Planning a low calorie diet is easy and simple. The first thing you have to do is to look how do you normally eat and try to identify some foods which are high in calories, high calorie foods mostly tend to be either high in sugar or high in fat. High sugar foods mostly come from soda beverages, soft drinks, smoothies, sports drinks and juices. All those types of beverages tend to have high calories, now let’s say you want to drink a soft drink, the good thing you have to do is to flip over your can and make sure you check how much is the serving size, sometimes the calories written on the can is not for the entire can, maybe it is just for half of the can or less, for example if the calories written were 50 calories for 1 serving that is not necessarily means the whole can contains 50 calories, thus when you drink it you will maybe be taking 100 or 150 for the entire can instead of 50 calories, so again check the serving size it is really important to read the food labels very carefully, focus on the serving size. You can take sugar-free beverages but not frequently because it has artificial sweeteners that may harm your health, you can go for unsweetened tea or barely sweetened or simply water, by that way you will be eliminating a lot of calories from your diet.

The next steps is to watch your actual meals, how they are cooked or prepared, if it’s deep fried there will be a lot of calories that’s because all of the additional fat. If you are eating fatty meats such as bacon and sausage that’s going to have a lot of calories too. So you have to choose food tend to be so lean if you are going to choose meat, and if you are looking for plant sources, it is going to be healthy fats but still they contain high calories, so you have to practice how to control your portion size. For example if you want to eat some nuts you have to limit your intake to 1\4 cup not more, if want to eat avocados which contain very healthy fats you have to split it in half and share it with somebody, eat quarter of 1  small avocado at a day if you are watching your calorie intake.

 When it comes to olives, limit your intake to 3 large olives. When cooking or stir-frying food or vegetables or any item don’t use too much oil, just add a small amount to prevent sticking the food in the pan. One thing I do when I stir-fry my vegetables is to add a little bit of oil about 1 tablespoon to the entire pot and when it starts sticking I just sprinkle few drops of water and stir the food again, do it again and again until your vegetables are done, but do not use  a lot of water that will spoil your stir-frying.

Make sure you choose fat-free or low fat food when it comes to dairy products. Choose skimmed milk or low fat cheese.

If you want to enjoy a sandwich with mayo, why don’t you choose low fat mayo, you are going to save lots of calories by that, spread a little bit on your sandwich or you can substitute it with avocado spread, yes it’s high in calories but at least you will be taking healthy fats but remember to use it in moderation about 1 tablespoon  of avocado into your sandwich.

Another thing you have to know is to see how often do you eat at the end of the day, it is better to eat small frequent meals than eating large big meals that will help you not to feel hungry frequently between meals but you have to practice portion control, even when it comes to healthy fats such as seeds or avocado or olive oil.

One last thing to keep in mind when planning a low-calorie diet is to learn about food calories, it is all over the internet, just search for the food you want to eat to know what actually you are eating or how many calories you are consuming a day, some good sites are nutriotindata or calorieking or caloriecount . Try to search also for healthy recipes over the internet, most of them have nutrition fact list, so it is easier to know how much exactly your meal is going to be. I have written an article before about how to make pizza at home in a healthy way, it is going to cost you 300 calories for the entire pizza. Common pizza restaurants will cost you 350 calories for 1 slice.

So at the end I have to say that following a low calorie diet is so easy just follow the steps I’ve mentioned then see the great results in losing your extra weight permanently, it is not like the diet scams that make you lose 10 pounds in a very short period of time that you will gain it later so fast after going back to your normal eating patterns because it is mostly water loss not fat loss, following a low calorie healthy diet will make you lose weight slower than those fad diets (3 day diet or 7 days what you can eat and others) but it will certainly make you lose fat not fluids, in addition it keeps your body healthy not making you lose muscles and fluids.

Be active, plan to walk or jog at least 3 to 4 times a week, it is summer time what are you waiting for, why not to enjoy swimming, . Ride your bike, get out there walk or run with your friends or family even your pets, use your roll skates and enjoy, there are million of ways to get and stay active just use your imagination. All of that will help you keep your lost weight away in addition of getting and staying active, fit and healthy.

I hope you found  useful tips in this article that may help you in your daily diet. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me and ask through Q&A page.

