Does the thought of eating bugs make you cringe?Youre not alone,especially in further north areas likeMichigan.

We have these harsh winters, [so] insects arent available, says Julie Lesnik, an anthropology professor at Wayne State University who specializes in the evolution of the human diet and using insects as a food source. Its not a part of a lot of traditional diets in higherlatitudes.

This isnt just something that primitivepeople eat, this is a food resource that has been smartly used for millions of years and in a lot of ways we are silly for ignoring it. - Julie Lesnik,professor

But Lesnik makes the argument that eating and farming insects may make sense for a growing population where our food system leads to growing inequity, hunger and obesity.Bugs are also an environmentally-friendly food source and rich in nutrients, and a culture built around it with recipes and even a business in metroDetroit.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Still not ready to join the ranks of the entovegans,individuals who only eat insects and plant-based foods? WDETs Anna Sysling spoke to Lesnik on the colonialist history of our bug aversion, the case for an insect-based farming systemand how you can start dabbling in thisdiet.

Otherwise, how did you get here? 101.9 WDET wants to connect with metro Detroiters who are concerned about climate change and want to take action. Sign-up to be contacted by our editorial team to learnmore.

Meta Stange

Lesnick says the problem with our current food system is wastedresources.

Its about how much resources we put into cows versus what we get back out of them, saysLesnik.

Lesnik says according to estimates, it takes about 22,000 liters of water to cultivate a kilogram of edible mass for cows, which is a little over twopounds, and it takes a couple hundred liters of water to produce that same kilogram of edible mass forcrickets.

Soreally fresh water is one of the things we should be thinking about as a very precious resource and so adjusting how we farm our animals is an important part, shesays.

Insects are something we have been eating for millions of years, but fallen off here in the U.S.

Lesnick points to a conflicted history of colonialism as one reason why, as evidenced by correspondence and letters shes uncovered through herresearch.

By eating the whole insect youre actually getting a greater variation of nutrients than if you were just eatingmeat.

In a journal entry from [Christopher]Columbusscompanion on his second voyage, they highly scorn the use of insects as food, Lesnik explains.As Europeans,their only association with insects and food might be maggots with rottenmeat.

Lesnik says that Columbus and other colonizers uses indigenous peoples diets as one way to dehumanize and eventually enslave them to work on sugarplantations.

But she notes that right now there is a lot of excitement about farming crickets andmealworms.

She adds that both of these insects are great alternatives when thinking about different options forfood.

Lesnik says one thing about eating meat in our diet is that its a really easy way to get all the complete proteins that weneed.

That means you can easily getall the essential amino acids from one place, explains Lesnik, whereas if youre a vegetarian you need to be very smart about pairing all your foodsources.

By having strong disgust reactions at the idea of eating insects we are eliminating that asa possible resource for these futuregenerations.

She says insects offer that same animal protein, so they have that same benefit. But unlike eating the flesh of a cow or a pig, we are eating the entire insect so even if you are eating it powdered we get iron, dietary fiber. By eating the whole insect youre actually getting a greater variation of nutrients than if you were just eatingmeat.

Insects also offera unique ethical alternative for vegetarians, saysLesnik.

Cows are roaming animals and we put them into these small areas, but crickets naturally live in dark and cramped spaces, so to farm them in these containers for food is not far removed from their natural habitat, Lesnik continues.They are not nearly as stressed as other animals that wefarm.

Even with these facts, Lesnik says you may run into opposition among theuninitiated.

They might have a real honest disgust reaction, she says, complete with a churning stomach and gag reflex. Its hard to tell that person that their reaction iscultural.

She says that the disgust reaction is developed when we areyoung.

Think of a two-year-old, they put anything in their mouth and it requires the adults around them to say oh no dont put that in your mouth, and she says that our learned reactionhelps form the pathways in our brains as toddlersas to what is disgusting. So by having strong disgust reactions at the idea of eating insects we are eliminating that asa possible resource for these futuregenerations.

She says ultimately we need to change the narrative around bugs andinsects.

This isnt just something that primitivepeople eat, this is a food resource that has been smartly used for millions of years and in a lot of ways we are silly for ignoringit.

Follow this link:
Bug Burgers? Crickets Replace Cows in the Future of Sustainable Food - WDET

"When I was little, probably seven or eight, the doctor told my mom, 'She's fat, take her to Weight Watchers.' I ate Melba toast and cottage cheese," said Harriet, now age 50.

School lunches, she remembers, turned her into an object of ridicule among her elementary classmates.

"Kids would laugh at me because I would have this nasty brown bread with unsweetened peanut butter, carrot sticks, celery sticks and black olives, while everyone else got baloney on Wonder Bread and potato chips," Harriet said.

"Then when I visited my grandmother I'd gorge on chips and candy," she added. "So I grew up with a very unhealthy relationship to food."

And all the makings of a childhood eating disorder that would follow her for life.

