It’s not hard to guess why so many people jumped on the low-carb bandwagon. Yes, low-carb diets do help you lose weight, but at what cost? The truth is carbohydrates are necessary. Don’t believe it? Do you think that man was simply put on this planet to eat meat? Then you may want to look at the following facts. Here are just a few reasons why your body really does need carbohydrates.

Whole Grains Can Help Lower Cholesterol

Do you know what leads to high cholesterol? The answer is saturated fats. Where are saturated fats found? In meat. Those that load their bodies down with high protein diets risk the build-up of plaque in their arteries due to high LDL cholesterol. If you want to prevent build-up in the arteries, it is recommended that you consume whole grains – AKA carbs. The fiber in these whole grains helps clear your bloodstream and remove the plaque from the arteries.

High-Fiber Foods Help in Digestion

Fiber is nature’s broom and helps keep us regular. Without enough fiber in your diet you may experience constipation, greasy stools and a number of other gastrointestinal issues. In order to get the proper amount of fiber in your diet, you must consume carbohydrates that are high in fiber, such as whole grain bread and oatmeal.

There Are Healthy Carbs

Not all carbohydrates are bad. Yes, white flour and refined sugars are unhealthy, but whole grains, fruits and vegetables are good sources of healthy carbs. Your diet should include these foods at each meal in order for you to stay healthy.

Carbohydrates Offer Energy

Marathon runners often sit down to a large serving of pasta the night before a big race. Why? Carbohydrates offer energy that is quick to obtain. Carbs are easier for the body to breakdown and use immediately or store in the liver for later use.

Complex Carbs May Help Prevent Diabetes

There is a reason some carbs are good and some bad. Bad carbs break down too quickly and cause a spike in blood sugar. Overtime, these spikes can cause glucose intolerance. However, complex carbs take longer to break down due to the presence of fiber. This means that blood sugar levels rise steadily, rather than spiking, thus avoiding glucose intolerance.

It doesn’t matter how much weight you can lose, it isn’t worth your health. Our bodies need carbohydrates in order to function. Carbs aid in digestion, energy and complex carbs may even prevent diabetes.

About the Author: Ernesto Sagoes works as an EKG technician and enjoys studying nutrition in his spare time. He highly recommends speaking to a nutritionist about any type of diet or eating plan you choose to try.

Your Health

In our daily grind of life we are always on the go, eating whenever we can and whatever we can because sometimes it is just too time consuming to worry about what type of foods you eat. With all the things that are going on, the feeling that I hate is that discomfort of feeling bloated, wanting to have a bowel movement but your body just does not cooperate and you feel so heavy. You feel like you have a ton of stuff in your stomach. It just can irritate anybody to the maximum because it is something that is so harmless if treated and so preventable if you are aware of how to do so. I am talking about being constipated.

Constipation

As a general rule anyone who has 3 or less bowel movements a week is considered constipated. To be more scientific about it, constipation is basically described as the limitation of the bowel movements which causes stool to be small yet hard which causes a lot of pain and difficulty when having a bowel movement. No one can really pinpoint the cause of constipation. There are some evidence that point to maybe diet and perhaps a lack of exercise but nothing irrefutable. Nonetheless we still need to worry about fighting and knowing ways to alleviate it because we never know when we may be the next victim of this condition. It is commonly argued that a simple change in the diet will take care of any constipation problems that a person might have. It might surprise you as to how much more fiber in the diet can do in relieving constipation. Another way to be able to combat it is with laxatives. There are many forms of laxatives, there are pharmaceutical laxatives and there are the more natural ones.

Herbal Laxatives

Laxatives or stool softeners are the best way to combat constipation naturally. Some even take it a step further and use an all-natural colon cleanser. However the more advisable to use are the milder herbal laxatives because the stronger colon cleanses may cause colon dependency in the long run which may cause bigger issues in the future and there are three types of herbal laxatives. Bulking agents which are the type that is used when the main cause of the constipation is the weakened muscle of the colon which is called flaccid constipation and these agents are commonly rich in fiber which creates and expanding effect when combined with water causing the stool to be pushed out. The second one is the herbal stimulant which I least recommend as they cause cramping since it is very potent and has a purgative effect. The third is the mild laxatives.

Mild Laxatives

They are gentle diuretics which increase bile flow towards the large intestines. They come highly recommended as it does not have side effects and they relax the colon to allow stool to pass with ease and dandelion root and licorice root are known to be the gentlest of them all.

