Controlling Fat in Diets to Clean Up Arteries

Although everyone seems more frightened by risk of getting cancer, it is heart disease that is the number one killer of men and women alike in this country.  One of the key risk factors for heart disease is an elevated blood cholesterol level.  This is because cholesterol and fat attach to the walls of the coronary arteries (a process known as atherosclerosis), narrowing them and reducing the flow of blood and nutrients to the heart. It is important to know how to clean up your arteries by controlling fat in your diet, something few people do, even though it is so simple to learn.

Angina, or chest pain, happens when reduced blood flow starves the heart of oxygen.  If the blood supply is completely cut off, you will experience a heart attack.  Similarly, if narrowed vessels cut off the blood supply to the brain, you will experience a stroke.  Here are a few things you should know about how you can clean up your arteries by controlling the fat and cholesterol in your diet:

1. Cholesterol occurs naturally in many different part of the body and is something that your body uses to produce bile acids, hormones and Vitamin D.  Your body requires only a small amount of cholesterol to accomplish these functions; the extra gets deposited in arteries.
2. Cholesterol is transported in the blood via lipoproteins.  Because cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance, it does not mix with blood (which is water-based).  Thus, the cholesterol made in the liver is combined with a protein to make lipoproteins that carry fats around the body.  There are two types of lipoproteins, which have become commonly known as "bad" and "good" cholesterol.
3. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL), known as the "bad" cholesterol, carries most of the cholesterol in the blood, and is also the primary source of the deposits in coronary arteries.  The higher the LDL cholesterol level in the blood, the greater the risk of heart disease.  Treatment to reduce cholesterol focuses on reducing the LDL component of your blood.
4. High-density lipoprotein (HDL), known as the "good" cholesterol, carries LDL cholesterol back to the liver where it can be eliminated.  Having a high HDL level helps to prevent cholesterol buildup in the arteries. 

You have no control over some risk factors for coronary heart disease, including age (45 years or older for men and 55 years or older for women).  But you do have control over many other lifestyle issues, including diet, your weight, exercise, smoking and control of diabetes.  If you have received a diagnosis of high blood cholesterol, you can help to clean up your arteries by controlling fat in your diet with a low fat low cholesterol diet.  You will need to pay attention to several kinds of fat in your diet:

1. Saturated fat:  Saturated fat will raise your LDL cholesterol level more than anything else in the diet.  Studies have shown that in both men and women of diverse ages and ethnicity, lowering dietary saturated fat will reduce blood cholesterol.  Saturated fat is a type of fat found mostly in foods that come from animals:  Think of the fat on a steak and you'll have a good visual for saturated fat.  (Saturated fat is close to a solid at room temperature.)  Another factor that may contribute to the unhealthfulness of saturated fat is the oxidation that occurs during cooking
2. Trans fat:  While both saturated and trans fat increase the levels of LDL cholesterol in your blood, trans fat also lowers the levels of HDL cholesterol.  Trans fat is fat that has been hydrogenated, which means that the chemical structure of an unsaturated fat is changed by adding hydrogen atoms to make the fat more saturated.  Trans fat is the type of fat present in margarine.  Because trans fat increases shelf life, it is also found in manufactured foods.  
   
3. Cholesterol:  Cholesterol comes only from animal products such as meat, eggs, dairy products, poultry, and seafood.  Organ meats such as brains and liver have especially high levels of cholesterol.

In short, maintain healthy eating habits, increase your consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and decrease your consumption of saturated fats, animal products, and manufactured foods, particularly those made with hydrogenated oils. If lifestyle changes and controlling fat in your diet are not enough to lower your blood cholesterol, you may be put on a drug regime.

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Simple Rapid Weight Loss Diets

Eating is the means for all living creatures to consume food. All living creatures need to eat, so that they can have nutrition needed for growth. A person's food intake depends on that person's eating patterns. Normally, people eat three meals a day. An average person consumes 1,800-2,000 calories of food per day.

Eating is also a good way for friends and family to get together. This is why people have festivals or parties where food is always present. Although eating is a must for everybody, too much food intake can also be harmful to the body.

