. In addition to the quality and service provided by Diet Care, the makeover of the Sharq branch is adding an extra feather called ultra-modern to its list of services and is in line with communicating the brand's new identity to its customers following the launch of Diet Care's new logo.

Accompanying this new space is Diet Care's recently released visual identity, which includes a new logo that symbolizes an innovative direction for the company which marked a new stage of growth and transformation. On the day of the opening i.e. 3 ^rd September 2014, Diet Care will provide free consultations to anyone who comes to the branch from 9:00 am - 7:00 pm

Commenting on the renovated branch, Sarah Dimashkieh, Director of Clinical Operations, Diet Care said: 'We have spent the last several months redefining our brand and customer experience and are pleased to welcome our customers to our new renovated branch. This move reflects our commitment to serve and meet the needs of our customers in a spacious area enhancing their comfort and convenience'.

'We are constantly searching for new ways in which we can improve the experience of our many customers when dealing with us.

The renovated new branch highlights Diet Care's exceptional service in Kuwait and marks a new chapter for the company whose expansion from its establishment in 2005 until now is unprecedented.

As the leading provider of health and nutritional programs and services in Kuwait Diet Care has always strived to make efforts to grow with the era and the revamped branch is bound to live up to the expectations of customers.

-Ends-

About Diet CareSince its establishment, Diet Care has become the leading provider of gourmet nutritional food in Kuwait and serves a growing customer base of tens of thousands of people, families and offices through its network of in-store outlets and various weight loss meal programs. All Diet Care products are developed by Diet Care's team of world-class nutritionists and dietitians, and overseen by talented chefs. Diet Care was established in 2005 to improve lifestyles through health and nutrition, through proven life changing product lines with a variety of delicious, calorie-controlled signature and seasonal dishes prepared and delivered fresh daily to customers and branches.

The company, which started with providing individual customers and families with personalized nutritional plans offered through 28-day meal home-delivery programs, is the largest Kuwaiti company in its field, the only one that operates a microbiology lab to oversee product quality, and the only nutritional provider in Kuwait certified by the international Arab Center for Nutrition and awarded Superbrand Status.

For more media information, please contact: Eyad Shaheen Tel: 66866876 Email: eyad.shaheen@thedietcare.com Nadin Alami / Stacy LoboTel: 22901571Email: nadin.alami@ stacy.lobo@bm.com

© Press Release 2014

© Copyright Zawya. All Rights Reserved.

Entities 0 Name: Diet Care Count: 6 1 Name: Kuwait Count: 6 2 Name: Sharq Count: 2 3 Name: Kuwaiti Count: 1 4 Name: Stacy Lobo Count: 1 5 Name: Arab Center for Nutrition Count: 1 6 Name: Nadin Alami Count: 1 7 Name: alami Count: 1 8 Name: Sarah Dimashkieh Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1vvTC4L Title: SalesforceVoice: Customer Service, CRM, Customer Experience -- What's the Difference? Description: Customer service, strategic customer service, CRM, and customer experience: these terms are often used interchangeably. In fact, they imply very different concepts and roles within your company. As you move down the list of terms, an executive creates greater opportunities to take the lead in customer engagement while enhancing their [...]

Whole grains: Hearty options for a healthy diet

Details Published on Saturday, 30 August 2014 17:44 Written by Mayo Clinic

Yuma, Arizona - Grains, especially whole grains, are an essential part of a healthy diet. All types of grains are good sources of complex carbohydrates and some key vitamins and minerals. Grains are also naturally low in fat. All of this makes grains a healthy option. Better yet, they've been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and other health problems.

The healthiest kinds of grains are whole grains. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that at least half of all the grains you eat are whole grains. Chances are you eat lots of grains already. But are they whole grains? If you're like most people, you're not getting enough whole grains in your diet. See how to make whole grains a part of your healthy diet.

Types of grains

Also called cereals, grains and whole grains are the seeds of grasses cultivated for food. Grains and whole grains come in many shapes and sizes, from large kernels of popcorn to small quinoa seeds.

Whole grains. These are unrefined grains that haven't had their bran and germ removed by milling. Whole grains are better sources of fiber and other important nutrients, such as selenium, potassium and magnesium. Whole grains are either single foods, such as brown rice and popcorn, or ingredients in products, such as buckwheat in pancakes or whole wheat in bread. Refined grains. Refined grains are milled, a process that strips out both the bran and germ to give them a finer texture and extend their shelf life. The refining process also removes many nutrients, including fiber. Refined grains include white flour, white rice, white bread and degermed cornflower. Many breads, cereals, crackers, desserts and pastries are made with refined grains, too. Enriched grains. Enriched means that some of the nutrients lost during processing are added back in. Some enriched grains are grains that have lost B vitamins added back in - but not the lost natural fiber. Fortifying means adding in nutrients that don't occur naturally in the food. Most refined grains are enriched, and many enriched grains also are fortified with other vitamins and minerals, such as folic acid and iron. Some countries require certain refined grains to be enriched. Whole grains may or may not be fortified.

