Category Archives: Diet And Food

Diet, Medieval Latin Dieta, German Reichstag, legislature of the German empire, or Holy Roman Empire, from the 12th century to 1806.

In the Carolingian empire, meetings of the nobility and higher clergy were held during the royal progresses, or court journeys, as occasion arose, to make decisions affecting the good of the state. After 1100, definitively, the emperor called the Diet to meet in an imperial or episcopal city within the imperial frontiers. The members of the Diet were originally the princes, including bishops of princely status, but counts and barons were included later. After 1250 the representatives of imperial and episcopal cities were recognized as members of the Diet, and at this time the electoral princes, whose duty it was to elect the emperor, began to meet separately, a division formally confirmed in the Golden Bull of Charles IV (1356), which established the number of the electoral princes as seven. (See elector.)

Beginning in the 12th century the power of the emperor gradually declined; by 1489 the Diet was divided into three colleges that met separately: (1) the electoral college of seven lay and ecclesiastical princes presided over by the imperial chancellor, the archbishop of Mainz; (2) the college of the princes with 33 ecclesiastical princes and 61 lay princes, presided over by the archbishop of Salzburg or the archduke of Austria; (3) the college of the cities presided over by the representative of the city in which the Diet met. The college of cities was separated eventually into the Rhine and Swabian divisions, the former having 14 towns and the latter 37.

The decisions taken separately by the three colleges were combined in an agreed statement the text of which was sent to the emperor as the resolution of the empire (conclusum imperii). All the decisions of the Diet forming the resolution were called the recess of the empire (Reichsabschied). The emperor could ratify part of the recess or the whole of it, but he could not modify the words of the recess. Until the 17th century the Diet possessed effective legal power, including the decision of war or peace, but the Peace of Westphalia (1648) spelled the final breakdown in the conception of a single German empire united by its members common aims. The three-college Diet was replaced by an assembly of sovereign princes, usually represented by envoys, indifferent to the emperors wishes and divided in religious and political aims. The Diet of Regensburg of 1663 prolonged itself indefinitely into permanent session and thereafter was called the Regensburg Diet, or the Everlasting Diet (Immerwhrender Reichstag). The emperor was now represented by a prince of the empire as his commissioner; a jurist was appointed as subcommissioner; and the elector of Mainz, archchancellor of the empire, had charge of the business of the meetings of the Diet. This assembly of representatives without legislative power disappeared when the Holy Roman Empire collapsed under Napoleons attack in 1806.

The name Reichstag was revived in 1871 for the legislature of the German Empire and retained by the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich; the name was abandoned in the two Germanies after World War II.

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Diet | German government | Britannica.com

Hanna_photo/TLpixs/Moving Moment/bigacis/ShutterstockHad the runs or feeling queasy? You might have tried home remedies for diarrhea or morning sickness, but youre still not feeling up to scratch. Maybe youve heard that plain foods, like the BRAT diet, might help? Heres what you need to know.

The BRAT consists of eating only B-R-A-Tbananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. The BRAT diet originated in the 20s, explains Pat Salber, MD, founder of The Doctor Weighs In. There was this idea that when you have gastroenteritis or nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, you needed to have something bland to eat. And what could be more bland than bananas, rice, applesauce and toast? So the BRAT diet was recommended, especially for children, as a good way to nurture the body back to full health.

The BRAT diet has fallen out of favor in recent years. While theres nothing inherently wrong with the foods, the diet is low in protein, fiber, and fat, which means even though its easy to digest (and thats kind of the main idea), it doesnt contain enough good nutrition to help your body recover from illness. In fact, studies showed that people who followed the diet for long periods actually became malnourished. Because of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends the BRAT diet for children, advising instead that they should get back to eating normal foods as soon as possible.

The first line of defense against stomach flu is to avoid contracting it in the first place. Practicing good hygiene will go a long way towards preventing the spread of the illness. Dr. Salber also strongly recommends getting your baby vaccinated against rotavirus. Its a common cause of diarrhea and its preventable with a vaccine, she advises. Its a really safe and very effective vaccine.

The most important thing is to stay hydrated. The body loses fluids quickly through diarrhea and vomiting, so drinking water, oral rehydration solutions, or sports drinks can help replenish your stores. Mild diarrhea wont require medication (and you should never give it to children), but in some cases, OTC medication may help. Try these home remedies for an upset stomach. If your symptoms are very severe, see your doctor. The really serious diarrheas, like cholera or some of the bacterial diarrheas you can get, may need antibiotics, says Dr. Salber. Once the worst symptoms have passed, Dr. Salbers advice is also clear: Go back onto your normal diet as soon as you can tolerate it.

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Here's What You Need to Know About the BRAT Diet - Reader's Digest

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's aphorism "Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are" is one of the most overused cliches in food culture, appearing everywhere from the opening sequence of Iron Chef to T-shirts and coffee mugs. But to the culinary historian Laura Shapiro, learning what someone ate is just the beginning of unlocking his or her identity.

