DIET during pregnancy can be more beneficial than exercise in reducing the risks of serious health complications, a new study has found.

The research, published on the BMJ website today says women, including those who are overweight or obese, who follow a calorie controlled diet and weight management reduce the risk of serious health problems like such as pre eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth without having any adverse effect on their baby.

Experts found that diet had the most benefit in reducing the risk of complications such as pre eclampsia and premature birth compared with any other intervention, including physical activity. In contrast, excessive weight gain during pregnancy was linked to a number of serious health problems.

In the UK, more than half the women of reproductive age are overweight or obese, and across Europe and the United States, up to 40% of women gain more than the recommended weight in pregnancy.

The team of researchers from Queen Mary, University of London, who carried out the study, found dietary intervention resulted in the largest average reduction in weight gain (almost 4 kg) compared with just 0.7 kg for exercise and 1 kg for a combination of the two.

Researchers concluded: “Dietary and lifestyle interventions in pregnancy can reduce maternal gestational weight gain and improve outcomes for both mother and baby. Among the interventions, those based on diet are the most effective and are associated with reductions in maternal gestational weight gain and improved obstetric outcomes.”

Sioned Quirke, a specialist dietitian in South Wales, said: “One of the most important things during pregnancy is to keep your weight down. High blood pressure or pre eclampsia can affect the baby, and we are seeing more cases of gestational diabetes, caused by being overweight when pregnant. If you develop that while pregnant you are much more likely to become a Type 2 diabetic after the birth. People who develop this may have bigger babies and they may have to be induced before the baby is due.

“I think for people who already eat badly before they are pregnant, it can go either way. They either feel there is no point changing and carry on or they get really motivated as they know they are not just eating for themselves. Some people believe they can eat what they want when they are pregnant as they think they need to increase their calories and they are eating for two, but your calorie requirements do not need to be increased until the last trimester.

“Being overweight can also affect your fertility and we see a lot of women who cannot get pregnant because of this. Also, if a mother does not lose weight after the first pregnancy, by the time they have a second or third child it can become a massive problem. It’s much better to deal with it at the time rather than leave it.”

Health experts also warned the study was not encouraging women to diet if she was maintaining her target weight. Dr Janine Stockdale, research fellow at the Royal College of Midwives, said: “This is welcome research which will underpin the advice and support that midwives are already giving to women.

“Good nutrition before and during pregnancy is hugely important to help ensure good health for the mother and her baby. This can also have benefits well beyond the pregnancy itself.

“We should be careful to note that the researchers are not advising women to lose weight during pregnancy; this is about managing excessive weight or weight gain. If a woman is on target to gain the right amount of weight during her pregnancy, then ‘dieting’ and ‘calorie controlled dieting’ as we commonly understand these terms, is not for her.

“We need to reassure women that under the care of a midwife or other health professional, weight management is safe and offers benefits to mother and baby, such as a reduced risk of pregnancy-related diabetes and pre-term birth.”

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A study on rats suggests that eating a high fructose diet for as little as six weeks may make you stupid. Luckily, a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids can counteract this IQ loss, researchers suggest. "Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," study researcher Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage." The study was published in the May 15th issue of the Journal of Physiology. The research was done on rats, but the researchers believe their brain chemistry is similar enough to humans to extend the findings.

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If you're like so much Americans, chances are high that you've attempted a minimum of pair diets that had been intended to help you lose weight. And you may have found one or two that did and will let you lose the burden somewhat briefly handiest to search out the load and come back on when you're again on your normal eating habits.

Weight problems are an issue nowadays. But it surely doesn't have to be. There are some easy adjustments that you'll be able to do on your diet that will help you not just lose the weight briefly but in addition keep it off.

This is the simple nutrition plan with the intention to work for nearly any person who is able to make a lifestyle change and get back their figure that they had in high school. Plus, the larger payoff is the power that you will have as well. You'll be staving off numerous future illnesses by following it.

