Stretch marks are scarring on the skin which are caused by the tearing of the dermis layer of the skin. It is often the result of rapid stretching of the skin associated with rapid growth, weight gain or weight loss over a short period of time. During this stage, the skin is unable to cope with the changes between the epidermis and dermis, thus resulting to the scarring effect on the epidermis layer.  It may be also influenced by hormonal changes.

Stretch marks can form anywhere on the body especially at places where a large amount of fats are stored, e.g. abdomen, breasts, upper arms, underarms, back, tights, hips and buttocks.

Ways to prevent stretch marks.

1. Drink plenty of water. Proper blood circulation is important to prevent stretch marks, By drinking the recommended eight glasses of water daily, not only will it remove toxin from the dermis, it also improve the skin condition.
2. Massage. Another way to improve circulation is massaging. Together with a body lotion, gently massage the stretch marks prone areas will keep the skin hydrated and reduce the chances of stretch marks appearance.
3. Exercising. By constantly keeping to an exercise regime, it reduce the deposit of fats, thus preventing the appearance of stretch marks. However, if you are overweight, please ensure that the weight reduction is gradual. Rapid weight loss will result in dreadful stretch marks appearance.

There is no 100% way remove stretch marks once it appears, however, one can choose to go through treatments like lasing and derm-abrasion to reduce the appearance of the stretch marks.

Common home remedies

1. Collagen Intake. Collagen is a protein that supports our body. Collagen also forms up 75% of our healthy skin. Thus, if our collagen fibers are damaged or drop in production, it will result in pre-matured aging of skin as well as stretch marks. In order to mitigate the reduction of collagen, we can intake Vitamin C (Esther-C) which is a key ingredient for Collagen production, or consuming Collagen drink.
2. Stretch mark creams. Stretch mark creams usually contains Vitamin E, Cocoa Butter, Aloe Vera, which provide moisturizing and hydrating effects to make the skin more subtle, elastic and firm, mitigating the possibilities of dermis fibers tearing.

The recommended daily cholesterol consumption is 300mg based on American Heart Association.

Are you taking too much cholesterol? Having a low cholesterol diet helps to reduce LDL (Low-density Lipoprotein); bad cholesterol and increase HDL (High-density Lipoprotein). good cholesterol. Excessive bad cholesterol are deposited along the arteries which causes narrowing of arteries, serious condition can lead to heart attack and stroke. On the other hand, good cholesterol breaks down bad cholesterol and protects the heart.

Therefore, it is important to balance good and bad cholesterol intake and exercise regularly to stay healthy.

Know your Food Cholesterol content:

1. Eggs
2. Dairy Produce
3. Meat
4. Oil
5. Seafood
6. Others

Eggs

Dairy Produce

Meat

Oil

Seafood

Others

As we all know, vitamins are very important when it comes to keeping your heart healthy.  You need to eat the right foods of course, although you also need to supplement the food you eat with the necessary vitamins your body needs to stay in shape and keep your heart working healthy for a long time to come.  If you don’t consume the right nutrients, you won’t be doing your heart any favors – and may end up having problems later on in life.

The first vitamin that comes to mind for most people is vitamin E, a vitamin that is essential to improving the overall health of your heart.  When taken correctly, vitamin E will stop the cholesterol in the body from harming the arteries that surround the heart.  Anytime cholesterol oxidizes, it sticks to the sides of the arteries and can lead to blockages which can cause heart attacks or other serious problems with the heart.

To help you keep your heart healthy, most doctors recommend that you take additional supplements that contain vitamin E.  They may also suggest that you eat foods that are naturally rich in vitamin E, such as nuts.  Nuts have high amounts of vitamin E, and most of them taste great.  You can find other foods that contain vitamin E as well, although nuts have the highest amounts.

In the past, research has shown Vitamin E to help those who have already suffered the wrath of a heart attack.  This vitamin helps to prevent heart attacks in the future by opening up the arteries and eliminate blockage.  Those who have had a heart attack in the past are always encouraged to add more vitamin E to their diet.

