Been off meat for over a year, now it's time to eliminate sugar. Follow me and see how I do!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Vegan Mock Meats: To Eat or Not to Eat
It's a cheeseburger! It's a hot dog! It's isolated soy protein?
The vegan diet is at an all-time high in popularity. With celebrities, ex-presidents and even Mickey Mouse getting his vegan fix on, the sales of faux meat-like substances are skyrocketing. 2008 saw more than $4 billion in soy product sales, often the main ingredient in mock meats. But are they really good for you?
Often called "transitional foods" and lauded by animal rights organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to lure meatheads into a satisfying cruelty free diet, there's mock chicken, turkey, sausages, chorizos, deli meats, even mock shrimp available; but some experts argue that these foods offer their own risks.
Consider the devastating loss of rainforest in Brazil due to farming soy or the toxic chemical hexane used in isolating soy protein, or even the excessively processed nature of mock meats which include lots of salt and a mash-up of unhealthy sounding ingredients. Top selling Boca Burgers contain hydrolyzed wheat protein, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, methylcellulose and a 'non-meat' artificial flavor, according to their Web site. And Philip Morris, the giant tobacco company, owns them.
There's no question that adding more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds is the healthiest diet choice. Treat mock meats like you would regular meats and eat them sparingly or not at all. Definitely stick with brands whose ingredients you recognize and can pronounce. If you do your homework, you can find meat alternatives that are far healthier than others (and certainly healthier than animal-based products.) Here's some faves:
Best of the Bunch
Field Roast: They make slices, roasts, meat loaves and sausages. They're wheat based, so if you're intolerant, you're out of luck. By far, they're the best tasting products available.
Sunshine Burgers: Sunflower seed veggie burgers? Yep. Light-years better than the soy burgers and count 'em, only five ingredients: ground raw sunflower seeds, brown rice, carrots, herbs, sea salt.
Tofurky: Inventors of the popular Thanksgiving feast, they use non-GMO ingredients and hexane free soy in their slices, tempeh and sausages too. Founder, Seth Tibbott, is about as genuinely awesome as they come. Imagine if your Dad embraced veganism and moved to Oregon to make faux turkey. Awesome, right?
Gardein: Oprah's Conscious Cook, Tal Ronnen, helped formulate these products, and while the ingredient list is a bit long, that's mostly due to the herbs and spices in the products. They're not organic, but they're made from real ingredients and a unique protein blend.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Meatless for one year!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Juicing in 2013
Received a NutriBullet for Christmas. I have been having so much fun with it. Juicing everything from kale, spinach and various different fruits. Weight should really drop now!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Obese people at 29% higher risk of premature death
People who are obese have a 29% increased risk of premature death.
This could come as a wake-up call for 8 million women and 4.4 million men in India who are obese (body mass index of 30 kg/m2).
One of the largest analyses done - 100 studies that included 3 million adults - has found that obesity was associated with a significantly higher all-cause risk of death.
In this meta-analysis that looked at 2.7 lakh deaths that occurred in the US, Europe, Mexico, India, Israel, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, China and Australia, researchers found a 18% higher risk of death for obesity - BMI equal or higher than 30 and a 29% increased risk of death among those whose BMI was higher than 35.
The study says that the presence of a wasting disease, heart disease, diabetes, renal dialysis or older age are all associated with an inverse relationship between BMI and mortality rate, an observation termed the obesity paradox.
Over one in 10 adults, who 20 years and above, are obese globally.
That's over half a billion people (205 million men and 297 million women were obese in 2008).
Researchers say excess bodyweight is an important risk factor for mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and musculoskeletal disorders, causing nearly three million deaths every year worldwide.
While the number of obese men in India increased from 2.3 million to 4.4 million between 1980 and 2008, the number increased from 2.1 million to 8 million among women during the same period
According to the study that was published on the January 2nd issue of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), "Estimates of the relative mortality risks associated with normal weight, overweight and obesity may help to inform decision making in the clinical setting."
Katherine Flegal, of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted the study to compile and summarize published analyses of body mass index (BMI) and all-cause mortality that provide hazard ratios (HRs) for standard BMI categories.
All-cause mortality HRs for overweight (BMI of 25 and 30), obesity (BMI of 30), grade 1 obesity (BMI of 30-35), and grades 2 and 3 obesity (BMI of 35) were calculated relative to normal weight (BMI of 18.5-25).
The researchers found that the summary HRs indicated a 6% lower risk of death for overweight; a 18% higher risk of death for obesity (all grades), a 5% lower risk of death for grade 1 obesity and a 29% increased risk of death for grades 2 and 3 obesity.
Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London had said, "Excess bodyweight is a major public health concern."