Are you ready?

First Step Go Natural:
Other folks absolutely amaze me. They would like a few type of fast repair to their weight problems and are keen to try nearly anything for it to work. Hence, why now we have grapefruit diets, soup diets, cereal diets, low-carb diets, no-carb diets....you get the picture. On the other hand, the one thing that they do not take note is that when you consume sensibly...i.e. high fiber, low calorie foods...and keep away from the foods that are known to be bad...i.e. high calorie, low fiber foods...then likelihood is that they're going to lose weight.

Do you think Organic Foods are very much expensive?
Now probably the most commonplace responses to me once I recommend an organic vitamin is the price of buying organic food as opposed to the regular food you might find within the grocery store. The well being advantages of going organic merely outweigh the fee associated with them.

For example..
• Did you know that some farm raised fish are genetically altered to be transgender, and are loaded with hormones and antibiotics as well as poisonous dioxins that had been banned just about 3 decades ago?

• A grass fed cow comprises way more nutrients necessary for your body than a grain fed cow....moreover, a grass fed, loose range cow is less prone to carry micro organism than a grain fed cow.

• Chickens are often fed arsenic to assist kill parasites and bacteria....five years in the past, kids as young as 8 have been growing pubic hair and breasts in Brazil- the hormones introduced to chicken used to be believed to be the culprit.

The second part of this nutrition shall be a bit of more difficult than just incorporating natural meats, vegetables and fruit into your diet. So much of our diet in this day and age consist of delicate sugar, refined flour, chemical substances to give a boost to flavor and make food look better and preservatives (to extend the lifespan of the meals). Along with this, we have now injected vitamins, minerals and different things into our meals (like General cereal) which in a different way would not be there.

Your body has to procedure this and because it has to process chemicals and different things that we would not devour in its herbal state, it places more of a workload at the liver and kidneys than it might normally.

Eliminate Sugar and Refined Flour from your nutrition:
Oh man, now this is the final step and will probably be the toughest for anyone who wants to follow this diet phrase for word. The problem with sugar is that there are simply way too many names for it. Sugar suppresses the immune system, adds empty calories to our vitamin and is just about good for nothing from a dietary standpoint. It is the cause of various common illnesses these days and is associated with the whole thing from diabetes to gout to cancer.

Abstract
At the same time as likelihood is that you're looking at this vitamin plan and pondering that this isn't a intent diet in case you are a hectic American, I will inform you this. The explanation you are fat or overweight and have health problems that involve diseases and ailments which might be just now becoming not unusual is as a result of the food you might be eating.

The meals business, like several industries, doesn't seem to be right here as a result of they are all in favor of your health...they're right here to make as much money as they can. If this implies adding additives and preservatives for your food with a view to cut costs, incorporating arsenic into a chicken's diet or feeding hormones to fish to cut down the time it takes to succeed in adulthood, they're going to do so.

If you'll do anything else, change your vitamin to consuming natural meats. You're going to be reducing a lot of brought pollutants from your frame which in flip will not overload or rigidity your liver and kidneys.

The primary good thing about this diet plan is that it contains a healthy way of life into the plan. Be sure, you are limiting foods but you aren't proscribing the good foods.

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Diet Doc hCG Diet & Weight Loss recently conducted a survey of other leading hCG diet clinics across the USA and found that Diet Doc is the lowest priced (prescription), medical, weight loss program in the USA! Diet Doc hCG Diet provides medically, supervised weight loss nationwide and is the only modern-day hCG diet in the USA capable of shaving 30 pounds per month reports Julie Wright, president of Diet Doc.

Many doctors only offer the original 1950's Dr. Simeons HCG diet which promises dieters they will lose 1 pound per day if they consume 500 calories per day while taking injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (hcg), a human hormone made by chorionic cells in the fetal part of the placenta during pregnancy reports Wright.

