Vegetarian Weight Loss - What is it?

Obesity is a growing problem. Two thirds of Americans are overweight. More and more people are searching for natural weight loss options and vegetarian weight loss programs fit that bill.

The commercial market is overflowing with a large number of diet supplements and weight loss options. But natural options are the safest way to shed pounds. Dieticians and nutritionists recommend natural weight loss diets to people who are health conscious. This is because natural options do not advocate the use of chemicals or supplements to speed metabolism or reduce your appetite. They rely on natural products, such as fiber, to do the same things.

People who follow a diet of raw fruits and vegetables for weight loss are less prone to heart disease, stroke and cancer. Vegetarian weight loss programs can be structured using a point system so that vegetables are a “0”, fruits are between 1-3 points and nuts and seeds rank higher because they are higher in calories and fats.

The desire for a lean healthy body must include regular intake of water, the right foods and regular exercise. Like in any other program large helpings of high-fat protein sources such as peanut butter, nuts and cheese can cause vegetarians to gain weight.

Instead of using peanut butter or nuts as snacks, use whole grain snacks, fruit and vegetables during the day. Using a vegetarian weight loss program does not ensure automatic weight loss. Keep a written record of everything you eat during the day to keep a handle on your eating habits. Keep watch on everything that isn’t raw fruit and vegetables.

Plan your meal choices during the day since last minute choices are usually higher in calories. Those chips, cookies, power bars and candy, although meatless, are higher in calories, sugar and fats. Use a daily multi-vitamin to fill in the gaps.

There are convenience foods sold in the grocery store that fit a vegetarian weight loss program. Check out the health food store and watch the calories, sugars, fats and oils in the products. Do not resort to junk foods. When all else fails apples and bananas are convenient, filling and full of good nutrition.

You can also put together pre-made bags of your own trail mix. Include almonds, raisons, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds for a healthy nutritious snack. Try to eat only raw and organic nuts and seeds for the best flavor and fuel.

Preparation of your vegetarian weight loss program can be just as important as the foods you eat. Grocers now carry vegetarian burgers that can be microwaved as opposed to fried. Frying foods is just as dangerous as eating meats because of the increased animal fats and the processing that vegetable oils and lard go through to make them palatable. Try to eat as much raw foods as possible to help your digestive system.

Vegetarian weight loss is a healthy and natural weight loss option to add to your weight loss arsenal. Done right you’ll see some fast weight loss initially and you’ll feel better and have more energy.
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Best Sports Nutrition For Vegetarians - Success Has To Follow

Vegetarian athletes have special needs to be able to perform at a higher level of energy than those who don’t exert themselves athletically each and every day. Sports nutrition and calorie intake are very important to consistently help your body to perform at it’s best.

Most nutritional challenges of sports nutrition can be met by planning ahead and having a variety of foods available at home. Variety in your vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds will assure the correct vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids in the diet.

Vegetarian sports nutrition must meet the energy needs of the athlete. Energy sources can simply be your favorite fruits, root vegetables, whole grains and green leafy vegetables.

Proteins, needed for repair of tissues, building and repairing muscles, red blood cell production and just running your body, can be received from fruits, green leaves, nuts and root vegetables. Some excellent sources of protein include avocados, dates, bananas, and almonds.

Protein requirements are not different for vegetarian athletes than for athletes who don’t eat a vegetarian diet. Athletes should take 1.2 to 2 grams of protein per kilograms of body weight.

Our bodies also require minerals to repair and replace muscles and hormones. There are several factors that are important to the absorption of minerals and vitamins. How the foods are combined, use of microwaves and incorporating the occasional fast all impact how minerals and vitamins are absorbed into the body.

Individual sources of plant protein do not supply all nine essential amino acids that meats and animal proteins do. However, eating a variety of vegetables during the day will supply all nine amino acids; what one vegetable is missing another will supply.

Calcium is also essential to nutrition. Vegetarian sports nutrition should plan for sources from plants or add supplements since athletes who are low may have increased risk of bone and stress fractures.

