Archive for » May 12th, 2012«

12 May 2012

Is Tim Tebow’s Diet Healthy? Fan’s View

Like most men across the country, I have been jealous of Tim Tebow‘s chiseled physique since the photos of him in a “Gator Charity Challenge” tank top popped up on the internet in 2009.

In those pictures from three years back, his muscular shoulders, tight abs and rippling biceps are clear for all to see, and I hoped to work for a similar body frame for myself.

Obviously one of the main reasons why he has such a big, mobile body is because he has a vigorous workout routine, but I felt like his diet was an equally important component.

I found myself constantly searching online for diet tips that would help me have Tebow’s body, and it wasn’t until an ABC News report on May 10 that I was able to find my answer.

I always imagined in the past that Tebow just lived on a low-carb diet of lean meats and organic juices, as he hadn’t really divulged his daily regimen until the ABC News report came out.

In the past, he has provided fairly generic answers to dieting questions, like his response in a muscleprodigy.com interview where he said “It all starts with your diet, so I always eat a great breakfast because that’s giving your body fuel.”

In the ABC News report, Tebow finally revealed what gave him all that muscle, all that mass and all that strength: “pizza pie” and “ice cream pie.”

Not the answer you were expecting? I was shocked, myself.

“I just like normal food. I mean, you have to go to so many, like, rubber chicken dinners and you put on the face and you’re like, ‘Oh, thank you, it’s so good,’ and you’re like, ‘Man, I just can’t wait to go home … and have pizza pie,’” he said.

Pizza pie includes fairly unhealthy ingredients like ground beef, baking powder biscuits and fattening mozzarella cheese.

Apparently, Tebow also loves ice cream. “When we got home from church, you know, we’d take off our shirt and we’d have our undershirt and we’d … be watching football and I mean you’d have like chocolate sauce all down it. Me and my brothers and my dad,” he said.

The ice cream pie made by Tebow’s mom includes delicious belly-bombing ingredients like butter, Rice Krispies, corn syrup, hot fudge topping, peanut butter and vanilla ice cream. With those kinds of ingredients, I have no idea how Tebow stayed so diesel all these years.

But in all seriousness, Tebow obviously kept the carb intake from his mom’s tasty home-cooked treats under control. For breakfast, he revealed that he eats a lot of egg whites, a Myoplex shake, and then oatmeal or grits or something like that for carbs.

“Tim Tebow is approximately 240 pounds, so his daily calorie needs lie in the 4,000-5,000 range,” said Coach Joseph Potts, Director of Sports Performance Training at TopSpeed Strength Conditioning. “Of those calories, 50-60% should come from complex carbohydrates, 15-20% from protein and 20-30% from fat.”

“For an athlete of Tebow’s approximate size that would be a range of 190-250 grams of protein per day,” Potts added. “Therefore the diet should consist of the above mentioned foods; plenty of whole grain carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, lowfat dairy and lean meats. To reach the protein intake requirement many athletes will use protein supplements, the two most popular being whey and casein protein powders.”

Eric Holden is a lifelong New York Jets fan. Follow him on Twitter @ericholden.

Category: How to Diet  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
12 May 2012

NO: ‘Bad-food’ taxes will clog nation’s economic arteries

Talk about it

    Proponents of an American Nanny State have a plan to improve your health: Tax sugar and “junk” food so you will eat less of it. Subsidies for broccoli and beets are close behind. These plans for bureaucrats and politicians to remake your diet are bad news for four reasons.

    First, it is no one’s business but yours what you eat. The freedom to eat a slice of apple pie might not sound quite as stirring as freedom of speech, but the ability to choose how to live our lives is the most fundamental freedom. What you eat is no one’s business but yours.

    Second, even if the government has a role to play in guiding our dietary choices, efforts at restructuring Americans’ lives via the tax code are fundamentally flawed.

    This strategy has given us a tax system of unimaginable complexity.

