THE TOP 7 MISTAKES DIETERS MAKE

When you're on a diet, there are generally a lot of rules. So many rules, in fact, that it can be difficult to tell which ones you really ought to be following. You're working hard to achieve results, so make sure that you're not falling victim to these common dieting mistakes.

 

Mistake # 1: Banishing favorite foods

It's hard to stick to a diet where you are never able to eat your favorite foods. Suddenly those foods become extra tempting and before you know it, you're "cheating" on your diet and feeling like you failed. By allowing yourself to indulge once in a while (savoring those foods and not feeling guilty), you can find a healthy balance that really works in the long run.

Mistake # 2: Ditching whole categories of foods

There's a reason that carbs, fat and protein are called macronutrients: Your body needs them in large quantities. A diet plan that tells you to completely eliminate any of these big categories could cause problems in the long term. For instance, the fat-phobic '90s gave rise to a host of sugar-filled refined carbs and Americans gained weight in epic numbers.

Mistake # 3: Expecting too much too soon

Many experts agree that for healthy, lasting weight loss, you should expect to lose no more than one to two pounds per week. If you are expecting the pounds to slide off more rapidly than that and they don’t, you may get discouraged. But slow and steady wins the race, so stay in it! 

Mistake # 4: Skipping meals

Skipping meals may seem like a good way to skimp on calories, but it actually can lead you to eat more later on. If you don't eat lunch, for instance, you might overcompensate at dinner thinking you deserve the extra calories. Eat when you're hungry (but not ravenous) to keep hunger and portions in check.

Mistake # 5: Eating too little

If you're looking for rapid weight loss, it might be tempting to go really low on calories, but watch out. Diets too low in calories often don't offer all the nutrients you need. Make 1,200 calories your absolute minimum daily calorie goal. With proper planning, you can get a balanced intake of food for that amount.

Mistake # 6: Eating because the plan tells you to

On the flip side, if your plan tells you to eat every two or three hours, yet you're not hungry, that's not necessarily a good thing either. For a healthy weight, it's important to learn to recognize your internal hunger cues and respond to them; so if you're hungry, eat — but if you're not, don’t.

Mistake # 7: Thinking exercise gets you a pass

Exercise and dieting go hand-in-hand when you're trying to lose weight, but the key is to ramp up exercise (calorie burn) while decreasing calorie intake. It's easy to overestimate how much you burned during an exercise session and then eat too much to compensate, sabotaging your goal. Stick to the rule of thumb that unless you exercised for a hard hour or more, all you really need to replenish yourself after exercise is water.

Source:  http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/

Food Allergics Beware: Herbal Products May Contain Surprise Ingredients

New research for the University of Guelph shows that the majority of herbal products on the market contain ingredients that are not listed on their labels.

The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, used DNA barcoding technology to assess the components of 44 herbal products from 12 companies. They found that 60% of the products contained plant species that were not listed on the label, and 20% used fillers like rice, soybeans, and wheat which were also not divulged on the bottles.

For instance, products sold as St. John’s wort supplement, which is sometimes used to treat depression, contained Senna alexandrina, which is a plant that spurs laxative symptoms. Other products contained Parthenium hysterophorus (feverfew), which is known to cause swelling and mouth numbness. One ginkgo product contained Juglans nigra (black walnut), which should not be consumed by people with nut allergies — but this warning was not noted on the label.

“It’s common practice in natural products to use fillers such as these, which are mixed with active ingredients. But a consumer has a right to see all of the plant species used in producing a natural product on the list of ingredients,” lead author Steven Newmaster, an integrative biology professor at the Guelph-based Biodiversity Institute of Ontario said in a statement.

Source:  http://healthland.time.com/

Study: Vitamin D Supplements Don’t Protect Against Fractures

Keeping bones strong may take more than popping a few pills, according to the latest research.

Scientists from the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand reviewed 23 studies involving 4,082 healthy volunteers with an average age of 59 and report that those who took vitamin D supplements for about two years did not have significantly greater bone density or lower risk of osteoporosis than those who didn’t take them.

That confirms what the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found earlier this year in its review of the data — that adding 400 IU of vitamin D and 1000 mg of calcium to a healthy diet did not lower the risk of fractures for post menopausal women. Because vitamin D pulls calcium, a building block of bone, from the intestines, doctors have long assumed that urging the elderly to take supplements would help them to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D, which tend wane with age. And data suggesting that about 57% of American adults are deficient in the vitamin only gave the advice more urgency.

But all of that additional D doesn’t seem to be making bones any stronger, say the researchers, who published their findings in the Lancet. For healthy individuals, at least, who are not suffering from osteoporosis, adding more vitamin D to what they are getting from their daily diet — or from sunlight, which the skin transforms into active forms of D — isn’t necessary. Recent studies have also suggested that estimates of vitamin D deficiency may have been misleading, since scientists measured different forms of the vitamin in the body. “Our data suggest that targeting low-dose vitamin D supplements only to individuals who are likely to be deficient could free up substantial resources that could be better used elsewhere in health care,” study author Ian Reid said in a statement. To maintain strong bones, for most adults it’s enough t to take in at least 600 IU of vitamin D daily, from foods such as fatty fish and dairy products. and for the elderly to consume around 800 IU of vitamin D a day.

Source: http://healthland.time.com/