Choosing whole grains

Make at least half the grains in your diet whole grains. Whole-grain versions of rice, bread, cereal, flour and pasta can be found at most grocery stores. Many whole-grain foods come ready to eat. These include a variety of breads, pastas and cereals.

Examples of whole grains include:

Barley Brown rice Buckwheat Bulgur (cracked wheat) Millet Oatmeal Popcorn Whole-wheat bread, pasta or crackers Wild rice

It's not always easy to tell what kind of grains a product has, especially bread. For instance, a brown bread isn't necessarily whole wheat - the color may come from added coloring. If you're not sure something has whole grains, check the product label or the Nutrition Facts panel. Look for the word 'whole' on the package, and make sure whole grains appear among the first items in the ingredient list.

What about white whole-wheat bread?

It may seem like it doesn't add up, but actually white whole-wheat bread is made with whole grains, just as is regular whole-wheat bread. White whole-wheat bread also is nutritionally similar to that of regular whole-wheat bread. So if you prefer the taste and texture of white bread, but want the nutritional benefits of whole wheat, choose white whole-wheat bread - not regular, refined white bread.

A word of caution

If all of the grains you eat are whole grains, you may need to take extra care to get sufficient folic acid, a B vitamin. While most refined-grain products are enriched, whole grains are not typically fortified with folate.

Look for whole grains that have been fortified with folic acid, such as some ready-to-eat cereals. Folate is also found in other foods, including fruits, vegetables and legumes. Folic acid is especially important if you're a woman who could become pregnant or is pregnant.

How to enjoy more whole grains in your diet

Try these tips to add more whole grains to your meals and snacks:

Enjoy breakfasts that include whole-grain cereals, such as whole-wheat bran flakes (some bran flakes may just have the bran, not the whole grain), shredded wheat or oatmeal. Substitute whole-wheat toast or whole-grain bagels for plain bagels. Substitute low-fat muffins made with whole-grain cereals, such as oatmeal or others, for pastries. Make sandwiches using whole-grain breads or rolls. Swap out white-flour tortillas with whole-wheat versions. Replace white rice with kasha, brown rice, wild rice or bulgur. Feature wild rice or barley in soups, stews, casseroles and salads. Add whole grains, such as cooked brown rice or whole-grain bread crumbs, to ground meat or poultry for extra body. Use rolled oats or crushed whole-wheat bran cereal in recipes instead of dry bread crumbs.

Eating a variety of whole grains not only ensures that you get more health-promoting nutrients but also helps make your meals and snacks more interesting.

Entities 0 Name: Brown Count: 1 1 Name: Mayo Clinic Yuma Count: 1 2 Name: Arizona Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1zWr02y Title: Healthy lunchbox snacks your kids will actually eat Description: Eating a healthy diet is key to a child's development, school performance and overall health. While making smart options available for kids is crucial, nutrition is only as good as what children will eat. If it ends up in the trash it's not doing anyone any good.

Menus expanding to meet changing tastes

Marlborough ExpressMenus expanding to meet changing tastesMarlborough ExpressThe owners of The Cornerstone Bar & Restaurant, Ryan and Tash McQuillan, introduced a paleo menu after they tried the diet, and found it difficult to stick to when eating out. The paleo diet, known as the cave man diet, champions only those foods that ...

Superfoods: from seeds, berries to quinoa

SUPERFOODS? The very word puts you in mind of marketing spivs conning gullible shoppers - but could kale, quinoa and goji berries actually provide extra portions of health-giving goodness in a standard British diet?

The answer, as always, is possibly.

Last week, a Newcastle University study for ITN suggested that the blueberry hype may be justified - five women showed improved antioxidant protection after eating two bowls of the North American fruit every day for eight weeks.

With the price of blueberries nudging £10 per kilo in Tesco yesterday, the fruit becomes an expensive daily essential for a family of four. And steady as you go, advises Nottingham-based nutrition coach Susan Hart. Eating too much of one food goes against one of the cornerstones of good diet - variety.

'Almost every week, something gets described as a 'superfood' and the latest thing is bee pollen,' she said.

'It can be confusing for the shopper, so the first thing I would advise is to go with a shopping list, which saves you money, and then to concentrate on variety and colour.

'Do that and you will automatically pick up 'superfoods' - which is a made-up word designed to sell different things.

'Often the best foods are brightly coloured, so look at purple blueberries, or blackberries now they are in season. Look out for raspberries and peppers and beetroot, which is very good for blood pressure.

'All of these have a high nutritional content with specific vitamins and minerals.'

A superfood is reckoned to have health-promoting and/or disease-resistant properties. But although beloved in media and food marketing circles, the term is rarely used by white-coated dieticians and never by nutrition scientists.

It's not just fruit and vegetables that achieve superfood status. Never mind arborio rice, bulgar wheat and couscous, the grain of the moment is quinoa - a staple in its high-altitude South American homeland and, thanks to a University of Nottingham student, now a low-altitude British crop.

Quinoa - pronounced 'keen-wah' - has been developed for the European market by Stephen Jones while studying for his PhD in crop sciences at the university's school of biosciences at Sutton Bonington.