"Tell me what you eat," Shapiro imagines herself asking her subjects, "and then tell me whether you like to eat alone, and if you really taste the flavors of food or ignore them, or forget all about them a minute later. . . . Please, keep talking . . . and pretty soon, unlike Brillat-Savarin, I won't have to tell you what you are. You'll be telling me."

In short, you can't tell a life story without telling a food story, though it's astonishingto Shapiro, anywayhow many biographers try. Food provides a new way to consider people's lives, not just their activities, but also their needs and how they care for others. This is especially true of women, who have, historically, been called upon to feed others. Shapiro's three earlier books, Perfection Salad, Something From the Oven, and Julia Child: A Life, all considered the lives and work of women who changed the way Americans ate during the 20th century. Her latest, What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories, is an experiment in straight-up biography: the food stories of six famous women, only one of whom cooked professionally. Some never cooked at allor ate, for that matter. But not eating is part of a food story too.

Her subjects are Eleanor Roosevelt, Eva Braun, diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, novelist Barbara Pym, and Rosa Lewis, the Cockney scullery maid who became one of the most celebrated caterers and hoteliers of Edwardian London. Each woman left a lengthy paper trail, which Shapiro followed faithfully to the very end, through archives and libraries on two continents. The amount of research that must have gone into this book is staggering: Wordworth's barely legible early 19th-century diaries through Gurley Brown's chatty, heavily italicized editor's letters, with detours through endless menus, memoirs, correspondence, cookbooks, newspaper clippings, histories, and much, much more. Though each chapter is fewer than 50 pages, these aren't biographical sketches: they are complete portraits.

Naturally, after spending so much time with people, even people who are dead, you tend to feel close to them (as Shapiro, a former alt-weekly journalist, points out, dead people never hang up on you). You want to refer to them informally, by their first names, as Shapiro does. Some, it's obvious, were more congenial companions than others. Shapiro appears to feel the strongest kinship with Pym, who took notes at restaurants on what other people ate and filled her novels with meticulously described meals. "Tea plays so many symbolic roles," Shapiro writes, "that another writer would have had to create a whole slew of walk-on characters to say what Barbara says with a cup."

She also feels a deep appreciation for Wordsworth, who for years selflessly took care of her brother, William, and his family, during which she was determined to find joy and blessedness in every aspect of her life, even a disgusting black pudding. Dorothy discovered the upside of invalidism in late middle agenow everyone had to care for her for a change and, especially, cater to her incessant demands for food to satisfy her feelings of "faintness and hollowness" as she slid deeper into dementia.

This is far more understandable and less reprehensible than how Eva Braun, who became enamored of Hitler when she was just 17 (her first words to him, incidentally, were "Guten Appetit" as she served him Leberkse, a Bavarian sausage), spent the second half of her life willfully creating her own glamorous reality, in which Hitler didn't call her because he was a neglectful boyfriend, not because he was busy invading most of Europe and killing millions of people. "For Eva," Shapiro writes, "who was looking forward to starring in a movie about herself when the war was overHitler had promisedlife itself was tantamount to a glass of champagne."

Braun drank champagne because she was on a perpetual diet. So was Gurley Brown, who discovered dieting in the summer of 1959 at the ripe old age of 37. She was a successful ad copywriter, able to pay cash for a Mercedes-Benz 190 SL, but she was a failure as a woman because David Brown, whom she had targeted as the ideal husband, refused to set a wedding date. The Serenity Cocktail ("pineapple chunks, soybean oil, calcium lactate, vanilla, fresh milk, powdered milk, and brewer's yeast") did its magic, thoughthey finally made it to city hall that Septemberand after that, her greatest joy in eating came from the discipline of counting calories. Her favorite comfort food was sugar-free Jell-O prepared with one cup instead of four so, Shapiro writes, "the dense, rubbery results would deliver the strongest possible hint of chemical sweetening."

Shapiro is bewildered, but also amused, by Gurley Brown's refusal to reconcile her girlish self-image with the powerful editor and businesswoman she truly was. (Her chapter is, at certain points, laugh-out-loud funny.) Gloria Steinem once begged Helen "to say something strong and positive about herselfnot coy, not flirtatious, but something that reflected the serious, complicated person who was in there, under the wig and makeup." Helen tried, Shapiro reports, she really did, but the best she could do was "I'm skinny!"

The most poignant food story belongs to Roosevelt. At times it's also nearly as funny as Gurley Brown's. This is largely because of Henrietta Nesbitt, the inexperienced and, as it turned out, inept Hyde Park neighbor Roosevelt hired to be the White House housekeeper and who tortured FDR and various guests for a dozen years with overcooked meat and watery prune pudding. Other biographers, such as Blanche Wiesen Cook, have proposed that Roosevelt herself was indifferent to food and that Mrs. Nesbitt was her ongoing revenge against FDR, for both his 1918 affair that destroyed her entire sense of identity and, later, for forcing her to assume the role of First Lady. Shapiro sees it an entirely different way.

