atkins-related stories
Low-Carb Vegetables
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
But low-carb vegetables are not just for dieters. Nutritionists agree that fruits and vegetables are the cornerstones of a healthy diet -- supplying essential vitamins, minerals and fiber, while helping to protect our bodies against diabetes, heart disease and cancers.
Low-carb vegetables are especially appealing because they contain less sugar than other vegetables, which allows someone to eat larger amounts without gaining weight.
You probably already know that starchy vegetables like potatoes, yams, corn and peas are higher in carbohydrates. Green, leafy vegetables like lettuces are the least starchy. However, the exact carb count in a vegetable depends on the serving size. Also, when counting carbs in vegetables, the fiber is not counted and can be subtracted from the total number of carbohydrates.
Those trying to follow a low-carb diet, which usually depend on low-carb vegetables, should check with their nutritionist or with the specific diet plan to see which vegetables they are allowed to eat. If the plan does not recommend specific produce choices, you might try low-carb vegetables from the list below. They're great ways to get your USDA -recommended five to nine servings of vegetables per day.
Leafy vegetables
Arugula
Bok choy
Broccoli raab
Collard greens
Kale
Lettuce
Mustard greens
Spinach
How Many Carbs Per Day Do I Need?
When considering how many carbs per day to eat, it's important to remember not all carbs are created equal. Nutritionists recommend getting healthy carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes. Unhealthy carbs that you should avoid include sugary soda and processed foods like cookies and potato chips.
Thanks to popular diet plans like the Atkins Diet, many believe that decreasing your carb intake will lead to weight loss. However, experts say this is a short-term solution. Ultimately, a healthy diet should be within your recommended daily intake of calories and include both carbs and protein.
More Diet and Fitness Questions Answered:
How Many Calories Do I Need?
How Do I Calculate My BMI?
How Many Calories Did I Burn?
How Much Protein Do I Need?
Exactly What Is a Low-Carb Diet, Anyway?
Jonny's Take, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
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| To lose weight and get healthy, get the majority of your carbs from fruits and vegetables. Photo: [cipher], Flickr |
Having just finished the revised and expanded edition of my 2004 best-seller "Living Low Carb
" (out in January, in case you were interested!), I've been thinking a lot recently about low-carb diets. Specifically, I've been thinking about definitions. For years, low-carb suffered from bad publicity. Atkins -- a superb nutritionist and very smart guy -- couldn't shake the stigma of recommending "pork rinds" ( a recommendation that was taken out of context), and people who didn't know any better thought his diet forbade all carbohydrates (it most certainly doesn't).
Eco-Atkins - A Vegetarian Low-Carb Diet
Jonny's Take, Diet & Weight Loss
For years I've argued that the Atkins Diet is nowhere near as "dangerous" as critics claim, and dozens of studies have since backed me up. Yet many people continue to worry about the effect of the strict Atkins diet on cholesterol. And many who have noticed how effective an Atkins-like diet can be for weight loss have been reluctant to try it because they associate the diet with a high meat intake (incorrectly, but that's another column).
Worry no more, because a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine received a flurry of media attention, and the subject? A variation of low-carbohydrate dieting which the researchers dubbed "Eco-Atkins."
The researchers start by stating that the Atkins plan has been shown to be effective not only for weight loss, but for reducing insulin resistance, lowering triglyceride concentrations and raising HDL (so-called "good" cholesterol). (They cite numerous published studies which have demonstrated every one of those effects.) That's a pretty impressive resume, and one might be forgiven for asking, "and the problem is?"
Cheryl Cole's Extreme Diet
British glam girl and pop star Cheryl Cole recently resolved to gain weight in the new year after her stick-thin frame caused an outcry from her fans. But Cole, 25, admits to reporters that things weren't always this way -- the singer has done her fair share of dieting. Her approach of choice? She goes low carb with the Atkin's diet when her weight gets a bit out of control. Keep in mind that, for Cole, being heavy means having a 29-inch waist. Good Lord. "In the first year of Girls Aloud, I went up to a 29in waist. I remember crying because I was 133lbs when I'm only 5ft 3in," she says. "Jennifer Aniston was doing the Atkins diet at the time and I thought I'd give it a try. I remember I ate the same thing -- chicken in cream sauce with a couple of carrots -- every night for weeks. I felt just horrible, but I was on this mission."
