Those Who Always Eat Unhealthy Foods Will Ditch Their Bad Diet After Reading This

NOVEMBER 22 BY SCOTT CHRIST IN HEALTH, LIFESTYLE | 1.1K SHARES

You know how important it is to eat healthy foods. Who doesn’t, right? But consuming certain unhealthy foods can erase your healthy progress in a matter of seconds. If you want to win the battle of the bulge, avoid these 10 unhealthy foods like the plague.

#1: White pasta

Refined carbohydrates are one of the biggest weight gain culprits of unhealthy foods. And pasta is particularly troublesome. The flour used to make most refined or “white” pasta is highly processed and stripped of most of its nutritional properties. Refined pasta and other grains can make your blood sugar rise rapidly, releasing a hormone that blocks your body’s ability to burn fat. That alone should be plenty of incentive to skip the pasta.

Want More? Read on: Fast Food Items With Over 1000 Calories

#2: Sweets

Got a sweet tooth? Then you’re subjecting yourself to one of the biggest sources of unhealthy foods. Sugar offers little nutritional value and is one of the biggest sources of weight gain. A sweet indulgence once in a while is okay, but it’s best to avoid sweet treats like cake, cookies, pie, and ice cream whenever possible.

#3: French fries

Research shows that French fries are a major source of weight gain in overweight and obese people. Fries and other fast food are high in calories and fat and contain highly processed, chemical-laden ingredients.

#4: Soda

Soda is a sugar-filled blend of empty calories, meaning it has zero nutritional value. Most soda contains a cheap corn-based sweetener called high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which can lead to more weight gain than plain old table sugar according to Princeton researchers. Stick with water, coffee, and tea over this “liquid candy.”

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Himalayan salt and Celtic salt

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Salt of the Earth

Posted on November 26, 2013

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You might not have given much thought to the salt you use. Many people just buy a big box of iodized table salt and use it for the next year. But when it comes to your health, it pays to be pickier about salt, and the right salt is an easy way to up the nutrition in everything you cook.
Manufacturers decided long ago that we equate white foods with purity, hence white flour, bleached toilet paper, and refined salt. Natural salt isn’t white; it’s sometimes pink, or grey or even slightly blue, but never pure white. So manufacturers put salt through a bunch of chemical processes, including bleaching, to come up with white refined table salt. The natural minerals are stripped out in the process, then other stuff is added — anti-caking agents and sometimes iodine.

Natural salts are the easy choice

Natural salts — whether mined or collected through the evaporation of salt water — contain trace amounts of up to 84 essential minerals. These include potassium and magnesium, both of which work to balance out your body’s sodium levels, helping regulate hydration. Those minerals help balance pH and lower blood pressure.
One thing to keep in mind, however: Natural salts don’t have less sodium than refined salt. So if you’re on a sodium-restricted diet, simply switching to natural salt won’t make a difference.
Here are my favorite choices:

Himalayan Pink Salt

Himalayan salt is mined from mountain locations — former seas, now high up in the Himalayas. This pretty pink salt has all 84 of the essential minerals. It has the very best electrolyte profile, which means it helps maintain balanced pH in the body.

Celtic Salt

Celtic sea salt is similar in mineral value, but instead of being mined, Celtic salt is harvested from the sea. It is raked by hand, then left to dry in the sun.  Compared to Himalayan salt, one potential difference is that today’s oceans are subject to more environmental damage and pollution than ancient seas. While there’s no hard evidence that these toxins make their way into harvested Celtic salt, it’s something to bear in mind.

But don’t I need iodine?

Table-salt companies think we need extra iodine in our diet — it was first added in the 1920′s to help prevent goiter! But we can get plenty of iodine from a well rounded diet. Strawberries, cod, eggs, shrimp and tuna are all rich in iodine.  Himalayan and Celtic salts have naturally occurring iodine as well. Iodine is just one additive you don’t need.

What about Kosher salt?

Kosher salt doesn’t include additives like iodine or anti-clumping agents. But if your Kosher salt is white in color, it’s also refined, which means all the minerals have been stripped away in the bleaching process.

Try a salt scrub

Another way to use natural salt? Use half salt and half baking soda, adding a little water to create a loose paste. Use as a scrub around your armpits and breasts (men too!). Leave on for about 10 minutes, then shower. The scrubbing and the salt draws toxins from your lymphatic system. You can also use the scrub around your neck or in the groin area, where large clusters of lymph nodes are present.

Himalayan salt and Celtic salt

10 Common US Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries

10 American Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries

July 10, 2013 | 523,326 views

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By Dr. Mercola

Americans are slowly waking up to the sad fact that much of the food sold in the US is far inferior to the same foods sold in other nations. In fact, many of the foods you eat are BANNED in other countries.

Here, I’ll review 10 American foods that are banned elsewhere, which were featured in a recent MSN article.1

Seeing how the overall health of Americans is so much lower than other industrialized countries, you can’t help but wonder whether toxic foods such as these might play a role in our skyrocketing disease rates.

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Creative Ways to Use Dumbbells | Women's Health Magazine

9 New Ways to Tone Up with Dumbbells

Never do another bicep curl again

PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 22, 2013  |  BY CASEY GUEREN

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Dumbbells are good for way more than just bicep curls and overhead presses. Sure, they help make your arms look amazing, but they can also tone up your entire body. So the next time you want to change things up in your workout, try a few of these moves from the Women's Health Big Book of Abs.Then get ready to call this throwback your new favorite fitness tool.

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6 Simple Tips for Proper Weight Management This Holiday

6 Simple Tips to Help Prevent Holiday Weight Gain

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By Dr. Mercola

Many people regard the holiday season as a time for well-deserved breaks and festivities. Included in that merry-making is typically a myriad of sweets, carb-heavy comfort foods, cocktails and more than a few excuses for skipping the gym.