"Yes, asceticism was a strong aspect of her personality," she writes, "but what's striking about her culinary asceticism is that she practiced it chiefly in context of being wife to FDR. Inside the White House, she was apathetic about what was on her plate. Outside, we get glimpses of a very different Eleanor. . . . It was Eleanor, away from FDR and ensconced with the people she cherished, who discovered the delights of appetite." Those were the meals, Shapiro writes, that Eleanor associated with love. It's a devastating commentary on the Roosevelts' marriage. But it also shows the power of a food story. v

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The stories of six famous women, as told through their diets - Chicago Reader

In the 1980s, health and nutrition experts waged a war against dietary fats.

Food companies began to cash in by creating "fat-free" versions of popular foods.

That trend continued into the 1990s and even into the new millennium.

Now, a growing number of health experts, including some doctors and nutritionists, are finding that fat may not be the enemy after all, rather shifting the focus on reducing the consumption of too many carbohydrates.

The shift in philosophy has caused a rise in popularity of a diet called the ketogenic diet, or keto, for short.

The ketogenic diet is a variation of a low-carbohydrate diet, which encourages the process of ketosis. That, in turn, utilizes fat as the body's fuel rather than carbohydrates.

"The level of carbohydrates that are consumed for a ketogenic diet are super-low," said Dr. John Thomas, owner and physician at On Point Primary Care. "Usually carb intake is at 5 percent, versus the normal diet of 45 to 65 percent in the makeup of macronutrients of proteins, carbohydrates and fats."

Thomas explained that carbohydrate consumption has been what he believes to be a leading cause of many health problems.

"All in all, we just consume, as Americans, way more carbohydrates than we need," he said.

A ketogenic diet often is a more extreme reduction of carbs. Thomas said that this isn't always necessary to help.

He recommends a less drastic approach.

"The benefits for most people are just reducing their consumption to maybe moderate levels of carbohydrates and not the extreme," he said.

Unlike other low-carb diets, the ketogenic diet focuses more on consuming a larger portion of fats, a moderate amount of protein and a very low amount of carbohydrates.

"Often times the ketogenic diet has between 70 and 80 percent fat consumption, and proteins are between 25 and 30 percent," Thomas said.

The key for a ketogenic diet to work is to trigger ketosis.

Carbohydrates are used as energy in the body.

From simple sugars to complex carbs, the body relies on the macronutrient as fuel.

However, eating too many carbs causes the body to store fat at a greater rate.

"Our bodies have a tendency to burn carbohydrates pretty rapidly, before we're going to burn protein and fat," Thomas said. "Carbs aren't bad, they serve a purpose. Too much might be a problem and that's where I say we eat too much."

In a ketogenic diet, the low amount of carbs causes the body to adapt to a new fuel utilization.

"You're not really going to break down your muscle tissue unless you're in a starvation mode," Thomas said. "But, we have plenty of fat stores, most all of us do. By lowering carbs drastically, we begin a survival process called nutritional ketosis where we start to liberate fat, typically from the liver, and we'll break that up and utilize it as fuel."

The process produces ketones in the liver, which in turn act like carbs in many ways. Ketones are transported throughout the body, providing fuel.

"The ketones will allow all these cells that normally use glucose to run on ketones," Thomas said. "This allows you to push whatever glucose you do have to the brain."

Chiefly, people use the keto diet to lose weight.

By using body fat as the energy source, the body's insulin (the hormone responsible for fat storage) levels drop greatly.

"If you're burning fat in that way, there's a tendency to lose weight," Thomas said. "Weight loss is probably the major reason people are getting into this."

The ketogenic diet has also been shown to help control blood sugar levels.

Though there are not long-term studies, research has shown several significant benefits to ketogenic, and other low-carb diets.

"We have studies that show that this diet improves blood sugar and lowers insulin levels," Thomas said. "It can lower high blood pressure, decrease weight and improve cholesterol, decrease triglycerides and can reverse fatty-liver diseases."

Keto could help treat diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes; however, there are no studies that show long-term lasting effects.

Though the diet is high in fat, it is recommended that a majority of that which is consumed should be from natural sources.

Peanut butter, avocado, some nuts, fish and grass-fed meat such as beef, lamb, goat and venison are recommended staples of the diet.

"The one thing I think is important, and what I try to emphasize when a patient is consuming a little bit more fat, is that those fats are healthy fats instead of high fats," Thomas said. "I like to emphasize the healthy benefits of omega-3 acids."

Oils, too, can be a source of such healthy fats.

