Because the gluten-free diet is based around eliminating all foods that contain gluten, it generally involves nixing the big three: wheat, barley, and rye. While that sounds easy enough, it also involves avoiding any derivatives of these grains, such as semolina, spelt, triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye), malt, brewers yeast, and wheat starch.

Unfortunately, these grains and their derivatives can be found in what seems like everything, so it can be helpful to know exactly what foods to avoid. The good news is there are many gluten-free alternatives to the favorites on this list. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, these are gluten heavy hitters:

Even foods that dont naturally contain gluten, such as oats, can be risky if theyve potentially been cross-contaminated. Regular oats are highly contaminated with gluten from growing and processing, so one can only consume oats that are labeled gluten-free, Smith says.

Back to top

At first glance, a celiac disease diet can seem really restrictive (really, no bread?!), but you might be surprised to learn just how many foods are naturally gluten-free. In fact, the Celiac Disease Foundation points out that people with celiac disease can still enjoy plenty of eats.

While the main action item on this diet is to avoid gluten, its still equally important to eat a diverse range of foods to get all your essential nutrients, Dr. Jossen says. Lets dive into what that might look like with these four naturally gluten-free food groups.

Fruits and vegetables

In general, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating at least 2.5 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit per day.2 Heres the even better part: Not only are fruits and vegetables naturally gluten-free, but they are chock-full of important nutrients, so feel free to fill your plate with as many as possible. Throw some broccoli into your egg scramble, mix some cauliflower rice into your taco bowl, or roast some Brussels sprouts to have with your dinner for a little veggie boost.

Meat, poultry, and seafood

When it comes to protein choices, meat, poultry, and seafood are all naturally gluten-free. These animal products are great sources of essential nutrients, especially protein and B vitamins. That being said, if youre gluten-free and also vegetarian or vegan, youll want to fill your protein needs from plant-based sources like beans, tofu, legumes, nuts, and seeds instead.

Milk, eggs, and dairy

According to an older study published in the journal Digestion, lactose intolerance is often associated with celiac disease.3 However, not everyone with celiac disease is lactose intolerant, and milk, yogurt, and cheese are great sources of B vitamins, vitamin D, and calciumespecially if youre on a gluten-free diet. If you cant tolerate milk and dairy, still consider the humble egg. Not only are eggs naturally gluten-free, but they are a great source of protein.

Legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds

Even if youre not vegetarian or vegan, diversifying where you get your starches from can help boost the nutrition of your meals. You may be surprised by how many gluten-free starches are out there too. Choose gluten-free products made from a variety of grains when you can, this includes not just rice and corn but also quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, and teff, Dr. Jossen says. Lets not forget legumes, like black beans, chickpeas, and peas, all varieties of potatoes, and nutrient-rich nuts and seeds, either.

View original post here:
Celiac Disease Diet: How to Go Gluten-Free Safely | SELF

Are you contemplating adding intermittent fasting to your low-carb, keto routine with the hope of intensifying your weight loss or speeding up your metabolic improvements?

Then you just might be wondering how best to break your fasts. What should you eat first? What gives the best results? What do you need to watch out for?

If you are new to fasting, or have had trouble in the past coming out of a fast, this guide can help you plan and execute the best ways to begin eating again after short or longer-term fasts.

Check out Diet Doctors Coaching Intermittent Fasting course its not just for coaches!

Historically, the word breakfast described the first meal of the day no matter when that meal occurred. It wasnt until the 15th century that the word started being recognized as the meal you consume shortly after waking.

Nowadays, with intermittent fasting gaining popularity, the meaning of the word breakfast is going back to its original roots. Breakfast for the intermittent faster is the meal consumed when you choose to break your fast, be it 6:00 AM or 6:00 PM.

Fasting, especially for religious purposes, has been a common occurrence for centuries. And generally, throughout most of human history, not much concern was given to how to break the fast.

However, in an age of poor dietary advice, when we are told to eat all day long and when hyper-palatable highly processed food abounds it can take a little more planning to resume eating in a way that achieves the most physical comfort and most effective results for your long-term health and weight loss goals.

Every night when we stop eating and then go to bed, we go through a short-term fast until our first meal of the next day. Depending on when you ate dinner and when you consume your first meal after you wake up, you can easily go through a 12 to 16-hour fast with no physiologic change to digestive functions.

