Low Carb Diets, Not No Carbs

A common myth or misconception about Low Carb Diets is that you’re supposed to cut out all your carbs in order to lose weight. And while that certainly is a method taught by at least one low carb program I’ve come across, it is not the norm. In fact, it’s almost impossible to cut out all carbs from your diet on a regular long term basis.I think the mis-understanding comes from a lack of knowledge though. You see, with a general American diet that follows the FDA approved food pyramid, you’ll consume approximately 300 grams of carbohydrates every day. And for some people: That is way too much.

The key phrase here is “some people” though. Each of us has a different body makeup. Each of us has different lifestyles, and each of us has different genetic inheritances too. And to top it all off: Two people may consume the exact same amount of carbohydrates in completely different ways.

One person for instance, may eat 300 grams of carbs a day in the form of low glycemic, slow acting complex carbs. The kind you get from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Another person however, may consume 300 grams of carbs that are primarily made up of simple fast acting sugars and starches. Eating pasta, rice, white bread and sugared treats for instance.

The person who eats low glycemic complex carbs is more likely to lose weight by simply moderating or reducing their carb intake a bit. Dropping the total daily consumption to 150 grams for instance, is likely to create great results for that person. The one who eats simple, fast acting carbs though, may still gain weight even if they reduced their daily carb intake to 150 grams. They may even struggle to see results by dropping their daily carb intake to as low as 50 grams a day.

And that brings me to another important point: Because our bodies and genetic make ups are so different: Often two people can eat the exact same foods in the exact same portions, and you’d still see one having success with losing weight while another is struggling with their weight loss.

Now, if you want to lose weight quickly, a few of the most popular low carb diets work quite well for most people. The top two however, require you to reduce your daily carb intake to 20 or 30 grams of carbs. For some people that is just too restrictive. If this is a problem for you, then try going backwards instead with these steps:

1. Reduce or eliminate the simple, fast acting carbs from your daily eating. This includes table sugar, white bread, pasta, candy, pastries and similar items. Maintain this eating style for 1-2 weeks and gauge your progress. If you’re losing weight at a rate you’re happy with, then simply maintain this change in your daily eating habits. If you’re not losing weight though – or not losing as fast as you’d like to – try step two:

2. Reduce your overall daily carb intake to 150 grams. Do not eat 150 grams of simple sugars and carbs each day though. Fill this allotment out with fresh veggies, fruits and a limited amount of whole grains.

3. If that still doesn’t produce the weight loss results you’re looking for, try dropping your daily carb intake to 75-100 grams. Again, be sure you’re choosing healthy, low glycemic, complex carbs.

4. From this point, if you’re still not happy with your weight loss progress, you can take one of two approaches: First try dropping your daily carb intake by 10 grams each week. Do this until you reach a point of weight loss that you’re happy with but is still safe for you. Second: Drop all the way down to the 20 or 30 grams that popular low carb diets start you with.

Done sensibly, low carb diets can work quite well. Just remember there is no need to try eliminating all carbohydrates from your diet, and there are good carbs too.

High Fiber Low Carb Foods – Things You Should Know

Everyone knows that eating any food with especially high carbohydrate content is bad for the body. Carbohydrates not only make it easier for you to get fat, but it also makes you more vulnerable to many illnesses like diabetes to say the least. But what is fiber, and why is it important to us?Fiber is a substance that’s very hard to digest, and that’s why consuming a small amount of fiber allows you to feel full for a considerable period of time. But that’s not the lone benefit of fiber, especially when it’s eaten together with foods that have carbs in it.

High fiber low carb foods are a great match because the fiber content reduces the negative impact of the carbohydrate content of your diet. It’s unhealthy to completely get rid of carbohydrates in your diet. With high fiber low carb foods, you still get a complete meal but with less negative side effects.

High fiber low carb foods also help regulate your bowel movement. This is definitely a blessing for people with extremely hectic schedules and unable to eat properly and at the right time. With high fiber low carb foods, there’s less chances for you to suffer the embarrassment of having to excuse yourself from a meeting because of an emergency call of nature.

High fiber low carb foods consumed for the day should have fiber content of no more than 40g but no less than 25g. Anything lower or beyond this range will mean that you’re not maximizing on your diet. If you’re serious about losing weight and getting healthy with this type of diet then be serious and act like it! The weight loss process is still essentially scientific so you need to make sure you’ve got the correct amount of fiber intake each day.

Make sure that the high fiber low carb foods you’re eating for the day doesn’t contain 100% insoluble fiber because this is bad for your bowel movement and overall health. Your daily intake should contain anything between twenty to thirty percent of soluble fiber.

If you’re not used to eating high fiber low carb foods all the time, make sure that you increase your intake gradually.

Getting Started With a Low Carb Diet Plan

Once you’ve finally made the decision to lose weight, and you’ve decided you want to try a low carb diet plan, the hard part is practically over. All you need to do now is simply get started. So let’s look at what your first several days of a low carb diet plan might be like.Day one of your low carb diet plan should really start with some firm decisions. First you decide you will lose weight of course, and second you decide to go with a low carb diet plan to accomplish that weight loss. Next though, you need to choose which low carb diet plan you intend to follow. Three popular ones include the Atkins low carb diet plan, The South Beach low carb diet plan, and The Glycemic Index low carb diet plan.

Regardless of which plan you choose, the goal is to lower your daily intake of carbs, and start really losing some of the extra weight and fat your body has been holding on to. So on day one, decide which low carb diet plan you will be following and familiarize yourself with how that low carb diet plan works specifically.

Day two of your low carb diet plan will involve planning and preparation. First you need to clear out your cabinets, pantry, fridge and freezer. Toss out or give away any high carb, high sugar content foods that you won’t be eating with your low carb diet plan.

Most low carb diet plans don’t allow you to have certain foods in the first week or two on the plan, but you can gradually add those foods in later. So you may find yourself getting rid of foods you have right now that aren’t overly high in carbs, but aren’t yet allowed for the start of your low carb diet plan. Don’t despair though… many of these foods will be added back in over the next few weeks.

Next you will want to make a list of what you will be eating for at least the next week. Include meals, snacks and liquids, then create a shopping list for all of those items. Last but not least, you will go to the store and buy all of the foods on your list.

Taking these steps will help you get started right with the low carb diet plan of your choosing, and it will help you stick to the proper guidelines and instructions for that plan as well.

Day three of your low carb diet plan is when you will actually change the way you eat. You don’t have to wait until this day to get started with your new low carb diet plan, but it can be helpful to start fresh at the beginning of a new day, instead of starting in the middle of a day. Starting your new low carb diet plan at the beginning of a brand new day will make you feel more committed to the plan instead of feeling like it was an impulsive decision on the spur of the moment.

Day three is a good day to do a bit of cooking too. By preparing foods that are allowed during this beginning stage of your low carb diet plan, you’re making sure you will always have something good to eat that’s easy to just grab and go. One of the biggest pitfalls of most low carb diet plans is that you need to cook the proper foods for your particular plan. And if you don’t have something cooked and ready when you want it, you’re more likely to fall off the plan and sabotage your weight loss efforts.

The next several days of your low carb diet plan might not be the best. You will experience sugar and starch cravings, you may be tired and lethargic, and you may have headaches or mild dizziness. These are all standard symptoms of starting a low carb diet plan, because your body is cleaning out all the extra starches, sugars and junk that’s been stored up for awhile. You body is going through withdrawal from the lack of sugar that it’s used to, and these early days on your low carb diet plan are when having pre-cooked foods is most important, because you’re at a higher risk of quitting when you’re not feeling well.

