Category Archives: Diet And Food

Atkins. Paleo. Vegan. Keto. Gluten-free. IIFYM. These days, there are more diets than there are food groupsand most of them do come with weight loss and healthy eating benefits. But how many of these would you want to maintain for your entire life? (Just think about how many years that is of counting macros, avoiding bacon, and steering clear of doughnuts.)

In the all-or-nothing health world where kale is king, HIIT is queen, and you've either drank the Kool-Aid or spit it out, developing lifelong habits seems like an afterthought. It's all about going to the extreme to get better-body results ASAP.

Butobviously, you're not trying to lose the weight and gain it back. You're not trying to get in shape, then get out of shape. You're not trying to feel great, then go back to feeling shitty. So why do you subscribe to a harsh diet that you know is going to fail you eventually?

Enter: the 80/20 rule for healthy eating. It's not so much a diet as it is a way of eating for lifeone you can maintain happily until you're 105.

The gist: you eat clean, whole foods for about 80 percent of your calories of the day, and you #treatyoself for about 20 percent of the calories for the day. (ICYMI it's recommended by health pros like Jillian Michaelsand many dietitians as a way to teach moderation.) "The 80/20 rule can be a fantastic way to enjoy the foods you love and keep your weight in check," says Sarah Berndt, RD for Complete Nutrition and owner of Fit Fresh Cuisine.

It's something you can do forever. "It's a more livable diet style, which allows you to enjoy a few special treats without feeling guilt," says Sharon Palmer, R.D. and author of The Plant-Powered Life. When you feel guilty about eating something that doesn't fit into the "healthy" category, it can lead to binging and disordered attitudes about eating and body image. (After all, it helps you avoid the worst weight loss mistake there is.)

It's not great for weight loss. If you are eating large portions of even healthful foods, like whole grains, fruits, nuts, healthy fats, lean proteins, you can exceed your body's energy needs (read: calories) and gain weight. Calories still count, even healthful sources of them. "The 80/20 rule is very loose guidance and could be applied to a diet lifestyle that's already in balance when it comes to calorie needs," says Palmer, meaning it may be best for weight maintenance rather than dropping lbs.

"Its still important to practice moderation and portion control with the 80/20 rule," says Berndt. "Your indulgences need to be a reasonable portion rather than a free-for-all to gorge."

Just because that 20 percent is for "treats" doesn't mean you can go ham with the Oreos or a bag of chips. "Try to consider this more as a general rule of thumb," says Palmer, rather than specific numbers to meet every day.

For example, if you're aiming for 2,000 calories a day (here's how to figure out how many calories you need), then the rule indicates you'd have about 400 to "play" with. But just because there's wiggle room for some indulgences (a glass of wine with dinner, a slice of a coworker's birthday cake), doesn't mean those are "throw-away calories" to be wasted on food with zero nutritional valueand you certainly don't need to use all 20 percent. In fact, it's probably best to shoot lower than 20 percent, since"people are really bad at estimating how much food they eat and consistently underestimate calories and portions," say Palmer.

Keep in mind: "Every meal is an opportunity to nourish your body," says Palmer. "For many of us, every bite should count in order to reward us with fiber, protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (plant compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound)."

If you learn to love the 80 percentto crave peanut butter instead of cake, and roasted Brussels sprouts instead of chipsthen you won't be dying for the 20 percent. Instead of thinking of it as a reward, think of it as some wiggle room to just ~live your life.~ (Because #balance is the essence of lifeand the most important thing for your health and fitness routine.)

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Why the 80/20 Rule Is the Gold Standard of Dietary Balance - Shape Magazine

Dietitians weigh in on alkaline diet...

MISSOULA, Mont. - One of the hottest diets on the internet promises you'll lose weight if you cut down on acidic foods, including animal products and processed foods.

Two Missoula dietitians we talked to about alkaline diets say people may be losing weight on them, but not because of acidity.

Emily Smith is a registered dietitian at Providence St. Patrick Hospital.

"The problem with this diet is that our studies are showing that food rarely, or does not significantly, change the pH of our bodies," said Smith.