Fight chronic constipation with natural mild laxatives.  -Darrell Miller http://vitanetonline.com/

Intestinal cleansing or as more popularly known colon cleansing is a process in which the main goal is to flush out toxins and impurities from within the colon. We have to understand that as food goes through our digestive system there will be left over undigested toxins. The body will not be able to use up all the food we eat, and depending on what we eat and put into our body, the toxins or impurities may be differ in its harmful effects from one colon to the next. So simple enough, the cleansing process could be compared to sweeping dirt out of a hallway, we know how bad it will be if that broom will be none existent, after a week, imagine how that hallway will look like.

So I bet not one of you will be alright with that happening to your colon. Most people will have a hard time knowing when to exactly know when to cleanse so the best thing to do before I say anything else is to advise you to check with you doctor before moving forward. However outside of checking with a doctor, we can look at it this way, everyday in this modern age a lot of us eat processed foods on a daily basis. These foods are artificially flavored and chemically changed in some way but that’s how awesome our body is, we will be able to get away with it for a while but like most good things if abused, it can go to an abrupt end.

Meaning, those foreign compounds that we put in our bodies which will not be absorbed will have to manifest its effects somewhere if we do not get it out of our system real quick because it turns into harmful bacteria. I guess the lesser of 2 evils will come into play here, if we can’t avoid these processed foods the least that we can do for our body is to not let these impurities linger to allow them to create greater damage in the colon and in more severe cases in the body. So some studies advised as a general rule that we need to have bowel movements at least once to twice a day. If it is any less than that, then cleansing options should be strongly considered.

Cleansing and Weight Loss

When getting a cleanse we have to remember and understand that our colon will be completely flushed out. So what does that mean for weight loss, simple, we need to take it slow and be patient and allow our body to recover, why? Flushing in principle is the very thing that will make you lose weight, those impurities and toxins usually are gases, water and mixture of other compounds and that will be weight off and with that, some good bacteria needed in the stomach might also be lost, hence the recovery time. Now that will be for the short term weight loss, for the long term, cleansing will influence weight loss by keeping your colon healthy and allowing it to absorb all the needed nutrients for a healthier you and combine that with a good exercise regimen fit for your current health and lifestyle and that should put you in the fast track to healthy weight loss.

What’s stopping you from starting a cleansing program to lose weight and feel better?

Promote good health with a clean colon.  Let a colon cleanse program help you lose weight and feel better.  -Darrell Miller, VitaNet, LLC

This is good news!

But wait a minute … probiotics? Aren’t probiotics found in the intestine? How can they help prevent and/or treat colds?

Okay, so let’s talk about probiotics.

What Are Probiotics?

Do you remember being told to drink yogurt because it will do your stomach or intestines good? There is truth to this advice. Yogurt is very common and is probably the best example of a probiotic. Yogurt contains Lactic Acid bacteria, and it has been said that in general, the digestive system contains at least 400 different types of probiotics, of which lactic acid comprises the most number of all.

All of these probiotic bacteria present in the digestive tract helps reduce the growth of harmful bacteria. They also promote a healthy digestive system.

So how do these probiotics work in the digestive system? Basically, what probiotics such as yogurt, yeast, and the rest of the more or less 400 probiotics found in the intestine does is preserve the natural balance of organisms in the intestines.

In the past years and even until now, people use probiotics to avoid diarrhea, gas, as well as in treating stomach cramps caused by antibiotic intake. Not very many people know this but when antibiotics are taken, good or beneficial bacteria is also killed together with the bad bacteria that cause illness. This results to lesser good bacteria in the stomach which ultimately leads to digestive problems. For this reason, people are advised to take probiotics as they help replace the lost beneficial bacteria and avoiding intestinal diseases.

How About Probiotics and Colds?

The study was conducted by Bi Rong Dong, MD, of Sichuan University in Sichuan, China. It involved 10 randomized controlled trials was participated by 3,451 participants composed of infants, children, as well as middle-aged adults who are in their 40’s. The aim of the study was to prevent upper respiratory tract infection with the use of probiotics which will be taken for more than one week. A controlled group was given probiotics and another group was given a placebo. 

According to Dr. Bi Rong Dong and his colleagues, the result of the study showed that the intake of probiotics reduced the number of individuals who had at least one acute upper respiratory tract infection by 42%. The result of the study also showed that people who took probiotics had lower need of antibiotics in the treatment of infection as compared to people who did not take probiotics.