    Taxes need to be simple and easy to administer. As tax laws get fatter, they clog our economic arteries and stifle economic growth. Trying to fine-tune Americans’ diets via a “junk food” tax will further fatten the tax laws, and the wallets of accountants and tax lawyers. If there are any Americans unaware that sugar and potato chips are fattening, we don’t need a tax to enlighten them, just some public service announcements.

    Third, the government’s record on dietary control is problematic. The federal government has been involved in the sugar market since the War of 1812. Nanny Staters promise that this time they’ll get things right, but if they haven’t managed to do so in 200 years, why should we believe them now?

    For sugar, that’s the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup and the 17 domestic sugar cane producers who reap millions of dollars annually under our current agricultural subsidies and sugar tariffs — not you and me.

    Finally, the Nanny State brigade promises to spend the extra tax money on subsidies for “healthy” foods and lifestyles. New York Times columnist Matt Bittman enthuses about money for “gyms, pools, jogging and bike trails,” “Meals on Wheels” for the elderly, “Head Start” programs for children, and “supermarkets and farmers’ markets.”

    If we examine the government’s record in spending the billions of dollars from state governments’ lawsuits against tobacco companies, we can see that this is pure fantasy.

    States promised to spend vast sums on anti-smoking programs. The reality is different. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids tracks state tobacco prevention spending and tobacco revenue, and found that over the first ten years of the settlement, states spent just 3.2 percent of the money on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

    Nanny Staters promise the sun, moon and stars to get new taxes on the books, but deliver little else.

    Andrew Morriss is a professor of law and business at the University of Alabama. He can be reached at amorriss@ law.ua.edu.

    Tags:
    opinion, editorials, columns, columnists, politics, business

    Category: Diet Plans  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
    12 May 2012

    Pneumonia on the rise, docs advice healthy diet

    Fluctuating temperatures and high levels of humidity in the city have resulted in a rise of pneumonia and other respiratory ailments over the past couple of weeks, say doctors. After a sultry April, temperatures in the first week of May have been normal , sometimes even dipping below normal.

    Humidity levels however have been consistently high with the MET department recording 60-90 per cent of moisture in the air over the past few days.

    “Summer is the time when people do not complain of respiratory ailments.

    However, high levels of humidity are strongly correlated to the spread in infection which has led to an increase in lung-related ailments. Patients have been coming in with complaints of fever, cold and cough and body aches. If not treated on time, they are getting compounded into serious issues with some of them even needing the ventilator to support breathing,” said Dr Shahid Barmare, physician at Kohinoor Hospital.

    BMC hospitals have also seen a sudden spurt of children queuing up for treatment of respiratory infections. “There has been at least a 15-25 rise in cases of pneumonia and similar cases in the past two weeks,” said Dr A Aboli, physician at KEM hospital.

    Children, elderly people and those with underlying immuno -compromised problems such as diabetes and asthma are the most susceptible to infection. “Bacterial pneumonia is quite prevalent among young children especially when such sudden seasonal changes are observed. It is important to treat the child on time before his condition gets aggravated,” said Dr Rohit Agarwal, president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP).

    … contd.

    <!–

    gapi.plusone.go(“plusone2″);
    –>


    Tags: MET department, Dr Shahid Barmare, Dr A Aboli, KEM hospital

    previousPrevious Story
    BNHS to conduct Red Cotton bug walk

    Reader’s Comments | Post a comment

    Be the first to comment.

    Category: Healthy Diet  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
    12 May 2012

    Bicyclists lose weight, ease stress, enjoy the ride

    When Don and Darla Daley dine at restaurants near their Royal Oak, Mich., home, they no longer drive their car.

    It’s the same with quick trips to the store or nearby Royal Oak Farmers Market. They hop on the bicycles they bought two years ago — their favorite form of recreation and exercise.

    The Daleys are discovering what many people are getting to know. Bicycling is a great route to fun and fitness for people of all ages.