What many aren’t aware of, is the fact that you can use vitamin C to boost the effects of vitamin E.  Vitamin C is known as an antioxidant, which prevents the damaging effects that cholesterol has on the body.  Along with preventing cholesterol from damaging the body, vitamin C also helps vitamin E with it’s functions – such as protecting your arteries and your heart.

By taking both vitamin C and E as a combination, you’ll be well on your way to a healthier heart.  Overall, this is the easiest way that you can be sure you aren’t damaging your heart, especially if you have had a heart attack in the past.  If you have a history of heart disease or heart problems in your family, these vitamins are essential to your diet.  Even if you are just concerned about the health of your heart, these vitamins will give you the peace of mind in knowing that you are eating for a healthy heart.

As far as your dosage goes, it will vary from person to person, although 400 international units of vitamin E and C are the recommended amounts for most people.  On it’s own, vitamin C can be tolerated in large doses, without imposing any harmful effects.  You can take around 500 mg of it twice a day, and ensure that your heart remains healthy.

To be on the safe side, you should always make sure that you get the proper amount of vitamins in your daily diet.  Taking additional vitamins and supplements isn’t a bad idea either, especially if you are trying to boost the health of your heart.  Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body, which is why you should always take care of it.  If you eat the proper diet and take the necessary vitamins – you’ll be well on your way to keeping your heart healthy.

There are a lot of people who would give a lot to increase their metabolism. Having a high level of metabolism enables one to maintain burn fat and lose weight fast with the least amount of activity. Metabolism is the rate by which the body produces and consumes energy and calories to support life.

There are several factors that affect the metabolism of a person, such as the amount of muscle tissue, the frequency of the meals one consumes, genetics, stress levels, personal diet and activity levels. Metabolism slows done due to the following: loss of muscle because of not enough physical activity, the tendency of the body to cannibalize its own tissue because there is not enough food energy to sustain it, and the decrease of physical activity that comes naturally with old age.

Here are several ways to fire up one’s metabolism:

1. Build up on lean, mean body mass. It is only natural that metabolism decreases along with age, but it is possible to counter the effects. The amount of muscle a person has is a very strong determinant in the ability to burn calories and shed fat. So it goes without saying that exercise is essential. Build strength and resistance by working out at least twice a week, preferably with weights. Do easy exercises in between workouts. Simple tasks such as walking the dog and using the stairs in place of the elevator can already take off calories. The key is to match the amount of eating to the amount of activity one has. Here are some guidelines in getting the right exercise:
   
   For strength training
   -Increase the amount of repetitions of a particular exercise.
   -Add the level of resistance
   -Utilize advance exercise techniques if possible
   
   For cardiovascular training
   -Insert intervals between exercises
   -Perform cross-training and combine the exercises
   -Add up on resistance and speed
2. Eat breakfast. A lot of people are ignoring the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Surprisingly, the ones who eat breakfast are thinner than the ones who do not. Metabolism can slow down considerably if breakfast is taken during mid-morning or if one waits until the afternoon to eat.
3. Avoid sugar. Sugar enables the body to store fat. It is recommended that a person consumes food that helps sustain an even level of blood-sugar. Additionally, progressive execerise 2-3 times a week should be in order to stabilize blood sugar.
4. Eat spicy foods. Hot cuisine with peppers can increase metabolism.
5. Sleep more. According to research, it is riskier for people who do not get enough sleep to gain weight. Also, muscles are regenerated during the last couple of hours of slumber.
6. Increase water intake. Water flushes out toxins that are produced whenever the body burns fat. Majority of bodily functions involves water, and lack of water causes the body system’s operations to decrease its speed, and produces unneeded stress as a result.
7. Eat smaller meals. It is advisable to consume 4 to 6 small meals that are timed 2 to 3 hours apart.
8. Never skip meals. People tend to skip meals in order to lose weight, which is a big mistake since it slows down metabolism.
9. Plan meals in detail. Always prepare the right amount of food to be consumed at the designated intervals. Do not commit the mistake of eating meals in sporadic patterns.
10. Ditch the stress! Stress, be it physical or emotional, triggers the release of a steroid called cortisol, which decreases metabolism. Also, people tend to eat excessively when stressed.
11. Guzzle up on green tea. It can be used as a substitute for coffee. Tea has the ability to stimulate metabolism, and unlike coffee, it has no undesirable side effects when too much is consumed.
12. Include more energy foods in the diet, such as fruits and vegetables, beans and whole grains.

