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Health, Fitness, and Nutrition; Resource for Women

Category: Scientific Research

Slow the Aging Process With Intermittent Fasting

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On January 30, 2017

In Healthy Aging, Nutrition Tips

SLOW THE AGING PROCESS WITH INTERMITTENT FASTING

The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting for Youthful Aging, Using Micronutrient Supplementation Support

There are already several studies showing that caloric restriction can extend the lifespan of  many different species, including mammals. Since these studies have proven to work so well on animals, many people are trying to do the same.

Results based on more that 70 years of research show that people who reduced the calories they consumed by just 20% during a period of 2 to 6 years, were able to lose weight and promoted many anti-aging mechanisms in the body.

But just restricting your calories, won’t provide you with the best results.

Cornell University researchers, back in 1934, studied a similar diet on rats. Their diet was severely reduced in calories but maintained micronutrient levels. The results showed that the rats lifespan were twice than what would normally be expected.

And this research is the base to what you probably already heard: “intermittent fasting”, works better than just reducing calories.

There are two different methods for  Intermittent Fasting:

* A “Daily Fast”

With the “Daily Fast”, you will stay without eating for 14 to 16 hours a day, and you’ll eat, for example, only dinner and brunch. You need to make sure not to eat anything at least 3 hours before going to bed. When you do this, you’re giving your body the 6 to 8 hours it needs to metabolize stores of carbohydrates and glycogen (the energy in your muscles). When your body finishes the process, it will start burning fat.

* The 5:2 Diet:

With the 5:2 diet, you should fast one or two days, per week. On the other 5 days, you should eat normally.

On the days that you fast you can choose to simply not eat anything or you can reduce your caloric intake to just 500 to 600.

Research has shown that a back to back, 2day fast, burns more visceral fat; the fat that is internal and surrounds the organs. Visceral fat may not be visible to the naked eye, but it’s more of a health concern than subcutaneous fat, and can cause serious health issues. When you see a distended abdomen on a male that appears hard and rounded, almost like a pregnant belly, that is due to visceral fat.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

* weight loss

* improved brain function

* increased blood sugar control; resets insulin sensitivity

* reduced inflammation

* increased energy

* optimized metabolism

* improved blood pressure

* long-term appetite control

* increased beneficial intestinal bacteria

* better focus

* slower aging

* increased human growth hormone

* more lean muscle mass

* great heart health and endothelial function

Look to Food for Health and healing; not emotional comfort

Look to Food for Health and Healing; not emotional comfort

To achieve optimal results with Intermittent Fasting, you can implement micronutrient support. These foods, besides having a lot of benefits for your health, should be included in your diet. Make sure you add the following:

* Any supplements that include quercetin, pterostilbene, resveratrol, grape seed extract, and black tea extract.

* Omega-3 fatty acids

* Fruits

* Dark chocolate

* Soluble fiber

* vegetables

* black or green tea

By adding these supplements to your Intermittent Fasting, you’ll be able to reduce systemic inflammation as well as improve overall health. Plus, the right supplements can allow your body to fight diseases like cancer, heart disease, obesity, or diabetes, by boosting your immune system.

How to Turn on Your Fat Burning Machine

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On January 6, 2017

In Nutrition Tips, Scientific Research

The hormones insulin and glucagon are both produced in the pancreas and work in balance. When one goes up the other goes down and vice versa. This was ideal when food wasn’t always readily available.  But now it is, for most of us, and that’s where the problem starts. 

These two hormones serve opposite functions. Insulin is secreted by the beta cells of the pancreas when your blood sugar levels are high. So, following a meal that contains mostly high glycemic/high sugar carbohydrates, your blood sugar level shoots up quickly past the normal post meal level of 140 mg/dl. This will facilitate storage of glucose (blood sugar) in the muscle tissues and especially fat cells.

 Glucagon is secreted by the alpha cells of the pancreas when blood sugar is low. This primarily occurs between feedings (fasting) and while exercising. Glucagon causes the liver to release stored energy into circulation.