Once those few days of withdrawal are over though, you will very likely be thrilled with the results of choosing a low carb diet plan. You’ll have more energy, you won’t feel as bloated, and you might even notice clothes are already started to fit more loosely too!

Health Benefits of a Lower Carbohydrate Diet

Although not as wildly popular as they were several years ago, the low carbohydrate diet still has a sizable following. The simple reason for this is because it works! Clinical studies show that people on a reduced-carb regimen lost more weight than those on a traditional low fat diet within six months. But there’s a downside to this, not the least of which is health experts’ concern about the diet’s recommendation of fatty foods. Before you go on a low carbohydrate diet, weigh the positives against the negatives and decide whether it’s the right weight loss strategy for you.Arguably the most popular low carb diet is the Atkins diet, founded by the late Dr. Robert Atkins several decades ago. Since its explosion onto the scene, similar diets have sprouted, including the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet, Sugar Busters, and Protein Power. All these diets require you to vastly reduce the amount of carbohydrates you consume, but not eliminate them (as so many people assume). Your primary carbohydrate sources should be natural foods like vegetables and certain fruits. You will then find yourself eschewing many of the starchy and nutrient-deficient goodies that so many of us consume on a daily basis, like junk food and fast food (which, health experts agree, are bad for you anyway) and going for low carb foods.

Refined flour and sugar are perhaps the vilest villains that cause weight gain. Excessive intake of food products rich in these two ingredients can cause your blood glucose levels to increase, triggering the additional production of insulin, and causing the body to convert carbs to fat. Eating low carb foods would ensure that you get only the amount needed by your body. Deprived of surplus carbs, your body would then burn its fat stores instead of carbohydrates, and you start losing weight. What’s more, if you stick to the diet, you’ll find that you’ll tend to shed pounds at a faster pace.

Several studies show additional benefits of consuming low carb foods aside from weight loss. Lowered blood sugar levels will make you less vulnerable to diabetes. Also, clinical evidence shows that a low carb diet helps improve blood cholesterol, reducing your risk for heart disease and stroke. Another finding suggests a relationship between acne and carbohydrates. A diet high in carbohydrates increases insulin production, which would cause a series of hormonal changes that lead to clogged pores and oilier skin – fertile ground for the bacterium that causes pimples.

If the low carb diet has so many health benefits, why have many people abandoned it? One major reason is the diet’s advocacy of fat that is found in food like meat and dairy products. While it is true that low carb diets permit the consumption of fatty, low carb foods like butter, cheese, and pork chops, they do not in any way encourage the gluttony. You should eat only up to the point you don’t feel hungry anymore – there’s no “eat all you can” mentality involved.

Healthy low-carb options

Another reason may sound mundane, but is a serious challenge for many people: food boredom. A number of dieters find that they can’t do without the starchy, carb-rich they have become accustomed to; things like bread, pasta, candy, chips. However, if you do decide to go on a low carbohydrate diet, remember that there are many substitute products out in the marketplace that would still enable you to enjoy comfort food, but without the burden of carbs and sugar. For instance, instead of bread products made with refined flour, you can opt for whole grain breads or those made with soy flour and the like.

The abundance of naturally low carb foods cannot be underestimated. Fish, shellfish, and other seafood are rich in protein and low in carbs; so are poultry, meat, and many vegetables. Once you start incorporating all these natural and healthy foods back into your diet, you will find that you won’t miss the junk that you used to consume. And this practice of choosing nutrient-rich foodstuff will be something you will carry with you even after you reach your ideal body weight.

Whats more important – Diet or Exercise?

It’s not enough to go on a low carbohydrate diet, or any other diet for that matter, without getting the right amount of exercise. Even though the diet does not focus on calorie-counting, a calorie is still a calorie and if you eat more than what you burn, then you’ll become fat. So if you do decide to go on a low carbohydrate diet, make sure you do it right.

Maximizing Your Low Carb Nutrition Values

While carbohydrates are an essential ingredient in anyone’s diet, carbohydrates, and carbohydrates are not hard to find. All foods other than meats, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, and fats contain them, so for most people the issue is not how to ensure themselves an adequate intake of carbs, but how to avoid eating too many of them.Getting the nutrients which carbs supply while keeping overall carb intake low is possible; it simply requires learning how to keep simple and complex carbohydrates in proportion, with complex carbs making up the bulk of the carbs in a diet; to be certain the sources of those carbs are, as much as possible, natural and not refined; and to learn how to judge proper portions.

Making Good Choices
Low carb nutrition is simply a matter of making the decisions necessary to establish and maintain a healthy weight while making sure our nutrient intake remains at a healthy level. Low carb nutrition does not require that any particular food groups be eliminated completely from a person’s diet, but it does require that the food choices emphasize nutrient-dense carbs over refined ones. Because carbs are limited, every one consumed has to do its part in nourishing the body.

A healthy low carb nutrition plan will have as its centerpiece low fat meats, fish and seafood, poultry, seafood, and dairy products; of the high protein choices, fish is always preferred. A diet high in meat can mean a diet high in saturated fats. Those who wish to practice low carb nutrition should be careful to limit their fat intake as much as possible to vegetable and nut-based oils; olive oil is known to have a beneficial effect on cholesterol levels. The idea that low carb nutrition means you can down steaks and cheeseburgers to your heart’s content is simply wishful thinking.

Because any form of sugar is a carbohydrate, the lactose in dairy products means that a low carb nutrition plan should restrict the consumption of dairy products; the same is true for fruits, which contain the sugar fructose. But the essential nutrients in both dairy products and fruits are so important to health that they should still be eaten in small amounts on a daily basis.

Looking For The Good In Carbs
Using low-fat or non–fat dairy products will allow you to increase your intake of them, and choosing whole unprocessed fruits with no added sugar is far better for low carb nutrition than drinking fruit juice, which does not contain beneficial fiber, and often has table sugar, or sucrose, added. Fiber will slow down the digestion of the fruit, and keep its fructose from causing a sudden spike in blood sugar levels. Good low carb nutrition allows you the flexibility to substitute a healthier version of a carb-containing food rather than eliminating it entirely.

And this hold true for the practice of replacing simple carbohydrates with complex ones. Flour, be it whole grain or processed, still qualifies as a complex carbohydrate; and good low carb nutrition practices mean that wherever possible, products with whole grain flours be substituted for those with refined ones. While no kind of flour is an ideal choice for an low carb diet, whole grain flours can provide more of the fiber, vitamins, and minerals which will maintain the nutritional levels of a low carb diet.

Beat the Carb Cravings

Anyone who’s been on a low carb diet will tell you that the first week is the hardest. Some report actual physical symptoms of carb withdrawal, like irritability, headaches, and lack of energy. Others say it’s the emotional struggle to stay away from rice, bread, pasta, potatoes the staples that they’ve grown used to serving with every meal.These carb cravings can easily tempt you into giving up on your diet altogether. Don’t. You have so much to gain (or in this case, lose): think 10 pounds in the first two weeks, as some diets claim, and a visible reduction of tummy handles. (Hey, you’ll be able to fit in a smaller size of jeans!) So how do you survive the battle against bread? Here are some tips:

Indulge in the right food

One of the advantages of low carb diets is that you don’t starve yourself. You can eat very well, just stay away from certain types of food. How does help beat the carb cravings? If you’re not ravenous, you’re less likely to raid the fridge in a mad fit of hunger. You can also replace a high-carb snack (like a chocolate bar) with an equally tasty bag of peanuts, and not feel deprived.

