Do you think it’s healthier to drink diet soda? Doctors say that may not be the case. They actually found that drinking diet soda can increase your risk for certain diseases that sugar-sweetened drinks don’t!
The Hidden Dangers of Sugary Drinks
That commercial-colored, fun label on that can in the vending machine might look appealing and friendly to drink because of the company endorsement. But it’s giving you a false sense of security – that multi-colored can’s contents can be just as deadly as eating a fatty steak.
New research finds that 184,000 adults around the world die from drinking sugary drinks (excluding 100 percent fruit juice). These are mostly due to diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Most of these deaths are within the younger demographics, where artificial sugary drinks are more popular.
Switching to Diet Soda Might Not Be Better
Even if you’re aware of the dangers of sugary sodas and try to be responsible by switching to diet soda, it might not save your health that much. Researchers found a correlation between drinking artificially sweetened drinks (like diet sodas that use lower-calorie sweeteners) and dementia and stroke. But they were surprised they didn’t find a correlation between stroke and dementia and drinking normal soda and sugary commercial drinks, like soda sweetened with natural sugar.
These researchers found that drinking one diet soda a day increases your risk for developing dementia and an ischemic stroke by 300 percent. But if you only drink between one to six diet sodas in the span of seven days, you don’t have an increased risk for developing dementia, but still are 260 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke caused by blocked blood vessels.
The good news is that the researchers only studied people 45 and up. That means that diet soda probably isn’t as harmful to you if you’re below middle age.
Possible Explanations for Diet Soda’s Deleterious Effects
The researchers only found a link between artificially sweetened drinks and these increased risks. They’re still not sure how diet soda is causing harm to your brain. Neurology professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Ralph Sacco, says that the chemicals in the artificially sweetened drinks may be destroying blood vessels.
He says that dementia and strokes can be caused by hardening of the blood vessels. He theorizes that artificially sweetened drinks gradually contribute to vascular disease.
Another possible mechanism is that diet soda makes you eat more. When your body tastes something sweet, it activates a neural pathway in your brain that makes you want to keep eating it. But, when your body digests the carbs from natural sugars, it activates a reward pathway in your brain that sates you and stops the craving.
But when you drink a diet soda with zero-calorie sweeteners, you’re tasting something sweet but there are no calories to sate the cravings it causes. You end up seeking carbs from other sources to fill in what’s missing – and that may lead to overeating, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and dementia in the long term.
Even if you can control your carbs and enjoy diet soda, it may still be harming your blood vessels in other ways. It’s best to cut any kind of unhealthy commercial drink from your everyday diet and stick to natural fruit juices, which are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Try refrigerated grape juice with your next meal – you might not notice a difference!
Brain cancer is one of the most horrible cancers. Its survival rate is currently one of the lowest out of all the cancers. But it seems like a certain company has developed a futuresque way to treat it – wearing electrodes on your head.
One of the Worst Cancers
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most common and most malignant of brain cancers. Sixty percent of diagnosed primary brain tumors are GBM.
After diagnosis, almost all GBM patients who decide to go untreated die within only three months. But GBM patients who go through conventional therapy, like chemotherapy and surgery, live for an average of only one year.
In comparison, most terminal cancer patients live for an average of about five years (including lung cancer patients) after diagnosis – but only 10 percent of GBM patients survive for up to five years after diagnosis.
A Fiction-like Treatment That Offers Hope but Makes Doctors Suspicious
Then comes the company Novocure with their controversial new invention called Optune. Like a light in the darkness of GBM, Novocure announces that Optune can double the lifespan of GBM patients. Their findings are backed by research that’s convinced the FDA to approve it as a treatment for GBM.
Optune is a device consisting of electrodes placed on the patient’s shaved scalp. The electrodes are connected by wires to a small generator within a handheld bag. The patient wears the electrodes for a minimum of 18 hours daily. The electrodes supposedly create alternating electromagnetic fields that interrupt mitosis (your cells’ way of multiplying) by disrupting chromosomes from duplicating. This effectively hinders cancer cells from multiplying since they’re the cells that undergo mitosis the most, whereas most of an adult’s brain cells don’t actively undergo mitosis. Physically, the immediate side effect is that the patient feels a warm sensation, but in the long term, the side effects can also include fatigue, weakness, and skin irritation.
Without any real discernible mechanism by which the device actually works to fight brain cancer, doctors and the FDA were understandably skeptical. One study in 2011 showed that Optune could lessen cancer symptoms after tumors stopped responding to standard treatment – the FDA allowed its usage for these situations. Then a 2014 study showed that patients recently diagnosed with GBM lived a few months longer, on average, with continued use of the Optune device. In response, the FDA expanded permitted usage of the device.
