More Liver

It's time to celebrate your liver. It's a hard-working organ and it deserves some credit.

One of the liver's most important overall functions is maintaining nutrient homeostasis. It controls the blood level of a number of macro- and micronutrients, and attempts to keep them all at optimal levels.

Here's a list of some of the liver's functions I'm aware of:

• Buffers blood glucose by taking it up or releasing it when needed
• A major storage site for glycogen (a glucose polymer)
  
• Clears insulin from the blood
• Synthesizes triglycerides
• Secretes and absorbs lipoprotein particles ("cholesterol")
• Stores important vitamins: B12, folate, A, D, E, K (that's why it's so nutritious to eat!)
• Stores minerals: copper and iron
  
• Detoxifies the blood
• Produces ketone bodies when glucose is running low
• Secretes blood proteins
• Secretes bile
• Converts thyroid hormones
• Converts vitamin D (D3 --> 25(OH)D3)
  

The liver is an all-purpose metabolic powerhouse and storage depot. In the next post, I'll give you a recipe for it...

The Liver: Your Metabolic Gatekeeper

As I've been learning more about the different blood markers of metabolic dysfunction, something suddenly occurred to me. Most of them reflect liver function! Elevated fasting glucose, low HDL cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol, high triglycerides and high fasting insulin all reflect (at least in part) liver function. The liver is the "Grand Central Station" of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism, to quote Philip A. Wood from How Fat Works. It's also critical for insulin and glucose control, as I'll explain shortly. When we look at our blood lipid profile, fasting glucose, or insulin, what we're seeing is largely a snapshot of our liver function. Does no one talk about this or am I just late to the party here?!

I read a paper today from the lab of C. Ronald Kahn that really drove home the point. They created a liver-specific insulin receptor knockout (LIRKO) mouse, which is a model of severe insulin resistance in the liver. The mouse ends up developing severe whole-body insulin resistance, dramatically elevated post-meal insulin levels (20-fold!), impaired glucose tolerance, and elevated post-meal and fasting glucose. Keep in mind that this all resulted from nothing more than an insulin resistant liver.

LIRKO mice had elevated post-meal blood glucose due to the liver's unresponsiveness to insulin's command to take up sugar. Apparently the liver can dispose of one third of the glucose from a meal, turning it into glycogen and triglycerides. The elevated fasting glucose was caused by insulin not suppressing gluconeogenesis (glucose synthesis) by the liver. In other words, the liver has no way to know that there's already enough glucose in the blood so it keeps on pumping it out. This is highly relevant to diabetics because fasting hyperglycemia comes mostly from increased glucose output by the liver. This can be due to liver insulin resistance or insufficient insulin production by the pancreas.

One of the interesting things about LIRKO mice is their dramatically elevated insulin level. Their pancreases are enlarged and swollen with insulin. It's as if the pancreas is screaming at the body to pick up the slack and take up the post-meal glucose the liver isn't disposing of. The elevated insulin isn't just due to increased output by the pancreas, however. It's also due to decreased disposal by the liver. According to the paper, the liver is responsible for 75% of insulin clearance from the blood in mice. The hyperinsulinemia they observed was both due to increased secretion and decreased clearance. Interestingly, they noted no decline in beta cell (the cells that secrete insulin) function even under such a high load.

Something that's interesting to note about these mice is they have very low blood triglyceride. It makes sense since insulin is what tells the liver to produce it. Could this have something to do with their lack of beta cell dysfunction?

The really strange thing about LIRKO mice is that their blood glucose becomes more normal with age. Strange until you see the reason: their livers are degenerating so they can't keep up glucose production!

LIRKO mice reproduce many of the characteristics of type II diabetes, without degenerating completely into beta cell death. So insulin resistance in the liver appears to reproduce some elements of diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, but the full-blown disorders require other tissues as well. As a side note, this group also has a skeletal muscle-specific insulin receptor knockout which is basically normal. Interesting considering muscle tissue seems to be one of the first tissues to become insulin resistant during diabetes onset.

