Tag: Low Carb Diets

What is a Macrobiotic Diet?

Post author By admin
Post date September 9, 2012
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What is a macrobiotic diet? The word “macrobiotic” is Greek for “long life”. This diet plan consists of eating mostly whole grains. It’s quite different from many other weight loss plans out there – especially low carb diets. The macrobiotic diet supports an Eastern philosophy of balancing the yin and yang by eating certain foods. It’s considered to be more of a lifestyle change than a short-term diet plan.

Practitioners of the diet prefer to eat organically grown foods in the traditional manner, such as steaming, boiling, and baking. It aids in weight loss because it’s high in fiber and low in fat. Fiber is great for digestive health. If you want to lose stomach fat, then this diet is a good choice because of its low fat and high fiber content.

Macrobiotic Diet Food Recommendations

What is a macrobiotic diet and what should I eat?.

50% of your daily diet should consist of brown rice, wheat, barley, corn, barley, rye, etc. Approximately 20% – 30% should consist of vegetables. The rest of your daily food consumption should include soup, beans, fish, seeds, nuts, and fruits.
Some vegetables aren’t recommended. Limit the amount of potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and beets. Eating them sparingly is OKAY. Other foods to avoid include dairies, refined flour, hot spices, and any foods with preservatives.
Caffeine is forbidden in the macrobiotic diet. Stimulated drinks don’t provide the “balance” for the diet’s plan philosophy. You can drink a lot of water, juice, and decaffeinated teas.
Pastas and noodles are okay in small portions. This might sound like a vegetarian diet plan, but moderate amounts of fish and lean meats are permissible. Use unrefined oils when cooking natural foods.
It’s okay to eat a bowl of soup every day. Soups and broths containing soy bean paste, beans, and vegetables are acceptable.
Sea vegetables and beans should take up 10% of daily food intake. Sea vegetables include foods such as kelp, hijiki, nori, and Irish moss. They contain a lot of vitamins and minerals.

What is a Macrobiotic Diet?

Macrobiotic diet practitioners never eat anything 3 hours before bedtime. It’s recommended to chew food thoroughly. Count to 50 for every mouthful of food. This helps to create a meditative atmosphere.

Vitamin Supplementation on Macrobiotic Diet

Don’t try this diet without consulting a dietitian – otherwise you might end up with nutritional deficiencies. Taking a multi-vitamin supplement everyday might be in order, unless you eat a good amount of sea vegetables. Since the macrobiotic diet plan includes very little fish, you could end up with a deficiency of omega 3 fatty acids.

Exercising on Macrobiotic Diet

The macrobiotic diet doesn’t address exercise. As a given, though, no diet is complete without some form of moderate exercise. Try to be as active as possible every single day. Just cleaning the house and scrubbing the floors can provide fitness benefits. You might also want to consider engaging in systematic exercise programs like martial arts and yoga.

Should you Try a Macrobiotic Diet?

The macrobiotic diet plan requires a lot of commitment since it’s about making permanent changes to your lifestyle and daily eating habits. If your primary goal is to lose weight then this might not be the diet plan for you. The idea behind this diet is to strive for a long, healthy life. It’s appealing to those who want to take a holistic approach to their well-being which is What a macrobiotic diet is.

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The Truth about Protein

If you have been researching low carb diets and the Paleo diet in particular you will have noticed that they all have one thing in common. They recommend that you increase your intake of protein. This may come across as strange especially if you are trying to lose weight. Doesn’t protein contain high amounts of fat and cholesterol and should be limited?

Well that is not exactly true. The truth about protein is that your body needs protein for energy and to build muscle. Yes most people could benefit from increasing their protein intake. But knowing which proteins to eat is important.

The Functions of Protein

Your body needs protein to build and maintain muscles, organs, connective tissues, skin, bones, teeth and blood. Protein provides your body with energy, eating more protein when sick will help your recover quickly. If you didn’t eat protein your body would feel weak and exercising would be almost impossible.

Almost all of your bodily functions require the use of enzymes such as digestion. Protein helps to form enzymes in your body. Antibodies are the protein which is found in your blood and helps fight bacteria and toxins. Hormones contain protein and are responsible for sending messages throughout your body.

If you consume too much protein your body will store the excess as fat. Good sources of protein are lean sources such as turkey, chicken and fish.