    In the two years since the Daleys purchased their bikes, Darla, 46, has lost 142 pounds and Don, 51, has lost 68.

    And Darla dramatically reduced the medications she takes for high blood pressure, too.

    Biking alone didn’t do it. Before they bought their bikes they joined Weight Watchers and began to work out with a personal trainer. But, they say, biking is the most consistent exercise they do and the exercise program they’ve stuck with the longest.

    “I don’t think I would have been as successful without the biking,” Darla says.

    They do it because it’s fun and they can incorporate it into their daily lives, so working out doesn’t feel like work. Even in the winter, they ride their bikes at home on trainers — equipment that turns the bikes into stationary bikes.

    Like many cyclists, the Daleys are grateful for the longer daylight hours and warmer weather that allows them to cycle outdoors more often.

    May, the unofficial start of the bicycling season, is filled with a variety of cycling events in towns and cities nationwide.

    Bicycling benefits the mind and body, health professionals say.

    “Biking builds stamina and upper and lower body strength,” says Dr. Ronny Otero, head of Emergency Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital’s Sterling Heights Medical Center. “Studies show that people who bike have better moods and are more efficient workers.”

    “Biking burns a lot of calories without burning you up and it’s a good exercise for the brain,” says family medicine physician Dr. Lee Green, professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Health System. “A good workout on the bike can help you unwind.”

    It offers variety, too, he says.

    “It’s a sport that can be done pretty much any way you like — from a leisure ride to a high-speed, long-distance race,” he says. “Pretty much anyone can do it because it’s easy on your joints.”

    Bicycling is relatively safe, doctors say.

    “As a physician, I see more serious consequences from not biking,” Green says. “I’d rather treat people for scrapes or broken collar bone than heart attacks because they didn’t bike. Biking is much safer than the sofa. It’s sitting on the sofa that kills.”

    Cycling enthusiasts say with a little planning it’s something you can incorporate into your daily life.

    Brian Kozeliski, 41, a portfolio manager for Munder Capital Management, rides frequently from his Rochester, Mich., home to his job in Birmingham, Mich. — about a 20-mile route that avoids main streets.

    “It’s much less stressful,” Kozeliski says. “And in the summer, with all the construction, getting home by car takes longer than on the bike because I’m stuck in traffic.”

    Biking is the main fitness activity for Carol Malone, 55, of St. Clair Shores, Mich. The nurse and mother of four has been doing the annual Make-a-Wish Ride (covering 300 miles in three days) every year since 2007. And she says she feels better with each passing year.

    “You can ride along side someone who’s 90 or someone who’s 18,” Malone says. “What you have in common is the road. I love it. It’s just so freeing. You get on the bike and you have to power to get places just by pedaling. It’s very empowering. You set a goal and it can be achieved through cycling. You just keep pedaling.”

    That’s the lesson the Daleys learned one mile at a time.

    When the Daleys purchased their cruisers two years ago, riding a few blocks through their neighborhood left them exhausted. They’d see groups of cyclists speeding past their home and think — nice, but NEVER!

    But after a few times out, they joined a Wednesday night group ride from the Continental Bike Shop in Hazel Park, Mich.

    “I thought I was going to die,” Darla Daley says of their first time out on the 15-mile ride through Hazel Park and northwest Detroit.

    Now the weekly rides are a breeze for the Daleys. They do weekend rides of up to 50 miles and weekday rides as often as their schedules allow. In addition, they make it a point to take their bikes to places they used to drive.

    “You see things you don’t normally see driving by in a car, even in your own neighborhood,” Don Daley says.

    “I never thought I’d love it as much as I do,” Darla Daley says. “Other bikers wave at you. It’s just fun.”

     

    Category: Help Me Lose Weight  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
    12 May 2012

    Life Quotes, Inc. Reveals Health Risks for Mom That May Increase Life …


    DARIEN, Ill., May 12, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
    Life Quotes, Inc. and Consumer Insurance Guide, stress the importance of moms staying fit and getting in to see their doctor for their annual checkups this Mother’s Day with advice from one of the world’s leading fitness experts, Jackie Warner, and Sister to Sister, the non-profit organization concerned with the prevention of the #1 killer of women: heart disease.