Achieving the desired body weight is never impossible if one has the determination and patience needed to stabilize the metabolism level, which plays an important role in weight loss. A person needs to realize that eating right and working out is not just a passing fancy, but a way of life.

With food labels, you can clearly understand the amount and kinds of nutrients that are provided in the item. Usually, it contains the information on saturated fat, sodium, total fat, fiber, and cholesterol amount “per serving.”

However, understanding and reading these food labels can be very perplexing. A typical consumer would definitely ask what those numbers mean and how it will affect her diet intake if ever she will religiously follow the serving guide as stipulated on the food label.

To further have a clear and more comprehensive understanding of the items stated in the food label, here is a list of things that you need to know:

Food Label Sample (extracted from womensheart.org)

1. Serving size

This is the primary item you will see in a food label.

The amount of servings stated in the food label refers to the quantity of food people usually consume. However, this does not necessarily mean that it reflects your very own amount of food intake.

Moreover, serving size determines the amount of nutrients that enters the body. This means that if you will follow strictly what the serving size is, you will obtain the same amount of nutrients according to the serving size that was given in the label.

For instance, if the serving size says one serving size is equal to 54 grams, that would mean you have to measure 54 grams and eat that and you have just eaten one serving. So to speak, the amount of nutrients stated in the food label is the same amount that has entered your body considering the fact that you have just eaten 54 grams.

However, if you have eaten everything, and the food label says that each pack is equivalent to 4 servings, you have to calculate the amount of nutrients that have entered your body. This means that if the food label says 250 calories per serving that means you have to multiply it to four to get the total amount of calories you have taken.

2. Nutrients

This refers to the list of available nutrients in a particular item. It is also where the nutritional claims of the product based on the recommended daily dietary allowance are stated. Usually, the nutritional amounts are based on both the 2,500-calorie diets and the 2,000 recommended dietary allowances.

In order to understand the numeric value of each item, you should know that the “% daily value” that the food label indicates is actually based on how a particular food corresponds to the recommended daily dietary allowance for a 2,000 calorie.

If in the event that you have purchased an item that has a dietary allowance different from the 2,000-calorie diet, you just have to divide the stipulated amount by 2,000 and you will be able to identify the “%daily value” for the nutrients.

3. Ingredients

This refers to the list of the ingredients that were used to manufacture the product. The listing is usually arranged from the main ingredients that have the greater amount by weight up to the smallest quantity. This simply means that the actual quantity of the food includes the biggest quantity of the main ingredient or the first item and the minimum amount of the very last ingredient.

4. Label claim

This refers to the kinds of nutritional claims of a particular food item. For instance, if an item says it is sodium-free, it has less than 5 milligrams per serving or a low fat item actually contains 3 grams of fat or less.

Indeed, reading food labels can be very tedious and confusing. Nevertheless, once you get the hang of it, it would be easier for you to watch your diet because you can already control the amount of food that you take.

This sudden enthusiasm reflects the extent of the UK’s recent wake-up call to the dangers of obesity. One in four of the population is now clinically obese (having a BMI of 30 or more with a waist measurement of more than 94cm for men and 80cm for women) putting them at significantly greater risk of heart disease, some cancers, arthritis and diabetes.

Instead of constant harping on about the dangers of excessive weight loss, a landmark report from the National Institute for Health Clinical Excellence in July 2008 made it clear that our capacity to deny the flab in the mirror poses a far greater health risk. Once we’re over a certain weight, we’re no longer being urged to lose weight slowly but surely. Fat people are more motivated to stay on track the more sensational the speed with which they drop dress sizes. But is it really a good idea to crash diet?

At 17st 7lb, Samantha Clowe, 34, had a BMI of 37 when she went started a very low calorie diet (VLCD) because she “didn’t want to be a fat bride”. She died of heart failure in Leeds last year after shedding 3st, 11 weeks into a diet that allowed a daily intake of just 530 calories in soups and shakes – a quarter of the recommended daily calorie intake for a woman.

