Fruit, the Enemy of Those Desiring Weight Loss
Copyright 2006 Adam Kessler
Each week you read in the newspaper about articles concerning the rise in obesity. With that rise, so many people are desperately doing what they can to lose weight. Supplement companies are out there preying on these people with brand new products that miraculously lose weight in so many days. There are new diets coming out left and right, claiming this is the diet that will get that weight off and keep it off. Meanwhile, as nutritionists cringe at seeing all these wacky diets and products being displayed they maintain to eat a balanced diet that usually contains fruit. Fruit has always been viewed as a healthy choice, but is this one of the reasons why people don't lose weight as fast as they want to?
I know what you're saying, ?That can't be. Fruit is..well fruit.? Here is the deal and it all breaks down to sugar. Fruit has a lot of natural sugars in it and if people who are looking to lose weight eat a lot of fruit or fruit juices, they could be preventing the breakdown of bodyfat.
When you eat something that is comprised of a lot of sugar, let's say Coke?, your body is feeling a sugar spike. Your pancreas releases a lot of insulin, which helps to remove the excess insulin and store it in your liver and muscles as glycogen. It usually releases a lot more insulin than necessary. The insulin gets rid of a ton of sugar, so that in a short time, you will hit a low sugar level and will start craving even more sugar. Which means you will probably eat something you know you shouldn't like a candy bar; something that has absolutely no nutritional value or benefit to you.
Here is the second effect of that Coke?. Your pancreas secretes another hormone called glucagon. It helps to release bodyfat as a fuel for your cells. If the pancreas is secreting all this insulin for the sugar, then it suspends the secretion of glucagons which keeps your fat stored in your body. This is not good. We want to get rid of that bodyfat so you can feel and look better. But fruit is good for you, right? Obviously, Coke? has a lot more to it than just sugar, but if you compare 100 calories of Coke? to 110 calories of orange juice, the Coke? has 27 grams of sugar and the OJ has 24 grams of sugar. Pretty close comparison, don't you think?
The orange juice and fruit in general obviously have some other important nutrients in it. I'm not saying that it is bad, but what I am saying is that if you seriously want to lose weight you might have to modify your fruit intake. If you really enjoy the taste of fruit have it for just one serving of the day. Also, eat the fruit with a combination of a high protein source. This will help delay the absorption of the fruit and not spike the insulin levels so much. To make up for the antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that you might be missing from the fruits, you need to eat more vegetables.
Fruit isn't bad and I don't want anyone to not eat fruit again. But if you are overweight and serious about the weight loss that you desire, you need to take a hard look at your diet and cut back on the sugar that your body is ingesting. Good carbohydrate sources that won't spike your insulin levels so much are sweet potatoes, brown rice, or whole wheat sources. Combine this game plan with a good exercise program and you will be shedding the pounds in no time.
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Adam Kessler is the President of Fitness Planning Consultants, Inc. located in Columbus, Ohio. Their company focuses on teaching people how to safely and permenantly lose weight. He also runs an athlete training facility called Sports Conditioning Specialists. Check out their free report on losing weight at
http://fitnessplanning.com .
Quitting Smoking : Why Women's Health May Benefit More
Copyright 2006 Danna Schneider
There are a lot of reasons to quit smoking. We all know the life threatening reasons, but we don't necessarily understand the the full impact that smoking has on our bodies and minds, and possibly even on others around us.
Women especially are susceptible to some of the more hidden dangers of smoking, and may actually benefit in different ways than men when it comes to smoking cessation.
For example, many women probably do not even know this, but lung cancer is now killing more women every year than breast cancer. That's right, lung cancer is actually more deadly to a woman than breast cancer, which is by far more talked about in women's health than lung cancer.
Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer since nearly 90% of all cases are traced directly to smoking, so it's important that women really understand the health benefits of quitting smoking.
There are actually a lot more health issues that a woman needs to think about if she is a smoker as well. For example, most contraceptive pills carry warnings on them that the patient should not take the contraceptive birth control pill if she is a smoker.
Her risk of developing heart problems is greatly increased if she is smoking while on the pill, since smoking increases blood pressure, and the pill is known to also increase blood pressure. This creates a double hazard for heart issues.
Another concern may be for a woman's children. Children many times can develop asthma and other types of breathing problems if the child is exposed to cigarette smoke at a young age. This is also a concern for men, since they are not exempt from this rule either!
There are also a myriad of other health problems, inconveniences and even just ?cosmetic? reasons that a woman may want to consider smoking cessation in order that she may be her ?best self?.
These don't necessarily fall into the category of life threatening or imminent dangers, but they certainly can affect your quality of life, as well as your appearance, which is held in high regard in today's aesthetically concerned society. These additional health and well being benefits to smoking cessation are as follows :
1.) Your skin is greatly affected by smoking, and not in a good way as you can probably imagine. As we age, our skin cell turnover tends to slow down. Smoking actually speeds the process of this slower turnover up, making us essentially age faster.
Add to this the fact that smoking essentially robs our body of oxygen and creates more free radicals, which are skin's number one enemy and aging's number one comrade, and you have a recipe for accelerated aging, and sagging, colorless skin.
