Weight Loss and Your Health

Maintaining a healthy weight is truly vital to keeping yourself in tip-top shape, and not just so you can get in to that little dress for the holiday parties.

Keeping your weight at a healthy level is a huge step toward the prevention a of a large number of diseases that you don't want to find yourself burdened with. These can include: diabetes, sleep apnea, heart disease, and cancer, just to name a few.

If you maintain a healthy weight, it can also help you manage diseases that you may already have such as Paget's disease, Osteoarthritis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). In addition to disease prevention, when you maintain a healthy weight, you will set an excellent example for your children which in turn will make it easier for them to make appropriate choices in the future.

With all the temptation out there though, maintaining that healthy weight and weight loss can be challenging for many people. And really, is there one specific thing that will keep you in perfect shape? The short answer is no; however, moderate exercise and eating right are absolutely vital to any healthy weight loss-maintenance plan.

By instituting even small changes, you will be well on your way. It is amazing what even a short walk after dinner can do for weight loss, not only for the way your body metabolizes the food you just ate, but also for your mood in general.

Diabetes is a disease that is being diagnosed in record numbers, not only in adults, but also in children. This is the most obvious red flag that America is overweight, yet many people have no idea how extra weight and diabetes are connected.

Diabetes is a lifelong disease that is not curable and therefore requires that you take some form of medication for the rest of your life to manage it. Poor eating habits affect your body chemistry; when it is thrown off, it can cause your pancreas to fail in its job of insulin production. The result is diabetes.

Another reason to maintain a healthy weight is your joints. Excess weight carried on your frame puts extra stress on your joints. This will cause aches and pains every day, and really, who wants to live with that?

Later down the road, you may find yourself with Osteoarthritis as a result; this is a chronic disease that causes the cushioning between your joints to wear away which, as you can imagine, can be excruciating. It can also cause bone spurs to grow around the joints. By maintaining a healthy weight, you can lessen the likelihood of getting this disease, and if you already have it, dropping even a few pounds can help ease some of your pain.

Are you always tired? You might be suffering from what's known as Sleep Apnea. A few extra pounds can weigh against the muscles in your throat when you lie down to sleep.

As those muscles relax, they can push against your airway and force it to close; the result is periods of time during the night when you actually stop breathing, followed by gasping for air. Whether you are fully aware of it or not, this disrupts your sleep pattern and can cause you to become increasingly tired, seemingly without reason.

Cancer is a word that no one likes to hear; a common disease, many people worldwide are faced with fighting it. There is no one single thing that causes it, yet there are many possibilities.

One of these causes is being overweight. Several types of cancer are linked with being overweight.

In women, these include cancer of the uterus, gallbladder, cervix, ovaries, breast and colon. Overweight men are faced with an increased risk of developing cancer of the colon, rectum and prostate. High-fat and high-calorie diets have been found to be attributing factors in cancer of the breast and colon; common sense would say that both of these would lead to a less than healthy weight and therefore, also this could also be a contributing factor.

The message is clear: weight loss and health go hand in hand. Maintaining a healthy weight is vital to your health. No matter your age, it is never too late to start practicing a healthy lifestyle. Not only will you feel better and be healthier, your friends and family will thank you for it as they will likely get to spend many extra years with you.

To Your Health,
Diet Health & Fitness
'Blog Squad'
DietHealthandFitness.com

At Last! The Truth About Processed Foods

Eat a good, balanced diet. This is vital to good health. Our food does not just provide the energy we need for daily living, it also provides the raw materials for healthy cell turnover and fuels our natural repair system.

Fruit and vegetables are nature's anti-aging remedy, protecting us from many of the diseases we associate with later life. I cannot stress how vital this is; being overweight will seriously reduce the chances of a healthy older age as there is a greater risk of heart disease, stroke, arthritis and diabetes.

There are a handful of vitamins and minerals that will help you in various ways, and many of these can be found in fruits and vegetables. In the last 30 years, studies have uncovered that nutrient deficiencies (even when the deficiencies are mild) do, in fact, impair the immune response and lead to frequent, severe infections.

Which nutrients am I talking about? These are the nutrients that have important influences on your immune system and your body as a whole: Vitamin B-6 - poultry, lean meats, fish, nuts and seeds, and fruits (bananas, avocados, mangos, prune juice, and grapes)

Folic acid -- beans, nuts, all types of dark-green vegetables, and many fruits (orange juice, papaya, banana, mango, kiwi, cantaloupe, and berries). Folic acid-fortified rice, pasta and breads, baked goods, and breakfast cereals are also now excellent sources.

Vitamin C -- Citrus fruits, papaya, strawberries, kiwi, cantaloupe, mango, red peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, dark-green vegetables of all kinds, tomatoes, and potatoes.

Vitamin A -- All dark-green vegetables and yellow-orange vegetables and fruits are excellent sources of carotenoid forms of vitamin A.

Vitamin E -- wheat germ oil, peanuts, almonds, cod liver oil, soybean oil, canola oil, wheat germ, other nuts, selected fruits and vegetables (mango, Swiss chard, papaya, pumpkin, prunes, grapes, broccoli, spinach, pear, blueberries)

Zinc -- beef, poultry, seafood, nuts and seeds, whole grain breads and cereals, tofu, beans, and milk.

Iron -- shellfish (clams and oysters), pistachios, lean beef, dried beans and peas, eggs, nuts and seeds, dark chicken/turkey meat, dark molasses, prune juice, breads and pasta, and green vegetables.

Selenium -- Brazil nuts, oysters, clams, lean pork and ham, whole grain and regular pasta, chicken and turkey, sunflower seeds, lean beef, breads, oatmeal, soy nuts, eggs, nuts and seeds, and low-fat dairy products.

Processed foods, formulated or manipulated for ease in processing, storage, and to assure an extended shelf life are one of the greatest problems facing the ability to lose weight. Did you know that the majority of processed foods have had their nutritive value reduced or eliminated.

Even worse, to make them easy to process, easy to preserve, easy to retain freshness and easy to deliver, processed foods have many additives, which attack rather than support your general health.

The problem with food is that the majority of processed food is contaminated with poisonous ingredients or is actually a form of poison in one way or another. Many of the additives in processed foods are known or suspected carcinogens and known poisons.

Under the best circumstances these and similar products are very bad for the human body: (In other words stay away from these chemicals).

MSG, (MSG is actually rat poison). Sulfites, Petroleum-petrochemical flavors and colors,
Certain irons, nitrates, most sweetening agents (including white and brown sugar) which at a minimum interfere with the normal operations of the immune system. And, of course, the notorious and omniscient and very dangerous hydrogenated oils.

Hydrogenated oils are highly advertised to help reduce cholesterol but recent studies clearly indicate their general action is to suppress good cholesterol and boost bad cholesterol which in turn slowly destroys your immune system.

Margarine and many other foods have a very high content of dangerous hydrogenated oils that are considered to be and that help suppress or exhaust the immune system. These ingredients and additives put an excessive burden on the liver, kidneys, and the stomach. (Margarine, in my opinion, should be labeled as poison).

Think about this: hydrogenated oils are considered by many health care professionals to be a direct cause of cancer. The human body has no idea of how to process a hydrogenated oil, whether in margarine or crackers, and must process it like an invader, it taxes the already limited resources of a sick body.

Watch out for phrases, such as, fat free, sugar free, low calorie, heart healthy, low cholesterol, no cholesterol and similar buzz words. When you see these buzzwords, don't buy the product, these phrases only mean that the food is loaded with harmful chemicals to replace the fat, cholesterol etc.

Believe me fat is better for you than chemicals. Go ahead and read the ingredients on the back of these products it will look like a 7th grade chemistry experiment. That will give you an idea of how immoral the food industry has become.

To Your Health,

Michael Toscano & Brue Baker

Owners / Founders
http://www.DietHealthandFitness.com/