Category Archives: superfood

Weight Loss Beats Crunches for a Flat Stomach

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Whether you have been pregnant, find small amounts of weight creeping up on you as you get older, or sometimes overindulge in food or alcoholic beverages, you may have some excess weight around your midsection that you would like to get rid of. For many, having a flat stomach or “six-pack abs” is a dream that is seemingly just out of reach. Is there a way to get rid of your belly fat? Do you need to eat more or less of a certain food, or should you perform specific exercises to tone this area of your body?

Why Should I Lose Body Fat?

The visceral fat that sits around your midsection is more dangerous than the fat in your hips and thighs. It is also worse than the subcutaneous fat that nestles under your skin. Large amounts of excess belly fat can lead to inflammation, hardening of the arteries and a higher risk of developing serious health conditions including metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

How to Do it

The good news is that belly fat is the first type of body fat that you lose when you shed weight. However, there is no magic potion, pill, drink, food or exercise that is going to specifically target that area of your body. Regardless of your body type, whether you are an “apple” shape with body fat only around your middle or a “pear” shape with larger thighs and hips, most people lose the fat around their midsections first and more proportionately than anywhere else.

The type of fat that makes up larger bellies, visceral fat, is more active in terms of metabolism than the subcutaneous fat that is located under the skin around other areas of the body. Experts say that the more fat you have to lose, the faster you will lose it.

Eat More Grains

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that showed when whole-grains were added to a calorie-controlled diet, obese individuals tended to lose weight faster from the abdominal area than those who consumed refined grains.[1] Consuming a similar diet, while reducing the amount of refined carbohydrates, changes the body’s response to glucose and insulin, making it easier to move the fat storage areas of the body. Whole-grains are also higher in fiber, which can leave people full for longer periods of time and decrease hunger levels.

Refined grains, on the other hand, elevate the body’s blood sugar levels and insulin response, causing the body to deposit fat more quickly.

What about Exercise?

It is a known fact for exercise enthusiasts but a source of frustration for those looking to trim certain body areas: you cannot spot reduce weight. While butterfly crunches do in fact target your lower abdominal muscles, you cannot perform hundreds of crunches with the hopes that you will see a flatter midsection. These exercises will not help you lose weight, although they may strengthen them and give a tighter and thinner appearance.

Along with a healthy, calorie-controlled diet, you must also get roughly 60 minutes of moderate exercise every day. The more intense your workouts, the more abdominal fat you may shed.

Citations:
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LowFatDietPlan.org offers tips that can help you lose weight if your on a 17 day diet,low fat diet I or even a vegetarian diet plan,

The Benefits Of The Lemon Juice Diet

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The popular lemon juice diet provides a diet that is easy and all natural. This program is suitable for just about anyone. People who swear by this diet plan give testimony to considerable weight loss in a very short amount of time. One of the best benefits of this juice diet plan lies in its simplicity. It is an easy program to follow and there are no expensive products to purchase or complicated recipes to follow.

The simple juice diet recipes provide an easy an effective way to lose weight. You will need filtered or natural spring water, cayenne pepper, maple syrup (B-grade) and lemons. You should try and find unwaxed or organic lemons as well as maple syrup that is organic. A homemade lemonade is made from the water, cayenne pepper, lemons and syrup. These items are all blended together and then drunk several times throughout the day. This process continues for the duration of the fast. In addition to this homemade lemonade, you can also have as much fresh water as you want. In addition to these liquids, many dieters also consume an herbal tea that has a laxative effect. Every day or two you can mix up some fresh lemonade to have available. There are easy recipes available online and in various books, although you can easily increase or decrease the amount of cayenne pepper or maple syrup you use depending on your personal preferences. Of course, you do not want to increase the syrup too much as it does add additional calories.

Most of the people who are trying the diet for the first time will begin with only a few days of this fast. People who have already been on the diet before will often choose to extend the fast for a period of a week or even up to 10 days. It is not a good idea to stay on this juice diet plan for more than about ten days to two weeks, but it certainly adds a great way to begin a weight loss program and give you a jump start on losing weight. Losing weight is only one of the many benefits that you can get from this type of diet. Other benefits often include increased energy and a sense of overall well-being and health, even after only a few days on this fast.

Following this lemon juice diet is also an excellent way to get started on a new and healthy living program. A short fast is often the best way to begin a natural lifestyle and a healthier way of eating.

Healthy Juice Drinks – Iron, Like a Lion in Zion

If you’ve been getting a bit anemic lately and are feeling a little run down then it’s possible you are lacking a bit of iron in your diet. That’s where the Iron, Lion Zion juice drink comes in handy. Whether you are not eating properly or you are a vegetarian and need a boost, if you get anemic then you can end up feeling depressed, tired or lethargic and leave yourself open to colds and flu. Get one of these iron rich juice drinks down you and you’ll soon feel a lot better:

Take the following ingredients:

250g (8 0z) of spinach

25g (1 oz) of parsley

250g (8 oz) of carrots

1 heaped teaspoon of spirulina
Chuck the carrot, parsley and spinach into a juicer and juice vigorously for a couple of minutes. Then stir in the spirulina. Pour it into a fat tumbler, add a bit of ice and if you’re feeling really fancy, decorate with a slice of cucumber of carrot.

