Diet

A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition examined the role of diet quality in increasing rates of insulin resistance in a Chinese population. As you consume a meal, glucose (sugar) from the carbohydrates you ingest is released into the bloodstream. This triggers a response causing your body to produce the hormone insulin, enabling the glucose to be absorbed by the cells in your body to be used for energy. As the glucose enters your body’s cells, the concentration of glucose in your blood decreases. Insulin resistance is a condition in which cells cannot respond normally to insulin. This leads to high blood sugar, which eventually leads to type 2 diabetes. Over the past 20 years, China has experienced rapid economic growth, concurrent with shifts in diet and physical activity...

Here's a quote that's been floating around the Internet: "When life gives you lemons, you ask for something higher in protein." While it's not clear who originated the quote (probably not a pasta maker or a bread baker), the quote certainly highlights the recent popularity of high-protein diets such as the Dukan, the Atkins, the South Beach, the Paleo and the Ketogenic diets. Also, eating too much protein is not without its risks. An article just published in the New England Journal of Medicine reviewed the scientific evidence on what the amount of protein in your diet can do to your kidneys. For the article, Kamyar Kalantar‑Zadeh, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. of the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine and Denis Fouque, M.D., Ph.D. from the Université Claude Bernard Lyon sum...

Tom Brady, Venus Williams, Penélope Cruz, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley have something in common, aside from being unnaturally beautiful: They’ve all followed forms of anti-inflammatory (AI) diets at one time or another. Tom has done it to boost his performance on the football field. Venus said she did it to help keep her autoimmune disorder in check. And Penélope and Rosie have followed an AI-style detox to keep their skin radiant. What is inflammation, anyway? Believe it or not, inflammation starts as a good thing. It happens when your immune system sends out white blood cells and “warrior” compounds like eicosanoids to attack invading viruses, bacteria, or toxins. A classic example of totally normal inflammation: pain, heat, redness, and swelling around a wound or injury (thi...

For most people, dieting isn't a particularly enjoyable experience. Usually, because diets involve ignoring the advice of nutritionists who suggest 'everything in moderation' is the key to weight loss, and instead encourage you to cut out entire food groups (mainly the ones you love). But if you're someone who's ever endured the torture of a diet, you'll be over the moon at this latest scientific discovery: scrapping your diet for a couple of weeks could actually help you lose weight. How could ditching your diet lead to more weight loss? But according to the recent study published in the International Journal for Obesity, that's exactly what they found. The study took a group of clinically obese participants and split them into two groups. Both groups were instructed to follow a ...

Alkaline Diet, Alkaline Ash Diet, Alkaline Acid Diet and Acid Ash Diet are the various names of diets that come under the umbrella of alkaline diets. The premise these diets are based on is that certain foods can affect the acidity or pH of the body, helping prevent the onset of diseases and even treat them. Healthy Ways to Love Your Body that added to the hype and interest for this style of eating. Adding to its health benefits of protection against cancer and arthritis, what shot it to fame was the universal pitch that never fails -weight loss! According to the proponents of this diet, acidity causing foods lead to an increased risk of diseases and an alkaline diet cleanses and protects your body. An alkaline diet allows you to eat: • Raw Foods • Plant Proteins • Fresh Fruits ...

Many diets have been hailed as being able to improve your health, such as the Mediterranean diet. The typical Western diet is high in fat and sugar, and we already know these two components can wreak havoc on our health. The latest findings suggest that the Western diet can have detrimental effects on our liver as well. Western diet increases risk of liver cancer A new study was done where researchers fed mice a Western diet, which is high in fat and sugar. These mice were more likely to develop liver tumors compared to mice who did not consume the Western diet. When the Western diet-fed mice were treated with antibiotics, they did not respond to the treatment. The researchers specifically looked at mice missing farnesoid x receptor (FXR), which is involved in bile synthesis, secr...

Being able to adhere to our diet is what will guarantee whether we see the weight loss results we want, and there are ways and means for us to improve the likelihood of successfully accomplishing that. To save you time, and to eliminate the guesswork, here are my top eight tips for improving your diet adherence... 1. Make small changes It's easy to begin feeling overwhelmed by the amount of "new" things we have to direct our energy towards when making changes in our diet, and all too often will give up when we realize we can't sustain it. 2. Build a support network Surrounding yourself with others who support our goals and encourage positive behaviors can have a huge impact on motivating us to stay consistent with our efforts. Spending more time with those who encourage o...