Smith, and registered dietitian Denise Zimmer, of Peak Health and Wellness, say the weight participants are losing likely has more to do with eating more whole foods and controlling portions.

They say a well-rounded diet is more successful for long-term weight loss.

"We like to see people make lifestyle changes in just eating healthy, whole foods, unprocessed foods from every food group," said Zimmer.

Dietitians say half your plate should be made up of fruits and vegetables, and you should get a balance of protein, which can include lean meat.

The meat and seafood manager at the Good Food Store in Missoula suggests looking for the terms "prairie-raised" and "grass-finished" on meat labels.

"I would look for what's raised here in Montana. It doesn't have to travel far to be processed and it gets nothing but grass its entire life. It's higher in omega threes, much lower in fats, much lower in saturated fats, and so it's a much healthier product," said Russ Kubisiak.

Dairy products also can offer protein. Zimmer suggests three to four servings a day.

"In the diets that are out there, dairy is one thing they eliminate, when really, studies show people who get adequate dairy are at better weights than those who don't," said Zimmer.

Dietitians do agree with cutting out processed foods, but say you should get a limited amount of whole grains every day.

An average person is recommended to have about six ounces of whole, unprocessed grains every day. This may be less than you think.

Zimmer explains that one half cup of whole grains is one ounce. One slice of bread also is considered to be about one ounce.

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Dietitians weigh in on popular alkaline diet craze - NBC Montana

A low glycemic index diet might halt or prevent dry macular degeneration, according to a study conducted in mouse models. This form of macular degeneration is by far the most common kind.

Moreover, switching the diet from high- to low-glycemic, even late in the lifespan of the mice, stopped disease progression, the study found. This means that if humans respond the same way, changing to a low-glycemic index diet could reduce the incidence of dry AMD.

The GI appears to be an attractive dietary intervention target, because simple replacement of small amounts of high-index foods (such as white bread) with lower-index foods (such as whole grain bread) can significantly reduce glycemic peaks without requiring a change in overall dietary patterns, the study stated.

Moreover, the study said its findings in mice correlated with human observational studies that find consuming lower GI diets is associated with delayed progression of early-stage AMD.

The study, appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is available online at j.mp/maculard. Allen Taylor was the senior author; Sheldon Rowan the first author. Both are of Tufts University in Boston.

Located on the opposite side of the lens, the macula includes the region of sharpest vision, the fovea. Dry AMD is a breakdown or thinning of retinal pigment epithelial cells, which support the light-sensitive cells. Those with the disease progressively lose central vision, preserving sight on the periphery.

While mice dont have a macula, when fed a Western-style diet they do exhibit age-related features characteristic of dry AMD, the study stated. This type of diet includes easily absorbed sugars that raise blood sugar levels, prompting a release of insulin. It has been linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, among other conditions.

The low glycemic diet was the same in composition and calories as the high glycemic one, except that they differed in the ratio of amylose to amylopectin in the starch they consumed. More amylose content raises the glycemic index of the starch.

To find out what was going on inside the mice, the researchers examined their metabolism and gut microbes.

These studies revealed changes in the gut microbiota that altered the production of metabolites that protected against AMD, including serotonin, the study stated. Changing the diet to a low-glycemic-index diet, even late in life, arrested the development of AMD, offering dietary interventions for AMD.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

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Dry macular degeneration stopped with low glycemic index diet in mouse study - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Editors note: This commentary is by Dan DeWalt, an artisan and activist interested in democracy and the Constitution. He writes from South Newfane.

The response from Defense Secretary James Mattis sounded depressingly like every other government response to this intractable entanglement, promising a fresh, frank look at the reconstruction program and a new counter-narcotics strategy. His remarks, along with Trump administration rumblings about increasing troop strength to train the Afghan army up to a level of self-sufficiency, point to a real chance that we will once again escalate our military engagement in Afghanistan and make yet another round of the same mistakes.

What better time than now to read Douglas Wissings new book, Hopeless, but Optimistic, Journeying through Americas Endless War in Afghanistan. Wissing knows the country well, having spent months there on multiple trips since the United States began its military adventures in 2001. His earlier book, Funding the Enemy, tells how the Taliban was able to make use of poorly managed USAID programs to amass money and power, and to take advantage of the U.S. militarys short attention span in Afghanistan and Bush/Cheneys pivot to Iraq to inherit U.S. arms and materiel. In this book, he goes back to see if U.S. interventionists have learned any lessons.

