If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and decided to lose weight, only to find yourself heavier and more disgusted with your weight a year later… you’re not alone.
Every year millions, decide to lose weight and firm up, only to discover it’s much easier to talk about losing weight than it is to lose it and keep it off.
For years, I struggled with my weight and during that time, I tried every guru, quick-fix, starve-it-off, melt-it-off miracle weight loss product I could find… and I lost weight, only to gain it all back plus more… several times.
Eventually I gained so much weight our family doctor read me the riot act about blood pressure, heart health, and obesity.
Dr. Lowe did not mince words. He said my being overweight with a history of heart disease in the family, (both maternal grandparents), was like playing Russian roulette every day and betting, as all fools do, you’ll win every time.
Because of that lecture, I tossed out everything I thought I knew about weight loss and started studying The Textbook Of Medical Physiology edited by Guyton and Hall. On the Doctor’s advice, I paid special attention to the chapters on fat synthesis and metabolism.
After studying this book extensively and spending hours discussing it with two MD friends of mine, I put together a personal blueprint for losing weight and got started.
Results were spectacular. The pounds came off. I had more energy than ever, and never missed a meal. In fact, I ate more than before, just a different mix of foods based on what I learned.
When weight loss works, it’s obvious and people notice.
I changed from being overweight and tired, to being lean, muscular, and energetic.
Before long, practically everyone was asking what I did, how, and could I help them or someone they know get the same results.
From this was born the 5 Steps To Optimal Health Permanent Weight Loss Program, which is based entirely on the known science of how the body works, and not on hope, hype, opinion, or some pseudo-scientific attempt to sell weight loss pills or diet milk shakes.
Follow the Program and you will lose weight and keep it off. It’s that simple.
In the Program you learn how food affects your metabolism, how your metabolism determines your body weight and your energy level, how to end food cravings forever in about 3 days, and much more.
In this little video I explain 3 powerful, lifetime weight loss secrets from the program, including the EXACT eating program that will melt pounds off and keep your appetite completely satisfied.
Put what you learn in this video to work and the pounds will come off and stay off without you spending a dime on guru weight loss products, exercise equipment or anything else.
The last few minutes of the video give you more information about the 5 Steps Program including where to find it online if you are so inclined.
Enjoy!
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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This short little video contains 3 secrets of lasting weightloss.
Don’t underestimate the power of these secrets. For nearly 5 years I had a very busy weight loss consulting practice and received most of my clients as direct referrals from medical doctors around the country… and every single persion I worked with learned these secrets.
Try them out for yourself and let me know what you think.
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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A famous nutritonist once said we dig our graves with our teeth. I say, you determine you level of health and vitality with your food choices, which means you can improve your health by making healthier food choices.
According to the National Institutes of Health, most of the worst diseases known to man are “diseases of environment”, which simply means, we do it to ourselves with our diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices.
In other words, the world’s best experts say that for most diseases, most of the time, including heart disease, diabetes and about half of all cancer; different diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices may have prevented the disease from every developing.
Replacing less-healthy foods with healthy foods in no way guarantees robust health, but replacing nutritionally empty food with healthy foods, and taking care of yourself, puts you in a much lower risk category for all serious illness and disease and will make you look and feel better than ever in a short time.
My private weight loss clients, and people following my 5 Steps Program, almost universally report higher energy and a greater sense of well being simply by making a few simple changes in what they eat.
So which foods are the best? Which ones should you include in your diet as often as possible? How do you pick a healthy food? Let’s take a look.
Criteria For MakingThe Best & Healthiest Foods List
The Best & Healthiest Foods Are Naturally Nutrient Dense – These foods are nutrient dense and contain naturally high amounts of many of the essential nutrients needed for optimal health, including; vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, essential fatty acids, essential amino acids, fiber and more.
The Best & Healthiest Foods are Whole Foods - The foods are also whole foods, naturally high nutritional content that have not been highly processed and contain no synthetic, artificial, or irradiated ingredients.
The Best & Healthiest Foods are Familiar, Readily Available And Affordable - These are everyday foods; including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, lean meats, fish, olive oil, and herbs and spices familiar to most and that fit easily within the food budget of most people.
The World’s Healthiest Foods Taste Good – In fact, they are world’s best tasting foods on earth with no close seconds.
I selected several foods from 5 categories. Each food is loaded with nutrients and gives you more good nutrition per bite than most other foods.