So if you want to prevent colds, try taking probiotics. Besides, they are also good for the digestive system. It’s still best, however, to see a doctor if have colds or when you don’t feel well. Self medication should be avoided. The doctor still knows what’s best for you.

Guest Post by:

Siena Lombardi is an established writer for edrugstore.md’s blog. She holds a degree in communication and has been a featured writer on edrugstore.md’s website, which promotes safe medications such as Zyban to quit smoking and Tamiflu for flu prevention.

If you are currently suffering from a debilitating fast food addiction, you may now have a reason to be slightly less ashamed of yourself.  Much to the chagrin of the status quo, the findings of an 8 year long study was recently posted in a prestigious medical journal, suggesting that a low-salt diet can actually increase your risk of heart disease. 

The test, published in the May issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, featured over 3,500 European and Russian test subjects, all roughly 40 years old at the time the test began.  The amount of salt excretion was measured in urine samples, which is thought to be the most accurate method of salt intake given the fact that measuring it in the food prior to ingestion would be near impossible.  After 8 years, 84 of the subjects had died from cardiovascular related ailments.  Surprisingly, the top 33% of salt consumers, that ingested around 6 grams of salt a day, suffered only 10 deaths.  The median group, which ingested roughly 4 grams per day, accounted for 24 of the total deaths.  Most shocking of all, the lowest (or what we would normally call the “healthiest”) demographic of salt consumers, made up 50 of the 84 deaths. 

If you’re blinded by the letters B and S flashing in your mind right now, you’re not alone.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relieved itself of its customarily objective stance on these sorts of issues, claiming that there are simply too many flaws in the study.  Amongst not having enough test subjects, they claimed that a large portion of the 50 subjects who died while on a low-salt diet were also frequent smokers.  They also claimed that the subjects were too young, since a large number of cardiovascular related deaths occur beyond the 50 year old mark.   

However, fast food addicts aren’t the only ones rejoicing… many feel vindicated by these new findings, including (although not surprisingly) the Salt Institute, which lauds salt for its ability to moderate insulin levels and prevent the buildup of a resistance that could lead to diabetes.

Regardless of which side you’re on, both sides seem to agree that limiting your salt intake is not a very good method of preventing heart disease anyway.  Most experts say that exercise and as little as a 5% loss of body fat can considerably reduce your risk of developing hypertension, as well as cutting back on animal fats, sweets, and sugars in your diet. 

So, what do you think?  Do you think that the CDC and all the other opponents of this test are simply reactionaries working to protect the status quo, or are we seeing a legitimate breakthrough in medicine?

Eric Hirota is a personal trainer for LAVA Sport & Fitness in San Diego, CA. He specializes in plyometrics and abdominal workouts. 

Today, the typical American is surrounded by sugary foods.  Sweets are found at the grocery store, gas station and plenty of restaurants—fast food or not.  And for most of you, it’s probably true that you’re surrounded by sugar in your own home.

Because of the negative health affects sugar has on our health, many people choose to go “sugar-free.”  Seeing your favorite treat with those words on it may be music to your ears, or it may scream “stay away” because of the several claims that have been made about the safety of artificial sweeteners.

Sugar free foods have not lost their sweetness because they are sweetened with sugar substitutes.  There are many brands, and they’re all similar to sugar.  Except for the fact that they contain no calories and have little glycemic response.

Artificial sweeteners are FDA approved.  This means that they go through several studies by the Food and Drug Administration to assess their safety.  The FDA also establishes ADIs (Acceptable Daily Intakes) for every artificial sweetener.  They figure out the largest amount of the substance a person would have to ingest before receiving health problems.  Here is an example for aspartame:  To reach the ADI, a 150-pound adult would have to consume 20 cans of diet soda in a single day.  Hopefully, for most of us that’s pretty difficult to do, and it shouldn’t be a problem to avoid.

It has been said that sugar substitutes can play a role in obesity, from both sides.  An overweight individual who replaces high sugar foods with sugar substituted foods may end up losing weight.  However, artificial sweeteners can mess with appetite control.  They make your body think you’re eating sugar, therefore you crave it more which can lead to overeating.  So if you’re going to use artificial sweeteners, do so with caution.  Make sure you’re controlling your appetite with a  healthy diet and regular exercise. 

People who are diabetic may benefit from sugar substitutes because they do not affect blood sugar.  However, always consult with a doctor before significantly changing your diet.  They can help decide what is best for your condition. 