He has established the British Quinoa Company, which grows the grain on his family's farm in Shropshire and holds the exclusive UK rights to grow the only quinoa varieties bred for the European climate.

The initiative was featured on last Sunday's edition of the BBC TV rural affairs show Countryfile.

Stephen said: 'Countryfile has been a fantastic way for us to raise the profile of this new British grain and we hope to have a large increase in our production area over the next few years to satisfy a rapidly growing market.'

It is grown not because of its flavour but because of its nutritional properties.

Susan Hart welcomed its growing popularity. 'I love quinoa,' she said. 'It's low in fat and cholesterol and because it is high in protein, it's perfect if you don't eat meat. I tend to flavour the water it is cooked in - adding a stock cube gives it something extra. I'd eat it cool in a salad.'

And bee pollen? According to its champions, it does everything from extend life and prevent infectious diseases to regulate the intestines and protect against radiation.

Fans like Victoria Beckham will pay about £44 a kilo for a product that sprinkles well on your organic muesli with whole almonds, sunflower seeds, goji berries and added oat bran.

But what Susan Hart describes as the ultimate superfood will never be ranked by marketing spivs alongside blueberries and bee pollen because, although it contains no calories, deters excessive eating and is brilliant for the skin... it costs next to nothing and will never command a hype premium.

It's called tap water.

Are you a superfood consumer or do you resist the marketing hype? Share your experiences on nottinghampost.com

For more about Susan Hart visit http://ift.tt/1B54QxB.

Entities 0 Name: Susan Hart Count: 4 1 Name: ITN Count: 1 2 Name: South American Count: 1 3 Name: University of Nottingham Count: 1 4 Name: Stephen Jones Count: 1 5 Name: Victoria Beckham Count: 1 6 Name: Tesco Count: 1 7 Name: BBC Count: 1 8 Name: Newcastle University Count: 1 9 Name: Shropshire Count: 1 10 Name: UK Count: 1 11 Name: North American Count: 1 12 Name: Stephen Count: 1 13 Name: British Quinoa Company Count: 1 14 Name: Sutton Bonington Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/V3zjvY Title: Fuel right! 9 triathlon nutrition rules Description: A superfood is easy to find in the grocery store, contains nutrients that are known to enhance longevity and has other health benefits that are backed by peer-reviewed, scientific studies. Broccoli makes the list because it's one of nature's most nutrient-dense foods, with only 30 calories per cup.

Macronutrients: Three Key Elements to Healthy Eating

The Nurturing Well by: Jill Starbuck

Countless diets have tried to upset the dietary balance in order to achieve weight loss. Certain diets suggest lowering carbohydrates to unhealthy levels. Others claim you should significantly reduce fat intake. Still others promote the elimination of an entire food group. A multitude of diets exist for you to try. Such a wide variety of diets makes it hard to know what the appropriate percentage of carbohydrates, protein, and fat intake should be.

The most important thing to understand is that all three of these macronutrients are necessary for a healthy lifestyle. They provide our bodies with energy that helps us function. The following list describes the necessity for each.

Carbohydrates: Despite their bad reputation, carbs are an essential part of our diet. In fact, carbs should make up between 45% and 65% of our daily calorie intake, according to the USDA. Choose complex carbs (such as fruits, vegetables, and grains) versus simple carbs (such as processed food, candy, and soft drinks). While fruits and vegetables contain some simple carbs, these are naturally occurring and are at low levels. Carbs play a critical role in regulating sugar, providing nutrients, and absorbing calcium. They may also help maintain healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels.Protein: According to the USDA, we need between 10% and 35% of our calories from protein. Did you know that protein is present in every cell of our body? Protein helps our body repair itself and grow. It fights infections, transports nutrients, repairs tissue, and much more.Fat: The USDA recommends that we consume between 20% and 35% of our calories from fat. Fat provides us storage spots for energy. In fact, fat provide twice as much energy as protein and carbs. Since we burn carbs at a fast rate, we have to rely on fat stores for energy. Fat also helps move essential vitamins through our body and regulate body temperature. In addition, it assists with blood clotting, brain development, and inflammation.

Naturally, the percentage of intake may change for specific goals. For instance, if you are gearing up for a marathon, you will want to hit the higher percentage of carbs. However, it's important to incorporate protein and fat as well, so be careful not to go too low on those either. As you can see, all three macronutrients are essential for various reasons. Don't cheat yourself by eliminating or significantly reducing any of them.

Jill Starbuck has 20 years of experience as a business writer, editor, and market research analyst. She is a certified health coach through the Integrative Institute of Nutrition and a certified running coach through the Road Runners Club of America. She is also the co-owner of a running business. She can be reached at jillstarbuck@hotmail.com. Entities 0 Name: USDA Count: 3 1 Name: Jill Starbuck Count: 2 2 Name: Road Runners Club of America Count: 1 3 Name: Integrative Institute of Nutrition Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/YvlPew Title: Why Are We So Fat? The Multimillion-Dollar Scientific Quest to Find Out | Magazine | WIRED Description: Adam Voorhes In January of this year, the first subject checked into the metabolic ward at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to participate in one of the most rigorous dietary studies ever devised. For eight weeks, he was forbidden to leave. He spent two days of each week inside tiny airtight rooms...

