Looking To Lose Weight? Whole30 Might Hurt Instead of Help(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

Those setting weight loss and healthy eating resolutions have undoubtedly heard of the newest dieting fad, Whole30. Known for being a month-long reset of eating habits, the diet is a restrictive one that focuses on eliminating “bad” food groups.

Participants of Whole30 must eliminate grains, legumes, dairy, processed food ingredients (like MSG and sulfites), sugar, and alcohol. The rules are simple, don’t eat these food groups, don’t weight or measure yourself, and don’t cheat. The touted results from the month-long program are weight loss, clearing up of digestive and skin issues, subsiding unhealthy food cravings, and overall higher energy.

The Whole30 mindset has little sympathy for those attempting to change their eating habits. If you slip up, by having a pat of butter on your sweet potato or taking a bite of that coworker’s birthday cake, then you must start over the 30 days. You can’t create Whole30 versions of your favorite foods either. Coconut flour pancakes or cauliflower pizza crust? Totally off limits because, despite using approved ingredients, you’re still setting your mind up to crave junk food.

Complaining isn’t tolerated, with the program reading “It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard.”

This hard line method of “all or nothing” goes against what many of us at Cooking Light believe, that progress is more important than perfection. Whether it’s an entire lifestyle overhaul or baby steps in daily choices, these decisions will eventually help on your journey to achieving your weight and health goals.

Along with this strenuous mindset, Whole30 eliminates plenty of healthy food options that we believe are part of a wholesome diet. Here’s a break down of why you should keep these foods in your diet:

• Legumes: This category, which includes beans, lentils, and peanuts, is packed with protein, fiber, and various nutrients. They can make for a nutritious, and affordable, plant-based protein option. For meat-eaters legumes can help lighten up traditionally calorie-heavy meals like chili, and vegetarians can benefit from featuring them as a main dish, like in Lentil Shepherd’s Pie.

• Whole Grains: Refined grains, often blamed for health crises like the rising rates of obesity and diabetes, shouldn’t be confused with their more nutrient-dense whole grain cousins. Not only have whole grains been linked to weight loss, it has also been found that increased consumption could possibly lead to a longer life. Hearty ingredients like brown rice, bulgur, oats, and other whole grain varieties can be included in a healthy diet.

• Dairy: While a dieter’s first thought may be that lower-fat versions of dairy staples like yogurt or cheese would be the healthiest option, research is showing it may be best to eat full-fat dairy products. With less processing, more satiating power, and a tendency to taste better, opting for full-fat dairy can pay off in the end. While moderation is key, ingredients like protein-packed Greek yogurt, high-quality cheeses, and calcium-rich whole milk can be part of a nutritious lifestyle.

While the Whole30 diet may be a feasible option for those needing a stringent plan to keep them in line, it’s not ideal for long-term changes in weight or eating habits. Instead, we recommend sticking with a varied diet of whole foods, being mindful of your eating habits, and not forgetting portion control to accomplish a healthy lifestyle.

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Study shows effects of intensive weight reduction on normal weight females(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

Worries about the potential negative consequences of fat loss regimens for aesthetic purposes in normal weight females have been surfacing in the media. This has taken place regardless of the lack of longitudinal studies on this kind of diets. Now the researchers of the University of Jyväskylä have published a study that shows for the first time what effects an intensive weight reduction had in rather a large group of normal weight females.

Female fitness competitors voluntarily conduct a prolonged heavy diet concurrent to a large amount of exercise. The competitors aim to achieve an aesthetic body with symmetry, balance, and muscle definition that is accomplished by lowering fat mass with a diet while maintaining muscle mass as high as possible. The diet is typically followed by a recovery period, during which the competitors increase their energy intake back to the baseline. This is a significant contrast to overweight individuals, who try to maintain their weight loss.

In the study, 27 females dieted for a competition and 23 females acted as weight-stable controls. The study showed for the first time that most of the hormonal changes after a large decrease in body fat – caused by around 4 months of intensive dieting – in previously normal-weight females can recover within 3-4 months of increased energy intake.

According to the researchers of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, the results suggest that, in general, intensive weight reduction can be conducted safely. However, a diet probably needs to be followed by a period of at least a few months of normal non-restrictive energy intake and less exercise in order to recover a normal physiological function of a female body. “Therefore, the diets and, thus, competitions should not happen too frequently,” says Academy of Finland Research Fellow, PhD Juha Hulmi.