Although there is no clear consensus or accepted definition about what the cut off is between a short and a long-term fast, Diet Doctor defines anything less than 24 hours as time-restricted eating, fasts between 24 and 36 hours as a short-term fast, and anything longer than 36 hours a long-term fast.

Time-restricted eating and short-term fasts dont require specific precautions when breaking the fast. Just remember it is a good idea not to binge on highly-processed, sugary, or high-carb foods because you will undo the advantages of the fast. Plan to eat a wholesome, low-carb, high-fat meal, such as any of the meals featured in the Diet Doctor recipes, and you will be just fine.

Want to try intermittent fasting?

With our personalized meal plans, we do the planning for you. All you have to focus on is cooking, eating, and enjoying healthy, delicious food. Take this 1-minute survey to get your plan!

Longer-term fasts are different. Resuming eating after a longer fast takes more planning and care.

As we start to incorporate fasting into our routines, our bodies physiologically take a bit of time to adjust to the new regimen, especially if we used to eat constantly. As chronic eaters, our bodies are constantly spending metabolic energy producing digestive enzymes to process the food were consuming. This changes when we first start fasting. The digestive enzymes are not needed or produced.

If youve been fasting long enough for your body to slow down its production of digestive enzymes, then you may experience some gastrointestinal distress when you start to eat again. This often comes in the form of:

Apart from shortening the duration of your fast, the best way to minimize side effects is to plan the best food to eat when you break the fast.

Until your body understands that youre not in a state of stress but rather just eating less often, you might want to avoid eating foods that are tough on your system. Some people know that certain foods bother their digestive tract more than others. If you have problem foods, you should avoid them initially when you resume eating.

In general, weve found that these foods (and drinks) are the most problematic foods for people to consume when breaking their fast, although some tolerate them just fine:

Weve found in our Intensive Dietary Management Program the following protocol works best for those who experience distress while breaking their fasts:

If you follow this protocol and still experience problems, you can consider a tablespoon of psyllium husk in a cup of water. Some find this can help while others may find it increases bloating. If it helps you, the next time you are fasting and are about to resume eating, you may want to try the above protocol but add in a tablespoon of psyllium in water at the start.

Get your personalized meal plan with a FREE 30-day trial!

What's your main health goal?

Avoiding alcohol, especially binge drinking, is very important when coming out of a fast of more than 36 hours. Heavy consumption of alcohol could trigger alcoholic ketoacidosis, in which ketones are very high in the blood, but unlike diabetic ketoacidosis, blood glucose is usually dangerously low.

The main symptoms are vomiting and abdominal pain. It is most common in people with alcohol addictions or strong dependence on alcohol who do not eat for a number of days and then drink heavily. However, it has been reported in individuals of all ages who have drunk heavily with little or no food intake.

Refeeding syndrome is a very rare side effect of resuming food consumption after periods of malnutrition or extended times without eating. Its defined as the potentially fatal shifts in fluids and electrolytes that may occur in malnourished patients.

The key clinical markers of this are very low blood phosphorus levels, or hypophosphatemia, as well as low blood serum levels of potassium, calcium and magnesium. These shifts can cause heart rhythm abnormalities, cardiac failure, respiratory problems, convulsions or coma.

Refeeding syndrome was first described among the severely malnourished North Americans who were held as Japanese prisoners of war during World War II. It has also been observed upon the treatment of long-standing anorexia nervosa and alcoholic patients in recovery.

During the refeeding period, insulin and counter regulatory hormones such as cortisol and noradrenaline are suddenly re-activated. This causes the movement of the major intracellular ions like phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium into our cells. However, due to the overall depletion of our body stores, this becomes quite excessive and leaves us with too little of these ions in the blood. This is what causes the major symptoms of refeeding syndrome:

These symptoms typically appear within two to four days of the start of refeeding.

Currently, most of us are over-nourished rather than under-nourished. But that doesnt mean you shouldnt exercise caution. Certain groups of individuals are at a higher risk for developing refeeding syndrome than others:

There are several ways you can reduce your risk of developing refeeding issues when you do break your fast:

When doing short fasts less than 36 hours, you dont need to worry too much about what you eat when you break your fast.

