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Guide to Five Food Secrets
Some so-called diet foods are high in fat and sodium and can actually cause you to gain weight instead of lose it! For example, diet sodas are loaded with salt-which causes water retention and inhibits weight loss. In addition they're an excuse to over eat. It's still a soda! People will order two double cheeseburgers, a large fry, a soft serve ice cream, and a diet soda, and wonder why they aren't losing weight yet. Granola and cheese both have high fat content. And, we all know that chicken is a much better diet food than beef. Surprisingly however, some poultry is fattier than others. Did you know that chicken has one and a half times the fat of turkey? Also a skinless chicken thigh has almost twice the fat as a skinless drumstick. A four-ounce skinless chicken thigh has more saturated fat than a comparable serving of lean select grade steak or pork. And, chicken wings are fattier than drumsticks. Go with the drumstick or breast… 
Food poisoning is odorless and tasteless, but you can spot it if you know what to look for. First of all don't buy a fish with dull or sunken eyes, or that smells overly "fishy." This can indicate contamination. Also, stay away from ready-to-eat seafood placed too close to raw seafood. It might be there for a quick sale, but may already be unsafe to eat. If losing weight is your choice as a means to cut health care and health insurance costs, there's one thing you must remember: In order to lose weight, you have to burn fat. Fortunately there are two foods that can help you do this-even while you're eating them. First, eat plenty of spinach. Besides being loaded with nutrients like iron and beta carotene, and vitamins C and E, spinach revs up the metabolism to burn away any unwanted fat. Second, try adding hot peppers to your diet. They're zesty and make a great snack or flavoring while speeding up you metabolism by as much as 25 percent. That causes you to burn up to an extra 45 calories for every 700 you consume-which can translate to a weight loss of up to three and a half pounds a week! 
Be sure your diet includes walnuts-a good source of polyunsaturated and monosaturated fat. According to recent studies, eating walnuts lowered artery-clogging cholesterol. Another cholesterol reducing food is oat bran-a food rich in soluble fiber that's proven to lower blood cholesterol levels. Research concludes that three grams of oat bran a day can lower you cholesterol five to six points in a matter of weeks. And add a few raisins to your oat bran, recent studies have shown that raisins are high in reveratrol-a known cholesterol fighter. Also, add a few herbs to your diet to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure. Healthy herbs such as hawthorn offer many of the same benefits of blood pressure medications without the side effects or hefty price tag. Hawthorn extracts are widely known in Europe and Asia for their amazing properties of improving the blood supply to the heart and dialating coronary vessels, improving the heart's metabolic rate, and lowering blood pressure. Hawthorn is also helpful in preventing atherosclerosis by reducing cholesterol levels! As usual, herbs like hawthorn should be used as a dietary supplement only. Standard dosage: 100 mg. to 250 mg. three times daily. You can increase your sex drive and potency by adding a little sarsaparilla to your diet. It's long been known that the prescription form of yohimbine helps produce erections in about one-quarter of men suffering from impotence. But, with side effects like high blood pressure and raised heart rates, this drug has lost popularity. But sarsaparilla, in addition to herbs like ginseng and mandrake, can increase sexual desire and improve sexual potency. Surprisingly, there's also one other thing that can increase your sexual prowess and desire-and it's a simple everyday vegetable. What is the magic vegetable? Don't laugh but it's spinach. Recent studies have verified that the penis is a vascular organ-and a high cholesterol, high fat diet can clog those arteries in the same way an artery in your heart can become congested. It has also been proven that high cholesterol levels lead to impotence. However, spinach is a food that's very low in fat and cholesterol, and very high in vitamins and proteins. So by adding spinach (and other low fat, low cholesterol vegetables) to your diet, you could be giving you sex drive a lift. |
