LifeTips Home
Become a Client
Become a Writer
Entertain/Events
Exercise/Fitness
Family/Safety
Food/Drink
Gear/Gadgets
Health/Disease
Hobbies/Pets
Home/Garden
Kids/Games
Relationship/Love
Sports/Sporting
Style/Fashion
Travel/Cities
Holiday/Observances
B2B/Business
Careers/Jobs
Education/Training
Small Biz/Home Biz
Green/Living
Legal/Taxes
Marketing/Promotion
Manage/Employees
Money/Investing
Internet/Web
Hardware/Software
Supplies/Gear
Wheels/Auto
Religion/Spirituality

Listen to our Radio Show
Hot topics for both consumers
and webmarketers
on WebmasterRadio.FM

Every Wednesday, 4PM Eastern.
 

Tanya Zilberter

Expert Guru
Tanya Zilberter holds a PhD in physiology (health sciences) since 1972. Tanya's scientific studies started with research into the brain's control of appetite, hunger, and energy management. She's authored several scientific and popular publications, including four academic and popular print books e.g. 101 Low Carb Diet Tips, and dozens of eBooks.

Tanya's interests in general health problems resulted in research into alternative medicine modalities, e.g. natural medicine and complementary medicine. She sat on the board of directors (chair of research department) of the Community Holistic Health Center, Hillsbourough, NC and worked for the advisory board of the Association for Integrative Medicine. Results of Tanya's research into the reflexo-therapy were reported to the nation-wide Integrative Medicine meeting at the Omega Institute, NY.

Dr Zilberter currently volunteers for two projects, one concerning the system approach to major neurodegenerative diseases including nutritional input and the neuroprotective effects of the ketogenic diet and the other concerning conceptual modeling of energy homeostasis.


Previous
Questions I've Answered  (
1 / 346
)
Next

 

What foods can we cook for our Practical Exam on Province Specialty?


10 Tips from Tanya Zilberter

What Are Low Carb "Negative Calorie" Foods?

The popular Negative Calorie Diet is in fact a low-fat, low-energy-density diet. What is offered by vast varieties of low carb diets, is just the opposite - high-fat, high-energy-density diets. But if we stop to think in terms of negative calorie balance, we'll see that any diet can do. Another thing is what's called "fat burning effect" of foods. From this standpoint, low-carb, high-fat foods are indeed able to make the body burn its own fat for fuel, the effect that low fat diets cant achieve.

The matter is, our metabolic mode is directly affected by the ratio carbs+protein to fat. If there's at least 1.5 tiles more fat in a food or meal than there's carbs+protein combined, the body's metabolic mode shifts into the fat burning mode. The higher the ratio in favor of fat grams, the deeper into the fat burning mode our body is. This condition is called ketosis and low carb foods and meals are what causes ketosis.

Here's a sample list of foods that can be eaten without portion control and still cause ketosis.

"Free" foods - eat all you want. The higher on the list the better.

Butter
Heavy cream
Cream cheese
Sour cream
Sesame seeds
Bologna
Pecans
Frankfurter
Knockwurst
Coconut

Combining foods that with low ketogenic capacities and those with high, you can have just about any food and still get into the ketosis state. For example, 2 leaves of Romaine lettuce plus 2 tablespoons of sour cream or 1/3 cup of Chinese cabbage plus 1 tablespoon of oil are negative calorie" meals though the lettuce or cabbage alone are not.

Many Celebrities Choose Low Carb Diets. Is This Right For You?

Many if not most of the stars limit pasta, bread and refined carbohydrates to quickly shape up for movies: Ben Affleck was known to stick with his low carb foods while losing weight for his role in Pearl Harbor. Many musicians and pop stars also enjoy low carb diets that help them to prepare for concerts and tours and maintain energy levels while slimming down.