In future posts I’ll highlight each food and go into detail as to why that particular food is so good, but for now suffice it to say, each food on this list is LOADED with nutrition your body can use to help you get healthy, stay healthy and feel great!
Note: Thear are many other excellent foods in each category.
HEALTHIEST & BEST FRUITS & BERRIES – Apples, bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe, kiwi and grapefruit.
These foods are naturally high in nutrients that promote heart health, protect your eyes, protect your from cancer and support health in a variety of ways,
HEALTHIEST & BEST VEGETABLES (or foods recognized as vegetables) – bell pepper, avocado, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cucumber, celery, romaine lettuce.
These are ALL EXCELLENT and together they make a GREAT SALAD full of vitamins and heart-healthy, blood pressure lowering, cancer protective nutrients.
Remember, "Vegetables Rule!", nutritionally speaking of course.
HEALTHIEST & BEST SEEDS & NUTS – almonds, flax seed and flax seed oil, olive oil, cashews, walnuts.
Seeds and nuts are loaded with heart healthy, blood pressure lowering nutrients that help maintain normal blood sugar, keep your hunger low, your energy high, and promote weight loss in overweight individuals.
HEALTHIEST & BEST BEANS: Black beans, kidney, lentils, navy beans, pinto beans – all EXCELLENT source of minerals and heart-protective, cholesterol-lowering fiber.
Beans are so good for you they come close to qualifying as a Nutritional Miracle. Imagine, solid gold nutrition for the price of a bowl of beans!
HEALTHIEST & BEST FISH: salmon, cold water fish including halibut, cod, and sardines from cold-water regions. The healthy omega 3 essentilal fatty acids in cold water fish are extremely good for you.
The highly bio-available amino acids you get in a small serving of meat help maintain muscle structure and provide the nutritional raw material your immune system needs to protect you from illness and disease and keep you healthy.
You could pick and choose foods off this list and enjoy them for years.
Health Is A Choice Only You Can Make For Yourself
Eating junky food leads to junky health. Eating healthy food leads to good health. (So what’s for dinner?)
Replace high-sugar, high carbohydrate and junk food with foods off this list and you; 1) will NOT be overweight, and; 2) will in all probability enjoy robust health and; 3) probably never suffer with a major illness or disease.
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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So You Want To Lose Weigth And Keep It Off For Life. . .
You want to lose weight, but you’re not sure which weight loss plan gives you the best, longest lasting weight loss results. After all, there are so many diet programs to choose from, not to mention programs promising fat loss, quick weight loss, easy weight loss, slim hips, six-pack abs and so on.
So What’s The BEST Way To Lose Weight?
Should you go with the Adkins Diet, low carbohydrate approach?
What about the South Beach Diet or The Omega Plan?
What about Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, or the new FDA approved diet pills?
And what about fat blocking pills, carbohydrate blocking pills, or simpler yet, what about following Dr. Laura’s advice on weight loss, which is simply, eat less and move more?
While you can lose weight with any of these approaches, and others not mentioned, the real goal is not to just weight loss. The real goal is to reduce body fat, increase lean muscle, lose weight, keep it off, and to do it in a HEALTHY way, and never be overweight again. Few programs make these kinds of promises.
Speaking As An Expert On Weight Loss
As a Ph.D. nutritionist and a highly qualified weight loss expert who has coached thousands of people to lose weight and keep it off, I’ve identified 3 key elements that MUST be present before you will ever be able to lose weight and keep it off permanently.
Regardless of which weight loss approach you go with, (some are good and some are terrible), and regardless of how much you exercise, starve or take diet pills, if any even one of these key elements is missing, your results will be marginal and rebound weight gain is practically certain.
3 Keys To Lose Weight And Becoming Fit And Healthy For Life
1. Put The Power Of Metabolism To Work For You: To lose weight and keep it off, you must reset your metabolism to burn stored body fat for energy. This is a specific process and is accomplished primarily through diet and nutrition.
Key Point: Body fat is made primarily because of hormones out of balance due to eating foods that cause a sharp rise in blood sugar and insulin production. To lose weight and keep it off, this has to change; otherwise lasting weight loss is impossible.
2. Harness The Power Of Nutrition: Nutrient deficiencies drive hunger and food cravings. With the proper nutrients, hunger and food cravings vanish in just a few days.
Key Point: Hunger is a cry for nutrition. If that cry is answered with a soft drink, candy or junk food, you don’t get the nutrients you need and you’ll be hungry again in no time. Proper nutrition makes hunger vanish and can wipe out strong food cravings in just a few days.