So if you want to end up like your good pal LIRKO, remember to drink high-fructose corn syrup with every meal! You'll have fatty liver and insulin resistance in no time!

I have a lot more to say about the liver, but I'll continue it in another post.

Book Review: Blood Sugar 101

I just finished reading "Blood Sugar 101" by Jenny Ruhl. It's a quick read, and very informative. Ruhl is a diabetic who has taken treatment into her own hands, using the scientific literature and her blood glucose monitor to understand blood sugar control and its relationship to health. The book challenges some commonly held ideas about diabetes, such as the notion that diabetics always deteriorate.

She begins by explaining in detail how blood glucose is controlled by the body. The pancreas releases basal amounts of insulin to make glucose available to tissues between meals. It also releases insulin in response to carbohydrate intake (primarily) in two bursts, phase I and phase II. Phase I is a rapid response that causes tissues to absorb most of the glucose from a meal, and is released in proportion to the amount of carbohydrate in preceding meals. Phase II cleans up what's left.

In a person with a healthy pancreas, insulin secretion will keep blood glucose under about 130 mg/dL even under a heavy carbohydrate load. The implications of this are really interesting. Namely, that blood glucose levels will not be very different between a person who eats little carbohydrate, and one who eats a lot, as long as the latter has a burly pancreas and insulin-sensitive tissues.

Most Americans don't have such good control however, hence the usefulness of low-carbohydrate diets. This begs the question of why we lose blood sugar control. Insulin resistance seems like a good candidate, maybe preceded by leptin resistance. As you may have noticed, I'm starting to think the carbohydrate per se is not the primary insult. It's probably something else about the diet or lifestyle that causes carbohydrate insensitivity. Grain lectins are a good candidate in my opinion, as well as inactivity.

Diabetics can have blood glucose up to 500 mg/dL, that remains elevated long after it would have returned to baseline in a healthy person. Ruhl asserts that elevated blood sugar is toxic, and causes not only diabetic complications but perhaps also cancer and heart disease.

Heart attack incidence is strongly associated with A1C level, which is a rough measure of average blood sugar over the past couple of months. It makes sense, although most of the data she cites is correlative. They might have seen the same relationship if they had compared heart attack risk to fasting insulin level or insulin resistance. It's difficult to nail down blood sugar as the causative agent. More information from animal studies would have been helpful.

Probably the most important thing I took from the book is that the first thing to deteriorate is glucose tolerance, or the ability to pack post-meal glucose into the tissues. It's often a result of insulin resistance, although autoimmune processes seem to be a factor for some people. Doctors often use fasting glucose to diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes, but typically you are far gone by the time your fasting glucose is elevated!

I like that she advocates a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetics, and lambasts the ADA for its continued support of high-carbohydrate diets.

Overall, a good book. I recommend it!

Insomnia : Causes, Prevention and Treatments

Insomnia is the inability to fall asleep and not being able to get enough sleep.This can make you permanently tired. It can last for days or weeks but if it lasts for months ,it is considered chronic.

Causes

1.Stress or anxiety

2.Physical illness such as asthma or pain

3.Drugs or medication

4.Lifestyles habits or changes

5.Environment factors such as noise,hot and cold.


Treatments

1.Take prescribed medicines

2.Avoid too much caffeine such as coffee,soda

3.Stop smoking

4.Exercise daily but not immediately before sleep

5.Do not take heavy meals before bed

6.Make sure your bed is comfortable

7.Do not take naps during the day

8.Take a warm bath before bed

9.Drink warm milk before going to bed

10.Listen to soothing music which can help to fall asleep.

Scientist Discovers that Only Pills can Control Hypertension

I went to a presentation today by a prominent hypertension researcher. His talk began with a slide that had two pictures side-by-side: one of the late fitness advocate Jim Fixx, and the other of Winston Churchill. Fixx was a marathon runner, while Churchill was inactive, overweight and had a famous appetite. Fixx died of a sudden heart attack at 52, while Churchill lived to 90. The presenter went on to state that this is an example of how genes control CVD risk, implying that despite Fixx's exercise, his genes had condemned him to an early death.