Improper food consumption can be a problem for some. Too much food intake may result in weight problems. Weight issues for some people are a life-long struggle that affects a person's physical and mental health. This is why a lot of people are racking their brains to search for methods on how to lose weight.

There are various ways to lose weight. But if you are looking for rapid weight loss diets, here are some simple tips that you can follow.

• Know your body. Knowing your body will help a lot in losing weight. Pay attention to how your body reacts to what you eat. This is essential in choosing what type of weight loss program you should follow.
• Eat right. Eating what is right for your body is important when losing weight. Good nutrition and proper food intake will help you in achieving your desired weight. Eating breakfast is a good eating habit. Having breakfast will increase the speed of your metabolism and give your body the energy it needs to start the day.
• Have good sleeping habits. Getting enough sleep will help your body metabolize better. Proper sleeping habits also increase growth hormones which help in regulating the body's proportions.
• Increase water intake. This is also very important if you are planning to rapidly lose some weight. Our body needs a lot of water. A higher intake of water will keep the body stay hydrated. Water intake will also help in keeping your stomach full, fortifying you to avoid eating extra snacks.
• Exercise. This is an important activity in rapidly losing weight. You can do simple exercises like walking or body stretching. You can even go dancing with your friends to reel away those extra pounds. Nothing is more delightful than having fans and friends supporting you.
• Create a daily record of your development. This will also serve as a reminder of your goal. You can also check what your agendas are for the day and rescore what you already did.
• Have self-discipline. You should always have self discipline to push through with your weight loss regimen. Self discipline can win your way to weight loss success.

Following these simple tips will facilitate rapid weight loss. Aside from these tips, there are a lot of programs that you can check concerning proper weight loss. Weight loss application developers have made further studies about weight issues. Check what program suits you best. Following your diet will also allow you to save cash. Money saved can be used to reward yourself for your efforts. The conservation of cash will further strengthen your resolve to rapidly lose weight.

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Amazing Way of Crash Diets to Lose 10 Pounds

Since there are various kind of diets has been designed, people are now able to use any kind of diet including crash diets to lose 10 pounds. This is also considered as one of diet that you can do to get a quite significant weight loss.

However, there will be several things that you need to consider when choose to be one of your way of diet plan. There are also things to prepare to get a significant weight loss using this way. You will also find it is different than the other diet you might have found. While you can find a quite long lasting diet result, it will only bring you quite short time to last since it is also gained in only several days.

Crash Diets to Lose 10 Pounds – What Else You Need?

To make it a complete crash diet that will give a significant weight loss, you will also need lemonade diet. You will need laxative tea, sea salt, water, drinking glass, 10 oz. filtered water, 2 tbsp. organize freshly-squeezed lemon juice, 2 tbsp. of organic grade B maple syrup, 1/10 tbsp. of powdered cayenne pepper, and unrefined sea salt to taste. You might also need xocai healthy chocolate diet to help you get better result instantly. Xocai squares & nuggets, xocai protein bars, and xocai shakes.

Crash Diets to Lose 10 Pounds – Step of Diet

It will be quite simple to do this crash diets to lose 10 pounds. Drink more water! It will be first thing you need to do to drink at least 8 oz. glasses every day. It is the habit to support this diet that will determine whether you will have a successful diet.

To lose more calories, you will also need to eat less. It means that you need to double it to several more times to certain number of calorie to help you reduce the calorie intake. You are recommended to take store-bought diet foods to help you control your portion.

Eat more often means that need to eat frequently, but with smaller portion. It will let you digest your meal easier that later it will maintain a steady blood sugar and also will let you decrease feeling of hunger. Women are recommended to have 5 small meals, while it will be good for men to take 6.

Do more exercise to burn your calorie. It will be the last thing you need to do to help you burn more calories and lose more weight. Weight training will also be a good exercise to help you convert fat to muscle. This is the way you can have that will last for longer time or it will be one that will bring benefit for long-term actually.

Those are the habit that will help you get crash diets to lose 10 pounds. You will also find some other things such as lemonade diet and xocai healthy chocolate to help you get the best result.