The reason other doctors are offering an extremely outdated version of the hCG diet is because there is no where to obtain this specialized training unless the doctor spends a few years studying the original hCG diet protocol and updating to present day medical knowledge on how hormones interact with weight gain and weight loss.

Diet Doc is an all-inclusive weight loss program which offers a specially formulated weight loss shake that helps burn fat and reduce cravings for carbohydrates. The shake is consumed 4x/day along with eating food purchased from the grocery store (unlimited vegetables, chicken/lean beef or fish and fruit). Diet Doc also formulated a weight loss oil which is flavorless, but used to make salad dressing and for cooking. The oil burns fat within 30 minutes of consuming reports Wright. Dieters receive one month of shake, weight loss oil, unlimited doctor and weight loss nurse consultations/support, and one month of injection or tablet (both are prescription) hCG and are given a large cookbook and doctor written weight loss workbook on the Diet
Doc hCG Diet Program.

*These weight reduction treatments include oral hCG or an injection of hCG–a drug, which has not been approved by the food and drug administration as safe and effective in the treatment of obesity or weight control. There is no substantial evidence that hCG increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or "normal" distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restrictive diets. Results may vary and cannot be guaranteed. Medical supervision and compliance with our program is required.

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South Beach Diet teaches a way of life where you rely on the right carbohydrates and fats. This new way of eating allows you to live contently without eating the bad carbohydrates and fats.

South Beach Diet is "not just a diet, it is a way to eat for life." His philosophy involves learning to not so much eliminate carbs, but choose the right carbs such as whole grains, fruits and veggies. It also states that we must choose the right fats, like olive oils, and choose lean sources of protein like fish and chicken.

Although a glamorous name the South Beach Diet involves a high degree of determination and self motivation. It appears to be scientifically based and is rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein, and it doesn't omit any major food groups.

Phases of South Beach Diet

There are basically three phases in this Diet:

Phase 1, The Strictest Phase of the Diet: You eat normal portion sizes but all carbohydrate is restricted. This is the strictest phase in the diet. Low-Glycemic-index vegetables are allowed as well as low-fat cheese, nuts.

Phase 2, More Liberal Phase Lasts Until You Reach Your Weight Loss Goal: Some of the banned food is slowly introduced while weight loss continues to around 1-2 pounds per week.

Phase 3, Weight Maintenance: It is for maintenance and should be followed for life. Is all about maintaining your desired weight with a healthy balanced diet.

For each phase, there are no limits on portion sizes - you simply eat enough to satisfy your appetite - and you're encouraged to eat three meals and snacks each day.

Once you get pass the initial phase, however, there are fewer dietary restrictions than some other new diet plans. No major food groups are eliminated, plenty of fruit and vegetables are recommended and generally the diet follows the basic principles of healthy eating with the result that it should provide plenty of the nutrients you need to stay healthy.

Drawbacks of the South Beach

It doesn't fully cater for people who don't or can't eat dairy.
Most of the world outside America thrives on complex carbohydrates.
Like the Body-For-Life diet, The South Beach Diet promotes strategic snacking. A balance diet and healthy lifestyle combining exercise is vital to maintaining weight loss.

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The Atkins Diet is a high-protein, low-carbohydrate weight loss diet developed by Robert Atkins, M.D., during the 1960s. The Atkins Diet severely restricts the consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods and encourages the consumption of protein and fat.

Stages of Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins Diet consists of four stages:

Stage 1: Induction

Stage 2: Ongoing weight loss

Stage 3: Pre-maintenance

Stage 4: Maintenance

Induction is the first stage of the plan. It lasts 14 days or more. This rapid weight loss is due to limiting your carbohydrates to 20 grams a day. The only carbohydrates you can have are low-carbohydrate vegetables like lettuce, broccoli and tomatoes. The purpose of induction is to induce a change in your body chemistry that leads to lipolysis (burning fat for energy) and a secondary process known as ketosis.

Ongoing weight loss phase where you add carbohydrate, in the form of nutrient-dense and fibre-rich foods, by increasing to 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week and so on until your weight loss stops.

