Losing even a little weight,since that allow the angle to return, may cure GERD.

That’s what happened for 66 percent of people with GERD in a recent study. For obese women, the magic number for improving heartburn and other GI symptoms was losing just 5 percent of their body weight and taking 2-4 inches off their waists. Men got relief when they lost 10 percent of their weight and 4 inches from their waists.

Another reason why so many losers got better could be that they used to spend on alcohol, chocolate, fat and other GERD triggers with fruits and vegetables. They also exercised up to an hour, five days a week. And presumably they did what we tell anyone with heartburn to do: Avoid eating within three hours of bedtime. Put blocks under the head posts of your bed so you sleep at a slight downward tilt. And skip other trigger foods, too, like coffee, black pepper, spicy food, tomatoes and orange juice.

source: THE YOU DOCS/ LIVING/ TORONTO STAR

• Guard your memory. Berries owe their rich hues to anthocyanins, plant nutrients that turn out to be potent disease fighters: They stimulate your cells to scarf up free radicals and prevent the kind of DNA damage that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and aging.
• Bring down your blood pressure. Eating just four ounces of mixed berries a day for eight weeks brings high blood preesure down seven points.
• Heal your Heart. Strawberries help lower lousy LDL cholesterol. Blueberries and lingonberries ooze resveratrol, the goodie in red wine that helps prevent clogged arteries. A bevy of berries boost healthy HDL cholesterol, and may fight inflammation, too.
• Send cancer packing. researchers have found that snacking on freeze-dried black raspberries increases an enzyme that detoxifies carcinogens in 37 percent of people at risk for esophageal cancers. More reason to binge on freshly washed berries.

source: THE YOU DOCS/ LIVING/ TORONTO STAR

In actuality, when fat is taken out of a product, other additives must go in to take its place, enhancing the flavor and texture of the food.  Carbohydrates are often added and these provide a substantial amount of calories; even artificial sweeteners provide a small number of calories and you can get the accurate information on the nutrition facts panel if you look closely.

Here are a few types of foods people look for in low fat varieties to enjoy guilt free… and why you can’t have all you want without piling on the calories:

Candy:  Candy bars containing nuts or chocolate have a significant portion of their calories provided by fat.  But there are also calories from the sugar (and a small amount of protein).  Candy that does not contain fat (like skittles, starburst, jelly beans, pixie stix, lollipops or marshmallows) provides calories from the sugar.  Ironically these often advertise “no fat” on the label, implying that the original product did contain fat, but this particular brand does not.  In fact, they–along with other products like some sodas–will advertise “fat free” to get you to buy theirs. There is not any difference, though, between one brand of sugary candy and another when it comes to fat and calories.

Salad dressings:  Virtually all the calories in salad dressing come from the fat in them.  So it may seem logical to assume that a low fat or fat free dressing would be much lower in calories.  They are somewhat lower (and greatly depend on each variety and brand) but also have calories added back from the other ingredients to keep the flavor and texture in the dressing.  A two-tablespoon serving of regular ranch dressing has 145 calories; the low-fat variety has 80, and the fat-free, 50.  As the fat goes down, the calories drop significantly, but certainly not altogether.  And people tend to pour more on, since it’s lower in calories!  If you aren’t careful using this type of product you could be sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

Snack foods:  These are probably the biggest culprit.  We all love to snack on cookies and chips, and are secretly hopeful we will find a way to enjoy all we want without adding hundreds of calories to our diet.  But it just can’t be done.  Regular Lay’s chips provide 150 calories per ounce, and although the Baked Lay’s reduces the fat content from 10 grams to only 1.5, the calories are still at 130 per ounce.  Not a significant difference–especially while people are eating more, figuring they are lower in calories to allow for a double serving!

Another example is the Low-Fat Oreo Cookie.  At 50 calories a piece there is not much difference between this and the 54-calorie regular Oreo.  Especially if you have an extra one.

The bottom line is, if you are watching your calorie intake you can’t go by the ‘low fat’ advertisement on the front of the label–or even by the fat content of the food.  You need to compare the actual calories provided, and by alll means be aware of what they call a serving size!  The best way to reduce calories from fats is to cut back on your serving size, and eat dressings, candies, cookies and chips a little less often.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurie_Beebe

Salt is a commonly occuring mineral, the technical name of which is sodium chloride. It is the sodium part of salt that is important. The body needs a certain amount of sodium to function properly.

Sodium helps to maintain the concentration of body fluids at correct levels. It also plays a central role in the transmission of electrical impulses in the nerves, and helps cells to take up nutrients.

Why is too much salt bad?

In adults, when levels of sodium are too high, the body retains too much water and the volume of bodily fluids increases.

Many scientists, although not all, believe this process is linked to high blood pressure, or hypertension, which in turn is linked to a greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

With high levels of fluid circulating through the brain there is a greater chance that weaknesses in the brain’s blood vessels are exposed, and that they may burst, causing a stroke.

