Diet Sodas - a better option?

Here is an interesting thought. IF you wanted to lose fats, would taking Diet sodas help?

Well, according to the study conducted by the University of Cincinnati Biology Department, here are some results and you decide:

The amount of sugar found in

Diet 7-up ... 0.21 tsp
Diet Pepsi ... 2.14 tsp
Diet Coke ... 3.3 tsp
Coke Classic ... 9.15 tsp
Pepsi ... 9 tsp
Mountain Dew ... 10.4 tsp
Dr Pepper ... 19.17 tsp
A&W Root Beer ... 110.25 tsp

According to the National Soft Drink Association o USA, the average 12 ounce non-diet, carbonated soft drink is equivalent to 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories. That amount of sugar can immobilize the immune system by about 33%. About 30 teaspoon can shut down the immune system for the whole day.

How much is too much, how much is enough?

Reference: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/scripts/popreslt.pl

Eat and Lose Fats

If you, for whatever reason, find that you want to lose fats and yet, would like to eat as much as you feel like, your friends might think you have lost your mind. Fortunately, this is possible. All you need to do is select foods with fewer calories or with a lower energy density.

What is the meaning of lower energy density? Foods that have a high water and fiber content have low energy density. So, eating such foods will cause you to feel satisfied, bloated even, while calorie intake is reduced and you might even lose weight.

One example of low energy density food is fruits. However, note that only fresh fruits qualify. Canned fruits are loaded with sweet and heavy syrup, and that means high sugar content. Avoid dried fruit. Though commonly referred to as a healthy choice, it has four times the energy density of fresh fruit. This is because they don’t have much water in them - concentrated calories. Fresh and whole fruit has the least amount of calories and the highest amount of fullness and satisfaction.

Some fruits for your consideration are grapefruit, melons (watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew), berries (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries), papaya and peach.

Recipe - Fun, Healthy Snack for kids

Once in a while, we need to have some happy food. This is really more for kids, and for those who love peanut butter.

You can make as many as you want, but I believe this amount can make 8 to 10 balls nicely.

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dry milk
1/4 cup sesame seed
1/4 cup honey

Directions

1 Mix all ingredients together, and roll into one inch balls.
2 Chill.

Now, wasn't that easy? It is going to be a little messy, but then, its part of the fun!

Cardio Health : Sleep Deprivation

Heart attack is considered to be a man's ailment, but the truth is, heart disease kills more women than men each year - nearly 460,000 per year. That's more than those who died from all types of cancers combined. As it is considered to be a male’s disease, it is unfortunate that doctors often neglect female’s symptoms until it’s becomes too serious. There is no valid reason for that kind of neglect and incompetence from health professionals, but there may be a reason why so many women suffer from heart disease.

According to research the lack of sleep may be a defining factor for women getting heart diseases. It was reported that women who get less than 5 hours of sleep per night had unusually high amounts of protein in their blood. One of those proteins, hs-CRP, or C-Reactive Protein, is the leading indicator of pending heart attack.
Heart attack is only one of the serious diseases associated with high levels of CRP in the blood, but people with high CRP levels are four and a half times more likely to have a heart attack than those with normal levels. They're a more reliable indicator than either cholesterol or homocysteine in predicting the risk of a heart attack.

Interestingly, lack of sleep did not cause the same rise in CRP in men.
High levels of CRP are commonly caused by inflammation in the body. This can be a reaction to an infection, toxins, burns, or injury. Only recent studies have shown that increased CRP is a reaction to lack of sleep in women. While elevated levels will decline when caused by other sources, consistent lack of sleep will keep levels high.

Knowing this, and knowing that women generally short themselves on sleep in order to keep up with the demands of both work and family, it is no wonder that more women than men are dying from heart disease.

So ladies, next time you're tempted to stay up an extra hour to get the kitchen clean or make sure everyone in the family has their breakfast early in the morning, please resist! Teach your family to take care of some things themselves so you can get the sleep you require.

They may love and appreciate the things you do for them, but they also want you to be alive and healthy to enjoy life with them.

Cardio Health: Laugh Heartily

As the saying goes “laughter is the best medicine”. This may appear to be actually true when it comes to protecting the heart especially. According to a recent study conducted by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Centre in Baltimore, people with heart disease are found to be 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

From the study, it is researched that mental stress plays a huge part. Mental stress is said to impair the endothelium which causes a series of inflammatory reactions. This in turn, leads to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and eventually causes a heart attack.

Although it is unclear as to how laughing can protect the heart directly, here are some of the probable reasons:
1. For instance, when you have a good hearty laugh, your heart rate and blood pressure rise and then dip below normal when you stop laughing. In other words, your heart is getting a workout similar to an aerobic exercise.
2. Laughing benefits your respiratory system as well. After a really good laugh, you frequently have to take in a big breath of air which fills your heart with oxygen.
3. Laughing also decreases the level of stress hormones called cortisol which brings us back to the point on mental stress as mentioned above.
So, how about placing some comics on your bedside from now? A little laughter each day is no doubt the best food and nutrition for both our mental and physical health.