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Extreme Diets that Work Fast

Many people in overweight condition want to diet but they do not want to leave their old worse habits, like eating sweets, sugars, meats, drinking soft drink and alcohol, and so on meaning that they want their weights can be lost without struggling to get this result which is very impossible to do. Today, there are many diet products offered and even the extreme diets that work fast is one of their promises offered to their customers and some people fall for this trap and they do not realize that the products do not work as they expect while their money has been spent for nothing. Rather than trusting some products produced by the new companies, you may try some extreme diets idea below.

The first idea of extreme diets that work fast is the three-day diet that about 10 pounds can be lost in three days as claimed by a very-low calorie three-day diet plan and a balance of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are retained by this kind of diet program because of the very restrictive calorie. By doing this kind of extreme diet, do not be surprised if you will feel hungry often because of the low amount of calories consumed by you and you will be put in the risk that you will need junk food to eat. However, keep in mind that you will not be allowed for having some snacks.

Junk foods or soft drink should be listed in three-day diet of extreme diets that work fast so extremely high and extremely low energy levels will be experienced by you here. As the name, three-day diet, it means that you will not able to go for longer than three days because your body will be endangered by the restrictive calorie in the foods you consume during your diet and you will experience starving mode. Wait for some weeks after your three-day diet finished and you can do this diet again after those weeks.

Extreme Diets that Work Fast Tips

The second one of the extreme diets that work fast ideas is the grapefruit diet and people have already known this diet program as Hollywood or Mayo diet. Here, the grapefruit should be eaten in combination with protein triggers the fat-burning properties of the grapefruit as the underlying notion of this kind of diet and your 10 pounds will be helped to be lost by the 12-day high fat, high-protein diet through the restrictive calorie. Four meals a day should be consumed by you as entailed by this diet and grapefruit should be included here with the total 100-1,000 calories each day to be consumed by you.

Extreme Diets that Work Fast Keys

The other one of extreme diets that work fast ideas is the lemonade master cleanse diet which is recommended by the popular singer, Beyonce, and here drinking “lemonade” concocted from water, lime juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup, and lemon should be done by you as entailed by this diet with the restrictive calorie as well. Any solid food or fiber will not be consumed by you during this diet. Therefore, some type of “natural laxative” should be taken by you each morning and evening.

Extreme Diets that Work Fast Ways

After some extreme diets that work fast recommended above, which one do you prefer to do? Hopefully, you can lose your weight and keep your healthy by doing the right diet program. It is better if you can consult to your doctor what kind of diet program you can do before you start to diet.

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Cooking Oil That Is Good for Soy-Free & Gluten-Free Diets

Following an allergy-friendly diet can be overwhelming and tricky at times. On a gluten-free diet you need to completely avoid all wheat, rye, barley and triticale and any foods or ingredients made from them. This means eating no traditional bread, pasta, baked goods, cereal, crackers or other snack foods unless the food is labeled as gluten-free. To eliminate soy, you need to avoid all forms of soybeans, including soybean oil, the beans themselves, tofu, tempeh, soy sauce and many foods containing soy protein in the form of textured or hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Most cooking oils are safe to use when following a gluten- and soy-free diet.

Olive Oil

• Olive oil is a safe and healthy cooking oil to use on a soy-free and gluten-free diet. It's made by pressing olives, which are rich in fat. The resulting oil contains mostly a type of fat called monounsaturated fatty acids. These fats are more healthy than saturated and trans fats found in animal products and processed foods. According to the American Heart Association, eating more monounsaturated fat may help to lower your cholesterol level and may reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. Olive oil also contains antioxidants, which help to protect your body from harmful free radicals.

Safflower Oil

• Safflower is another healthy and safe cooking oil to use on a gluten- and soy-free diet. The safflower plant belongs to the sunflower family. Depending upon the extraction, oil from the plant can be high in linolenic acid, which is commonly used for salad dressings and cold preparations, or can be high in oleic acid, which is a more heat-stable oil for cooking. Oleic acid is a type of heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acid. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, safflower oil is made up of 74 percent of these healthy monounsaturated fats.