During the Premaintenance and Maintenance phases, dieters determine the level of carbohydrate consumption that allows them to maintain their weight. To prevent weight regain, dieters are told to maintain this level of carbohydrate consumption, perhaps for the rest of their lives.

Some Cons of Atkins Diet:
Once you are committed to atkins diet plan, you have to be committed to follow it for life. After you have lost weight, you can't go back to eating.
People who suffer from gout, kidney conditions should not go on Atkins. You should check with your doctor before you go into any diet plan.
Some participants in Atkins Diet report losing clumps of hair. They complained having no energy to exercise. Some reported going into a slump of depression.
High amounts of dietary protein increase calcium loss, which can contribute to osteoporosis.
Some research has indicated that this type of diet may endanger the kidneys, result in dehydration, or lead to other health problems.
South Beach Diet has a major advantage over Atkins — it promotes healthy foods — healthy unsaturated fats that have the effect of lowering bad cholesterol, complex, low GI carbs, that help insulin level regulation.

Another major difference between the two diets is that the South Beach Diet recommends moderation (implying lower caloric intake) while Atkins does not even suggest it.

The only advantage that Atkins has over South Beach would be that in Atkins the weight loss is bigger and faster. But this "advantage" can be dangerous for health, as rapid and massive weight loss cannot be healthy when occurring in a very short time and with the cost of depriving the body of valuable vital nutrients — vitamins, minerals etc.

Atkins has been very successful for many people and has resulted in not only significant weight loss – but also health improvement. Many people do find the diet demanding at first and need to make significant behavior modification to get the best out of Atkins.

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MUNCIE, IN - Does the Green Coffee Bean Diet really work? Dr. Joe Vinson, a professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton, recently conducted a study about green coffee bean extract for fast weight loss. He presented the results on March 28 of this year at the Spring 2012 Meeting & Expo of the American Chemical Society held in San Diego, California. He has quite an impressive CV, and after the results were presented, interest in more information on this new way to lose weight quickly and safely went up.

In Vinson's study, 16 adults who were overweight at the time went through three 6-week periods using a 700 mg dose, a 1050 mg dose, and a placebo. The participants were aged 22 to 46 years old. Daily intake of calories for them averaged 2,400 per day, which is slightly above many recommended amounts for losing weight.

Still, at the end of the study, there was an average of 17 pounds lost by all participants. There was a delay in between stages of the study in order for their bodies to clear it from their system. In total, the study lasted 22 weeks.

While you may think it is the caffeine in the green coffee bean that is what causes the weight loss, some believe that  Chlorogenic Acid plays a much larger role. However, more research is being conducted. Still,  Chlorogenic Acid enabled the body to better regulate glucose levels and also helps speed up the metabolism so that the body can naturally burn more calories.

Something that points to  Chlorogenic Acid playing a larger role in the weight loss help from green coffee beans, is the fact that roasted coffee beans (that are not green) do not provide the exact same benefits of green coffee bean extract. As mentioned, however, many more studies need to be done, but initial results are very promising.

This may be why green coffee bean extract was mentioned on a recent Dr. Oz episode along with other fat burning foods and products. All you need to do, however, is search the Internet to see that many people are starting to get interested in this new method of losing weight.

Green Coffee Bean Tablets or Extract?

While you may be able to purchase the extract of the green coffee bean on your own, when it is compressed into tablet form, it is easier to add it to the daily routine. The choice of which is better is going to be up to the individual that decides to try this alleged method to burn fat fast.

What other Benefits Does Green Coffee Provide?

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, green coffee bean extract is also thought to be very helpful in other ways.