World's Best Diet revealed by scientists

Diet & Fitness

Fish features heavily in the 'World's Best Diet'.

There's never a shortage of diets promising to help us shed kilos but the real holy grail of weight loss is nailing a way of eating that keeps the weight from creeping back on. But scientists from the University of Copenhagen believe they have an answer: a higher protein/ lower carbohydrate pattern of eating they've called the World's Best Diet.

A name like this has a lot to live up to but this eating plan, published as a book in Denmark in 2012, is based on credible research - a large European study known as the Diogenes Diet that compared five different diets to see which worked best at keeping weight off.

'The advice over the last 30 years has put too much emphasis on carbohydrates and neglected the satiating effect of protein - we took it for granted that Australians were getting enough protein.'

A total of 773 adults who'd already lost an average of 11 kilos were assigned to one of five diets each based on a different combination of protein and carbs - some were lower in carbs and higher in protein and vice versa. Some diets included high GI carbs- meaning the 'fast', often more refined carbs that raise and lower blood sugar rapidly; others had slower burning low GI carbs that raise and lower blood sugar more slowly. And the winner? The low GI carb and high protein combo. The people on this diet not only kept the weight off during the six months of the study but they also continued to lose weight too.

Barley and greens salad: Fresh vegetables and grainy foods such as barley are also espoused. Photo: Melissa Adams

This way of eating works because both protein and low GI carbs help us produce more of the satiety hormones that keep us feeling full, explains Jennie Brand-Miller, Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre.

Brand-Miller, co-author of the Australian edition of World's Best Diet, believes we've often missed out on the filling power of these foods - partly because of the 'eat more carbs' message but also because so many carbohydrates are very refined.

'The advice over the last 30 years has put too much emphasis on carbohydrates and neglected the satiating effect of protein - we took it for granted that Australians were getting enough protein,' she says. 'At the same time the carbohydrates we were eating were getting fluffier.'

There are no fluffy carbs in this diet. Instead it's based on fresh vegetables, lean protein sources like fish, poultry, legumes, nuts and dairy foods and dense, grainy foods like rye bread, pumpernickel and barley - the book's recipe for rye porridge with apple and hazelnuts is the polar opposite of lightweight breakfast cereal.

The reason these robust carbs are more filling than their more refined cousins like white bread isn't just that they keep blood sugar levels steadier, Brand-Miller explains. They also stimulate cells in the gut that produce one of the satiety hormones we need to feel full. These cells are located deep down in the gut - a place that rapidly digested carbs never reach because they're digested in the upper half of the gut, Brand Miller explains.

'This explains why we still feel hungry after we've eaten fluffy white rice,' she says.

But while the World's Best Diet is higher in protein and lower in carbs it's no radical diet. The idea is to modestly lower the carbohydrate content of the diet and modestly increase the protein content to give a ratio of around 2:1 in favour of carbs, says Brand- Miller explaining that a typical Australian diet is generally higher in carbohydrates with a ratio as high as 4:1

Another reason why increasing protein is helpful is because it helps the body's basal metabolic rate - the rate at which it burns kilojoules - to stay higher, she adds.

One concern about higher protein diets has been the long-term effects on health, especially with eating plans high in animal foods. But after a year, the people taking part in the Diogenes study, who were eating the high protein low GI carb combination, 'had healthier levels of inflammatory markers in the blood - a positive sign that their risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases had lowered.'

Brand-Miller is now testing whether the diet reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes. If you're overweight and have a family history of type 2 diabetes, you may be eligible to participate (go to: http://ift.tt/1skex63).

World's Best Diet by Arne Astrup, Christian Bitz, Jennie Brand-Miller and Susan B. Roberts is published by Penguin, rrp $35.00. Entities 0 Name: Brand-Miller Count: 3 1 Name: Jennie Brand-Miller Count: 2 2 Name: Melissa Adams Count: 1 3 Name: Christian Bitz Count: 1 4 Name: Denmark Count: 1 5 Name: Brand Count: 1 6 Name: Human Nutrition Count: 1 7 Name: University of Copenhagen Count: 1 8 Name: Susan B. Roberts Count: 1 9 Name: Miller Count: 1 10 Name: Arne Astrup Count: 1 11 Name: University of Sydney Count: 1 12 Name: Diet & Fitness Fish Count: 1 13 Name: Charles Perkins Centre Count: 1 14 Name: Brand Miller Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1tPMfCo Title: Junk Food Diet Keeps Rats from Seeking Out New Foods Description: It's no secret that high-fat and calorie-rich foods are a major contributor to weight gain and obesity. But a junk food diet doesn't just pack on the pounds - it may actually reduce a person's desire to eat a more diverse diet.