Sadly, they have not.

On page after page, as Wissing travels around the country, we are told how U.S. operatives continue to repeat the same mistakes, leaving a trail of unfinished/sabotaged projects that have no value to the people of Afghanistan. These projects have done wonders for the enrichment of the warlords, the Taliban, and, above all the beltway bandits, as he calls them, the various for-profit reconstruction/development companies that still bilk U.S. taxpayers out of billions of dollars today on poorly planned, uninformed and useless projects designed to win the hearts and minds (WHAM) of the people. However, the only winners are a few well-positioned Afghans leaders and American businessmen, while the losers are everyone one else in Afghanistan, and the American taxpayers.

Wissing points out that after 16 years and more than a trillion dollars, the U.S.-supported central government is weak, corrupt and feckless as ever, while the Taliban once again are regaining territory, influence and power. He points out the sad irony that the Taliban, ruthless and backward as they may be, nonetheless are more efficient, more honest and more true to their word to the Afghan people than any of the central governments that have been propped up by U.S. money and might.

He points out the sad irony that the Taliban, ruthless and backward as they may be, nonetheless are more efficient, more honest and more true to their word to the Afghan people than any of the central governments that have been propped up by U.S. money and might.

His stories of water projects that destroy the water table, agricultural initiatives that were doomed to fail from the beginning, outpost defenses that defend nothing but only make troops vulnerable to attack, are told not by an omniscient narrator, but in interviews with soldiers and aid workers on the ground who have no personal stake in retelling the big lie that government spokespeople are so desperate to maintain. The men and women he interviewed tell their own stories of the situation as it swirls around them, with all the ambiguities, questions and frustration that come from being in an untenable position with an unworkable job requirement.

Wissing embeds with the troops at times. At others, he is on his own, widening his outlook and learning multiple sides of different events and attitudes. When he hears directly from soldiers and Afghans about their plight, we begin to get a real sense of the futility and stupidity of American foreign policy, along with the self-delusion that is necessary for plodding ever onward on the same wrong-headed course.

Hes not encouraging in his assessment:

I know now the American elites didnt want to learn any real lessons, despite their failures to accomplish their stated military, diplomatic, and aid missions. The self-dealing American officials and corporate executives are acting like that is all OK. Lets take the show on the road to the next profitable hot spot. Lets keep on keeping on.

While Mr. Trump may have crowed about draining the swamp, his current crew of geniuses that are crafting military and WHAM policies in Afghanistan and elsewhere are the same old mud- and slime-dripping swamp dwellers that have been feeding from the Washington corporate welfare/military industrial government trough for a long time. Seeing that not even a shovel has been employed to start the drainage, they are safely ensconced to continue to drain our Treasury, while making our troops less safe abroad and leaving us more vulnerable to terrorist attack at home and elsewhere, all for the sake of profit and the illusion of power. Trumps doctrine, as far as it goes, seems to be: Dont do your homework to understand why things are the way they are. Assume American superiority. Lie about the results. And, of course, keep on keeping on, just call it a win.

This administration and Congress wont be interested in reading Wissings book, but we should be. Read it and weep. Then, speak out and stop it from happening all over again. Trump and his allies are feeding us a steady diet of lies and misinformation about many issues. We cannot allow them to use fancy talk to foist further war in Afghanistan upon us.

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Dan DeWalt: Avoiding a repeat of mistakes in Afghanistan - vtdigger.org

If you are looking for a lifestyle and eating plan that improves your health and is easy to follow, the Mediterranean diet is one you should consider. Its not a weight loss diet, rather a way of eating and living.

This monthly column about health issues publishes on Mondays in the Steamboat Today. Read more columns here.

The philosophy of this healthy lifestyle includes eating a variety of mostly plant-based foods in small portions, while maintaining a leisurely mealtime and active lifestyle. It is possible for people to naturally lose weight while following a Mediterranean style of eating, but the health benefits reach far beyond losing a few pounds.