Athletes also are at risk for iron deficiency, especially females. Iron loss is increased during heavy training. Smart sports nutrition should incorporate spinach, a good supply of iron, into the diet. Vitamin C also improves iron absorption. The main symptoms of iron deficiency are weakness and rapid fatigue during exercise.

Low zinc levels can also be a problem for vegetarian athletes in heavy training. Zinc sources are pumpkin seeds, pecans, split peas, Brazil nuts, rye, whole wheat, oats, peanuts, walnuts and almonds.

Vegetarian nutrition should include appropriate amounts of energy, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals is critical for optimal performance. Athletes who practice a vegetarian lifestyle must do a little planning to ensure the correct balance of nutrition in their diets.
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Vegetarian Soups - Why It is So Important

Scientific research shows that a vegetarian lifestyle improves your health and increases your life. Vegetarian soups and meals are becoming more popular in both the home and restaurant settings. Restaurant owners and franchises are responding to the increased demand by their customers for a healthier alternative.

Becoming a vegetarian decreases your risk for heart disease, stroke and cancers. And preparing soups and meals are not difficult. Incorporating vegetarian soups and meals into your lifestyle not only improves your health but also doesn’t require a long-term adjustment.

Vegetarian soups are a great option when you are entertaining or when you are preparing a meal for your family. Warm soups are great for appetizers and sophisticated chilled vegetarian soups are a wonderful addition in the summer months. Soups can be a great one-bowl meal with plenty of crusty bread. You can even use a dense crusty bread as the bowl itself.

Traditional soups and meals often include meats and animal by-products such as sour cream, gelatins or cheeses. But vegetarian soups can be hearty and delicious without the addition of meat and animal by-products.

Soups can also be inexpensive, high in protein, high in fiber and very nutritious. Because of the food combinations you can often have a soup that is filling, mouth-watering and is full of the nutrients you need. Vegetarian soups can be served as an appetizer, snack, side dish, main course or over rice as a large meal. Try using these principles when you prepare a soup such as Lentil soup.

Lentils are inexpensive and a great protein. They are are versatile enough to be turned into a vegetable stew. You can use vegetable stock instead of water to add a rich taste without overpowering the flavor. Vegetable stock can be made when you are soaking and boiling beans or vegetables and then saved for use later when you are making vegetable soups.

Just remember that the stock is the base for the soup and the richer and more flavorful the stock the better the soup will taste.

Next come the vegetables. Green beans are an addition that should be snapped and not cut. Also, do not use frozen or previously cooked beans because they will become mush. Potatoes should be diced into large pieces so they don’t cook too quickly. Although potatoes do add texture to vegetarian soups on two levels; they thicken the broth and add some contrasting firmness.

Other vegetables you can add to vegetarian soups are diced eggplant, diced onions, medium cauliflower florets or medium broccoli florets. Don’t grind broccoli into the soup and don’t add until the last 15 minutes of cooking. Cauliflower florets hold up better in soups than does the broccoli.

When you consider the vegetables for your soup don’t add delicate things like peas, celery or lettuce. The goal is to add texture to the soup and contrasting firmness.

Vegetarian soups are robust and full of flavor. They are an addition to your meal or the meal itself. Either way soup adds nutrients to your diet and you don’t even know you’re eating healthy!
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Healthy Vegetarian Cooking is Actually Easy

People chose to live a vegetarian lifestyle for a variety of reasons. There are strict religious, financial, health and cruelty to animal issues that motivate us to move to a vegetarian diet. Vegetarian cooking is less difficult and complicated than cooking the Standard Western diet, full of fats, sugars and processed foods.

There are some basic techniques to cooking a vegetarian meal. First you have to determine which vegetarian lifestyle you’ll be following. Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarians don’t eat red meat, fowl, or fish but do eat dairy products and eggs; Lacto-Vegetarians eat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream; and Vegan vegetarians are the strictest and eat only fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Wherever on the continuum you fall, you want your food to be nutritious and delicious. If you are preparing a meal that originally required meat you should NOT substitute textured protein vegetables for the meat. You’ll ruin the taste of the dish and it never tastes quite right. The textured vegetables are expensive and not much better than organic meat. So you can either eat organic meat or make something else.