"Coconut oils, olive oils ... those should be emphasized as fats to obtain," Thomas said.

High-fat foods, like bacon, can be eaten, but in moderation.

"Bacon would be considered an edible item in the ketogenic diet," Thomas said. "But, it'd have to be mixed with the healthy fats."

While eating low-carbs, it is suggested that the carbs that are consumed come from leafy, green vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, chives, kale, celery, stalk, asparagus, cucumber and summer squash.

A drawback to the diet is what is often called the keto flu.

"It can be presented with headache, fatigue and muscle cramping," Thomas said. "Those are potential side effects with ketogenic diets, or any of the lower carbohydrate diets."

Keto can cause a significant drop in water retention, and without proper hydration, can cause dehydration.

"We encourage water intake, as these symptoms could be secondary to dehydration," Thomas said. "Some will also recommend additional sodium in their diet during that period, or as needed if you're having these symptoms. Again, I caution that sodium introduction may interact with people who have high blood pressure."

These symptoms typically last for only a couple of weeks.

Thomas said the symptoms are similar to having a withdrawal.

"They're similar effects to when people take too much caffeine," he said. "People have severe migraines because of the withdrawal of caffeine."

To combat cravings and symptoms, Thomas said to remain consistent and try salt water.

He also recommends consistent medical supervision.

"Always seek advice from your doctor and nutritionist," Thomas said. "That's super important."

If ketosis becomes too great, it can lead to ketoacidosis.

Ketoacidosis is a pathological response which can be life-threatening.

"Even with your typical American diet, we still form ketone bodies, but the amount we make is super small," Thomas said. "We generally see nutritional ketosis occur when the levels rise about 10 times the normal amount, all the way up to 70 times. When blood-ketone body concentration exceeds 250 times normal, that makes our blood become acidotic, and that's where it becomes life-threatening."

Thomas said this does not occur often, and is usually caused by a pre-existing condition.

"It would generally be rare unless there are some issues, like diabetes," he said. "You'd have to be careful, even Type-II diabetics have that possibility of going into acidosis."

Thomas again recommends working closely with a licensed medical technician when attempting to go on a keto diet.

"Any diet, and something like this, you should be monitored by a doctor or nutritionist and followed closely," he said.

Thomas himself is not necessarily a proponent of a keto diet.

He is, however, an advocate of lowering carbohydrates and tailoring one's nutrition to impact long-lasting change.

"What's important is, and what we try to do at our clinic because we can monitor our patients pretty regularly is, we identify and overcome barriers as they happen," he said. "This is typically on a month-to-month basis. I ask every one of my patience if this is something they can do for the rest of their life."

Thomas explains that diets are only truly effective if they can be sustainable. He suggests implementing a complete lifestyle change rather than creating a temporary solution.

Thus, it is important to tailor these diets to the individual.

"We begin to make this diet that is individualized for that person," he said. "It's no longer a low-carb, ketogenic diet. It's your diet within this (low-carb) spectrum that we've worked with by going back and forth and find out what you can live with for the rest of your life."

llyons@chieftain.com

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Ketogenic diet becoming popular weight-loss plan - Pueblo Chieftain

Losing weight is tough. It would be easier if a benevolent someone concerned about your health controlled exactly how much you ate and how often you exercised, right? Thats the situation for most dogs and cats in the United States, and yet the majority are overweight or obese.

As with our own dieting woes, the unpleasant prospect of the simple solution feeding our furry friends less makes us reach for alternative, quick-fix strategies. Many pet parents have turned to radically new menus. These grain-free, all-meat and raw-food diets are inspired by the meals eaten by wild relatives of our fidos and felixes.

But are these diets really better for our pets? Veterinarians and pet nutrition researchers say probably not.

According to clinical veterinary nutritionists at Tufts University, grain-free foods were one of the fastest-growing sectors of the pet food market in 2016. All I ever hear is, oh, on a good diet, its grain free, said Dena Lock, a veterinarian in Texas. The majority of her pet patients are overweight.

Why have these pet diets become so popular?

Its a marketing trend, Lock said.

Grain-free is marketing. Its only marketing, said Cailin Heinze, a small-animal nutritionist at Tufts Universitys Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. A lot of foods market themselves by what theyre not including, and the implication is that the excluded ingredient must be bad.

Grain-free is definitely a marketing technique that has been very successful, said Jennifer Larsen, a clinical nutritionist at the University of California Veterinary School in Davis. (Disclosure: I went to graduate school at the University of California at Davis, but studied plants, not pets.) People think that if they pay a lot for food and there are a lot of exclusions on the bag, that the food is healthier, but theyre buying an idea, she said, not necessarily a superior product.

There is absolutely no data to support the idea that grain-free diets are better for pets, Heinze and Larsen noted.