Experts have studied this nutrient-rich dietary pattern ever since the 1970s, when they discovered the low levels of chronic disease and long life expectancy seen in the people in many of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It is the lifestyle and cuisine from Greece, Italy, Spain and southern France we closely associate with the traditions of eating Mediterranean-style.

The Mediterranean diet starts with a foundation of plant-based foods, then expands. Nuts, grains, fruits, vegetables, fish, olive oil and red wine are all a part of the diet. Adding any one of these foods to your diet is beneficial, but greater health benefits happen when these foods are eaten together.

A Mediterranean-style eating plan is associated with lowering the incidence of Alzheimers dementia, diabetes, cancer and heart disease, as well as reversing metabolic syndrome, a dangerous cluster of three or more conditions that greatly increase the risk for heart disease and diabetes.

To get started on eating a Mediterranean-style diet, following are eight simple steps provided by the Oldways Mediterranean Foods Alliance.

Eat lots of vegetables. From a simple plate of sliced fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and crumbled feta cheese to stunning salads, garlicky greens, soup and stews, healthy pizzas or oven-roasted medleys, vegetables are vitally important to the fresh tastes and delicious avors of the Mediterranean Diet.

Change the way you think about meat. If you eat meat, have smaller amounts small strips of sirloin in a vegetable saut, or a dish of pasta garnished with diced prosciutto.

Enjoy some dairy products. Eat Greek or plain yogurt, and try smaller amounts of a variety of cheeses.

Eat seafood twice per week. Fish such as tuna, herring, salmon and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and shellsh, including mussels, oysters, and clams, have similar benets for brain and heart health

Cook a vegetarian meal one night per week. Build meals around beans, whole grains and vegetables, and heighten the avor with fragrant herbs and spices. Down the road, try two nights per week.

Use good fats. Include sources of healthy fats in daily meals, especially extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, peanuts, sunower seeds, olives and avocados.

Switch to whole grains. Whole grains are naturally rich in many important nutrients; their fuller, nuttier taste and extra ber keep you satised for hours. Cook traditional Mediterranean grains, such as bulgur, barley, farro and brown, black or red rice, and favor products made with whole grain our.

For dessert, eat fresh fruit. Choose from a wide range of delicious fresh fruits, from fresh gs and oranges to pomegranates, grapes and apples. Instead of daily ice cream or cookies, save sweets for a special treat or celebration.

Karen Massey is a registered dietitian nutritionist and family and consumer science Extension agent with Colorado State University Extension in Routt County. For more information, call 970-879-0825, or email karen.massey@colostate.edu. You can follow Masseys personal food blog at lifeintheboat.com.

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Routt County CSU Extension: Mediterranean diet a lifestyle - Steamboat Pilot & Today

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Climate change is altering the environment in Yellowstone National Park andforcing threatened grizzly bears to change their diet, a new study from UC San Diego finds.

The study published last week in the journal PLOS ONEshows that bears are eating less of theirstaple whitebark pine seeds as consuming more plants and berries as the slow-growing trees decline.

Whitebark pine trees have declined due to an introduced fungal disease called blister rust, and, more recently, to increased infestation by the mountain pine beetle, which is exacerbated by climate change, said study coauthor Carolyn Kurle, an assistant professor at UC San Diegos Division of Biological Sciences. Such declines further highlight the need to monitor diets of grizzlies as the environment continues to change.

Once ubiquitous in western North America, whitebark pine trees have declined in recent decades and are now listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Warming temperatures have led to shorter and milder winters, increasing beetle infestations and further threatening whitebark pine mortality.

Other potential food sources for grizzlies such as trout, deer and elk have also declined in the region.

Lead author Jack Hopkins, a former postdoctoral researcher in Kurles lab at UC San Diego and currently an assistant professor at Unity College, and his team measured stable isotopes found in bear hair and related their abundances to those found in their foods.

Stable isotope analysis is a powerful ecological tool for reconstructing the diets of animals, said Hopkins. Instead of investigating the diets of animals based on whats eliminated (feces), we estimate the importance of major food sources to animals based on whats assimilated into their tissues. Using stable isotope analysis to conduct a retrospective diet analysis can shed light on how animals, such as Yellowstone grizzlies, have responded to changes in food availability on the landscape.