What is “morning banana diet”?

One of the latest fad diets has recently come up in Japan and it’s called “morning banana diet” it says that eat couple of bananas at morning with cup of milk and basiclly you can eat whatever you want the rest of the day and that suppose to help you lose weight, ofcourse there is no research shows that bananas help in weight loss and studies on various other banana diets came up with same conclusion that banana doesn’t help significantly with weight loss.

Bananas themselves are very healthy food they have alot of vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B6, they have alot of fiber. Also bananas are low in calories 1 medium banana has probably about 120 to 160 calories maybe it sounds alot compared to other fruits, but compared to other foods like big piece of juicy steak or chips bag it has much lower calories plus you get more nutrition from it, and with its extra fiber will help you feel more full.

So bananas can be included in a healthy diet to achieve weight loss but bananas bythemselves they are not going to cause you lose extra weight, they are not going to do anything to let you boost your metabolism or cause your body to lose more fat

Conclusion: Bananas are not going to help you increase your weight loss but it can be included in a healthy diet to help you achieve weight loss.

We’ve all heard about Acai berry (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) it got so popular recently because of two things, #1 because of its health benefits that we will talk about it later, #2 because of the claims that lots of companies say to market their products, such as lose 30 pounds in 3 months or about the other miracles that their product do, or whatever.

What is Acai Berry?

Acai berry is a purple fruit grows on Acai palms that grow fast in the Central and South American Amazon forest, including Brazil. The growing popularity of Acai berry led to a creation of different brands of Acai supplements that contain only Acai berries or mixed with other fruits, health claims on these products include weight loss, detoxifying, wrinkle-fighting, higher energy levels and superior levels of antioxidants.
Research studies about Acai berry shows that it is listed recentely as a latest superfood, because it is rich in nutrients including antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, oleic acid and potassium, to name a few.
According to the FDA studies Acai berry is high in essential fatty acids and omegas – 60% Oleic omega 9 – a monosaturated fatty acid which helps to lower LDL (harmful cholesterol) while maintaining HDL (beneficial cholesterol), 12% linoleic acid (omega 6) a polyunsaturated essential fatty acid which has also been found to lower LDL while maintaining HDL.
Acai also contains many valuable phytosterols. Sterols are compounds of plant cell membranes providing numerous benefits to human body, namely the reduction of blood plasma cholesterol.
So according to the FDA studies Acai berry may help in heart disease through lowering the LDL, cholesterol, and like other berries that have lots of antioxidants that may help in preventing cancer.
Some of the claims that Acai products include: anti-aging, improved sleep, increased energy, Others include improved mental focus, improved digestion, improved blood circulation and vision, and stronger bones and muscles. There isn’t any clear evidence so far to tell whether it’s true or not.

Acai berry and weight loss

There haven’t been any studies to show that Acai berry does anything to boost metabolism or enhance the reduction of body fat or decrease appetite or anything like that, at this point there haven’t been any human studies with Acai berry, so for that reason we can not say actually whether or not it is a good weight loss supplement more than likely it won’t harm you but it’s not necessarily to enhance your weight loss, so if you want to try Acai berry, you’d probably better to try the berry itself or the juice rather than buying the supplement, the supplement is going to be an extract, you don’t know the level exactly you are getting from the fruit itself. So there isn’t any studies so far that shows that Acai berry may or may not help in losing weight but in the same time there isn’t any negative side effects associated with it.
There isn’t any magic key for losing weight as we all know but lot’s of Acai products claim to help in losing weight, those products are not approved by the FDA yet and the FDA didn’t declare anything about its efficiency in losing weight.

At the end eat Acai berries as you eat all kind of fruits for its nutrition, at least it is not harmful it’s full of vitamins and healthy fats so enjoy your Acai berries, but one bad thing about Acai berries that it’s a bit expensive, and everyone is watching their food-budget, your hard-earned money is maybe better to be spent on buying a variety of fruits and vegetables to get a big variety of different vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

The day that smoking was bad, awful, heinous, unhealthy has gone, it’s about glamour and fashion now. There are more than 200 brands of cigarette everywhere, it’s a sign that their market is still and will stay booming, even after the price hike you will never find any cigarette store vacant.