• Coconut Oil

• Coconut oil can safely be used on a gluten-free and soy-free diet. This oil, made from the fatty flesh of coconuts, is solid at room temperature. You can use it as a cooking oil for sauteing, stir-frying and baking. Vegan recipes often use coconut oil instead of butter, shortening or lard. According to the Coconut Research Center, coconut oil contains a healthy type of saturated fat called medium-chain triglycerides. These fats don't require digestion in the same way other fats do. They are absorbed intact and your body can use them directly as energy. According to NYU Langone Medical Center, the fats in coconut oil may help to enhance athletic performance and improve body composition.

Other Plant Oils

• There are a variety of other plant oils safe for use on a gluten-free and soy-free diets as well. Peanut, sesame, almond, walnut and sunflower oils can be used for cooking. These plant oils all contain heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. You can use them in place of any other oils when cooking. According to Cleveland Clinic, almond, avocado, sunflower and hazelnut oils are the best to use at very high heat while grapeseed, canola and peanut oils are better used for medium-heat cooking or baking.

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Different Diets to Go on to Lose 10 Pounds

According to PRWeb, an estimated 75 million Americans are dieting, and the weight loss market is worth over $60 billion in the United States alone. Yet, many highly effective diets are available on the Internet for free. The diet that's best for you depends on your own goals and preferences. If you've got strong willpower you might choose a more extreme option like the Get Shredded Diet, but if you're in no rush and can't live without certain foods, there are alternatives available.

Slow Carb Diet

• The Slow Carb Diet is the brainchild of productivity guru Tim Ferriss, who lost 20 pounds of fat in 30 days on the program. The rules are simple -- avoid all carbs that are white or can be white, don't drink calories, take one “cheat day” per week and stick to a small pool of meals. Meals must consist of a lean protein, legumes and a portion of vegetables, and you can eat as much of these three groups as you like without needing to count calories.

Paleo Diet

• This diet is popular, if somewhat extreme. Food choices aim to loosely emulate the diet eaten by our caveman ancestors. This means cutting out all processed foods, especially grains and sugar, as well as avoiding dairy. Instead, the diet focuses on eating meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, oils, nuts and tubers. You'll naturally be eating fewer carbs on this diet, but it's not a low-carb plan per se, since you can eat fruit and starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes.

Precision Nutrition Calorie Control Guide

• The team at Precision Nutrition advocates a novel way of counting calories by using your hand as a guide to portion sizes. For women, each meal should consist of a source of protein the size of your palm, carbs the size of your fist, and fat the size of your thumb. Men should double these portions. Because your hand is roughly in proportion to the rest of you, this measurement automatically personalizes your caloric intake. Aim to eat three to four meals per day, and adjust your portions based on your rate of fat loss.

Get Shredded Diet

• John Berardi's Get Shredded Diet is extreme, but if you're looking to lose the last 10 pounds of fat hiding your abs, this program might be for you. Multiply your weight in pounds by 10 to get your daily calorie intake. Protein from whole food sources should make up 30 to 35 percent of your diet, carbs from fresh vegetables should compose 10 to 15 percent and fat 55 to 60 percent. As with the Slow Carb Diet, you get a cheat day, but this time it's every 14 days. During a cheat day, you must limit yourself to 3 to 3 1/2 times your normal amount of calories. Berardi also recommends you supplement with branched-chain amino acids, creatine, ZMA and a multivitamin.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis & Gluten Free Diets

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes a painful chronic inflammation of the joints, tissues and other organs in the body. There is no cure, but many people find relief from symptoms and even improvement in their condition when they switch to a gluten-free vegan diet.

What to Avoid

• Eliminate all animal products including beef, pork, poultry, fish dairy products and eggs, as well as grains that contain gluten such as wheat, oats, rye and barley. You may also need to keep a food diary to see if other foods cause a flare-up of your symptoms, with common culprits being corn and legumes. If a diet that restrictive sounds harsh, it may help to note that a study conducted by Johan Frostegard at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm found that patients on a gluten-free vegan diet lost weight and had lower levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (the artery-clogging type of cholesterol), as well as higher levels of natural antibodies that counteract damaging compounds in the body that cause symptoms of RA. This is especially important since RA patients have a higher risk of coronary heart disease and more incidents of silent, unrecognized heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest. (References 2) At the very least, start with the gluten-free portion of the diet, which may be enough, as gluten is frequently linked to RA. If that proves not to help very much, you'll need to cut out the animal products, too.