    Life Quotes, Inc. has compiled a list of health concerns women should consider to keep their lives healthy and active. Many people are unaware that heart disease causes 29 percent of female deaths in the U.S., surpassing even breast cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “More women die of heart disease than men,” said Lisa Townsend, director for Sister to Sister. “They may not be aware of what the symptoms are and hesitate in getting screened and do not take action, they only know that something doesn’t feel right. A lot of times when they do go to the ER they are diagnosed as having a panic attack and sent home. They are simply not tested and treated in the same way as men. When women die it is really unfortunate, especially since heart disease is highly preventable and that is why there needs to be greater awareness of the prevalence of this disease with the general public and how to treat it by medical professionals.”

    Heart disease is followed by lung and colorectal cancer and stroke. What each shares is that they do not have to be fatal and most can be prevented through proper diet and exercise.

    Jackie Warner, celebrity fitness pioneer, television star, and author of the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers “This is Why You’re Fat (And How to Get Thin Forever) and “10 Pounds in 10 Days: The Secret Celebrity Program for Losing Weight Fast” shares workout secrets that will enhance the heart health and the lives of today’s busy women. What is great about this book is that the program is easy and you don’t have to be a celebrity or pay an expensive membership at a gym to see major results. Optimal health can only be achieved through diet and exercise, and according to Warner, 70 to 85 percent of her latest book tackles meal planning, diet and nutrition.

    “Women should incorporate three liters of water a day for metabolism, it also clears up the skin and detoxifies the liver, and incorporate two fruits a day and three to four vegetables a day,” said Warner. “Lean protein such as free range eggs is great for lowering cholesterol and weight management. I am a huge proponent of organic and natural products and you can lose eight pounds alone just by switching to organic and natural foods.”

    Warner also debunks a common myth about weekly workout routines.

    “Working out three times a week is not effective to maintaining and changing your body. We are not meant to be sedentary on any given day and if you want to see results you have to make the time and the commitment to workout five times a week,” said Warner.

    When it comes to training and seeing fast results, Warner noted that in one session, her program can change a person’s body chemistry in 24 hours and kick start their metabolism.

    “You have to workout to muscle failure. I do a very basic workout with a lot of body building movements and push pull movements. It’s about combining the right function with perfect form to complete fatigue,” said Warner.

    While diet and exercise can tip the scale on a number of serious medical conditions, there are also other things women can do to enhance their heart health.

    “Screenings are certainly the first step for those at risk for heart disease and there are certain things women can do to lower their risk,” said Townsend. “Increasing physical activity in every area of your life is a terrific approach. This includes walking more and taking the stairs rather than the elevator and reducing stress levels. Taking the time for yourself everyday is important as well. It is a positive message although heart disease is very serious there are things women can do in everyday life to improve their overall health,” said Townsend.

    From an insurance standpoint, women who lead a healthy life can reduce the chances of developing a serious medical condition that would raise life insurance rates and increase the cost of a policy. This is another incentive for women to stay on top of their heart health. Women who have had a serious cardiac episode can pay 50 to 100 percent more for a standard term life insurance policy at a Table 2 or Table 4 rating. If a policyholder pays $1,000 a year for a standard policy with no pre-existing conditions, they would pay $1,500 at a Table 2 rating and $2,000 more at a Table 4 rating.

    For instance, a healthy 35 year-old female who does not smoke and is in good health can get a $100,000 term life insurance policy for $7 a month.

    For more about women’s health risks and how to prevent them, read “Health Risks Mom Should Think About That May Increase Life Insurance Costs”

    http://www.lifequotes.com/articles/lifeinsurance/health-risks-mom-should-think-about-that-may-increase-life-insurance-costs-2/

    For more about Jackie Warner’s latest book and strategies for losing weight and getting healthy for good, go to the official Jackie Warner website, at
    www.jackiewarner.com

    For more information about getting a heart health screening, go to

    http://www.sistertosister.org/

    About Life Quotes, Inc.