I wanted to jump up and yell "I think you're leaving out the alternate hypothesis: running marathons and eating junk food isn't healthy!" But instead I suffered quietly through what ended up being an inane yet informative presentation.

His lab looks for gene variations that affect blood pressure (BP). There's a huge amount of money and research going into this. His lab and others have come up with two classes of mutations:

• Common allele variants that have an insignificant but measurable effect on blood pressure.
• Rare genetic mutations that have a significant effect on BP. The most common affects 1 in 2,000 people in the US.

Despite truckloads of funding and research, they have yet to uncover any gene or combination of genes that accounts for even a fraction of hypertension in Americans. So what's the next step? Keep looking for genes.

There is certainly a genetic component to hypertension, but it is only expressed in an unhealthy environment.  Hypertension is tightly linked to lifestyle. It's a quintessential aspect of the "disease of civilization". It's highly responsive to carbohydrate restriction, as a number of clinical trials have shown. Remember the Kuna? They don't get hypertension when they live a non-industrial lifestyle (despite eating more salt than the average American), but as soon as they move to the city their hearts explode. It's been demonstrated in a number of other similar cases as well. Genetics are clearly not responsible.

Don't get me wrong, I do think genetics can modify a person's response to a poor lifestyle. But when the lifestyle is healthy, the vast majority of these differences fade away. I have a more thorough discussion of this point here.

If you give just the right dose of poison to a group of animals, 50% will die and 50% will survive (called the EC50 dose). You might then conclude that genetics had determined who lived and died. You wouldn't be wrong, but you'd be missing the point that what killed them was the poison.

The thing that really bothers me about this thinking is it's disempowering. The presenter suggested that the reason for the difference between Fixx and Churchill was their genes. If genes have us in such a tight grip, why bother trying to live well? The only logical solution is to pop hypertension pills and eat cake all day.

My guess is that if they had lived a more natural lifestyle, Fixx would have made it to 90 and Churchill would have been fit and lean.

Bad Breath : Causes,Prevention and Home Remedies

How do you know if your breath is less than pleasant? Without actually being told, you can't be certain. The common methods used are to blow into your cupped hands and smell quickly, floss your teeth and smell the floss afterwards or lick the top of your hand and take a whiff.

Causes Of Bad Breath

1.Plaque is a film of odor-producing bacteria that forms on your gums, teeth and tongue. Poor dental hygiene can result in tooth decay and gum disease.

2.Foods with strong odors such as garlic, onions and spices are absorbed into your body and exhaled out of your lungs. Acidic foods and beverages can promote sour breath.

3.Coffee and fruit juice can also cause an undesirable smell. Tobacco and excessive alcohol are not only detrimental to your health, they will wreak havoc on your breath and leave a bad taste in your mouth.

4.There may be an underlying health problem such as a stomach, intestinal or bowel infection that may cause less-than-favorable breath.

5.Sinus and throat infections are common and often cause a bad odor.


Home Remedies

1.Practice good oral hygiene and keep everything in your mouth as clean as possible. Brush and floss your teeth twice a day to get rid of plaque and food between your teeth.

2.Use baking soda toothpaste or household baking soda to freshen up. Brush white film on your tongue to reduce the bacteria residing there. Try to reach as far back as possible without gagging. A tongue-scraper is handy. Follow up with an antiseptic mouthwash to kill germs and give your breath a boost.

3.Drink some water, particularly after you've finished eating and keep some on your nightstand at home for a quick drink. In the day hours, chew on some sugarless gum or candy to keep the saliva flowing and enhance your breath.

4.Eliminate spicy and acidic foods. If you have stomach cramping, gas, bloating or diarrhea, reduce or cut out dairy products to see if you are lactose intolerant.

Home Remedies for Whiter Teeth : How To Get Whiter Teeh

Home Remedies For Whiter Teeth

1. Baking soda

Baking soda has many purposes including teeth whitening. It is safe to use and works fairly quickly.

You can use it alone on a damp toothbrush or mix it with toothpaste to help neutralize the salty taste.