However people that couldn’t stop smoking kept trying to fix their health damage by every possible way, there are 3 frequent questions smokers do ask:

1. Can any diet compensate the damage caused by smoking?
2. What should I eat if I smoke?
3. Can I prevent weight gain? I quit smoking

First of all lets talk about the damage caused by smoking, it’s not a secret anymore, not only cigerattes ,I am talking about any kind of tobacco even the huka or (sheesha). Any smoker needs an increased nutritional needs due to his intake of carcinogens and other cancer-causing chemicals. Smokers have a significantly increased risk of ill-health, involving serious diseases like: lung cancer, hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, deterioration of lung capacity (emphysema).

Infertility and digestion disorders ,premature death,yellowed teeth and facial wrinkling are also caused by smoking.
SO let’s answer the first question,

1. Can any diet compensate the damage caused by smoking?

Unfortunately, NO, there isn’t any type of diet or eating plan no matter how nutritious, can fix the damage or compensate it. A healthy diet will not compensate for the health risks we’ve mentioned previously, but may delay their development.

SO PLEASE SMOKERS, THE ONLY WAY IS TO QUIT SMOKING TODAY!!!!

“Pain is temporary. Quitting is forever.”

2. What should I eat if I smoke?

For anyone who smokes, daily diet nutrition is critical. The damage done to the body’s cardiovascular and respiratory functions requires a constant need for extra nutrients. Even if you smoke 5 cigarettes a day, you have increased nutritional needs due to your increased risk of hypertension, atherosclerosis, emphysema and numerous cancers. As stated, a healthy diet will not prevent these health conditions, but it may delay their development.

Tobacco smoke leads to increased levels of free radicals – cancer-causing agents – in the body and a corresponding need for protective antioxidants that can neutralize them. The main antioxidant vitamins are vitamin C and vitamin E (which works best in combination with the mineral selenium). Phytochemicals such as bioflavonoids and carotenoids (eg. beta-carotene) are also rich in antioxidants.

Before you reach for that bottle of vitamins to make up for what smoking causes you to lose, consider this sobering news: In two major studies, smokers who were given high doses of beta-carotene supplements in the hopes of averting lung cancer actually increased their cancer risk. Researchers believe that the combination of cigarette smoke and the oxygen-rich environment of the lungs causes beta-carotene to exhaust its antioxidant potential and actually turn into an oxidizing substance. The best advice right now in the case of beta-carotene is to be sure to get ample servings of fruits and vegetables (at least five servings a day).

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR ANTIOXIDANT INTAKE

Use the following suggestions are a guide to minimum dietary requirements.

- Eat 3-5 daily servings of deep green, dark red, orange of yellow vegetables.

- Eat 3-5 daily servings of red, yellow, orange or green fruits.

- Switch from coffee to tea, ideally green tea.

- Each day, take 2 tsp of wheatgerm oil (rich in vitamin E) and 6 Brazil nuts (selenium).

[Note: a serving is approx 1 medium fruit, or 1/2 cup chopped]

BEST DIETARY SOURCES OF VITAMIN C

Fruits, such as: blackcurrants, papaya, guava, cantaloupe, elderberries, kiwi fruit, mango, oranges, strawberries.

Fruit Juices, such as: cranberry, grapefruit, lemon, orange.

Vegetables, such as: red peppers, green peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, tomatoes.

When smokers quit — What are the benefits over time?

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.

12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath all decrease.

1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.

5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.

10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease, too.

15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a non-smoker’s.

Immediate rewards of quitting

Kicking the tobacco habit offers some benefits that you’ll notice right away and some that will develop over time. These rewards can improve your day-to-day life a great deal.

• your breath smells better
• stained teeth get whiter
• bad smelling clothes and hair go away
• your yellow fingers and fingernails disappear
• food tastes better
• your sense of smell returns to normal
• everyday activities no longer leave you out of breath (such as climbing stairs or light housework

source: America Cancer Society

3. Can I prevent weight gain, I quit smoking.

Yes, if you take proper physical exercise and eat a healthy calorie-controlled diet, you are unlikely to gain weight.

So why does the weight gain happen?

