The ketogenic diet is one the most famous diets for weight loss. However, embracing a new diet is not always the easiest thing to do. It takes time and effort to get used to the new form of cooking and your new lifestyle. The same is with the keto diet. It comes with small challenges that may hinder your diet. Here are some of the biggest challenges faced by people starting on the keto diet and some easy solutions to them.Tracking carb intakeThe problem: Carb intake can be divided into total and net intake. Total is the account of every single gram of carb consumed and is easier to calculate. Net carbs, on the other hand, is calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols from the total carbs. These are excluded because the body does not break them into glucose and have no impact on the blood sugar level. However, it is not as easy to calculate net carbs.The solution: The first step is to increase the amount of home cooking. Eating out and excessive snacking can get you off-rack from the allowed number of net carbs per day. Make sure you use recipes with information of everything. The last step is to get yourself a keto tracking app. The more you keep a track of the nutrients in the food you are cooking and eating, you better you can balance the amount of net carb intake per day.

Customizing according to your body type

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Here are the solutions to some of the biggest challenges of the keto diet - Times of India

What is the OMAD Diet? OMAD stands for one meal a day, which is the gist of the diet. The latter is a 23-day eating plan that allows you to eat all you want but in one meal a day. Indeed, you are not limited to eating only low-carb, low-fat, and low-calorie foods. In fact, you are free to eat indulgent foods, such as a pizza, cookies, French fries, etc. The OMAD diet reduces the amount of calories you consume without restricting you in the choice of products.

Benefits of the OMAD Diet

Slows down aging. Eating once a day facilitates autophagy, that is, a detox process, which makes you look fresher. Moreover, it proves to prevent aging-associated diseases, such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.Facilitates metabolism. When you eat only once a day, your body learns to resist hunger and starts burning fat fast. Furthermore, one meal a day helps in preventing obesity.Reduces your calorie intake. It is impossible to consume the daily calorie intake just in one meal, which naturally makes you eat less calories.

Side Effects

The diet might slow down metabolism. Research shows that if you drastically cut down on your meals, you might start gaining weight very fast.You are likely to consume insufficient nutrients. Since the diet allows you to eat everything, you might choose the foods that are not rich in vitamins and other essential components.You will fail to understand when you are hungry.The cholesterol level in your body might increase.

Conclusion

Although the OMAD diet seems to be an effective way to lose weight fast, there are some serious risks you should consider. Chances are that this diet will harm you. Therefore, you should get screened for the contraindications to the diet plan in question and consult a dietician.

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The OMAD Diet: How Much Food Can You Eat in One Meal? - The Good Men Project

With the novel coronavirus pandemic crippling companies, threatening jobs and denting consumption, the government is trying to shield its economy with a gargantuan stimulus package financed by a supplementary budget bill that cleared the Diet on Thursday.

Although the enactment of the budget bill was delayed due to political wrangling over a cash handout program for households, the 117 trillion size of the economic measures has already been determined.

What are the focuses of the package and how big is this stimulus compared to those drafted in the past? How much will the government spend?

Here are some questions and answers about Japans relief package to counter COVID-19:

How will the stimulus protect the Japanese economy?

One of the top priorities is to stave off the virus spread. The relief package allocates 1.8 trillion for this purpose, to supply more necessary items such as face masks and ventilators to medical workers, bolster PCR testing capability and accelerate the development of vaccines and medicine.

Helping the cash management of companies, as well as safeguarding jobs and peoples lives, are also immediate objectives.

The government will spend 12.8 trillion to fund a controversial 100,000 cash handout program for all individuals, including foreign nationals registered as residents. The Cabinet had initially set a 300,000 cash distribution policy for households struggling with income losses, but it reorganized the bill after Komeito, the junior partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, strongly urged Abe to do so. It is extremely rare for the Cabinet to reverse a policy already approved.

It will finance 3.8 trillion for small and medium enterprises to secure cash to stay afloat. Also, 2.3 trillion is set aside for those companies and solo proprietors experiencing severe financial losses. The firms can receive up to 2 million each and self-employed individuals 1 million if their revenues have halved due to the impact of the virus.

The money for these measures for households and companies totals 19.4 trillion, which accounts for around 76 percent of the whole supplementary budget.

Dubbed the V-Shaped Recovery Phase, the stimulus package includes measures to be launched once the virus is contained. Japan is aiming to stimulate consumption with its 1.6 trillion Go To campaign, which will subsidize peoples travel expenses and tickets for entertainment events.

But some economists and lawmakers have questioned whether its necessary to prepare such measures now, while the outlook for containing the virus remains uncertain.

Will the Japanese government, which has snowballing debts, actually spend 117 trillion on the stimulus?

No, the government usually uses a total scale figure that combines spending by the central government, local governments and municipalities, the private sector and loans offered by financial institutions.

A large portion of the 117 trillion figure is, in fact, the loan programs. Around 26 trillion in moratoriums on tax payments for affected companies are included as well.

In Japan, politicians and economic experts often use the term fresh water (mamizu) to describe actual government spending or money expected to directly push GDP, to differentiate it from the total size (jigykibo), a measure some criticize as an inflated number.