Her brother Daniel claimed there was “too much pressure on women to be like skinny celebs”, while the coroner cautiously implied in his report last week that her death “may be related to her low-calorie diet and weight loss”. But doctors disagreed. “Samantha’s death tragically shows the real dangers of being obese,” commented Dr David Haslam, chair of the National Obesity Forum. “The truth is the number of sudden deaths among the obese … is significantly higher than those that occur among people on VLCDs,” said Professor Iain Broom, director of the Centre for Obesity Research at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

The following day, the Derby Coroner’s Court reported on the death of Susan Alderson, 49, a diabetic with liver problems, who used another way to lose weight fast: gastric banding. This involves having a silicone loop tightened three-quarters of the way up the stomach so people feel full after eating relatively little. At 16st, Susan had a BMI of 44 and had been advised to have the operation for health reasons at Derby City General Hospital in January, but died of internal bleeding hours after surgery.

Once again, the tragedy seems unlikely to halt the meteoric rise in the popularity of the procedure, not least since the TV presenter Fern Britton admitted that it was a gastric band that had shifted 5st in 2006. The private sector, which has invested heavily in obesity surgery, can also rightly claim to have made this operation safe: while one in 200 gastric band operations in the NHS are still thought to be fatal, some private sector providers insist they have a zero mortality rate as a result of extensive pre- and post-surgical care.

What really counts, however, is the level of support in changing the way people feel about themselves and the food they eat. The benefit of a crash diet, it seems, is that enforcing a reduced appetite gives a breathing space to people who have obsessed about food for years. With sufficient daily nutrients to keep them healthy, the key to successful and sustained weight loss is the extent to which they use this transition period to develop a healthy diet and a balanced lifestyle, getting used to being thin and active again. Without such changes, the weight will pile back on.

Providing this support is not necessarily straightforward. “People who maintain a clinically obese body weight have a habit of consuming body-builder levels of calories and of course that has to change,” says registered dietitian, Cirian-Marie Beddoes, head of Weight Management Services at The Hospital Group.

“Severe calorie restriction carries risks, particularly if the few calories consumed are low-quality,” explains Beddoes. “You can consume 1,000 high-quality calories and blossom or the same number of calories in junk food and you’ll be ill.” Her team of dietitians provides two years of one-to-one aftercare, with food diaries and telephone consultations to check for symptoms of malnutrition: hair loss, brittle nails, skin pallor, apathy, moodiness or aggression.

The dietitians see it as a priority to provide psychological support, including neuro-linguistic programming and cognitive behavioural therapy. “These people often feel crap about themselves. Our job is to nurture and nourish their love of food, a healthy balanced diet and being socially and physically active,” Beddoes says. “Changing lives requires intensive and skilled intervention.”

Most VLCD companies such as Cambridge Diet provide little support. LighterLife leaves pre-diet preparation to the GP but does provide group counselling post-surgery, run by graduates of a training programme lasting just four weeks. “Before and after” success stories in ads may hide less-impressive long-term success rates.

NHS obesity treatment is largely restricted to occasional surgery, with increasing use of prescription drugs: Reductil tricks the brain into believing the stomach is full, while Xenical, which has its own support phone line, blocks the absorption of fat, causing unpleasant side effects for anyone taking the drug while eating lots of fat. “The failure of the NHS to invest in obesity services, having put all the funds into anti-smoking, makes my blood boil,” says Beddoes, who moved to the private sector last year.

There are signs of changes. The Department of Health launched its Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives campaign last year. And in Scotland, the Counterweight Programme is a dietician-led service. If you’re thinking of attempting rapid weight loss, consult your GP first. It could be some time, however, before we can rely on the NHS to get us into that little black dress.

extracted from [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/crash-dieting-desperate-measures-1787304.html]

More people could get caught in the grip of eating disorders. Already, an estimated 11 million Americans have anorexia or bulimia. Hospitalizations are increasing. Even more worrisome, the American Medical Association found the greatest increases among boys and girls younger than 12, and among adults ages 45 to 65.

We could save a lot of pain, suffering and money by incorporating obesity into the range of illnesses now classified as eating disorders, and by focusing on prevention. Agencies that are working on ways to combat obesity should include experts in eating disorders.