Truth about Protein

Because so many people choose meat as their protein source animals are now raised with manufacturers having one thing in mind. Making a profit from what they sell. This is why today’s animals are fed chemicals to help them grow and to keep them disease free. Unfortunately this makes eating meat not as healthy as it once was.

To combat this you can choose to purchase meat and poultry which has been raised as organic, free range or as natural choices. Many people on the Paleo diet prefer to shop for grass fed protein sources. This is in keeping with eating the way your ancestors did many years ago.

Your Best Sources of Protein

The Paleo diet suggests that you consume high amounts of protein each day, around the 35% mark. When choosing protein look for very lean sources such as rabbit, lean chicken and turkey, lean beef cuts and lamb.

Truth about Protein

Fish is an excellent source of protein and low in fat. Salmon and mackerel have higher amounts of Omega 3 which is good for you and should be included in your diet.

You will want to consume protein at every meal so having eggs for breakfast is a good start to your day. Eggs can be combined with peppers and mushrooms and turned into scrambled eggs or even an omelette.

Protein choices for lunch can include a tuna, chicken or turkey salad. For dinner you could have grilled salmon or roasted lamb along with plenty of high fibre vegetables, broccoli and Swiss chard are good examples.

Once you get used to eating a little more protein at every meal your body will start to feel the benefits. You will notice that you probably have more energy and that your muscles feel less sore after exercising.

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Which Is The Best Low Carb Diet?

Post author By admin
Post date November 2, 2011
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The question of which is the best low carb diet often comes up for people who are searching for ways to incorporate the low carb way of eating into their lives. Low carbohydrate food plans can be very effective but they are not always easy.

Atkins Low Carb Diet

Dr Robert Atkins is credited with making low carb diets popular with his book ‘Dr Atkins’ Diet Revolution’, first published in 1972. It was largely revised in ‘Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution’ (2002) which remains the ‘bible’ for many people following the Atkins diet despite later amendments by the company that took over Dr Atkins’ business after his death.

The Atkins diet focuses on restricting carbohydrate intake to a very low amount (under 20 net carbs) for a two- week induction period, then gradually increasing them to the point where you stop losing weight (the ‘critical carbohydrate level for losing’). Foods are also limited during induction, and then gradually added back.

You can eat unlimited meat, fish, eggs and pure fats (oils and butter) at all times. Cheese, cream and vegetables are limited in induction, although you are advised to eat at least 2 cups of lower carbohydrate vegetables from the approved list. Milk, nuts, fruit, beans, starchy vegetables, whole grains, whole wheat products and alcohol are not allowed during induction but are added back later. Refined carbohydrates such as white bread and sugar are not allowed at any stage.

South Beach Low Carb Diet

South Beach Low Carb Diet

The South Beach Diet was developed by Dr Arthur Agatston. In the first phase it is very similar to Atkins induction but includes a few more foods, for example beans, nuts and seeds in limited quantities. Other foods are phased in later.

South Beach is more restrictive in the types of fats consumed, promoting monounsaturated fats (olive oil, canola oil) and minimizing saturated fats like butter.

The main difference in format between South Beach and Atkins is that South Beach counts portions while Atkins counts grams of net carbohydrates (subtracting fiber, which is not digested).

Other Low Carb Diets

There are many other low carb diets out there. Some of the best known are Protein Power, the Sonoma diet and the Paleo diet. Broadly speaking they follow the same principle which is that restricting carbohydrates allows the body to go into lipolysis or ‘fat-burning’ mode, resulting in weight loss. At the same time there is plenty of fat consumed, which helps people stick to the diet because they do not feel hungry, even when calorie intake is relatively low.

So now for the big question: which is the best low carb diet? The answer will lie with you to some extent. Low carb diets do work provided you can keep to the rules. But think about what suits your lifestyle or food preferences before you start.

Vegetarians will find the induction phase of Atkins difficult, although it is possible as long as you eat both eggs and dairy foods. South Beach is probably easier for vegetarians.

The gram-counting style of Atkins is good for people with an analytical type of mind who like to know exactly where they are with a diet. South Beach would be better for people who would find carb-counting annoying and wouldn’t actually do it.

The bottom line is this: the best low carb diet is the one that you can stick to.

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