HEALTH, DIET AND NUTRITION FAQ’s

Michael Bens asked:


There are many diet plans out there today, and the striking thing about a lot of them is how complex they are. Gone are the days of just counting calories. Today’s diet plans come complete with a theory, a philosophy, a comprehensive diet plan, and exercise plan, and, more than likely, products that you can buy. In a way, that’s a good thing – it means that the theories behind these diets have been well thought out, and that the diets themselves are likely to promote good health as well as weight loss. On the other hand, there are some pitfalls to having and trying to follow a complex diet plan – namely, it’s complicated and can be hard to follow!

How many of us really have time to learn a complex new way of eating? If you have to lose fifty or a hundred pounds, and your weight is severely affecting your health and wellbeing, you might be able to justify the time and expense. If it’s a matter of wanting to lose five, ten or twenty pounds, however, how likely are you to subscribe fully to a whole new way of eating? Not very likely, is the answer!

So here, then, is a quick, easy solution to your weight loss needs, if you are in need of a ‘quick’ fix that doesn’t require too much thought. Just stop eating white foods. It’s as simple as that. If it’s white, don’t eat it.

Of course, there is one notable exception you may want to make: Milk. Milk is white, and, especially if you’re a woman, pregnant, or still growing, it may be detrimental to give up milk even for a short time. So let’s modify that advice a little: no white foods that are solid. Or even, if you like, no white starches.

That’s what it really comes down to. If you do away with all the white starches – white pasta, white rice, potatoes – and replace them with whole grain choices, over time, you are almost guaranteed to lose weight. This isn’t like the Atkins plan, that asks you to give up most carbohydrates. You can still eat brown rice, for example, and whole wheat bread and pasta. The white starches are refined, and they have the highest glycemic index. That means that they might cause insulin deficiency over time – they can even lead you to develop diabetes in the long term. In the short term, these white starches cause you to pack on the pounds – especially around your belly, which is the worst possible place to carry excess weight in terms of heart health.

If you want to go a little further with this plan, and lose weight a little more quickly, try giving up another category of white foods – fats that are solid at room temperature. This means no butter or margarine (technically, butter is white, not yellow – dairy companies dye it yellow to make it more appealing!) and no cheese (most cheese is white – and giving up white cheese doesn’t mean you should bulk up on cheddar!). Cutting out these high fat foods – particularly if they happen to be an ‘issue’ for you – will let you lose weight a lot faster.

Of course, there are some white foods that are actually good for weight loss. Consider lean white chicken breast, for example, or white fish such as cod or halibut, or even egg white (the leanest part of the egg)! There is nothing much to be gained by avoiding those foods, and over the long term, you probably shouldn’t. The point of the ‘no white foods’ diet, though, is to give you a simple formula that you can apply anywhere. In a restaurant or at a special event – no problem – eat what you want, as long as it isn’t white! There are no points to count up, no rules (except that one) to remember.

And here’s the hidden benefit – if you’re not eating any white foods, it leaves more room for ‘colorful’ foods that aren’t white – vegetables, for example, particularly yellow, orange and dark green ones. These are much healthier for your heart and, indeed, your whole body than their white equivalent, potatoes and starch. Not all white foods deserve to be avoided, but the benefits of this simple and effective approach can be great nonetheless.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Hyder Khan asked:


The easiest diet in the world to follow is the calorie-shifting diet. While on this diet, you can expect to lose 9 pounds every 11 days.

There are only 5 basic rules you must follow:

You must generate a customized 11-day meal-plan according to the guidelines prescribed by this diet. You must eat 4 meals every day as prescribed by the customized meal plan you will have generated, but you can eat those 4 meals in any order you choose during the day. You may eat as much food as you want at each of your four meals of the day until you are satisfied, but not until you are too full. You must leave at least a 2.5 to 3 hour gap in between each meal. You must take a mandatory 3-day “cheat break” from the diet every 12th through 14th days on this diet to give your body a chance to rest from the rapid weight loss you will be experiencing.

Every meal will contain different combinations of foods from each of the four major food groups. This combination of foods will change rotationally, or shift, from meal to meal, every day for the full 11-day cycle.

By eating in this manner, you will be triggering the release of fat-burning hormones in your body that will induce rapid weight loss. This is because your body’s metabolism is programmable. You can reprogram and manipulate your body’s metabolism at will, based on what foods you eat, in what quantity, at what times, and how often. The calorie-shifting diet is designed in such a way as to maximize natural weight loss, while you are still able to eat as much as you want.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, weight loss does not have to come from deprivation of calories, carbohydrates, or fats. If you know how to eat foods in the appropriate pattern, you can “trick” your body into thinking that it needs to burn its fat reserves.