If you decide to choose this way of eating, you'll join the Friends' star Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Natalie Maines, Bill Clinton, George Michael, Ben Affleck, and Renee Zellweger who keep their plates packed with "good" fats and lean protein while cutting down on "bad" carbohydrates and "bad" animal fat. Simpson has said she likes the lifestyle approach of the South Beach, while Jennifer Aniston prefers the 40:30:30 ratio of the Zone Diet. But how do you know if this celebrity's choice is right for you? Here's a tip. A low-carb plan is your ideal "celebrity diet" if you don't mind:

1. living on meat, fish, eggs, and cheese
2. cutting back on white bread, potato, rice, pasta, and pizza
3. snacking mostly on nuts

Exercise Type Can Influence Food Choices

It would be so good to be able to use techniques other than self-discipline to automatically influence our energy intake and food choices. But is is possible? The answer is yes and no.

The Appetite journal published results of a study showing that 30 minutes after strenuous athletic exercise, young men's appetite was increased by 25% and energy intake from protein was larger than without exercise. Carbohydrate intake was not changed. As opposite to this short-term effects, long term studies showed that exercise training led to greater fat intake and reduced carbohydrate intake - but only in females (International Journal of Obesity).

These two findings concerned nutrient preferences but how about calorie intake? Doctors Blundell and Kinga wrote in their article published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise that "Raising energy expenditure through physical activity can cause weight loss or prevent weight gain. A negative feature is that when people become sedentary after a period of high activity, food intake is not "down-regulated" to balance a reduced energy expenditure."

How can you use these facts? First, if you are a woman wanting to go on a low carb diet, improving your fitness by exercise training can help you better accept this diet. Second, if you are a young man wanting to lose weight by exercising, beware of calorie compensation your body will try to get after your session. Finally, if you are none of these, exercise will do you good but probably only in the sense of general health and well being. You'll need a diet that's right for you - along with exercise.

Are You a Carbohydrate Addict?

Though Rachael and Richard Heller, the authors of "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet: The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting" (Signet) explain the way their diet works in terms of insulin sensitivity and metabolic resistance, not all nutritionists agree. Medical literature fails to support this theory but the diet does work for at least 80% of overweight people. Can it work for you? It can, if you are:

- hungry before lunch after a complete breakfast
- having a difficult time stopping to eat starches or sweets
- not satisfied after you just finished a meal
- ready to start eating even after the thought of food
- feeling sluggish after a meal
- getting tired in the afternoon
- unable to lose weight on any diet you tried

The diet's daily menu roughly consists of two very low carb, low calorie meals and one "reward meal" when you can eat anything you want, in any quantities - but for only one hour. This way, people don't feel deprived, but most importantly, one meal a day, especially the last meal of the day, doesn't ruin the appetite-reducing mode: you just don't have enough time to overeat.

The deprivation (or rather its absence) part is very important and often overlooked by fad diets leading to cheating and quitting. The Hellers' program has quite a few more techniques helping to maintain healthier appetite. for one thing, they advise that in case you haven't any progress for a week, you should not to reduce anything in your diet, but to add a large salad that should be eaten before your reward meal. This decreases the meal's calorie density so portion for portion, you consume less calories.

The Theory Behind the Blood Type Diet

The Eat Right For Your Type is a popular diet by Peter D'Adamo, a physician and lecturer. The "Eat Right" book is based upon years 35 years of research by his father, James D'Adamo, a naturopathic physician, and later on his own theory and observations.

Greg Kelly wrote in his review of the program in the journal Alternative Medicine Review: "The premise of the book is that if you use your blood type as a guide for eating and living, you will be healthier, you will reach your ideal body weight, and you will slow the aging process. Because blood types historically evolved due to changes in diet, culture, and social conditions, each blood type has particular strengths and limitations. When these are known and followed, it becomes easier to maintain health."

Dr Adamo's own studies confirmed the benefits of eating accordingly to his or her blood type. Now, what is known about the blood-type/nutrition connection to the medical science? Here are several facts showing that this connection do exist though there's no direct evidence. These facts should be known to the part of nutritionists denying any such connection at all.