One key to good vegetarian cooking is a good flavorful oil. Your brain requires fat for metabolism. But, not fat that is high in animal oils but plant based oils that will feed your brain so you aren’t foggy. Fats also enhance the quality and flavor of foods. Only use oils that are liquid at room temperature like olive oil, grape seed and sesame oils.

Olive oils are the most healthy and contain fats that help to level your cholesterol levels. Olive oils come in a variety of flavors from very strong to mild. The best oil is extra virgin cold pressed oil. You can use the olive oil in any dish that you would normally have used butter, lard or vegetable oils. Vegetable oils, no mater what the advertising says, are manufactured using processes that leave them not much better than eating straight chemicals.

Another critical ingredient to vegetarian cooking is sea salt. Sea salt doesn’t have the chemicals of regular processed table salt and contains minerals that will enhance the flavors of the food. Sea salt is formed from the natural evaporation of sea water and has 98 percent sodium chloride compared to the 99.9 percent purity of regular table salt. Salt manufacturers make extra money reselling the mineral by-products during the processing of salt.

Using high quality ingredients makes a difference in the final quality of the food. Cooking is basic chemistry and the outcome is only as good as the quality of the ingredients you use. You won’t be making a silk purse from a sows ear.

Another tip for vegetarians is to use lots of vegetables! A variety of color will give you a full range of Vitamins and minerals. Green leafy vegetables such as spinach and lettuce; root vegetables like yams, carrots and potatoes; and stems and seed carriers like celery, peppers and eggplant should all be included in your diet.

Test these principles by making a vegetable or bean soup. Sautee the vegetables in good oil, use sea salt to taste and use plenty of vegetables. Vegetarian cooking is only limited by your imagination. By incorporating lots of legumes, vegetables, fruit, seeds and nuts will give you great variety in flavor and nutrition.

Vegetarian cooking is simple, nutritious, and makes a positive impact in your health and wellness. Your diet is only limited by your imagination. Test your imagination and increase your energy levels for a whole new you!

Does DETOX TEA Really RELIEVE STRESS?

What effects do today’s toxic pollutants and impurities have on the body? It becomes sluggish, fatigued, over stressed and defenseless against today’s disease. Environmental toxins hidden in our air, food and water are also hiding in us.

Is your body sending out warning signals? Taking health care into your own hands can be as complex as the intricacy of your own system. Your body sends out warning signals to tell you when it is weakened, over stressed, tired and sluggish. These warnings should not be taken lightly, your body is slowing down and needs help. Your body needs to work at its fullest potential without unneeded stress.

In today’s stress-oriented, industrialized world, the environment takes a heavy toll on our bodies. Pollutants in the air, in our food and in our water build up in our tissues. Sometimes we need to give our bodies a chance to clean out, to detoxify. In Ayurvedic tradition, this is done by using diet, exercise and herbs to rebalance the body’s generative and eliminative forces. The blend of detox herbs used in the formula is mild but effective and based on Ayurvedic principles. Herbal ingredients included are Ginger, Dandelion and Burdock which are known for their cleansing effect on the body. Drinking Detox Tea can be an important part of re-balancing and renewing body and mind.

The body does most of its detoxifying at night while the body is at rest so by taking Detox Tea in the morning, the body can continue its cleansing process throughout the day for a more consistent and complete cleanse.

Some signs of an overtaxed Liver are PMS, headaches, indigestion, hayfever, acne, bloat, Hepatitis, boils, carbuncles, fertility concerns,digestive disturbances, immune deficiency, chronic debilitating diseases, nervous system conditions, gall bladder concerns, kidney concerns, menstruation concerns, endometriosis, poor fat and protein digestion, fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome. Obstruction of liver energy can cause intense feelings of frustration, rage, anger, and these emotions in turn further disrupt liver energy and suppress liver function, in a vicious self destructive cycle.