As a result, the average American gains close to one pound during the six-week period from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.¹

This may not sound so bad, but if you don’t lose it you’ll be up 10 pounds in a decade without even noticing it. If you’re already overweight or obese, which two-thirds of Americans are, the weight gain tends to be more substantial – around 5 pounds each year.

This weight gain amounted to more than half of individuals’ annual weight gain, whether they were overweight or not, which means the holiday season really is the time of year when you’re most likely to put on the most extra weight, even though it’s only several weeks long.

This isn’t written in stone, however, and there are plenty of actions you can take to not only prevent holiday weight gain, but even to lose weight during the holidays if you need to

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5 Common Fitness Habits That Can Hinder Your Exercise Goals

Common Fitness Habits that Can Prevent You from Reaping Maximum Results

November 15, 2013 | 26,214 views

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By Dr. Mercola

When it comes to creating a sustainable, healthy lifestyle, your habits can literally make or break you. Setting good habits from the start can save you a lot of frustration and wasted time down the road.

Two featured articles address some of the detrimental exercise habits many get trapped in, and a third article offers up helpful tips to improve your workout.  I’ll summarize some of these here, and focus on what I believe are the most important parts of a healthy fitness routine.

Busting Bad Fitness Habits

Prevention Magazine¹ and fitness trainer Jillian Michaels² recently wrote about common fitness habits that you would be wise to reconsider, if you want to improve your results.

This includes:

1. Avoiding exercise due to sore muscles—More than likely, you’ve at some point experienced the muscle soreness that sometimes follows a new or vigorous workout, called DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
   Tempting as it may be to coddle and rest your sore muscles, recent research³ has found that exercise using light resistance actually provides acute relief similar to that of massage.
2. Ignoring severe pain — On the other hand, ignoring messages transmitted through sharp pains is not to be recommended either.
   Pushing through pain can result in hard-to-heal injuries, so always listen to your body. Pain can signify that you’re doing an exercise incorrectly, so make sure to pay attention to your form.
3. Staying within your comfort zone— This is a critical flaw of any fitness regimen. Without variety and challenge, your body will quickly adapt and plateau.

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7 Cold Remedies Used By The Pros - Q by Equinox

‘Tis the season for the sniffles to take hold, so we’ve got some preventive medicine.

Monday, November 11, 2013 | Wendy Schmid

You know the feeling: Sudden-onset stuffiness, a throb at the temples, a tickle at the back of the throat. A cold can creep up Paranormal-style and linger for weeks. 

Despite what your mother may have told you, you cannot fall prey by going outside in the cold with wet hair. Preventing infection is the ideal scenario, but the rhinovirus can be inhaled; it can also live on doorknobs, subway poles, and treadmill buttons for 2 weeks—ample time for you to pick it up, quite literally, by unwittingly rubbing your nose or eyes. (Step up the hand washing and cut down on the face touching to limit your odds.) 

“The cold virus takes hold by entering your mucosal cells, taking over the reproductive machinery of the cells and replicating itself,” says Alexander Kulick, M.D., a practitioner of integrative medicine in Manhattan. “It duplicates roughly every 2 seconds and reaches critical mass in the first 12 to 24 hours.” At that point, you officially become sick, so acting fast (i.e. as soon as you feel one coming on) is the only way to outwit a cold.

To give you better chances, we’ve rounded up the remedies pros themselves rely on to nip that pesky virus in the bud:

1Dr. Susan Blum, M.D., functional medicine specialist and author of The Immune System Recovery Plan

"At the first sign of a cold, I take Vitamin A drops. Not beta carotene, but the pre-formed kind of Vitamin A called retinyl palmitate. It stimulates the activity of the immune cells that fight viruses. I take a very high dose—100,000 IU—per day for 3 days and it works like a charm, better than anything else! The only caveat: This type of high dose shouldn’t be used for extended periods of time unless you’re under a doctor’s supervision. You shouldn't take it if you are or think you are pregnant."

2Dr. Alexander Kulick, M.D., integrative medicine practitioner

"I use and recommend Host Defense MyCommunity Extract from Fungi Perfecti. It’s a blend of 17 mushrooms like reishi, cordyceps, and shitake, and if you take 2 dropper-fulls in water 2 to 3 times on the first day you feel sick, it can abort the attack. Mushrooms contain polysaccharides called beta-glucans that research shows boost the immune system. I also advise using it before a flight, when germ exposure is high due to the re-circulated air in the cabin."

3Dr. Clara Charny, naturopath and founder of Charny Healing Center

"Supplements that support the immune system help, but so will a 20-minute detox footbath with mustard powder and essential oils like eucalyptus and rosemary. It’s an old folk remedy that’s been used in Eastern Europe, China, and India. We eliminate toxins through our feet and this combination heats up the body and increases circulation, helping to draw out the virus. For a little soreness in the throat, gargling with something alkalizing like honey and apple cider vinegar (one tablespoon of each dissolved in warm water) will help, too. Do both right when you feel sick, then put socks on and go to bed."

4Haylie Pomroy, nutritionist and author of The Fast Metabolism Diet

"An old Ayurvedic remedy is to dab almond oil in the nostrils before you’re around groups of people who may be sick—like on a plane or at the gym. It acts as a barrier and helps prevent you from contracting the virus through inhalation. If I’m starting to feel sick, my secret is called Lomatium root. Nature really takes care of you because it flourishes at this time of year, right when you need it. It’s my go-to because it’s anti-viral and studies have shown it increases the body’s natural killer cells. I like the liquid tincture from Wise Women Herbals. Take 25 drops twice a day when you first feel symptoms."

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