Antioxidants - Chlorogenic Acid is a polyphenol that functions as an antioxidant, protecting the body from harmful cells that can cause damage - like cancer cells.
Overall Health - Additionally, green coffee beans are thought to also help with cardiovascular health, although more research needs to be done.
Blood Sugar Levels - By helping glucose levels in the body, you may be able to keep your blood sugar levels at an appropriate level, which can decrease the chance of type 2 diabetes.
There is still a lot of research to be done on green coffee bean extract and the diet pills that are made from it, but initial results have been quite promising for many people, prompting them to actually buy products based on the green coffee bean.

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My goodness, Olivia Newton-John looks incredible. She's all glossy, with shining eyes, and radiates that natural, healthy beauty that only Australians seem to have.

She tells me she is 63 - 63! - but she could easily pass for a decade or so younger. I suppose it has always been this way. When she was 29, she played a 17-year-old - Sandy in the 1978 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease. "I remember when I got the part, I thought, 'I'm way too old for this!' They had to sew me into the leather trousers. But now, of course, I look back at the film and think, 'Why didn't I realize how young I was?' I mean, 29 ..." she lets out a puffing sound. "It's nothing!"

To look at Newton-John, you'd never know that 20 years ago she was given a diagnosis of breast cancer (the same weekend that her father died of cancer). Then again, she does not strike me as a woman who would be given to self-pity. She underwent a partial mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and now calls herself a "cancer thriver." She won't talk about being in remission, "because that makes it sound as if it is still lurking. I'm not in remission - it's over."

The first time I met her was in 2008, when she was three weeks into a 228-kilometre charity walk of the Great Wall of China. It was a gruelling trip, with long days and long nights sleeping in tents in the Gobi Desert, and in scorpion-infested hotels where the sheets didn't seem to have been cleaned for several months. But did the glamorous Newton-John complain? "It was enlightening," she says now. "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger!"

Crucially, though, the trip was worth the trouble, because she raised more than $1.6 million to help fund the development of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre, which is due to open in Melbourne in June. She proudly shows me pictures of her standing in a hard hat and fluorescent bib in front of the freshly erected building. It will house oncology units and provide palliative care. There will be yoga, acupuncture, massage, meditation and art and music therapy available at the centre.

If that sounds a little too alternative, then it should be said that the centre is an adjunct to a hospital and will work with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the largest academic institute in the world dedicated to controlling the disease. Newton-John hopes that this is only the beginning, that one day these centres will exist all over the world.

She has also put her name to - and features prominently on the website for - a simple medical device called the Liv that helps women examine their breasts for lumps. Meanwhile, her singing and acting career continues apace. The four-time Grammy-Award winner has just completed a concert tour of South-East Asia (I bet she'd still suit the Spandex look she sported in her famous 1982 video for Let's Get Physical). And then there's her latest movie, A Few Best Men, which premiered and was lauded at the Rome Film Festival last October. She plays a cocaine-snorting, champagne-swilling mother of the bride. Olivia Newton-John? Cocaine? Has she ever done drugs? "No!" she says. "And if I had, I don't think you'd be the person I told."

I don't imagine she's ever done anything naughty at all. She tells me she occasionally eats meat, and that she likes a bit of champagne after a concert "to wind down." When I ask if she has ever been overweight, I am met with silence while she thinks.

"Well, only when I was pregnant with Chloe (her daughter, now 26, whom she had with her first husband, an actor named Matt Lattanzi). And I loved that. It was glorious."

You can taste the Olivia Newton-John lifestyle at the Gaia Retreat and Spa near Byron Bay in Australia, a peaceful hotel that she coowns, where guests can lose weight, detox and practise yoga.

And now you can eat like she does, with the help of her new cookbook, Livwise: Easy Recipes for a Healthy, Happy Life.

I was expecting bland mung bean and lentil creations, but actually the dishes are pretty palatable - there are omelettes and pancakes, muffins and cookies, and even recipes for burgers. To write the book, Newton-John enlisted the help of the chefs at Gaia, as well as nutritionists she worked with while she had cancer. "I've always been aware of my health - when you are having to go on stage and perform, you need to be feeling good - but when I was diagnosed with a life threatening illness I became really, really conscious of my health."