For one thing, nicotine increases your metabolism, and without it in your system, your body slows back down to normal. If you continue to eat and move in the same amounts, you’ll inevitably gain weight. Also, many people eat more after quitting because of boredom, nervousness or an oral fixation. One study found that female smokers ate between 163 and 300 more calories daily during the year after they quit smoking. Plus, without cigarette breaks, smokers are more sedentary at work and so burn off fewer calories.

Keep in mind that the health risks of smoking are far greater than facing a higher number when you step on the scale. Still, to help minimize weight gain when you quit, consider these tips:

• Get moving! In one study, women who stopped smoking and added 45 minutes of walking a day to their schedule gained less than three pounds the year after they quit.
• Watch what you eat. Before munching on something, ask yourself: Do you really want it, or are you eating because you’re used to having a cigarette in your mouth and this is a good substitute?
• Rest up. You’re more likely to crave cigarettes and food when you’re tired.

It’s not just about your health, it’s theirs too

While smokers, especially long-term ones, are most at risk for the nutritional and physical harm cigarettes cause, those who don’t smoke aren’t totally safe.

One recent study looked at the impact of secondhand smoke by placing nonsmokers in a smoke-filled room for 30 minutes. Even this minimal exposure caused a significant decrease of vitamin C levels in the nonsmokers.

You own yourself, so if you want to do something that destroys yourself, go ahead. Just don’t harm others when you do.

Conclusion: QUIT SMOKING as soon as you can…

Tobacco surely was designed
To poison, and destroy mankind.
Philip Freneau

What are fad diets?

“Fad diets” phrase refers to diets that promote a restircted eating plan which is not healthy at all because it lacks in sufficient calroies. There are also liquid fad diets such as cabbage soup diet and grape fruit diet.

Fad diets are diets that promise you to do miracles in a very short period of time. they promise to make you lose more than 3 pounds per week or even more. We all know that is not true ….come on!!!! but before denying these kinds of diet lets enjoy talking about their silliness. There are some diets that really make me laugh or they make me feel like I am stupid to believe their claims, if you want to laugh, here are some of the silliest fad diets:

• Eat whatever you want and keep losing weight (7 day all you can eat diet) the idea of believing this is really funny
• The (3 day diet) lose your extra weight by the 3 day diet, it’s a miracle isn’t it?

I am sorry if am not helping you lose weight but trust me, there is no combination of special food that will make you lose weight,some fad diets claim to contain special fat-burning, but losing weight has no magic key.. it is a fact, it doesn’t matter which hook the fad diet is using to let you believe them, it just doesn’t make sense to expect any miraculous weight loss that will last through following these kinds of diets.. all what you need is a healthy diet plan that will gaurantee your weight loss for the long-term not only for the short-term, you need an everyday plan to help you maintain your weight and keep the pounds you’ve lost off, you need a diet plan that provides you with the adequate amount of calories and nutrition that your body needs, it’s all about balance.. to lose weight you have to consume calories less than your body burns and you have to increase your activity level. That’s it.. it’s really simple.

But some people may ask : I tried a fad diet and it really worked BUT I GAINED WEIGHT AGAIN AFTER SKIPPING THE DIET.

A fad diet is most of the time a very low calorie diet… so any low calorie diet will make you lose weight but you will put on your lost pounds again as soon as you return back to you normal eating patterns, another thing about fad diets that it promotes fast weight loss which is considered to be unhealthy, and most of the time it is not fat loss it’s mostly water loss.. so that’s why the dieter will regain weight after resuming his normal eating. because it is water and it is easily lost and regained….. the result would be here that fad diets are short term plans.

Now listen to that, fad diets may lead to obesity, how is that?

Fad diets sometimes can lead to weight-cycling or yo-yo dieting which means weight loss followed by weight regain then weight loss and regain again new studies suggets that yo- yo dieting may lead to obesity.