It's Not Your Heart That Rules Your Emotions It's Your Gut

Posted:

A few years ago my life was at a crossroads. I was lying dormant in a hospital bed staring up at the peeling ceiling wondering whether I should continue swallowing the twenty pills a day the doctors had prescribed to help my autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia or take a different path that may lead me to find a better quality of life and a life free of drugs.

I always thought that pharmaceutical drugs only masked the symptoms of disease and it turned out that the steroids and immuno-suppressants that I was taking actually made me feel worse because of their Alfred Hitchcock movie like side effects.

Most days when I woke up from an intermittent and interrupted sleep, I felt like a forty year old in an eighty year old woman's body. Like Benjamin Button in reverse. I was bent over double and unable to get out of bed most days. Hideous looking hives covered my entire body and my beautiful thick hair was falling out in clumps upon my pillow. My life was dull and overcast, I looked like the elephant woman because of the high doses of steroids and my once fortunate life was in mayhem.

It was at that point I started researching using food as medicine and decided that I didn't want to become another statistic. I chose to look at health and disease on a deeper level and see where my illness stemmed from and how I could heal it naturally.

We all know by now that developing good eating habits, is paramount and enjoying a diet of fresh and nutritious foods can really help to give your body the fuel it needs to work efficiently. But along with looking after your physical health with a good diet and exercise, taking care of your emotions and mental health is equally important.

At times because I felt no longer in control of my body I became stressed and anxious and felt sick to the stomach and then I discovered that there is a very good reason for that. The stomach or gut is one of the key connections to brain and emotional health and your immune system.

Looking inside your gut or 'Other Brain' and improving your gut bacteria can help to turn tummy turmoil around and improve not only your general health but also your emotional health and wellbeing. I realized that my auto-immune disease stemmed from my gut and that is where I would start my quest to find the truth. Bingo!

The world within your gut or second brain as it is commonly referred, involves a multifaceted, interconnected, interdependent relationship between living organisms called micro flora. Micro flora is the complex, diverse microorganism species that live in your digestive tract. These organisms are also referred to as gut flora and are most easily understood as fitting into the categories of either 'good bacteria' or 'bad bacteria.'

'Good' or 'friendly' bacteria complete a multitude of tasks within your body, but some of the common responsibilities of these friendly microbes include working to regulate the gut by neutralizing some of the toxic by-products of your digestion, preventing the growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria, controlling metabolism, reducing harmful substances such as carcinogens and toxins, gleaning and absorbing energy, nutrients and fatty acids from the foods you eat, producing hormones, training the immune system and communicating to your brain.

Looking more deeply into the connection between the gut and the brain is known as the gut-brain axis and highlights the interdependency between these two areas of the body. In fact, your body has two nervous systems: The central nervous system which is composed of your brain and spinal cord; and the enteric nervous system which is the intrinsic nervous system of your gastrointestinal tract.

Your two nervous systems are formed at the same time during fetal development, and created from identical tissues, connected via the vagus nerve. This is the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem right down to your abdomen; and is the primary route that your gut bacteria use to transmit messages to your brain.

Knowledge of the vagus nerve completely flips the idea that the brain is in charge of the rest of your body. Rather; it reveals that the gut is largely in control of the body. In fact; your gut sends far more information to your brain than your brain sends to your gut! Wow this was a complete revelation to me.

Just as you have neurons in your brain, you also have neurons within your gut. This includes neurons that produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of wellbeing and happiness, and it's found in its greatest concentration within the gut; not the brain itself.

The ability of the gut microbiota to communicate with the brain and influence behaviour is emerging as a very exciting concept in the scientific world of health and disease. Research proves that your own unique combination of micro flora interacts with you as the host; to form essential relationships that govern the balance and functioning of your entire body.

The close connection between stress-related psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and gastrointestinal disorders like irritable bowel disease provide further proof of the gut-brain axis exists. The impact of poor gut health on the functioning of the brain has been scientifically linked to a range of illnesses including ADHD, autism, chronic fatigue, OCD, Tourette syndrome, and anxiety and depression. The power of gut health is without a doubt principal to the state of your mind.

Other fascinating scientific findings include the ability of certain probiotics to modulate anti-depressant like behaviour by reducing proinflammatory cytokines and increasing levels of tryptophan; both which have been implicated in depression.

Food alone will not promise a thriving colony of healthy bacteria in your gut. Evidence also suggests that our bacteria respond in damaging ways to the negative emotions and stress of the host. The hormones secreted during a stress response contribute to the overgrowth of bad bacteria.

Your gut and your emotions are a two-way street. They both have the potential to negatively affect one another, so addressing the state of your mental health -- not just the food you eat -- is incredibly important.

I healed my gut and in doing so reversed my autoimmune disease and have never been more well or happy.

Entities 0 Name: Tourette Count: 1 1 Name: Alfred Hitchcock Count: 1 2 Name: OCD Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1mSxc5R Title: Is fast food making us depressed? Description: In Depth | 26 August 2014 About the author David Robson is BBC Future's feature writer. Follow him on Twitter: @d_a_robson Do burgers, sugary snacks and other unhealthy foods exacerbate the effects of mental illness? David Robson investigates the evidence, and discovers a surprising new idea to help treat depression.