She is a big believer in the "you are what you eat" mentality. "I've never been one for faddy diets. I have tried vegetarianism, and I've done the macrobiotic thing, but I believe now in just being balanced. If my body asks for meat, I give it meat."

She eats lots of legumes - chickpeas, borlotti beans - drinks lots of water and eats only organic. Her daughter's best friend died when she was just 5 years old of a kidney cancer that is believed to be caused by environmental factors, and Newton-John has been organic ever since. "There are countless pesticides out there that have never been tested on humans," she says sadly.

She supports her diet with a range of supplements from the Amazon Herb Company, which is owned by her husband, John Easterling, whom she married in 2008. (When I tried to ask about her former boyfriend, Patrick Mc-Dermott, who went missing in 2005 while on a fishing trip in California and was never seen again, I am blocked by Newton-John's PRs). It provides supplements derived from the rainforest, and she has bags of the pills and lotions with her in her hotel room.

What do they do? I ask somewhat skeptically. She goes to get me a bottle of "camu," a nutrient that claims to "fortify the immune system," increase your levels of serotonin (thus cheering you up) and "flood your body with vital micronutrients." It tastes vile, but if it works for her, who am I to argue?

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Every bride wants to look her best on her wedding day. But some are going to extreme measures to lose weight. They’re using what’s called the K-E Diet. It involves running a feeding tube through your nose and subsisting on an 800 calorie liquid diet. “This illustrates how desperate people are for weight loss, especially a person who’s about to get married,” said Dr. Ethan Lazarus. Lazarus treats patients at the Clinical Nutrition Center said this isn’t an appropriate option for brides who want to drop a few pounds.

“Done with proper medical supervision, many doctors would say is an appropriate treatment for someone who is really heavy and needs to lose weight for medical reasons,” Lazarus said. “But that’s not typically a style of eating plan that we would lose 20 pounds for a wedding with.”Pure Barre in Cherry Creek offers classes for brides-to-be wanting to get in shape. “I’m going to have these pictures for the rest of my life, so I want to look the best I can for these pictures and my special day,” said bride-to-be Tiffany Grimm. The classes make her work hard, and she’s willing to put in the effort. But she’s not willing to damage her body.

“I love my food, and I think any type of diet that’s a crazy fad diet, it’s good for momentary use, but then you’re going to gain it back,” Grimm said.  “that’s not something I want to put my body through.”Dr. Lazarus says Tiffany has the right idea.

“I wouldn’t try starting a weight loss program 20 days before the wedding,” he said. “I think if we want to look great for the wedding it really behooves us to give ourselves 3 or 6 or 9 or even 12 months. And he wouldn’t trust any physician offering up weight-loss through a tube. “Physicians take an oath to first and foremost do no harm,” he said. “And I don’t know that we could say that physicians doing this kind of treatment are upholding that oath.”

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Diet spams are quickly invading fast-growing social network Pinterest, where spammers tag prospective victims' names in the images they posted.  Computer security firm Sophos said the Pinterest posts claimed to offer a wonder diet, using images of scantily-clad models in lingerie or swimsuits.
 
"If you were one of the people who clicked on the bit.ly link, however, you might find yourself redirected (via a dental website that really shouldn't be allowing anyone to redirect traffic to a third party site) to a bogus news page, promoting alleged diet products," Sophos said in a blog post.
 
As of Tuesday, Sophos said Pinterest is now blocking the links.  "Traditional email spam may have reduced somewhat in the last year or so, but what we are seeing is a rise in spam exploiting social networks. And relatively young websites like Pinterest are still finding their feet when it comes to securing their users," Sophos said.
 
But it noted Pinterest may have not yet closed the profile of the spammer, who it said has "pinned" hundreds of other similar posts.  It said it is possible the spammer may soon be posting links not yet blocked by Pinterest, "and users will have yet more spam of which to be wary."

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