Most women see a marked improvement in the tone, clarity and firmness of their skin just a few weeks after they quit smoking, especially if they were a heavy smoker.
2.) Your teeth and mouth will thank you. Smoking not only gives you bad breath, but it also turns your teeth yellow, or sometimes even brown from nicotine residue and tabacco staining.
3.) Quitting smoking can greatly help with your mental state. What do I mean? I mean that smoking may seem at first like it is a relaxant, since it tends to immediately feel like it is relieving tension and anxiety once the cigarette is in your mouth and you begin to inhale. Contrary to this belief that cigarettes "calm" you, studies have shown that in the long run smoking actually increases anxiety.
We all know that depression and anxiety tend to go hand in hand, so quitting smoking may also greatly benefit a woman's psyche.
4.) No more coughing, weezing, and possibly even a reduction in allergies. If you quit smoking, chances are you will breathe a lot easier.
It takes a lot less time for your lungs to heal than you think. Studies have shown that even the most blackened smoker's lungs have made full recoveries within just a few months after they have quit smoking.
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Danna Schneider is the founder of http://www.herbal-therapeutics.com , where several natural remedies, including smoking cessation aids can be found. She also co-manages http://www.spoozer.com a men's online magazine .
A Mother's Instincts.
Copyright 2006 Peter Nisbet
Ignore a mother's instincts about her child's health at your peril!
Whether you are a health professional or a parent with an unwell child, you must always remember that a mother knows far better than any doctor or physician whether her child is seriously ill or not. No member of the medical profession should ever ignore a mother's instincts in these matters, and neither should the mother.
This is particularly true of meningitis, which can very easily be misdiagnosed. Meningitis is a disease which required very rapid diagnosis to enable full recovery, particularly bacterial meningitis.
Meningitis symptoms are very varied and similar to many other illnesses which children commonly get, and very often the mother's instincts are more important than a doctor's knowledge. Let's take a look at some bacterial meningitis symptoms which are frequently diagnosed wrongly:
Sore throat and reddening at the back of the throat: This could be anything, including the tonsillitis that this condition is often misdiagnosed as. It could also be measles or a streptococcal infection ('strep throat') or a multitude of other conditions from the initial stages of diphtheria to flu.
Irritability: A child can be irritated for many reasons. She may be teething, which generally makes tots a bit grumpy, or just plain hungry or tired.
High temperature: How many illnesses cause a high temperature? At a rough guess I would say most!
There are many more, but some which a doctor should be able to associate with bacterial meningitis are stiffness in the neck, a bulging fontanelle (the soft part on the top of the head) and jaundice (slight yellowing of the skin). The problem with these symptoms is that they don't always appear. They can all be absent and the doctor will then have little to go on.
Most doctors have never come across a case of measles, let alone meningitis, and most never will. How then, could they be expected to spot the smaller signs of the disease which a mothers instincts will pick up on? These may be minor symptoms, but some are specific to meningitis in young children and even encephalitis.
This is where he should rely on the mother, but, sometimes fatally, most never do. However, a mothers instincts can be of critical importance in saving the life of her son or daughter.
One of these lesser, but just as important, symptoms is 'Paradoxical Irritability'. This is where a child does not become soothed when picked up by the mother, but rather gets more irritated, and it is an indicator of meningitis. A mother can spot this.
A mother also knows when her child becomes more lethargic than normal. Lethargy and a general disinterest in surroundings and stimuli are other symptoms of meningitis. Therefore, although a mother may not be aware of the symptoms of the disease, nor even suspect it, she can pick up on some of those which distinguish meningitis from most other diseases.
There have been many reported cases of a doctor and mother disagreeing as to the seriousness of a child's condition, resolved by the mother herself taking the child to Accident and Emergency. In lots of these cases the child survived only through the mother's actions, frequently made in contradiction to a doctor's recommendations.
Many consultant pediatricians recognise this, and impress on student doctors and nurses that they must listen to the mother. "A mother knows her child better than anyone else, and her instincts should be a prime tool used in the diagnosis of her child's condition". Perhaps not verbatim, but that is the gist of what many specialists teach.
Other symptoms only a mother may notice are a higher pitched cry than normal and a weaker suck during feeding. No doctor would know this. Added to this, there is that mysterious something which only a child's mother has and cannot be defined. A mother knows if her child is very ill, even if the symptoms seem very slight. Even sometimes when there are none. And that is something which must never be ignored. The father doesn't have it, only the mother, and it's magic!
If you feel that your child is seriously ill in contradiction to your doctor's diagnosis, insist on his or her admission to hospital, and if that fails take your child to Accident and Emergency yourself. It may be a false alarm, but at least you will have given your child every chance.
Many children are alive today for one single reason. A mothers instincts!
Irreplaceable!
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Peter is an industrial chemist whose interest in childhood diseases began when his son suffered from misdiagnosed meningitis and encephalitis from which he survived only due to his mother's actions in getting him to hospital. Peter's website is
http://www.childhood-diseases-online.com
where he tries to give parents useful information on a wide variety of children's illnesses.