Foods You Can Eat

• Make a special effort to get enough protein, calcium, iron and vitamins in your diet, which is extra difficult when cutting out gluten and animal products. For protein, include nuts, seeds, legumes, tofu and soy or almond milk. For calcium, consume calcium-enriched tofu, unshelled sesame seeds in the form of sesame milk and calcium-fortified juices or rice milk. For vitamins and minerals, eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, including lots of dark-green leafy vegetables. Healthy fats are also important, such as olive oil and flaxseed oil. Grain substitutes can be used to make baked goods, pasta and pancakes, and many stores now carry gluten-free and vegan items. These are often made from amaranth, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, quinoa, corn, rice, soy flour, bean flour and nut meal. Egg replacer products are also available from many health food stores. Aim for a balance of 10 percent plant protein, 60 percent carbohydrates and 30 percent fat in your daily diet.

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Is Vodka Sauce Okay for Gluten-free Diets?

Gluten-free diets have become more common in recent years due to the rise in awareness about celiac disease. A gluten-free diet prohibits foods with the protein gluten, including wheat, barley and rye. Gluten is often included in foods as an additive for thickening, even if the food is not a traditional wheat product, like bread or pasta. It is vital to always read labels, but most prepared vodka sauces do not contain gluten.

Vodka Sauce Ingredients

• Vodka sauce is simply a marinara, or tomato, sauce blended with cream and vodka. A typical recipe for vodka sauce includes 4 cups of prepared marinara, 1 cup of vodka and 1/2 cup of heavy cream, plus grated Parmesan cheese for thickening, per 1 lb. of pasta. It is always wise to inspect the label of your marinara sauce, but it should include little more than tomatoes and seasoning. With Parmesan cheese to thicken it, vodka sauce is safe for gluten-free diets.

Prepared Vodka Sauces

• Most national brands of prepared pasta sauces offer a gluten-free vodka sauce, including Bertolli, Classico, Emeril's and Rao's Homemade. Newman's Own contains nonfat dried milk, which is gluten-free in its own right, but there is a risk of cross-contamination in the factory. Its presence in the sauce is miniscule, but may still cause a reaction.

• Pitfall: Pasta

• Although vodka sauce is safe for gluten-free diets, the pasta over which it is served is not. The semolina or wheat flour used to make pasta is highly glutenous. Look for a pasta product labeled "gluten-free," or use an alternative like rice, quinoa, polenta or spaghetti squash.

More on Gluten-free Diets

• Gluten hides in many foods that do not appear to be wheat or grain products. People with celiac disease and those who avoid gluten for other health reasons should avoid foods that contain the following: barley, bulgur, durham, farina, graham flour, kamut, matzo meal, rye, semolina, spelt, triticale and wheat. Other possible contaminants from the factory are not listed in the ingredients, but should appear under the label "allergens." Reading labels is the best measure for avoiding hidden gluten.

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The Best Prepackaged Food Diets

Portion control and daily exercise are necessary to lose weight and keep it off. Prepackaged food diets such as Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem and Medifast help clients learn portion control and how to eat healthy. Each of these programs includes advice and support from professional dietary consultants and those enrolled in the program.

Jenny Craig Weight Loss Program

• The Jenny Craig weight loss program allows you to choose from a variety of prepackaged meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. In addition to prepackaged food, you can add fruit, vegetables and dairy products to enhance meals. Recipes are available online. Vegetarian meals are available.

  When starting the program, you will talk to a dietary consultant (in-person or over-the-phone) and complete a lifestyle profile that includes the types of foods you currently eat and your level of fitness.

  From this profile, a diet and exercise plan will be developed that explains the amount and types of food to eat and the recommended daily amount of exercise you should engage in each day.

Nutrisystem Weight Loss Program

• The Nutrisystem weight loss program includes separate meal plans for men and women. Diabetic, vegetarian and silver plans for older clients are available.

  To begin losing weight using Nutrisystem, choose the 28-day preselected meal plan (popular or favorite meals chosen by clients) or customize your own by choosing from a list of prepackaged meals and snacks.