Veteran low carb dieters actually advise keeping stashes of low-carb diets in their desk drawers, or by the television the places where most people get the desire to munch on something. Keep the portions small, just enough to make you feel that you’ve had a treat, without actually turning into a binge. You’ll need a lot of small plastic bags, or tiny plastic containers. Another tip: prepare the individual servings beforehand, preferably after eating a meal so you’re not tempted to put more than you should.

Keep yourself busy

Most of us eat not out of hunger but habit. You’re bored, stressed, or you’re killing time before you take on the next item on your to-do list. Avoid temptation by keeping your mind on something you enjoy. Some dieters carry a book around, others start a hobby like scrapbooking which will let them pass long hours without even thinking about food. For those who work at the office, and need something to keep them away from the vendo machine, bookmark a website that you can browse until the snack attack passes.

Look for other forms of recreation

It’s become customary to make meals the center of any recreational activity: eating chips while watching a movie, going out to dinner with friends. While you’re still getting used to the low-carb regimen, pass up the invitation to have drinks after work and invite everyone to watch a play, hit the badminton courts, or attend a museum opening.

Get a diet buddy

Dieting becomes more fun when you have a diet partner to give encouragement, praise you for every lost pound, and even help you scout for the low-carb friendly restaurants in your area. Don’t know anyone? Go online and join a dieter’s forum. Exchange recipes, share thoughts, and hey, even make new friends. You’ll still feel the carb cravings, but somehow, saying no is a little easier.

Dining Out Without Cheating On A Low-Carb Diet

You can hardly turn your head these days without seeing new studies that have been done that show the importance of cutting carbs out of your diet. New diet plans are coming out all the time that claim to have the perfect combinations of foods that will magically allow you to lose all of your extra weight without lifting a finger or sacrificing any of the tastes you love so much. Eating low carb foods sounds so boring and hard, but it doesn’t have to.You don’t have to stay home to eat healthy. Most restaurants have low fat options and are quickly adding low carb menus. Before going out, call around and find a restaurant with a menu that will be a good match for your diet. Once at the restaurant, there are ways to enjoy a guilt free meal.

The secret to success is in the initial ordering—you don’t want to find yourself staring at a plate of bad choices, and regretting it only after the plate is empty.

Some experts suggest that once served, you should ask for a take-out container and put half of it away for the next day’s lunch or dinner. This works great if you are incredibly self-controlled. However, if the knowledge that there is more food under the lid of that Styrofoam container is too much—change the way you order.

Side dishes, children’s plates, and appetizers are all great alternatives. Request that extras like gravy, butter, sauces, salad dressings, and sour cream be served on the side. Slightly dipping a fork in a condiment before you stick it into your food is a great way to limit the extra calories while adding flavor to your food.

Don’t be afraid to substitute. Substitute a salad for fries, a green vegetable for potatoes, or low fat versions for their fat laden counterparts. If there are no substitutions available, ask to have the item left off the plate. Such a request may result in your waiter explaining that you have to pay for it anyway. Simply let him know that you don’t mind—or you’ll end up paying with your waistline.

Sometimes another person at the table will want the item you want left in the kitchen. If this is the case, ask the waiter to serve the item on a separate plate.

Fast food restaurants offer a challenge to the average weight loss plan. However, if you must go to one, there are usually a few healthy choices you can make.

Order a salad, grilled chicken, or a roast beef sandwich. If you are on a low carb diet, request a plate and a fork with your sandwiches so that you can eat it without the bun. In casual and fine dining scenarios, simply choose items according to the way they are cooked, avoiding anything that is battered and fried. Instead, order items that are steamed, broiled, baked, roasted, or poached.

Stay away from food that is creamed, cheese sauce, or items marinated in oil. Especially destructive to your weight loss efforts are casseroles and pastry crusts.

As for drinks– water, diet sodas, and ice tea are all good choices. A single glass of wine fits nicely into most diets, but only if you have the willpower to pass on a second glass when offered.

Desserts don’t have to be off limits, especially if everyone else at the table in partaking. This will only cause you to dig into the ice cream in your freezer with wild abandon once you get home. Choose a dessert that does not come with ice cream, whipped cream, or any kind of sauce. But only order it if you have someone willing to share it with you. Have the waiter bring it out already divided up.

There is no reason not to enjoy a guilt free dinner out. There are many options available, you just have to make the right choices.

The Lifelong Solution to Staying Thin?

Low carb dieting has become a popular way to lose weight quickly, and has even become the preferred lifestyle for thousands of health and weight conscious people. The question is, are low carb diets a realistic lifetime regimen, and are they really healthy?Well, here’s the general consensus: Hats off to low carb dieters, for they have found the lifelong key to weight maintenance, heart health and peak physical condition. When most people hear the term “low carb diet”, they think of fanatical menus of bacon, eggs, cheese and other “zero carb” foods that, prior to the carbohydrate diet revolution, were considered high fat, artery clogging foods. In short, the typical low carb fare was a long list of high fat no-no’s up until the low carb revolution, and pastas and breads were hailed as “low to no fat”, so people were piling on the carbs in favor of less fat.

We’ve come a long way from this extreme school of thought, with the advent and teaching of a more healthy and balanced low carb dieting lifestyle. This new school of thought does not preach a zero tolerance for sugars and starches, but rather just making smarter choices in carbohydrate consumption, and a higher protein to carbohydrate ratio, with a healthy but moderate dash of unsaturated fat.

This new “moderation” method of low carb dieting has proven to be a huge asset for thousands of people suffering from obesity and excess weight. Many have adopted the moderation philosophy into their permanent eating habits and lifestyle with great long term success and permanent weight loss and maintenance.

Sure, most of us low carbers will have those moments of weakness, especially around the holidays, and overdo it on the sugars and starches, but it’s actually pretty easy to get right back in the swing of things again. As a matter of fact, there are also some effective supplements that actually absorb excess carb intake and help offset any weight gain through times like this. They are usually taken just before or shortly after meals to help eliminate improper storage of fat as well as even out blood sugar, which is on of the primary reasons for weight gain through excess carb intake.

Long Term Low Carb Dieting Benefits

Benefits of adopting this lifestyle are voluminous. Aside from the obvious weight loss and effective weight management benefits, there are other significant advantages to this type of diet.

Here are the top benefits:

1.) Increased muscle tone
2.) Mentally more focused
3.) Less incidence of depression and anxiety
4.) Healthy blood sugar levels = lower risk of diabetes
5.) Healing faster and more efficiently
6.) Get sick less often
7.) Skin, hair and all other external organs grow healthier and more radiant
8.) Eat less – low carb foods are more filling

Think about it. Even if this short list of eight benefits was the only reason to adopt low carb dieting as a lifestyle, it would be worth it, right? There are many – maybe even hundreds more benefits to this method of eating. If you want to live longer, be thin for life, and be healthier, this diet is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

Low Carb Foods List Dos And Dont’s

It’s not hard to come up with a low carb foods list; the nutritional labels present on all packaged foods gives a count of the grams of carbohydrate in each serving of the contents. The trick is just to remember that a serving can be quite small. But even those packaged foods which have little or no carbohydrate content may have been processed and have almost none of their fiber or nutrients left. Add to that artificial preservatives and high levels of sodium which is a major flavor enhance in many packaged foods, and the number low carb processed foods which deserve a place on y6our low carbs food list becomes even smaller.Artificial preservatives may be great for preserving the contents of the processed low carb foods in a package, but they do nothing to preserve the health of those who consume them. While salt contains iodine which is essential for thyroid health, the excessive amounts of salt in processed foods can lead to hypertension and if too much salt is consumed for too long, to fluid retention and heart failure.

