To determine quickly if you are overweight the following is a surefire way of pinpointing your health risks.Waist to Hip Ratio determines distribution of body fat. More body fat in the upper body (chest and waist) suggests increased health risk for elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, strokes, longer time to conceive, heart disease or diabetes. More fat in the lower body (hips and thighs) suggests fat loss is difficult.

Using a tape measure, measure the hips in inches (or centimeters) at the top of the hip bone on the right front of the body. This spot will be slightly lower than your belly button.

Next, measure the waist 1″ (2.5 cm) above your belly button in inches (or centimeters).

Using these two measurement values, divide the waist reading (2) by the hip reading (1). This tells you where most of your body fat is located.

Apple shape (a ratio of .95 or greater) means your body fat is located above your waist which indicates a higher health risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and some cancers. Pear shape (a ratio of less than .95) means your body fat is located below your waist which indicates a lower health risk, but fat located in the lower half of the body may be harder to lose during weight loss.The best way of achieving weight loss and keeping it off long term is to do it slowly over a period of time so that your body can adjust to the changes you are thrusting upon it by changing your eating habits and taking up regular cardiovascular exercise.

Change your eating habits (i.e. start eating smaller portions of food) before if you ate a full plate of food try eating 2/3 of a plate instead.

1.  
   • Substitute aspartame for sugar
   • Try eating 3 or 4 smaller meals during the day rather than 2 large ones
   • Don’t eat heavy meals late in the evening as the body wont have time to digest it so it ends up stored as fat in your body.
   • Use low fat oils in cooking i.e. sunflower, corn or Mazola
   • Cut down on your salt intake, there are hidden salts even in tinned foods
   • Balance your meals out during the day so in one day you have a mix of protein, carbohydrate and vitamins
   • Drink lots of water during the day and before, during and after exercise, you should drink at least 8 big glasses of water per 24 hours
   • Drink alcohol in moderation
   • Stop smoking if you smoke or cut down
   • Eat more fibre i.e. pulses grains nuts, pasta, brown rice, cereals, fresh fruit
   • Eat your main large meal at midday with the other meals much smaller in content
   • Eat more vegetables as part of your diet
   • Eat less dairy products or choose those with less fat content i.e. cottage cheese
   • Try steaming or poaching food instead of frying it, frying adds calories by the bucketful
   • Cut down on Red meat and eat more lean or better still chicken and fish instead
   • Drink semi or skimmed milk as opposed to full cream

Simply choose a diet which is low in fat and cholesterol, moderate in sugar and salt and high in fibre but at the same time has a variety of everything thus making it a balanced diet.

How Negative Calorie Foods Work

 In fact, about 10-15% of all the calories you eat are used just in the digestion process. It’s hard work breaking food down, absorbing all the carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, etc. and then getting the unused portion out of the body.

 The phrase, “negative calorie food”, as highlighted in negative calorie diet programs and books, usually refers to foods that allegedly require more energy to digest than they contain. Since the process of digestion requires the use of calories for energy, sometimes the net amount of metabolizable energy available from a food is less than the gross number of calories contained in the food.

Negative calorie foods.

Any diet that involves eating only these types of foods will certainly lead to both quick and long-term weight loss. This type of diet has been given a term Negative calorie diet. Keep in mind that a diet limited to only these foods could lead to malnutrition. Negative calorie foods are a wise choice when snack time hits to limit your calorie intakes.

List of negative calorie foods

Negative Calorie Vegetables: Asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, green beans, onion, papaya, radishes, spinach, zucchini

Negative Calorie Fruits: Apple, blueberry, cantaloupe, cranberry, grape fruit, honey dew melon, lemon, lime, orange, pineapple, strawberry, watermelon .

Food to avoid if you want beautiful skin

Beautiful skin is not just the visible surface; it’s a largest part of our bodies. And believe it or not, this part discloses a state of the whole body. Healthy body equals beautiful skin and health problems cause acnes, swelling, colour changes and a bunch of other skin problems.Nutritionists would never recommend giving carbohydrates up totally, because they are indeed useful.