Now, India is in the grip of an obesity epidemic. Experts say the trend needs to be immediately arrested by taxing junk food, restricting food ads and making food labelling clearer.
A study that looked at the burden of overweight citizens in six countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa - has found that between 1998 and 2005, India's overweight rates increased by 20%. Currently, almost one in five men and over one in six women are overweight. In some urban areas, the rates are as high as 40%.
Published in the Lancet by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD), the annual cost of broad-based prevention strategies tackling obesity and other health threats, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, would be less than $2 per person per year in India.
Obesity is the root for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Another study in the Lancet predicted that by 2030, nearly 70% of all global deaths will be from non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and heart disease. Of these 70% of fatalities, 80% will be in less wealthy nations like India.
According to WHO, NCDs - principally cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases - caused an estimated 35 million deaths in 2005. This figure represents 60% of all deaths globally, with 80% of deaths due to noncommunicable diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and approximately 16 million deaths involving people below 70 years.
The total deaths from NCDs are projected to increase by a further 17% over the next 10 years.
Up to 80% of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes and over a third of cancers can be prevented by eliminating shared risk factors, mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol.
This could come as a wake-up call for 8 million women and 4.4 million men in India who are obese (body mass index of 30 kg/m2).
One of the largest analyses done - 100 studies that included 3 million adults - has found that obesity was associated with a significantly higher all-cause risk of death.
In this meta-analysis that looked at 2.7 lakh deaths that occurred in the US, Europe, Mexico, India, Israel, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, China and Australia, researchers found a 18% higher risk of death for obesity - BMI equal or higher than 30 and a 29% increased risk of death among those whose BMI was higher than 35.
The study says that the presence of a wasting disease, heart disease, diabetes, renal dialysis or older age are all associated with an inverse relationship between BMI and mortality rate, an observation termed the obesity paradox.
Over one in 10 adults, who 20 years and above, are obese globally.
That's over half a billion people (205 million men and 297 million women were obese in 2008).
Researchers say excess bodyweight is an important risk factor for mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and musculoskeletal disorders, causing nearly three million deaths every year worldwide.
While the number of obese men in India increased from 2.3 million to 4.4 million between 1980 and 2008, the number increased from 2.1 million to 8 million among women during the same period
According to the study that was published on the January 2nd issue of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), "Estimates of the relative mortality risks associated with normal weight, overweight and obesity may help to inform decision making in the clinical setting."
Katherine Flegal, of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted the study to compile and summarize published analyses of body mass index (BMI) and all-cause mortality that provide hazard ratios (HRs) for standard BMI categories.
All-cause mortality HRs for overweight (BMI of 25 and 30), obesity (BMI of 30), grade 1 obesity (BMI of 30-35), and grades 2 and 3 obesity (BMI of 35) were calculated relative to normal weight (BMI of 18.5-25).
The researchers found that the summary HRs indicated a 6% lower risk of death for overweight; a 18% higher risk of death for obesity (all grades), a 5% lower risk of death for grade 1 obesity and a 29% increased risk of death for grades 2 and 3 obesity.
Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London had said, "Excess bodyweight is a major public health concern."
Now, India is in the grip of an obesity epidemic. Experts say the trend needs to be immediately arrested by taxing junk food, restricting food ads and making food labelling clearer.
A study that looked at the burden of overweight citizens in six countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa - has found that between 1998 and 2005, India's overweight rates increased by 20%. Currently, almost one in five men and over one in six women are overweight. In some urban areas, the rates are as high as 40%.
Published in the Lancet by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD), the annual cost of broad-based prevention strategies tackling obesity and other health threats, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, would be less than $2 per person per year in India.
Obesity is the root for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Another study in the Lancet predicted that by 2030, nearly 70% of all global deaths will be from non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and heart disease. Of these 70% of fatalities, 80% will be in less wealthy nations like India.
According to WHO, NCDs - principally cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases - caused an estimated 35 million deaths in 2005. This figure represents 60% of all deaths globally, with 80% of deaths due to noncommunicable diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and approximately 16 million deaths involving people below 70 years.
The total deaths from NCDs are projected to increase by a further 17% over the next 10 years.
Up to 80% of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes and over a third of cancers can be prevented by eliminating shared risk factors, mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol.
Monday, December 31, 2012
2012 Goals!
2012 was a great year. Accomplished many things health wise. I've completely stopped eating meat and chicken. Still eat seafood, need a little variety.
March I placed second in a weight loss challege.
In June I started working out at Train Studios. They emphasize on core training using ropes, kettle bells, TRX and your own bodyweight. My waist dropped 2 inches and my shirt size went from XL to L.
2013 will bring many changes including juicing. My biggest goal is to be down 60 ibs by my 1 year annivesary at Train Studios.
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