2. Hydrogen Peroxide
Peroxide is cheap and most people have it. You will feel some burning in your gums but your teeth will be clean and whiter.
Deep a cotton swap in the solution and gently rubbing it into your teeth. Another way is by brushing your teeth as you normally do and swish for a minute Then spit it out and rinse with water.

3. Strawberries
Strawberries contain natural teeth whitening agents. The seeds work great for cleaning. You can either rub the strawberry against your teeth or mash it up and use it like toothpaste.

4. Wood ash
Hard wood ash can help whiten your teeth. Avoid using it for long periods of time because scrubbing too hard can wear down your tooth enamel.
Put the ash directly on your toothbrush or you can mix it with a small amount of toothpaste.

5. Homemade toothpaste
Mix a dab of toothpaste with baking soda,hydrogen peroxide and table salt. Mix them together and brush away stains.

Olive Oil Buyer's Guide

Olive oil is one of the few good vegetable oils. It is about 10% omega-6 (n-6) fatty acids, compared to 50% for soybean oil, 52% for cottonseed oil and 54% for corn oil. Omega-6 fatty acids made up a smaller proportion of calories before modern times, due to their scarcity in animal fats. Beef suet is 2% n-6, butter is 3% and lard is 10%. Many people believe that excess n-6 fat is a contributing factor to chronic disease, due to its effect on inflammatory prostaglandins. I'm reserving my opinion on n-6 fats until I see more data, but I do think it's worth noting the association of increased vegetable oil consumption with declining health in the US.

Olive oil is also one of the few oils that require no harsh processing to extract. As a matter of fact, all you have to do is squeeze the olives and collect the oil. Other oils that can be extracted with minimal processing are red palm oil (9% n-6), hazelnut oil (10% n-6) and coconut oil (2% n-6). These are also the oils I consider to be healthy. Due to the mild processing these oils undergo, they retain their natural vitamin and antioxidant content.

You've eaten corn, so you know it's not an oily seed. Same with soybeans. So how to they get the oil out of them? They use a combination of heat and petroleum solvents. Then, they chemically bleach and deodorize the oil, and sometimes partially hydrogenate it to make it more shelf-stable. Hungry yet? This is true of all the common colorless oils, and anything labeled "vegetable oil".

Olive oil is great, but don't run out and buy it just yet! There are different grades, and it's important to know the difference between them. The highest grade is extra-virgin olive oil, and it's the only one I recommend. It's the only grade that's not heated or chemically refined in any way. Virgin olive oil, "light" olive oil (refers to the flavor, not calories), "pure" olive oil, or simply olive oil all involve different degrees of chemical extraction and/or processing. This applies primarily to Europe. Unfortunately, the US is not part of the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC), which regulates oil quality and labeling.

The olive oil market is plagued by corruption. Much of the oil exported from Italy is cut with cheaper oils such as colza. Most "Italian olive oil" is actually produced in North Africa and bottled in Italy, and may be of inferior quality. The USDA has refused to regulate the market so they get away with it. If you find a deal on olive oil that looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Only buy from reputable sources. Look for the IOOC seal, which guarantees purity, provenance and freshness. IOOC olive oil must contain less than 0.8% acidity. Acidity refers to the percentage of free fatty acids (as opposed to those bound in triglycerides), a measure of damage to the oil. Fortunately, the US has a private equivalent to the IOOC, the California Olive Oil Council (COOC). The COOC seal ensures provenance, purity and freshness just like the IOOC seal. It has outdone the IOOC in requiring less than 0.5% acidity. COOC-certified oils are more expensive, but you know exactly what you're getting.

Thanks to funadium for the CC photo

Recipe - easy stir fried beef

Easy Stir Fried Beef












recipes health beauty




Ingredients:

1 pound boneless tender beef

2 tablespoons soy sauce


2 tablespoons vegetable oil


3 cups cut-up capsicum (red and green)


2 tablespoons soy sauce


1 tablespoon oyster sauce






Directions:




.Slice beef into very thin strips. Set aside.