The Cabinet Office says the amount of central government spending the fresh water is 33.9 trillion. Of that, 25 trillion is backed by the supplementary budget, which will be funded by issuing more bonds and will add a greater financial burden on a country whose debts have exceeded 200 percent of its GDP.

This means that although Abe has touted the total size as nearly 20 percent of Japan's GDP, actual government spending will be about 6 percent.

In that sense, the ratio is close to the U.S. $2.3 trillion (245 trillion) package signed by President Donald Trump in late March.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Budget, about $875 billion is estimated for loans. The rest about $1.4 trillion, which is about 6.6 percent of the U.S. GDP is close to the notion of fresh water, said Hajime Inoue, a researcher watching the U.S. economy at the Japan Research Institute.

How does this stimulus compare to the past record-setting package?

The previous record relief measures were compiled in 2009 when the international community was suffering amid the global financial crisis, triggered by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market in 2007.

At that time, their total value was 56.8 trillion, with actual government spending of 15.4 trillion, so the COVID-19 package is far bigger.

As for the economic impact, the Cabinet Office expects that the 117 trillion stimulus will push Japans real GDP up by 4.4 percent. Its estimation for the 2009 package was 2 percent.

The scale of the economic measures this time may indeed be larger, but the government will likely have to take additional steps given that it reportedly plans to extend the state of emergency for a month, which will result in more damage to the economy.

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In Japan's record stimulus, which cleared the Diet, what will be on offer? - The Japan Times

The craving struck me about two weeks ago. My brain's message was clear and direct.

You want Russian dressing.

I tried to shake the thought, but the more I fought it, the more my brain dug in. And then, sure enough, during my next weekly grocery shopping trip, I picked up a bottle to later glop atop a mixed greens salad.

My craving for Russian dressing wasn't an isolated incident. For whatever reason, I picked up a box of S'mores Pop Tarts the other day. I'm still jonesing for salmon roe. Yes, salmon roe.

I'm not alone either. Friends of mine send me pictures of weird chip flavors they've picked up at the grocery store. Another texted yesterday to tell me he ate a Sloppy Joe for breakfast. The hashtag #covidcooking has more than 85,000 photos on Instagram and is splattered with everything from banana cinnamon donuts to Spam mee pok tah.

So what's driving all these weird cravings?

The idea that my body needed some particular type of nutrient within the Russian dressing (the easily digestible carbohydrates in all the high fructose corn syrup, perhaps?), has long been debunked.

New science shows that food cravings operate via a complex and intricate network that involves many parts of the brain.

And there's a big complicating factor about food cravings as it relates to the coronavirus COVID-19, self-quarantine, and the worldwide fear brought about by a pandemic: stress.

To help delve deeper into the psyche of why COVID-cravings seem to be a thing, I contacted Kent Berridge, Ph.D., a James Olds Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Michigan Department of Psychology.

Berridge's lab studies, among other things, how the brain generates pleasure, controls appetite, and learns reward.

Here's what Berridge had to say about food cravingsRussian-dressing related and otherwise.

"What guides the specific target of our cravingsthat neuroscience does not yet understand very well," says Berridge. "We can say at least that specific food cravings are not random. They're specific to you as an individual, and your history with foods, and your particular likes and dislikes."

In short, one person's Russian dressing is another person's Sloppy Joes.

Berridge continues: "We have a good idea of how brain craving circuitry works to power the intensity of cravings, but not so good an understanding of what controls the specific target of a focused craving, though that's an issue that my lab does now study."

"Yes, definitely. Virtually all stresses trigger what's been called the brain's master stress neurotransmitter, CRF (corticotropin releasing factor) in hypothalamus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbensparts of brain-craving circuitry," Berridge says.

Stress can ignite and inflame. "CRF can directly promote craving itself," says Berridge. Plus, CRF can "also contribute to the unpleasantness of some stressors by acting in other brain structures, and some foods may be eaten more then as 'hedonic self-medication.'"

Anyone who has ever given into a craving for crummy food (S'mores Pop Tarts, as one example) and then suffered some guilt for doing so knows what Berridge is talking about.

"Yes, to the degree home isolation and financial consequences are stressful, that would definitely set the stage for the processes above to kick in and magnify craving," says Berridge.

Most stressful cravings are for highly palatable foods that are also high in calories, says Berridge. (See: sugary dressing, sugary cookies posing as breakfast pastries, sugary Sloppy Joes.)

And so I thought about it some more. While I do remember eating Russian dressing on salads when I was younger, I think that maybe I was actually craving the comfort provided by my yearly summertime Big Mac indulgence. Big Mac sauce sure does tastes a heck of a lot like Russian dressing.

And the comfort food factor, be it from the nostalgia for a Big Mac or Spam-and-noodles, how strong is that when it comes to COVID-cravings?

"That probably has more to do with other psychological cognitive processes and memories having to do with the notion of comfort, rather than basic food-craving circuitry," says Berridge.

So, in a sense, take me back to the Big Mac days.