Stick to low-carb, high-fat meals such as any of the recipes on the Diet Doctor site that seem appealing to you. Try not to eat too much. Fasting is never an excuse to gorge yourself when you resume eating.

For longer fasts, plan how you are going to end them. Resume eating with a small meal and eat slowly. Start with a nourishing bone broth or some psyllium husk in water. Eat a small fresh salad of tomato and cucumber and keep your protein on the light side, such as fish or chicken, and small about the size of your palm or a deck of cards.

For more resources on intermittent fasting check out the other Diet Doctor guides and videos below.

/ Megan Ramos

Get instant access to healthy low-carb and keto meal plans, fast and easy recipes, weight loss advice from medical experts, and so much more. A healthier life starts now with your free trial!

Visit link:
Intermittent Fasting: How to Break Your Fast Diet Doctor

Eating too much sugar may be the most apparent dietary faux pas you can make after all, your body immediately feels the after effects of a sugar rush, and the inevitable dreaded crash that follows. Over time, however, your body may become accustomed to the copious amounts of sugar you consume, maybe without you even realizing it; added sugar has a funny way of sneaking into everyday items that you don't even associate with being sweet. And since items high in added sugar are often lacking nutrients, eating sugary foods can often lead to uncontrolled weight gain over time. Before you know it, you may be unconsciously reaching for sugary sweet treats at the end of every meal (even if you are full!) as a love of sweets turns into an unhealthy sugar habit and extra pounds.

Want to tame your sweet tooth? Join our exclusive GH+ Club to unlock access to Good Housekeeping's 21-day sugar detox plan, which will ease you out of your sugar cravings and help you form a healthy relationship with the sweet stuff.

Stefani Sassos, MS, RD, a registered dietitian within the Good Housekeeping Institute, explains that excessive sugar can spike your blood sugar levels... and then turn into a sudden drop off afterwards. This is why you may feel super fatigued in the moment, or push through a huge mood swing, in any given afternoon. Over the long run, however, eating too much sugar can greatly influence your risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes, chronic dietary inflammation, and severe fatigue, among other physical risks. "There's a ripple effect on your body, as it can get accustomed to lots of sugar," she adds, citing habits like a daily office donut or sugary sweet coffee drink. "Over time, it becomes this difficult thing to decipher: Am I addicted to this, did I train my body to crave this food?"

You may believe that cutting out all sugar entirely from your diet is the best solution. Sassos, however, says this isn't the case for those with years of unhealthy sugar habits under their belt: Simply cutting out sugar or cycling through compensatory behaviors (like "running it off" after eating third helpings of dessert) can lead to even more unhealthy eating patterns down the line. Whether you like to call it a detox or think of it more like a "reset," she argues a long term lifestyle change is the surest way to kick the bad habit.

A sugar detox may help you bring your sugar consumption into moderation, away from the levels that average Americans consume in any given day. While Sassos notes that the American Heart Association recommends less than 25g (about six teaspoons) of sugar daily for women, and 36 grams (about nine teaspoons) for men, the organization notes that the average American consumes 77g; an immediate block on all sources of added sugar would be hard to sustain for most anyone, Sassos points out. You'll need to work on reducing your intake slowly,targeting packaged foods that can be swapped with better-for-you alternatives.

It's important to discuss any long-term changes to your diet with your primary healthcare provider before implementing lifestyle changes.

Below, we're exploring the best ways to effectively "reset" your system in the short term, and encouraging more sustainable ways to wean off a sugar habit for those who need long term change.

Discover the root of your endless sweet tooth by adapting your daily routine first; you may find your body responds immediately (goodbye afternoon sugar crashes!) "You want to prioritize food that can anchor sugar in your diet, so that it's not releasing into your blood stream so fast (hence the crashing)," Sassos explains. "Protein and fiber are two things that can help you avoid a sugar rush and crash in a given day, especially if you know you've overdone it... incorporating those two things in your daily routine can stabilize your blood sugar."

Here are other ways to change your daily habits right now:

Interested in seeing if cutting back on sugar more drastically may improve your day? A good way to get started, especially for those who have never targeted sugar in their diets before, is following a 7-day program. The experts behind Sugar Shock: The Hidden Sugar in Your Food and 100+ Smart Swaps to Cut Back have crafted a day-by-day guide that won't deprive you of all sugar at once.