  Online help and community forums are available if you have questions or need additional support while losing weight. You can contact dietary consultants online or over-the-phone. Track your progress using free online tools available on the Nutrisystem website.

Medifast Weight Loss Plan

• The Medifast weight loss plan includes separate meal plans for men, women and those who have diabetes.

  When creating your five-day menu, you will be able to choose from more than 70 prepackaged meals and snacks. The five-day menu allows you to customize a new menu each week.

  Each day, you will create a "Lean and Green" meal to eat for lunch, dinner or as a snack. This meal includes lean protein and vegetables. Approved lists of protein and vegetables are available online.

  Guides, recipes and additional help are available through the Medifast website.

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Diets for a Pear-Shaped Body

According to Marie Savard, M.D., author of the weight loss book "Apples & Pears: The Body Shape Solution for Weight Loss and Wellness," body shape is the most powerful predictor of human health. Women with pear-shaped bodies gain weight on the hips and thighs, while their upper bodies remain slim. This is good news, in a way. Both men and women with apple-shaped bodies, who gain significant weight around the belly, are at greater risk for developing heart disease, diabetes and cancer, according to diet experts.

Determining Your Shape

• If you are not sure whether you are apple-shaped or pear-shaped, there is a quick way to tell. Take a tape measure and place it around your waist. Record the figure. Then measure your hips. Divide the waist measurement number by the hip measurement number. If the total is 0.8 or lower, you have a pear-shaped body, meaning that you carry more fat around your hips and thighs. If you are pear-shaped, you'll use a different strategy to lose weight than an apple-shaped person.

What Fat Deposits Mean

• It's important to note that people with pear-shaped bodies, who carry fat around their hips and thighs, store fat more shallowly than the deeper, visceral abdominal fat that accumulates around the organs of apple-shaped people. This means that the fat is doing less harm on your body and you will have fewer health risks. People with pear shapes simply have a different physical chemistry, hormone production and metabolism than apple-shaped folks, which means that they are at less risk for obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and certain cancers. In fact, Dr. Savard believes that pear-zone fat is passive and actually protects against heart disease. However, pear-shaped women are prone to osteoporosis, varicose veins and cellulite and tend to have more difficulty losing weight in general.

Healthy Diet for a Pear-Shaped Body

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  On her website, Dr. Savard recommends that pear-shaped dieters should stick with complex carbohydrates like green vegetables and whole grains. Eat low fat; aim to get about 20 percent of your diet from healthy fats like salmon, almonds and flax seed, and use olive and canola oils. Moderate protein intake is recommended, such as chicken and lamb. Vegetarians can get their protein from brown rice, spinach, oats, lentils and black beans. The worst foods for this body type, according to Dr. Savard, are cheese, butter and salty foods. She recommends taking a calcium supplement, since osteoporosis is a risk later in life.

Body Image Issues for Pear Shapes

• According to Savard, resistance training with free weights three times per week to stave off bone loss is recommended. This will also increase your metabolic rate and burn that pesky fat off over time. Approach dieting and exercise with a little less anxiety, as your excess weight is less likely to be harming you. However, post-menopausal pear-shaped women can start to experience some of the same health problems as apple-shaped women. And pear-shaped women of all ages feel self-conscious about their large buttocks and thighs, so they suffer from more eating disorders than apple-shaped women do.

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What Are the Causes of Crash Dieting in Teens?

Between tattoos, piercings, dramatic haircuts, and bipolar shifts in wardrobe, teens subject themselves to drastic superficial changes perhaps more so than any other demographic. The teen years are a time of self-discovery and of forming your own identity, establishing independence from your parents and from society and toying with rebellion. Despite their attempts to be different, reports reflect a high level of teens engaging in a similar behavior: dieting. There are several factors that contribute to a teen's choice to diet.

The Media

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  An enormous influence in a teen's desire to diet is the media, which tells young women that they should value thinness over all other qualities. As long as they achieve thinness, the media alleges, young women will have power, popularity and male attention. Likewise, the message it delivers to young men is that as long as they achieve stunning musculature and masculine features, success, money and women will naturally follow. Teens, because of their biological propensity for impulsiveness, are most susceptible to buying into these myths.