    Originally founded in 1984, Life Quotes, Inc. owns and operates a comprehensive consumer information service and online publication “Consumer Insurance Guide” and companion insurance brokerage service that caters to the needs of self-directed insurance shoppers. Visitors to the Company’s website,
    www.lifequotes.com , are able to obtain instant car, life, health, home and business insurance quotes, and have the freedom to buy online or by phone from any company shown. Life Quotes, Inc. generates revenues from receipt of industry-standard commissions, including back-end bonus commissions and volume-based contingent bonus commissions that are paid by participating insurance companies. We also generate revenues from the sale of website traffic and insurance leads to various third parties.

    SOURCE Life Quotes, Inc.

    Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

    Category: How to Diet  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
    12 May 2012

    200-pound Ohio boy loses weight, goes back home to mother’s care

    Ohio social workers sparked a national controversy last fall when they placed an 8-year-old boy weighing more than 200 pounds in foster care until he slimmed down. The boy was returned to his mother in March after losing weight, and on Thursday, the family supervision was lifted.

    But the controversy might not be over.

    “The reality was he was never in immediate danger — he was overweight,” James Hardiman, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, told the Los Angeles Times. He represented the boy’s mother, who fought the action in court.

    “I’m a little upset with the way the county handled this case and that it might set a precedent for other overweight kids to be removed from their homes,” Hardiman said.

    Obesity as a custody issue first caught the public’s attention in July, when an obesity expert at Children’s Hospital Boston wrote an opinion piece in the Journal of the  American Medical Assn. arguing that some parents should lose custody of their severely obese children.

    “State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors,”  Dr. David  Ludwig said in the editorial, which he co-wrote with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

    The editorial had been spurred, in part, by similar cases elsewhere. Soon, the issue became real in Ohio.

    Social workers there had been alerted about the 8-year-old boy after his mother, concerned about his weight, registered him for a healthy eating program at a local hospital, Hardiman said. The mother was heavyset, but the boy had an older brother who was thin, making it unclear how he gained so much weight, Hardiman said.

    The Cuyahoga County family services agency worked with the Cleveland Heights family for more than a year before the boy was removed from the home in October.

    In December, the boy was placed with an uncle in Columbus. During the four months he was away from home, he lost about 50 pounds through exercise and healthy eating, according to an attorney appointed to act as the boy’s guardian in court.

    “This was an unusual situation — no one was claiming the mother did anything abusive. Nobody was saying she was a bad mother,” that attorney, Cleveland-based lawyer John Lawson, told The Times.

    Since the boy returned home in March, he’s gained back some weight, Lawson said, adding: “Hopefully, he’s stabilized.”

    Social workers still plan to check on the boy and have offered nutritional and health counseling, he said.

    “We’ve got a big brother involved as well now who can take him to the gym,” Lawson said. “A lot of community people came forward to help.”

    But Hardiman said the county can’t take credit for mobilizing community assistance. It was the family and its lawyers who marshaled support from the YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the NAACP, which donated weights and a scale for the boy, who is African American.

    Meanwhile, Hardiman said, the boy — an honor student — had to attend four schools this year as he moved from foster care to his uncle’s house and back home.

    “There was no concern for his emotional stability,” Hardiman said. “It was just ‘lose weight, lose weight.’ ”

    ALSO:

    Justice Department to monitor some Texas elections

    Bristol Palin ridiculing Obama on gay marriage? Cue the backlash

    Purple Hearts for domestic terror victims? Lawmakers say it’s time

    molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

     

     

    Category: Help Me Lose Weight  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
    12 May 2012

    NATURAL HEALTH: Diet devoid of enzymes puts stress on body

    For most Americans, thinking about eating raw meat raises a feeling of revulsion, but my husband and I miss tartar, a dish made of ground raw sirloin dressed with raw yolk, onion, pickles and spices.