In more detail, the diet was achieved by reducing carbohydrate intake and increasing aerobic exercise while maintaining a high level of protein intake and resistance training. The diet led to a large, around 35-50%, decrease in fat mass. Muscle size was either maintained or only slightly decreased. The hormonal system was remarkably altered during the diet. Especially serum concentrations of leptin, triiodothyronine (T3), testosterone, and estradiol decreased and these coincided with increased menstrual irregularities. Body weight and most of the hormone concentrations returned to the baseline during a 3-4 month recovery period of increased energy intake and decreased levels of aerobic exercise. However, T3 and testosterone hormones were still slightly decreased compared to pre-diet, but not markedly in comparison to the controls.

The competitors maintained their muscle size pretty well, although the decrease in fat mass was massive. This is probably due to intensive resistance training together with rather a high intake of protein, both previously shown to prevent muscle loss during the diet, as explained by MSc student Ville Isola and the research project leader, Professor Keijo Häkkinen. Juha Hulmi also reminds that the recovery period is important for gaining muscle size and strength as it is impossible to progress in training if energy deficit is prolonged and the body does not recover from the extra stress.

The researchers state that this is the first large fitness and weight loss study in normal weight females. Next the study will be expanded to further analyze the perspectives of health and psychology. In addition, more studies are needed to understand the effects of physiology, psychology and health more thoroughly. It is possible and even likely that intensive weight reduction and participation in esthetic sports can increase health risks for some individuals.

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Study may help clinicians predict outcome of common bariatric surgery(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

New findings published online in The FASEB Journal, may one day help clinicians predict the outcome of roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. In a study involving a small number of patients, researchers found that the serum stearic acid/palmitic acid (S/P) ratio was a reliable marker in predicting diabetes remission and assessing metabolic status. Ultimately, this study could help healthcare providers determine who might benefit the most from bariatric weight-loss surgery.

“Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB), one of the most commonly used bariatric surgical procedures, showed the different efficacy in obese patients with diabetes,” said Wei Jia, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work and associate director of the Cancer Epidemiology Program at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and also director of the Center for Translational Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital in Shanghai, China. “Our findings could help identify patients preoperatively who would respond most favorably to the surgery.”

Jia and colleagues used two independent cohorts. The first was a longitudinal cohort of 38 obese patients with diabetes who achieved weight loss and diabetes remission after RYGB. About 32 percent of these patients showed recurrence of diabetes at the second year follow-up examination. Those patients who had higher levels of S/P before surgery had greater possibilities for diabetes remission after surgery. In the second cohort of 381 community-based human participants, overweight or obese patients with diabetes exhibited lower S/P than did body mass index-matched nondiabetic patients, which highlight the specific product-to-precursor ratios as novel markers in preoperative assessment of bariatric surgery. Adding the S/P ratio to the previously reported clinical panel of diabetes duration, HbA1c level, and fasting C-peptide level contributed a significant increase in the predictive potential.

“This is a very important new picture in the bariatric surgery field,” said Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “Both the morbidity that necessitates the procedure and the procedure itself are steep challenges, and this study has the potential to greatly benefit patients going forward.”

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Physical activity reduces heart disease deaths for older adults(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

In the first study to compare the results of cognitive training by body mass index (BMI) category, scientists from the Indiana University Center for Aging Research found that memory training provided only one-third the benefit to older adults with obesity than the benefit it provided to older adults without obesity.

To determine responsiveness to memory training the scientists followed cognition over 10 years, comparing trajectories of cognitive performance in older adults with obesity, overweight and normal weight who received the training and those who did not.

“These findings suggest that memory training is less beneficial for older adults with obesity but we really don’t know why,” said Daniel O. Clark, PhD, lead author of the study. “There is growing evidence of a link between obesity status and brain function, including imaging studies reporting that obesity is associated with more rapid loss of hippocampal volume. So it’s possible that actual capacity for memory gains is less for older adults with obesity.

“Other work has shown that weight loss can lead to improvements in memory function. Unfortunately we know from our own prior work, and that of others, that weight loss is difficult to achieve and maintain over the long term. We and others need to do more work to develop scalable and effective approaches to weight gain prevention and weight loss but we should also investigate programs with potential to protect memory function in the absence of weight loss for people with obesity — a growing segment of our population.”

Dr. Clark is an IU Center for Aging Research and Regenstrief Institute investigator, an IU School of Medicine associate professor of medicine and director of research and development at the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation at Eskenazi Health.