Some pet owners have a false impression that grains are more likely to cause an allergic reaction, but its much more common for dogs to have allergies to meat than to grain, Heinz said. Chicken, beef, eggs, dairy and wheat are the most common allergies in dogs. And its not that theres anything particularly allergenic about these foods, she said, theyre just the most frequently used ingredients.

Marketing campaigns such as Blue Buffalos Wilderness or Chewys Taste of Wild claim that their grain-free, meat-forward formulations better reflect the ancestral diets of our dogs and cats evolutionary predecessors, but the veterinarians I spoke with also questioned this logic.

For one, our pets wild cousins arent all that healthy. People believe that nature is best, Larsen said, but animals in the wild dont live that long and they dont lead very healthy lives.

For dogs, we know that they have diverged from wolves genetically in their ability to digest starches. Dogs arent wolves, said Robert Wayne, a canine geneticist at UCLA. They have adapted to a human diet. Research in Waynes lab showed that most wolves carry two copies of a gene involved in starch digestion, while dogs have between 3 and 29 copies. According to Heinze, the average dog can easily handle 50 percent of itsdiet as carbs.

For cats, this argument makes a little more sense. Cats are carnivores rather than omnivores, so they have higher protein requirements than dogs, but cats can digest and utilize carbohydrates quite well, said Andrea Fascetti, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of California Veterinary School in Davis.

Many grain-free pet foods are made with starch from potatoes or lentils and they may be higher in fat. If you cut grains but increase calories, your pet is going to gain weight, Heinze said.

Dogs and cats also have a drastically different lifestyle fromwolves or tigers. Pets are almost always spayed and neutered which is in itself a risk factor for obesity. And most live inside or in pens, so their energy needs are reduced dramatically.

In the wild, wolves and feline predators eat the hair, bones and cartilage of their prey, not just meat. For pet owners who do choose to feed their animals an all-meat diet, its essential to add supplements to make sure their pet isnt missing out on key nutrients such as calcium, Fascetti said. And theres the environmental impact to consider: Pets consume a quarter of all animal-derived calories in the United States.

Experts especially caution against feeding pets raw meat. Its not uncommon to find things like salmonella and E. coli and listeria in raw meat, Larsen said. There are a lot of microbes present in our farming systems, and unlike when an animal is hunting in the wild, there are many opportunities for bacteria to contaminate meat between the time an animal is slaughtered and when it reaches our kitchens.

Even if eating contaminated meat doesnt make pets sick, it poses a health risk to pet owners and their children who handle the pet food and waste. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionand the Food and Drug Administrationboth warn against feeding raw meat to your pets, and I really cant advocate it, because its not safe for the whole family, Heinze said.

But what about all those benefits you hear about from feeding a raw diet, like shiny coats and less frequent stools? I cant tell you how many clients send me pictures of poop, Larsen said. But changes to a pets bathroom habits dont have anything to do with their food being raw.

Raw diets tend to be lower in fiber, and high fiber probablyresults in larger stools. But we dont have a sense of whether stool quality and quantity correlate with health, Fascetti said. And that shiny coat probably is because ofhigh fat, Heinze said.

If pet owners wish to formulate their own diets, they should work with their veterinarian and a board-certified nutritionist. If youre feeding your pet a balanced diet such as in a commercial chow, obesity is the biggest nutrition issue pet owners should worry about, Heinze said.

We want our pets to enjoy what theyre eating, so many foods and especially treats are formulated to be high in fat, Larsen said. Most people dont realize that a milk bone has about as many calories as a candy bar, Lock said.

I know the struggle. My own hefty husky mix stares at me with her big brown eyes and licks the window whenever she wants food. Ive taken to calling the dental chews I buy her guilt-a-bones, because I cant help but give her one every time I leave.

But studies have found that feeding dogs to maintain a lean body weight has very positive effects on their overall health and can even increase life span. This is also the case in mice and rats, and we believe that these findings apply to cats as well, Fascetti said.

Theres no one magic diet for every animal. These experts strongly recommend working with your veterinarian to find a diet that works for you and your pet. When it comes to navigating marketing claims in the pet food aisle, Lock suggests finding a company that employs a veterinary nutritionist and does feeding trials. Try not to get too hung up on the no list, Heinze said. Claims like no gluten, no grains, and no soy generally mean no science.

Read more:

The hidden environmental costs of dog and cat food

These states have the fattest pets and they might surprise you

Washington Post employees rallied to save a crab. We called her Old Bae.

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Grain-free pet foods are no healthier, vets say. Focus on this nutrition issue instead. - Washington Post

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Diet Doc's Revolutionary AdrenaDoc Prescription Targets Stubborn Abdominal Fat - GlobeNewswire (press release)

By now you've probably seen and heard the term "low carb" used in hundreds of scenarios from flashy headlines to celebrity endorsements and even the snack aisle. That said, internet buzz around a weight-loss diet one morning can be entirely contradicted by another trend the next day.