My Week on the All

The instant message flashed on my screen from a coworker suggesting lunch. It was followed by: 'TRAGEDY.'

Tragedy may be an overstatement to apply to emoji, the standardized set of symbols used in texts and online messaging. But when the Unicode Consortium released an update this July expanding its library to include 250 new emoji, my coworker wasn't the only one disappointed that the only new food is a chili pepper. A Change.org petition calls for a hot dog emoji, a Facebook page demanding a taco emoji has more than 1,000 likes, and thousands follow a Twitter account advocating for an avocado emoji .

As these foods continue to wait for emoji immortalization, I wondered why so many of my everyday foods lack a presence in computer text. Including the chili pepper, there are 59 food-themed emoji. What are they? How can they be assembled into recipes? And most importantly, could someone live on emoji alone ?

I had to know. I undertook a challenge:

For seven days, I would only eat foods represented by emoji. I would eat every emoji food by the end of the seven days.

Some further specifications were needed. Though it can be argued that pigs, cows, and other emoji in Apple's Nature category are food sources, I sacrificed bacon and stuck with the clearly defined foods grouped under Objects to avoid sliding down the ' technically edible ' slope. As I scoured New York for items such as and , I also learned about the origins of these tiny pictographs from Japan.

I start the first day of the diet by assessing the contents of my refrigerator. A breakfast smoothie uses bananas, milk (which I judge to be the bottle character) and strawberries, checking three items off the list already. Confidence sets in: This week will be a breeze.

I begin to make a list of what I plan to eat for the week, but some pictures prove hard to interpret. My confusion is cleared up with a visit to Emojipedia , which lists the symbols' official names as designated by the Unicode Consortium. Some of the names give me more dietary leeway than I expected, such as the ambiguous 'pot of food,' which I eat for lunch in the form of a vegetable stew. Others I've been misinterpreting all along-what I thought was rice and beans is actually curry, and the orange is technically a tangerine. I edit my list accordingly and stock up on fruits and veggies for the week.

All this produce is offset by a chocolate bar, cookie, and candies. I have a lollipop on my list as well, but this candy seems to have fallen out of modern favor. I can't find one at two different grocery stores and have to make a special pilgrimage to F.A.O. Schwarz (famed for the oversized keyboard scene in the movie 'Big'), where I find them stocked with other old-timey sugar relics. As I wait in line with my single lollipop, I suspect that I'm the only one there to fulfill a diet.

Dinner is spaghetti and red wine. It's not a far stretch from my usual diet, though I have a moment of dismay when I realize there is no cheese emoji, and I must pass up the aged Gruyere I had bought a few days earlier.

Breakfast: coffee ('hot beverage'), banana, strawberries, milk; lunch: veggie stew ('pot of food'), cherries, lollipop; spaghetti, red wine. dinner:

I'm already scrounging for breakfast without my go-tos of yogurt, oatmeal, cereal, or bagels. After settling for an apple and green tea with honey, I decide to get more creative with lunch. I chop up roasted sweet potato, eggplant and tomato and combine it into an improvised emoji ratatouille, which suffices for a filling meal, especially supplemented with mid-afternoon chocolate.

For dinner, it's time to face down my fear of the unknown: Specifically, the mystery brown shapes on a stick. I'm relieved to learn that though this emoji resembles some primitive meat-based weapon, it's actually oden, a soul-food dish of varying ingredients such as eggs and fish cakes stewed in a dashi broth. Like many of the foods, it reflects emoji's origins as a character set created for a Japanese phone operator in 1999. If Western users feel that the characters aren't representative of their daily diets, it's because they were never expected to catch on globally.

I use this opportunity to visit a neighborhood Japanese restaurant and order items I usually skimmed past due to unfamiliarity. My oden arrives in a bowl rather than on a stick, but I'm told that skewers are more typical of the street-food variety. The meal is rounded out with a carafe of sake and shaved ice with plum syrup.

Breakfast: green tea with honey ('honey pot'), red apple; lunch: roasted sweet potato with eggplant ('aubergine') and tomato, chocolate bar; dinner: oden, fish cake, sake, shaved ice.

Thus far, I've made an effort to stay true to the emoji depictions of the food. Since my iPhone shows a chocolate glazed doughnut with sprinkles, that's the variety I order for breakfast, even though someone on an Android or Windows operating system may see a different picture. The Unicode Consortium has standardized the characters descriptions, but emoji fonts-and the technology firms that, for now, are their only designers-are free to interpret those descriptions however they choose. (Android eschews the sprinkles.)

For lunch, I make my way to a bustling Japanese grocer and find neatly packaged rice balls for $1.50 each. It's by far the cheapest lunch I've seen in this business district of $14 salads, which explains why the line to check out is 30 people deep. I devour the sticky rice stuffed with tuna and regret that it took an emoji to discover this place.

