Are you still caught up in the low-fat mantra of the past couple decades? Do you think you can’t eat much fat if you are trying to lose weight? These ideas are still so prevalent in our media and in the low-fat products you see everywhere that it’s no wonder you may still believe this. In fact, even many doctors still believe this.

However, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, in 1999-2000, an estimated 64 percent of adults in the United States were either obese or overweight. That’s almost two thirds of the adult population, and one third of our children are now overweight as well. In the past 30 years, the number of overweight children has doubled. In just the past decade, the number of obese people in the U.S. has gone up two and one half times.

Fifty years ago, only a small percentage of the population had problems with their weight. Now it’s an epidemic! All this has happened while we cut back from 40 to around 32 percent fat as a percentage of our diet.

Low-fat diets not only don’t work, but they’re not healthy, not natural, and they tend to promote weight gain! Research confirms this statement. The famous Framingham Study that started in 1948 is still going on, and it shows that the more saturated fat, the more calories, and the more cholesterol a person ate, the lower their serum cholesterol! The results also show that the more fat they ate, the less they weighed!

So, we are eating less fat as a nation, but are gaining weight. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that since fat gives foods much of their flavor, when manufacturers cut out the fat, they add sugar, MSG and other chemicals to the food to enhance the taste. These can all have adverse effects on both our weight and our health.

Saturated Fats Are Necessary for Good Health

Many of us, doctors and laypeople alike, were taught that red meat and fat, and especially saturated fats, are to be avoided. We still hear that they cause all sorts of problems, including high cholesterol, heart disease and weight gain. However, if you carefully study the research, you will see that it shows the opposite to be true. Saturated fat is a vital nutrient and is necessary for good health.

In order for your body to properly use fat-soluble vitamins, you need to have the fat in your foods. Calcium, too, needs fats for proper absorption. So it’s important to use full-fat dairy products and put butter and cream on your calcium-rich leafy green and other vegetables and eat salad with oil-based dressings. If you eat this way, you will increase your absorption of the vitamins and minerals contained in those salads and other vegetables.

While we Americans have been lowering the amount of fat in our diets, especially saturated fats like animal meats, butter, lard, coconut oil and full-fat dairy products, not only have obesity rates skyrocketed, like previously discussed, but heart disease rates have also increased. A wealth of research points to vegetable oils, sugar, especially high-fructose corn syrup, and refined grains as a major cause of obesity, and to trans-fats, and vegetable oils and shortening as a major cause of heart disease.

FACT: By 1950, butter consumption had dropped from 18 lbs per person per year to just over 10. FACT: Heart disease caused probably no more than 10 percent of US deaths prior to the 1920′s. By the 1950′s it had risen to 30 percent or more.

According to Dr. Ron Rosedale, when you eat lots of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour products, your body converts them to sugar and then burns that sugar instead of burning fat. Saturated fats act as a carrier for the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. When the fat is removed from foods in our diet, many of these vitamins are also removed, and our absorption of these vitamins also goes way down.

Saturated fats protect the liver from alcohol, drugs and other toxins. Saturated fats also support the immune system, which helps keep you from getting sick. Saturated fats are needed for correct bone development and in order to prevent osteoporosis. A high level of fat in the diet needs to be saturated in order for the body to properly utilize calcium. This means that a low-fat diet with plenty of calcium and/or calcium supplements is not necessarily going to prevent osteoporosis, and this is seen today in the high rates of osteoporosis.

Saturated fatty acids are necessary for proper functioning of all our cell membranes. They give our cells the firmness necessary to maintain structural integrity. All your cells and organs, especially the brain, need saturated fats in order to function properly. So stop worrying about eating low fat. Add real old fashioned fats back into your diet like cream and butter and watch the excess pounds slowly disappear.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Karen Pijuan is the owner of several health-related websites and has written numerous articles about healthy living, whole food supplements, natural weight loss and more. Find out more by visiting EcoViva or The Truth About Vitamins.

There are so many weight loss products on the market, some prescriptions and other over the counter drugs that are supposed to help you lose weight. Often many of these products can actually have devastating effects on your health. Some medications can cause side effects such as stroke, heart attack, tachycardia, and in some extreme cases death. These side effects sound scary, but one may wonder how realistic these side effects are.

There are several different forms of diet pills. The two most popular forms of diet pills are appetite suppressants and stimulants. Both of these have been approved to aid in weight loss if the obesity is considered to be more dangerous than the effects of the drugs. If you are less than 30 pounds overweight things are much different then for those that are obese. Prescription medications are very regulated but over the counter medications have risks that have not been documented.

There are many requirements that are required out of pharmaceutical companies, which include tests and labeling, but weight loss supplements do not undergo the same requirements. They do not even have to be reviewed by the FDA if they do not have an ingredient that has not been used for weight loss before. The company that makes the drug is supposed to be responsible for the product, but many times they use unhealthy ingredients and dosages that are much too high.

Since not all over the counter weight loss medications are regulated you need to take precautions before you take them. You need to be sure that you research these medications. Find out the information about the active ingredient in the medication and find out what risks there are to keep in mind.