There have been several claims that artificial sweeteners cause health problems such as mood disorders, headaches, multiple schlerosis…even cancer!  Yet there is no proof of any of these claims.  So, if you choose to use artificial sweeteners, don’t be afraid.  Incorporate them into a healthy, balanced diet and you will not have any problems.

Remember that all approved artificial sweeteners, including acesulfame-potassium, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, stevia and sucralose have gone through numerous studies to prove their safety.  If they weren’t safe, the FDA wouldn’t approve them.  They can help with weight loss but also cause the opposite affect if you aren’t paying attention to the rest of your diet and exercise habits.  Artificial sweeteners are beneficial for diabetics, obese and health conscious individuals.  In order for sugar substitutes to cause problems, you would have to consume extremely large amounts of it on a daily basis, something that is nearly impossible for most people.

Brianna Elliott is a third year dietetics student at the University of Wisconsin – Stout.  She also contributes regularly to a health and nutrition website called PSCLife.com.  This site carries a wide variety of health and nutritional supplements including sugar free products like Fiber Choice Sugar Free Chewable Tablets.  She thinks it’s important for people to know the truth about artificial sweeteners because there is so much misinformation in the world about them.

Outside of the civilized world, isolated villages still hold true to the past traditions of diets rich in animal meat, eggs, and milk with very little processed foods and vegetable fats. Yet most doctors and dietitians say that a diet rich in animal fats like those eaten in less civilized cutlures is very unhealthy. They claim it clogs arteries and causes many other health problems common in today’s civilization.

Could Vegetable Fats Be Linked to Modern Health Problems?

Modern civilization currently deals with epidemics of heart disease, cancers, high blood pressure and dental problems. If one were to travel into the isolated villages anywhere in the world, regions where processed foods, sugars, and vegetable fats are non-existent, one would notice a drastic difference with the health of the people who reside there. Dental problems, despite lack of proper dental care, are fewer in number than in a bountiful civilized town. Obesity and all the health problems that go with it is also drastically less common.

Many would argue that replacing a diet of sugars and margarine with eggs and butter would simply raise the heart problems and cholesterol levels. Just the idea that animal fats might be better for human health than vegetable fats causes controversy everywhere you look, despite the agreement that a diet rich in white flour, high fructose corn syrup and processed foods is unhealthy.

Research Concerning Animal Fats

Many studies show that not all fats are harmful to one’s health. In fact, research shows that Omega 3 is quite beneficial to human health. Grass-fed cows raised on small farms have greater levels of omega 3 oils, as do nuts and fish.

It is also clear that those on a low-fat diet are not benefitting from a lower risk of heart disease risk. In fact, a reduction in animal fats over the years has done nothing to slim the American people or make them healthier. More people today suffer from heart disease than when the average person ate eighteen pounds of butter a year.

The Truth about Vegetable Oil

Vegetable oils, such as palm, corn, soybean, sunflower oils, and others can be detrimental to your health. It’s important to understand the distinction between vegetable oils and others. For instance, olive and coconut oils are not harmful. These are fruits, not vegetables. Nut and seed oils are also healthier for the most part.

Free radicals make vegetable oils dangerous. They cause cancer and clog the arteries. Cancer and heart problems are the most common health problems in the United States. The oils break down with heat, releasing large volumes of damaging free radicals into your body.

Vegetable oils should be banned from your kitchen. There are many healthier alternatives to choose from:

• Peanut Oil

• Olive Oil

• Coconut Oil

• Sesame Oil

• Avocado Oil

• Grapeseed Oil

• Walnut Oil

Stick to these healthier alternatives and you’ll benefit from a lower cancer and heart disease risk.

LowFatDietPlan.org offers tips on incorporating the latest nutrition research into your healthy diet plan.

Salt water has a lot of great health benefits, and fortunately for us there is plenty of it on this planet.  But you really should just make your own at home instead of taking a dip from the ocean.

The ingredients for this recipe are very simple

• Purified Water
• Natural Sea Salt

You do not want to use regular salt as sea salt has proven to be much better for you and contains less sodium as well.

Here is how you make the sea salt colon cleanse recipe:

• Heat up about a quart of water.  Don’t make it hot, but just warm so you can drink it without burning yourself.
• Pour in about 1/8 cup or less of sea salt.  Take as much of it as you can stand but no more than 1/4 cup.
• Stir it up really good so all of the salt has been dissolved into the water.  If there is still salt sitting at the bottom you put in too much.
• Drink this stuff as fast as you can take it.