3. Adopt A Lifestyle That Keeps You Fit And Health: Diets fail because you can’t live life on a diet. To lose weight and NEVER BE OVERWEIGHT AGAIN, you need a lifestyle strategy that promotes excellent health and that you truly enjoy.
Key Point: With a little guidance, making simple changes that promote a healthy body weight for life is easy.
The Key To Perrmanent Weight Loss Is To Give Up Dieting Forever!
The key to losing weight and keeping it off for life is to GIVE UP DIETING FOREVER and learn about the kind of daily eating program, daily supplementation program and healthy lifestyle program that wil naturally re-establish healthy hormonal balance, correct nutrient deficieencies that keep you hungry or craving certain foods, and get you moving physically as you become fit, fabulous and radiantly healthy.
Nothing else matters, because nothing else works!
Regardless of how you go about losing weight, one way or another, you have to reset your metabolism, re-establish natural, healthy hormonal balance, overcome hunger and food cravings and develop a diet, nutrition and lifestyle strategy that you enjoy.
Accomplishing this is exactly what my 5 Steps To Optimal Health Program is all about. You learn everything you need to re-establish natural, healthy hormonal balance, reset your metabolism to burn stored body fat, quickly eliminate hunger and food cravings.
If you’re like 78% of the respondents in a recent study published in the Journal Of The American Medical Association, you believe you’re in pretty good health, even if you have high blood pressure, are overweight, diabetic, and taking prescription medication.
In the study, thousands of participants were contacted by phone and asked a series of health questions. Researchers had full access to each participant’s medical history, which was evaluated by a medical doctor prior to telephone canvassing.
Based on medical-doctor review, only 22% of the participants were in good to excellent health. Overweight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, taking prescription medication and so on excluded participants from the healthiest category.
A Surprising Truth Revealed
Amazing as it may sound, 78% of the participants self-assessed their health as between good to excellent… even though many were on blood pressure, diabetes, or cholesterol medication. Some, who self-assessed their health as excellent, were overweight enough to qualify as being clinically obese and others had been diagnosed with other serious health problems.
When asked specifically about the high blood pressure or the fact they were 35 pounds overweight, participants passed off the reality documented in their medical charts simply by saying things like, “except for the diabetes or high blood pressure or being overweight, I’m in excellent health.”
The Voice Of Health Speaks
This study is shocking!
With a margin of error of +/- 2%, the study clearly demonstrates that most people believe they are healthy even while actively being treated for serious health problems.
This is like someone claiming to be a millionaire, while being evicted from their apartment and having their car repossessed, the very idea is unsettling, yet according to the study, when it comes to health, ignoring reality may be the rule not the exception.
Source Of The Problem
I believe the reason so many can be so confused about what it means to be healthy is because there’s no clear-cut definition of what it means to be healthy and no simple, self-assessing way to tell for yourself just how healthy you really are.
Two Ways To Measure Your Health
Doctors measure health by the numbers.
Blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, body weight, body fat percentage, liver enzymes and so on, everything has a number and if your number is outside of the healthy range, any medical doctor will tell you, you are not in good health and you need to take corrective action before a serious health problem develops.
Never argue with the numbers, if they are out of balance, something is wrong, or in the process of going wrong.
But great numbers don’t automatically mean great health.
If you’re numbers are good, but you’re overweight, tired, fatigued, stressed, plagued with aches and pains, and so on, you are NOT in good health and that’s that.
Dr. Russell’s Rules For Achieving Excellent Health
Health By The Numbers: For excellent health, you need health-by-the-numbers. Your blood pressure, body weight, body fat percentage, and so on must be in a healthy range.
Feel Great: When you’re in excellent health, you feel exceptionally well practically all the time.
Become A Student: You’ve got to be a student of health and make improving your health a conscious priority, something you act on every single day.
Harness The Power: You must put the power of diet, nutrition, and lifestyle and put it to work for you. This is what my 5 Steps To Optimal Health Program is all about. See http://www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com
Change Your Mind: You’ve got to change your mind about what it means to be healthy and about what you’re willing to happily do to develop excellent health.
What’s Next For You…
Your next step is simple and you’re already headed in the right direction. Keep reading, keep learning, and be willing to take action on what you learn.
There’s a LOT more to say on this subject so be sure and subscribe to the free newsletter so you receive notification as new information becomes available.