.Heat oil in skillet. Add beef and stir-fry until browned and juices evaporate.


.Add soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry for one minute.


.Add capsicum and stir-fry until tender-crisp.

.Serve hot

Real Food V: Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is part of a tradition of fermented foods that reaches far into human prehistory. Fermentation is a means of preserving food while also increasing its nutritional value. It increases digestibility and provides us with beneficial bacteria, especially those that produce lactic acid. Raw sauerkraut is a potent digestive aid, probably the reason it's traditionally eaten with heavy food.

Sauerkraut is produced by a process called �anaerobic� fermentation, meaning �without oxygen�. It�s very simple to achieve in practice. You simply submerge the cabbage in a brine of its own juices and allow the naturally present bacteria to break down the sugars it contains. The process of �lacto-fermentation� converts the sugars to lactic acid, making it tart. The combination of salt, anaerobic conditions, and acidity makes it very difficult for anything to survive besides the beneficial bacteria, so contamination is rare. If it does become contaminated, your nose will tell you as soon as you taste it.

Store-bought sauerkraut is far inferior to homemade. It's soggy and sterile. Ask a German: unpasteurized kraut is light, crunchy and tart!

My method is inexpensive and requires no special equipment. I've tested it many times and have never been disappointed.

Materials

• Wide-mouth quart canning jars (cheap at your local grocery store)
• Beer bottles with the labels removed, or small jars that fit inside the canning jars
• Three tablespoons of sea salt (NOT iodized table salt-- it's fatal to our bacteria)
• Five pounds of green cabbage

Recipe

1. Chop cabbage thinly. Ideally the slices should be 2 mm or so wide, but it doesn�t matter very much. You can use a food processor, mandolin or knife.
2. Put all the cabbage together in a large bowl and add the salt. If the salt is not very dense (sometimes finely ground sea salt can be fluffy), you can add up to 5 tablespoons total. Mix it around with your hands. Taste some. It should be good and salty.
3. Let the salted cabbage sit in the bowl for 30 minutes or so. It should be starting to get juicy.
4. Pack the cabbage tightly into the canning jars. Leave 2-3 inches at the top of the jar. When you push on the cabbage in the jar, you should be able to get the brine to rise above the cabbage. Try to get rid of air bubbles.
5. Put water into the beer bottles and place them into the canning jars. The weight of the bottles will keep the cabbage under the brine. It�s okay that some of the brine is exposed to the air; the cabbage itself is protected.
6. Let it sit for 2 weeks at room temperature! As the fermentation proceeds, bubbles will form and this will raise the level of the brine. This is normal. You might get some scum on top of the liquid; just check for this and scrape it off every few days. It won�t affect the final product. If the brine drops to the level of the cabbage, add salt water (1 tsp/cup, non-chlorinated water) to bring it back up.
7. Taste it! It should be tart and slightly crunchy, with a fresh lactic acid flavor. If fully fermented, it will keep in the fridge for a long time.

Here are some photos from making sauerruben, which is like sauerkraut but made with turnips:

Recipe - malay fried rice

recipes health beauty


Malay Fried Rice

Ingredients

5 Tablespoons oil
3 eggs -- beaten
1 Small onion -- thinly sliced
1/2 Cup chopped dried shrimp/dried anchovies
4 Cups cooked rice
1 Cup frozen mixed vegetables -- thawed
Salt to taste
Hot pepper-soy sauce to taste
Chili powder to taste
Shredded lettuce

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil.
Add eggs and fry in an even layer until firm.
Remove and cut into strips.
Add onion to skillet and cook until golden brown; remove and set aside.
Heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil and fry shrimp/anchovies for one minute.
Add rice, vegetables, mushrooms, half of the egg strips, the onion, and seasonings;stir fry for 3 minutes.

Add a little water if rice is too dry. Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce and top
with remaining egg strips.

Makes 8 servings.

Healthy Hands : How To Get Healthy Hands

Healthy Hands

Our hands are the first to show signs of aging. They are constantly exposed to all sorts of chemicals and elements. Here are a few things that we can do to protect our hands.