Not only does this juice drink taste awesome, but it will also give you a grand old dose of folic acid to build up those red blood cells, some chlorophyll to help fight that fatigue and a massive dose of all-important vitamin B12 from the spirulina. All of that for just 229 calories!

Alex is a food writer and blogger. He loves writing about beautiful food and healthy living and currently writes for Coupon Croc .

The Best Juice for Healthy Skin

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We all want beautiful and glowing skin. We all want to look beautiful. We all want to look our very best. One of the things which we can do is drink juice. It is possible to juice your way to great skin. Ask any medical expert and he will tell you that what you put in your body will manifest itself on your body. If you eat greasy food, you will get a lot of pimples. This is not a secret. You have to take good care of your body if you want to look great.

There are many treatments for healthy skin. One of them is to drink at least 8-10 glasses of water a day. Your skin will be deprived if you do not do this. And no, other liquids like soda do not substitute for water. You need to consumer beta carotene and Vitamin A. They will rebuild your tissues and reduce the production of excess oil. Vitamin C and Vitamin E are also necessary.

You will need to buy juicer so you can enjoy all the goodness of juice on your skin. A glass of juice daily can help you on your way to better skin. The key is drinking real juice and not a cocktail. Vegetable juices are some of the best options for the skin because they have less sugar and they have fewer calories too. Yellow, orange and dark green leafy vegetables give your skin a lot of goodness.

When it comes to fruits, you can also juice grapes, berries, pomegranate and prunes. They are packed with Vitamin C and antioxidants. Some reports also say that Acai Berry also has high concentrations of antioxidants. This has not been proven though. There are lots of other fruits today which are good for the skin. You can also find a lot of free juice recipes for the skin on the Internet.

The Health Benefits of Cod Liver Oil

Conventional fish oils are some of the best-supported supplements in terms of research and empirical backing, yet it is still unclear whether they are most effective than alternatives such as cod liver oil. Both conventional fish oils and cod liver oils are effective because of their high doses of essential fatty acids occurring in their natural form, but other aspects of cod liver may make it an even better choice than conventional oils.

Vitamin A in Cod Liver Oil

Although rarely giving proper recognition, vitamin A is essential for the development and maintenance of proper vision, as highlighted in the article What Does Vitamin A Do? Furthermore, vitamin A is responsible for the regulation of a wide variety of other hormonal processes that keep the body functioning properly. Cod liver oil contains high doses of vitamin A in it’s naturally occurring form, as opposed to synthetic alternatives.

Vitamin D in Cod Liver Oil

Another important component of cod liver oil is vitamin D, which is regulates bone mineral density, various hormone-related processes, and more. Researchers have even established a link between vitamin D deficiency and hair loss due to vitamin D’s influence on hair growth cycles. As with vitamin A, the vitamin D in cod liver oil is in it’s naturally-occurring form and is therefore easily absorbed by the body.

Omega-3s in Cod Liver Oil

Omega-3 fatty acids are the main selling point of fish oils in general, and are also present in high quantities in cod liver oil. Omega-3 balance (in comparison to Omega-6) has been found to be an extremely important factor in overall health. Moreover, common American diets tend to be excessive in Omega-6 fatty acids and very low in Omega-3s, so it’s almost always the case that a form of fish oil can help with these imbalances.

Fish Oil Benefits And Body Cleanse

Grilled salmon is one way to consume oily fish.

Image via Wikipedia

If you are wondering what fish oil benefits are to you for your health, maybe this will help.

Fish oil is made from the tissue of oily fish like salmon, tuna, lake trout, sardines, etc. It contains important omega 3 fatty acids and are believed to help in reducing the chances of a heart attack, coronary heart disease, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. It helps prevent abnormal heart rhythms that aren’t good for the body and can cause cardiac arrest and strokes in people with known cardiovascular disease. It has also been shown to slow the hardening of arteries and lower blood pressure. It also helps with any inflammation you might have and reduce symptoms and pain of arthritis. It doesn’t act as a pain killer thought and you need to use it regularly before you notice any changes. It can also help with anti aging. It slows down the rate at which protective caps on the end of chromosomes shorten, making the lifespan of cells increase. It is also beneficial to pregnant and unborn children. It helps develop a healthier brain, good nervous system, better eye sight, and fewer behavioral problems. Thus we see taking fish oil can do a lot for your health and even the health of your unborn children.

For those wanting to try a body cleanse, there are different types that you can try. There is the herbal supplement one which focuses on swallowing a capsule and focus on milk thistle and adding fiber into your diet. Another one you might try is fasting. This involves removing solid foods completely from your diet for a certain time. One more you can do is the master cleanse or lemonade diet. This diet involves mixing lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper into a drink. You then will drink it for ten days.