Athletics

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  Different sports can have weight requirements for students wishing to make a team. Wrestlers, for instance, are weighed frequently to determine which weight class they fall into. A student not making certain weight requirements is in danger of not making the team. Even sports that do not require regular weigh-ins still might put particular emphasis on an athlete's body size and shape. Dancers, runners, gymnasts and cheerleaders are athletes whose performance is at least partially dependent upon achieving a specific ideal weight.

Body Consciousness and Budding Sexuality

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  The teen years are a time when puberty is in full swing and hormones are raging. It is the time when teens begin to explore feelings of sexual attraction to others. It naturally follows that they will want to make themselves physically and sexually attractive to others. In the hopes of achieving sexual intimacy with potential partners, teens will attempt to alter, often drastically, their physical appearance. This includes, but is not limited to, dieting to achieve a certain standard of weight that is deemed appropriate by their peers and the media.

Eating Disordered Culture

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  Most adults with eating disorders first started experiencing symptoms of disordered eating while in their teens. One of the major components in disordered eating behavior is severe calorie restriction through extreme dieting. Because the very nature of diets is that they are short-term, these diets ultimately fail, with the person usually succumbing to temptations and crashing. Anorectics, in particular, will subject themselves to harsh calorie restrictions and self-starvation. Anorexia nervosa, like other eating disorders, is not just a vain attempt to achieve a body weight but a mental illness that manifests as extreme fear of weight gain.

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Foods Not to Eat When Detoxing

Detoxification diets focus on removing food items that are difficult for the body to digest or cause the body to fight to remove extraneous material such as high levels of salt, sugar or alcohol. Detox diets focus on fresh, unprocessed food and natural, organic products. When detoxing, there are a variety of foods that should not be eaten. 

Meat

• Avoid beef, pork and poultry. If you must have meat, substitute fish like tuna or salmon as meat sources for your recipes. Different detox diet plans disagree on the use of soy proteins as meat substitutes. Soy is a food allergen, so substitute tofu and soy milk with caution.

Dairy

• Avoid milk-based products and dairy substitutes such as margarine. For your morning cereal, use almond, rice, coconut or soy milk. While goat’s milk contains lactose, it is easier on the digestive system and may be consumed in small quantities. However, you should try to eliminate all dairy products if possible. The only exception is active culture yogurts. The bacterial cultures break down lactose and contribute to digestive health.

Gluten

• Avoid all wheat products. When on a detox diet, go gluten-free. Supermarkets and organic food stores offer gluten-free options for breads and cereal. However, avoid over-processed items. Use oats, brown rice, barely, buckwheat flour and tapioca when cooking at home.

Salty and Sweet

• Avoid salty snacks like salted nuts and potato chips. Avoid sweets like chocolate, ice cream, cakes and cookies. Use honey, stevia or fruit derived sweeteners for your tea or oatmeal. Reach for rice cakes and unsalted nuts when in the mood for a snack.

Processed Foods

• Avoid overly processed foods. Read the ingredient labels before purchasing any prepackaged food. If the ingredient list contains an item you wouldn’t find in your own kitchen, don’t buy it. Also, the longer the ingredient list, the more likely it is to contain preservatives and hydrogenated oils.

Alcohol, Caffeine and Fizz

• Avoid alcohol, caffeine and fizzy drinks. A detox diet helps the liver remove toxins from the body by removing extraneous toxins from your diet. When the liver works to remove alcohol and caffeine from the blood stream, the liver is not available to remove other toxins. Fizzy drinks contain carbon dioxide. The body works to remove carbon dioxide from the body as a natural waste product. Drinking fizzy beverages increases the carbon dioxide in the body and cause the body to work harder. For flavored drink choices, substitute herbal and fruit tea.

Don't Avoid Too Much

• The Mayo Clinic warns that no scientific data supports that claim that detox diets improve health. Detoxing results in weight loss due to an extremely limited calorie intake, not a loss of toxins. Maintain a balanced diet and take a multi-vitamin while detoxing. If you experience any dizziness or fatigue, increase your caloric intake. Return to your regular diet if symptoms persist.

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