That's why I'm breaking down everything you need to know about the low-carb life and redefining which carbs you should eat versus the ones to cut back on.

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Little known fact: Carbs are actually in almost everything we eat, but in very trace amounts. Let's start with some basic biochemistry: Dietary carbs are made up of sugar molecules called saccharides. Saccharides break down in order to be digested and absorbed in your body, where they are responsible for literally everything: metabolism, tissue and organ function, even the synapses your brain is firing right now!

In the plainest of terms: These simple sugars fuel our organs. While protein, fat and carbs break down into smaller molecules to provide energy, glucose (the simplest sugar molecule) is the preferred source. Our very smart and energy-saving bodies do everything in their power to provide enough glucose to get stuff done, including using fat and protein when necessary.

They use what they need for metabolic functions and ultimately store whatever's left over in adipocytes a fancy, science-y way of saying "fat cells." What happens if we're storing more than we're using? We gain weight. What happens if we use more than we store? We lose weight. Easy as (crust-less) pie, right?

Er, sort of.

Eating plans that cut carbs to less than 50 grams per day can induce ketosis, a physiological state in which your body uses fat cells for energy. There are two main reasons why low-carb diets show results quickly.

First: Since we use carbs for energy, cutting them means we have to pull from somewhere else to keep our organs functioning. Our bodies then turn to the glucose stored in our muscles as glycogen for fuel.

What else happens when we break down muscle glycogen? We lose water weight! Our muscles store about 3 grams of water for every gram of glycogen, meaning we can lose quite a bit of weight right away when we tap into glycogen stores for fuel. That's why someone who loses weight in "just one week!" from a low-carb plan is likely losing water weight, not necessarily real weight that stays off over time.

Second: Most of us eat too many carbs to begin with. About half of our calories should come from carbs, according to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans. That's about 250 grams per day for a 2,000 calorie diet, or even fewer if you're eating less than that. When you consider all of the grain-based foods and sneaky sources of added sugar, it's easy eat a whole lot more than the recommended amount.

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There's a major misconception about low-carb diets that I hear frequently: "Steak, bacon, butter, cheese, oils, avocado, coconut oil You can eat all of the meat and fat you want, right?!" Not quite. Ultimately, all diets rely on the same principle: Calories in versus calories out.

Some diets cut calories from all macronutrients (protein, fat and carbs) in equal amounts. Others cut from fat, and some buzzy types cut from carbs. But the end result is the same: You cut calories, you'll lose weight. If you eat them in excess, you'll gain weight. So just because you've eliminated one macronutrient doesn't give you free rein to chow down on another type of food!

Link:
What Is a Low-Carb Diet - How to Eat Low Carb - Good Housekeeping - GoodHousekeeping.com

Home Liver Is your diet making your liver sick?

Many diets have been hailed as being able to improve your health, such as the Mediterranean diet. On the other hand, there are diets that can make us quite ill. The Western diet is often discussed as being detrimental to health.

The typical Western diet is high in fat and sugar, and we already know these two components can wreak havoc on our health. The latest findings suggest that the Western diet can have detrimental effects on our liver as well.

A new study was done where researchers fed mice a Western diet, which is high in fat and sugar. These mice were more likely to develop liver tumors compared to mice who did not consume the Western diet. When the Western diet-fed mice were treated with antibiotics, they did not respond to the treatment.

The researchers specifically looked at mice missing farnesoid x receptor (FXR), which is involved in bile synthesis, secretion, and transport. Bile is necessary for proper digestion. Low FXR levels are seen in patients with cirrhosis or liver cancer.

The FXR-deficient mice and healthy mice were fed a high-sugar and high-fat diet for 10 months.

The FXR-deficient mice developed liver tumors and had higher levels of genes that trigger inflammation.

Lead author of the study Dr. Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan explained, Gut and liver health are linked. Because the liver receives 70 percent of its blood supply from the intestine, it is important to understand how the gut contributes to liver disease development.

There are many studies that attribute a Western diet to poor health and this is just another one that solidifies the point. Instead, we should opt for a diet low in fat and sugar. As mentioned earlier, the Mediterranean diet time and time again is hailed for its numerous benefits to health. It emphasizes a high intake of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and above all, low fat and sugar.

Take a close look at your diet and make necessary changes if you find youre adhering closer to a Western diet. Replacing processed, fatty, and sugary foods with foods that are naturally occurring can go a long way in preventing disease.

Related:What causes liver pain?

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Simple diet plan to overcome fatty liver disease: Foods to eat and avoid

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4692464/Western-diets-cause-liver-cancer.html

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Is your diet making your liver sick? - Bel Marra Health

Popular with athletes and models, the ketogenic diet is high in fat and very low in carbohydrates. Carol Johnston, a director of the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion at Arizona State University, explains why it is so successful when it comes to weight loss. On the ketogenic diet, 75% of your calories come from lipids. Dieters eat meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, butter, oils, oleaginous fruits, avocado, low-carbohydrate leafy vegetables (spinach, kale and lettuce) and hard cheeses. Other dairy products, milk and full-fat yoghurts can be consumed in moderation.

