By Max Allen
I just received the results of my annual physical exam the other day. The doctor said that my cholesterol was too high. It was lower last year by 10 points! How can it be too high this year? Anyway he wanted to put me on drugs to get it lower.
Now I've been reading a lot lately about cholesterol, what causes it, and how best to lower it. I decided I would try to find a way to lower it without the drugs. I knew that the drugs could possibly cause liver damage. GREAT, not what I wanted.
Have you noticed all the side effects of almost any drug on the market? Scares me into trying to learn all I can and to find alternatives to the drugs.
My research led me to trans fats. Just what are trans fats and where do they come from. Aren't trans fats in any form bad for you?
There is a difference between good trans fats and bad trans fats. The bad trans fats have been shown to cause heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, but there is some proof that the good trans fat can aid you in getting a leaner body, muscle building, and cancer determent.
Over the last few years it has been stated in the news just how bad synthetic trans fats are for your health. These substances are some of the most offensive food additives and are found in the majority of all processed and fast foods on the market these days.
In their degree of danger to your health, man-made trans fats are as bad as smoking. They are one of the major factors for the outbreak of heart disease since about the 1950's.
The FDA has required that food manufacturers list the grams of trans fat on all nutrition labels. You now have an easier way to avoid packages with trans fat included in them.
I wanted to clear up some things, specifically about bad trans fats vs. good trans fats, with all of the talk about trans fats in the news. If you've never heard of good trans fats before, let me explain.
The Good Trans Fats
The good trans fats are all natural and they are healthy for you. Natural trans fats are produced in the stomachs of animals like cattle, and sheep and make their way into the fat reserves of the animals. Therefore, the milk fat and the fat within the meat of these animals can supply natural healthy trans fats.
Natural trans fats in your diet have been thought to have some possible benefit to assist in both muscle building and fat loss attempts. However, keep in mind that the amount of healthy trans fats in the meat and dairy of animals is greatly lowered by their grain diets and methods of farming. Meat and dairy from grass-fed, free-range animals always have much higher amounts of these favorable fats.
One trans fat is called conjugated linoleic acid and has been retailed by many weight loss companies. Keep in mind that these man-made CLA pills may not be the top way to get natural trans fats in your diet, because they are artificially made from plant oils. Once again, man-made just doesn't compare to the benefits of natural sources.
The Bad Trans Fats
The bad trans fats are the man-made kind. Any artificially hydrogenated oils exemplify these. Margarine, shortening, and hydrogenated oils that are in most processed foods are the culprits. These hydrogenated oils are considerably processed using harsh chemical solvents like hexane (a component of gasoline), high heat, and pressure.
They have a metal catalyst added, and are then deodorized and bleached. A small amount of the solvent is allowed to stay in the finished oil. Somehow the FDA still lets the food manufacturers put this in our food in vast quantities, even with the well-documented health dangers.
These hydrogenated oils cause irritation internally, which signals cholesterol as a healing agent to be deposited on artery walls. Heart disease has blown out of proportion since this has been added to our food supply.
Soon science will unveil how fatal these oils really are. Eventually they will be banned from use. The labeling laws were simply the first step. Some countries around the world have already banned the use of hydrogenated oils in food manufacturing.
Most companies are replacing them, with highly refined polyunsaturated oils. These are still over processed oils using high heat, solvents, deodorizers, and bleaching agents. Even refined oils are known to yield irritation in your body...a far cry from natural sources of healthy fats.
Your body will bless you as you avoid highly processed foods completely and choose whole, natural, minimally processed foods.
Keep in mind that if an amount of trans fat is listed on a meat or dairy product, it is most likely the natural good trans fats that we've talked about here. Otherwise, if the quantity of trans fat is listed on any processed foods, it is most likely the hazardous unwholesome fat from artificially hydrogenated oils.
Please stay away from these fats! Now that all of your labels should be listing grams of trans fat it will be easy to spot the bad trans fats.
Stay away from any food that lists hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils as an ingredient. Your body will thank you for it.
I hope you will use this information to arm yourself with more wholesome food choices for a healthier body. This was an intriguing look at good trans fat vs. bad trans fat that I hope you keep in mind while making food choices.
Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
Max Allen is devoted to helping you find the correct methods to help you get a leaner and healthier body without you going through all the fluff and garbage that is out there. Let me be your filter. Free training/nutrition ebook. Click here
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Feeling Guilty About Those Resolutions?
By Lynn Smith
It's been 17 days since we made our New Year's resolutions. How's it going for you? Not so good? You're not alone. We start with good intentions but it doesn't take much to derail our plan. We're going to take a look at two reasons why our resolutions have failed and then we'll come up with a better plan, one that will get us back on track and leave us feeling better about ourselves.
Unrealistic Resolution
When we watch all the ads on TV for diet pills and weight loss programs there's an expectation that, if we give it a try, we can lose 25 pounds in short order, maybe even in two weeks. That is not necessarily true. The marketing experts who write those ads are good at what they do; so good, that we expect those results to be normal. Then, when we give it a try and we don't drop weight that fast, it leaves us giving up in frustration.
In this case, the goal to lose 25 pounds is a good one but we weren't being reasonable in the amount of time it would take. The adjustment needs to be in our expectation.