1. The level of LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, can increase in response to a low fat diet. The degree of this adverse effect depends on one's blood type (Clinical Genetics. 51(5):291-5, 1997).

2. There is a certain intestinal enzyme going under the ugly name "high molecular mass intestinal alkaline phosphatase." During fasting, this enzyme works best for blood groups O and B and the lowest activities were associated with blood group A (Clinica Chimica Acta. 277(1):13-24, 1998).

3. Depending on one's blood type, there can be higher or lower probability of duodenal ulcer (Bangladesh Medical Research Council Bulletin. 12(1):32-6, 1986).

4. Certain types of sugars in the blood are blood-type dependent: the "blood group A trisaccharide" (Clinica Chimica Acta. 114(1):11-9, 1981) and "blood-group-active oligosaccharides" (European Journal of Biochemistry. 100(2):385-92, 1979.

5 The concentrations of so called gut-brain regulatory peptide gastrin during fasting and after meals were different depending on blood type (Acta Hepato-Gastroenterologica. 25(6):482-6, 1978).

Make One Change At a Time

Perhaps the most common weight loss problem is the diet choice. Many people say they tried just about everything and failed. But how did they try? When being asked, they describe combinations of dieting approaches like calorie restriction plus aerobic exercise, then fat reduction plus strength training or complete fasts without any exercise. This way, it's impossible to tell what exactly failed.

If you are a seasoned dieter choosing your next program, make only one simple change at a time. For example, change only exercise routine - do less aerobics but more strength training - but don' change your eating style. If you fail again, change the way you eat but keep your exercise routine. If you limit carbohydrates, don't limit calorie or fat intake and otherwise.

Try to figure out what technique you haven't tried. Here's a sample checklist of possible changes that are worth trying.

- the number of meals a day
- the kind of fat (animal versuls oils)
- the kind of carbs (simple vesrus complex such as whole grains)
- meal timing (main meal in the morning or in the evening, skipping breakfasts or suppers)
- calorie balance (eating more and exercising more as opposite to eating less and exercising less)
- calorie density of foods (bulky foods, containing lots of fiber and water are better appetite controllers than concentrated, rich foods)
- quitting caffein
- quitting artificial sweeteners

Comfort Foods, Rewards, and Their Alternatives

In the late 50s, the classic experiments by Dr. Olds shook the world. He implanted electrodes into certain regions of rat brains and taught the rats how to press lever to stimulate these regions with weak electric currents. Rats stopped doing anything but pressing the lever till their death from complete starvation. The Positive Reward theory was born. It turned out that anything pleasurable in life did related to these "Centers of Pleasure" -- sex, alcohol, drugs of abuse -- all that mankind has invented in its hedonic journey, were but attempts to stimulate these brain regions. When stimulated, these brain centers cause the release of our body's own morphine-like chemicals, endorphins.

We know that eating will produce a pleasant sensation so often we eat even though all we need is comfort. The truth is, exercise, sauna, cold shower, massage, pleasant odors, and mental efforts - "workoholism "is real! - all increase Endorphin level while only eating, especially when your body does not need it, will cause extra pounds of fat to collect in your body's store.

The tricky thing with endorphins is that there are pairs of releasers resembling a thesaurus' antonyms: exercise does the same os its antonym sleep, pleasure goes together with pain, etc. The eating-fasting pair also exists. Many people reported elation when they skipped breakfasts. Religeous fasters experience euforia.

"Severe food restriction produces endorphin activity, which is reinforcing. Feeding interrupts the endorphin activity and, thus, produces withdrawal. Not-eating, therefore, is rewarding." (Appetite 19:1-13; 1992).

TIPS:

1. Ask yourself "What is it I really need? A glass of water? A walk? A hug?"

2. Try periodic fasts. After resuming eating, your taste buds will be satisfied with lesser taste intensity thus reducing the taste influence on the body weight set point.