"No one wakes up one day and says, 'Hey, I'm going to have an eating disorder.' It's a slow descent into hell," says registered dietitian Evelyn Tribole, the co-author of "Intuitive Eating," an anti-diet plan that stresses re-learning the body's cues for healthy eating.

It would take Harriet years to shed her childhood trauma and turn to intuitive eating to heal her broken relationship with food. It's a struggle shared by hundreds of millions of adults around the world who also suffer from an eating disorder.

A global problem

Considering the planet holds approximately 8 billion people, that would be about 624 million of us with unhealthy relationships with food, a growing number of those in Asia and Middle Eastern countries.

You don't have to starve yourself into anorexia or binge and purge to have an eating disorder. Anyone who spends a good deal of their day "thinking about food, weight and body image" could be on the eating disorders spectrum, ANAD says.

Shame of being different

Born into a Southern family with a Greek mother that mixed "good Southern food with good Greek Mediterranean food," family dinners at Harriet's home always included salad, broccoli or Brussels sprouts, healthy greens like turnip greens, chard, kale or spinach, brown rice and chicken or fish.

Despite both healthy choices and dietary restrictions, Harriet's body continued to defy society's standards.

In high school Harriet was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, a hormonal disorder that triggers the female body to produce too many male androgens.

Women with PCOS gain weight like a man, centered around the abdomen. Losing weight with the condition is extremely challenging; today, doctors often turn to various medications to block the excess hormones.

It should have been a turning point in understanding her body. But doctors knew little about PCOS back then, Harriet says, and they were extremely unsympathetic to her weight loss struggles.

Her self-esteem continued to plummet.

"I was trying to hide myself in PE [physical education class] because I was fat and I was dumpy," she said. "I grew up with self-loathing, you know, and all the stuff that comes along with that baggage that you carry when you don't look like what society thinks you should look like."

Shame is a painful reality for many people who are born into a body that isn't meant to be thin, says registered dietitian Elyse Resch, who co-authored "Intuitive Eating" with Tribole.

"So many people with a higher weight are embarrassed to go out on the street and walk because stigma is really more toxic than the weight on them," said Resch, a nutritional therapist who specializes in eating disorders.

"Many of my clients haven't gone to a doctor in a really long time because they're humiliated when the medical profession gets them on the scale and tells them to lose weight -- as if they haven't already tried."

In adulthood Harriet became even more obsessed with her size. She began to jump from diet to diet while frantically exercising. At one point she went from a size 24 to a size 16, but her hair fell out in tufts and the weight always came back.

The tipping point came when Harriet visited a doctor for a routine work physical last year.

"She was this beautiful, very thin woman," Harriet recalled. "And she starts yelling at me, literally screaming at me, 'Don't you care about yourself? You're going to die you're so fat.'

"And I remember calling my husband and bursting into tears and just feeling like the biggest piece of crap."

A change in thinking

"Harriet came to me with a totally negative relationship with food," said Atlanta registered dietitian Rahaf Al Bochi. "If she would eat something she would automatically feel very guilty about it. Food was a complete stressor in her life."

"People feel like they have no idea what to eat anymore," Al Bochi said. "They've been listening to all these different food rules -- don't eat carbs, don't eat after seven, eat this to increase your metabolism -- and intuitive eating helps you unlearn that unhealthy relationship with food and bring enjoyment back to the act of eating."

"Intuitive eating is not a diet or food plan. Period," Tribole stressed, adding that the plan is backed by over 120 studies that show success with overcoming disordered eating.

"If there's a focus on weight loss, it sabotages the intuitive eating process," Resch explained. "If they're constantly thinking, 'I need to lose weight. I shouldn't eat this piece of pizza,' then they're gonna get into that same cycle of feeling bad if they do eat it: 'I'm broken so I'll just keep eating it.' "

"Fight diet culture. Let go of this culturally thin ideal, this belief that you are only your body and you're being judged," Resch said. "We're far more than our bodies. Let it all go and just tune into yourself. Enjoy food."

Giving the body permission

In intuitive eating, no food is off limits. You can eat brownies or french fries or have a soda. In fact, you may be encouraged to consume as much as you want of that guilty pleasure until you no longer crave it. The idea is to "make peace with forbidden treats" by eating so much it becomes just another food.

"When your body feels it has full permission to eat it whenever it wants, you'll start to crave other types of foods, including more healthy foods. For many people this is like a light bulb moment," Al Bochi said.

For Harriet, the approach has been life-changing.

"I don't feel like I'm tied to food with a ball and chain anymore," she said. "Because I wasn't listening to when I was hungry, I was overeating because I couldn't tell when I was full."

Working with a trained dietitian helped Harriet relearn her body's cues, like not waiting too long to eat and then being ravenous.

"One of the things that I teach my clients is to view hunger and fullness on a scale of one to ten," Al Bochi said. "Ideally you want to be eating when you're at a four to a six, that's when you're hungry."

Now, Harriet says, she carries snacks to eat when hunger strikes. That way, when she goes to lunch, "I can eat a normal lunch because I'm not stupidly hungry."