 Insulin promotes storing energy and manufacturing proteins while glucagon promotes the release of stored energy, both glucose and fatty acids.

 If you want to convert your body to a perpetual fat-burning state, it is essential that you keep your insulin and blood sugar levels low. That’s because burning sugar always takes precedence over burning fat. The more carbohydrates in your diet, the higher your blood sugar and insulin levels will be. If you are consistently burning more sugar, that means you end up storing more fat.

If your body is accustomed to burning sugar for energy, as soon as it is out of the bloodstream, your body will start begging for it again. You will have cravings and even experience a “high” from eating sugary foods. As your blood sugar rises and subsequently crashes, you will become edgy, depressed and fatigued until those cravings are fed again. This constant process reduces insulin sensitivity, causing your body to need more. You may call it a sugar addiction.


The ideal way to start burning body fat, instead of storing it, is eating foods with a lower glycemic index and exercising with high intensity. Eating more protein and less carbohydrates. When eating fast burning (high on the glycemic index) carbohydrates, one needs to include fiber, protein or healthy fats, to slow down the digestive process, and in the process making it lower glycemic index.

Exercise, especially intense exercise, is very effective at burning the glycogen stores in muscle tissue. Your glycogen (the storage form of glucose in your muscles and liver that your body can burn as fuel when necessary) is depleted during sleep and fasting, and will be depleted even further during intense exercise. This can further increase insulin sensitivity, which means that a post workout meal (within an hour window of exercise) will be most efficiently utilized. Protein should be consumed at this time to help with muscle recovery, and the body is able to utilize more protein following exercise. 

Interestingly, exercise and intermittent fasting can both achieve some of the same benefits, so why not double up and do both? Some of the things both can achieve are:

  • Decreases blood glucose
  • Decreases insulin level 
  • Increases glucagon
  • Increases growth hormone
  • Increases insulin sensitivity
  • Promotes lipolysis and free fatty acid mobilization
  • Promotes cellular fat oxidation.

Intermittent fasting (IF) has tremendous benefits for burning fat, and getting off the vicious sugar burning cycle. During the fasting process, the body isn’t fed sugars and burns off its glycogen stores. This forces the body to go into fat burning mode for energy.

A few of the additional proven benefits of intermittent fasting are:

-Promotes Fat Loss, longevity

-Starves bad bacteria in the intestines

-Improves; brain function, immune system, allergies, cellular regeneration and repair

-Reduces; inflammation, cravings, blood pressure

-Fights glucose dependent cancer cells

So… as a recap, to start burning fat instead of sugar, you want to increase glucagon production and insulin sensitivity by increasing quality protein consumption, while eating fewer carbohydrates (low GI), keeping blood sugar levels low. Also  including exercise and IF into the plan would be the ideal way get the fat burning machine going.

Fit vs Healthy

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On December 10, 2016

In Nutrition Tips

You can be fit without being healthy

You can be fit without being healthy

When I first started exercising in the early 80’s, I was hooked on the overall feeling it gave me: energetic, athletic, and strong. I remember feeling like I wanted to stay moving all day. I was in my early 20’s then, so…there was that youth thing in my favor and those endorphins were addictive. As I got into competitive bodybuilding, my mindset somewhat shifted to obtaining “the look”. My nutrition wasn’t for overall health, it was for looking and being lean and muscular. My workouts were primarily geared to build muscle or lose fat, depending on whether or not it was on or off season (ie; prepping for a contest or not). I was still very adamant about maintaining flexibility and never got the “puffy” off season look.  I didn’t understand the huge swings in weight then, and I don’t understand it now. You have to eat more to gain muscle, sure, but some people take that to the extremes and find it difficult when it’s time to get ready for a contest. Up and down, up and down….the yo yo effect is not healthy…but I digress…

Although I never had huge weight swings and typically only started my contest prep 9 weeks out, I still could have gone about it in a much healthier fashion. During contest prep, I would get excessively lean, as expected, but my skin and hair would dry out and my face would look gaunt, even at such a young age. I would eat far too little fats. Back then we thought of all fat as the enemy. There was no such thing as eating “healthy fats” during contest prep. The mindset was, eating fats will make you fat, period.