Cardio health: Avoid Roller Coasters

When was the last time you had an enjoyable and thrilling roller coaster ride? A year ago? Six months ago? Or is it just last weekend? Well, maybe this will make you think twice about it the next time you visit that favourite amusement park of yours.

According to a research conducted by University Hospital (Mannheim, Germany), roller coasters are not good for the heart, especially so for those suffering from existing heart diseases. In the United States alone, 1 in 150 million roller coaster rides result in death and there are 900 million of such rides each year. So how does roller coaster rides affect our heart health? They can be summed up in one major point as shown below:

- Irregular heartbeat

During the ascending part of the ride, your heart beats faster as a result of your psychological stress and fear that builds up in you. According to studies, the riders’ average maximum heart rates soared to an average 153 beats per minute compared to an average heart rate of 91 beats per minute when at rest. This tremendous increase in heart rate results in irregular heartbeat for a few minutes later on after the ride has stopped. Even for those whose heartbeat rates have returned to normal, it is likely that sinus arrhythmia would have caught up with them. For your information, sinus arrhythmia is the anxious state of slowing down the heart while breathing out and increasing of the heartbeat during inspiration. The abnormality could prove to be dangerous and even deadly if it remained untreated.

Calling out to roller coaster enthusiasts out there, this is by no means the end of all rides, but sadly sometimes it is through phobias and fears that we realise how fragile our health and lives are. So do cherish and take good care of your heart! Now that you know about the harmful effects, you wouldn’t want to lead a life with regrets, do you?

Cardio Health: Consuming Dark Chocolate

Well, here’s something for the chocolate lovers out there to rejoice. According to a study conducted by the University of California in San Francisco, dark chocolates are found to be good for the heart.

How I wish I was one of the volunteers for that experiment! Anyway, here are the findings:
1. The flavoniods in the dark chocolates keep cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels, which reduces the risk of blood clots and slows down the immune responses that lead to clogged arteries.
2. Eating dark chocolates reduces the blood pressure as well.
3. Dark chocolate lowers the amount of C-reactive protein in the blood. And people with low C-reactive protein in their blood have a lower level of chronic inflammation which reduces the risk of contracting heart diseases.

According to the study, people who eat dark chocolate regularly in small servings, have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein.

It is no doubt that a little dark chocolate is good for our heart. However, excessive consumption of anything has never been advisable. Eat in moderation!

Cardio Health: Dangers of Smoking

Smoking is highly detrimental to health, especially towards our cardio health. As one of the major causes of coronary heart disease amongs urban dwellers, every puff of smoke that you take decreases your lifespan by seconds. Heart disease is the number one killer disease in Singapore. This probably has got to do with the increasing number of smokers in the Singapore.

How smoking leads to coronary heart disease:
1. The carbon monoxide present in the cigarettes attaches to the haemoglobin which prevents the red blood cells from carrying oxygen to the heart and throughout the rest of the body.
2. Blood pressure is also raised as a result of the nicotine present in the cigarette which constricts the arteries throughout the body. This puts tremendous amount of stress on the heart as the heart now has to work harder.
3. Smoking also decreases the levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) aka good cholesterol while increasing the production of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) aka bad cholesterol.

Besides increasing the risk of coronary heart disease, smoking also has other harmful effects which include:
1. Obesity: According to research, smokers are 3 times more at risk of becoming obese than non-smokers.
2. Lung cancer: Smoking makes you 10 times more at risk of lung cancer than non-smokers.
3. Yellow teeth and bad breath: Just imagine yourself going for a nice date; you wouldn’t want anything to go wrong, would you?
4. Passive smoking: Maybe your loved ones and friends are not smoking. However, if they inhale your puffs when you breathe out, they are actually getting the same amount of negative effects, if not worse.

As you can see, smoking is one of the worst habits that you can develop. I know that quitting smoking is not easy due to the craving for nicotine; however here are some ways that have worked well for my friends:
1. Make an effort to reduce smoking, not to stop completely. You will fail if you attempt to immediately stop smoking. Attempt to cut the number of sticks per day.
2. Aim to reduce 1 stick per day. Hold onto to the 1 stick reduction for 7 days.
3. Then reduce 2 sticks per day and hold onto to that reduction for 7 days.
4. Do it again and again until you become used to not smoking.

This method works well with visualization and imagination. The whole idea is to reduce the withdrawal symptoms and build up your tolerance towards lesser smoking. This definitely takes time. But for the sake of your cardio health, your body and your loved ones, it is an endeavour that you must not give up!