“Addressing dementia risk factors like obesity at any age is important as recent science indicates a lifecourse cumulative risk,” said Dr. Clark. “Obesity in middle age in particular is a strong risk factor for cognitive impairment later in life, including dementia. Approximately one-third of baby boomers have BMIs within the obesity range with some subgroups having even higher rates of obesity placing them at higher risk of cognitive impairment.”

“Does Body Mass Index Modify Memory, Reasoning, and Speed of Processing Training Effects in Older Adults” is published in Obesity, the peer-reviewed journal of the

While BMI status influenced the benefits accrued from memory training, the researchers found no difference in the benefits to older adults provided by training in reasoning or in speed of processing regardless of BMI.

Memory training focused on improving verbal episodic memory through instruction and practice in strategy use. Reasoning training focused on improving the ability to solve problems that contained a serial pattern. Speed training focused on visual search and the ability to process increasingly more information presented in successively shorter inspection times.

The data for the study was obtained from cognitively normal older adults who participated in the multi-center Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) randomized controlled study, the largest trial of cognitive training ever conducted.

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Physical activity reduces heart disease deaths for older adults(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

Being physically inactive – sitting for long periods of time – can be so harmful to your health that experts sometimes call it “sitting disease.” In fact, worldwide, physical inactivity is estimated to cause some 3.2 million deaths a year.
Medical experts know that regular physical activity lessens death from all causes and death from heart disease specifically for middle-aged people. However, until now, little has been known about the benefits of exercise for older people when it comes to deaths associated with heart disease.
A new study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, examined whether regular leisure-time physical activity could reduce deaths from all causes, and whether it also could reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease.
To study this association, researchers examined information taken from 2,465 men and women aged 65 to 74 who participated in a national health study conducted between 1997 and 2007 in Finland.
The participants answered a questionnaire that assessed their lifestyle habits, including whether they smoked or engaged in exercise. Researchers also knew the participants’ level of education, height and weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
The research team followed the participants through the end of 2013. Then, they consulted the Finnish mortality register to determine how many of the participants had died (and what caused their deaths).
The researchers discovered that moderate- as well as high-levels of physical activity were associated with a decreased risk of heart disease and death from all causes, including from events such as strokes or heart attacks.
The researchers explained that physical activity works in several ways to improve your heart’s health. Exercise helps people maintain a healthy body weight, lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of blood clots, helps stabilize blood sugar levels, and improves the ratio of unhealthy to healthy cholesterol in your body.
If you are already moderately active, that is enough to make a positive impact on your health, said the researchers. If you’re sedentary and become more active-even by taking several short walks around your home each day-you can improve your health significantly, and lower your risk of heart disease, the researchers said.

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For Many Women, Sex Gets Better in Middle Age(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

Here’s good news for middle-aged women who fear their sexual satisfaction is destined to decline: Aging can provide benefits that might make lovemaking even more enjoyable, a small study suggests.

Interviews with more than three dozen women ages 45 to 60 revealed that some were more satisfied with sex at midlife even though they had it less often.

These women “felt more confident and more comfortable in their own skin as they got older, and this allowed them to feel more free in the bedroom,” said study lead author Dr. Holly Thomas.

“They had a better knowledge and understanding of their own bodies as they got older. And they felt more comfortable and empowered to communicate their sexual needs to their partner than when they were younger,” said Thomas, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Other research has examined the rates of problems for older women, such as low libido and vaginal dryness.

These studies “typically show that sex gets worse as women move through middle age,” said Thomas. “We used a different technique, speaking to women face-to-face using interviews and focus groups, to try to see if there was more to the picture.”

The researchers interviewed 20 women and also conducted three focus groups with a total of 19 participants. Their average age was 58, and roughly half were white. All but two said they were heterosexual.

Dr. Jan Shifren, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Midlife Women’s Health Center, said, “It’s important for people to realize that everything that happens with aging is not doom and gloom, and there can even be some positive things in terms of sexuality.” She wasn’t involved in the study.

Some women in the study talked about “negative” changes in their sex lives as they aged, such as less frequent sex, vaginal dryness and difficulty reaching orgasm. But they were more likely to blame family and work stressors than biological factors like menopause, the researchers said.

Shifren said women are often urged to turn to hormone treatments when their sex lives decline. But, she added, the women in the new study are “telling us they’re experiencing these changes because they’re experiencing a lot of midlife stressors. We should not automatically say that sexual changes are just biologic. We have to remember this is a complex time in women’s lives.”