Food like cake, bread, sugar, cereal, full-fat ice cream are categorized as high glycemic ones. This means they have a lot of carbohydrates that are digested quickly after consuming. Food that has a high glycemic index can induce acne. And food with low glycemic index is considered to be more useful for your body. Low glycemic foods are whole grains, fruits, vegetables.

Alcohol doesn’t do any favour for your skin as well, as it forces the body to dehydrate. The more fluids you lose the more dry your skin becomes, and the dry skin causes wrinkles and early aging. Furthermore, regular drinkers have liver problems that influence the health of skin and cause even more problems.

If some of the above mentioned products are your favourite food, don’t take it out of your menu too quickly. If you don’t eat those regularly, they may be harmless for the health of your skin.

Dermatologist Dr. Richard Asarch has taken skin nutrition to a new plane in The Beautiful Skin Diet and done it in a fashion that’s easy to understand and readily applied to our busy lives. “The primary goal in The Beautiful Skin Diet is to emphasize the importance of eating foods that benefit your health while avoiding those which are harmful,” explains Asarch. “Beginning a lifestyle of healthy eating allows one to choose foods and recipes rather than requiring a strict adherence to a specific diet. If one can achieve this primary goal, then modifying it to lose weight, for example, can be accomplished with very little effort.” Combining research, theory and practical application via mouthwatering recipes developed by the talented, European-trained Chef Neal Mendel, Asarch provides the answers health-, fitness- and beauty-conscious Americans seek. The following is excerpted from The Beautiful Skin Diet.

With all of the choices, it is difficult to narrow a list down to the top 10 foods to avoid. How did these foods warrant inclusion in my list? The choices were based on their interaction with the mechanisms of harmful, aging effects on the skin. Some have high levels of saturated fats, others cause sudden and wide sugar-load swings in the body with resulting insulin responses, while others have harmful levels of fatty acids.

Sources of protein are essential to good health, but those which contain high levels of saturated far and omega-6 fatty acids may do more harm than good. Ground beef, sausage and bacon have a very high fat-to-protein ratio–exactly the opposite of the type of protein you should choose. They are also prepared utilizing high-temperature cooking, creating additional harmful byproducts for your skin.

Saturated fats are known to harm the cardiovascular system, but recent studies have also shown that a diet high in saturated fat increases the incidence of skin aging and wrinkling. Trans-fatty acids have extremely harmful effects on skin health and appearance.

Food Secrets For Beautiful Skin

Well, the first step to wrinkle free skin care is small changes to your diet and skin care regimen, and a bit more knowledge about what different foods can do for you.

First of all, Eggs are a fantastic source of Protein. Protein triggers a natural increase of collagen in the body, which is found in various amounts in our skin. It’s basically a connective tissue that keeps the skin firm and supple, helping to prevent wrinkles and sagging of the face. You can use raw eggs as part of your skin regimen, by mixing the yolk and the whites together, and then applying to your face. If you leave it to set for 5-10 minutes, and then wash off with a warm wash cloth, you’ll soon see the benefits!

As well as this, eggs have been known to enhance hair volume and prevent split ends by being used raw as a conditioner alternative, so it’s perfect for those of you out there who have fine hair or a receding hair line.

Green tea is common, as more and more people are drinking it these days. Many people prefer to drink coffee, but a lot of people, including myself, love tea, especially the perks it has to offer our skin, when we reuse the teabag.
If you want to try this, it’s very simple. All you need to do is take a bowl of cool water, soak the teabag in the bowl, and then wash your wash with the water. It’s that easy! If you do this regularly, it is a beautiful skin treatment. Green tea functions as a suppressant for the production of excessive sebum secretion, which is a cause for acne. It also provides moisture, and can work as an anti aging skin care product!

As a nation, we don’t eat enough berries! Few of us know what properties they have to offer us. Berries are often dubbed as ‘the Super Food’. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, they’re all great for you. Eating at least half a cup a day can benefit your skin, and keep your skin cells healthy.

The Best Food for Healthy Skin

Some of the best foods for healthy skin are them containing vitamin C, like kiwifruits, oranges, papayas and any kind of berry.

This is because vitamin C assists the production of collagen, the protein which makes the skin firm and youthful. It also strengthens the skin and blood vessels, and helps wounds to heal quicker.