You'll focus on targeting bad behaviors and examine the items that you routinely reach for in your kitchen. Each day, you'll focus on pairing back added sugar in your beverages, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, plus a few smart tips for better snacking moments.

Regardless of whether you follow the book or not, you should reevaluate these staples currently in your diet, among others:

A 7-day plan can help you optimize your diet to be closer to the ADA's recommended daily sugar intake, and also to make better choices after you've eaten too much sugar (it happens!). If you find yourself feeling more energized and better, you may think about a longer diet change in the future Sugar Shock also provides a 21-day meal plan and shopping list. That plan could help you grow into good lifelong diet habits with targeted recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists.

Deciding to do a longer detox or adopting a prolonged low-sugar or no-sugar diet (after speaking with your healthcare provider first) could help you improve your health beyond simply targeting sugar. You may realize that you finally need to correct other lifestyle choices that cause fatigue, like poor sleep hygiene, or even take a look at your hormone levels in a screening with your doctor.

Restructuring your daily meals for longer than a week can help you realize that sugar might not be totally to blame for all of your sluggish behavior. Sassos says making a longer diet change can push you to also prioritize getting enough sleep each night, and also work on ensuring you're properly hydrated each and every day. "Getting enough sleep and drinking enough water are often neglected," Sassos says. "No one prioritizes this in their routine, and yet they're the simplest things that you can do for your body for overall health and to wardoff sugar cravings."

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Go here to read the rest:
3 Ways to Safely Detox Sugar from Your Diet, According to ...

Lots of fad diets pop up from time to time, claiming to be an easy way to shed pounds. The problem is fad diets are rarely based in science, and they fade with time, such as the famous 1977 wine and eggs diet from Vogue. Basically, the diet consisted of eating nothing but boiled eggs, black coffee, steak for dinner and lots of white wine starving yourself plus getting the jitters.

Being a college student, I struggled with frequently visiting the gym. There was always a mountain of homework to overcome and plenty of other things to occupy my time, but Id try my best to sneak in a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. During the summer, my frequent HIIT workouts helped me slim down a bit. I felt freer, healthier, alive and confident. Coming back to school, I gained some of my muffin top back and struggled to find a solution. Thats when I stumbled across intermittent fasting and raised my eyebrow. Surely, this was some fad diet or trend not based in science, not realistic and not going to work for me.

For me, it all began with a YouTube video titled Intermittent Fasting TESTED 30 Days Before & After from a channel called the Goal Guys. The YouTuber in the video wanted to test intermittent fasting since it has become so popular. He tested the 16:8 version, which means 16 hours of fasting with an eight-hour window for eating. There are other types of intermittent fasting, but this is one of the most common versions that seems to also yield fast results. At the end of the thirty days, the YouTuber had lost six pounds and gained muscle mass. He was more toned, especially in his chest and arms, and that was after only 30 days of the 16:8 alongside exercise.

I was stunned after watching the video and begun doing some more research. I couldnt believe it was thateasy just fasting.

Turning the Scientific American, I learned about two studies done with 100 overweight women. One group held the 5:2 intermittent fasting (IF) method any two days a week of eating only 500 calories and eating normal the other of the five days while the other group cut their daily calories by 25%. The studies found that the two diets led to the same weight loss over three to six months; however, the IF followers had better blood sugar control and a greater reduction in body fat.

Additionally, a 2019 study with 43 overweight people showed that alternate-day fasting improved the bodys response to insulin by more than twice as much as a typical calorie-cutting diet, according to the Scientific American.

John Hopkins Medicine explains in its article Intermittent Fasting: What Is It, and How Does It Work?that its not always about what you eat but when you eat. The article features neuroscientist Mark Mattson, who has studied intermittent fasting for 25 years. According to him, our bodies have evolved to be able to go without food for many hours, or even several days or longer. In prehistoric times, before humans learned to farm, they were hunters and gatherers who evolved to survive and thrive for long periods without eating. They had to: It took a lot of time and energy to hunt game and gather nuts and berries.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, IF makes intuitive sense. Our bodies process food, specifically carbohydrates like sugars and refined grains, by breaking it down into sugars to be used for energy or else it gets stored into fat. The trick to weight loss is unlocking how to use that stored energy, the fat. The key just might be insulin. Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas that is triggered every time food enters the body, bringing sugar into the far cells for storage. Thus, the less times you eat, the less insulin is triggered, the less sugar is stored into fat. The entire idea of IF is to allow the insulin levels to go down far enough and for long enough that we burn off our fat, according to Harvard Health Publishing.