How does the body respond to a lack of carbohydrates?

Cells which no longer have an available source of carbohydrates have to find a new source of energy. The body initiates a process that is the same as that triggered by fasting. It calls on ketone bodies, three types of compounds that result from the conversion of fatty acids in the absence of glucose. Two of these ketone bodies are used as an energy source by the heart and the brain, the third is eliminated.

Weight loss occurs more rapidly in a Keto diet than with a sudden reduction in calories. As a result, people go the distance without too much effort.(Shutterstock)

How does the ketogenic diet cause weight loss?

The low-carb diet is very high in fat, which helps people feel full, and thus eat less. Weight loss occurs more rapidly than with a sudden reduction in calories. As a result, people go the distance without too much effort, and are more likely to stick to the diet.

In the first few days, a person can experience a significant loss of water weight, because when carb intake is restricted for a few days, glycogen stores in the muscle are reduced, explains Carol Johnston, director of the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion at Arizona State University in the United States.

Risks that should not be ignored

The risks associated with a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet are significant. According to Johnston, it can result in increased blood levels of triglycerides (a marker of elevated cardiovascular risk), increased urinary uric acid (which may lead to the formation of kidney stones), and lethargy. There is also an increased risk of negative impact on bone health.

Are carbs really bad for health?

Carbs are important for our brain and muscle health, points out Johnston. Our brains rely entirely on glucose for energy production they cant get it from fat making the consumption of some carbs necessary. Our muscles can use either glucose or fat for energy, but during high-intensity exercise, they prefer glucose.

The problem with carbs is the excessive consumption of sugar, which is converted into fat and causes weight gain. Long-term lifestyle changes are the best recipe for sustainable weight loss, said Johnston. For weight loss, the most important thing is to stick to the diet you have chosen.

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Are you on a Keto diet? Here's how it works and the risks to it - Hindustan Times

The UK has enjoyed a less than glorious summer this year. But you can bet that the next sunny day we get, the barbecues will be sizzling, the parks and beaches full. The children have broken up for summer and many of us are packing for our holidays in the sun. It is a wonderful time of the year but our sun-seeking habits are storing upproblems for our skin in the future. No one anticipates that they will be the one to develop skin cancer, yet every day in the UK 42 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed according to Cancer Research UK. This equates to 15,419 cases per year and the number of cases of melanoma in the UK have more than doubled since the early 1990s. Eighty-six per centof these cases are deemed preventable (Cancer Research UK) and the rates of melanoma in the UK are predicted to rise further by 7 per centby 2035.

What is melanoma?

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer derived from cells called melanocytes. These cells create pigment which helps to protect your skin from the suns rays. They are found at the junction between the two layers of the skin (the epidermis and dermis). Damage caused by the UV rays in sunlight and other insults (for example radiotherapy), damage the DNA in these cells and can affect the pathways that control cell growth. When this happens, the melanocytes multiply in number, abnormal cells are not destroyed and the melanocyte numbers grow uncontrolled. The abnormal cells then grow down into the dermis (the second layer of the skin) and a melanoma develops. Melanoma is the 5th most common cancer in the UK. Fortunately, the survival rate is high at 90 per cent. This is partly due to the fact that as the growth is occurring on the skin it is often picked up early.

How does the UK compare with the rest of the world?

The UK has one of the highest incidences of melanoma in Europe (7th out of 40 countries in 2012). The highest rates are found in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, the lowest melanoma rates occur in Greece, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania according to World Health Organisation(WHO) figures.

Worldwide, the highest melanoma rates are in the Antipodean regions. Incidence of melanoma appears to be rising in most of the higher risk populations in the world except in Australia. Australia has topped the table for the highest rates of melanoma for decades however while incidence rates continue to rise in countries like the UK, Sweden, Norway and the caucasian population in the US, in Australia they have managed to buck the trend and their melanoma rates have been falling since 2005. This reduction in melanoma rate has been so successful that Australia no longer has the highest incidence of the disease;it now lies behind New Zealand for melanoma incidence rates.

This success has been attributed to the huge public health Sun Smart campaigns that the Australian government put in place in the 1980s onwards. It takes decades for the effects of sun damage to become apparent which is why it has taken so long to reap the benefits of this intervention but the campaign has ensured that schools, workplaces and childcare settings in Australia have all taken measures to protect against UV radiation and safe sun measures are now embedded in normal life.