Entities 0 Name: Unicode Consortium Count: 3 1 Name: Apple Count: 1 2 Name: Emojipedia Count: 1 3 Name: New York Count: 1 4 Name: Japan Count: 1 5 Name: F.A.O. Schwarz Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1llNbxP Title: THIS Is Your Perfectly Healthy Labor Day Picnic Menu - SELF Description: Take charge by hosting a plant-based picnic that will leave you feeling light and clean. Our friends at Vega, a plant-based nutrition company, gave us their tips (and recipes!) for the ultimate healthy picnic! Plant-based nutrition is having a moment right now, with many doctors and nutritionists, as well as actresses and athletes as proponents.

My Week Eating Only Food Represented by Emoji

'Why isn't there a sandwich emoji?'

The instant message flashed on my screen from a coworker suggesting lunch. It was followed by: 'TRAGEDY.'

Tragedy may be an overstatement to apply to emoji, the standardized set of symbols used in texts and online messaging. But when the Unicode Consortium released an update this July expanding its library to include 250 new emoji, my coworker wasn't the only one disappointed that the only new food is a chili pepper. A Change.org petition calls for a hot dog emoji, a Facebook page demanding a taco emoji has more than 1,000 likes, and thousands follow a Twitter account advocating for an avocado emoji.

As these foods continue to wait for emoji immortalization, I wondered why so many of my everyday foods lack a presence in computer text. Including the chili pepper, there are 59 food-themed emoji. What are they? How can they be assembled into recipes? And most importantly, could someone live on emoji alone?

I had to know. I undertook a challenge:

For seven days, I would only eat foods represented by emoji. I would eat every emoji food by the end of the seven days.

Some further specifications were needed. Though it can be argued that pigs, cows, and other emoji in Apple's Nature category are food sources, I sacrificed bacon and stuck with the clearly defined foods grouped under Objects to avoid sliding down the ' technically edible' slope. As I scoured New York for items such as oden and dango, I also learned about the origins of these tiny pictographs from Japan.

Day One

I start the first day of the diet by assessing the contents of my refrigerator. A breakfast smoothie uses bananas, milk (which I judge to be the bottle character) and strawberries, checking three items off the list already. Confidence sets in: This week will be a breeze.

I begin to make a list of what I plan to eat for the week, but some pictures prove hard to interpret. My confusion is cleared up with a visit to Emojipedia, which lists the symbols' official names as designated by the Unicode Consortium. Some of the names give me more dietary leeway than I expected, such as the ambiguous 'pot of food,' which I eat for lunch in the form of a vegetable stew. Others I've been misinterpreting all along-what I thought was rice and beans is actually curry, and the orange is technically a tangerine. I edit my list accordingly and stock up on fruits and veggies for the week.

Day one's produce-shopping bounty(Kelsey Rexroat)

All this produce is offset by a chocolate bar, cookie, and candies. I have a lollipop on my list as well, but this candy seems to have fallen out of modern favor. I can't find one at two different grocery stores and have to make a special pilgrimage to F.A.O. Schwarz (famed for the oversized keyboard scene in the movie Big), where I find them stocked with other old-timey sugar relics. As I wait in line with my single lollipop, I suspect that I'm the only one there to fulfill a diet.

Dinner is spaghetti and red wine. It's not a far stretch from my usual diet, though I have a moment of dismay when I realize there is no cheese emoji, and I must pass up the aged Gruyere I had bought a few days earlier.

Day Two

I'm already scrounging for breakfast without my go-tos of yogurt, oatmeal, cereal, or bagels. After settling for an apple and green tea with honey, I decide to get more creative with lunch. I chop up roasted sweet potato, eggplant and tomato and combine it into an improvised emoji ratatouille, which suffices for a filling meal, especially supplemented with mid-afternoon chocolate.

Day Two: oden, sake (Kelsey Rexroat)

For dinner, it's time to face down my fear of the unknown: Specifically, the mystery brown shapes on a stick. I'm relieved to learn that though this emoji resembles some primitive meat-based weapon, it's actually oden, a soul-food dish of varying ingredients such as eggs and fish cakes stewed in a dashi broth. Like many of the foods, it reflects emoji's origins as a character set created for a Japanese phone operator in 1999. If Western users feel that the characters aren't representative of their daily diets, it's because they were never expected to catch on globally.

I use this opportunity to visit a neighborhood Japanese restaurant and order items I usually skim past due to unfamiliarity. My oden arrives in a bowl rather than on a stick, but I'm told that skewers are more typical of the street-food variety. The meal is rounded out with a carafe of sake and shaved ice with plum syrup.

Day Three

Thus far, I've made an effort to stay true to the emoji depictions of the food. Since my iPhone shows a chocolate glazed doughnut with sprinkles, that's the variety I order for breakfast, even though someone on an Android or Windows operating system may see a different picture. The Unicode Consortium has standardized the characters descriptions, but emoji fonts-and the technology firms that, for now, are their only designers-are free to interpret those descriptions however they choose. (Android eschews the sprinkles.)