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UCSD: Climate Change Forcing Yellowstone's Threatened Grizzly Bears to Change Diet - Times of San Diego

A ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet. Photo Credit: Elena Shashkina/Shutterstock

The following excerpt is from the new bookThe Metabolic Approach to Cancer: Integrating Deep Nutrition, the Ketogenic Diet, and Nontoxic Bio-Individualized Therapies(Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017)by Dr. Nasha Winters and Jess Higgins Kelley.

Every organism on this Earth requires food to create energy in order to live and reproduce. Food is the fuel that keeps our bodies driving down the road. All of the energy, genetic instruction and structural and regulating materials for your terrain come from nutrients. Simply put, food and the nutrients obtained from it are required to sustain life. When nutrient levels become deficient, symptoms (such as headaches, fatigue, weight gain, aches and pains) will be followed by disease. Low vitamin D causes rickets, low vitamin C causes scurvy, low folate in a mother results in spina bifida in the child. Without food, we die in approximately 40 to 180 days (this depends on a persons body weight; some obese people have survived and remained healthy without food for over five months!).

With the right foods, we can heal. Its time to start giving credit where credit is due: Certain foods and dietary habits have kept us alive for 2.6 million years. Deep nutrition, a metabolic approach, is the answer to cancer. And where Western medicine is trying to isolate the active forms of food to create synthetic versions able to be patented, we recommend the whole foods and dietary practices, such as fasting, that have sustained us for millennia. Yes, not eating is powerful medicine. All foods contain more than one active ingredient, and we strongly believe in the therapeutic power of synergies.

When sugar, processed grains, soda, preservatives, additives, trans fats, synthetic oils, pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified corn and soy, and junk food are replaced with organic, wild and fermented vegetables, bone marrow and organ meats, healthy fats, specific herbs and adequate hydration, the terrain shifts in a matter of days. Weve seen it happenand tested ithundreds of times during our multiday cancer retreats over the years. Epigenetic markers change, blood sugar levels decline, immune systems are fortified, hormones balance, digestion improves, toxins are removed, and fogs of depression are lifted. When stress, endocrine and sleep disruptors, and environmental and emotional toxins are removed and replaced with peace, purpose, nutrients, nontoxic products, rest, exercise, and healthy relationships, the body becomes incredibly resilient. All these elements are powerful enough to affect DNA, and thats good medicine. Cancer doesnt like that.

Youve heard it before, but it is true: You are what you eat. But we take things further: We are not just what we eat, but what our food eats. When it comes to deeply nutritious foods, the quality of the soil where the food was grown is also essential. When animals are fed toxic diets they become toxic to eat. If you feed animals antibiotics, hormones and genetically modified grains and legumes, they go from being healthy to four-legged Superfund sitesnot to mention propelling antibiotic resistance. The treatment approach we lay out in our book dives deep into food quality and also bio-individuality. There is not, cannot and should not be a one-size-fits-all diet all the time. What you eat needs to change with the seasons, for example, and is largely based on what your genetics can tell us. We look at many nutrigenomic factors (meaning, how our genes affect our foods and vice versa).

We subscribe to the metabolic theory of cancerthe proven fact that cancer cells are fueled by sugar and that altered mitochondrial metabolism is the ultimate cause of cancer. In fact, a December 2016 meta-analysis research paper assessed more than 200 studies conducted between 1934 and 2016 and concluded that the most important difference between normal cells and cancer cells is how they respire, or create energy. Cancer cells use a primitive process of fermentation to inefficiently convert glucose from carbohydrates into energy needed to sustain their rapid growth. But the most important finding is that fatty acids (dietary fats) cannot be fermented by cancer cells, which makes a ketogenic diet the most powerful dietary approach to cancer identified to date. And thanks to more than 100 years of research by the physicians and scientists Otto Warburg, Thomas Seyfried, Dominic DAgostino, and Valter D. Longo, as well as a rising number of others, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that low-glycemic, ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting should be an integral part of an effective anticancer diet program.