The women who reported negative changes were more likely to say that they adapted to them. A smaller group of women said the changes distressed them, Thomas said, and a few reported indifference.

What are the lessons from these findings for midlife women?

“Focus on what you can change,” Shifren said. “Think about what’s bothering you and what can you do to make it better, and focus on reducing other midlife stressors.”

Problems such as vaginal dryness, for example, can be treated with low-dose vaginal estrogen and lubricants, she said. And it can be helpful to urge male partners to seek treatment for erectile dysfunction if that’s an issue, she added.

What else can partners do to help?

“If there are changes due to aging and your female partner seems to be getting less pleasure from sex, think about what you can do to make it more pleasurable, such as other ways you can increase intimacy,” Shifren said. “Some couples adapt by being more creative, by adopting new positions and activities.”

The study, partly funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the North American Menopause Society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. Research released at meetings should be considered preliminary until it appears in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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6 Reasons Masturbating Should Be Part of Your Self-Care Routine(for more go to http://howpeopledo.com)

In case you hadn’t heard, it’s totally normal and healthy to masturbate—and yet, many women shy away from solo sessions, according to an Indiana University, Bloomington study.

If you’re one of those women, you’re missing out on more than just orgasms on demand. Here’s why you should take matters into your own hands—literally:

It can improve your sex life

Just 57% of women have orgasms most or every time they have sex with a partner, according to a 2015 survey of 2,300 women aged 18 to 40 conducted by Cosmopolitan magazine. Before you can consistently get off with another person, you need to know what works for you, says Emily Morse, sex and relationship expert and host of the podcast Sex with Emily. “Run your hands down your body, take time for yourself, and see what makes you feel good,” she says. By figuring out what gets you going, you’ll not only be able to get some solo pleasure, but also help your partner understand what makes you tick.

It may reduce stress and help you sleep

Instead of counting sheep, try counting orgasms. When you orgasm, your body releases prolactin, a relaxation hormone, and serotonin, a happiness hormone. While it hasn’t been thoroughly studied, many women have found masturbating helps them relieve tension and sleep better, says Lauren Streicher, MD, author of Sex Rx: Hormones, Health and Your Best Sex Ever.

For the best effect, Morse suggests creating a calm, nurturing environment before you get busy. “Just turn off your phone, go into your room for 10 minutes, start to breathe and touch your body,” she says. “By doing this, you’re taking care of yourself, experiencing pleasure, and getting in touch with your body—all of which give you a sense of well-being.”

It can relieve period cramps

Having sex on your period might be a little messy, but solo sessions are easy—plus, they pack some natural pain-relieving benefits. “When you have an orgasm, the uterus contracts, which causes the blood to come out faster and allow you to be less crampy,” explains Dr. Streicher.

For some women, however, orgasms might intensify the tension, Morse says. “It’s just a matter of testing it out the technique to see if it works for you.”

It can intensify your orgasms

“Masturbating does expand your orgasmic potential,” says Morse. “So for women who struggle to have orgasms with or without their partner, it teaches you how to have an orgasm and increases your own sexual awareness.”

The key is taking time to get to know your body and what really turns you on. And while many women may try it out to no avail, it’s important not to give up on finding your bliss. “The reality is it could take months to figure out how to have a G-spot orgasm, a clitoral orgasm, or even a blended orgasm.”

It might make you more confident

“When you feel in control of your body and sexuality, it gives you more self-esteem in the bedroom,” says Morse. And that confidence doesn’t just stay between the sheets—it can actually carry over into all aspects of your life. “A lot of women aren’t satisfied with the way their bodies look, but when we’re in control and connected to our bodies through masturbating, we learn a lot about who we are,” she says. “That can cultivate more positive feelings around our bodies and help us feel more confident inside and out.”  It’s simple really: you’ll come, you’ll see, you’ll conquer.

It feels really good

At the end of the day, Dr. Streicher says the primary benefit to masturbation is simple: It feels good. But since the topic is still generally kept on the hush, many women don’t know how to do it, she points out.

If you’re still feeling a little lost when it comes to what to do down there, just remember there’s no universal technique. So to get started, Morse recommends experimenting with different types of touch. “Don’t just go straight for the clitoris,” she advises. “Start slow and and gently explore surrounding areas like the labia with a light, two-finger touch.” Plus, applying a couple drops of lube are a great option to get things going, Morse suggests. All it takes is a bit of body exploration, and you’ll be a master of masturbation in no time.

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