"If I want a piece of cake, I have a piece of cake," she says. "I don't have a big piece. I have a small slice. Most of the time I only need half of it because I know I can have it."

Harriet also learned to listen to feelings of fullness, something she had never been able to do.

"I don't feel a compulsion to clean my plate any longer but I also set myself up for success," Harriet said. "I don't fill my plate. I put a little bit, I eat it, I wait a little bit and if I'm happy and satisfied, I leave. If I'm not, I have a little bit more."

It's been over a year and Harriet has yet to get on a scale. Her clothes are fitting a bit looser now, she notices, but that's no longer the point. Instead, she is pleased with the variety of foods her body craves, and feels satisfied -- both physically and emotionally.

"I know I'm heavy. I'm never going to look like Chrissy Teigen. I'm never gonna look like Nicole Kidman. I'm never going to be that thin woman, but it's okay because I'm going to be healthy," she said.

But Harriet is incensed about a culture that can make a child hate herself.

"I think about all the time I've wasted worrying about how I look because of my weight when I should've been worrying about other things that were more important," Harriet said. "And I'm angry. I'm angry that our society promotes this unrealistic ideal.

"I know now that food is not my enemy. Food is a tool. Dieting is not helpful. You have to embrace who you are and understand your body is your body, and there's never going to be an ideal than any of us can ever reach," she continued. "We are who we are, we are the way we were made, and that's life."

See the rest here:
She learned to love eating -- and herself -- despite a lifetime of fat shaming - CNN

Start (Dec. 31): 447 lbs.

Last week: 437 lbs.

This week: 438 lbs.

Total lost in 2020: 9 lbs.

The number doesnt show it a 1-pound increase from the week before but I actually had a better week than Ive had all month, not that we should rely solely on weight as an indicator of health.

Im pretty disappointed that I havent been able to lose more weight, as Im still adjusting to my new work schedule, but I was more active last week, so Im feeling a little upbeat.

With the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, and all the events going on to celebrate it, the assignments of covering those events have forced me to get out of the house more during the evenings and get out of the office during the day. Since the celebration began on Thursday, Feb. 13, Ive been to five different 40th anniversary events for the Lake Placid News, and that means walking more than usual. Im not talking miles here, but theres been a lot of standing and walking that Im not used to, and anything that gets me out of the chair and away from the computer is a big plus.

In addition, I spent some quality time with my shovel on Sunday making a path to the fuel oil pipe on the side of the house where all that snow from the last storm slid off my roof and slammed onto the ground. The force of the snow hitting the ground compacted it, and it was very dense, so I had to hack through it to make a path to the fuel oil pipe. It was only about 20 feet, but it was a lot of work, so I got an upper-body workout that day.

When I say Im pretty disappointed that I havent been able to lose more weight, I dont mean to blame the scale. I blame myself. People know when they are doing all they can to achieve a goal, and I by no means can honestly say that Ive worked hard to lose weight over the past few weeks. Im more disappointed in myself that I havent made it a priority. Instead, Ive made work a priority and made excuses.

When I see one of my heroes Fitness Revolution owner Jason McComber losing 20 pounds so far this year, Im ashamed that Im only down 9 pounds. Im so proud of him and all the wonderful people there including local radio personality Ethan Gawel, who represented the gym by helping carry the torch from Fitness Revolution to the North Elba Show Grounds Friday, Feb. 14 during the torch run for the 40th anniversary opening ceremony. Ethan has been running a lot of half marathons over the past several years, and hes an inspiration.

I know what it takes to make a commitment to lose the weight, get in shape and train for a race. It all begins with the right mind set, and Im not quite there yet. I thought I was, but Im really not.

Luckily, I work in one of the most inspiring places on the Earth Lake Placid where there are constant reminders of the rewards of hard work this villages Olympic legacy.

On Tuesday, Feb. 18, at the press conference with the 1980 Olympic figure skating team, I asked the three mens singles competitors David Santee, Charles Tickner and Scott Hamilton what advice they had for aspiring Olympians, and I got some inspirational answers for my weight-loss journey.

Its just about showing up every day, Hamilton said. Its about being bold enough to put this on your calendar and saying Im working towards this. ... Your story is meant to be told, so youre going to have to participate in it.

Once I heard those words, I knew I would have to write them down and post them on the corkboard in my office. Its one thing to dream, but if you dont show up every day and participate in your story the story wont be about reaching your goals; it will be about falling short because you didnt put in the effort.

On this Lake Placid Diet journey, Ive learned to have faith in the effort, but you cant do that unless you actually put in the effort. Heres to better days.

Read more:
Olympians, local athletes keep me inspired on this journey - Lake Placid Diet by Andy Flynn - LakePlacidNews.com | News and information on the Lake...

Springfield, Mo. You are what you eat. Youve probably heard that before.

So, what does that make most of us average, everyday eaters?