A Final Thought
If modern medical research has taught us anything, it’s proven that most of the worst health problems are related to insulin-related abnormalities, and insulin-related abnormalities are related to being overweight and having a high percentage of body fat.
If you are overweight one of the best things, you can possibly do for your health is to slim down and firm up and I believe your best possible resource to guide you to lose weight and keep it off for life is the 5 Steps To Optimal Health Program. Learn more at: http://www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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Hydrogenation is a high-heat, chemical process that changes the molecular structure of a vegetable oil in such a way that it will practically never spoil, which is great for increasing product shelf-life, but terrible for anyone who actually consumes a product containing the plasticized oil.
To hydrogenate oil you take a natural, healthy vegetable oil and heat it to over 400 degrees and then bubble hydrogen through it for several hours in the presence of a metallic catalyst, typically nickel or aluminum.
The hydrogenation process kills all biological activity and changes the oil molecularly by causing carbon atoms in the oil to bond differently.
Hydrogenated oil is slow to spoil because, after hydrogenation, there’s nothing biologically active left to spoil. It’s not far from the truth to describe hydrogenated oil as “plastic oil”, and it doesn’t take a health expert to know that food made with plastic cooking oil can’t be good for you.
There’s mounting evidence these distorted cooking oils cause a number of serious health problems. In addition to containing metallic residue from the aluminum and nickel, the once healthful oil is molecularly deformed and transformed into what is called a trans-fatty acid, and trans-fatty acids are BAD for you!
The chemically distorted trans-fatty acid molecule has an extremely odd shape and does not fit into the pattern of human biochemistry. Its presence disrupts the natural flow of things in your body; like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.
Other molecules that don’t fit naturally in human biochemistry include pesticides, synthetics chemicals, and certain drugs; these substances are specifically designed to DISRUPT the normal flow of electrons and cause cells to behave abnormally.
HYDROGENATED OILS AND TRANSFATTY ACIDS ARE BAD FOR YOU
There’s no doubt about it, hydrogenated oils are bad for you and are linked in research to health problems including; high blood pressure, heart disease, an increased tendency toward allergies and reduced immune function and more.
According to the Harvard Education Report on Trans Fatty Acids, “By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually.”
I don’t know about you, but this is more than enough evidence for me to avoid these plastic oils like the plague Here are some tips on how.
Before you can just say no to eating plastic cooking oil, you have to know all the sneaky ways it can end up in your home, on your plate and in your mouth.
Most cooking oils are hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated and that means they are super-rich in transfatty acids. Corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, and canola oil (unless cold pressed and sold refrigerated) are all hydrogenated.
The label may say zero trans-fatty acids, but it’s not true.
First, transfatty acids are an unavoidable molecular structure made during the process of hydrogenation. They are made as the natural result of heating a vegetable oil to 400+ degrees in the presence of an aluminum or nickel catalyst.
Second, labeling laws today, (in my opinion), are little more than a License To Lie. On a label zero is not zero. The law permits a manufacturer to list an item as having a ZERO amount of something as long as it contains less than a certain amount per serving.
Saying a hydrogenated oil has a zero transfatty acid content is like saying you can have water with a zero oxygen content… when you understand the science, you know the statement is patently absurd.
You may notice aluminum and nickel are never listed on the labels of these oils, yet, like transfatty acids, aluminum and nickel are a necessary byproduct of chemical process. The reason these toxic metals are not listed in the ingredients is because they are not additives… they are simply used in the manufacturing process.
In other words, if something is not intended to be part of the product it does not have to be listed in the ingredients. Sounds like a license to lie to me.
The only reason trans-fatty acid content is now listed on labels is because doctors and health activists finally persuaded congress to change the law and force manufacturers to include trans fat content on the nutrition panel label.
Buyer Beware…
Hydrogenated oils are added to hundreds of products including bread, crackers, cookies, cakes, snack foods, dips, spreads, dressings, margarine, candy, and many more.
Do you ever eat out?
You know those little tubs of margarine you get with the bread, rolls or crackers?
Odds are close to 100% that the bread, rolls or crackers are made with hydrogenated oils and, unless the tub contains pure butter, the margarine or whipped spread is nothing but pure hydrogenated oil.
What about the little tubs of non-dairy coffee creamer?
Read the labels and you’ll discover they contain nothing more than hydrogenated oil and preservatives.
Most popular salad dressings, like blue cheese, thousands islands, Roquefort, honey mustard and others, (olive oil and vinegar excluded), are made with hydrogenated oil. Whether you go out to eat or dine at home, if you dump that dressing on your otherwise healthy salad you’re loading up with transfatty acids.