Another powerful vitamin is vitamin A, which is often referred to as a beauty-vitamin. It is found in foods like carrots, spinach, eggs and fish. Vitamin A produces new skin cells, protects the skin against damage and prevents topical problems and diseases.

Foods like nuts, bananas and avocados are rich in vitamin B5, a great nutrient for accelerated cell growth and repairing of skin damage.

Minerals are also of great importance for healthy skin, for example zinc and magnesium. These are found in for example Brazil nuts and dark leafy greens.

Eating Disorder 

An eating disorder is a negative change in eating behavior, typically manifested through extreme and unhealthy reduction of food intake or excessive overeating, accompanied by feelings of distress or extreme concerns about body shape or weight.

The 2 main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is when one engages in self-induced food restrictions and excessive exercise though underweight.Bulimia nervosa is when one overeats uncontrollably, followed by self-induced vomitting and purging using laxatives.

An eating disorder usually develops during adolescence or early adulthood, but some can occur during childhood or later in adulthood.An eating disorder doesn’t stand alone – it tends to bring along other psychiatric problems such as depression, substance abuse and anxiety. Sufferers can experience a wide range of physical health complications as well, such as heart conditions and kidney failure which may lead to death.Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. For every 10 to 20 females with eating disorders, there would be only one male with similar problem.

An eating disorder is something you have if you compulsively eat in a way that harms your health. Three major types of eating disorder which you are most likely to encounter are: 

 Anorexia Nervosa This is when you obsessively restrict the amount of food you eat and starve yourself in order to lose weight. Bulimia Nervosa This is when you purge yourself (which means you make yourself vomit or take laxatives to go to the toilet more) in order to prevent gaining weight after over-eating. Binge Eating Disorder This is when you compulsively eat excessive amounts of food. It’s a related part of bulimia nervosa. But unlike bulimia, if you don’t purge yourself after over-eating you would gain weight and could become obese (which is the condition of being unhealthily overweight).If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, then you should know that all eating disorders can be treated and you can recover if you get help. The sooner you get help, then the easier it will be to beat an eating disorder. Living with an eating disorder and not getting treatment can result in risks to your health and complications.                                               

Symptoms 

You can detect these signs and symptoms that usually accompany the disorder:

The Physical Signs

1. Significant weight loss in a short period of time
2. Cessation of menstruation of at least 3 months or failure to begin menstruation at an appropriate age
3. Constipation
4. Loss of hair
5. Exhaustion
6. Hypertension
7. Dizziness and fainting spells
8. Dental enamel erosion
9. Excessively dry skin
10. Abdominal distress 

The Psychological Signs

1. Depression
2. Confusion
3. Unusual moodiness
4. Forgetfulness
5. Anxiety
6. Outbursts of anger
7. Sleep disorder
8. Spells of crying
9. Repetitive behaviour or thought
10.Bizzare obsessions

The Behaviour

1. Not eating at all or extreme restriction to food intake
2. Cut food into small pieces
3. Excessive dieting
4. Eat only a few number of food groups                                                     5. Hide or hoard food
6. Eat unusually large amount of food
7. Throw up after meal/snack
8. Excessive intake of diet pills, laxatives and enemas
9. Spend long time in the toilet after eating
10. Exercise excessively 

Children also are sometimes get affected by eating disorders and the worst part is that, now such disorders are becoming common all over the world! We are going to discuss the phenomenon of eating disorders in children in the proceeding segments.

Types of Eating Disorders in Children
At the outset of this discussion, I’ll acquaint you with some common types of eating disorders in children and then we will move on to the causes, signs and symptoms and treatment. 

• Bulimia Nervosa  is characterized by overeating high calorie foods or fat foods and then burning those calories either by over exercising and workouts, or by vomiting the entire food. Bulimia nervosa actually happens on account of a feeling of being overweight, out of shape or control. Children on one side are ashamed of being shapeless, but at the same time cannot resist temptations of eating high calorie foods. They think that over exercising or vomiting the food would balance their weight as well as temptation. However, this is completely wrong and proves dangerous for their health.
• Anorexia Nervosa: Females between the age of 14-18 are most widely affected by this type of eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa develops due to an unhealthy feeling of being overweight and shapeless. However, over here the individual tries to starve himself. This leads to an unhealthy weight loss in the person and invites many other health problems.
• Binge Eating: Unrestricted eating without the fear of gaining weight or excessive fat, constitutes the binge eating disorder. This is therefore quite similar to bulimia nervosa! However, the person with this disorder doesn’t care if he is overweight.