Sick, says Dr. Karissa Merritt, a physician training for family medicine at CoxHealth. A large percentage of our chronic disease burden is lifestyle-related, Dr. Merritt said. Thats either what were eating, or not eating, how much were moving, or not moving.

Food shapes culture all around the world and the United States is no different from Thanksgiving, Christmas and Super Bowl to barbecues, birthdays and weddings. The list of social eating opportunities spans the entire 12-moth calendar.

If food is culture and if its part of our identity as a society, why (and how) would we change our habits? Your health is the reason why. It turns out it takes more than an apple a day to keep the doctor away. You have to keep the apple pie away, too.

Ask the doctor: meat consumption

While some people might choose to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet for ethical reasons, others might choose that lifestyle based on the health benefits of it. Dr. Merritt says the data surrounding meat consumption varies. Still, most suggest that excessive meat consumption harms health.

Less meat is probably better, she said. We are starting to see some research that supports plant-based diets having an impact on life-span and also the quality of life.

Why we should change the way we eat

Our ancestors used food for survival. Today, we use food for pleasure, and too much of it, according to Shannon Crosby, a corporate wellness dietitian at CoxHealth.

If I think about what Americans are eating right now, we just are eating too much, she said. We make choices based on how food tastes and the food that tastes the best is high in sugar, high in unhealthy fats, and processed.

All of that causes inflammation in the body. Crosby says much like when you have cut on your skin your body will react to heal that and fight any type of infection that might occur, the same happens inside your body when you eat certain foods,

We think that this chronic inflammation is kind of the root of the diseases that impact Americans today, she said. Chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, we think maybe go back to that chronic inflammation, said Crosby.

But while food is the problem, it can also be the solution.

Food is the only medicine that we are all taking every day, Merritt said.

Ask the doctor: ketogenic diet

Simply put, a ketogenic diet is a very low-carb diet that helps many people with weight loss. Crosby explains that typically body cells burn carbs for energy, but they also burn fat. So, when you deprive your body of carbohydrates, your cells will shift and get more energy from fat. Thats going into ketosis, which also curbs your appetite.

Shannon says studies showed that people on a keto diet lost weight faster than other diets; however, that gap was smaller or non-existent long-term.

We dont have many studies on the long-term health effects of it, and part of that is because its hard for people to stick with long-term. So, when they do long term studies, people tend to drop out, Shannon said.

How can we change the way we eat

There are many different types of diets out there; it can be overwhelming.

First, if the goal is to lose weight, a calorie deficit is the first step, according to the experts. But the best way to do that will depend on each person, and there are several things to consider.

Are they getting enough carbs, proteins, fats, and all those important nutrients we need to sustain life and be healthy? Crosby said. If its vegan and checks those boxes, then Im ok with

it. If its keto and checks those boxes, and you can be consistent with it, then Ill probably be ok with it.

Dr. Merritt says she keeps it simple with her patients.

Eat when youre hungry. Dont when you are not. And eat real food, Merritt says. Eat things that exist in the grocery store the same way they existed in the world. So, eat the apple, not the apple sauce, eat the potatoes, not the mashed potatoes, the rice, not the rice cake.

Ask the doctor: should you eat fruits if youre trying to avoid sugar and carbs?

The short answer is: yes.

Crosby says that although fruits have sugar, they also have a lot of fiber, which slows down how quickly you digest it. In contrast, sweets like a donut or a can of soda, for example, will be primarily sugar, if not all.

If you take an orange that has 15g of carbohydrates of almost all sugar, thats a big difference than a handful of candy thats 60-70 grams of carbs, she said.

And fiber is what we need; Americans are not eating enough fiber. On average, Americans are eating about 15 grams of fiber, when most people need about 25-30g.

However, someone who is on a keto or low-carb diet might opt for blueberries rather than a banana, for example. This swap would keep those carbs low but still get the benefits from fruit.

Where do you find fiber? Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes.

They say theres no one best diet for everyone other than a whole foods based-diet that meets all of your nutritional needs.

There are special circumstances; people with thyroid issues, pre-existing diabetes, hypertension, women with the polycystic ovarian disease. Those diets are going to look a little bit different. And so, its important to speak with their doctors about really what that should luke. No diet is one-size-fits-all.

Dr. Merritt says food is medicine and the first step to helping people heal. So she began prescribing healthy food to her patients. Merritt and other doctors in the CoxHealth system are prescribing healthy food and working with Crosslines in Springfield and Community Gardens, where patients can go shopping.

She says this allows people who otherwise wouldnt be able to afford fruits and vegetables, fresh meat, and protein-rich grains access to those items.

Ask the doctor: intermittent fasting and calorie restriction

Intermittent fasting restricts the window in which you are consuming calories, and as a result, restricts your calories. For example, some people might choose to eat for eight hours a day, and refrain from eating for the next 16 hours, which includes sleeping hours.

Over 20-30 years of data show calorie restriction has proven to expand life-span, and that excess calorie consumption is linked to early death, Dr. Merritt said.

She says some special patient populations might benefit more from this strategy than others, for example, endurance athletes.