Originally posted here:
Food Cravings During Coronavirus - COVID-19 and Diet - Men's Health

A burger a day keeps depression away? Not exactly, but it might help, according to a new American study.

The University of Alabama report compiled 18 studies and looked at more than 160,000 people. It found that a vegetarian or vegan diet may increase the likelihood of depression.

The U.K.s Daily Mail reported that the study found people eating a plant-based diet were twice as likely to take prescription drugs for mental illness and just about three times more likely to contemplate suicide. It also indicated that 33% of vegetarians suffer from depression or anxiety.

According to the researchers, avoiding meat might be a behavioural marker of people already with increased mental health struggles, though they conceded that would require further study to prove.

They concluded that vegetarians and vegans had significantly higher rates or risk of depression, anxiety and self harm.

The researchers cautioned: Our study does not support avoiding meat consumption for overall psychological health benefits.

The study, Meat and Mental Health: A systematic review of meat abstention and depression, anxiety and related phenomena, was published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.

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Study links vegetarian and veganism diets to increased likelihood of depression - Toronto Sun

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The meat industry is buckling under the coronavirus. In early April, Smithfield Foods in South Dakota one of the nations largest pork-processing plants shut down after becoming thecountryslargest coronaviruscluster, with more than 700 workers infected. Many other factories followed suit, sparking concern that a meat shortage is on the near horizon. In fact, it reached such a crisis point that, earlier this week, Donald Trump signed an executive order classifying meat-processing plants as critical infrastructure, forcing them to reopen their doors. Meanwhile, some companies are facing backlogs of animals that were bred for meat and are resorting to mass slaughter.

But what if, instead of fighting to keep this gargantuan industry afloat, we took this opportunity to reevaluate our relationship with eating meat? The list of reasons to cut back on meat consumption is varied and long and, once you look at it, difficult to ignore. If cutting meat completely out of your diet sounds daunting, why not rethink its role perhaps treat it less as a staple and more as a treat? Below, a few compelling arguments to make you reconsider your meat consumption.

Animals are smart!Were all familiar with this argument: Think about the cute cow that had to die for your hamburger. But have you really meditated on how smart some of these animals are? Pigs, for example, may be sensitive to emotional contagion, which is believed to be the basis for empathy. Cows have best friends. Chickenshave been shown to possess self-control. Sure, animals may not possess as many cognitive abilities as humans, but they have inner lives.

Most of our meat comes from factory farms, which are rife with animal cruelty.While the U.S. has started to shift away from factory farming, industrialized facilities still supply around99 percentof our meat. (Globally, its around 90 percent.) Conditions in these factories are known to be abusive: miserable animals crammed together in tiny, unsanitary cages, where they suffer until theyre slaughtered. In Teen Vogue, a former investigative reporter describes a horrifying scene at a factory farm in Iowa, where she witnessed baby pigs get their tails and testicles chopped off without any anesthetic.

Eating meat contributes to climate change.In August 2019, the U.N.sIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a landmark report, compiled by 100 scientists from 52 countries, on how to mitigate our global climate catastrophe. One of the most effective ways to fight climate change, the report says, is to reduce meat consumption. Consider beef, which has one of the highest negative impacts on the environment. (The higher the demand for beef, the more forests get converted into agricultural lands for grazing; when trees in these areas are chopped down, they release a significant amount of carbon dioxide.) Producing beef emits 20 times the emissionsas growing beans or lentils, according to a 2016 paper published by the World Resources Institute. Chicken and pork are more resource efficient than beef, but, per the report, they still emit three times more greenhouse gas than beans.

The meat industry is notorious for horrific treatment of workers.It isnt just the animals. Workers employed by the U.S. meat and poultry industry who are largely nonwhite, and many of whom are immigrants are also subjected to hazardous conditions. According to the Human Rights Watch, the meat industry reports more severe injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) than industries like the sawmills sector and gas-well drilling. Per the OSHA data, approximately every other day between 2015 and 2018, a worker in the meat and poultry industry was either sent to the hospital or lost a body part. Additionally, the HRW reports that workers are often forced to work long hours without breaks and denied adequate access to sanitation. On average, these undervalued workers earn less than $15 an hour.

Mistreatment extends beyond the walls of factory farms. Many major agribusinesses also trap farmers theyve contracted to raise animals in an endless cycle of debt; per the The Atlantic, nearly three-quarters of contract growers live below thepoverty line as a result.

Also, cooking meat is a pain!If nothing else will sway you, at least think about all the effort that goes into preparing meat. If you froze your raw meat, you have to remember hours ahead of time to defrost it. When youre preparing meat, you have to wash your hands and cutting board a million times while youre switching between chopping vegetables and seasoning steaks. When its cooking, you have to make sure that it reaches the minimum safe internal temperature which, by the way, varies between meats. Then, once you remove the meat from your oven or grill, you have to let it rest for a certain amount of time to allow the juices to redistribute. And, at this point, you might not even know yet that you overcooked it! Now, take a moment to consider the humble bean, or even a nice lentil curry.

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Now Might Be a Good Time to Eat Less Meat - The Cut