Posted by admin on July 31, 2009
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is one of flavoring agent and enhancer in foods. The best to describe the functionality of MSG is the word “umami” by the Japanese that can roughly translated as “tastiness”. There are some people who believe that in addition to sour, sweet, salt, and bitter, MSG can results in a fifth basic taste sensation.
However, a recent study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cites what animal studies have hinted at for years that the taking of MSG in diet could be a factor in weight gain.
Subjects of 750 Chinese men and women with age range between 40-59 has been focused. All these subjects lives in 3 rural villages in north and south China. They cook their foods at home by using organic and non-processed foods and roughly 82% used MSG.
The results, even when physical body activity, total daily caloric intake and other possible explanations for body mass differences were accounted for, participants who used the highest amounts of MSG had the incidence of overweight nearly 3 times more than those who did not use MSG. This significant correlation between higher weight and MSG confirmed what animal studies have been suggesting for years.
Considering MSG as an excitotoxin, it enhance and excite neurotransmitters which are important brain chemicals inside our body, causing nerve cells to discharge and also exciting nerves related to taste. Perhaps this ability to excite these nerves is a factor in an association between increased MSG usage and weight gain.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describes MSG as “naturally occurring,” and has it on the GRAS (”generally regarded as safe”) list. However, not only could MSG be causing us to gain weight, but some studies also reveal that as many as 25 to 30 percent of Americans have adverse reactions to it (e.g., palpitations and migraine headaches), and as many as 30 percent are extra sensitive to it if they consume more than 5 grams at one sitting.
The easiest way to avoid MSG is to buy organic product whenever possible. Or you can just avoid processed ingredients by making things from scratch as much as possible. While choosing menu for your meals try to limit making stews or soups in a crock pot, since slow-cooking may release glutamic acid in a small amounts from the meat or chicken or other protein sources in the recipe.
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Filed Under: Foods
Posted by admin on July 3, 2009
To live in a healthy and full lifestyle, fitness should be on the top list. Staying fit both in body and mind results in a sense of well-being, happiness and comfort that you won’t stumble on when you overlook your health. It is a million dollar industry that helps us stay fit and trim and the help is out there abundantly when you look for it.
Body building for fitness is the greatest way you can go about not only losing weight but also gaining body mass and becoming stronger. What else do you want after you have an extremely beautifully built body with tip top fitness?
We can simply use the terms body building and fitness interchangeably with each other nowadays. It can be easily understand that those who take the time to focus on the muscles in their body and work on them are perhaps among the most fit of all sportsperson. A lot of people carry out the sport of body building for all sorts of reasons, but fitness is most likely the major reason.
We live in a fitness aware culture and body building fits in well with that idea. Fitness means more than just losing weight and having a trim body. It means living a healthy lifestyle and nurturing the best body you can, using a variety of methods.
Becoming a successful body builder is to have appropriate diet. They need a very particular diet with a lot of carbohydrates and lots of protein. Body builders are also exceptionally alert of what they are putting in their body.
To be one, you should eat a balanced diet plan that gives you the nutrients you need to have a great body. Because you are eating in this way, you will be giving your body necessary nutrients that will make you healthy just by taking them. Consequently, you will realize a level of fitness you never knew was possible. So fitness is accomplished in the diet just by concentrating on what you eat.
Body building also calls for a challenging workout schedule where you lift weights and perform exercises that focus on particular muscle groups as well as specific muscles. When you begin to chisel those muscles, they become very well defined and healthier. That’s why body building is great for a fitness system. When you attain the level of fitness that you wish, you will be able to look in the mirror and be proud of what you see.
Posted by admin on June 30, 2009
Ever had that rumbling feeling in your stomach during that late night movie out with your friends and family? Most of us today have the tendency to grab a packet of titbits as soon as this indulging feeling engulfs our mind and also our stomach, but many may not know the consequences that follow because of these late night snacks.
The constant longing for food by our brain and also stomach causes us to actually lose control of our principles and automatically causes us to head for the refrigerator and grab a whole bunch of snacks that we can gather into our arms. By consuming food at a time where the body and also digestion system is at a ‘shut down’ mode, these food substances are not properly digested and may eventually lead to severe consequences such as obesity, thus, leading to an unhealthy lifestyle.
Many would have taken the path most people have followed such as the late night visit to stalls, especially college students. But many seem to ponder after a few months where they went wrong in their daily diet, to eventually wake up one day and find out that their tummy is on the verge of breaking loose out of their shirts.
Weight has been a major issue for us, as more and more oily food and also 24 hour restaurants are being introduced into the society. These late night food frenzy that makes the restaurants money flow but our stomach’s grow, proves to us just how unhealthy our lifestyle is.
In view of this, preventive measures have to be taken to instill awareness into the community that weight matters in today’s globalized era and it should not be taken lightly. For those who have already been going through this problem, and have been enlightened by the sheer truth of the effects of late night dining, do not be worried, as there are many weight loss programs and products such as Proactol and Zotrim for you to implement and thereby conquer your mind to lead a hale and hearty life.
