Salads for Weight Loss and Health

Eating salads is a great way to curb your appetite and add nutrients to your diet. But salad staples may up your fat and calorie intake more than you realize.

Before preparing your salad plate take a moment to look over the selection, so you can have healthy choices in mind beforehand. When you do begin assembling your salad, pile up a large amount of leafy greens right away. Try to take up about three-fourths of your plate with greens, so you’ll have less room for high-cal stuff. This is how helps salads for weight loss

Some of the most nutritious foods that can be added are also the tastiest and lowest in fat and calories. Always look forward  to add these veggies to every salad:

Beets, Peppers, Red cabbage, Carrots, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Beans, Sprouts, Onions, Peas, Mushrooms.

If you have never eaten fruit in your salads, try adding cranberries, tangerine sections, sliced strawberries, apples slices or red grapes. They’ll add sweetness that you may miss if you go sans dressing, and they’ll boost your salad’s nutrition, too.

How to Give Your Salad Staying Power

To make your salad stick to your ribs, it is important to add a protein source. Some good protein choices are:

Hard-boiled eggs, Egg whites, grilled chicken, grilled salmon, Water-packed tuna, pan-grilled tofu, low fat cottage cheese, feta cheese, goat cheese, black beans, lentils, sprouts etc.

How to lower the Dressing Calories

Creamy salad dressings, such as ranch and blue cheese, mayonnaise etc really pump up the fat and calorie counts of our salads. This is due to the fact that creamy salad dressings are often mayo- or sour cream-based. These creamy dressings also have saturated fat, and eating too much can increase cholesterol and raise your risk of developing heart diseases. This is how helps salads for weight loss.

Finding a reduced- or low-fat dressing is always challenging. Not only you have to check for  taste until you find one you like, but as with all other food choices, you will need to always check and compare the nutrition labels. It’s possible that a reduced-fat dressing could have more calories than a regular kind. Typically, when fat is removed from a reduced-fat product, something else is added to compensate, such as sugar (which accounts for the extra calories) or salt. Look for reduced-fat dressings with 100 calories or less per 2 tablespoon serving.

If you don’t find a light dressing that suits you, consider making your own. Oil and vinegar is a good choice, if used in moderation. Simply combine one part olive oil to two parts vinegar, adding additional herbs and spices to taste.

Other calorie-cutting options include adding the juice from a few lemon wedges to your salad or using picante sauce or salsa as dressing. If you really crave regular dressing, you can dilute it with either lemon juice or vinegar to cut calories and fat.If you find a regular dressing recipe that you like, healthier substitutes such as reduced-fat yogurt, buttermilk, or cottage cheese can replace mayo, and tomato juice or fruit juice can be used to replace the oil required in the recipe.

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Being Thin Does Not Mean Being Healthy

Increased body fat percentage and being overweight result in lifestyle disorders that cause heart disease, hypothyroid, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Excessive saturated fat consumption increases the cholesterol levels in the body. Certain types of fat are bad for health and some are  equally important which are commonly referred to us essential fat without which the body will fail to absorb and process nutrition in the body. Read here to know more about this.

The distribution of fat varies between gentics and gender. Women tend to store more subcutaneous fat which is under their skin. Distribution of fat in women is generally in their hips and thighs area while men tend to store more fat in the middle area or the abdomen. Once the person enters adolescence the fat cells don’t increase in number instead they only increase or decrease in size. Its the male and female hormone that decide the fat deposit destination in the body. For example women with big bellies are considered  to have higher levels of testosterone ( male hormone) in their system that causes fat accumulation on the stomach. While if men have large hips its due to the high levels of estrogen (female hormone) in that body part.

We presume that fat people are more prone to metabolic disorder ( also known as lifestyle disorders) but a study by Ruth Loos at the Medical Research Council in the U.K. found that lean people with a specific genetic variant were equally at risk of diabetes, heart disease even though the reports confirmed lower fat percentage in the body. Read more

Say Hello to Food Plate and Bye to the Pyramid

Food plate replaced food pyramid. Instead of stacking food groups in a pyramid (in the order of consumption), food groups are now being laid out on a plate. Instead of pyramid suggesting portions of various food groups striped in rainbow color there will be a new circular chart depicting recommended meals.

More interesting than the design change are the category modifications but missing few items. Let’s compare pyramid with plate and how implementing it will help make our diet healthy.

-         Fruits and vegetables have taken a centre stage, comprising largely half of the plate. Suggesting half of your meal should be vegetables-cooked plus raw (salad) and fruit. Both these food groups contribute to provide essential vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants guarding our body from any infection. Vegetables are organized into 5 subgroups- dark green leafy, red& orange vegetables, beans & peas,starchy and other vegetables, based on their nutrient content.

-          Former “Meats and Beans” group from pyramid is now simply “Proteins,” The plate further states that at least 50% of the proteins should be lean proteins- pulses, chicken, egg white or lean fish as against meat, ham or organ meat. With an increase in cardiovascular problems and obesity, these guidelines extend a helping hand for consumers to diligently select what they are consuming.

-          One more food group from food pyramid “Milk” is also changed now to “Dairy.” The new guidelines indicate a switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk from full cream milk.

-          Grains which were earlier given a major bottom slab at the bottom now form 65% of a main meal. The new icon nutrition plate states that at least half of the grains consumed should be whole grain ensuring that you get enough fibre in your diet.

-          Close attention to the new MyPlate image shows that there is no representation and guidance for Fats/Oils. Fats/Oil are often linked to many health issues, including risk of heart disease.

Besides some specific advice on food groups, new plate recommends:
-          Enjoy your food, but eat less
-          Avoid oversized portions
-          Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers
-          Drink water instead of sugary drinks
The real aim for new plate undoubtedly is too make healthy eating more easier to understand and implement. Since we use plates at our meals, it’s easy to translate what a well-rounded, nutritional healthy meal should look like.

 

Health News – Aerobics, Yoga & Diet

As long as you do some aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes, 3-4 times a week, you can stop fat gain in its tracks and start on the road to a lean sexy body. Let’s look at the best aerobic exercises for achieving weight loss.

Low calorie regimes lead to the paradox that the less we eat, the more our survival instinct drives our bodies to lay down fat reserves for fear of malnutrition. Calorie intake has nothing to do Read more