In another study, the Optune treatment lengthened 100 percent of the participating GBM patients’ lives by over a year – with one patient living for about three years.
Some very lucky GBM patients even went into complete remission because of the supplementary Optune treatment.
But the Optune Treatment Requires Outstanding Diligence
Even patients who are completely in remission of their GBM need to wear the device daily for the rest of their lives if they want to ensure they stay cancer-free. That can be very challenging – imagine having to shave your head everyday and wear electrodes on your head. Not only that, you need to keep the bag carrying the generator close by at all times – for your whole life.
Some GBM patients couldn’t handle the daily hassle and quit – despite it keeping them alive longer.
While Optune may significantly improve the quality of life for many GBM patients and lengthen their stay here on earth – it’s not a sure cure for the brain cancer (except for those lucky enough to go into full remission). Hopefully in the future, researchers will make more advancements that will lead to better and more permanent cancer cures.
Celiac disease is a chronic gastrointestinal disease that can significantly lower your quality of life. Doctors don’t really know what truly causes the disease. Weak evidence points to a couple of probable causes. But now a new study reveals that one cause may be a group of harmless stomach viruses.
What Is Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease is actually an autoimmune disorder – like asthma or allergies. Here, your immune system overreacts to gluten when present in your small intestine. It starts attacking contact sites, which are usually your villi. Villi are hair-like linings in your intestines that are responsible for absorbing nutrients when you eat food.
But this intestinal damage is very gradual. It takes years of eating gluten foods before you notice any symptoms. That’s why only 20 percent or less of sufferers are diagnosed. But if you have Celiac disease, you’ll most likely experience nausea, bloating, diarrhea, weight loss, and nutritional deficiencies as you continue to eat gluten daily. That’s because your villi keep getting damaged to the point that your body can’t absorb necessary nutrients – which leads to malnutrition.
In America, Celiac disease is rather rare – about 1 percent of Americans (3 million) have it. (But that didn’t stop companies and the general public from making “gluten-free” a lasting fad.)
Known Causes of Celiac Disease
Doctors do say that Celiac disease can be genetic – but not significantly. They say that if your immediate family (parents or siblings) have Celiac disease, you’re only 10 percent more likely to develop it too. It’s also more prominent among Caucasians than any other race.
Some diseases also make you a bit more likely to develop Celiac disease, like Down syndrome, type 1 diabetes, Turner syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and Addison’s disease. Traumas can also put you at slight risk for Celiac disease – like surgery, viral infections, emotional trauma, and pregnancy.
A New Possible Cause of Celiac Disease
Now new research has discovered that there may be a specific virus that can set Celiac disease into motion when you’re a baby. Researchers infected mice with human intestinal reovirus and found the mice started becoming gluten-intolerant – their immune system started overreacting to gluten when it was present in their intestines.
Researchers then noted that Celiac disease sufferers have higher levels of antibodies against this reovirus than normal people. Does that mean that anyone who’s infected with the human intestinal reovirus ends up with Celiac disease? No. In fact, almost every adult has antibodies against the reovirus because it’s almost as common as the cold virus. The reovirus itself hasn’t been linked to causing any illness – even though it’s been detected in feces of both normal children and children suffering from diarrhea, enteritis, and other GI diseases.
They theorize that the reovirus is primarily contracted when children get feces into their mouths.
But remember that Celiac disease is somewhat genetically inherited – and researchers think that’s how the reovirus can indirectly cause Celiac disease. If you’re not genetically susceptible to Celiac disease, getting infected with the reovirus is unlikely to cause Celiac disease.
But if you’re genetically predisposed, then the reovirus can cause a domino effect. They say that during your first year on earth your immune system is developing and very influencable. Somehow, if the virus infects your gastrointestinal system and your immune system learns to fend it off, it also confuses it to forever overreact to gluten (if you’re genetically predisposed).
Because of this, researchers advise getting infants who are genetically predisposed to Celiac disease vaccinated for the human intestinal reovirus during their first year. They say this may curb the possibility of reovirus-induced Celiac disease, but it’s not a 100 percent certainty.
You’ve probably heard of hepatitis being a chronic sexually transmitted disease that’s incurable. There are actually many types of hepatitis infections – and at least one of them you can get from eating contaminated food!
The Different Types of Hepatitis
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines hepatitis as an inflammation of the liver. But the term is usually used synonymously for infections caused by the hepatitis viruses.