You’ll know it’s a fad diet if it:

• Promises magic or miracle foods that burn fat.
• Requires you to eat unusual quantities of only one food or food type.
• Requires rigid menus of a limited selection of foods to be eaten at a specific time and day.
• Requires you to eat specific food combinations in certain sequences or combinations.
• Promises rapid weight loss of more than two pounds a week.
• Has no warning for those with diabetes or high blood pressure to seek medical advice before starting the diet.
• Does not include increased physical activity as part of the plan.

source: American Heart Association

At last we have a conclusion over here: Avoid fad dieting, instead follow a healthy diet plan based on the food guide pyramid which is the healthiest way to lose weight and keep it away, choose from all the groups the right serving size and you will have the adequate nutrition and calories your body needs.
Eating a balanced calorie-controlled diet is not only more appealing but also more likely to help you develop the sort of good eating habits that lead to permanent weight loss.

What is a glycemic index?

The glycemic index (GI) is a scientific ranking of foods based on their immediate effect on blood sugar levels. Many everyday carbohydrate-based foods have been tested and given a ranking between 1 and 100, depending on the speed at which they release their sugars into the bloodstream. Carbohydrate foods that break down quickly during digestion have the highest glycemic indexes (GIs of 70 or above). Their blood sugar response is fast and high. Carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream, have low glycaemic indices (GIs of less than 55).

Up until recently, it was believed that carbohydrates could be divided into two main categories simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates consisted of sweet, sugary foods, such as cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolate, jam and honey. Complex carbohydrates consisted of the more starchy foods, such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and cereals. It was commonly thought that the sweet, simple carbohydrates caused our blood sugar levels to rise far more rapidly and give us a quicker energy burst than the starchy, complex ones. Now however, thanks to the creation of the glycemic index, we know this not to be the case and foods such as baked potatoes and some types of bread tend to have a far higher GI and cause a far greater surge in blood sugar levels than many sweeter, more sugary foods.

What is the problem with eating high-GI food?

The sugars in high-GI foods are broken down quickly so they do not supply a sustained source of energy. Instead, they cause our blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. The body has to respond to this by making large quantities of the blood sugar-lowering hormone, insulin, and releasing it into the blood. Unfortunately, insulin is often too good at its job and instead of just reducing blood sugar levels to a desirable level, it sends them plummeting to levels lower than they were originally. This sets up a yo-yo effect as the body then responds by making us crave fatty, sugary foods in an attempt to make our blood sugar levels rise once more. so the disadvantages of eating high-GI diet are:

1) The rush of energy given by high GI foods does not last and is soon followed by an energy lull. So you get hungry and want to eat more.

2) After eating high GI foods you will have a lot of readily available energy in your blood. Your body will use this energy first rather then other stores of energy like body fat. This makes it harder to loose weight.

The health benefits of low GI eating

Lowering the GI of your diet may help prevent and manage overweight and obesity – the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. We know from research around the world over the past 25 years the many benefits of eating healthy low GI foods, they:

• Help to fill you up and keep you feeling satisfied for longer, avoiding over eating or too much snacking.
• Lower your insulin levels which makes fat easier to burn and less likely to be stored.
• Reduce your triglycerides, total and ‘bad’ (LDL) cholesterol.
• Increase your levels of ‘good’ (HDL) cholesterol.
• Reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
• Reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
• Help to manage your blood glucose levels and reduce your risk of developing diabetes complications.
• Sustain your energy levels longer.

Low GI eating really is for everybody, every day, every meal.

source: Home of the Glycemic Index

Why it’s not healthy to eat high-GI food?

1. Food cravings and lethargy
Many of us experience this yo-yo effect as the ‘mid-afternoon lull’. We eat a high-GI lunch – sandwiches or a baked potato, for example – and by 3.30pm we are not only feeling tired, lethargic and lacking in concentration, but we are positively craving something sweet to give us that much needed energy boost. This often happens again after the evening meal when we find ourselves heading back to the kitchen for a dessert, some chocolate biscuits or a glass of wine just a short while after having eaten.

2. Weight gain
A diet rich in high-GI foods can cause you to eat more calories (and therefore gain weight) for two reasons. The first is that high-GI foods are quick to break down. The quicker a food breaks down, the sooner you will become hungry and the more likely you will be to want to eat again. Secondly, high-GI foods will cause your blood sugar levels to rapidly rise and then fall, which in turn will result in strong urges to eat fatty, sugary foods shortly after a meal. Both points are compounded by the fact that another of insulin’s main roles is to promote fat storage, so the more insulin you have in your blood the more likely you are to store any excess calories you eat as fat.