Here are some sample meal plans to illustrate how this diet works. The diet plan runs in 11-day cycles but only 3 days are included here, just to give you an idea of how the plan is structured and to give you a sense of how satisfying and sustainable this diet truly is. Keep in mind that each of these four meals may be eaten in any order throughout the day, as long as you only eat that the designated foods at each of their respective meals.

Day 1

Meal #1: Flavored Oatmeal

Meal #2: Tuna Salad

Meal #3: Sandwich (any type)

Meal #4: Scrambled Eggs Meal

Day 2:

Meal #1: Banana Milk Shake

Meal #2: Chicken

Meal #3: Scrambled Eggs [and] Mixed Vegetables

Meal #4: Cottage Cheese

Day 3:

Meal #1: Chicken

Meal #2: Fruit Salad

Meal #3: Fish Filet

Meal #4: Cottage Cheese

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Caroline South asked:


A question often asked about all types of diet is do they work, this is no different to Rob Nevins Skinny Switch Secret. The question itself is a little loaded as you can get different results with different people.

Every person is different and when you ask most people why they want to lose weight they will give you one of several answers. Surprisingly many people want to lose weight because they do not like their current body shape. Fewer people will say they want to lose weight for health reasons.

You would have thought health would be more important than looks but in many parts of the world we are constantly reminded we must look good. You just need to switch on the television or look at any magazine to see images of slim and beautiful people. No wonder we spent a lot of our lives trying to diet.

When dieting people are generally just starting a diet, have been dieting for a while or have given up. Many quit because they cannot stick to the rigid eating plan or find they are not losing weight. Which brings us to our next point, hardly anyone sticks to a diet.

This brings us back to our original question about whether or not Rob Nevins Skinny Switch Secret diet works. The truth of the matter, and this holds true for any diet, is that it will work for some and not for others.

More importantly is the reason some dieters fail and some succeed, the answer to this is will. People by nature are lazy and want the easiest most simple effort free solution to their problems. What happens is that if a diet is too difficult or too wacky to incorporate easily into their normal everyday lives they give up.

The Skinny Switch like many other good eating plans makes it easier to stick to and integrate into you and your families lifestyle. A weight loss plan that is easier to integrate into your everyday life will increase your chance of success. If you can make your goal of losing weight and maintaining your new slimmer figure with your chosen diet then that is the diet for you.

If you go for the out there diets that require you to limit the food groups you can choose from then it is going to be difficult to maintain over the long term. There is no problem with leaving out individual foods but excluding entire food groups is not recommended and can be dangerous in the long term.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

David Down asked:


The lemonade diet recipe is said to have originated in the 1970s when a book written by Stanley Burroughs suggested that fasting and drinking citric fruit juice could be used as a way to remove toxins from the body. This was never intended to be used as a diet as such, simply a short term cleansing of the body. Unfortunately in common with other fad diets it has developed a dedicated following who suggest it can be safely used on a regular basis and as part of an ongoing diet routine.

The lemonade diet, in common with other similar citric juice diets, consists of surviving for a set number of days on various combinations of fruit juice or syrup or cayenne pepper, and numerous other variations on the same theme. The common denominator in these diets is the theory that drinking citric juice, in particular lemons or grapefruit, will dissolve or burn the excess fat from the body. The reality of this is perhaps questionable, but certainly there will be some weight loss as a result of eating (or drinking) one single thing over a continuous period to the detriment of all other nutrients and food groups. In particular this diet encourages fasting which will certainly produce weight loss, but at what cost?

All weight loss is not necessarily healthy weight loss. In many cases diets such as the lemonade diet recipe will simply cause the body to store the fat and use the muscles as food if this regime is sustained for any length of time. There is a place for such detoxification routines, but only as a short term solution to lose a limited amount of weight, for at most a few days. It certainly should never be sustained or used as part of a long term dieting or weight loss plan, in particular it should never be undertaken by those vulnerable to illness or health problems, such as the elderly, children or pregnant women.

It would be much better to consult your doctor and discuss how to lose weight in a healthy manner, your doctor will probably insist the key to losing weight is not extreme fasting diets such as the lemonade diet recipe, or the Cayenne Pepper And Water Diet, or any other of the many fad diets, but a healthy balanced approach combined with lots of exercise.