There are five common types of hepatitis viruses:
Hepatitis A (HAV)
Hepatitis B (HBV)
Hepatitis C (HCV)
Hepatitis D (HDV)
Hepatitis E (HEV)
HBV, HCV, and HDV are the types that can be transmitted sexually. Like other STDs, these can also be transmitted via mother-child through birth, contaminated needles between drug users, and contaminated blood transfusions.
Hepatitis D and Hepatitis B are treatable and preventable with vaccines. But Hepatitis C has no current vaccine, but the good news is HCV is the least common sexually transmitted hepatitis virus. HBV is the most common sexually transmitted hepatitis infection.
Hepatitis infections can be acute or chronic. Most times they’re acute – lasting only for a few weeks without any symptoms. If you do experience symptoms, for most of the types of hepatitis, the symptoms usually include fatigue, loss of appetite, stomach and abdominal pains or discomfort, nausea, jaundice, and fever.
But Hepatitis C can have more severe symptoms, like the tendency to bleed and bruise, dark-colored urine, edema, confusion, drunken speech, and spider-like blood vessels appearing on your skin.
The good news is, if your body completely fights off a Hepatitis B infection, or you get vaccinated for Hepatitis B, then it protects you from both future HBV and Hepatitis D infections too! You can only get Hepatitis D if you’re currently infected with HBV. If you clear HBV on your own, your body will forever be immune to the virus because it’s now got antibodies especially crafted to deal with it – and if you can’t get HBV anymore, then you can’t get HDV anymore either.
But a dual infection of HBV and HDV can be fatal – in fact, millions of people die every year from HBV complications.
The Types of Hepatitis You Can Get From Contaminated Food
Recently in the news, some restaurant staff at two Portland cafes may have transmitted HAV between each other. Unlike HBV, HCV, and HDV, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis E viruses are present in feces. That means if someone who’s infected doesn’t wash their hands before preparing food, they can contaminate food and drink with HAV or HEV. The good news is that HAV and HEV are usually acute, and most people make a full recovery without any medical intervention.
The restaurant staff were all vaccinated after the possible hepatitis transmission came to light. The Multnomah County Health Department issued a news announcement that anyone who ate or drank at the two restaurants within the week are urged to see their doctor to get examined for Hepatitis A.
How to Naturally Fight Hepatitis Infections
Thankfully, it’s only Hepatitis C that’s currently medically incurable because of the lack of vaccine. Although all hepatitis infections run the risk of chronic infection, they’re all curable.
If you come down with hepatitis, you can be proactive in helping your body kick the infection and lower its chances of going chronic.
Here are a few hepatitis-fighting supplements you can take:
Vitamin C. Researchers found that vitamin C boosts your immune system’s virus-fighting power. Some of the evidence they’ve found includes increased defense against the flu and the Epstein-Barr virus. Vitamin C also protects your liver from damage from the hepatitis infection by boosting your glutathione levels. Your liver needs glutathione for its detoxification processes and your immune system needs it to fight off viruses. Upping your glutathione levels can help protect your liver from a cirrhosis complication arising from the hepatitis infection.
Methanol extract from the fruit of the Indian gooseberry.Researchers say that the methanol extract from Emblica officinalis has potent antiviral effects. It’s used in Cuban traditional medicine to help treat HBV and HAV.
Neem leaf extract. Each of the neem tree’s parts has many healing properties. Extracts of its leaves have antiviral properties. These extracts are used in traditional medicine, and studies show that they inhibit viral proliferation.
Now you know you can get hepatitis from more than just unprotected sex. Thankfully, food-transmittable hepatitis infections aren’t as overall serious as sexually transmitted hepatitis infections. If you’re unfortunate enough to contract hepatitis, try these two remedies to help ensure your infection lasts acutely and doesn’t develop into a chronic infection.
Researchers released findings that adopting a weekly running routine will likely extend your lifespan by about seven hours per hour you run.
Running Is One of the Best Cardio Exercises Overall
When you think of cardio, running and jogging are probably at the top of your list. Why? They’re two of the easiest exercises to do. Running is also a top calorie burner – in half an hour of running you’ll burn between 350 to 550 calories, on average, depending on how fast you run. Compare that to doing gymnastics or playing competitive volleyball, which only burn between 120 to 178 calories, on average.
Unlike other cardio exercises, running is also an ideal outdoor exercise. The combination is marvelous because running in nature has been found to lower your risk for depression, relieve pain, and boost your mood. If there are trees around where you run, it’s especially good for your heart because being near trees has been found to lower your blood pressure.