It has to do with the way their body reacts to the sugars during that time when they eat and dont eat, she said.

Where we see people struggle with it is often women, Dr. Merritt said. There are some hormonal components that make it more difficult to benefit from an intermittent fasting diet.

In Springfield and Greene County, we see that we have poverty at almost twice the level of the national average. And about 25 percent of our Greene County neighbors rely on convenience store food as their primary source of grocery shopping, which is extremely concerning, she said. And it would be crazy to think that those people would be as healthy as someone who is shopping at the farmers market every weekend.

The way we eat, as a nation, is economical, and its also cultural. Dr. Merritt is one person in her community, doing her part to fight one of those battles and increase access to healthier foods. But the other part of the problem is just as important.

We have to combat the American culture, that is: things should be easy for me, things should be cheap for me, and they should be quickly accessible for me. And that has impacted the way we think about food, where it comes from, how we cook, and how it tastes. And we are feeling that. Its affecting peoples lives; its affecting peoples health care.

So, if we got ourselves here, we can also get our selves out. But there is no magic pill to fix it immediately.

Whats important is that you have something sustainable for you, something that changes the way you live your life not just for the next three months but for the rest of it, Merrit said.

Read the rest here:
A better you with Jen Abreu: Eating healthy - KOLR - OzarksFirst.com

Scarsdale diet

TheScarsdale dietis a very stricteatingplan that allows for just 1,000 calories per day, regardless of your body size, gender, or activity level. No substitutions of any kind are allowed and each meal is specifically defined for each of the 14-days of thediet. On the plan, you eat three meals per day.

The Scarsdale diet is a high-protein, low-calorie, and low carbohydrate weight loss program developed by Herman Tarnower, a cardiologist from New York state. The programme gained widespread media attention in the 1970s as the go-to quick weight loss programme for society women and fashion elites. It gained additional notoriety after Tarnower was murdered just a year after his best-selling book was published.

The diet is no longer as popular as it once was, as health experts have been critical of the very low-calorie requirements and the inflated weight loss claims.

The banana and milk diet involves eating only bananas and drinking milk for 4 days. The programme was developed in 1934 by Dr. George Harrop. The main logic behind the diet was to consume fewer calories than usual, but still stay healthy. Both the milk and bananas have many health benefits which help with staying fit during the diet. Followers of the diet consume less than 1000 calories per day, making them lose weight easily.

Although bananas and milk do have health benefits, following such a restrictive diet isnt typically a good idea. While you may lose weight, its unlikely that youll sustain it once you return to normal eating habits.

Whether the famous combination of milk and banana is good or bad for health has always been in debate.

Thegrapefruit diet is a protein-rich meal plan that focuses on consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice at every meal. The diets goal is quick weight loss, and its a 12-day plan. While several versions of the diet exist, the majority of them include a daily caloric intake of less than 1 000 calories which means weight loss should be rapid.

The grape diet proposed by famous South African seer, Johanna Brandt, recommended fasting for two or three days, consuming only cold water, followed by a diet of only grapes and water for one to two weeks, with seven meals a day. Fresh fruits, tomatoes, and sour milk or cottage cheese are then introduced into the diet followed by raw vegetables.

Brandt, a spy during the Boer War, prophet and writer on controversial health subjects, popularized the grape diet as a treatment for cancer from 1925. She published about twenty pamphlets on the subject of natural remedies for health problems with her best-known publication being The Grape Cure. This publication is said to have been written after Brandt had cured herself of stomach cancer by following the diet.The book was republished in 1989 asHow to Conquer Cancer, Naturally, including an endorsement of Brandts work by Benedict Lust who is commonly referred to as the father of naturopathy. The book may have been inspired by Arnold Ehret, a contemporary, who taught a Grape Cure course.

It is believed the grape detox diet can help relieve ailments and reduce weight by cleansing the body and flushing out toxic waste. The grape detox is an eating plan typically used by those who wish to lose weight, become healthier and sometimes as an attempt to eliminate serious illness such as cancer and lung disease.

Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay

The Atkins diet, the most famous low-carb weight loss diet in the world, was created by cardiologist Robert Atkins in the early 1970s. It claims to produce rapid weight loss without hunger.

The Atkins diet is a high-protein, high-fat diet that restricts carbs and gradually adds them back in, based on personal tolerance. Studies have shown it is one of the most effective ways to lose weight.

Discuss any diet you plan on embarking on with your doctor.

Read more here:
The ups and downs of 5 fad diets of the past - Soweto Urban

Several lucky fans recently had the chance to chat with SHINee's Taemin via SM Entertainment's 'Lysn' app, were the idol shared a ton of spoilers about his comeback preparations!

Comfortably chatting with fans while using adorable emojis, Taemin said, "Iwas practicing choreography hehe. For a new song!Should I give you a spoiler?"

He also added, "I'll be releasing a lot of albums this time. This will be the most number of album releases I've ever had in a year. And my music style has changed keke.You might not be able to see me performing in the style that I've been performing until now TT."