Ever have breakfast out?
If you do, beware of the scrambled eggs and omelets. Why? Because it’s common practice to make scrambled eggs and omelets out of an egg mixture poured from a carton instead of cracking fresh eggs out of an eggshell and carton eggs contains hydrogenated oil, corn syrup and preservatives.
One chain restaurant, known for its international pancake selection, actually adds pancake batter to the carton eggs as an extender to make omelets larger, thicker, and fluffier. Unsuspecting customers think they’re getting a great omelet are getting sugar, flour, hydrogenated oil and transfatty acids along with their eggs.
Do you enjoy hard candy?
Those little cellophane wrapped morsels of flavor are made entirely of sugar and hydrogenated oils.
Sucking on hard candy throughout the day is like being hooked up to a transfatty acid I-V drip all day long, no wonder heart disease is such a tremendous problem. By the way, not just hard candy that contains hydrogenated oils. Practically ALL candy is made with hydrogenated oil. Read the labels and see for yourself.
HYDROGENATED OIL PROMOTES HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE & HEART DISEASE – HERE’S HOW WE THINK IT HAPPENS
Imagine a perfectly smooth, round marble like you used to play with when you were a kid; now imaging rolling that smooth marble around between the palms of you hands. Nice and smooth, no problems right?
Molecules of vegetable oil, BEFORE hydrogenation, are smooth and symmetrical, no jagged edges, no sharp corners, nothing to stick, scratch, poke, or damage. If you could roll the molecules in your hand, they would be smooth just like the marble.
Hydrogenation distorts those smooth molecules and produces molecules with a claw-like appendage. That claw sticks out and scratches or scrapes anything it comes into contact with, including the inside of your veins and arteries, scratching, scraping and doing damage fom the inside.
If you get a scratch, the first thing you do is put some medicine on it and cover with a Band-Aid.
Natures’ Band-Aid for scratches and scrapes inside arteries is called LDL cholesterol.
When you consume hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated you load your blood up with molecules that have jagged little claws that scratch and scrape the inside of the arteries and cause LDL cholesterol to be deposited there to help heal the scrape.
LDL cholesterol is extra sticky and acts like a magnet or like flypaper, attracting every little bit of particulate matter and debris. The result is arterial occlusion, which is a fancy way of saying hardening of the arteries.
If the blood pathway narrows, the heart must beat harder and harder to supply blood. Narrower arteries and a heart beating harder and harder is high blood pressure, and high blood pressure sets the stage for potentially life threatening health problems.
AVOID HYDROGENATED OILS LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Olive oil, peanut oil and coconut oil are not hydrogenated and they are naturally stable with a naturally long shelf life.
In upcoming posts, I’ll reveal the virtues of each of the healthy oils, So stay tuned!
If you or someone you care about want’s to lose some weight, take a look at my 5 Steps To Optimal Health Program. A lot of people have benefit, so check it out here: http://www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com
One more thing… people who sign up for Health News You Can Use frequently gain free access to content not published on this site. Check it out.
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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Carbohydrates. To eat or not to eat, that is the question!
What Is A Carbohydrate
In the simplest terms, a carbohydrate is a molecule made entirely of sugars that are linked together like a pieces of chain. The longer the chain the more complex the carbohydrate, the shorter the chain, the simpler the carbohydrate.
The difference between "simple" and "complex" carbohydrates is the number of different sugars that form the carbohydrate chain.
Simple carbohydrates, those with just a few different sugars linked together, are quickly broken down into glucose and sent directly into your blood causing a sharp and immediate rise in blood sugar.
Complex carbohydrates take longer to break down because their sugar chain is longer and needs more digesting – but your body eventually breaks the sugars down and as they are broken down they are converted into glucose and dumped into your blood causing a steady and prolonged rise in blood sugar.
From a blood sugar standpoint, the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates is complex carbs enter the blood stream slower and effect blood sugar longer than the simple ones.
Simple Carbohydrates
Simple carbohydrates include things like sugar, candy, soft drinks, cakes, pies, cookies, all refined flour products including white bread, bagels and crackers, rice, snack foods, pop corn, and so on.
Complex Carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates include things like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and milk. Essentially, if the food is not meat, chicken, fish, cheese, or bacon, then it’s a carbohydrate.
The National Research Council has never established an RDA for carbohydrates because your body can operate just fine on a virtually carbohydrate free diet.