Causes of Eating Disorders in Children
Eating disorders are primarily associated with a child’s thinking pattern and attitude. Each child has his own reason of eating less or eating more! Therefore, there are several reasons behind eating disorders in young children. Some of them are listed below. 

• Social fears
• Bullying and teasing by others
• Low self esteem
• Fearing adulthood
• Depression
• Stress of fulfilling others expectations
• Bombardment of advertises promoting slim and trim body, importance of perfect shape, etc.
• Anxiety and accumulated anger.

Signs of Eating Disorders in Children
Parents can identify eating disorders in their children, if they show the following signs. 

• Over exercising
• Excessive starving
• Restrictive eating behavior
• Being afraid of putting on weight and therefore eating very less
• Inferiority complex of being overweight or underweight
• Insisting on having meals alone
• Isolating from family and friends
• Feeling depressed all the time, due to some past situation
• Wearing over sized clothes to hide fat

Treatment for Eating Disorders in Children
Treating eating disorders in children is actually quite a tough task! However, it needs to be treated promptly, as there are many serious health disorders awaiting at later stages. The following are some treatments for eating disorders in children. 

First and foremost thing is that, parents should not force children to eat even when they are full and also allow them to eat, whenever they feel hungry.

• Inculcate the importance of balanced diet, proper height and weight and regular exercises.
• Teach the importance of positive approach to children.
• Let not children starve unnecessarily.
• Stop teasing and criticizing children for their looks and appearance.
• Most importantly, understand children. They are children, they are not grown up adults, who understand everything! Be aware of the fact that, children are undergoing physical and mental changes and therefore might eat more or less.

Causes of Eating Disorders
There are a number of causes of eating disorders including biological, psychological and social factors. Cultural and family pressures as well as personality and emotional disorders also contribute to develop eating disorders. Listed below are some of the common causes of eating disorders:  

• Major life transitions: Many people are not able to cope up with some major changes in the life. Some transitions such as entering high school or college, puberty, major illness or death of beloved one can make them feel depressed. As a result, they start excess eating or denying food.
• Emotional and psychological health: Several emotional and psychological problems can contribute to develop eating disorders. Such people may have perfectionism, low self-esteem, anger management difficulties, impulsive behaviors, family conflicts and troubled relationships.
• Biological problems: Some people are genetically susceptible to develop eating disorders. People from disordered families are more prone to eating disorders. Serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain, influences the eating behaviors, as it is involved in the regulation of food intake.
• Sociocultural problems: Most people who develop eating disorders are found to be going through a painful experience of being teased about their obesity. Such people may face an embarrassing situation of relationship breakup. Then they start to believe that it’s all because of their obesity and they start to take hard efforts for the weight loss.
• Traumatic events: People with eating disorders can have a history of physical or sexual abuse. Such people tend to lose weight to lose their secondary sexual characteristics, so that they can avoid further sexual attention. Major injury or illness can also lead to feeling out of control. Bulimia and anorexia can result from attempting to distract themselves from such trauma.
• Other psychiatric illnesses: According to the latest research, some people develop eating disorders in response to other psychiatric symptoms, occurred previously. These symptoms are typically triggered biologically. In such cases, eating disorders can be a reaction to the biological problems.

Health Canada is proposing adding an enzyme, asparaginase, to fast food which breaks down asparagine. Asparagine, is a non essential amino acid, and is one of the key ingredients in the production of acrylamide. Besides being proposed as an ingredient in making french fries, asparaginase is also used to treat leukemia by starving the cancer cells of nutrients.I see a few problems with this.While in rodents there is the potential to develop cancer, the affects of acrylamide on humans are less clear. Some studies indicate a link while others show the levels to be low enough to not be a problem. Why are we adding a chemical to something that may not be a problem?If there is the potential for the acrylamide from french fries to be carcinogenic then there really should only be one solution. Avoid french fries. It’s not rocket science. Find the negative. Eliminate the negative. Experience better health.