But competitions came to an end for a long time due to some life changes and being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  At times it was debilitating and I never imagined I would be able to compete again, and honestly it wasn’t a huge concern because I had far more pressing issues to do deal with at the time. Having an autoimmune disease made me question where I was focusing my efforts. Was I doing everything to look fit, or to be healthy? Was I eating just for the macronutrients or was I also getting in the necessary micronutrients; vitamins and minerals? I hadn’t really considered true nutrition for my overall health. I had always thought by staying active and lean, meant I was healthy. With experience comes wisdom, and I have realized health has to come first and that being “fit” is NOT the same thing as being “healthy”.  After-all, there have been some pretty fit looking bodybuilders who have dropped dead due to what they have put their bodies though for the sake of getting big or getting shredded for a show.

I appreciate and respect the fine balance of health. I have to be very proactive to maintain that balance. When my nutrition is off and/or I miss workouts (or overtrain), it undeniably  has a negative effect on my health, and I have to chase away inflammation and pain. Through extensive research, trail and error, I’ve found specific nutrient support, coupled with intermittent fasting, gets everything back on track much quicker. My rheumatologist was amazed that my condition has actually improved. I can’t stress the importance of nutrition enough. It’s not just about macros!! So many fitness competitors only worry about their macros. I see post on social media #IIIYM meaning; if it’s in your macros you can eat it. Basically to hell with the micronutrients needed for overall health and any other additives hormone or toxins that may be in your food that adversely affect your health.

While most of us want to look in shape, being truly fit has several components, and they are not just aesthetic; strength, body fat composition (which is the most visually obvious) endurance, flexibility and balance are all important. And being healthy has far more components. I would advise any people just starting their fitness journey to consider the balance of being both healthy and looking fit. Be patient and take on daily healthy habits. It’s not just a sprint to “look fit”. Be consistent, be smart, be proactive about overall health/wellness.  Being healthy versus being merely fit, includes having energy and a good immune system. But true health goes beyond just the physical; it reaches into mental, spiritual and social realms. Be Strong, Happy and Happy for LIFE!!

Can Women Slow the Aging Process With Free weight training?

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On October 5, 2016

In Fit Tips, Healthy Aging, Nutrition Tips

Building strength for quality of life.

Building strength for quality of life.

Can Women Slow the Aging Process with Free Weight Training.

As we age, the significance and various advantages of free weight training, turns out to be progressively critical. Interminable exploration has been done on this particular topic, and as an aftereffect of these studies we now have hard proof that as we age our bone thickness density declines or weakens and we lose muscle (sarcopenia), however unlike some degenerative conditions, there is something we can do to fight both of these widely recognized negative impacts of aging.

Medical research has demonstrated, that by keeping weight on the bones and keeping the joints moving, we can keep up healthy bone density and more joint flexibility as we age. Why weight training? Basically, the process of  lifting weight causes the muscles and ligaments to pull against the bone, this procedure empowers various cells in the bone to produce more bone, therefore increasing bone density; the vast majority of the people don’t understand that bone is living – developing tissue and reacts to the stresses of weight training, by becoming stronger/denser, just like the muscles.

Unfortunately, there was old fashioned misguided judgment with respect to lifting weights that has kept much of our aging population of women from ever considering lifting weights. Until the 1980s, there were not very many health and fitness clubs, and the ones that were around, usually catered to bodybuilding men and athletes.  Women looked at weight lifting as something reserved for bodybuilders, athletes and manly looking women. Fortunately, the younger population in Western Society it’s very common to see women working out with free weights and embracing the strength and power it achieves. But sadly, many older women are aging even faster due to a lack of any form of strength training. 