In my experience I have found that it is better to drink the salt water very quickly before you have time to realize how bad it is.  Sounds crazy, but when you drink it really slow it makes it even hard to get through the whole thing.

What are the side-effects?

Besides having a horribly salty taste in your mouth you may also experience a slight to sever head ache.  As the salt water goes into your stomach it will start throughout the rest of your body.

You will probably want to stay home when you do this because you are going to want to be near a bathroom at all times.  The toxic flush that comes from this recipe can be very effective.  As always you should consult with your doctor before doing anything like this to make sure it will be safe.  I am not a physician, but am merely posting some colon cleanse recipes that have worked for people I know.

Here is another homemade colon cleanse recipe that you can try with just a few simple ingredients:

• Red Cayenne Pepper
• Fresh Lemon Juice (from real lemons)
• Distilled Water (or at least filtered
• Maple Syrup

Now you will want to take an average size glass of water that is at least 8 oz and no more than 12 oz and fill it 3/4 of the way up with the filtered water.  We use filtered water because there are a lot of toxins in regular tap water.  The point here is to detoxify so we want water to be as pure as possible.

Then you can take two tablespoons of lemon juice and pour them into the glass.  I prefer to just use one whole lemon and cut it and squeeze the juices into the drink.  Nothing beats real lemon juice when it comes to a proper colon cleanse.

You will put in one tablespoon of the cayenne pepper.   This stuff has a kick but it helps to clean all the gunk off the walls of your colon.  You can actually put in as much as you can stand, but be careful because it makes some people gag when they take too much.

With the maple syrup you want to put in about 2 table spoons.  This adds a much needed sweetness to your drink but it also has many health benefits as well.  It kind of has the same effect as motor oil which I have heard many old-timers tell me was their only method of colon cleansing back in the day.

The lemon and cayenne pepper colon cleanse is an easy and quick solution to a homemade cleanse on the fly, and it can be a great addition to other colon cleansing methods.

If you want to be serious about the lemon juice colon cleanse I would highly recommend you check out these secrets to the master cleanse system to learn how to do it properly and stick with it.

Many health experts believe that a major cause of many of the illnesses of the body are the accumulated toxins and waste materials in it. These toxins can also cause other health conditions such as premature aging and being overweight or obese. This is the reason why if you want to lose weight and if you want to become healthy, you need to get rid of the harmful waste and toxins in the body. The process of getting rid of toxins and waste materials is called detoxification. It may be the missing piece of the puzzle to many people’s weight loss programs. No matter what they do, some people find it hard to lose weight. This is probably because they have not done any detoxification procedures.

How does one undergo detoxification to lose weight? Read on to know more about this wonderful health giving process.

Toxic Attack

Do you know that on a daily basis, our bodies are constantly being attacked and bombarded with different kinds of toxins? We get toxins from the food that we eat, the beverages that we drink and even from the air that we breathe. You cannot avoid these toxins because they are literally everywhere. They come in the form of the chemicals that we can find in our food and in common household items, heavy metals from seafood, hormones and antibiotics from meat and meat products and germs from our polluted surroundings. It is safe to say therefore, that we all have toxins in our bodies. Now the thing for us to do is to get rid of these toxins before they can cause serious damage to our health.

Different Kinds of Cleansing

Detoxification of the body comes in different forms. Different parts of the body need to be cleansed in order to effectively detoxify the body. First, you need to cleanse your colon. There is a popular saying in the alternative health field that death starts in the colon. Indeed, experts have traced 179 forms of illnesses to a dirty colon. Through the years, layers upon layers of toxic substances from the food we eat get deposited in our intestinal walls. To get rid of waste materials, one may need to take supplements.

The liver is another part of the body that needs to be cleansed regularly. This is because the liver acts as some sort of filter of the body. The liver though can become overwhelmed by toxins. Not to mention alcoholic beverages and excessive intake of medicines. You can help your liver perform its function well through liver cleansing. There are supplements available that can effectively cleanse the liver.

You should also take care of your lymphatic system that produces lymph fluids. Lymph fluids are responsible for neutralizing, removing and flushing toxic wasted from the body. If the lymph system is not functioning properly, then toxic wastes could accumulate in the body unchecked. One of the best ways to stimulate the lymphatic system is through rebounding, an exercise done on a mini trampoline such as a rebounder by needak.

http://www.needakusa.com/needak-rebounder.html