1.Don't forget to apply SPF daily.

2.Cuticles function as barriers to bacteria and fungus, but they can often overgrow. Use a cuticle pusher after a shower to keep them in line.

3.Doing your own nails is economical and practical, but a professional manicure every two or three months is a welcome bit of pampering.

4.Long nails tend to look garish, and invite breaks that can be painful. File nails to a quarter-inch above your fingertips.

5.Always keep your hands moisturized. Whenever you do the dishes, or exposing your hands to a lot of water, be sure to wear gloves.

High Blood Pressure : How To Prevent High Blood Pressure

How To Prevent High Blood Pressure

* Eating healthy diet. Following a healthy eating plan can both reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure and lower an already elevated blood pressure.

* Reduce salt. For someone with high blood pressure, the doctor may advise eating less salt and sodium. These lower-sodium diets also can keep blood pressure from rising and help blood pressure medicines work better.

* Maintain healthy weight.Being overweight increases your risk of developing high blood pressure. Blood pressure rises as body weight increases. Losing even 10 pounds can lower blood pressure.

* Exercise. Exercise is the most important step to prevent or control high blood pressure. It also helps reduce your risk of heart disease.

* Stop smoking. Even though smoking does not cause high blood pressure, it is bad for anyone, especially those with high blood pressure. Once you quit, your risk of having a heart attack is reduced after the first year.

* Decrease the amounts of alcohol intake.Drinking too much alcohol can raise blood pressure. Alcoholic drinks also contain calories, which matter if you are trying to lose weight. Have only a moderate amount.

* Avoid stress. Stress can make blood pressure go up for a while, and it has been thought to contribute to high blood pressure.

Leptin

I've been puzzled by an interesting question lately. Why is it that certain cultures are able to eat large amounts of carbohydrate and remain healthy, while others suffer from overweight and disease? How do the pre-industrial Kuna and Kitavans maintain their insulin sensitivity while their bodies are being bombarded by an amount of carbohydrate that makes the average American look like a bowling ball?

I read a very interesting post on the Modern Forager yesterday that sent me on a nerd safari through the scientific literature. The paper that inspired the Modern Forager post is a review by Dr. Staffan Lindeberg. In it, he attempts to draw a link between compounds called lectins, found in grains (among other things), and resistance to the hormone leptin. Let's take a step back and go over some background.

One of the most-studied animal models of obesity is called the "Zucker" rat. This rat has a missense mutation in its leptin receptor gene, causing it to be nonfunctional. Leptin is a hormone that signals satiety, or fullness. It's secreted by fat tissue. The more fat tissue an animal has, the more leptin it secretes. Normally, this creates negative feedback that causes it to eat less when fat begins to accumulate, keeping its weight within a narrow range.

Zucker rats secrete leptin just fine, but they lack leptin receptors in their brain. Their blood leptin is high but their brain isn't listening. Thus, the signal to stop eating never gets through and they eat themselves to morbid obesity. Cardiovascular disease and diabetes follow shortly thereafter, unless you remove their visceral fat surgically.

The reason Zucker rats are so interesting is they faithfully reproduce so many features of the disease of civilization in humans. They become obese, hypometabolic, develop insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Basically, severe metabolic syndrome. So here's a rat that shows that leptin resistance can cause something that looks a whole heck of a lot like the disease of civilization in humans.

For this model to be relevant to us, we'd expect that humans with metabolic syndrome should be leptin-resistant. Well what do you know, administering leptin to obese people doesn't cause satiety like it does in thin people. Furthermore, elevated leptin predicts the onset of obesity and metabolic syndrome. It also predicts insulin resistance. Yes, you read that right, leptin resistance may come before insulin resistance.

Interestingly enough, the carbohydrate-loving Kitavans don't get elevated leptin like europeans do, and they don't become overweight, develop insulin dysfunction or the metabolic syndrome either. This all suggests that leptin may be the keystone in the whole disease process, but what accounts for the differences in leptin levels between populations?