No one has ever been diagnosed with a carbohydrate deficiency.
Although carbohydrates are a potential source of energy, carbohydrates serve no vital purpose in your body, not structure and not function. Carbohydrates constitute less than 1% of the total body mass for an average 150 pound person.
Except for your brain, every organ and muscle in your body runs best on ketones, which are byproducts of fat metabolism. The brain needs glucose; however, your body can instantly make glucose for the brain directly from both fat and protein proving again that carbohydrates are not essential.
Some Carbohydrate Foods Are Excellent
I am not suggesting you eliminate carbohydrates completely from your diet - that would be foolish. Many of the healthiest, most nutritious foods on the planet, foods you should enjoy every day, like fruits and vegetables, consist almost entirely of carbohydrates and fiber.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals plus a variety of micro-nutrients that provide you with a number of important health-enhancing benefits.
The Problem With Eating A Lot Of Carbs
The problem with carbohydrates is not that they exist. The problem is highly processed and refined carbohydrate foods cause a rapid rise in blood sugar and initiate an insulin response that leads to weight gain, food cravings and always feeling of near constant hunger.
Nature loves balance and anything high in carbohydrates upset that balance, spike your blood sugar, activate powerful hormones to counteract the blood sugar spike and, over time, those hormones can seriously damage your health.
The only rational approach to carbohydrates is to enjoy the ones that do not spike your blood sugar so natural, healthy balance is maintained and that means get your carbohydrate calories primarily if not exclusively from fresh green vegetables, fresh seasonal fruit, and other foods high in fiber and low on the glycemic index.
There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the value of eating a diet high in carbohydrates. Weight loss gurus have advocated low fat, high carb diets for over 20 years and during each of those years obesity, heart disease, and diabetes have have become more common and widespread.
Trying to lose weight following a low fat, and subsequently, a high carbohydrate diet is like trying to put out a forest fire by dowsing it with gasoline. It won’t work.
To lose it and keep it off, you have to reset your metabolism and shift it out of the fat-making, fat-storing mode and into the burn-stored-fat-for-energy mode. Only then will you be on your way to tank-top arms and film star abs.
Re-setting your metabolism in favor of burning stored body fat is a specific and knowable process and one of the most important steps in that process is to understand how carbohydrates affect your body
I advise all my weight loss clients to get their carbs from fresh green and brightly colored vegetables and fresh seasonal fruit and leave the rest alone. And typically, their results are excellent.
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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The presidential campaigns of Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain breathed an unpublicized sigh of relief today after Dr. Russell J. Martino officially ended the popular grass roots movement aimed at putting him in the White House.
Dr. Martino, publisher of Dr. Russell’s Health And Weight Loss Blog and the popular 5 Steps To Optimal Health Health And Weight Loss Program, expressed disbelief that the movement, (which he just recently became aware of), had gained such widespread support, especially considering that he is a complete unknown on the national political stage and has never aspired to elected public office.
While he regrets any disappointment his withdrawal from the race may cause, Dr. Martino stated for the record that he believes he can do more good by continuing to work with individuals in his elite weight loss coaching practice and can better serve the country by continuing to publish excellent health and weight loss information on his popular health and weight loss blog.
When asked if he would consider the job of vice president for either Senator Obama or Senator McCain, Dr. Martino assured me he was not now, nor would he be a candidate in any capacity in the 2008 election, however he would consider the job of US Surgeon General or would enthusiastically accept a cabinet position in either administration with responsibility of slimming down America and dramatically lowering the cost of health care by popularizing the idea that eating healthy is cool, eating poorly is dumb, and nothing is smarter, cooler or sexier, than getting yourself into excellent shape so you are ready to meet life head-on and do it with a smile.
Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
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Getting into excellent health, like getting good at anything, requires commitment, focus and a willingness to take the right action repeatedly over time.
My health and weight loss program, 5 Steps To Optimal Health, comes with an Action Manual loaded with inspirational sayings and memory joggers to remind you to stay focused and choose health every day in every way.
Weather you’re trying to lose weight, lower your blood pressure or cholesterol naturally or you just want better health, focusing on your health can pay big dividends.
Here are a few thoughts and ideas from the 5 Steps Action Manual for you to enjoy.
Print this list out, read it over every day and you’ll be suprised and delighted at what happens. Hint: Your health may improve noticeably!
Click To Listen
Choose Health - Say YES to taking a walk before or after dinner.