If you run during the daytime (with sunscreen on), the sunlight catalyzes vitamin D production in your skin. Healthier vitamin D levels has been linked with better bone, psychological, and heart health. Higher vitamin D levels has also been linked with helping prevent developing diabetes.
How Running Lengthens Your Life
Now new research has come out that makes running regularly sound even better. Researchers found that people who run regularly enjoy a 25 to 40 percent lower risk of dying before their time is up. They also live an average of three years longer than people who don’t run regularly.
They found that every hour you run, you add seven hours to your life! They recommend running two to four hours every week to add years to your lifespan.
The sooner you add a weekly running regimen to your lifestyle, the sooner you can start adding 7 hours and more to your life. But make sure to change your running shoes after they’ve become worn to avoid developing orthopedic diseases. Doctors recommend getting a new pair of running shoes after 300 to 500 miles used. That’s about every four or five months.
Researchers found a possible substance that may significantly advance current immunization to the H1N1 flu. But you might not want it if you knew what it was – it’s frog mucus!
H1N1 – The Modern Deadly Influenza Outbreak
H1N1, commonly known as the swine flu, caused a huge panic in 2009. This strain of the flu virus isn’t a cousin of the usual flu virus strains that infect people during the flu seasons. It’s a mutated strain that’s closer genetically to the flu virus strains that infect swine (which is how it got its nickname).
What makes the H1N1 virus so devastating is that it multiplies faster than normal flu viruses and attacks other kinds of cells in the lungs that most flu viruses couldn’t target. The H1N1 strain also targets younger people, whereas the usual flu virus strains targets the frail and older generation.
H1N1 quickly became the dominant flu virus strain that infected people – pushing out the previous generation strain almost completely. In fact, by October 2009 between 92 to 96 percent of circulating flu virus specimens were H1N1.
Within about three or four months of the first few reported incidents of H1N1 virus infections in 2009, H1N1 spread globally and the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. In the beginning there was no vaccine for the fatal flu virus strain. A total of up to 89 million people ended up infected with the H1N1 virus and over 18,366 people died form it. The H1N1 epidemic also caused up to 403,000 hospitalizations.
Frogs Might Be the Key to Better Immunization Against H1N1
Scientists are looking closely at a specie of southern India frog that’s as big as a tennis ball. They found that the mucus these frogs secrete on the surface of their skins contains a chemical that targets a specific protein on all H1 strain viruses.
When the frog mucus chemical, called urumin, comes into contact with an H1-type virus, it attacks an integral protein that causes the virus to fall apart. Scientists were shocked that urumin works on all H1-type flu virus strains going back from 1931 to the present H1 strains in circulation.
Of course it’s too soon to celebrate. This is cutting-edge research that will take years before a safe human application is developed. They’re going to start testing urumin-based treatments on ferrets first, then move on to clinical trials later on.
The good news is that insofar, urumin seems to be non-toxic to human cells. But only time and more testing can tell whether it’s completely safe for human application.
Flu Prevention Tips
In the meantime, if you’re at risk for being significantly harmed should you contract the flu, then it’s best to get the flu vaccine. Doctors say the flu vaccine is the best effective method to prevent influenza infections. But vaccines have side effects, and the flu vaccine is no exception.
If you’re not at risk for significant harm from an influenza infection, you can lower your risk of infection by taking a few supplements. There is an age-old debate around whether vitamin C and zinc can prevent colds and flus – some research says no while others say yes. Doctors do agree that vitamin C lowers the severity and length of a cold or flu infection. The same goes for zinc.
Vitamin D has also been correlated with cold and flu infection. Researchers found that when a population’s vitamin D levels are lower, there’s an increased prevalence of cold and flu infection. There’s some evidence that taking 50,000 IU of Vitamin D3 once can shorten the length of the flu to only two or three days. They also found that taking 600 IU of vitamin D3 daily can help prevent colds and flus.
Until the frog mucus treatment comes out, take these three supplements (zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D) to boost your protection against the flu and cold.
You probably think that protein powders are just for body builders right? Nope! In fact, doctors found that they’re great for losing weight. Instudies, participants who took whey protein had lower insulin and glucose levels and boosted muscle growth. High insulin and glucose levels are signs of insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes), so it seems whey protein can help protect or delay development of diabetes. This also means thatwhey protein may boost your glucose metabolism, since researchers found less sugar in the participants’ bloodstreams.
The good news is,researchersalso found that it doesn’t seem to matter what kind of protein powder you take – they found no notable differences between participants who took whey protein and those who took rice protein for eight weeks.