After having done all this research, I decided I wanted to try it out for myself and conduct my own experiment. First, I had to pick a method of IF. The two approaches to IF are a daily fasting routine and a week-based one. Doctors dont recommend longer periods or days of fasting since that can lead to starvation or even eating disorders. The point of fasting is not starvation; its a time schedule of when to eat. Theres a healthy balance to all of this, and a process of discipline.

I picked the 16:8 method since it would work best for my lifestyle as a busy college student. In fact, it would ease my routine since I set the eight-hour eating window to 12 p.m. 8 p.m., meaning I didnt have to worry about breakfast. For the experiment, I decided to try it for four weeks straight, a total of 28 days. I started on Feb. 20, and my last official day of the experiment was March 19.

When I began the experiment, I weighed approximately 140 pounds, and Im 5 feet 4 inches. This means my BMI (body mass index) is 24.0, which classifies me as normal body weight but on the cusp of overweight, which begins at 25.0. My hope was to lose a few pounds and tone out, especially for the upcoming summer.

The first week wasnt too bad. I knew going into it that the first two weeks were going to be the hardest with the hunger cravings, so I was prepared. I didnt know, however, about the other symptoms with starting IF. I was fatigued and had some horrible headaches. I even took a couple COVID-19 tests to make sure my symptoms didnt stem from the coronavirus. I looked up symptoms for IF, and, sure enough, that was it: headaches and fatigue. It was going to take time for my body to adjust to the new eating schedule, and by the start of the third week those symptoms went away.

However, problems started arriving in the third week, my birthday week. I was not planning or expecting my birthday to be so disruptive, but sometimes life is like that. On a few nights, I celebrated late with coworkers, friends and boyfriend, enjoying cake and pizza rolls past my eating window. To make matters worse, during this whole process, I was not being very strict with the 16:8 rule with one thing: coffee. I knew you could drink water and black coffee during the fasting time, so I figured an iced latte wouldnt be a big deal. As it turns out, it isnt exactly fasting if youre consuming sugary, caffeinated calorie-filled beverages.

Despite drinking iced coffees in the morning, before my birthday week I was noticing some weight loss. Things changed after the birthday weekend. My late-night celebratory eating was definitely having an effect. My final week of IF was full of travel, which didnt help matters either. I ended up gaining a couple pounds by the time I returned home, the end of my IF. My heart sank and my stomach turned yet I wasnt surprised. I had failed my own experiment: I ate outside my fasting window and consumed a lot of junk food over my week of travels.

On the bright side, however, I did learn something through the botched 28-day experiment. I realized the 16:8 window didnt terribly disrupt my college lifestyle and worked for me, so long as I kept diligent. I now know I cant have a morning latte. Ive found a zero-calorie vitamin drink instead for the mornings. Also, I know more exercise would be helpful in using my bodys calories whats stored in the fat. Plus, exercise is just good for you!

During the process of IF, I gained a deeper appreciation for the foods I ate, as I only ate lunch and dinner. I became very choosey about what I wanted to eat and was eating healthier. I had robust salads of kale, spinach, cabbage, and lots of vegetables. I had eggs, fruit smoothies and fish. It was an enjoyable process for me, something I plan to continue.

While it was disheartening to realize I failed my own experiment, I am glad I tried it out for four weeks. Now I have a better understanding of my strengths, weaknesses, and a desire to do better, especially since I was seeing results before utterly ruining it. Ive already begun my new experiment for IF, as of March 27, and I plan to continue it for 12 weeks. With 12 weeks, Ill have more time to see how the IF has affected me.

At the end of the day, though, my reasons for losing a few pounds are about feeling confident, happy, healthy, energetic, and loving life. Realistically, it takes effort to gain that kind of lifestyle. It takes discipline, self-acceptance, and action to reach ones goals. While IF sounds too good to be true and isnt a replacement for seeing the gym, it may prove to be a good way to reach ones goals safely and healthily I guess Ill have to find out!

Read the original:
Lessons from Intermittent Fasting The Threefold Advocate - Three fold Online