Unfortunately many people are only too happy to believe that instant weight loss can be achieved using the latest diet fads, and with no ill effects. The healthy way to lose weight has not changed however, and requires exercise combined with careful control over the food you eat and the quantity you consume.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Blake Allen asked:


The fruit flush three day detox diet is for the after-festive season cleansing. Jay Robb’s methodology of ridding the body of all the indulgences during the holiday season is quite a rage.

Loosing all those kilos after the hearty meals and drinks during an extended party, a vacation or simply during festivities and regaining the figure and vitality is the mantra of this diet. Besides over indulgence in food and weight problems, the system gets clogged up and requires cleansing, hence the all fruit diet.

The fruit flush is strictly a 3-day diet of just fruits. Fruits help in dissolving stored toxins and the water and fiber in them help to flush out aiding in weight reduction. It also fortifies the body and helps in speeding up the liver’s metabolism of environmental toxins.

1st day: the pre-flush

Between 8 am to 4 pm drink ounces of protein mix (11/4 cup protein powder and 1 quart water) every two hours. Eat 3 to 6 cups of raw vegetable salad and 3 to 6 ounces of lean chicken, beef, fish or turkey at 6 pm. Top it up with 1 to 2 ounces of olive oil or flax seed oil, or half an avocado and the juice of half a lemon. One hour after each protein drink or meal drink an 8-12-ounce glass of water.

2nd and 3rd day: fruit flush three day detox diet

From 8 am to 4 pm eat servings of fresh fruit every 2 hours. At 6 pm, like day one eat 1 serving of raw vegetable salad. Also drink one protein drink comprising of 12 ounces of water and 5 tablespoons of protein powder.

Unlike the 30-day detox or fasts, the fruit flush three day detox diet can be followed for a period of up to 12 weeks with 3-day diet and 4 days off alternatively. The diet is based on natural fruits and vegetables and followed back-to-back aids in considerable weight loss. The program has had very good reviews; dieters say the diet is rich in fiber, vitamins and antioxidants and low in potassium and sodium. This not only aids in detoxifying, losing weight but also improves energy, regular bowel movements and improves skin tone.

The fruit flush diet program does not support any preservatives, laxatives, chemicals or pills; also Robb suggests no exercise regime during the diet; yet there are a few negatives.

It is a very low calorie diet, hence not a balanced one. It is not a long-term solution for weight loss and not ideal if you are on a fat loss program. Also, those who have tried it are not satisfied that you have to use Robb’s protein powder. The positive reviews definitely outweigh these and several dieters use their own handy protein mixtures and still report the desired results of the fruit flush diet program!

Fit Yummy Mummy!

A. D. Rallop asked:


Anyone thinking of starting a diet needs to also think about their diet food plans. Without a good plan to guide you, there is every chance of slipping back into bad eating habits. Here are a few tasty morsels of advice for you to think about when you are making your diet food plans.

Eat More Often & Burn More Fat:

If you currently eat 3 – 4 meals day then making a change here will work wonders. It all boils down to how the metabolism works. The longer the gap between meals is, the slower your metabolism will become. The result is your body burns calories slower in case the next meal is a long time away. By eating more regularly you are telling your body to burn calories quicker, thus speeding up your metabolism.

To keep your metabolism burning calories nice and fast, try to aim for 6 meals a day. This does NOT mean you can eat 50% more food than normal. You need to take what you eat in your 3 – 4 meals and spread it over 6. This will give your diet food plans a definite push in the right direction.

Know Your Portion Sizes:

Many of us don’t realise what a standard portion of meat or pasta is, and are therefore eating more than we should. So when a recipe tells us to use a medium potato or 1 portion of meat, what do they mean? Well a portion of meat is 100g, which in visual terms is about the size of a deck of cards. A medium potato is about the size of your computer mouse, and a portion of pasta or rice is about 1 cupful. Get your portion sizes right, and your diet food plans will start to fall into place.

Shopping On A Full Stomach:

Now I am no expert in psychology, but psychologically it is better to shop shortly after a meal rather than when you are hungry. The reason is simple, and no psycho-babble I promise. If you shop when you are hungry you will be very tempted to buy extra food and snacks you don’t need. These are the type of things that the store owners know people don’t put on their shopping list, but by strategically placing them in their store they can tempt customers into making impulse purchases on them.

Make sure you shop shortly after a meal and you will be much less tempted by these unhealthy treats. Once you have stopped buying these high fat snacks, you can start utilising all the healthy food you bought instead in your new diet food plans.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Ivan Kelly asked:


The Hospital 3 Day Diet, which is also known as the Birmingham Hospital Diet, has become popular due to claims that the diet was created as a means of enabling patients intended for surgery to lose up to 10 lbs in weight over a period of three days. Other sources attribute the origin of this diet plan to the University of Alabama.