If you’re interested in trying protein powder for weight loss but feel overwhelmed with all the different choices. Here’s a little breakdown on some different kinds of protein powders and their health benefits:
Animal-based protein powders (casein, whey)are completeand give you all the amino acids your body needs to make your proteins that carry out your essential life processes. But, animal-based protein powders can also have high fat and cholesterol content, which isn’t good for your health. Vegetable-based protein powders (soy, rice) are incomplete and you’ll need to take more than one type daily to get all the amino acids you need for daily life.But doctors recommend vegetable-based protein powders over animal-based protein powders because they’re a cleaner source of protein and don’t put risk on your cardiovascular system. The only drawback is you’ll have to take more than one kind.
Casein Protein Powder
Casein protein powder
Researchers say that if you’re trying to build muscle, casein is the best protein powder to boost your protein production for the long term. It’s because its structure forms a natural, slow-release clot in your stomach, which sends a continuous supply of amino acids into your bloodstream for many hours. If you work out after taking casein, the steady supply supports your muscles throughout your workout, whichhelps you endure longer and helps lessen muscle damage.
From a weight loss perspective,casein’s slow release gives you energy throughout the day, which keeps you feeling full and sated. This means you’ll be less likely to snack or eat when you don’t need to.
If you’re only taking casein to lose weight, you should buyOptimum Nutrition’s 100 Percent Casein Powder. It’s very high quality and economical at about $50. It should last you two or more months. It’s also vanilla-flavored (without adding calories), so it makes it fun and easier to drink.
Whey Protein Powder
Whey, like casein, comes from cow’s milk. It’s also a complete protein that gives you all the amino acids your body needs. It’s not as great at casein at helping you build muscle and lose weight because it doesn’t have the same slow-release properties. That means when you take it, it’ll overwhelm your system for a short period with a burst of protein that your body either uses or stores as fat – depending on whether you work out immediately or not. Because of this, it won’t keep you full throughout the whole day because your body processes all the protein at once.
If you’re lactose intolerant, whey may cause a reaction similar to milk.Experts advise those with lactose intolerance to take the isolate form, likeIsopure’s zero-carb 100 percent whey isolate protein powder. Whey isolate protein powders are lactose-free. But the trade-off is that isolate powders aren’t as effective and won’t deliver the same quality protein.
If you’re diabetic,whey protein has also been found to stimulate insulin production.Researchersfound thattype 2 diabetic patients who took whey protein experienced better management of blood sugar levels.
Egg White Protein Powder
Egg White Protein Powder
Egg white protein powder is another great alternative if you’re lactose intolerant. Like other animal-based protein powders, egg white protein powder is complete, giving you all the daily amino acids your body needs.Researchersfound that female athletes who supplemented with egg white protein experienced an increase in their resistance muscle strength.
But if you’re allergic to eggs, egg white protein might cause reactions. Of course, egg white protein isn’t as effective as casein for weight loss and muscle building.
Unlike most vegetable proteins, soy is complete!It might not be as effective as casein in helping you build muscle and lose weight, butit’s better for your heart and has even been found to directly lower your risk of breast cancer. All vegetable proteins have been found to lower your fat and cholesterol levels. In fact,researchersstudied participants who supplemented with casein versus participants who supplemented with soy and found that the soy group had better overall cholesterol profiles.
If you’ve already got cardiovascular problems or are in poor health, soy protein powder is your healthiest and safest choice because it helps your heart and protects you from cancer. It might not help you lose as much weight as casein, but it still helps as well as most protein powders.
Researchershave found many health benefits from supplementing with hemp proteins. The protein powder may derive these benefits too. Like soy, researchers found that supplementing with hemp leads to better cardiovascular health. In particular, they found thathemp lowers blood clots, which is a huge risk factor of many cardiovascular problems. They also found thatsupplementing with hemp helps the heart recover after an attack.
Researchersalso found that rats with kidney disease who were given casein didn’t see improvement. But, rats with kidney disease given hemp or soy protein had smaller kidney cysts with less fluid and their hearts were less enlarged. They concluded that supplementing with hemp or soy protein protects your kidneys, unlike supplementing with animal-based proteins.
Hemp protein powder could also give you more of an energy boost and improve your immune system.Micewho were supplemented with hemp protein for about two months experienced longer swimming times and an increase in their immune cell count.
If you take hemp protein powder, you’ll be lacking some essential amino acids, which means you’ll have to eat nuts or seeds everyday to get the complete amino acids your body needs. It’s not going to get you as much muscle and make you feel as full as casein or whey, butit will protect your heart and kidneys and boost your immunity.It’s a clean protein that’s definitely healthier but with less effectiveness.