Regarding the changes to his music and choreography style,Taemin joking added, "I've been thinking a lot lately, and I think that my performances are not fresh because there's too much dancing going on keke. So I'll be cutting ties with dancing. You'll love me even if I'm not dancing, right? But I already said that I was practicing new choreography..."

While preparing for his solo comeback, Taemin also revealed that he's been dieting, for approximately a month now! "Because of too much cheek fat, it's hard to see my lovely cheekbones, so I'm on a diet. When artists are preparing for comebacks, they all typically go into a period of taking stricter care and dieting," the idol explained.

As you can see below, Taemin took a lot of time to answer tons of fans' questions, chatting about idle topics like his drinking habits, and also hinting that he's broken into(?) fellow member Key's house before! Are you looking forward to Taemin's transformation for his next solo comeback?

Follow this link:
Taemin reveals he's working on multiple solo comeback albums + that his music and choreography style will change - allkpop

He says he told his daughter they were "working to set her up for the future being physically fit and mindful of what she eats".

But things came to a head when his daughter went to a birthday party and had to take snacks to share.

"I'm trying to show my kid that snacks can be healthy, so I sent her with a bag of veggie sticks and hummus. She made a little fuss about not getting candy but seemed fine."

At the sleepover the little girl refused to eat any pizza food, and began crying that "she was going to get fat".

"[She] told the other kids that they were gonna get fat and unhealthy because their parents gave them those snacks. She said she had to eat the veggies so she could lose weight, and she wasn't allowed any popcorn."

The man wrote that his ex-wife "blames me for giving [our daughter] a complex when she was healthy and active".

"I said if she was healthy she wouldn't have a belly and be bigger than other girls. I said that at least I cared about what the girl puts in her mouth Now ex is telling me she won't send her back to me if I don't stop 'emotionally damaging' her. "

The post has racked up more than 2000 comments, mostly from people slamming the man's forceful parenting.

"Man, your daughter is NINE. She is a little chubby, for what you have said, and she was CRYING because she was scared if she ate anything. For christ's sake, [you're the asshole] and you are f**king your daughter's life up. What the actual hell you think you are doing?" one person wrote.

"I appreciate that you are looking out for your daughter, but this is completely the wrong way to go about it. She is scared to eat pizza or popcorn? Really?? Yeah, she may have a little baby fat on her but she's nine and hasn't hit puberty yet," wrote another.

One woman pointed out that dieting is an "uphill battle" for women.

"This is the world we - girls and women - live in. We are constantly inundated with messages and images that we are not enough, worthless. It leads to mental health issues, eating disorders, abusive relationships, self-harm, substance abuse, and death.

"You haven't done the bare minimum to support your daughter in a society that is mentally and physically dangerous for girls and women. YOU are the health threat. Not her stomach fat. YOU."

A 2018 study published in children's health journal Pediatrics found that weight shaming, or stress on dieting over healthy eating, can lead to a cycle of disordered eating and poor self-esteem in children.

Read the original here:
Father slammed after 'emotionally damaging' 9yo daughter with strict diet - Newshub

People living with an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohns disease or ulcerative colitis have a less-diverse microbial community in their gut, and this can contribute to intestinal inflammation. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed the IBD-Anti Inflammatory Diet (IBD-AID)to help these individuals restore the good bacteria in their guts and reduce IBD symptoms.

The diet, which scientists worked on for 15 years, is made up of three phases to treat flares and maintain remission. In the first phase of the diet, a person increases his or her intake of prebiotic and probiotic foods, while avoiding certain carbohydrates.

Probiotics are fermented foods that have live bacteria in them, such as:

Prebiotics, which support the growth of probiotics in the digestive system, include:

Second, the diet also involves avoiding trans fats, processed foods, fast food, and pro-inflammatory carbohydrates, which includes anything with lactose, wheat, refined sugar, and corn. This, the researchers say, will starve the bad bacteria and help a sensitive gut recover.

And finally, patients were encouraged to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and healthy fats.

How successful is the diet?

In a small study abstract presented at the Crohns and Colitis Congress January 2325, 2020, in Austin, Texas, Ana Luisa Maldonado-Contreras, PhD, an assistant professor of microbiology at University of Massachusetts (UMass) Medical School and her colleagues found that participants with moderate to severe IBD who were on the IBD-AID diet for eight weeks saw a 61.3 percent decrease in disease severity.

Dr. Maldonado-Contreras says the diet isnt an exclusion but a substitution diet, because its all about sustainability.

The first task was to recognize that this is challenging because its a complete mindset change, but when people consider nutrition as part of their medicine, they can begin to solve their IBD issues, she says. Were advocating for prebiotic foods like bananas, chia seeds, oats, garlic, and onion because we want people to introduce more normal or real foods instead of inulin supplements, she says. Inulin supplements are the common prebiotics found in containers sold at vitamin shops.