3. Lack of concentration and mood swings
The brain is entirely fuelled by blood sugar. Therefore when levels drop as a result of the excessive production of insulin, it becomes more difficult to concentrate. Research has also found that low blood sugar levels are often linked to mood swings, reduced reaction times and even depression.

4. Diabetes
Diabetes is one of the most common health problems in the world, It is thought that the stress that high-GI foods place on the body to keep blood sugar levels constant can result in either the insulin not working properly or the pancreas, the manufacturing site of insulin, becoming less efficient at producing it, sometimes giving up altogether.

5. Heart disease
As we have already seen, a diet rich in high-GI foods can result in people becoming overweight or developing diabetes. Obesity and diabetes are two of the principal risk factors that can lead to heart disease. In addition, high levels of insulin, which are brought about as a result of eating high-GI foods, are strongly linked to increased blood pressure and cholesterol (along with other blood fats), both of which are also major contributing factors to heart disease.

5 ways to lower your GI food

1. Mix high-GI foods with low-GI foods – research shows that a high-GI food combined with a low-GI food of the same carbohydrate quantity will result in an intermediate GI for the overall meal.
2. Eat protein with your carbohydrates – high-protein foods, such as lean meat, chicken and fish, tend to slow the rate at which a meal is digested and therefore lower the GI of the overall meal.
3. Choose vegetables first – all too often we base our meals around the carbohydrate-rich food, such as pasta, potatoes or rice. Instead, first plan your meal around the vegetables you hope to use, then around the protein-rich foods, such as meat, fish or pulses, and then the carbohydrate-rich food. This will automatically help to lower the GI of a meal.
4. Use beans and pulses as often as possible – try puréeing them to make sauces, cooking them in stews, serving them with fresh herbs as side dishes, adding them to salads, making them into dips or using mashed beans or lentils instead of mashed potatoes.
5. Keep cooking times to a minimum – cooked foods often have a higher GI than uncooked foods, so make sure your pasta is al dente and your vegetables are cooked for the shortest time possible. This will also help to retain more of their vitamins and minerals.

10 tips for reducing the GI of your diet

1. Pile half your dinner plate high with vegetables or salad

Aim to eat at least five serves of vegetables (this doesn’t include the starchy ones like potatoes, sweet potatoes or sweet corn) every day, preferably of three or more different colours.

2. Cut back on most potatoes

If you are a big potato eater and can’t bear the thought of giving them up, you don’t have to. Just cut back on the quantity. Choose a lower GI potato such as Almera, Nicola or Marfona or have one or two baby new potatoes with a small cob of corn or make a cannellini bean (they are white beans) and potato mash replacing half the potato with cannellini beans. And try other starchy vegetables occasionally like sweet potato, yams or taro – steamed, roasted or mashed.

3. Swap your bread

Instead of high GI white and wholemeal breads, choose a really grainy bread where you can actually see the grains, granary bread, stone-ground wholemeal bread, real sourdough bread, soy and linseed bread, pumpernickel, fruit loaf or bread made from chickpea or other legume-based flours.

4. Replace those high GI crunchy breakfast flakes

These refined breakfast cereals spike your blood glucose and insulin levels. Replace them with smart carbs like natural muesli or traditional (not instant) porridge oats or one of the lower GI processed breakfast cereals that will trickle fuel into your engine.

5. Make your starchy staples the low GI ones

Look for the low GI rice’s, serve your pasta al dente, choose less processed foods such as large flake or rolled oats for porridge or muesli and intact grains such as barley, buckwheat, bulgur, quinoa, whole kernel rye, or whole wheat kernels and opt for lower GI starchy vegetables.

6. Learn to love legumes (pulses)

Include legumes in your meals two or three times a week, more often if you are vegetarian. Add chickpeas to a stir-fry, red kidney beans to a chilli, a 4-bean salad to that barbecue menu, and beans or lentils to a casserole or soup.