    Thirty-some years ago living in Poland, we could eat raw meat and eggs because the food was safe.

    In Poland, we also ate cheeses and butter made of raw, nonpasteurized milk, natural sauerkraut and pickles to which no vinegar was added, and we drank sour milk made from raw milk. Raw fruits and vegetables were a part of our diet, as well. What does all this food have in common? Natural food enzymes that assist in digesting food.

    One of the first books I read about the natural approach to health was “Enzyme Nutrition” by Dr. Edward Howell. Howell, who received his medical license in 1924, dedicated his life to the scientific research of nutrition and enzymes and their role in our health.

    He observed that animals living in the wilderness do not suffer from degenerative diseases. They do not get heart attacks, arteriosclerosis or cancer. In contrast, our pets suffer from the same ill conditions we do. In the end, Howell concluded that the major difference between these two groups of animals is diet.

    Our all-American diet — which is mainly cooked, microwaved, canned, pasteurized and other processed foods — deprives our bodies of natural food enzymes the body would otherwise find in raw and other non-heated food. As a consequence, the body is forced to produce its own digestive enzymes in higher amounts than necessary.

    That may severely impair the body’s production of metabolic enzymes, which are needed to repair body organs and play a role in fighting disease. The outcome is deterioration of health. We experience such health problems as indigestion (gas, bloating and stomach pain), diarrhea, constipation, headaches, allergies, fatigue and pancreatic enlargement.

    In due course, other diseases develop, including degenerative ones. Some researchers and physicians believe that the lack of food enzymes plays a role even in autoimmune diseases.

    Raw or fermented food, such as sauerkraut, contains enzymes that are needed to digest this particular type of food. When we consume enzyme-rich foods, the enzymes are released from the food itself, allowing the food to be digested in its own enzymes.

    As a benefit, fewer of our body’s internal digestive enzymes will then be called upon to perform the digestive function, therefore relieving the digestive organs from excess work. As a consequence, our body has more energy, time and resources to produce metabolic enzymes, which maintain metabolic harmony. That means greater health and longer life.

    Enzymes found in food are destroyed when we process food in temperatures higher than 118 degrees. That is why, when we predominantly consume cooked food, this enzyme-deficient food leads to excessive stress on the body.

    The best way to increase food enzymes is to increase the amount of raw and fermented food in our diet. It is easier to do this during the spring and summer. Great are raw fruits and vegetables, sprouts, soaked raw nuts and seeds such as almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, sauerkraut and pickles. The last two foods must be without vinegar and other chemicals; soaking nuts and seeds in water for several hours ensures activation of the food enzymes.

    I have observed that many people who switch to a diet containing more raw food initially experience increased digestive problems because they do not chew the food thoroughly.

    There are food enzyme supplements on the market that may be taken with each meal. Look for a supplement or a combination of supplements that contains the following enzymes:

    Amylase: to digest carbohydrates (including starches and sugars) which are prevalent in potatoes, grains, fruits, vegetables and many snack foods.

    Cellulase: to break down plant fiber.

    Lipase: to digest fats and oils found in meat, fish, oils, nuts and dairy. People whose gallbladders have been removed should take an enzyme supplement high in lipase.

    Protease: to digest protein found in meats, fish, dairy, eggs and nuts.

    Lactase: to digest lactose (milk sugars). It is recommended for people who have lactose intolerance.

    Many disorders are helped by enzyme therapy. Read my June article to learn how it is done.

    This column is for informational purposes only and should not be used to diagnose or treat diseases. If you have a health problem, consult a competent health practitioner. Halina Hladysz of Rapid City is a certified Master of Holistic Healing, natural health consultant, a clinical herbalist, holistic nutritionist and certified Cleansing Specialist. Contact her at health@rushmore.com.

    Category: How to Diet  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment