Emotional Eating: Do You Eat What You Feel?
Posted by Pittsburgh Healthcare Report on Apr 29, 2012 in Nutrition, Wellness | 0 comments
By Stacey Littlefield
Turning to food in times of stress or in search of a comforting indulgence is a bad habit many engage in on a regular basis. In fact, there is a biological explanation as to why eating sugar-laden foods and starchy carbohydrates makes people feel so good. Eating a sugary treat such as a mid-afternoon chocolate bar actually stimulates the release of endorphins. When these endorphins are released, they have a pain-killing, relaxing effect on the body. Additionally, eating these types of foods creates an excess of serotonin in the brain, creating a happy, at ease feeling that is often followed by fatigue. There is nothing wrong with seeking comfort in a favorite sweet treat every now and then, but problems arise when these indulgences turn into an everyday habit. Emotional eating, that is eating for reasons other than physical hunger, can take a serious toll on weight loss efforts and elevate stress levels.
People eat for a variety of reasons, much of them unrelated to actual hunger or wanting to fuel bodies nutritionally. There is a strong mental component when it comes to eating and people often find themselves munching on something when they are bored, when they need a distraction, when they are anxious, stressed, happy, sad, and the list goes on. Eating for emotional reasons is a quick-fix solution that can lead to an unwelcomed cycle. Regardless of the emotion that is driving people to the cookie jar, it will return and with it comes the guilty feelings about splurging—and thus the cycle begins. Emotions drive individuals to food; they beat themselves up for the unhealthy indulgence; feel terrible about what they put into their body; and then overeat again on account of stress and guilt. Of course, there are steps that can be taken to put this type of cycle to an end. Here are a few tips on how to get eating under control:
Diet Myths Busted!
Posted by Pittsburgh Healthcare Report on Apr 10, 2012 in Nutrition | 0 comments
By Ann A. Rosenstein
There are many myths, fads, bad habits disguised as healthy and false beliefs that hinder our ability to stay focused on our new lifestyle changes.
Many myths, fads, bad habits and false beliefs are:
- Taking diet pills
- Believing a fad diet will cure everything without us making changes in our activity or eating
- Taking pills that absorb fat • Avoiding good wholesome foods because of misinformation
- Eating raw sugar and avoiding white sugar
- Drink 100% fruit juice because they are full of antioxidants
- Starving oneself
Why is the Raw Food Movement So Popular?
Posted by Pittsburgh Healthcare Report on Apr 4, 2012 in Nutrition | 0 comments
By Susan Schenck
Eating a high raw food diet (80% or more of the calories coming from uncooked foods) is still one of the best health secrets on the planet. Since I wrote The Live Food Factor some years ago, which contains 66 studies showing the superiority of eating raw, recipe books in this field have been ever expanding. In fact, this may be the fastest growing dietary movement.
Why? It certainly isn’t easy to eat raw in a world where cooking and pasteurizing are the norm. But when people experiment, adding more and more raw meals to their diet, they discover a lightness and high energy.
When we heat food above 118 F, 100% of the enzymes die. Enzymes are the catalysts, the sparkplugs, of life. Perhaps this is why people who eat raw foods, full of enzymes, report feeling “switched on,” as if a key has turned on the light and energy. But when they backslide into cooked foods, it’s “power down.”
We use three kinds of enzymes: metabolic enzymes to run our bodies, digestive enzymes to digest food, and food enzymes in raw foods that enable the food to partially self-digest, thus conserving our bodies’ limited enzyme-producing capacities.
The Ten Green-Gene Guidelines to Reset Your Genes for Wellness
Posted by Pittsburgh Healthcare Report on Mar 27, 2012 in Nutrition | 0 comments
By Gray Graham, NTP
“We are what we eat.” We’ve all heard that cliché before and it turns out, it’s completely true. In fact, according to an emerging state-of-the-art science called Epigenetics, we’re also what our parents, grandparents and great grandparents ate.
What we eat literally impacts our genes, which not only affects us as individuals, but our children and our grandchildren as well. If you’re eating a nutritious, well-balanced diet, this is very good news. But if not, there can be serious consequences to you AND your offspring.
The good news is that the right lifestyle choices, particularly around food, can reset those genes in the short term and the long term. If you want good health, then following these ten essential principles for activating the food-gene-health link is the best way to start:
Is Your Diet Soda Making You Fat?
Posted by Pittsburgh Healthcare Report on Feb 28, 2012 in Nutrition | 0 comments
By Kathy D’Agati CHHC,AADP
Have you ever wondered why even though our grocery shelves are filled with zero calorie drinks and 100 calorie snack packs, we as a nation are fatter then we have ever been in our history? If weight loss really is as simple as calories in – calories out, shouldn’t we be thinner then when we were eating butter, mashed potatoes and home-made apple pie?
The diet gurus would have you believe that you are fat because you are lazy and weak-willed. There is nothing in the character of the people I meet that would suggest that is true. Most people with weight issues are hard working and very successful.
So if we know that’s not true, what could be the answer to our ever growing waistlines?
Everyone is born with a sweet tooth. In the past it served you well by encouraging you to eat lots of the luscious, sweet fruits of summer so that you would be adequately padded for the lean winter months ahead. Even though your mind is well aware that today we have plenty of food year round, your body’s survival instincts have not kept up with the times. Our bodies evolve slowly, but our food supply has not.
Diet Mentality v. Lifestyle Change
Posted by Pittsburgh Healthcare Report on Feb 17, 2012 in Nutrition, Uncategorized | 0 comments
By Pat Barone, CPCC, MCC, BCC
“America’s Weight Loss Catalyst”
In the quest for a healthier weight, it is becoming more and more evident diets simply do not result in long-term, sustained weight loss.
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles have confirmed what many scientists have been saying all along: Losing weight is easy. Keeping it off is another story. (Their study appeared in the American Psychologist, a publication of the American Psychological Association.)
The UCLA researchers analyzed 31 diet studies and over two-thirds gained back the weight they lost. A very small number were able to successfully maintain their weight loss. Traci Mann, the UCLA psychologist who led the study, said, “People should be quite clear that a diet is a temporary fix.”
Dr. David Katz, head of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, says, “If dieting worked, there would be a bunch of skinny people walking around.”
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