Resolution Too Complicated
Joining the health club and committing to Pilates three times a week is a great goal. But when you were scheduling those classes, did you have to put your schedule through contortions to get it to fit? Therein may lay the problem. If you had mental dialogue that went something like this: "If I leave work a little early on Tuesdays and my husband picks up the boys from basketball practice on Thursdays, I can do this!" that should have been a little red flag telling you that this would not dovetail very well into your lifestyle. No wonder you've only been to class twice this month. Admirable goal, too complicated to carry out.
So your plans haven't worked out as you've hoped. Don't beat yourself up and don't feel guilty about it. Any experience that causes us to learn something is not failure. You learned that packing too much into your week doesn't work, which is a valuable lesson. Keep on applying that and you can reduce the amount of stress in your life.
Now it's time to re-group. We aren't giving up on our goals and we've learned what doesn't work. How can we have reasonable expectation and reduce the impact on our lifestyle? Creating a healthier lifestyle comes down to our daily choices. How can we make different choices in our daily routine to promote good health?
Start by looking at what you already do every day to see where you can improve your health habits. Do you go out for lunch with you co-workers or hit the drive-thru for your meal? If your goal is weight loss, regularly eating fast food will make the achievement of that goal pretty difficult. Have you considered packing your lunch maybe just once or twice a week? Fast food is full of fats, calories, and sodium. The simple decision to pack your lunch a few times a week can have a significant impact on your health long term.
How about the goal of exercise? Is there a simple way to increase our activity without playing havoc on our schedule? You might want to take a look at how you are using your lunch hour. There was a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on the effects of moderate exercise. Researchers studied 252,925 men and women between the ages of 50 and 71. Those that did a moderate amount of exercise (at least 30 minutes most days of the week) had a 27% decreased risk of death. A brisk 30 minute walk each day can have a powerful impact. What are you doing during you lunch hour?
The most important element in improving our health is consistency. It would be far better to do a 30 minute walk a few times every week than to do Pilates a few times a month. Look at how you are spending your day. There are always ways to make healthier decisions. And give up on those quick-fixes. Truly being healthy is not something a quick-fix will achieve but the accumulation of healthy daily decisions will.
Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
Lynn Smith is a health and wellness coach with Health Coach Team. Get your free report "10 Energy Zappers and How to Eliminate Them" at www.healthcoachteam.com
It's been 17 days since we made our New Year's resolutions. How's it going for you? Not so good? You're not alone. We start with good intentions but it doesn't take much to derail our plan. We're going to take a look at two reasons why our resolutions have failed and then we'll come up with a better plan, one that will get us back on track and leave us feeling better about ourselves.
Unrealistic Resolution
When we watch all the ads on TV for diet pills and weight loss programs there's an expectation that, if we give it a try, we can lose 25 pounds in short order, maybe even in two weeks. That is not necessarily true. The marketing experts who write those ads are good at what they do; so good, that we expect those results to be normal. Then, when we give it a try and we don't drop weight that fast, it leaves us giving up in frustration.
In this case, the goal to lose 25 pounds is a good one but we weren't being reasonable in the amount of time it would take. The adjustment needs to be in our expectation.
Resolution Too Complicated
Joining the health club and committing to Pilates three times a week is a great goal. But when you were scheduling those classes, did you have to put your schedule through contortions to get it to fit? Therein may lay the problem. If you had mental dialogue that went something like this: "If I leave work a little early on Tuesdays and my husband picks up the boys from basketball practice on Thursdays, I can do this!" that should have been a little red flag telling you that this would not dovetail very well into your lifestyle. No wonder you've only been to class twice this month. Admirable goal, too complicated to carry out.
So your plans haven't worked out as you've hoped. Don't beat yourself up and don't feel guilty about it. Any experience that causes us to learn something is not failure. You learned that packing too much into your week doesn't work, which is a valuable lesson. Keep on applying that and you can reduce the amount of stress in your life.
Now it's time to re-group. We aren't giving up on our goals and we've learned what doesn't work. How can we have reasonable expectation and reduce the impact on our lifestyle? Creating a healthier lifestyle comes down to our daily choices. How can we make different choices in our daily routine to promote good health?
Start by looking at what you already do every day to see where you can improve your health habits. Do you go out for lunch with you co-workers or hit the drive-thru for your meal? If your goal is weight loss, regularly eating fast food will make the achievement of that goal pretty difficult. Have you considered packing your lunch maybe just once or twice a week? Fast food is full of fats, calories, and sodium. The simple decision to pack your lunch a few times a week can have a significant impact on your health long term.
How about the goal of exercise? Is there a simple way to increase our activity without playing havoc on our schedule? You might want to take a look at how you are using your lunch hour. There was a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on the effects of moderate exercise. Researchers studied 252,925 men and women between the ages of 50 and 71. Those that did a moderate amount of exercise (at least 30 minutes most days of the week) had a 27% decreased risk of death. A brisk 30 minute walk each day can have a powerful impact. What are you doing during you lunch hour?
The most important element in improving our health is consistency. It would be far better to do a 30 minute walk a few times every week than to do Pilates a few times a month. Look at how you are spending your day. There are always ways to make healthier decisions. And give up on those quick-fixes. Truly being healthy is not something a quick-fix will achieve but the accumulation of healthy daily decisions will.
Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
Lynn Smith is a health and wellness coach with Health Coach Team. Get your free report "10 Energy Zappers and How to Eliminate Them" at www.healthcoachteam.com
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