Keep It Natural
The best foods to have on your low carb foods list, therefore, are those which are in as close to their natural state as possible. Because you will be restricting your consumption of whole grain products which are high in fiber and vitamins, you’ll need to find the nutrients somewhere else. Natural foods, especially raw or lightly steamed fruits and vegetables, even small amounts have significant amounts of minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients.

When you start a low carb foods list, the first thing you should do is make categories for simple and complex carbohydrates. Only rarely will you be using simple carbohydrate foods when you are following a low carb eating plan; the small amounts of carbs which you are allowed should come almost entirely in the form of complex carbohydrates.

The most prominent foods on your low carb foods list, of course, will be high protein foods like meat, poultry, fish and seafood, eggs, cheese, seeds, and nuts. You’ll also have fats like butter, olive and other vegetable oil, and cream, but nutritionists agree that monosaturated oils like olive oil are the best for us. And even though you may be under the impression that a low carb diet gives you carte blanche to eat as much protein and fat as you like, overdoing either of them will lead to weight gain and other health problems.

Complex Vs. Simple Carbs
Because you will need to eat simple carbs, like fruits, in very small amounts for the nutrients they provide, just make sure that you don’t waste you simple carbs allotment on canned fruit. Other simple carbs are milk sugar, or lactose, founding dairy products, and sucrose, or table sugar, founding thousands of frozen, canned, and boxed foods. Both fruit and milk deserve to make it to you low carb foods list. Anything with table sugar should be avoided as much as possible.

Even items from the corner bakery, although they may be freshly baked and contain no preservatives, will have sugar, and more than likely, processed white flour. They are taboo on all other diets, and should be taboo on you low carb foods list as well.

While no bread is a low carb food, there is a place for whole grain bread on your whole carbs food list. It will give you the fiber you need to help fill you and to slow the digestive processes so that you feel full longer, and that your blood sugar levels remain steady.

Low Carb Diet Eating – Super Salads

The foundation of any healthy low-carb eating is in its vegetable content. Any low-carb eating which does not include enough vegetables to provide the vitamins and minerals lacking in high-protein foods may lead to weight loss, but it will also lead to trouble if it continues for more than a few weeks.Many people today, however, are not big veggie eaters; the fast food culture has often restricted the daily vegetable intake of millions of rushed diners to the pickles, onions, wilted lettuce, and barely pink tomatoes on their burgers or chicken sandwiches. So it’s not surprising that those who decide to try low carb diet eating neglect the veggies.

Go Organic
But after a few days of low carb diet eating of nothing but meat, eggs, and cheese, even lettuce may start to look good. So when you feel the cravings for carbs kick in, be ready to head them off with a power salad, which will not only be a tremendous treat after all that protein. You can get pre-packaged salad mixes at the grocery store, so you don’t have to buy huge amounts of different salad fixings. And if you go for organic salad mixes, and dress them up with organic ingredients, you’ll have sweeter vegetables than you ever imagined.

One of the most nutritious ingredients you can add to any meal is spinach. This superfood has been shown to support eye health, as well as the brain, skin, and cardiovascular and immune systems. So be sure you salad mix contains spinach; even better, you can buy a bag of organic spinach leaves.

Diversify Your Choices
You have a wide selection of low carb vegetables to add to your salad, from red, green and yellow bell peppers to onions to broccoli and celery to tomato; you can also add nuts or a little bit of low carb fruit like grapefruit or berries. Sunflower seeds can add some nice crunchiness without a lot of carbs and make a great replacement for croutons. If you simply have to go the crouton route, limit yourself to the equivalent of a half slice of bread. You can also sprinkle blue cheese crumbles on your salad for an interesting contrast to the sweetness of the vegetables.

Because you’re on a low carb diet eating plan, you can treat yourself to some fat when you choose a dressing for you salad. And one of the most delicious, and healthiest, dressings you can make is an olive oil and fruit–raspberry or strawberry are wonderful– vinaigrette mix. Olive oil is a fat that actually helps your cardiovascular system instead of clogging it, and you can feel good about eating it.

You salads will have to be your main source of carbohydrates for the duration of your low carb diet eating plan, so it’s essential that you take the time to make them taste good. You can even add cooked meat or fish to your salad base, and have a complete low carb diet eating treat. Here’s a recipe to get you started:

Spinach Raspberry Chicken Salad

1 tsp olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3/4 lbs.) cut into bite-size strips
1 cup thinly sliced onion
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 6-ounce bag baby spinach or organic baby spinach salad mix
1/4 cup bottled raspberry vinaigrette dressing
1 cup fresh or fresh frozen raspberries, partially thawed
1/4 cup feta or bleu cheese

To Prepare:

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet or wok; add chicken strips and onion and stir-fry over high heat 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center.

Season chicken to taste with salt and pepper.

Turn off heat. Add spinach and vinaigrette to skillet; toss well.

Divide mixture among plates. Sprinkle each salad with raspberries and feta cheese.

Are You Ready For Low Carb?

Everyone’s been talking about low carb diets. While most people tend to associate it with South Beach or Atkins, there are actually quite a few books that center on the principle of cutting out the carbs: Sugar Busters, Protein Power, The Zone Diet, Carbohydrates Addict Diet. They differ on how strict they are about carbohydrate intake—what you can eat, and not eat, or how much you are later allowed to eat in the later phases of the diet—but as a whole, they agree on one thing: carbs are bad.The Carbohydrate Principle

Which makes you wonder: what’s so bad about carbs? The belief is that when you control carbohydrates, you lower your body’s production of insulin. Insulin gives your body the “quick fix” of energy (which is why, after eating carbs, you get the famous sugar rush). But without carbs, your body’s forced to use your body’s fat and protein stores.

Low carb diets can lead to rapid weight loss, but nutritionists are debating whether or not it should be continued in a long term. This is because you force your body to burn muscle, and muscle can be a dieter’s best friend because it burns calories even when you’re at rest. However, some diets allow restricted carbs in later phases—which would lower the rate of your weight loss, but is healthier for you in the long run.

What are the benefits of low carb diets?

* You feel (and weigh!) lighter. Low carb diets remove many high-calorie, low-nutrition foods such as pastries and pasta. It also forces the body to burn fat stores (i.e., the bulge around your hips). The foods that are typically included, mainly protein, low-fat dairy, and fiber, also tend to reduce water retention.

* You feel less hungry and more energetic. The body digests carbs and uses very quickly, leading to quick bursts of energy but also frequent hunger pangs and the infamous “sugar rush-sugar crash” cycle When you replace carbs with fiber and protein, which takes longer to process, you’ll feel full longer and have more stable energy levels. That is also linked to less mood swings and higher concentration.