You should chooseNutiva Organic Hemp Proteinbecause not only is it GMO-free, but it’s also got high fiber mixed in. The fiber fills you up, which means you’ll eat less. This helps keep you from overeating and snacking when you shouldn’t.
Pea Protein Powder
Pea protein powder
Pea protein powder is another clean vegetable-based protein source.Researcherscompared casein with pea and found thatpea protein stops your liver from making fat and also lowers your blood fat and cholesterol levels more than casein does.
The good news is,researchersfound thatpea protein powder is as effective as whey protein powder in helping increase your muscle thickness during resistance training. They compared athletes who supplemented with pea protein powder and those who supplemented with whey protein powder and didn’t find any significant difference between muscle thickness increase in the two groups.
One of the best pea protein powder choices isOrgain’s Organic Plant-based Protein Powder. It’s a mix of gluten-free, organic, GMO-free hemp, pea, and seed proteins. That means you’re sure to get all your essential amino acids from such clean, pure vegetable sources. It’s also got cocoa for flavoring so you’re sure to enjoy drinking it.
Rice Protein Powder
Rice protein powder
You’re thinking rice is carbs – what exactly is rice protein? When rice is processed into commercial white rice, the rice bran is separated out. Rice bran has a higher amount of protein than rice grains and is what’s used to make rice protein powder.
If you think rice protein powder is far less effective than “real protein,” like animal-based casein and whey,researchershave found differently.They found that rice protein powder is just as effective as whey and casein at delivering protein to your body.But keep in mind that rice protein powder is not a complete source of protein. You’ll have to supplement your diet with nuts and seeds to get your full amounts of daily vital amino acids.
Rice protein powder is evenbetter than caseinfor helping you lose weight! Researches found that taking rice protein boosts your fat metabolism considerably.Rats fed rice protein for two weeks had lower lipid and sugar levels in their blood than rats fed with casein.
Casein is the best protein powder if you want to build muscle.
If you’re lactose intolerant and your goal is to build muscle, you should take whey protein isolate.
For holistic health and weight loss:
Choose vegetable protein powders because they help prevent diseases. Animal-based proteins can boost your cholesterol levels.
Hemp protein powder gives you more energy and boosts your immunity and protects your kidneys.
Pea protein powder lowers your cholesterol and fat levels in your blood better than casein. It’s also as effective as whey when it comes to increasing your muscle thickness with resistance training.
Rice protein powder boosts your fat burning and lowers your blood sugar and fat levels better than casein.
It seems like the best protein powder for weight loss isrice protein powder, since there’s evidence it trumps casein when it comes to boosting your metabolism.
But weight loss is situational. If the reason you can’t lose weight is because you can’t resist snacking, then casein protein powder would be best for you since it keeps you feeling full for a longer period of time. If your work is hectic and you don’t have enough energy to work out, then hemp protein powder or casein protein powder are your best bets since they’ll give you energy to work out. Remember thatNutiva Organic Hemp Proteinis also high in fiber, which means it’ll help keep you full while energizing you for your workout.
But remember that all protein powders help you lose weight better than not supplementing with protein powders at all. If you’re obese or suffering from health problems, you should go for any vegetable protein powder and skip the animal-based protein powders altogether. It’s better to lose less weight but protect your body than to put your suffering health at risk by taking animal-based protein powders. You’ll lose weight more slowly but these protective vegetable-based protein powders will be healing your conditions and protecting you from further disease. It’s better to sacrifice pounds you could’ve lost for a healthier heart, kidneys, and immune system.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day – it seems like all major holidays have one thing in common: eating a lot. This is especially true for Halloween, which is more popular for children and young adults. But researchers found that children are at greater risk of getting cavities, which is the most common infection of early childhood.
You don’t have to ruin your kids’ fun. If you take their treats away or tell them to stop eating the cake, you’ll dampen the holiday spirits and have your loved ones spite you. As a good parent, you should be the bad guy if it’s good for them and there’s no other choice. But what if there are ways you could let your kids eat all they want on holidays without endangering their teeth? You’re in luck – here are a few – and the best part is, they’re all about eating yummy foods:
Protect Your Children From Cavities By Feeding Them These Yummy Foods
Cheese! Finally, an excuse to eat pizza. Experts found that eating cheese boosts your saliva’s calcium levels. They found that the more calcium around your teeth, the more they’re protected from cavities. If bacteria start making holes in your kids’ teeth, the calcium around them helps plugs them right up! So have a pizza night or lasagna dinner after you get home with your kids on Halloween. When you’re enjoying the holidays with your family, make sure you give your kids a helpful serving of whatever cheese dish is there. You could also hand your kids some healthy cheese snacks while they’re trick or treating. Most children love eating cheese, so they’ll happily snack on it and you’ll be happy their teeth are being protected. Try pure cheese without any additives, like Igourmet’s high quality pure cheese, because they’re healthier than junk food brands that have sugar or chemicals added.