3. Try other rewards. Buying fresh flowers can be a better answer than a bowl of Rocky Road. Exercise, go to sauna, take a cold shower, invest in a massage device, buy a vail of perfume, or enjoy reading a book.

Atkins Diet and Fat Intake

Approximately 20% of Atkins dieters fail. Dr. Atkins explained it in terms of "metabolic resistance" and advised a kind of emergency plan he called fat fast. On this plan, one's supposed to increase fat intake to get 90% of calories from fat. However, calorie intake also should be limited to just 1000 Cal. a day. Which part of these two components of the fat fast diet works, is unclear: calorie restriction alone does work though it's very hard to stick with because of hunger. The good news is, increasing fat intake without calorie limitation also works! Why? Because of two things:

1. Limiting carb intake and protein intake along with increasing fat intake shifts your metabolism from using carbs for energy to using fats including your own fat.

2. Eating plenty of fat increasing body's heat dissipation so one can consume more calories and still lose weight.

From this facts, we can conclude that fats can help dieters to lose weight. But is this a healthy way to slim down? It seems to be - if you:

1. Consume "good" fats - not animal fat including that from diary but mostly oils and fish oil

2. Stay on this plan temporarily, until you lose all unwanted weight, then gradually increase your consumption of "good" carbs like whole grains, berries, and raw veggies

3. Burn excess carbs by doing lot of strength training

Are There Calorie Restricted, Nutritionally Balanced Diets?

What do the nutritionists mean when they advise that a diet should be nutritionally balanced? If by "balance" they mean the right proportion of essential nutrients, a low calorie diet can be nutritionally balanced, all right. However, this is not what we usually want from a diet: we really worry about getting enough nutrients and this is not what we're going to have when we restrict calories. Why?

Our bodies need the same nourishment that was good for our predecessors tens of thousands of years ago, but our current lifestyle doesn't give us a chance to get it. The calorie intake from a diet based on the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) values for 50 essential nutrients is coupled with at least 4,000 and up to 10,000 Calories! This amount was about the same that was needed by our cave dwelling ancestors simply to survival. Theirs was a life spent on their feet; hunting prey; escaping predators; spending enormous amounts of energy to stay warm during winter or to cool during hot weather; fighting infections and parasites; losing blood; healing wounds; gathering edible plants; and women being either pregnant or nursing.

Here comes the energy flux idea based on the fact that eating more and exercising much more is a better way to maintain healthy weight and general health than eating less and exercising less: the greater energy turnover (flux) the better for you and a part of it is getting enough nutrients and burning the coupled calories off.

Low Carb Recipes: Banana Bread and Chocolate Cake

You don't have to feel deprived even when you are cutting down on carbohydrates. Just about any recipe can be modified using artificial sweeteners, nut or soy flours, etc. Chocolate itself doesn't contain much carbohydrates and non-sweetened dark cocoa powder is low carb dieter's life saver. But how can one have the distinct flavor of banana without the many carb grams this fruit contain? Here's low carb "banana" nut bread recipe. Makes 12 servings. 6.1 effective carb grams per serving

Ingredients

3 just ripe avocados
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
1 cup pourable sweetener (Splenda)
2-3 tsp banana extract
5 large eggs
2 cups almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

Cream butter, cream cheese and Splenda together, mixing well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

In a separate bowl, mix almond flour with baking powder. Add egg/butter mixture to flour a little at a time while beating.
Add mashed bananas and banana extract. Mix together with walnuts.

Pour into greased 9"-10" pan and bake at 350 F for 1 hour.

Click here for low carb chocolate cake recipe on Diet Tips site.





 
LifeTips is part of ideaLaunch, the hub for a group of websites offering
solutions that help clients improve mind share, market share and profit online.
Privacy Guaranteed.
Satisfaction Required.