* Better blood pressure and cholesterol. Low carb diets usually remove saturated fats, and refined or processed food, and shift to what is called “whole food groups” (low fat dairy, protein, fiber) which help control blood pressure and cholesterol. The significant reduction of sugary food—which typically contain lots of calories, no nutritional content—also helps control obesity, which is a big factor in heart attacks.

What foods are low carb?

Low carb diets sound good, but be prepared: low carb diets will take out what many consider as staples in all meals: bread, pasta, and rice. In fact, low carb diets will remove anything made of flour, starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes, and foods that contain sugar (this includes several fruits), and cereals that aren’t specifically labeled as “low carb”. However, you will be allowed to take meat and eggs, low sugar fruits like strawberries, and high-protein but low-fat alternatives like soybeans. Some low carb diets allow dairy.

A Guide To Low Carb Living

The idea of living a low carb life can make many people take cover and hide. The low carb lifestyle is more than simply following the Atkins diet; it’s a total change in how you eat to live. Basically more and more of your life will revolve around a particular way of eating to maintain a healthy weight. This information isn’t designed to put you off. Far from it. It’s here simply to help you acknowledge that it will take work to develop a low carb routine but once you do it’ll become much easier from that point onwards. This information is here to help you prepare for the Atkins diet; nothing more and nothing less.The most important part of the low carb lifestyle is the diet itself. You’ll have to make a real effort to eat only low carb foods and not slip back into the habit of eating carbohydrate rich foods. Carbs themselves can be highly addictive and it only takes one slip and you’ll find yourself hooked again and suffering from those insane carb cravings. This can and will lead to a downward spiral and overall failure in your low carbohydrate dieting efforts.

One of the most tempting times to stray from the diet will be when you’re at parties, as the high carbohydrate food on offer there (chips, cake, rolls etc) will be too much for some people, and they will break their promises of not touching these high carb items. To avoid this, make sure that before you leave your home you’re stuffed full of low/no carb food, so feel much less of an urge, as it is common to arrive at parties feeling pretty hungry and this is when you’re most likely to indulge

In a principle similar to “hitting the wall”, a situation that many athletes find themselves in during the later part of a marathon where their body runs out of carbohydrates and they find it harder to run, the first couple of weeks on a low carb diet will make you feel very lethargic, while your body adjusts to its new energy source. However, like with the running phenomenon, you just need to push through this period, and once you have adjusted it will become much easier.

Low carb living is not as difficult as you might think and this article may have made that harder to believe. We just believe that honesty is the best policy for anyone starting a new diet; especially one like the Atkins diet which must be strictly adhered to for maximum results and long term weight loss. Once you see the starting results possible with low carb dieting your weekly weighin will be more than enough to keep you motivated and on the straight-and-narrow of the low carb lifestyle.

Types Of Low Carb Snacks Available Today

Since the low carb diet became popular, there are many companies that now specialize in low carb foods. In fact, many of them even create some great low carb snacks that are perfect to be used within your diet plan. Only things such as pork skin and beef jerky were available but now it is completely different.Take Roasted Wisconsin Cheese for example. This is one great example of low carb snacks available. It is very high in calcium, has approx. 10gms protein per serving and is very tasty. Many people simply chop it up and use in salads or soups.

Another great item for the potato chip lovers is the low carb tortilla chips that are widely available on the market. They are light, crisp, contain very few carbs and taste great as they are packed with flavour. These are a great addition to your low carb snacks list. As we all know, eating between meals is not recommended but if you eat healthily and only choose low carb snacks it won’t greatly effect your weight loss.

Finally, Atkins have created their own brand of low carb snacks. They come in a variety of flavours and products, so you can pick and choose exactly what you like and have it when you please. The positive is that as it is Atkins own brand, you can be almost guaranteed that what they put on the label is what is contained within. However the negative is that they can afford to price the items slightly higher than what may be available elsewhere. Their brand name allows them to do this as people feel very comfortable buying from a company that is a worldwide brand.

Whatever type of low carb snacks you choose, just remember to not over do it, have a regular exercise program and stick to your goals. You should see a dramtic weight loss take place over the course of your diet plan. Enjoy losing weight and getting the physique you genuinely deserve!

The Importance of Exercise While on a Low Carb Diet

The Atkins Diet, which received widespread public interest in 1972, did not fail to encourage the introduction of regular exercise. The dieter who has agreed to abstain from carbohydrates must appreciate the extent to which new chemicals can build up in a system that looks to protein as an energy source. Those chemicals form in the body muscles.Still, the formation of those chemicals should not be viewed as a reason to cut back on the use of muscles (or in other words, to cut back on exercise). In fact exercise can help to push unwanted chemicals out of the muscles. Prolonged exercise improves the circulation of blood in the muscles.

Exercise should be seen as an essential part of all low carb living. After all, even low carb food contains calories. Exercise gives the dieter an added way to burn off those calories. Moreover, the expected changes in the body biochemistry, changes that take place in a body on a high protein, low carb diet dictate the need for exercise.

Following exercise, the number of muscle capillaries increases by as much as 50%. At the same time, the existing muscle capillaries develop an even larger opening. Blood flows faster in those capillaries. The faster-flowing blood speeds removal from the exercised muscles of unwanted chemicals.

At other locations on these low carb pages you will find information about low carb recipes and low carb snacks. While those foods all contribute to the value of a low carb diet plan, the willingness to stick with those foods does not guarantee success with that same plan.

In order to feel secure about the results expected from adherence to a low carb diet, the dieter needs to take time to exercise his or her muscles. Research on weight loss has revealed that any effort aimed at a reduction of body fat should include sessions during which the dieter engages in muscle strengthening exercises.

A person on a low carb diet might take-in a good deal of fat. Of all the tissues in the body, muscle tissues are best equipped to use the calories that are found in fat. The more muscle that a dieter can develop, the greater the amount of fat that his or her muscles will manage to burn.

Those muscles do not need to be exercising at all times. A muscle burns some fat, even when it is at rest. Still, muscle building exercises can help a dieter to develop a set of fat burning “tools.”

One word of warning: Muscle weighs more than fat. At first the stronger muscles formed by someone on a low carb diet can cause a slight weight gain. Eventually though the dieter will loose weight. Moreover, the exercising dieter will facilitate removal from his or her muscles of any chemicals that form while the body uses protein as an energy source.

Dieting should make the dieter feel healthier. A dieter is more apt to enjoy that feeling if he or she takes time to exercise while adhering to any sort of low carb diet.

Where To Find Low Carb Recipes Online

You may be surprised to find the number of things people are willing to share online for free. The one thing that online life makes easier is helping each other reach our individual goals, and dietary goals are no exception. Low carb recipes abound online, you just need to know where to look.In this era of fat-building fast foods and preserved snacks, the need to become conscious of our own health becomes more and more urgent. Learn how to cut down on “bad carbs” by going online and checking out user-submitted health recipes! Here are a few sites where you can find quality low carb recipes:

1. Tina and Duncan MacDonald’s website hosts the low-carb recipes submitted to the newsgroup alt.support.diet.low-carb. No relation to the fast food company, the MacDonald couple make up a health and human resource consultancy group that is committed to ethical practices in dispensing information. The recipes submitted by users all around the world to the aforementioned newsgroup, and subsequently archived in their site (camacdonald.com/lc/), are free to just about anyone for personal non-commercial use.