It should be noted that these institutions do not make that claim and do not accept any responsibility towards those who follow the diet.

Notwithstanding the uncertainty of its origins, there is little doubt that this simple diet plan has become widespread and that many people have used it, often coming across the weight loss strategy under one of its many names. Apart from the Hospital 3 Day Diet, it is also known as Alabama 3 Day Diet, 3 day Tuna Diet, Tuna Fish Diet, 3 Day Cardiac Diet, and others.

The content of these weight loss diet plans is very similar and will here be treated as essentially the same.

A key element of the Hospital 3 Day Diet is that it contains a low daily calorie level of about 1,000 calories with specified ingredients to provide the protein, carbohydrates, fat (very little) and other nutrients that we need to survive. For a full description of the menu plan, do a quick search for my article “3 Day Tuna Fish Diet – Menu and Diet Plan”.

In brief, the plan outlines the foods to be included for breakfast, lunch and dinner over a three day period.

There are many reports of weight reduction from those who have followed the diet. The amount of claimed weight lost during that time varies, as might be expected with so many differing metabolisms and food requirements being involved. However, a minimum weight reduction of at least 2.5 lbs does seem attainable and likely.

Much of the weight loss from a diet of such a short duration probably comes from water loss. As well, with a calorie count of about 1,000 this would be well below normal requirements for most adults, so energy expended would also account for some of the loss.

However, whilst not a ’starvation diet’, the Birmingham Hospital Diet is likely to generate user problems if continued beyond the recommended 3 days. For instance, it is normal for our bodies to make adjustments when a food shortage is detected. This is a survival mechanism which protects us when little food is available, as in times of famine. The body slows metabolism and conserves fat stores to enable us to survive longer with less food. This actually makes it harder to lose weight, we have less energy and tire more easily. Not a satisfactory long term condition!

Although there may be some short-term loss advantage, the feelings of hunger experienced by the end of the diet encourage extra food intake after the diet has been completed. A better alternative is a program that does not produce a craving for food, does not cause the body to slow its activities, and takes into account nutritional requirements so that changes in eating habits would allow fat loss to happen over a longer period and be lasting.

Rather than following a simple, low calorie diet plan, losing weight over an extended period allows other tactics to be employed in the plan, such as ‘calorie shifting’, placing greater emphasis on fat loss and adequate nutrition. This is more likely in the long run to provide health benefits and sustainable weight loss.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Al Bullington asked:


The cabbage soup diet is sometimes called the cabbage soup heart diet. It’s also called other names including the Mayo Clinic Diet, Military Cabbage Soup, Sacred Heart Diet, TJ’s Miracle Diet, the Russian Peasant Diet and the Banana Diet. The diet is somewhat famous mainly because of the promise that if you follow the eating plan you can drop 10 pounds in a week. It will let you drop the weight fast.

If you are concerned about your heart, you know that excess weight is a big problem leading to stress on your heart and problems with blood pressure and a whole host of physical problems. But you need a long-term solution to your weight problems. Short term diets do not work for long term weight loss. You must change your lifestyle by combining exercise with sensible eating.

How does the cabbage soup diet fit into a heart healthy eating plan? It’s a quick, relatively easy way to drop up to ten pounds in a week. The main advantage to dropping several pounds fast is motivation. Many diet plans will only produce about one pound of weight loss per week. That’s pretty boring especially since your normal weight variation can be more than a pound a day. So you can be on the right track to lose weight over the long-term, but the scales show you’re gaining weight in the short-term. That’s very discouraging. In comes this diet to let you drop some weight fast. Then back you go to your long-term plan.

The cabbage soup diet is a great morale booster. And you don’t just eat cabbage soup either. You get a set food plan for each of the seven days of the plan. Over the week you get a variety of foods including fruits, vegetables, meats, even bananas one day. Plus all the soup you want each day. And you can vary the soup to suit your tastes. Cabbage soup isn’t necessarily bland. You can spice it up as you like.

But alas, no pastries or bread for the week. No brownies, peanut butter cookies or sweet potato casserole! No sweet desserts. But it wouldn’t be a diet without a little hardship would it.