Choose Health – Say YES to fresh berries and a little half & half for dessert.
Choose Health - Say no to cakes, pies and desserts that pack on the pounds.
Choose Health – Say YES to delicious protein meals that speed up metabolism and help burn stored body fat.
Say no to bread, rice, pasta and high carb foods that stop fat burning and cause you to make and store new fat.
Say YES to fresh green vegetables and salads loaded with health-building, blood-pressure lowering, fat-burning vitamins, minerals and enzymes.
Say YES to an apple a day. Try it and find out for yourself if what they say is true.
Choose Health – Say no to fast food, junk food, chips, candy, soft drinks, cookies and nutritionally bankrupt, empty calorie foods.
Choose Health - Say no to, soft drinks, sweet tea, juice drinks or any drink with artificial sweeteners.
Say YES to resistance exercise that builds attractive, firm, supple muscle that makes you stronger and more able to enjoy life.
Choose Health – Say no to television, video games or anything that keeps you sitting still for long periods of time.
Choose Health – Say YES to gardening, swimming, golfing, bowling, skating hiking, weight lifting, exercise classes, and anything that gets you moving.
Choose Health – Say YES to going to the gym, park, beach, river, forest or anywhere outdoors where you get to move around and enjoy yourself.
Say YES to stimulating conversations with friends about health, weight loss, and nutrition.
The Choice Is Yours… So what’s your choice?
Choose Health - Say no to anything the riles you up, spikes your blood pressure, or makes you angry.
If talk-radio upsets you, flush it from your mind and focus on health instead. Listen to the 5 Steps Program instead of the radio and you’ll be AMAZED at all the ways you benefit.
Choose Health - Say YES to sharing what you learn about health with like-minded friends.
Choose Health - Say no to spending time with ANYONE who puts you down, criticizes you, or who is always negative and tells you, you won’t reach your goal.
Say no to negativity. Say no to worry. Say no to fear. Focus on what you want. Spend your time doing what it takes to get it.
Choose Health – Say YES to having a clear vision and a vivid picture in your mind of exactly what you want.
The Choice Is Yours… So whats your choice?
Choose Health – Say YES to a fit, healthy body and a great new wardrobe.
Choose Health – Say YES to listening to the 5 Steps Audios so often you can tell the story yourself.
Choose Health – Say YES to going through 5 Steps Program with a friend so you can compare notes and benefit from the program together.
Choose Health – Say YES to the only video game you can play for hours and still lose weight, Dance-Dance Revolution, available at department stores or online.
Choose Health – Say YES to writing a clear, vivid description of your goals and setting a timeline for their accomplishment.
Choose Health – Say YES to never again making an excuse for not achieving a result. You’ve got the power!
Choose Health – Say YES to the fact that success is a process, not an event and that you follow the process that creates your success joyfully every day.
Choose Heath – Say YES to the fact that you value your health and are excited to do what it takes to have what you want.
Regardless of what you crave, food cravings are your body’s cry for nutrients… not for potato chips, hard candy or chocolate chip cookies.
Your brain constantly monitors your blood for nutrients. If a nutrient is missing or in short supply, you start to feel hunger.
Answer this cry for nutrition with nutrient-deficient junk food and hunger quickly returns and your craving is stronger than ever.
Giving in to a craving and eating a pound of spicy raisins or licorice flavored marshmallows makes matters worse because, until you get the nutrients you need, cravings are never satisfied and, the more you eat the more you’ll crave.
Depending On Food For Quick Energy Makes Cravings Worse
Using food as a source of quick energy makes matters worse because, as energy starts to drop, you automatically reach for a soft drink, chips or whatever you use to spike your blood sugar AND you’ll go out of your way to make sure that food is available.
Sugar and carbohydrate cravings are a cry for essential nutrients, especially essential fatty acids. These cravings are quickly eliminated, (in just a few days), with proper essential fatty acid supplementation, which can be as simple as taking a tablespoon of flax seed oil twice a day.
A craving for fatty foods suggests a deficiency in healthy essential fatty acids.
Craving for salt or salty foods may be caused by a sodium deficiency or dehydration.
Cravings for chocolate may suggest a vitamin B and/or a magnesium deficiency… either way, taking a good, bio-available mineral supplement and flax seed oil ends the craving fast.
Sugar and carbohydrate craving can be completely eliminated in a few days by supplementing your diet with flax seed oil, which is high in omega 3 essential fatty acids. Even the most stubborn sweet tooth will vanish with proper efa and mineral supplementation.