You should also be sure to take the time to talk new weight loss products with your doctor. Often these products can have a reaction with medications that you are already taking, so you want to be sure that you can take this new medication without any adverse effects. Also be sure that you follow the instructions and do not take more than is recommended even though it may be tempting.

You should never take weight loss medication long term unless it has been prescribed by your physician. Be sure to talk to your pharmacist or doctor to be sure there are no reactions with your current prescriptions or even other over the counter medications you may be taking.

Often the best defense may be not taking weight loss medications at all. There are many risks that have been associated with weight loss pills and it is not worth the risk of losing your health or your life to lose a little weight. If you want to lose weight talk to your doctor and come up with a plan that will help you lose weight in a healthy and safe way.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Resources of diet and weight loss programs can be found at: www.dietandweightlossprogram.comand here. blog/book

Maybe you are already eating well. Maybe you exercise regularly. You breathe in deeply and cleanse the blood of impurities, and you look at the world in a positive way. Maybe, as a result of all these good changes, you have noticed your clothes are looser. Look in the mirror and you may see your face is thinner, more angular.

You are losing weight, steadily reaching your goal, but you are not quite where you want to be. As much as you exercise and continue to eat well, however, you find yourself at a standstill. This is also known as reaching a plateau. Instead of climbing higher toward your goal weight, you have stopped and cannot seem to find another path.

It is not surprising that such situations often lead people to backslide into weight gain. To come so far without finishing is very frustrating. In these situations, it may be prudent to try a supplement to restart the weight loss process and urge your body back into fat burning mode. With all the different types of diet pills out there, how do you know which ones will work, and which ones will hinder your weight loss?

Peruse the supplement shelf at any health food or department store, and you will be bombarded with bold lettering, girls in bikinis, and grand promises. Flashy commercials and celebrity endorsements do well to sell diet pills, but it is important to research each product before putting anything in your body. If you do not know what a particular weight loss supplement can do, it can have adverse effects on your physical health. One day of severe illness may be enough to put you off supplements for good.

Here are some things to think about before you try any diet supplement.

Weight: How much weight do you really need to lose? Are you trying to take off those last ten pounds, or do you want to lose more?

History of illness: Do you have a heart condition? Do you have diabetes or problems with your thyroid? Are you allergic to anything? Read labels before you buy. Some supplements may contain ingredients designed to speed up your heart rate, and they may cause damage if your heart cannot take the sudden pace.

Purpose: What do you want the supplement to do? Do you want to burn fat, control your appetite, or block carbohydrates? Some pills may be packaged to do all three and more, but if you are looking for something specific it may be best to find a more streamlined supplement.

Cost: Is the supplement cost effective? How many pills do you get per bottle? Some supplements may cost upwards of fifty or sixty dollars a bottle, and be as effective as a product that costs half of that. Consult a consumer watch website or magazine for a comparison of products. The only thing you lose shouldn’t be your money.

With thoughtful research, and a thumbs-up from your physician, a diet supplement can help you off that weight loss plateau. But before you take anything, take the time to make a good decision for your health.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Kathryn Lively writes for Compuslim, custom fit weight loss for busy lifestyles.

While some people will always believe that all-natural weight loss supplements are the key to a natural weight loss, you will find that most doctors would not agree. Though technically it is true to say that the herbs and agents typically found in natural diet supplements are indeed natural, natural is not necessarily synonymous with harmless.

Do you remember when your mom told you not to eat the berries off the trees unless you could definitely identify them as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or blueberries? That was because some things in nature, although they are still very obviously natural, are still capable of causing harm and damage to a person and to their body.

How to Recognize the Signs

Your reaction to the statement that natural weight loss supplements might not be naturally good for us, might be that if it has some adverse effect then you would obviously stop taking it. However, it is actually not all that simple. After all, not all adverse effects can be noticed or properly identified.

Our bodies could be under a fair amount of stress and may not register anything on the outside. This can be quite dangerous in a world where hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup are becoming staple ingredients, even in the products that should be healthy.

So what is the correct way to lose weight naturally if all-natural weight loss supplements can not be trusted? Well, the only way to lose weight naturally and healthily is the good old-fashioned way, which includes that of a good diet and frequent exercise. This means no crash diets, no all-natural weight loss supplements, no pharmacological weight loss supplements – just plain old calorie control and attention to ingredients, paired with frequent exercise and a non-sedentary lifestyle.

This old-fashioned recipe for natural weight loss may seem unduly boring in today’s fast-paced world. Perhaps it may even seem like a waste of technology and pharmacological research to ignore these recent advancements in diet and weight control. However, for the time being, doctors agree that the only route to 100% safe and natural weight loss is to simply lose weight through proper diet and exercise.

It should be noted that by using the word diet, it is not implied that a “diet” of drastic calorie cutting should be followed. What is meant by diet in this context is that of a healthy eating regime consisting of an adequate daily caloric intake, dependant on a person’s age, gender, and activity level.

This diet can be identified as one which is varied in nature and which includes the majority of the food coming from complex carbohydrates (whole grains) and vegetables, with smaller portions of dairy, protein, fruits and some fats (preferably mono and polyunsaturated fats, but no trans fats whatsoever).

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

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