Cheryl, honey, 133 lbs is not worth crying over.
Davina McCall Doesn't Diet. Ever.
What's the best way to shed the baby weight? Without dieting, says popular British TV presenter Davina McCall. At 41, she looks stunning, but she recently admitted that while she gained nearly 60 pounds with each of her three pregnancies, she didn't cut out food to slim down -- she did it through good old exercise. "I never diet. Not any more," says McCall. "I used to. I did the Atkins and I had the bad breath and the tiredness and the feeling cranky. And the immediate weight gain as soon as you stop. So I know all those diets don't work for me. I just eat what I want."
And she says that includes sweets, adding "[our family has] a special Sunday sweets day at home when, for one day each week, the whole family can have as many sweets as we want." Sounds just like my house -- except sweet day is every day. Or at least every day when there's chocolate in the house. Which is pretty much every day.
Anyway, Davina has a series of workout DVDs -- if you're interested in trimming down without dieting, maybe you should check them out.
Atkins Renaissance: Now bread is allowed?
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
The Atkins Diet took the world by storm a few years ago -- and created a lot of controversy over health concerns. I can't say I disagree -- an eating plan that allows you to eat bacon and butter but outlaws even half a slice of whole wheat bread just seems wrong no matter how much weight you lose if you ask me.
According to the Daily Mail, the Atkins diet is back with a bang, and bread is no longer your worst enemy. Actually, the new plan looks a lot like the South Beach Diet, in that carbs are banned for two weeks, after which you can slowly integrate them back into your life. Another key change? Exercise is now recommended, especially if you're planning on eating carbs.
What do you think of the Atkins Diet? Does it work? More importantly, is it doable?
Research declares low-carb diet a winner
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
Which is best: Low-fat or low-carb? Results of one of the longest and largest studies to compare the two weight-loss techniques reveals that low-carb is the way to go -- for both weight loss and cholesterol management. Bummer for me, a carb-loving gal who is quite happy with a basket of bread, a plate of pasta, or a bowl full of crackers. Two years this study has been taking place. And for two years, 85 percent of the participants stuck with the competing diets -- amazing, just like the results, which indicate for some that Atkins-like diets are pretty effective and are even capable of lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Not everyone agrees. One nutritionist says this study is deceiving and leads people to assume low-carb and Atkins go hand in hand. But dieters ate the mono- and polyunsaturated fats found in vegetables, not the Atkins saturated artery-clogging fats found in cream and butter.
Heart associations are not jumping on board the low-carb anything just yet but are still recommending low-fat diets for the reduction of heart risks. They also like the Mediterranean diet.
What about you? What do you like? And what diet are you most likely to follow?
Do you Heart low-carb diets?
Womens Health, HealthWatch, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Men's Health
Are you a hearty eater? No, I'm not talking about a hardy eater; eating robust meals (for some reason beef stew comes to mind) and washing them down with pints of lager. What I'm actually wondering is if your diet is good for your heart. We've all heard plenty about the importance of cutting bad fats from your diet to ensure heart health, but did you know that cutting back on carbs can also help? This is clearly the case, says a study out of the University of California at Davis.
Researchers found that cutting your carb intake to be less than 40 percent of total calories actually turned off a particular triglyceride-producing gene. As a matter of fact, they found that the more carbs were slashed from a person's diet, the less active this gene (known as stearoyl-coenzyme A desaurase) became.
This doesn't mean that it's time to go back to an Atkin's philosophy; rather, it simply means that being aware of carb intake is crucial for a well-balanced diet. Of all the macronutrients we get from food, carbs seem to be the easiest to source, which is also why it's so easy to go overboard with them. The most sound approach, based on current research, is to stick to heart healthy whole grains, legumes, and fruits and vegetables as your carb sources.
The most popular diets for men
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
WebMD recently did an article on the most popular diet plans for men. Not surprisingly (if you ask me, anyway,) the most popular diet choice for men is the good old low-carb/high-protein Atkins approach. But there's a commonality: a quick-fix diet isn't typically successful in the long-run for either men or women. The best diet plan is the one you can stick with.
Want to know more? Read the full article.