So the cabbage soup heart diet or whatever you choose to call it, is a short-term motivational diet to let you drop about ten pounds in a week. It isn’t a sustainable long-term plan but it could be a part of your overall weight loss and fitness plan.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Flor Serquina asked:


The South Beach diet is one of the most popular diet plans in the world. There are many diet fanatics who endorse this diet, and these include a handful of celebrities. It has become so popular that many books have been published on how to go about the whole program, including recipes of dishes that those who follow the diet plan can enjoy. This diet program consists of several phases, and among the contents of those books are South Beach diet Phase 1 recipes.

The first phase of the South Beach diet is said to be full of restrictions on the type of food that you can eat. Some of those who went through it will tell you that it is one of the hardest stages of the program. There are some who get discouraged to go through the rest of the plan because the first phase alone is hard to get past by. In order to encourage people to get on with the plan, many South Beach diet Phase 1 recipes have been published not only in books but also in the Internet, which makes it easier for dieters to access.

Tips For Easier Dieting

As you go through this first stage of the plan, here are some tips that can help you with this stage of the diet program:

Make a diary of your experiences with the diet. Write entries daily, stating in detail your feelings and your thoughts about the whole process.

Avoid going to the shopping mall during your Phase 1 stage of the diet. You might end up in the food court and eat everything you can get your hands on. Instead, stay home and eat those meals provided by the South Beach diet Phase 1 recipes.

Restrain yourself from attending those gatherings that will surely serve mountains of food. Believe me, once you lock eyes with the buffet table, you are likely to lose your resolve and forget that you are supposed to be on a strict diet.

Overcoming this first stage of the diet is undeniably difficult. Most of the people who tried it will tell you that their brains are so occupied with thoughts of devouring pizza, ice cream and all the potato chips that they can get. It takes enormous willpower to accomplish this first phase of the plan.

Here is an example a of South Beach diet phase 1 recipe that you can cook and enjoy right in your home.

Tuscan Grilled Steak

Mash 3 large cloves of crushed garlic with 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil in a bowl until it becomes paste. Rub this paste over a 2-pound flank steak, then sprinkle salt and pepper over it. Then grill the steak for about 5-7 minutes until it turns brown. Flip it over and cook the other side for about 5 minutes longer. Wait until the meat turns medium rare.

You can check how cooked the meat is by slicing the meat with a knife. To make sure that is medium rare, remove the meat from the oven when it is a little less cooked that you wish it to be. Cover the meat loosely with foil then let it rest for about 10 minutes. After this, slice meat thinly, and then drizzle with the juices that accumulated from the cooking.

Aside from your own research, it would be useful if you also ask other dieters about the South Beach diet Phase 1 recipes that they are using. They can recommend the most delicious ones from the batch; recipes, which will not make you feel deprived when you eat it because they are as delicious as those dishes that are off limits for you. Be adventurous when it comes to trying out dishes. They might become a staple in your kitchen for a very long time.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Hannah Graham asked:


There’s no question that many people have made money promoting a Christian diet. There’s Gwen Shamblin and her Weigh Down Diet that sold more than a million copies, making her the bestselling Christian weight loss author of all time. Her second book, Rise Above, recycles the same thinness is equal to godliness theme and emphasizes submission to a scary extreme.

She certainly wasn’t the first Christian author to write weight loss books. Before her we had Neva Coyle’s Free to be Thin in 1979, Patricia Kreml’s Slim for Him and Joan Cavanaugh’s More of Jesus, Less of Me,” which were all published earlier in the ’70s. These books were all descendents of Charlie Shedd’s 1957 book, Pray Your Weight Away, which emphasized calorie restriction and counting calories.

You would think that a Christian diet would have the potential to be more effective than secular diets. After all, Christians are taught about how to resist temptation and the power of free will. The Bible teaches that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and should be treated with care. Plus, Christians are more likely to pray and scientific studies have shown that prayers do have an effect on reality.

Most of all, however, I would expect a diet book written by a Christian to question our society’s obsession with thinness and beauty. I would also expect a nuanced approach; sometimes a woman overeats, not because she’s a sinner and gluttonous, but because of deep emotional pain or spousal abuse. But Shamblin remains superficial and, to her, being overweight is a sin, period.

The bottom line to dieting is that you need to burn more calories than you eat. This applies to everyone, whether Christian, agnostic or Hindu.

If you are a Christian and are trying to lose weight, use a common sense weight loss approach and then tap into the elements of your faith that might help you, such as community support, prayer support and inspiration from scripture. You don’t have to have blind faith in a Christian diet guru like Shamblin who tells you to submit to her plan like you submit to God.

Fit Yummy Mummy!