We realize there are many people who are drawn to what we are talking about, and others who are not. Our approach aims to empower people. Sadly, many cancer patients spend more time looking at new cars than at their grocery lists. Using diet to prevent and manage cancer requires engagement, and that is not always easy. Conventional medicine, on the other hand, allows the patient to be passivethe doctor performs surgery or administers chemotherapy, and the patient just waits for the test results. In the conventional model the healing, and ultimately the trust, lie with the doctor.

We believe, however, and have seen over and over in our practices, that true healing occurs when the patient is an active participant in the healing process. Our process is for those who are motivated to take charge of their health and willing to make lifestyle changes. Its about getting to know yourself, and maybe changing things you never thought possible. Its about asking questions, and not shying away from answers. Its about undoing the notion that you are a victim of cancer and you have no control over the process. Because you do.

Nasha Winters is the founder and CEO of Optimal Terrain Consulting. She has been working in the health care industry for 25 years and is a nationally board certified naturopathic doctor, licensed acupuncturist, practitioner of oriental medicine and a fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology.

Jess Higgins Kelley is the director of the Oncology Nutrition Therapy Certification Program at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado and the founder and CEO of Remission Nutrition, a metabolic nutrition consulting, education and research enterprise. She has contributed health and nutrition articles to local and national publications.

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Growing Evidence Points to a Specific Diet That Can Starve Cancer Cells of Their Prime Fuels - AlterNet

A diet supplemented with soya protein may ease the severity of chronic inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, according to research carried out on mice and cultured human colon cells.

The news comes ahead of World Inflammatory Bowel Disease Day, May 19.

Researchers at Penn State University in the US found that soya protein concentrate had an antioxidant and cytoprotective effect in cultured human bowel cells and moderated the severity of inflammation in mice with induced inflammatory bowel disease.

Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis are two forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), characterised by chronic inflammation of all or part of the digestive tract, generally the intestine, the colon and the rectum.

Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fatigue, appetite loss and weight loss.

Mice with an induced condition similar to ulcerative colitis were given a dietary soy protein concentrate (12%).

An equivalent amount of other forms of protein was removed from their diet to replicate a more human-relevant scenario.

Both body weight loss and swelling of the spleen improved in the mice.

Whats more, the scientists observed reduced inflammation in the colon and improved gut barrier function.

The researchers consider that the inflammation-moderating effects may be linked to soy protein, but not solely.

In fact, the soy protein concentrate contains 70% protein as well as some soya fibre, which could also have a beneficial effect on the digestive system.

The scientists plan further studies to investigate.

Four million people worldwide suffer from IBD. Both Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis are treated with anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory therapies or by surgery in severe cases.

The study is published in the Journal Of Nutritional Biochemistry. AFP Relaxnews

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If you have bowel problems, add soya protein to your diet - Star2.com

Weight loss is hard work. No one likes to restrict themselves, most people enjoy chocolate and carbs, but these are things people often cut out when trying to shred the pounds.

The majority of diets require you to cut calories because they want you to see quick results. In reality, this isn't great biologically. Your body actually starts to think its actually starving, which makes you more hungry and causes stress eating.

Turns out, a lot of popular diets aren't actually all that good for you, and could cause weight gain.

Gluten free diets are trendy. They've been touted as a popular way to lose weight - despite the fact lots of nutritionists saying there's nothing wrong with eating gluten.

However, a recent study from Spain warns that exchanging foods containing gluten with a gluten-free alternative can increase risk of obesity.

This is because many of these gluten-free products actually contain high levels of fat. In the study, researchers compared 655 standard food products with 654 gluten-free options and found that on average, gluten-free bread had more than twice the fat of standard loaves, as well as substantially less protein.

Skipping meals, particularly breakfast, might seem like an obvious way to lose weight, but in reality it's very very unhealthy.

Statistics gathered over 20 years by the National Weight Control Registry,found that among dieters who lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year, 78 percent ate breakfast every day.

Eating breakfast will also boost your brainpower as well asbanish cravings and help to maintain weight loss, as well as stopping you from over-eating at lunchtime. Your metabolism increases after eating, so by skipping meals your metabolism can slow down and lead to weight gain.