Raisins. Researchers found that rasins are high in healthy polyphenols and flavonoids, which help fight cavity-causing bacteria. Some dentists disagree. But you can agree that raisins are certainly healthier than sugar-filled junk treats that have not been found to help your teeth at all. A box set of classic Sun Maid Raisins is cheap and in snack-packaging. You can bring some along when you go trick or treating or traveling for the holidays with your children and hand one to them while they’re snacking.
Xylitol lollipops. Dentists found that xylitol actively protects your teeth from cavities. Dr. Shawn Frawley, practicing dentist in Beverly Hills, recommends you eat or chew on xylitol candy three to five times a day if you’re using it for cavity protection. Make sure the candy is sugarless, or it will undo xylitol’s protective effects. You can buy your children sugar-free, xylitol lollipops and happily hand some to them while trick or treating or out with them for the holidays. It’s best to choose xylitol lollipops that are GMO-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free (like Pro-Sys’s sugarless xylitol lollipops) because they have a very low chance of causing food allergies or contain carcinogens.
Xylitol Chewing Gum. Sugar-free xylitol gum is actually better than other xylitol candies because you’ll be chewing it for longer and you’ll be getting all that xylitol all around your teeth as you chew and chew. Gum also promotes saliva production, which also fights cavities. Although sugarless gum is often yucky, you can buy sugar-free xylitol gum with different fruit flavors, which your kids will more likely find a liking to.
Don’t ruin the fun! Offer your children these cavity-fighting snacks instead, and let them go to town on the holidays’ sugary goodies. It’s only one day, and their childhood only lasts once a lifetime – so if there’s a way to let them have fun without harm, then go for it! Remember to make your children brush their teeth afterwards though – these healthy snacks can’t keep that bad bacteria from growing indefinitely. Brushing your teeth is the best, non-physician required way to really protect yourself from cavities.
Valentine’s Day is hallmarked by the giving of chocolates to your romantic interest. Medical and scientific research reveal that gifting chocolates is not simply an act of affection. It turns out that regularly consuming chocolate prevents cardiovascular disease, promotes weight loss, and aids in meditation. Chocolate is no longer a junk food – to the contrary, it’s a holistic treat that supports the mind and body.
Chocolate was first introduced into Europe soon after Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés came upon the Maya and Aztecs and observed them preparing cacao drinks. Writings from 1556 contain a passage written by an anonymous Spanish conquistador describing how cacao seeds are ground into powder and mixed methodically to create a foaming liquid.
This [foaming] drink is the healthiest thing, and the greatest sustenance of anything you could drink in the world, because he who drinks a cup of this liquid, no matter how far he walks, can go a whole day without eating anything else.
Of course the original Mayan and Aztec cacao drinks didn’t contain sugar and the tasty additives of modern-day chocolate products. Even so, what that conquistador wrote half a millennium ago is surprisingly true of cacao and today’s dark chocolate products according to scientific experts and physicians.
Dark Chocolate Is Good for Your Heart
Regularly consuming dark chocolate increases artery flexibility while also decreasing blood vessel leukocyte adhesion. Arterial stiffness and long-term buildup of white blood cells stuck to blood vessel walls are two significant factors in atherosclerosis.
In fact an 11-year study revealed that people who regularly consume up to 3.5 ounces of chocolate daily experience a 5.4 percent decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Furthermore according to Professor Larry Stevens of Northern Arizona University, dark chocolate is a vasodilator and regularly consuming it lowers blood pressure for the long term. According to findings by Louisiana State University, one explanation for this is that your gut bacteria convert cacao into compounds that protect blood vessel cells from stress and reduce inflammation.
Chocolate Helps You Lose Weight
Regularly munching on any kind of chocolate, regardless of cacao content, leads to weight loss. Research by Dr. Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego revealed that people who ate chocolate five times a week experienced weight loss without an increase in physical exercise. She states that a “5-foot tall woman weighing about 120 pounds… was likely to be about five pounds lighter if she was a frequent eater of chocolate.”
According to Joshua Lambert of Penn State University, one factor contributing to chocolate’s weight loss effects is that some specific polyphenols found in cacao may inhibit pancreatic lipase, which is the enzyme responsible for digesting dietary fat. Thus, these polyphenols could be preventing the fat in commercial chocolate from being digested and absorbed into the body.