There are a variety of ways to train for strength. The most simple, is using your own bodyweight against gravity, which can be done nearly anywhere. Most health clubs have machines that are built to facilitate your ability to lift the weight at the point where your joints and ligaments need the most assistance. Starting out, it is important to strengthen these joints and ligaments before overloading them with force and machines are wonderful at achieving this, whilst also allowing you to build ample muscular hypertrophy. But after building up some strength, it’s more beneficial to advance to incorporating more free weights and doing exercises in a standing position as much as possible. Free weights require your stabilizer muscles, or ancillary muscles, to come into play far more, while balancing and controlling the weights through the range of motion. Unlike machines, where the weights are balanced for you, and only force is needed to move the weight.  When ancillary muscles are used, it helps with overall proprioception/balance. With improved balance and increased strength, there is less likelihood of falls. And in the event of a fall, with increased bone density from the weight training, there is less chance of breaking a bone. 

Concerning seniors, grown-ups 65 and more seasoned, weighting training assists with bone density issues, as well as expands muscle quality also, in this way enhancing scope of movement and parity, furnishing them with a more secure and higher personal satisfaction. Like clockwork, a senior has a fall. At regular intervals somebody in this age group kick the bucket as an immediate aftereffect of their injuries brought on by a fall. Falls are the main source of harm related deaths. If they don’t die, typically they age faster and become dependent on family or caregivers, unless they change their course of action. 

In one year alone more than 1.8 million individuals 65 years or more were treated in emergency rooms, 20-30% of seniors who fall endure moderate to serious injury; wounds, hip breaks and other trauma. Quite a bit of this could have been avoided with increased senior physical conditioning through weight training and other exercise. Exercise and nutrition are so vital to remaining strong and healthy as we age. 

Natural Treatments for Stress

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On September 1, 2016

In Healthy Aging, Scientific Research

how adaptogens workAdaptogens – What Are They And What Do They Do?

The term adaptogen is used as a part of natural medicine to allude to herbs that is reported to build the body’s resistance to stress, injury, nervousness, and exhaustion. The idea of adaptogens goes back many years to old India and China, yet cutting edge research did not start until the late 1940’s. In 1947 Nikolai Lazarev characterized an adaptogen as an agent that permits the body to counter unfriendly physical, substance, or natural stressors by raising nonspecific resistance toward such stress, along these lines allowing the organism to ‘adjust” to the unpleasant circumstances.

There are almost one million recorded plants, herbs and botanicals on the planet. Of these exclusive 30 have been recognized as adaptogens-nontoxic with the capacity to help the body oversee stress and come back to a feeling of wellbeing.

Pure herbal adaptogens are actually occurring substances contained in a few plants that can help the body restore itself. They have been utilized as a part of Asian societies for a huge number of years to protect against anxiety, weakness, uneasiness and help resistant working, having already been called “rejuvenants”, “tonics”, “qi herbs”, “restoratives”, and “rasayanas” by natural health professionals around the globe.

Stress is a reality of regular life for those around the globe yet especially so in America. Day by day, we are shelled with stress and pressure from each bearing including work, family and the environment. Utilizing pure natural adaptogens may give some protection, relief and escape from day by day pressure experienced by everybody living in the modern world.

Herbal medication guarantees that adaptogenic herbs are distinct from different substances in their capacity to adjust endocrine hormones and the. They help the body accomplish ideal homeostasis. Adaptogens have a normalizing impact on the body and are able to do either toning down the activity of hyper functioning systems or fortifying the action of under-active systems.  These herbs are different from other substances in their capacity to adjust endocrine hormones and the immune system. They are the only natural substances able to help the body keep up ideal homeostasis.

More recently, adaptogens were used widely as a part of the training regime of the previous Soviet Union’s competitors. By considering the effects of training on the athlete’s body and giving them adaptogens to supplement their ordinary eating regimen the competitors performed better and their bodies recouped all the more quickly. Take a look at the medal counts from the Olympics during the 1970’s and 1980’s. The outcomes speak for themselves!!! Today numerous top competitors keep on using adaptogens to help them acquire peak performance.

From my point of view, the thing I like most about adaptogens is that they optimize physiological functioning.  Along these lines, we can create wellness versus treating disease. That, to me, is a better way to live.

IS YOUR HIGH SUGAR DIET AGING YOU?

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On June 23, 2016

In Nutrition Tips