A 'cheat day' refers to a concept where people will diet strictly six days a week and then binge on one day, to "reset" their metabolism, but unsurprisingly it's not a good idea. James Collier, Registered Nutritionist & Cofounder of Huel.com, told The Independent.

A full day of cheat eating is excessive and can be an excuse for the dieter to consume copious amounts of junk food.

Often they consume more than they would usually because they have been restricting themselves for the rest of the time, and hunger can be amplified.

Yo-yo dieting, or very low-calorie diets don't actually help you get healthier or shred pounds, at least in the long-term.

Research shows that very low-calorie diets might make you lose weight quickly, but due to the lack of lifestyle change, people gain the weight back very quickly once they hit their goal weight.

While exercise is critical, spending hours and hours in the gym might seem like an obvious and healthy way to lose weight, but it can be counter-productive.

Firstly, sticking to one type of exercise stops your body from being challenged and burns fewer calories than optimum, according to Eat This.

Secondly, over-exercising can lead to getting burned out. High intensity training for 20 minutes, 35 times per week is an appropriate amount, along with strength training is a better option.

A lot of populist diets encourage cutting out carbs, because it helps to drop water weight and melt away the pounds at first.

Carbs are essential to make our brain and central nervous system work properly, and cutting them out can lead to cravings and overeating.

Eating nothing but leaves can mean you lose out on essential nutrients.

Furthermore, if you're eating out, often salads are actually the most calorific item on the menu. Famously, there's more calories in a McDonald's salad than a Big Mac.

Juicing is a popular diet where people only drink fresh fruit juice and water, and no real food - which basically leads to you just drinking sugar and vitamins for the duration of the 'cleanse'.

Smoothies, while delicious and nutritional, aren't great for weight loss. Angela Ginn-Meadow, RD, a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Prevention

People aren't very conscious of what they're putting in their smoothies and bowls. They just toss it all in

The problems crop up with the additional calories from too much fruit, peanut butter, and protein powder.

Paleo or 'the caveman diet' is a popular diet which encourages you to eat lots of fruit, vegetables and lean meats while avoiding dairy, grains and strarches.

However, a recent study from researchers at the University of Melbourne shows thatPaleo could actually make you put on pounds.

For the study, researchers put mice on the Paleo diet, after nine weeks, the mice eating Paleo gained 15 per cent of their body weight and their insulin levels rose. The mice that ate a 'regular diet' didnt experience the same changes.

More: The reason why you're likely to gain weight with more diets

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9 diets that might be making you gain weight - The indy100

Jefferson Street growth: Plans to expand the downtown lifestyle

You may have noticed that construction is taking over Jefferson Street in downtown Pensacola.

The Downtown Improvement Board sees the potential and wants to encourage growth for businesses.

They're looking to expand the area's "hot spots."

John Peacock, Chairman of the Downtown Improvement Board (DIB), said, "We don't want to make it the next Palafox. We want people to come downtown to have a multitude of activities, restaurants, retail. We want people to think, 'Where am I going to eat or shop?' Downtown Pensacola."

However, they are facing a bump in the road, and that's funding.

Peacock said, "Money is going to have to come from a place like the city, or the county, or there are grants to help with the storm water issue, so now the task is on us to identify those funding sources and put it to work and get this done."

Once they get the green light, you'll notice even more changes - the streets!

Peacock explains, "In most big cities, New York, etcetera, the max distance is about thirty feet, so we want to create that 'road diet,' so people can cross those streets safely and have an aesthetically pleasing experience when they're doing that. If you do that, I think more things will come, more people will come, and parking becomes less and less of an issue."

The expansion has people talking, and even tourists agree a Jefferson street makeover will be a nice addition to downtown Pensacola.

Art Grinath, a visitor to Pensacola, said, "I think that would be a great thing because the more places you have, the restaurants, the shops, it brings more people in and make its livelier and when it's livelier, then even more people come in."

The DIB hopes that this is the first step in making all 44 downtown blocks pedestrian-friendly.

The east side of Jefferson is the first phase and could be completed by the end of the year.

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Jefferson Street growth: Plans to expand the downtown lifestyle - WEAR