Another contributing factor included in Louisiana State University’s findings is that your gut bacteria convert cacao’s fiber into short chain fatty acids, which make you feel full after you absorb them.
Chocolate Helps You Meditate
Chocolate Mindfulness meditation is an increasingly popular kind of meditation. It involves making you more aware of your senses by taking a piece of chocolate and deeply inhaling the chocolate’s aroma, staring at the chocolate and examining it deeply; and finally placing the chocolate into your mouth and trying to notice each one of its 300 flavors while playing with it with your tongue and allowing it to melt. Then you repeat the process until all the chocolate is consumed, and while doing so you’re gently keeping your mind focused on the chocolate, shepherding your focus back when it wanders away.
Professor Stevens’ research sheds light on why this meditation technique is effective. He conducted a study involving 122 participants between 18 to 25 years old consuming confection containing 60 percent cacao. Brain activity was monitored via EEG and blood pressure was recorded.
When we asked him via email, he responded that the 60 percent cacao group experienced an increase in alpha brain waves, which is one of the desired meditative states. The group also experienced an increase in beta brain waves. He stated that increasing alpha and beta waves should produce “a more alert, attentive, and calm state.” Being calm but attentive is key for meditation.
However the participants experienced a short-term increase in blood pressure when consuming the 60 percent cacao. The 60 percent cacao confection still lowers blood pressure in the long-term, but the short-term increase in blood pressure might be troubling for some people, like those with hypertension.
Thus, Professor Stevens introduced an amino acid naturally found in green tea, L-theanine, which lowers blood pressure, to the confection and administered it to another group of participants. This group experienced an immediate drop in blood pressure rather than the short-term increase experienced by the 60 percent cacao group.
He reports in his email that this 60 percent cacao plus L-theanine group also experienced “a slight increase in alpha [waves] over that of the 60 percent cacao only [group].”
He states that theoretically, a mixture containing L-theanine and 90 to 100 percent cacao should further increase the desired brain waves to produce a more powerful attentive and calm state. He’s looking forward to conducting future studies involving higher-content cacao and L-theanine.
Thus, consuming a mixture of L-theanine and 60 or more percent cacao can aid in meditation by facilitating your transition into a calm but alert state.
However, Professor Stevens also hopes that a high-content cacao chocolate bar containing L-theanine will become a mainstream healthy alternative to coffee due to its attention-increasing and blood pressure lowering properties. He states, “A lot of us in the afternoon get a little fuzzy… so we could have a higher cacao content chocolate bar and it would increase attention.”
When you give your love chocolates this Valentine’s Day you’re protecting their hearts and waistlines, while enriching their mind. Conversely, if you’re receiving chocolates their health benefits should keep you from feeling guilty about enjoying them. It’s even better if you’re making your own gift chocolates because you can add L-theanine to them to add more blood pressure-lowering and mental therapeutic effects.
According to the CDC, approximately 70 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. If you’re fighting the tide by going on a diet, make sure you educate yourself first. You might feel compelled to avoid sugars and carbs at all costs — but doing so could seriously harm your body. Carbohydrates are essential for your hormones and muscle building and maintenance.
Your muscles are made up of protein, which are composed of only 20 amino acids. Your body uses carbohydrates to produce 10 of these, called nonessential amino acids. Your body can’t produce the other 10 (essential amino acids), so you get them from eating protein. Your body also needs these 20 amino acids to synthesize enzymes and hormones which regulate most of your bodily functions, from temperature regulation to fat breakdown.
Fat can’t be converted into the nonessential amino acids you need. Although not eating carbs rushes your body into burning fat, burning fat gives your body energy, not protein. Your body will then break down your muscle to get protein to make amino acids. Thus, not getting carbohydrates will result in muscle loss. This is worse if you’re simultaneously exercising and dieting; your body won’t be able to repair your muscles post-workout, leaving you sore and weak.
You might consider eating protein to replace carbs. Fitness experts advise against this for two reasons. If your protein source is meat, you’ll be increasing your cholesterol, which is dangerous long term. If your protein sources are zero-carb protein shakes, your body still won’t be able to fully repair or build muscle without carbohydrates.
Losing weight is great if you’re overweight. Make sure to eat foods with slow-burning carbohydrates, like blueberries or red potatoes. Your body needs carbohydrates to build your muscles, enzymes, and hormones. Some amino acids require carbohydrates to be synthesized; because of this and the high cholesterol involved, a meat-only diet is even more harmful than a no-carb diet.