Most ingredients in Detox teas are 100% herbal and these Detox Teas and Capsules have been known for their cleansing and detoxifying qualities. We urge you to gather more information on Detox Teas and find out how detox tea can benefit you!
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Benefits of Food Diary for Healthy Eating and Start Living Life

Many people who want to lose weight will start off with a food diary or journal. A food journal is a great way to see and visualize exactly what you are eating everyday. In fact, once you get the hang of using it on a day to day basis, you may be surprised about what you learn. Your will easily see where you need to concentrate your diet efforts.

A food diary has several benefits. First of all, it will help you see exactly what you eat each day. If you are good about recording what you eat, you will see how many cookies or how many rolls you ate. This will give you a good idea about where you need to cut back as far as your diet goes.

Another advantage of using a food diary is that it may help you control your portions. If you see that you had five slices of pizza, you will soon realize that you are eating way more than your body needs. This is an effective tool for any dieter.

Yet another advantage of keeping a food diary is that you will be able to tell why you eat. Most people do not eat simply because they are hungry. People eat for many reasons. You may eat when you are bored, or sad or stressed. When you keep a food diary, you will be able to see these trends and work to do something to make a healthy change.

Here are some easy tips for starting and maintaining your food diary.

You will need to get something to keep track of what you eat. You can use just about anything, but if you are on the go, you might want to consider a small notebook or binder that you can keep in your purse or desk. If it is portable, you are more likely to keep up with it.

Next, you will want to get in the habit of using it every time you eat. You need to write down each and every snack, nibble and taste. Make sure you write down the date, the time and the place. This is effective so that you can go back and look at your own diet trends. If you see that you eat a candy bar everyday at 3 p.m., then you can use this information to make a change. You know that you need to work through your 3 o'clock slump by eating something healthier than a candy bar.

You may also want to get a book that will help you learn the fat grams and calories of the food you eat. This is important when you need to know the total amount of fat and calories you eat each day. You can also record your serving size such as "five chocolate kisses". At the end of the day, tally the servings of each food group, your total fat intake and your total calorie intake. This will give you an excellent idea of where you need to go with your diet.

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How Can I Eat Healthier? Major Factors to Consider

It is one thing to say, eat healthier and another altogether to do it. What constitutes eating healthier? It begs to have a starting point at which to gage what is healthier eating. Where are you now in some kind of measurement of how healthy you are eating? What measurement tool are we using? A caloric measurement? A measure of number of nutrients we take in? Or, are we asking a person to follow guidelines for healthy eating set forth by the USDA? Healthy eating defined may be different to different individuals. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, healthy eating is defined as "eating the recommended types and amounts of foods, nutrients and calories that are recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, while limiting low-nutrient, high-fat and high-sugar foods and beverages that will promote health and achieve and maintain an optimum body weight and energy balance."

The benefits of eating healthier are: improving your overall health, improving your well-being. You will feel better and have more energy. A healthier diet helps you to stay fit and active and can also help to fight stress in your life.

Healthier eating includes eating smarter. Here are a few ways to eat smarter:

Take smaller bites of food and chew the food for longer time periods because as we chew food, saliva mixes in which is the first step in digestion. Chewing our food slower and for longer periods of time now only is better for digestion but we taste it longer allowing us to enjoy the food more.

Stress can compromise digestion so avoid all stress while you are eating. This includes not rushing through your meal, avoid confrontations, do not partake in serious discussions at the dinner table, and relax if you are stressed out before you sit down to the table. Set a relaxed mood with music or candles and create a soothing atmosphere in which to eat such as a pretty tablecloth, nice dinnerware, and colorful serving dishes.

Healthy eating also means to stop when you are full. Eat slowly so that you can pay better attention to the signals that your body is giving you regarding when it is full. If you eat only enough food to satisfy your hunger and no more, you are more likely to get to or maintain the proper weight.