Using food for fast energy causes cravings to grow stronger.
Relying on sugar, fat or caffeine to jump-start the day sets the stage for raging nutritional deficiency and the onset of powerful food cravings that easily control your behavior.
Food Cravings And Emotions
The emotional side of food cravings has less to do with memories of ice cream and childhood and more to do with how certain foods affect brain chemistry.
KEY POINT: Comfort foods, like cookies, bread, cake, ice cream, and so on stimulate the production of dopamine, which has a very relaxing effect on the body. People who get upset often turn to food for “comfort” because eating high carbohydrate comfort food floods the brain with dopamine and dopamine can calm you down in a matter of minutes.
You may not be able to reign in your emotions, but you can always make different choices. Next time grab a handful of almonds or pistachios or some string cheese or an apple.
Stress-related food cravings amount to little more than a bad habit. Try squeezing a tennis ball instead of eating. Better yet, pay attention to what distress you and do something about it… or at least change your response to it.
Chocolate Can Be Powerfully Addictive Because…
Besides stimulating dopamine, chocolate contains phenylethlamine, which stimulates the production of endorphins, which are the most powerful, internally produced, FEEL GOOD chemicals known to man. Chocolate also contains trace amounts of THC which is the active component in marijuana… yes it’s true.
Combined, dopamine, endorphins and trace amounts of THC produce a POWERFUL relaxing, “feel good” combination, which may explain why so many people LOVE chocolate.
FOOD CRAVINGS AND PREGNANCY
There is no medically or nutritionally meaningful distinction to be made here. The physiology of food addiction is essentially the same for everyone and being pregnant does not change the fact that a food craving is your body’s cry for nutrients.
KEY POINT: The connection between pregnancy and weird food addictions comes primarily, if not exclusively, from the fact that pregnant women have a MUCH GREATER need for essential nutrients and, if they fail to get those nutrient, their body SCREAMS for nourishment… and sometimes that cry for nutrition is misinterpreted as a cry for pickles and ice cream or fried banana sandwiches dipped in Thousand Island dressing.
Cravings may be stronger and more compelling during pregnancy because Mom eats for two. The increased demand is for nutrients, not calories. Baby ALWAYS gets what baby needs and Mom gets leftovers. If there aren’t enough vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids and essential fatty acids left for Mom… Mom develops raging food cravings that may drive her to eat no telling what.
During pregnancy Mom’s hormones are more like a tornado and less like a lazy afternoon at the beach. Raging hormones that are common in pregnancy, may affect both taste and smell.
A pregnant woman may lose her taste for something she normally loves and gain a taste for something she would normally never touch. After the delivery things usually return to normal pretty fast.
If cravings are weirder than pistachio ice cream and pickles, (like dirt, paint chips, or the smell of chemicals, these cravings are NOT nutritional based and may be symptoms of a disease called Pica; If cravings are too weird, tell your doctor, who will know exactly what to do.
Healthy Choices Taste Good Too
Instead of soft drinks: try mineral water with a squeeze of lemon or lime, low sodium V-8 or herbal tea.
Instead of candy: try grapes, blueberries, fresh strawberries or an apple.
Instead of junk food snacks: have string-cheese, plain yogurt with fresh berries, celery sticks with a little almond butter, raw carrots or a handful of nuts.
BOTTOM LINE ON FOOD CRAVINGS
Cravings are cry for nutrients, NOT a cry for ice cream, soft drinks, potato chips, candy or pretzels dipped in spicy ketchup. .
Not giving into cravings and supplementing with flax seed oil and essential minerals will eliminate most food cravings in a matter of days.
Emotional food addictions are PRIMARILY the result of the foods affect on brain chemistry.
Good diet, proper supplementation with essential minerals and essential fatty acids and exercise effectively eliminates most cravings, most of the time for males or females, pregnant or not.
Note: This post is a summary of Talking Points from my recent appearance on CBS Television discussing food cravings.
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If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and decided to lose weight, only to find yourself heavier and more disgusted with your weight a year later… you’re not alone.
If you’re like 78% of the respondents in a recent study published in the Journal Of The American Medical Association, you believe you’re in pretty good health, even if you have high blood pressure, are overweight, diabetic, and taking prescription medication. 
WHAT IS HYDROGENATION? 
Good health is a choice you can make. 
Regardless of what you crave, food cravings are your body’s cry for nutrients… not for potato chips, hard candy or chocolate chip cookies. 
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