Fast Food – Direct and Indirect Harm

The dangers of fast food come in two types. There are the obvious dangers posed by the high fat and calorie content of fast foods. There are also some hidden dangers rarely considered.When a person is told that fast food is not good for them from a nutritional point of view, he is hardly surprised.

 The relationship between fast food and the almost epidemic obesity of the American population is a fairly well known fact. Still, the factors that make fast food so popular still seem to be powerful enough to make the majority of the population ignore the obvious risks of poor nutrition and weight problems. Fast food is easily available, relatively cheap, most people find it tasty and filling and it can be purchased fast.

There are very few alternatives to the high fat and high calorie menus in the fast food restaurants. Although many seem to be making some attempt to offer low cal alternatives, they end up ruining these offerings with sauces and dressings loaded with fat content. Even though these alternatives are offered, it is still the hamburger and fried chicken that is the king of fast food, and little has been done to reduce the impact of these foods on obesity.One of the major culprits in the fast food is the cooking oil used in the preparation of so many of the foods. This oil is not normal cooking oil, which is full of enough fat, but, is generally special hydrogenated cooking oil that undergoes a process designed to increase its shelf life. This process makes it downright dangerous for human consumption as it produces high levels of trans fats. These fat compounds are barely recognizable as food by the human body and end up getting stored as fat cells or heading right to an artery to start clogging it up.

Beyond the nutritional problems are another set of problems. The fast food industry has changed the slaughter and meat packing industry. The fast food industry needs to produce tremendous amounts of chopped beef for its millions of pre-prepared hamburger patties sold each day. The methods used to produce those hamburgers are creating a situation where meat packing plants are moving away from their former areas where unionized and trained meat packers slaughtered animals in a fairly efficient and humane manner. The new plants have moved to smaller towns where underpaid workers, often immigrants, are slaughtering animals and producing meat in an unsafe manner. The dangers of contamination of this meat are getting higher and higher. The working conditions are dangerous for the employees as well.

Negative Effects Of Eating Fast Food

1. Fast food has a very high energy density. About 65 percent higher than a typical diet and twice as high as recommended healthy diets which makes us eat more than we otherwise would. Energy density refers to the amount of calories an item of food contains in relation to its weight. Foods with a high energy density confuse the brain’s control systems for appetite, which are based solely on portion size.

2. British researchers from the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Center and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have determined that repeated eating at McDonald’s or KFC or Burger King, people are more likely to gain weight and become obese. This is because fast food not only contains many more calories than traditional food, but also is more likely to undermine normal appetite control systems.

3. By eating a Big Mac and fries, the body consumes almost twice as many calories as you would if you ate the same weight of pasta and salad. Fast Food restaurants feed the obesity epidemic by getting people to eat many more calories than they need through persistent advertising.

4. McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King menu items using nutritional data from the fast food restaurants’ Web sites, found that when we eat high energy density foods, we don’t reduce the portion size so we get a lot more calories than we need. Our current society possesses a weak innate ability to recognize foods with a high energy density. Food intake is assessed by the size of the portion, yet a fast food meal contains many more calories than a similar sized portion of a healthy meal. The conclusion is we are all being fooled into eating too much food.

5. People get fat eating regular portion sizes, but since the food has a high energy density, people gain weight. In evolutionary terms, the human appetite was designed for low energy density foods. In other parts of the world where these foods are still the dietary staples, obesity is virtually non existent. Our bodies were never designed to cope with the high energy dense foods consumed in the West. That is a major reason why fast food in contributing to the major rise in obesity.

6. Another fact is that fast food may speed up people’s risk of clogged arteries that can lead to heart attacks. Researchers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco have demonstrated that a certain type of fat, called oxidized fat, can accelerate the buildup of plaque in arteries. And many types of fast food such as hamburgers, pizza and French fries are loaded with oxidized fat. The conclusion is fast food meals are high in saturated fat and low quality carbohydrates, white bread and lots of soda. Our bodies require fiber and more healthful types of fats. Fast food represents a dietary pattern that is the opposite of what is recommended for a healthy body.