Eating more food earlier in the day gives your body more time to digest, so your biggest meal should be at the start of your day, a modest meal at noon and a smaller sized meal at night. Eating frequent smaller meals throughout the day is actually good for your metabolism.

You can also eat healthier by eating a well-balanced diet. Each day your meals should center on the six basic food groups - whole grains, vegetables, fruits, milk and other dairy, protein and oils.

All six-food groups are necessary for optimum health. Your body receives nutrients such as vitamins and minerals from all food groups when you ignore a group you are not getting the nutrients from that group in your diet and therefore will not be as healthy as you could be.

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Eight Healthy Snacks ideas - That You can Ignore

You can always find healthy foods to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but snack time is not so easy. After all, when you think about snack food, you probably think about high fat or high sugar foods that you find in the snack machines. Chips, candy bars and cookies top the list of popular, but no-so-good-for-you snacks. In order to have a healthy diet, you need to make sure that all the snacks you eat are healthy. To help you, here is a list of eight healthy snacks you should stock up on today.

Popcorn: Some popcorn is good for you. This is not the same popcorn you get at the movie theater. That popcorn is buttery, salty and full of bad oil and fat. The kind of popcorn that is good for you is either the low fat microwave popcorn or air popped popcorn. Popcorn without a lot of butter and salt is tasty and filling. If you don't have an air popper, consider getting one. They are inexpensive and easy to use. Plus, it is cheaper that microwave popcorn. If you think you need some flavor, add some Butter Buds, or season salt.

Frozen Yogurt: Frozen yogurt is another great snack. You can get frozen yogurt in pints or gallons in all kinds of flavors, or you can make your own by freezing your favorite yogurt into pops. You can also add fruit such as strawberries or bananas for an added flavor.

String cheese: Mozzarella string cheese is another good choice for a healthy snacks. These are high in calcium and protein and when you buy the low fat version, it is good for you, too. Pair your string cheese with low fat crackers or lean turkey for a filling snack.

Apples and peanut butter: You know that apples are good for you, but peanut butter is great for you, too. Think about buying natural peanut butter and dipping your apple slices in it. This is filling and delicious.

Low fat pudding: Those little cups of fat free pudding also make great and healthy snacks. While they do contain sugar, they are full of calcium and flavor. You can get your chocolate fix of the day with pudding.

Baked chips and salsa: Baked tortilla chips with a little salsa are great healthy snacks, too. Baked tortilla chip are tastier than you may think and salsa is full of flavor and low in fat.

Graham crackers: You probably remember eating a lot of graham crackers when you were a kid, but they are still great. Dip them in applesauce or no sugar fruit jam.

Fruit smoothies: Fruit smoothes are really easy to make with just about anything you have. Use some yogurt, fruit and some fresh fruit and blend with some ice. You can also make smoothies with skim milk.

With these easy and tasty snacks, you are well on your way to a healthier diet in no time. Get to the grocery store and get some today.

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How to Eat Healthy if You Are Vegetarian

You can eat healthy and still maintain your vegetarian beliefs by following the Vegetarian Diet Pyramid. The pyramid helps you to know which foods should be consumed and have what your body needs for good health.

Vegetarians should follow the pyramid's recommendations regarding the levels of food importance. The healthy vegetarian diet consists mainly of plant-based foods. The emphasis is on nonmeat food sources, which naturally means less fat and cholesterol and also fortunately more fiber.

Not all vegetarians are equal, some are vegans, others are lacto-vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians, and others are flexitarians. It can be difficult to determine how to eat the right foods so the pyramid shows various food groups and food choices within those groups and the correct quantities of those foods. A well-planned vegetarian diet can be the foundation of a proper and healthy diet.

No matter which type of vegetarian you are there are substitutes for the foods you avoid.

If you avoid milk, you can drink fortified soymilk, ride milk, or almond milk.

If you avoid butter, you can saut? using olive oil, water, or vegetable broth, wine or fat-free cooking spray instead of using the butter to saut.

If you avoid cheese, you can use soy cheese or nutritional yeast flakes, which can be found in health food stores.