7. Develop the art of combining

No need to cut out all high GI carbs. The trick is to combine them with those low GI tricklers to achieve a moderate overall GI. How? Lentils with rice (think of that delicious classic Italian soup), rice with beans and chilli (go Mexican), tabbouli tucked into pita bread (with falafels of course and a dash of hummous), baked beans on toast or piled on a jacket-baked potato for classic comfort food.

8. Incorporate a lean protein source with every meal

Lean meat, skinless chicken, fish and seafood, eggs, milk, yoghurt or cheese, or legumes and tofu if you are vegetarian. The protein portion should make up around a quarter of the plate/meal.

9. Tickle your taste buds

Try vinaigrette (using vinegar or lemon juice with a dash of extra virgin olive oil) with salads, yoghurt with cereal, lemon juice on vegetables like asparagus, or sourdough bread. These foods contain acids, which slow stomach emptying and lower your blood glucose response to the carbs in the meal.

10. Go low GI when snacking

If it is healthy and low GI, keep it handy. Grab fresh fruit, dried fruit, or fruit and nut mix, low fat milk and yoghurt (or soy alternatives), fruit bread etc for snacks. Limit (this means don’t buy them every week) high GI refined flour products whether home baked or from the supermarket such as cookies, cakes, pastries, crumpets, crackers, biscuits, irrespective of their fat and sugar content. These really are the ‘keep for the occasional treat’ foods.

Keep your eye on the serve size. Remember portion caution with carb-rich foods such as rice, al dente pasta and noodles, potatoes etc. Eating a huge amount of these foods, even of the low GI variety, will have a marked effect on your blood glucose. A cup of cooked noodles or al dente pasta or rice plus plenty of mixed non-starchy vegetables and a little lean protein can turn into 3 cups of a very satisfying meal.

source: Home of Glycemic Index

To see the glycemic index of some popular food please click here

The Atkins Diet Debate

Dr. Atkins revolutionalized the dieting world when he introduced the Atkins diet, a low-carb eating program. The Atkins diet or the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is a lifetime nutritional philosophy. The diet claims that you can lose weight on a high-fat, high-protein diet. It works on the premise that a healthy lifestyle requires a limited amount of simple carbohydrates, protein, exercise and proper portion control.

The diet plan works on 4 general principles; weight loss, weight maintenance, good health and disease prevention. Today, the Atkins diet is the most popular, longstanding approach to weight loss in America. Over 40 million people around the world have joined in on the Atkins revolution and more than 15 million overweight men and women have bought Dr. Atkins’ best selling book ‘New Diet Revolution’. There is even a professional body (The Atkins Centre for Complimentary Medicine) devoted to educating Atkins followers.

How does the diet work?

The Atkins diet holds the controversial belief that low fat is not the only way to go for a healthier lifestyle and weight control. Dr. Atkins blamed carbohydrates (grains, pastas, fruits, potatoes) for weight gain. He believed that if you reduced your carbohydrate intake then you would lose weight. Too many carbohydrates in your diet encourage your body to retain fat. When the body absorbs simple carbohydrates quickly, it causes an insulin response that speeds the conversion of calories to fat. The plan focuses on the consumption of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita-nutrient supplementation. It also restricts processed and refined carbohydrates (which make up to approximately more then 50 per cent of people’s diets). It encourages you to eliminate sugar from your diet as this contributes to a slower metabolism. The Atkins diet is designed to be a program on which you can maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime and it is highly suitable (but not restricted) to those who prefer eating animal protein. The diet offers people who have failed on a low-fat diet a healthy, effective and safe alternative. Instead of carbs and sugar, eaters are allowed plenty of fat and protein.

There are four phases to the Atkins diet, they are; 1) Induction, 2) Ongoing Weight Loss, 3) Pre-Maintenance and 4) Lifetime Maintenance. During Phase 1 (Induction), you restrict carbohydrate consumption to 20 grams each day, obtaining carbohydrate primarily from salad and other non-starchy vegetables. In Phase 2 (Ongoing Weight Loss), you increase carbohydrate in the form of nutrient-dense and fibre-rich foods by 20 grams daily in the first week and then 30 grams daily in the next week until you gradually lose weight. Then you subtract 5 grams of carbohydrate from your daily intake so that you continue sustained weight loss. In Phase 4, known as ‘Pre-Maintenance’, you make the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance by increasing the daily carbohydrate intake in 10 gram increments each week. In the last phase of the Atkins plan (Lifetime Maintenance), you select from a wide variety of foods while controlling carbohydrate intake to ensure weight maintenance.