2. Low Carb Luxury (lowcarbluxury.com) is the online version of its popular magazine, which contains a fine selection of tasty low carb recipes. Visit the website for some free recipe samples, or buy the magazine to stay up to date on the latest healthy culinary sensations!

3. The Low Carb Cafe (lowcarbcafe.com) is an online community where people interested in healthy low fat cooking can meet up and exchange ideas. Members have submitted over 1,400 recipes so far, and the number keeps growing! This site is for the true enthusiast of healthy eats.

4. Simply Recipes (simplyrecipes.com) has a wide selection of detailed recipes, including some for popular low-carb dishes. Simply do a search for “low carb” at the home page, and browse away!

5. Low Carb Recipes (lowcarb-recipes.net) is a website that compiles recipes that aren’t hard on the arteries. It also contains a rating system that allows site visitors to view the recipes by consumer rating! If you’re not sure what to cook, but want to start off on the right foot, this site should be among the ones you should visit first.

Some other popular cooking sites should also have “low carb recipes” on their menu. Remember that low carb doesn’t necessarily mean poor-tasting! Take your time window shopping online, and see which recipes would best suit your budget and your taste.

Combining a Low Fat Low Carb Diet for Quick Weight Loss

You want to look your best and you know you need to shed a few pounds in order to do that; but just which diet plan is the quickest and easiest way to lose weight? You can combine all the benefits of a low fat low carb diet to lose weight without having to lose taste or nutrition.Many carbohydrates can be gotten from vegetables and fruits and added pasta, rice and potatoes do nothing for your figure. You can eliminate extra calories by trying a low fat low carb diet and see how fast you will see results.

If you are on a low fat low carb diet to lose weight, you don’t have to stay on it forever. Losing weight is all about changing your lifestyle and a low fat low carb diet is a great way for you to get healthy and get in shape. When you eat a healthier diet you will have more energy for all the things you love to do.

Eating healthy carbohydrates and good fats are what a good and effective low fat low carb diet is all about. When you have hit your target weight, there is nothing wrong in enjoying the goodness of whole grains. You can use bread for a sandwich, whole wheat pasta and rice that hasn’t been stripped of its nutrients in a process to make it white. There are many choices for those who need carbs in their diet that are much smarter than the choices you once made.

Fruits like apples are loaded with carbs and when you get your carbs this way it can help you to turn your eating habits around. A low fat low carb diet can be tasty as long as you are willing to find low fat low carb diet alternatives to your high fat high carb favorites.

Getting rid of some foods permanently in your diet can help you feel good when you look in the mirror and as you look and feel better you will realize that a fleeting moment of taste is not worth giving up your new, improved and active lifestyle.

Low Carb Diabetic Diets

Thanks to Jennifer Aniston, Dr. Atkins’ low-carb diet is the latest craze among weight watchers. However, the furor it has caused in the medical circles is also due to the fact that it is steeped with immense benefits for diabetics. In fact, it is fast gaining precedence over the traditional low-calorie, low-fat diet once prescribed for diabetics—a diet that has now been conclusively proven to be detrimental to the diabetic patient’s health.This all-out attack on carbohydrates is understandable, as diabetes is a condition where sugar and starch are not properly absorbed from the bloodstream. And when the body is incapacitated in this way, an excess of carbohydrates can be harmful.

Anything more than 5%-10% carbohydrates in your daily caloric intake is a taboo in all the low-carb diets. These place emphasis on consumption of protein and fats so that the body is full and doesn’t experience hunger pangs. For it is only when the body feels that it is starving, that one tends to gorge on sugary foods. The feeling of fullness can be achieved with bulky fiber-rich food, too. In fact, low carb diets are unique in that you can have anything you desire, as long as it is not rich in carbohydrates. However, they all do fall short of recommending overstuffing oneself.

In low-carb diets, the foods that are approved are meats, fish, poultry, eggs and cheese and certain vegetables like kidney beans, carrots, avocados. It is worth remembering that since carbohydrates are almost barred from the diet chart, low-carb diets profess a moderately high fat intake to obtain the necessary energy. As a result, obese diabetic patients do need to consult a physician and adopt a modified version of the diet.

Low-carb diets are here to stay. Considering that carbohydrates are the bane of diabetes, it is definitely the most sensible diet plan for this particular group of individuals.

How To Get Rid Of Stomach Fat With Low Carb Diets

If you have subscribed to the best nutrition weight loss magazines and have practically borrowed all the books containing the topic from the local library in the hopes of learning how to get rid of stomach fat and to achieving your desired weight naturally, you may be reading about many myths. Many experts revealed the diet sins and how they can be avoided.Eating processed foods, even veggies, can not take the place of fresh veggies that you prepare yourself. Also, fruit juices are not as good as eating whole fruits. Beware of over-eating and under-eating.

These are two contrasting situations in nutrition weight loss plans that effect how to get rid of stomach fat.

1. Eating too much even if you think you have followed all the low-fat, low-carb tips you it may still not be a good nutrition weight loss practice for you.

2. Not eating enough will also result in weight gain because it will influence your insulin levels promoting storage of fats. Hence, it is highly advised that one eats about 5-6 light meals a day rather than eating 3 large ones.

Using too many supplements can be a mistake. Vitamins are supplements but should not replace foods. Nutrition weight loss programs have been in constant limelight all these years. This means that nutrition weight loss program is not the same for everybody. Bottom line, seeking the advice of reliable health practitioners should be your first step in nutrition weight loss plan.

Carbohydrate Nutrition Secrets For Getting Rid of Stomach Fat

Have you been scanning food labels longer than usual to compare which ones offer the lowest amount of carbohydrates? Carbohydrate nutrition is a totally misunderstood thing. Truth is, there is no dietary requirement for carbohydrate. Carbohydrates even provide more fuel for physical activity than protein or fat. Glycogen level is high when the diet has a rich carbohydrate content. Diet rich in protein results in a not-so-high glycogen level, and a high fat diet causes the lowest glycogen level.

Carbohydrate nutrition has been stirred by the low-carb issues. Foods that are said to contain low-carbohydrates may not be what they claim to be. A lot of foods that claim to contain less carbohydrates than some others may actually contain more sugar so as not to lose the taste that people love. Thus, these are not healthier choices than those containing the regular carbohydrates. Some carbohydrates are unhealthy and should be avoided when wanting to get rid of belly fat!

Carbohydrates are the best source of energy in the body. Simple carbohydrates (sugar), are the ones to be taken in moderation as they do not contain the needed nutrients. Complex carbohydrates like starches are the ones which contain the necessary nutrients. Eating low-carbohydrate diets is healthy.

Carbohydrates like starches can make you fat and make it much harder to get rid of stomach fat.

This is the most common carbohydrate nutrition myth. Eating large servings of these foods and eating them with other high-fat foods can raise the fat and calorie content. A low carbohydrate intake can result to low sugar level and weak body mobility.

Carbohydrate nutrition can be confusing as integral calculus if you entertain what everyone has to say about weight loss. It’s important to get the facts when you want to learn how to rid of stomach fat.

