Congress Questions Quality of Bottled Water

I can distinctly remember the freedom of drinking water from the hose outside on a hot summer day during the 1980′s. I can also remember the uncomfortable feeling of squeezing my head under a faucet to quench a late night thirst. Here we are a decade and a half later and over half of all Americans (54 percent) drink bottled water mainly because it is perceived to be a safer and healthier alternative to faucet water. But Congress was recently introduced to two new studies that questioned the regulation of bottled water and if it was indeed safer than faucet water.  READ MORE >>

Money May Not Motivate Weight Loss

A recent post at The New York Times discussed a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research that revealed most people won’t accept money as a motivator to lose weight because… it is just too hard. The study involved 2,407 overweight individuals that got divided into three groups. Group A would receive $60 for maintaining a 5% weight loss for one year. Group B paid $100 which would be returned with bonuses for those who lost 5% of their body weight or more. Group C was offered $20 for staying on the program for 1 year.  READ MORE >>

Smelling Your Way to a Thinner You?

For those of us who diet regularly, we know what a delicious aroma in the air can do to our hunger and our sanity. The smell of cookies baking in the oven, fast food smells when we’re out running errands, and the smell of a neighborhood barbecue can be the temptation that causes our willpower to crumble into pieces. But what if I told you that enhancing your ability to smell will cause you to eat less and enjoy your food more– all while losing weight?  READ MORE >>

Study links High Carb Foods to Increased Risk of Heart Disease

Doctors often talk about how a healthy diet leads to a healthy heart, but never had a way to visually show patients exactly how a poor diet increases the risk for death caused by heart attack and heart disease. That was until a historic study was released by Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine and the Heart Institute of Sheba Medical Center. The study involved separating 56 healthy individuals into 4 groups. Each group was given different types of carbohydrate rich foods so doctors could monitor the elasticity of their arteries using a new method called “brachial reactive testing”  READ MORE >>

Vinegar for Fat Loss? Maybe it Can Do it All!

<br>
A week before my daughter was due my wife and I noticed an incredibly foul smell coming from one of the bedrooms in our house. Upon further investigation we discovered the source — a cup of spilled milk under the bed and into the carpet. The smell was beyond horrible and after throwing a variety of chemicals at the stench, nothing worked. That was until my father recommended a dose of water mixed with vinegar. After two treatments the smell was 100% gone. Amazing!  READ MORE >>

The Fat Acceptance Movement

For several decades there has been a movement, and even an association–The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance–to influence our society to stop being prejudiced against fat people. Yes, they do call themselves fat, and there’s a carefully thought out reason for this: labeling a person as “overweight” or “obese” lends more credence to the condition because of the clinical and scientific sound of the title.  READ MORE >>

The Pistachio Principle: Calorie Reduction Without Restriction

A professor at Eastern Illinois University has come up with an exciting new approach to weight loss through his studies on the habits of pistachio-eaters. In his research, Dr. James Painter (a registered dietitian himself) noted that when people chose pistachios in the shells for a snack (removing the shells as they munch), they ate fewer than people who choose to eat pistachios which were already shelled. It seems there is an effect regarding the impression one has of how much he has eaten, since it takes longer to eat pistachios when you are taking the time to shell them as well.  READ MORE >>

Dr. Ian’s 1000 – The 4 Day Diet Just Got Serious

Dr. Ian Smith has “raised the stakes” and issued a challenge to those determined to reach a healthier weight in the New Year. What’s the challenge you ask? Dr. Smith has taken on the ambitious goal of helping 1000 people lose weight at the same time using nothing more than the free community forum at the 50 Million Pound Challenge website and a copy of his new book The 4 Day Diet. The group is aptly named Dr. Ian’s 1000.  READ MORE >>

Carb Restricting Diets Affect Memory?

A new study shows that eliminating carbs from your diet will not only trim your waistline, but could leave your memory a little lighter as well.

The study, performed by Tufts University, included 19 women who were closely monitored after starting a very low-carb diet similar to the Atkins Diet. Several short-term and long-term memory tests were conducted prior to starting the diet. Results revealed that in the weeks to follow, the no-carb group performed significantly worse in memory tests than others following a low calorie program.  READ MORE >>

How Much is a Serving?

You might be trying hard to watch your weight, even going as far as counting calories: But when you try to figure out what a serving size is, this is a stumbling block for many people. Sometimes portions are listed in ounces or cups, and how are we supposed to know what an ounce of almonds translates to in actual nuts, or what a cup of pasta looks like on our plate? Fortunately there are some visuals that can be helpful. Anything from a CD to a baseball can be used to help figure out what a reasonable portion size is. If you are familiar with the size of your fist, you can easily eye some of the food portions that will help you control your calorie intake. Here are a few great ideas to help you estimate portion sizes: – A pancake serving (100 calories) is the side of a compact disc.  READ MORE >>

What Behaviors Lead to Weight Loss?

One way to predict who will be successful losing weight is to study people who have been successful and see what they have in common. A study in the International Journal of Obesity found some key behaviors people practiced which increased their odds of keeping off the weight. You might try some of these to increase your own chances of getting the weight off and keeping it off.  READ MORE >>