Recipe - scones

Scones




recipes health beauty

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

Sift the flour and baking powder together into the container of a food processor with the metal blade in place; add sugar and butter. Pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs, about 30 pulses. Place the flour mixture in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center; add the milk and raisins. Gently stir, being careful not to over mix.


Place dough on lightly floured surface; knead lightly two or three times. Roll dough to 3/8-inch thickness. Cut out scones with a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter. Leftover dough scraps can be rerolled for cutting. Place rounds on a greased baking sheet; brush egg on tops with pastry brush. Let stand 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake scones until lightly browned, 15 minutes. Serve warm.

How To Lose Weight : Tips That Will Help You Eat and Lose Weight

How To Lose Weight

Here are some of the best lose weight tips that you can find to help you lose those extra pounds you have:

1.Walk for 45 minutes a day.

Daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you're eating.

2.Eat five or six small meals or snacks a day instead of three large meals.
A 1999 South African study found that when men ate parts of their morning meal at intervals over five hours, they consumed almost 30 percent fewer calories at lunch than when they ate a single breakfast. Other studies show that even if you eat the same number of calories distributed this way, your body releases less insulin, which keeps blood sugar steady and helps control hunger.

3. Downsize your dinner plates.

The less food put in front of you, the less food you'll eat. Conversely, the more food in front of you, the more you'll eat. So instead of using regular dinner plates range, serve your main course on salad plates . The same goes for liquids. Instead of glasses and oversize coffee mugs, go for coffee cups.

4. Avoid white foods.

Large amounts of simple carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain. While avoiding sugar, white rice, and white flour, you should eat plenty of brown rice and whole grain bread.

5.Eat cereal for breakfast five days a week.
Studies find that people who eat cereal for breakfast every day are significantly less likely to be obese and have diabetes than those who don't. They also consume more fiber and calcium -- and less fat -- than those who eat other breakfast foods. Pour out a high-fiber and low-sugar cereals.

6.Eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice.

For the calories in one kid-size box of apple juice, you can enjoy an apple, orange, and a slice of watermelon. These whole foods will keep you satisfied much longer than that box of apple juice, so you'll eat less overall.

7. Use flavorings such as hot sauce, salsa, and Cajun seasonings

Besides providing lots of flavor with no fat and few calories, many of these seasonings -- the spicy ones -- turn up your digestive fires, causing your body to temporarily burn more calories.

How To Get Rid of Scaly Lips : Lips Care

How To Get Rid Of Scaly Lips

If you suffer from scaly lips, a simple do-it-yourself trick to exfoliate them. Takes only a finger scoop of Vaseline and an old toothbrush.

1: Slather lips with petroleum jelly

2: Use a toothbrush to massage in the jelly in a circular motion.

3: Wipe off the excess petroleum jelly.

Take a toothbrush to your lips, massaging in the jelly in a circular motion. Wipe off any excess petroleum jelly.

The toothbrush exfoliates lips while the petroleum jelly leaves lips extra soft. Repeat a couple times a day until your lips are no longer scaly.

Recipe - baked chicken wings

Baked Chicken Wings





recipes health beauty

Ingredients:

• 15 chicken wings
• 1 tablespoon honey or syrup
• 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 3 tablespoons warm water
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 scallion (green onion, spring onion), finely minced
• 1 slice fresh ginger, minced

Preparation:

Marinate chicken wings for 15 minutes in a mixture of hoisin sauce,honey, water, salt, pepper, garlic, scallion, and ginger.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken wings on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, brushing occasionally with marinade.

Turn oven to broil and broil chicken wings five more minutes. Turn wings every two minutes to avoid burning.

To serve: Transfer chicken wings to a serving platter and serve hot or at room temperature.

Hydration: Attempt Only Under Medical Supervision

I've noticed how the word "hydration" has crept into the popular lexicon in the last decade or so. Before that, we were so primitive, we just "drank water". Now you need a PhD just to put a glass to your lips. I'm not sure I'm qualified!