"Good" carbs can help you shed pounds
Womens Health, Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment, Reviews & Products, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health
Years ago, carbs were an essential part of a well-balanced, if athletic, diet. Olympic gold medal runners would eat massive pasta dinners the night before a big road race, swimmers would carbo-load before meets, and everyday people went as far as taking carb-rich nutritional supplements to get them through a workout or two. BUT, then along came diets with strange names like Zone and Atkins, all claiming that carbs will cause you to gain weight. Soon, people were avoiding carbs like the plague and instead opting for extra sides of bacon. The madness ensued for quite some time, until the masses finally came around to the concept of "good" carbs and "bad" carbs.
But, there's some new evidence to suggest that "good" carbs (i.e. carbs that are not high on the glycemic index) are not only easier on blood sugar, but they may also lead to weight loss. The prevailing thought behind this assertion is actually quite simple: It takes longer to digest low GI foods, which therefore causes you to feel more full for a longer period of time, and also requires the burning of more calories to complete the digestion process.
In a related study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 129 overweight and obese people followed one of four reduced-calorie diets for 12 weeks. Two of the diets were high in carbs and two were high in protein, and of each of these two groups, one followed a low GI carb diet. The results? All groups lost weight (chalked up to the reduced-calorie diet itself), but the low GI diets lost nearly two times as much body fat.
Not bad doesn't equal good
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
Since the rebirth of the fitness craze in the mid 1990s, the food industry has been doing its utmost to keep pace with health-conscious consumers. This was probably most evident in around the year 2000, when the Atkins diet named the carb Enemy Number One. Subsequently, many major food companies modified their brands to include what they called healthy choices. This same thing occurred years later when people realized that carb-free was a dangerous way to eat, and that the right way to go about it was to avoid refined sugars. In response, the food industry shifted its attention to what they referred to as whole grains. Time and time again, the health food industry responded to such changes in the fitness zeitgeist, creating food products that were "not bad for you." But here's the Rub: Just because something is NOT BAD FOR YOU doesn't mean that it is GOOD FOR YOU.
Foods that are low-fat, whole grain, low in net carbs, and high in fiber are, generally speaking, better for you than the fatty, enriched flour, high carb, low fiber versions. But, just because the modifications to these foods render them less damaging, that doesn't mean that they're healthy. For example, you can buy cookies that are made with whole grains. Says so right on the packaging: Made with Whole Grains. Does this mean that cookies should now be considered health food? Obviously not, especially since their whole grain claim is pretty weak in and of itself (unless a food is listed as being 100% whole wheat or 100 % whole grain, it only means that it contains some whole grains and is probably made from mostly enriched flour).
It's easy to fall into this trap if you're not careful. Hell, it's the job of entire marketing departments and ad agencies to make you fall into this trap, so don't feel bad if you have already. Just bear in mind that despite what the label on the box of whole grain cookies or bag of baked potato chips may suggest, they are merely healthier alternatives, not healthy foods.
The Atkins diet can damage blood vessels
What about other low-carb plans? It appears that Atkins is the worse -- low carb plans that are lower in fat, like the South Beach and Ornish Diets, caused bad cholesterol levels to go down, whereas the Atkins approach caused them to go up.
What do you think -- is this anti-Atkins hype or solid scientific proof that a diet that allows to eat bacon doesn't work?
Doing the 'right diet thing' at work can be easier than you think
If you're on a diet, challenges to what you are facing lurk around every corner. At home, your family's food may interfere. At work? How about those Friday morning doughnuts? That can wreck a normal Atkin's Diet process, right?It's tough to have willpower when there are junk food beckonings all around you. In fact, just preparing to eat healthy for lunch is a challenge, since you have to brown-bag it in many cases.
Bring your own herbal tea or sugar-free snacks to work to alleviate the pressure of having too many unhealthy but tempting choices all around you. Instead of the pop machine, bring healthy drinks in a small, insulated cooler. Ever had Zingers herbal tea? It makes for an excellent replacement and it's so easy to use and transport to work.
You're not the only one who's fallen for fad diets
You see, we often put celebrities in a pedastel, when really, they're just like us--and just as prone to the same stupid fad diets that we fall for. Here's proof. So next time you see a celebrity and envy her body, keep in mind that she's gone through the same things you have to get there.
What fad diets have you fallen for?