If you avoid eggs, you can try commercial egg replacers or you can replace one egg by using 1/4 cup of whipped tofu or 1 tablespoon milled flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water. Use tofu instead of eggs when making an egg-free omelet.

A vegan diet will typically be lacking in vitamin B-12, calcium, iron and zinc. In a strict vegetarian diet you may be getting less of some of these nutrients needed by your body: protein, calcium, Vitamin B-12, iron, and zinc.

To make sure that you are getting these nutrients vegetarians should make sure that they get the protein they need they should eat eggs, or dairy products, soy products, meat substitutes, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds or whole grains. In order to get the calcium they need vegetarians should eat low-fat dairy foods, dark green vegetables such as spinach, kale, and broccoli. Tofu is also enriched with calcium and fortified soymilk and some fortified fruit juices are other ways to get calcium.

Vitamin B-12 can be received by eating soy products or by taking a supplement that contains B-12.

Iron can be replaced in a vegetarian diet by eating dried beans and peas, lentils, enriched cereals, whole grain products, dark leafy green vegetables and also dried fruit. Your body needs to be able to absorb these sources so it is important that along with those foods a vegetarian consumes strawberries, citrus fruits, tomatoes, cabbage or broccoli as you consume the above iron-containing foods.

Zinc can be obtained in the vegetarian diet by eating whole grains, soy products, nuts, and wheat germs.

Eat Your Healthy At Dinner In 30 Minutes

Who has time to make a healthy dinner after a long day at work? This is the main reason most people opt to grab a fast meal at a fast food restaurant on the way home from work. Fast food is easy, no preparation and no work. The problem is that most fast food meals are unhealthy for your body to consume on a regular basis. Do you think that people would eat healthier at dinnertime if they could have dinner prepared and ready to eat in under 30 minutes?

Getting a healthy dinner ready and on the table in under 30 minutes may not seem like a possible feat to most individuals but it can be done and without breaking too much of a sweat. How, you ask? In order to make a healthy dinner in under 30 minutes you must be willing to do a little bit of planning and organizing. There are a few things that you can do to achieve this healthy meal in less than 30 minutes and here are some tips on doing just that.

First it takes a little planning and making out of a shopping list. Take the list to the store with you and use it, but be flexible because you never know what the produce will look like, or when a totally delectable food item calls out to you. Try new recipes and expand your ability to add new colors and textures to your meals, which will tempt your family to eat more healthy foods.

Another way to trim time is to have your recipes organized so that you know where they are when you need them. Pull out the ones where the prep time is low (under 30 minutes).

If your recipes are in various cookbooks, use tabs or stickies to find them easily. If you use recipe cards have them in categories or arranged by alphabetically so that you can find them (whichever is better for you).

If you clip magazine recipes, tape them to construction paper and organize them to category so that you can make them into a sort of cookbook. Put them into a notebook or binder. You can also make up a recipe file with folders and tabs to through recipe cards into or clippings from magazines.

For those of you who are Internet users, have a favorites folder marked "Recipes", for all your recipes and have a folder for each food group or category.

Now that you have your recipes organized move on to planning your menus.

Go through your favorite cookbook, or recipe file (listed above) and select some dishes that you want to include in your weekly menus. Make sure you chose a variety of colors and textures. Pick side dishes, main courses, fruits, salads, breads or rolls. Don't forget cheese to go with your fruit.

Use these menus to write up your shopping list. Mark down the page # of the recipe next to the meal so that you can easily refer to it when needed.

If you know the store well you can make out your shopping list based on how you walk the aisles. Once you have a list that works well, photocopy it and use it as a master (make several copies and have these on hand).

Use a notebook for the shopping list and use the same notebook each week. You will have a handy record of your menus and your shopping list.

Prepare foods ahead of time and store them safely according to food guidelines until needed. You can chop enough carrots for all meals that week at one time, same with potatoes. Double recipes and make two dinners at once, freezing one for another fast meal later in the week.