Similarly, a greater volume of fluid passing through the heart can place additional strain on the organ, increasing the possibility of coronary disease.

However, there are many potential causes of hypertension and coronary heart disease, and some scientists deny that salt plays any significant role at all.

An adult will be able to remove salt from the body through the kidneys into the urine.

However, very young babies do not have the capacity to process large quantities of salt as the kidneys are not yet developed.

If they are given adult food with a higher salt content before they are at least four months old, excess sodium can accumulate in the body, causing kidney, liver and brain damage, and in very occasional cases, death.

It is recommended that babies are given only milk, whether breast or formula, for the first four months of life.

Baby foods are supposed to contain lower levels of salt, and it is recommended that if adult foods are to be given, unprocessed foods should be used, and no salt added.

How much salt should we eat?

The government recommends that adults should eat 6g of salt a day. However, the average intake of salt is between 9g and 10g a day.

Experts estimate that if average consumption was cut to 6g a day it would prevent 70,000 heart attacks and strokes a year.

The main sources of salt in the diet are processed foods and salt added during cooking or at the table. Meat and meat products, and bread can also be high in salt.

Processed foods are thought to account for around 75% of the average person’s salt intake.

However, research published in The Lancet medical journal suggested that most people could not tell the difference between loaves with markedly different salt content.

Salt is added to processed foods to aid preservation and to improve taste. Sodium is present in additives such as monosodium glutamate and sodium bicarbonate.

Small amounts of sodium can be found naturally in some foods such as eggs and fish.

The salt we sprinkle on our food from cellar accounts for only 10%-15% of our intake.

What action has the Food Standards Agency taken?

It drew up targets for the food industry to cut the salt content of a range of 85 products.

The aim was that if the targets were enforced, the average daily intake of salt would fall to the recommended level of 6g.

However, the targets were voluntary, and campaigners said they were not set at a sufficiently tough level. They argued that even if followed by the food industry they would result in an average daily intake of 8g, rather than 6g.

Professor Graham MacGregor, of Cash (Consensus Action on Salt and Health), said that would mean an extra 30,000 more strokes and heart attacks a year in the UK - 15,000 of which would be fatal.

What should we do?

Dr Wynnie Chan, a nutrition scientist for the British Nurtrition Foundation, says that everybody should look to reduce the amount of salt in their diet.

“It would have a significant effect on those people who need to reduce their salt levels because they are susceptible to hypertension, but it would also do no harm for the whole population to reduce its salt intake,” she said.

Dr Chan said there were four main ways to reduce salt intake:

• Stop adding table salt to food once it is served
• Choose items with a reduced sodium content
• Carefully monitor the salt content of processed food
• Eat more fruit and vegetables - they contain potassium which balances the effect of salt on the body

Reading food labels can be confusing as they often give the sodium, rather than the salt content of food. To calculate the amount of salt in a product, multiply the sodium content by two-and-a-half times.

Source: BBC NEWS

Dr. Lee S. Berk, a preventive care specialist and psychoneuroimmunology researcher at Loma Linda University’s Schools of Allied Health (SAHP) and Medicine, and director of the molecular research lab at SAHP, Loma Linda, CA, and Dr. Stanley Tan have picked up where Cousins left off. Since the 1980s, they have been studying the human body’s response to mirthful laughter and have found that laughter helps optimize many of the functions of various body systems. Berk and his colleagues were the first to establish that laughter helps optimize the hormones in the endocrine system, including decreasing the levels of cortisol and epinephrine, which lead to stress reduction. They have also shown that laughter has a positive effect on modulating components of the immune system, including increased production of antibodies and activation of the body’s protective cells, including T-cells and especially Natural Killer cells’ killing activity of tumor cells. Their studies have shown that repetitious “mirthful laughter,” which they call Laughercise©, causes the body to respond in a way similar to moderate physical exercise. Laughercise© enhances your mood, decreases stress hormones, enhances immune activity, lowers bad cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, and raises good cholesterol (HDL).

more at www.medicalnewstoday.com

Some people like me skip breakfast to loose weight which later i found out that i gain more than to loose pound, In fact due to that I’m already hungry before lunchtime makes me eat more at lunch.

So if had breakfast what should I eat?

A healthy breakfast should contain some protein and some fiber. Protein can come from low fat meats, eggs, beans or dairy. Fiber can be found in whole grains, vegetables and fruits. A good example of a healthy breakfast might be something simple like a hard boiled egg, an orange, and a bowl of whole grain cereal with low fat milk.

Stay away from the sugary cereals, syrups, pastries, and white breads because they are digested quickly and will leave you hungry and tired in a couple of hours. Protein and fiber satisfy your hunger and will keep you feeling full until lunch time.

If you really don’t like to eat breakfast, you can split it up into two smaller meals. Eat a hard boiled egg at home, and an hour or two later, take a break from work and snack on an apple and a handful of healthy nuts like pecans or walnuts.

Sources: http://nutrition.about.com/od/nutrition101/a/breakfast.htm

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