There are mixed views on the Atkins diet amongst health experts and dieticians. Many experts are critical of low-carb diets but have not totally discounted the Atkins diet as an effective method of losing weight. Although they do assert that it is too early to adopt the low-carb diet, health experts do concede that it is worth exploring. One main criticism of the Atkins diet is that it does entail frequent meat consumption. However, followers argue that the program can be tailored for different preferences and metabolisms. After the first phase (known as the ‘Induction phase’) the Atkins diet plan can be modified. Despite the immense popularity of the diet, the Atkins diet plan continues to have many sceptics. Another criticism of the diet purports that a person is unlikely to keep the weight off over the long term. However, this claim could just as easily be applied to many low-fat or low-calorie weight loss plans, on which dieters are likely to feel hungry.

The Atkins Diet: Against

• Not ideal for vegetarians or vegans as it is a meat-heavy (protein) diet.
• Linked to osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer and renal disease.
• High in saturated fats and cholesterol.
• Low on fiber.
• Is sometimes below the recommended daily values for several vitamins and minerals such as calcium, potassium and magnesium.

The Atkins Diet: For:

• Allowed to eat fat and protein.
• Steady (and sometimes rapid) weight loss.
• Reduces intake of sugars and processed grains.
• Reduces appetite.
• Life-time approach to dieting.
• A ‘never be hungry’ approach to dieting.

Critics of the Atkins Diet

The American Heart Association (AHA) does not recommend high-protein diets for weight loss. They argue that the Atkins diet has not been proven effective for long term weight loss. They are critical of the Atkins diet’s focus on a high-protein diet that emphasises foods like meat and eggs that are rich in protein and/or saturated fats. The diet is not recommended because it restricts healthy foods that provide essential nutrients. They also criticise the Atkins plan for its high cholesterol, fat and protein content and its low-fibre intake. The AHA asserts that most people already eat more protein and fat than their bodies need, and eating a high-protein, high-fat diet raises the risk of many types of disease. The most serious claim against the Atkins plan is that it’s linked to a number of potential health risks such as osteoporosis, stroke, coronary heart disease, a propensity to form kidney stones, liver disorders and diabetes.

Advocates of the Atkins Diet

There are a number of misconceptions surrounding the Atkins diet plan, the most popular of these is the misconception that you consume mostly red meat and can never eat carbs. Many people view the diet as a bacon, burger and butter diet, however one of the benefits of the Atkins program is that it gets you away from eating too much sugar and processed foods. The Atkins plan reduces (rather than excludes) your carbohydrate intake (like sugar, white flour and white rice).

Another misconception is that you can eat all you want while following the Atkins program. Although the program refuses to accept hunger as a way of life, it does believe in the philosophy of moderation. Eating a well-portioned and satisfying meal is an extremely important part of the Atkins diet. The Atkins plan teaches you to control your portion sizes.

In response to criticisms that the Atkins diet is linked to disease – contrary studies have shown that over a four month period, the Atkins diet helped a group of people drop an average of 21 pounds, lower their cholesterol and triglyceride levels and raise HDL (‘good’ cholesterol). Advocates of the diet argue that people at high risk for chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes will see a marked improvement. They go even further to claim that by following this plan you are actually laying a permanent groundwork for disease prevention.

Generally, critics are sceptical of how a high-protein, high-fat diet can result in weight loss. Research shows that people can keep off weight lost with the Atkins plan as long as they don’t go back to eating the way they used to eat. People have successfully lost weight with this approach for over thirty years. Several studies have shown that men and women lost twice the weight on the Atkins plan, compared to those individuals following a ‘high-respected’ low-fat diet. However, many success stories involve support of some kind. Studies show that dieters typically lose more weight when they linked up with the Internet – a virtual dieting community where dieters can obtain weight loss information, Atkins diet recipes and contact other dieters who are sharing the same goals. On the Internet, followers can also get a personalised Atkins meal plan and 24/7 peer and professional support without leaving their home.