Free Low Carb Food List

The popularity of low carb diets is increasing all the time. This is basically because they do actually work, as long as you stick to the particular plan you choose to follow. Obviously the Atkins Diet is the most popular and can have a dramatic effect in just a couple of weeks. An important part of following any of these diets correctly is to have a low carb food list.This means you will know exactly what you can and cannot eat everyday. It also means you can vary the different meals to prevent you getting bored of each meal. So once you have your low carb food list, you can plan different meals for each day. Just because you are on a diet doesn’t mean you cannot still eat foods that are tasty and filling. Low carb doesn’t have to mean low food.

Here are some various types of low carb foods that you can add to your low carb food list – Swiss Cheese-Shredded, Blue Cheese, Beef Brisket, Beef Chuck, Beef Eye Round, Beef Jerky, Beef Short Ribs, Beef Tenderloin, Veal Breast, Veal Cutlet, Veal Loin, Veal Rib Chop, Veal Round Steak, Veal Scallops, Veal Shank, Veal Stew Meat, Tuna, Pork, Chicken.

It is important to eat these foods plentifully and avoid items with high sugar and carb content. Especially in the first two weeks of the atkins diet. This is when the ketosis effect is at it’s highest and where you’ll experience a rapid weight loss. A good idea is to pin your low carb food list onto a board in the kitchen or put it under a fridge magnet so that it is always in view. If you’re not sure whether you can eat a certain item of food, just check your list to see if it is on there. If not, leave it alone and don’t be tempted!

The Benefits Of A Low Carb Diet Plan

Thousands of people decide to go on a diet everyday of the year. Choosing a diet plan to suit your needs is often the hardest part of starting your diet. Most popular are the atkins diet which is a type of low carb diet plan.These types of plans have become very popular since the evolution of the atkins diet. Everyone from movie stars to singers popularised the diet which does have a major impact and is a great way to lose weight fast.

Some of the main benefits of a low carb diet plan include simple to make recipes and a wide range of choice available. Many manufacturers have their own brand of low carb foods available at quite reasonable prices. Just make sure to read the labels correctly before buying, so that you know exactly what is contained in each product.

Many types of so called “fad” diets come and go but the low carb diet plan seems to be going from strength to strength. In fact the Atkins diet is one of the most popular in the world at present, with millions of people following their advice and tips.

It is simply a case of cutting down on your carb intake everyday and taking regular exercise. To start with, it is recommended you take approx. 20 gms of carbs per day which is increased after a couple of weeks. During these two weeks following the low carb diet plan you should see a considerable weight loss. This weight loss is carried on during the length of the plan.

One main benefit of the low carb diet plan is that you do not need to starve yourself. You can eat until you are full as long as you are eating the correct foods. These foods are generally high protein and fat containing foods. Meats, cheeses are the most common types of food on the low carb diet plan but others are common too. Anything as long as it is low in carbs is generally considered fine to eat.

The main benefit of a low carb diet is that it works for almost anyone who sticks to the plan. If you haven’t tried one and you are trying to lose weight, it is recommended to give it a go. What have you got to lose apart from a lot of weight!

Cooking Quick Low Carb Lunches

Lunch is an important meal for low carbers. But who has the time to cook?

Instead of cooking lunch, one good solution is to cook more food the night before when you are cooking dinner. If you are having ribs or chicken for dinner, make a little extra so you can have it for lunch the next day. It doesn’t take any extra time and with convenience of a microwave your lunch will be ready in no time. In fact, ribs and chicken can also be just as tasty cold.

Another good idea is to do most of the cooking on days when you have more time. You can take one day and prepare some foods that will provide good lunches for you all week.

Chicken

Buy a whole chicken, clean it and boil. You can use it to make chicken salad to stuff into a bell pepper or tomato. You can also slice the chicken to make deli style lunch meat. Wrap it up in a piece of romaine lettuce with some mayonnaise. Yummy.

If you want to get a little more fancy you can wrap some ham around some Swiss cheese, then wrap the chicken slices around the ham and heat it in a microwave. It’s a great low carb cordon bleu. You’ll feel like you’re dining with royalty.

You can also buy packages of chicken legs and wings and fry them up with no breading. The skin gets crunchy and tasty. These make great grab and go snacks and lunches.

Ham

Boil a ham and slice it. This will be good for making ham and cheese roll-ups. You can also dice up some of the ham for omelette’s in the morning or ham salad that you can heap on pork rinds.

Beef

By a large roast beef and cook it in the oven. Slice it up deli style. Wrap this meat around cheese for a quick and easy lunch.

For a real treat top these roast beef slices with some previously sautéed peppers, onions and mushrooms then top it with Swiss cheese. Heat that in a microwave until the cheese melts. Your tummy will be so happy when you dine on these tasty low carb Philly cheese steaks.

You can get a corned beef and boil it. You can have corned beef and cabbage one night for dinner and slice up the rest deli style for great lunches the rest of the week. Top the slices with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and some low carb Thousand Island dressing and you have a great low carb Reuben sandwich. (Diet ketchup mixed into some mayonnaise with some low carb dill relish makes a good low carb Thousand Island dressing).

Fish and Seafood

Get cans or convenient pouches of tuna. Add a little mayonnaise to the tuna with some low carb dill relish and stuff that in a half of a bell pepper or a half of a tomato. Split the top of the tomato into quarters so it falls open and easily holds the tuna. Try it with salmon, too.

Add some mayonnaise and a little chopped celery to canned shrimp or crab (check the carb counts – for some reason the leading brands seem to think we want sugar in our seafood). Take the seed out of a half of an avocado and stuff the shrimp or crab salad into the remaining whole. Delicious!

Even Faster Alternatives

Use processed foods minimally. They have chemicals that you don’t need. Don’t let the deli counter fool you. Most of those are processed, too and many contain sugars that add to the carb count. It’s best to boil or roast your own meats and fowl.

But if you are in a real big hurry, an occasional visit to the deli won’t hurt. You can purchase deli meats and wrap them around cheese slices for a very satisfying lunch without having to cook.

Even less desirable are the cans of meats and packages of lunch meats and cold cuts. These are handy when you know you are not going to be where you can get to any other low carb food. You can keep a couple cans of Vienna sausages in your car or at your desk for those situations.

Low Carb Diet Tips – 5 Ways A Sugar Addiction Ruins Health

Whether you are on a low carb diet or not, sugar is damaging to the body in many ways. The following is just a partial list of some of sugar’s consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications. To find out more about why sugar is an addiction and how it upsets your whole body chemistry, read “Lick The Sugar Habit” by Nancy Appleton, PhD. The research in her book contributed to this article.1. Sugar can suppress the immune system.This is probably the most important reason to avoid sugar, whether you are trying to stick to a low carb diet or not. The information here comes from two different research projects that have been done at Loma Linda University. The research evaluated the effects of sugar on phagocytes, the white blood cells of the immune system that eat up bad bacteria and foreign invaders. To put it simply, the more bacteria consumed by the phagocytes, the stronger the immune system, and the less chance for disease. One of the Loma Linda studies showed that sugar caused the phagocytic index to drop dramatically which had a negative effect on the amount of debris that could be removed by the immune system.2. Sugar can upset the body’s mineral balance.

Minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, iron and zinc are crucial to bodily functions. If there is a shortage of just one of these minerals, the entire system can be thrown out of balance. With just two teaspoons of sugar, micronutrients in the body can change radically, throwing the blood chemistry out of balance. Some mineral levels increase, some decrease, and delicate ratios are upset. So, even a little sugar can negate the effects of consuming extra calcium or mineral supplements. If you are on a low carb diet and concerned about getting enough of the right nutrients, this is another good reason to avoid sugar.

3. Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, and concentration difficulties in children. Oh, and did we mention, obesity?

Take a look at Saturday morning TV ads or the breakfast products on grocery store shelves and it seems that sugary cereals are part of the standard American diet for children. Sugar Smacks, Cap ‘N Crunch, Corn Pops, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms and Trix are just a few of the cereals loaded with sugar that are still being eaten by kids everywhere before they head off to school. Even something as healthy as oatmeal is full of sugar in those instant flavor variety packs. You may think oatmeal is a good low carb, high fiber food, but once the sugar is sprinkled on it, oatmeal is no longer part of a low carb diet. In addition, look at all the sugar being consumed by children in sodas and other products that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup.

Writing for The Journal of Abnormal Psychology in 1986, J. Goldman noted in “Behavioral Effects of Sucrose on Preschool Children” that a dose of sugar equivalent to that found in a 12-ounce soda did indeed disrupt the performance of children at school. It caused their concentration levels to decrease and their inappropriate behaviors to increase. It is important to note that in 1976 the sugar industry found it was less costly to make sugar from corn than from beets or sugar cane. Since then, high fructose corn syrup has replaced sucrose as a sweetener in processed foods and sodas. It has been shown that fructose causes the white blood cells of the immune system to become inactive and unable to defend the body against harmful intruders. Anyone on a low carb diet should watch out for high fructose corn syrup.

4. Sugar can speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and gray hair.

When sugar is consumed on a regular basis the pancreas can become over stimulated and secrete too much insulin. Excess insulin can cause a drop in normal blood sugar levels and hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, may develop. Symptoms of hypoglycemia can include fatigue, memory failure, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, tremors, headaches and depression. These may sound like diseases of the elderly, but more and more young people are experiencing these warning signs. If you notice any of these symptoms, try removing sugar from your diet and see what happens. If nothing else, sticking to a low carb diet with less sugar will probably give you more energy.

5. Sugar can cause arthritis.

Arthritis is another disease that has been linked to old age, but now there are many indications that sugar is playing a role in younger people developing arthritic symptoms. As mentioned earlier, a body that is suffering a mineral imbalance may produce inflammation in the bones, joints and cartilage due to the accumulation of toxic minerals, mostly calcium. Once again, the delicate mineral balance has been upset by too much sugar. When one mineral decreases, another may increase, and in some cases, excess calcium will end up in joints, causing arthritic spurs and other problems associated with bone diseases. Simply eliminating sugar and consuming a low carb diet, may result in weight loss, which will help take some of the stress off those achy knees and ankles.

This is just a short list of the many ways that sugar contributes to health challenges. It is hard to avoid sugar in foods being sold at grocery stores. However, on the Internet, you can find low carb foods, healthy snacks for a child, nutrition for athletes and other all natural foods that are not loaded with refined sugar. Have you ever heard of stevia? It is the one sweetener that may actually be good for maintaining normal blood sugar levels, and healthy for those on a low carb diet. Stevia is not an artificial sweetener as it is made from the stevia plant. Stevia has been used by indigenous peoples of South America for centuries as a nutritional food supplement. So, there are ways to avoid over consumption of sugar, but it takes some diligence and awareness. Watch out for high fructose corn syrup, dextrose and dextrin. These are just as bad for you as eating refined, white sugar right out of the bag.

Tips To Fight Those Crazy Carb Cravings

For most of us, daily life is very structured and consistent. We wake up, shower and get dressed, and hit the road for work. We put in our eight hours at work, taking breaks on regular schedules. We come home, make dinner, get the kids ready for bed (if we’re at that stage), then we have a few hours to ourselves.This daily structure is actually very good for bodybuilding nutrition – most of the time. The consistent schedule of a work day is wonderful for getting in all of your bodybuilding meals on a regular basis. Breakfast is consumed at the same time every day, because you have to. Breaks give you a chance to drink a protein shake, and lunch and dinner are on the same schedule as well, dictated to you by your schedule. There isn’t much time to stray into junk food arena either, as that food typically isn’t available and there isn’t time to think about it – you’re just too busy.

Those hours in the evening are the most dangerous to bodybuilding nutrition. This lack of structure is wonderful for unwinding and enjoying life. But it also leads to boredom and the willingness to break from a diet and eat junk food, or to miss a meal entirely. Here are a few ideas for stopping the nighttime collapse.

Alternative snacks

It’s a good idea to have fat-free and sugar-free foods on hand for those times when night-time urges kick in. Snacking on them can help the urges pass. Don’t make them a regular thing though – they may interfere with sleep and provide empty calories you don’t need.

Schedule

If you can plan the first 12 to 14 hours of your waking day down to a tee (including meals), you can plan your relax time just as easily. You might even find you are able to enjoy more fun things every evening if you plan it out ahead of time.

Discipline

What is more important to you – possessing an incredible physique and reaching your personal potential for muscle mass and vascularity, or goofing off? Be strong, remain focused, and put all of your energy into reaching your bodybuilding goals.

Nine Low Carb Diet Tips To Help You Lose Weight Fast!

Dieting!! Who wants to talk about that? The truth is that no matter how motivated and willing to lose weight we may be, it is still a difficult task to accomplish. If you’ve chosen a Low-Carb diet plan, these nine Low Carb diet tips will help you in achieving your goals easier.

Low Carb diet tip #1
Carbohydrates should only amount to 10% of your daily calorie intake. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables according to what’s allowed in your chosen Low Carb diet. Also, include protein in your diet.

Low Carb diet tip #2
Every Low-Carb diet has its own set of rules. Do not mix Low Carb diet plans. Follow the guidelines as outlined to ensure your success.

Low Carb diet tip #3
Avoid foods with white flour and/or sugar. Eat whole grain breads that allow for easier digestion, and give you a full feeling faster. Sweets will only make you crave more sweets.

Low Carb diet tip #4
Beware of hidden sugars in carbohydrates. Certain carbs convert to sugar faster, like certain fruits and veggies such as carrots. Try to stick to low sugar carbs.

Low Carb diet tip #5
Take fiber supplements, as well as vitamin and mineral supplements. The fiber will aid in digestion while making you feel full. The vitamins and minerals will supplement for a balanced, healthy diet.

Low Carb diet tip #6
Caffeine is a strong stimulant that increases the hunger pangs in some people. Cut down on caffeine, and preferably drink decaffeinated coffee.

Low Carb diet tip #7
Drink plenty of water. Drinking one full 8oz glass of water before every meal, will make you feel fuller and eat less foods. Besides this benefit, drinking at least 8 quarts of water a day will help your overall in keeping a healthy body.

Low Carb diet tip #8
Keep on learning everything you can about carb content in foods as well as how to mix and match foods correctly for faster weight loss and tastier meals. There are plenty of books with great low carb recipes to give you plenty of ideas.

Low Carb diet tip #9
Visit your physician before starting a diet, and during the process of losing weight. A good plan should be supervised by a medical practitioner.

Not all Low Carb diets were created equal. Successful weight loss depends on many factors, and one of the primary ones is choosing the right Low Carb diet for you according to your lifestyle, budget and food preferences, among several other choices. Once you have chosen the right Low Carb diet for you, these Low Carb diet tips will help you achieve success.

Keep yourself informed, be patient and stick to your Low Carb diet. The only thing you have to lose is weight.