Too Much Saturated Fat in Diet

Saturated fat is the leading cause of high cholesterol, a leading factor in heart disease. Saturated fats occur naturally in many animal and some plant foods; hydrogenated fats and trans fatty acids are often found in processed foods. Cutting down your dietary fat content is important to weight loss, but even if you're not trying to lose weight, keeping saturated fats out of your diet can be vital to your heart health.

Fats and Your Health

You may have heard a lot of talk about "good fats" and "bad fats." The fact of the matter is, we all need some fats in our diet. Fats are essential to health; among other things, they help with nutrient absorption, maintaining the integrity of cell walls and transmitting nerve signals. But too much saturated fat in diet, or the wrong kind of fat, can contribute to weight gain, heart disease and cancer.

Fats aren't all the same. Some fats can have a positive impact on health; others can make us sick. Too much of any kind of fat can have a detrimental effect, and knowing which kinds of fats to include in your diet, how many of them to eat and where you can find them can be confusing.

Good Fats and Bad Fats: Knowing the Difference

The so-called "good" fats lower total cholesterol, including LDL cholesterol, the cholesterol that contributes to heart disease and cancer. At the same time, good fats increase levels of HDL cholesterol in your blood. Experts believe that HDL cholesterol actually helps prevent arterial plaque  build-up by carrying LDL cholesterol back to your liver, where it's eliminated from your body. Good fats can even contribute to weight loss.

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are the good fats. These fats are found in nuts, such as peanuts and walnuts. They're also present in avocados, as well as canola and olive oils. Polyunsaturated fats include omega-3 fatty acids; they're found in seafood and fish oil, as well as soy, corn, safflower and sunflower oils.

Saturated fats and trans fats are the bad fats. Saturated fat is found in animal products and oils, including:
meat
whole dairy products
eggs
cheese
coconut oil
palm and palm kernel oils

Trans fats don't occur in nature. They were invented by scientists who hydrogenated fats to give them a higher shelf life in processed foods. They're found in fast foods, packaged foods and in solidified oils, such as vegetable shortening and stick margarine.

Fats and Your Diet: Striking a Balance

Fats of any type should form no more than 25 to 35 percent of your daily calories. Saturated fats should form no more than 7 percent of your daily calories, and trans fats no more than 1 percent of your daily calories. If you're healthy, limit your total cholesterol intake to no more than 300 mg per day. If you have heart disease or high cholesterol, limit your total cholesterol intake to no more than 200 mg per day.

Nuts in moderation have very good fats

Limit meat and dairy products in your diet; most of your dietary fat should come from nuts, seeds, seafood and healthy oils.


http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/fats/saturated-fat-and-your-diet.html#b - Too Much Saturated fat in Diet

Foods to Increase Metabolism

If you eat foods that increase metabolism you can eat more and still lose weight. Nutrition is a critical factor in weight loss. What you eat greatly affects whether you lose weight or not in the long run and it all starts with eating foods to increase metabolism. Now, you might think that it sounds pretty strange to say you need to eat more to lose weight, but actually it is true. The importance of a high metabolism and eating foods that can increase it is critical to your weight loss success.

Your metabolism is the rate at which biochemical processes and various chemical reactions take place in your body. Someone with high metabolism has a body that is working much harder and more efficiently, which means that he or she will burn more calories naturally without having to pay attention to diet or exercise. People who have low metabolic rates, on the other hand, will need to work harder in order to lose weight because their body doesn't naturally burn as many calories throughout the day by itself. Because of this fact, it's important to include a variety of foods that increase metabolism in your diet in order to keep the body working and lose weight.

There are many options of breakfast foods that increase metabolism, which offers a lot of variety when it comes to eating your morning meal. Milk, oatmeal and cereal with whole grains are all foods that increase metabolism. You may want to have milk each and every morning along with a bowl of whole grain cereal or oatmeal. For variety you can change it up by adding fruit or nuts to your oatmeal or whole grain cereal. Keep in mind that just eating breakfast is a great way to boost your metabolism, because you get your body nourished and energized and start the metabolic process going.

There are plenty of foods that increase metabolism that you can incorporate into your healthy eating plans for the rest of your meals as well. These foods include things like chicken, pork, salmon, beef, tuna, turkey, sardines, many types of fruit

Foods to Increase Metabolism

and vegetables, and healthy oils like olive oil. It's a good idea to eat the healthiest foods from that list, though. For example, it's a good idea to eat lean meats and plenty of fruits and vegetables, rather than fried foods or fatty meats. How food is prepared will also affect the success of your weight loss program.

Exercise is also an effective way to increase your metabolism, but it all starts with nutrition, so to lose weight quickly and remain healthy choose plenty of foods that increase metabolism and include some exercise in your daily routine.

http://goarticles.com/article/Foods-That-Increase-Metabolism-Eat-More-To-Lose-Weight/4649173/ - Foods to Increase Metabolism

Grapefruit Diet Plans

Grapefruit Diet Plans

Have you heard about the grapefruit diet plan. While many professionals encourage dieters to stay away from one food diets, the twelve day grapefruit diet comes with some advantages.

The Twelve Day Grapefruit Diet Plan
The Grapefruit Diet Plan or the Twelve Day Grapefruit Diet has been around for years. You follow a schedule of twelve days on, two days off cycle, repeating it until you drop the pounds you want.

Does this grapefruit diet plans work? Any diet that limits your calories to approximately eight hundred a day, is probably going to work. Instead, though, of focusing only on eating grapefruit, the diet requires that you eat grapefruit in one form or another. It does not matter whether it's the fruit itself or juice as long as you have it at every meal.
Although you can eat other foods, there are some foods on the "Thou Shalt Not Eat" list. In terms of vegetables you're banned from lettuce, green beans, peas, cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes and celery.

For many people, the twelve day grapefruit diet plan is very hard to follow on a long term basis. While an individual might be able to stay on the diet for twelve days, it's hard to keep going on the twelve days on, twelve days off cycle. It's restrictions simply get to be too boring.

Keep in mind, though, that grapefruit is a valuable addition to anyone's diet. It's a good source of Vitamin C and low in calories. Eating grapefruit helps reduce the insulin found in your system. In addition, it often helps reduce cholesterol which is useful in fighting heart disease. It's also high in fiber, potassium and folic acid. In addition to that good news, there's recent research that had early indications that grapefruit can repair DNA and be of use in the fight against cancer. This is another good reason to try the twelve day grapefruit diet plan.

If you do want to try a primary one-food diet, the twelve day grapefruit diet is a good one to try. Even with its benefits to your health, its good flavor and ease of preparation, a diet exclusively based upon grapefruit is not a good idea.
However, the best use of grapefruit outside of breakfast is for an afternoon or mid morning snack, especially when it replaces a candy bar. So, be sure to give the twelve day grapefruit diet plan a try and start losing those unwanted pounds fast.


http://goarticles.com/article/Grapefruit-Diet-Plan-The-Twelve-Day-Grapefruit-Diet-For-Weightloss/1973331/ - Grapefruit Diet Plans