How to be safe in the sun

Use of sunscreen is important for sun protection. Sunscreens protect against UVB rays which dont penetrate deeply in the skin and often causing burning, and UVA rays that penetrate deeper in the skin and can result in tan formation. Both types of rays damage DNA in the skin and can increase your risk of developing skin cancer. These rays also age the skin resulting in deeper wrinkling, darker spots and red scaly marks. The number on the sunscreen bottle refers to the UVB protection of the sunscreen. I advise using factor 30 in the UK and 50 in hotter climates. It is important to also check the UVA rating of your sunscreen. This is found as a star rating with five stars providing the best protection. Application of sunscreen is key. Most of us do not apply the product thickly enough and therefore do not get the full benefit of the sunscreen. The cancer council of Australia recommends at least a teaspoon for each limb or the back, and half a teaspoon for face neck and ears. When applied correctly sunscreen usually result in white streaks on the skin.

Survivalrates are high becausethe growth is on the skin and can be picked up early(Getty)

Unfortunately, the cost of sunscreen is high and bottles are relatively small so even when sunscreen is used, not enough product is applied. I travelled to New Zealand and Australia several years ago and I was impressed with the amount of large bottles of cheap high factor sunscreen that were widely available. I would love to see such products more widely available in the UK. This would help schools and childcare settings protect our children and would encourage us to use enough sunscreen product.

Keeping children safe

Childrens skin is thinner and more sensitive than adult skin. High childhood sun exposure can increase your lifetime risk of developing melanoma. The advice from the Cancer Council of Australia is to keep babies up to the age of 12 months out of the sun as much as possible. Other measures to help small children include planning your outdoor daily activities around the middle of the day when the UV levels are highest. Covering the skin with clothing is more effective than cream and use of a sun-hat is very important to protect delicate scalps and faces. Seeking shade in play areas will also help. Finally, applying a high factor UVA and UVB sunscreen to exposed sites and reapplying regularly is important.

Myths about tanning

Unfortunately, there is still a perception that a tan looks healthy. The reality is that a tan indicates that you have had enough sun exposure to cause DNA damage in your skin. This will lead to deep wrinkling, irregular colouration of your skin with darker patches and freckling, red scaly areas and increasing your future risk of skin cancer. A tan does not protect much against the suns rays either, usually around SPF3 depending on your skin type and it doesn't protect against damage to the skin. Fake tans are a good alternative if you want a darker skin tone however these products do not protect your skin from the sun either so it is important to continue to practice safe sun measures.

Solariums and sun bed use

Use of these machines to generate a tan have increased dramatically in the last 3 decades especially among the younger generations. Because of the damaging UVA and UVB rays emitted from these machines, they have been classified as carcinogenic (causing cancer) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Use of sunbeds is estimated to be responsible for over 450 000 non-melanoma skin cancer cases and more than 10 000 melanomas in the United States, Europe and Australia according to the WHO publication on artificial tanning devices. The Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (Scheer) of the European Commission have advised that there is no safe limit for exposure to UV radiation from sunbeds because of the strong evidence linking skin cancer to sunbed use.

Policy options recommended by WHO include targeted educational, strategies, regulation of the industry and banning of solariums. In 2009 Brazil became the first country in the world to ban use of sunbeds and in 2016 Australia took the decision to ban all commercial solariums. I would like to see our government taking a stronger line on these commercial solariums, ideally following our Australian colleagues example and banning all devices not used for medical purposes.

But what about Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is essential for bone health. It is found in food particularly in oily fish, and fortified foods such as cereals, however it is difficult to gain enough vitamin D from your diet. Vitamin D is also made by the body in a pathway that requires sunlight. So we do need a balance between the amount of sunshine required to make vitamin D and the amount that will increase our risk of skin ageing and skin cancer. In the UK, we only get the required UVB rays from the end of March/early April till October time. The current advice is that casual exposure of a few minutes, a few times a week is sufficient for most people to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D. The time required will vary from person to person as there are many influencing factors including your natural skin tone. Fairer skin types will need less than darker skin tones. All experts agree that you do not need to burn or tan to achieve the required levels of vitamin D and that it is not recommended to use sunbeds to increase your vitamin D levels because of the risk of skin cancer associated with this practice. For those who are at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency, the young, those with darker skin tones and those who avoid sun exposure, 400 iu of Vitamin D can be taken daily, especially in the autumn and winter when natural vitamin D production is low.

So it is possible to enjoy the summer, and keep your vitamin D levels healthy without risking the future health of your skin. I would like the government to learn the lessons from the Australian model and to emphasise the importance of safety in the sun, provide cheaper sunscreen and to ban commercial sun tan beds and solariums but we can all start today to take measures that protect ourselves and those we care about to enjoy the summer safely.

Dr Claudia DeGiovanni is a consultant dermatologist working at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and the Nuffield Health Brighton.drdegiovanni.co.uk; follow @drcdegiovanni

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How to stay safe in the sun this summer - The Independent