Maybe you didn’t feel fat, just a touch overweight, before the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised the height/weight tables, and now your weight hits the category of “morbidly obese.”

Do you automatically exercise more and eat less? More likely, you feel bad, blame your genes or your lack of willpower, try a new diet, fail, feel worse, eat more.

Practically all disordered eating begins with a diet.

Eating disorders and obesity have increased spectacularly in the past 20 years. How is that possible? Did our genes suddenly change?

No, but our eating habits did. We eat while walking, driving and working. Families have a hard time sitting down to a meal together, and even gas stations sell food.

We eat out a lot more, now spending 50 percent of our food dollar in restaurants. Eating out, it’s hard to avoid sugar, fat and salt. As Dr. David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, writes in his bestseller, “The End of Overeating,” “Eating foods high in sugar, fat, and salt makes us eat more foods high in sugar, fat, and salt.”

With food relatively cheap and highly available, we also have more opportunity to eat badly at home.

What else has changed in two decades? While America has become a 24-hour buffet, the pressure to be thin has increased.

Girls, particularly, get the message from movies and fashion magazines that the ideal body type is a wire hanger. But who among us doesn’t obsess about weight? Pounds and body mass index can feel like the sum of our worth. Which means just about everyone gets to feel bad about his or her body.

If agencies attacking obesity aren’t careful, they could inadvertently encourage more disordered eating. Obsessively counting every calorie isn’t hard. Moderation is hard. As generations of dieters know, changing habits is hard.

In the health campaign against fat, we should avoid bashing obesity and idealizing thinness, which only foster the self-destructive thought processes that characterize eating disorders from anorexia to obesity. Anorexics with jutting collarbones think they’re fat. Binge-eaters often think, after eating too much, that they’ve already done the damage so they might as well keep eating.

No eating disorder is a lifestyle choice. Besides the serious, often life-threatening physical dangers, there is shame, loneliness and depression. Our community is lucky to have help for all of this, at the Eating Disorders Resource Center of Silicon Valley (www.edrcsv.org). Its services are free.

Environments can change. Not that long ago, people smoked everywhere, just as we eat everywhere today. The health campaign against cigarettes worked. We can change the way we deal with eating disorders as well.

SHEILA HIMMEL is the author, with Lisa Himmel, of “HUNGRY: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia” (Berkeley Trade Paperback, 2009). Upcoming readings include Tuesday at Kepler”s Bookstore in Menlo Park and Monday at the Cambrian branch of the San Jose Public Library. (The full schedule is on sheila.himmel.com.) She wrote this article for the Mercury News.
[http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_13319172?nclick_check=1]

Why Green Tea?

For more than four thousand years, green tea diet has been proliferated throughout Asia as a beneficial health and medicinal drink. Green tea diet is different from all other types of tea diet as its liquid is extracted by steaming the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant as opposed to a full oxidation process. In this way, green tea diet manages to preserve a lot more antioxidants and keep them intact for the body to use.

Green tea diet is an excellent source of polycatechin polyphenols, a group of antioxidants that act on free radicals. These free radicals have harmful effects on the body since they are the major causes of diseases and aging. With green tea diet’s polycatechin polyphenols, a person has a better chance of avoiding ailments and keeping himself healthy for a much longer period of time.

Another antioxidant in green tea diet is also being studied as a potential cure for cancer. Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG found in green tea diet has been discovered to destroy cancer cells while keeping surrounding healthy cells unharmed. The EGCG in green tea diet also acts with another compound, caffeine (a small amount of this is found in green tea). The interaction of these two compounds causes green tea diet to promote thermogenesis in the body.

It has been noted by a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that with the consumption of green tea diet, the body’s total 24-hour energy expenditure is increased by up to four percent. This is roughly equivalent to losing more than 10 pounds of weight a month.

Green tea diet helps increase the body’s metabolic rates. With its thermogenic properties, it is only natural that green tea diet can also promote faster metabolism of fats and sugars. Excess glucose found in the body is turned into fats by the hormone insulin. Because green tea diet has an inhibiting effect on insulin, green tea diet therefore helps keep sugar from being stored as fats and instead, send them directly into the muscles for immediate use.