Study participants had different stages of disease severity and were on different treatments, so they served as their own control in this study. Using in weekly food-intake surveys and twice-weekly stool samples over the course of 18 weeks, Maldonado-Contreras was able to match up the patients microbiomes with what they ate and assess their symptoms.

Stool samples also showed that the diet resulted in an increase in the abundance of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs are created by fermentation when microbes break down food that humans can't digest, and they promote the growth of other bacteria that help make nutrients available to the body.

The IBD-AID diet does not diverge too much from the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) when it comes to cutting out carbohydrates. The main difference is that, while the IBD-AID emphasizes pre- and probiotics, the SCD focuses more on prohibiting certain carbohydrates that may either throw off the balance of the gut bacteria or promote inflammation in the gut. Both effects are especially bad for those with IBD.

I love the focus on pre- and probiotic foods as well as the phased approach that the IBD-AID diet sets forth, says Kelly Kennedy, RD, who manages and oversees nutrition content, meal planning, and diet and nutrition coaching at Everyday Health. Pre- and probiotics are proving to be immensely important to overall human health and especially gut health.

Another common diet for people with IBD is the low-FODMAP (fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols) diet, which encourages low intake of certain carbs that trigger inflammation in the digestive system. It involves strict restriction of any foods high in FODMAPS for three to eight weeks.

While that approach has been shown to be relatively effective for many people, the diet itself is restrictive at first and can be difficult to follow as a result, says Kennedy.

Also, the foods that are allowed or restricted on the low-FODMAP diet are not obvious because they are based on the types of fermentable carbohydrates in each food, so you'd need to keep a list of allowed foods handy especially as you're getting started on that diet, she explains.

The next short-term step for Maldonado-Contreras and her team will be to repeat the study with a larger number of patients so they can work with a larger data set and refine the diet as necessary. In the meantime, people with IBD can try some fun menu ideas, including a pumpkin spice smoothie and a tofu stir-fry with zesty almond sauce(the UMass Medical School is also developing videos to teach people on the IBD-AID diet how to prepare meals).

Were not telling people whats right to do but instead giving them the tools, she says, its complicated and hard, but lets work together and get results.

Go here to read the rest:
Could a New Diet Focused on Restoring the Gut Microbiome Reduce IBD Symptoms? - Everyday Health

In recent years, its become increasingly apparent that what we eat is a major source of emissions. But as an environmentally-conscious consumer, its not always clear whats the best course of action to reduce emissions.

A new analysis concludes that eating less carbon-intensive foods is the best thing to do. Eating less meat and dairy is more important than eating locally-sourced foods.

Food availability has improved dramatically over the years. We have access to unprecedented richness and diversity, having the luxury of enjoying fruits and vegetables from all corners of the world.

We get our avocados from Mexic, our kiwi from China, our tomatoes from Spain, and our bananas from Brazil. These are just a few examples, but theyre telling of how international our food sources have become. Of course, these foods have to be transported from far away, which produces emissions. So if youre considering reducing your diets emissions, eating local seems like a natural place to start.

The eat local movement has gained a lot of traction in recent times, and it makes a lot of sense. Not only are you cutting down on emissions, but youre supporting local farmers and eating local products.

But if were strictly talking about emission, eating locally rarely produces substantial benefits. If you really want to make a difference, its more about what you eat than where it comes from.

Specifically, and as researchers have emphasized time and time again, red meat is the biggest culprit when it comes to emissions.

Plant-based foods produce 10-50 times lower emissions than most animal products, even if they come from far away. Its not just transportation but all the processes in the supply chain, from processing to transport and packaging, typically account for a small share of emissions.

Instead, the biggest part of farm-associated emissions come from, well, farming. Eating local beef or lamb is much worse than eating exotic fruits or vegetables which come from the other side of the world.

Lets take an avocado as an example. If a kilogram of avocado is shipped from Mexico to Western Europe, it would produce generate 0.27kg CO2 in transport emissions. This is only around 10% of the total emissions associated with that kilogram of avocado.

But farming a kilogram of beef, even without any transportation, generates somewhere between 20 and 60 kg of CO2 much, much more.

These meat emissions are also pretty much inescapable. No matter how much you try to improve the process, the reason why meat produces emissions has to do with biology.

As a ballpark figure, plants transform about 10% of the solar energy they receive into useful energy. Herbivores transform about 10% of the energy they get from eating plants into useful energy. So no matter how you look at it, most of the food that herbivores eat is not transformed into calories that we can then consume most is wasted. So instead of using fields to grow food for ourselves, we use fields to grow food to feed animals, but we get 10 times fewer calories (there is a mention to be made about some lands which are not usable for crops and are usable as pastures, but this is not a major component).

This means that farming meat needs a lot of land area, a lot of water, and a lot of energy. All of this is translated into emissions (along with other environmental problems)

Dairy, seafood, and cheese are also very carbon-intensive. Some plant-based products such as chocolate and coffee also have a major impact. In chocolate, this largely happens because of the land-use change, whereas in coffee, it is because of the farming process itself. Still, one kilogram of coffee or chocolate is not consumed as fast as one kilogram of meat or cheese (I know, you love chocolate but you dont love it that much).