I've been hearing so many people, including health professionals, tell me to drink 8 glasses of water a day for my entire life. In my middle school health class, I was told by my hydrophilic teacher that I should be urinating every hour and my urine should always be clear. For my whole life, I've thought it was nonsense. Yet the message has reached people. Walk around any college campus and you'll see undergrads faithfully carrying around their endocrine-disrupting plastic-water everywhere they go.

You see, our bodies have this very sophisticated mechanism to ensure water homeostasis. It's called thirst. If we need so much water to be healthy, why aren't we thirsty more often?

I skimmed through a paper today in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology that reviews the evidence for health benefits from drinking more water than your thirst demands. Their conclusion: there's no evidence to suggest it helps anything. Water is just a nice harmless placebo.

The term "hydration" has helped fuel a whole industry to satisfy our need for hydration technology. Gatorade claims it hydrates better than water. It must be the high-fructose corn syrup and yellow #5... And make sure to bring your "hydration pack" when you go on your 20 minute jog; you might get lost and end up in the Kalahari desert!

I actually think the water craze isn't totally harmless. Drinking large amounts of water with a meal interferes with digestion by diluting digestive enzymes and stomach acid. Drinking a tall beer does the same. Wine is better because it tends to be a smaller volume.

As far as I'm concerned, with minor exceptions, the only thing to drink is water. I'll have an occasional glass of wine, beer or whole raw milk, but 99% of what I drink is good old-fashioned dihydrogen oxide.

The only time I drink a large amount of water without being thirsty is if I'm about to do vigorous exercise or spend time outside in hot weather.

Thanks to Snap for the CC photo.

Cellulite : Causes and Treatments

Cellulite is lumpy substance that is found on abdomen,buttocks and thigh which become dimpled after puberty. You would know if you have cellulite by pinching the skin around you thigh.

Causes of cellulite

.Smoking
.Lack of exercise
.Wear tight clothes
.The excessive amounts of fat in the body
.Wear high heels
.Stress


How to treat cellulite

.Stop smoking
.Stop eating foods high in saturated and hydrogenated fats.
.More exercise
.Use cellulite lotions
.Eating in a healthy manner

Low-carb Review Article

The other day, I came across this nice review article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It gives a thorough but accessible overview of the current state of research into carbohydrate-restricted diets, without all the fatophobic mumbo-jumbo. It points out a few "elephants in the room" that the mainstream likes to ignore. First of all, the current approach isn't working:

The persistence of an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes suggests that new nutritional strategies are needed if the epidemic is to be overcome.

They claim that preagricultural diets were low in carbohydrate:

In contrast to current Western diets, the traditional diets of many preagricultural peoples were relatively low in carbohydrate (1, 2). In North America, for example, the traditional diet of many First Nations peoples of Canada before European migration comprised fish, meat, wild plants, and berries. The change in lifestyle of several North American aboriginal populations occurred as recently as the late 1800s, and the numerous ensuing health problems were extensively documented (3-5). Whereas many aspects of lifestyle were altered with modernization, these researchers suspected that the health problems came from the change in nutrition�specifically, the introduction of sugar and flour.

But of course, many of them were very high in carbohydrate, and these cultures seemed in fine health as well.

Carbohydrate reduction leads to a normalization of appetite:

It may also be that the mere lowering of serum insulin concentrations, as is seen with LCDs, may lead to a reduction in appetite. In support of this idea, several studies have found that insulin increases food intake, that foods with high insulin responses are less satiating, and that suppression of insulin with octreotide leads to weight loss (27-29).

I can't believe it; all that fat isn't going to clog my arteries??

Several outpatient diet studies have shown reductions in CVD risk factors after an 8�12-wk LCKD, during weight loss, and during weight maintenance (21, 60-62).

The last paragraph is a zinger:

We emphasize that strategies based on carbohydrate restriction have continued to fulfill their promise in relation to weight loss and that, contrary to early concerns, they have a generally beneficial effect on most markers of CVD, even in the absence of weight loss. In combination with the intuitive and established efficacy in relation to glycemic control in diabetics, some form of LCD may be the preferred choice for weight reduction as well as for general health.