The bad about Green Tea

Although green tea diet has a reputation for boosting health, scientific proofs of its health benefits are still somewhat mixed. However, in an article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, American researchers collaborated with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the beneficial effects of green tea diet on cholesterol levels.

Using 240 men and women (average age 55) who possess mild to moderately high LDL cholesterol levels, the researchers instructed them to retain their usual low-fat diet, green tea diet intake, and activity levels. After twelve weeks, it was found that those who consumed green tea diet extract with their regular meals lost more than fifteen percent of their total LDL cholesterol levels.

Although the researchers never explained how green tea diet may influence cholesterol levels, previous studies have shown that certain compounds in green tea diet play a role in reducing the amount of cholesterol absorbed by the body, increasing amount of cholesterol excreted, and thus keeping cholesterol from being stored in the liver.

Subsequent studies were made to test the findings of the first group of researchers. Their results were contradictory. They found that green tea diet has no significant effect on the cholesterol profiles of their subjects.

There is no such thing as a miracle diet. Green tea diet, like all other diets, needs a lot of work and input from those who enroll in it. Green tea diet required both discipline and heart for it to make any significant impact on your weight loss goals.

Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins Diet plan is a low-carb diet plan which works best with caffeine-free coffee and green tea. For effective results, use sugar-free sweetener in your green tea and coffee to keep your carbs down.

Blood Type Diet Plan

The Blood Type Diet Plan is a weight loss diet program which is based on your blood group type. The diet plan has more constrained compared to other diet plan such as the Atkins Diet plan, South Beach Diet plan and Zone Diet plan. As people with different blood group types are advised to consume different type of food and beverages. For instance, people with blood group A and AB, coffee beverage is highly advisable, while, it is not advisable for those with blood group O. On the other hand, Green Tea is suitable with any blood group. However, adding sweeteners into green tea should be avoided.

More information on South Beach Diet plan and Zone Diet plan are discussed below.

Paleolithic Diet Plan

Also known as Stone Age Diet plan, this plan is based on the consumption of simple, unprocessed foods that our Neanderthal ancestors would have eaten. This diet plan is perfect for green tea drinkers. Green tea is simple and 100% natural steamed dried leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant. However, adding sweeteners such as processed refined sugar should be avoided.

South Beach Diet Plan

An idea formulated by Dr. Arthur Agatston, the South Beach Diet plan is neither a low-carb nor low-fats diet plan, it “teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats.”

The diet plan comprises of three main phases – Removing your Cravings, Reintroducing Carbs and A Diet for Life. Drinking sugar-free coffee and green tea during all the phases is one of the ways to carry on loosing weight without sacrificing your daily drink. For coffee lovers, you should switch to decaf, since it assists in maintaining your insulin levels. For green tea lovers, there is no worry as it contains minimal amount of caffeine content.

Sugar Busters Diet Plan

As the name of the diet plan implied, people who adopted this into their diet plan avoid any sugar form of intake. Thus making sugar-free coffee and green tea perfect choice.

The Zone Diet Plan

The Zone Diet plan was created by Barry Sears, a ex-researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The diet plan is similar to South Beach Diet plan as it is based on the maintenance and consistency of insulin levels. Thus, decaf coffee and green tea is advised as they do not spike up your insulin level. Sugar substitutes should be used if necessary.

Benefits of water dieting:

• Assists in tuning the body to accept plain foods; balancing your appetite craving.
• Acts as a food substitute to curb hunger.
• Accelerates metabolic rates for fat burning.
• Aids in detoxifying body impurities.

Let’s begin. It takes only 3 simple steps to get you going.

1. You have to make a promise to yourself to make this a lifestyle habit change.

2. For beginners, we suggest that you add lemon slices to give it a little flavor. Start off with 2 liters of water daily.

3. Increase the water consumption a liter more per week until you reach 4 liters a day. It will sound impossible initially; with bloated stomach and nauseating feeling, however,  this feeling will come to pass.

After a few months of consistency, you will feel and see the results. Your memory sharpens, skin complexion improves, hunger pangs greatly reduced and best of all, your weight loss becomes obvious.

Do note that the water dieting should be performed in the day.