The reason why transportation accounts for so little of products that come from far away is that weve become very efficient at it and its mostly done by ships, which produce far fewer emissions per mile than planes, for instance.

But when food it air-freighted, it can have a major impact.

Its difficult to know which products have been air-freighted because theyre rarely labeled as such, but the good news is that air transportation accounts for only 0.16% of food miles.

Its usually quickly-perishable foods that are air-freighted, such as berries or asparagus. Its good to keep an eye out for these (and a labeling policy would help), but again, these make up a very, very small portion of total foods.

To sum it up, if you want to cut down on your own emissions, paying more attention to what you eat is a good place to start you can make a significant difference with this. Even switching from beef to chicken, or having 1-2 meat-free days per week can make a major impact.

The first thing to do is try to reduce meat and dairy consumption. Eating local might be good for supporting local businesses, but when it comes to emissions, it doesnt make a big difference. The one big exception is products transported via air. Its not always possible to know which products are air-freighted, but they make up for a small minority of what we see on the shelves.

Its becoming increasingly difficult to be aware of our foods environmental impact, and things can vary significantly from place to place, but eating less meat and dairy is a good place to start no matter where you are.

Excerpt from:
Want to reduce your diets carbon footprint? Focus on what you eat, not on buying local - ZME Science

BY KEITH ROACH, M.D.

DEAR DR. ROACH: Does eating strictly organic food and drinking only bottled water help in a meaningful way to prevent diseases and contribute to a long and healthy life? M.T.

ANSWER: There is no consistent high-quality evidence that consuming organic foods lead to improvement in health outcomes, including longer life. Some but not all studies have found slightly higher amounts of nutrients in organically grown produce. Organic foods are made without synthetic pesticides, but may use pesticides found in nature. There is not convincing evidence that natural pesticides are any safer, nor that the small amount of residual pesticides left in conventional produce leads to significant health risks. However, there is preliminary evidence that consumption of mostly organic food led to a decrease in the risk of one type of cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but not an overall decrease in cancer. Based on current available evidence, I dont recommend organic food consumption for health benefits.

The quality of tap water varies greatly across North America, but most locations have high-quality water available at extremely low cost with minimal environmental impact compared with bottled water. Even if tap water is unpalatable in a persons location, I recommend a filter system rather than resorting to bottled water, again for environmental concerns as well as cost. Bottled water is rarely the only option, and if so it is usually due to contamination of tap water with microbes or heavy metals, which should be known to the community. My own municipality mails me a water quality report yearly, and it is outstanding quality.

Two additional points are worth considering. The first is that organically prepared foods have been the cause of foodborne illness due to contamination at a much higher level than expected. The second is that organic farming prohibits nontherapeutic antibiotics, a practice with which I strongly agree as a means of reducing the potential for antibiotic resistance.

Until further evidence is available, my opinion is that most people would do better eating more produce, whether conventionally or organically grown. Locally grown fresh produce may have more benefits than organically produced due to freshness.

DEAR DR. ROACH: All of the latest information states that an adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Is this unbroken sleep? For example, I sleep for four hours, wake up for one to two hours, and then sleep three to four more hours almost every night. If the sleep is to be continuous, is it better to take a sleeping aid or continue with the current pattern? Nothing I read indicates if sleeping seven to nine hours with a sleeping aid provides the same benefit as not sleeping continuously for that time period. P.M.

ANSWER: While it is true that people who sleep seven to nine hours per night tend to live longer than those who sleep less (or more), it is likely that there are some people who need more or less sleep than the average. Further, it isnt clear whether the apparent improvement in longevity is due to better sleeping, or whether people who dont sleep well have an underlying medical condition that is really responsible for the harm seen.

As far as whether continuous sleep is better than interrupted sleep, there isnt good evidence to compare the two. There is strong historical evidence that prior to artificial lighting, two distinct sleep periods separated by an hour or so was considered normal.

Most sleeping aids adversely affect sleep quality, and increase risk of falls and accidents the next day. If interrupted sleep is working for you, Id recommend continuing versus using a sleeping pill.

Dear Annie: I am a 64-year-old woman. Trying to date seems more difficult as I get older. Seems like most men only ...

By ROBERT KEPLERIn the Our View column of The Express on Feb. 5 it stated that our area deserves its fair ...

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. (1 Corinthians 14:33 ...

By SHAUN M. DOUGHERTYPresident Donald Trump has proposed one of the largest increases in funding for career and ...

Dear Annie: Ive had my current job for four years. I work at a small company of about 20 employees. My ...

AL SEVERMontoursvilleA recent letter to the editor stated that prices for flying out of the Williamsport ...

Read the original here:
To Your Good Health: Risks and rewards of a strictly organic diet | News, Sports, Jobs - Lock Haven Express