Hamburger and fries for dinner on Day Three. (Rexroat)

For lunch, I make my way to a bustling Japanese grocer and find neatly packaged rice balls for $1.50 each. It's by far the cheapest lunch I've seen in this business district of $14 salads, which explains why the line to check out is 30 people deep. I devour the sticky rice stuffed with tuna and regret that it took an emoji to discover this place.

Since I'm usually goading my boyfriend into healthy dinners of salmon and quinoa, he's thrilled when I suggest burgers and fries instead. We order at our local gastropub, and I wash it down with a fruity gin sling-since surely 'tropical drink' means 'tropical cocktail.'

Day Four

I'm still feeling bloated from yesterday's starch fest, so I stick with a peach for breakfast and then make a healthy vegetable curry for lunch.

By evening, I've recovered and am ready for more greasy goodness. I've learned on emojitracker, which shows emoji usage on Twitter in real time, that pizza and beer are the most popular of the food emoji. Who am I to argue with millions of Twitter users? I pick up a six-pack on the way home from work and order in a pepperoni pizza. It's over halfway through the week and I've had a different kind of alcohol every night-clearly the emoji diet is not for teetotalers.

Day Five

Aside from Day 3's rice-ball discovery, lunches have been a low point of the emoji diet. With sandwiches, soups, and salads all banned, there are few places I can join my coworkers during lunch breaks. I'm also missing Mexican food, a dietary staple since my days living in Texas.

Dinner, Day Five (Kelsey Rexroat)

By now, some friends have suggested ways I can cheat in order to expand my diet. One friend is particularly concerned that I can't have tacos and attempts to draw me one with a series of slashes and underscores. However, simple emoticons like :) and more complex ASCII art are not interchangeable terms for emoji, as each emoji corresponds to a specific two-byte Unicode sequence. In lieu of tacos, I have breaded shrimp and a mid-afternoon ice cream cone. Dinner is sushi and rice, making this the most seafood-centric day of my diet.

The emoji diet has had me eating more seafood and fresh fruit, which I welcome as healthy additions. But as I assess what I still need to cover in the final days, I notice two common themes: white rice and sugar.

This diet is essentially the opposite of Atkins. Of the 59 food emoji, eight incorporate rice, and 11 are desserts. One manages to be both-the colored balls on a stick are dango, sweet dumplings made from rice flour and often filled with red bean paste. I locate them at a Japanese food market in SoHo along with a sesame chicken bento box for lunch and rice crackers, a crispy snack food.

After a dinner of veggie ramen (the 'steaming pot' emoji), I realize that I'm facing a problem most dieters have never experienced: I need to step up the dessert eating if I'm going to reach my goal. I still have to cross off custard, shortcake, ice cream, and birthday cake, so I stop by a couple shops to purchase the first three and then ride out the ensuing sugar rush.

Day 7

It's the last day, and I'm ready to wrap things up. The emoji diet hasn't left me hungry or dissatisfied-if anything, my dessert binge has added some pounds-but it has slimmed down my wallet, since I've been making more food purchases as I avoid the majority of my pantry. I now have lots of recommendations for new food emoji, from my typical cooking staples like garlic, onion, and spinach to snacks like chips, cheese, and popcorn.

Kelsey Rexroat

To celebrate my last emoji meal, I invite friends to join me at a new restaurant on my block, and we gorge on the final items on my list with a meal that manages to be as true to emoji as it is to Southern home-style cooking: ribs ('meat on bone'), fried chicken ('poultry leg'), corn on the cob ('ear of maize') and biscuits ('bread').

The final remaining food is birthday cake, since my attempts to crash a birthday party this week failed. With only a few hours until midnight, we procure a cupcake, stick a candle in it, and look up which celebrities are celebrating their birthdays today. My week of emoji eating ends in a way that deserves some smiley faces, or at least a thumbs up: with us toasting martini glasses and singing 'Happy Birthday' to Tom Hanks.

So is the emoji diet a contender in the weight-loss market? Not likely, given its emphasis on white rice, alcohol, and indulging in a dessert (or three) each day. I did, however, enjoy exploring new foods and restaurants as I undertook my phone-food mission. I won't be limiting myself to emoji again, but I will be eagerly watching to see which foods are added in future releases.

For now, you can find me on Team Sandwich.

Entities 0 Name: Kelsey Rexroat Count: 4 1 Name: Unicode Consortium Count: 3 2 Name: Atkins Count: 1 3 Name: Apple Count: 1 4 Name: Rexroat Count: 1 5 Name: Emojipedia Count: 1 6 Name: Tom Hanks Count: 1 7 Name: New York Count: 1 8 Name: F.A.O. Schwarz Count: 1 9 Name: Unicode Count: 1 10 Name: Japan Count: 1 11 Name: ASCII Count: 1 12 Name: Texas Count: 1 13 Name: SoHo Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1B1xgZj Title: The 11 best street foods worth blowing your diet over - Lonely Planet Description: You're on holiday abroad exploring a local market. Suddenly an enticing aroma encircles you and makes you turn your head to find the source. There's a long queue of hungry people looking jealously at people walking away munching on something delicious-looking. What are they eating? Maybe you should go investigate and try one for yourself?