Category: Cholesterol (Page 6 of 7)

      Spring-Clean Your Diet

      March 27, 2009 /

      Men’s Fitness.com helps you get the crap that has been accumulating in your fridge since winter.

      Things to Trash:

      High-calorie dips, spreads, and condiments
      Bye-bye, nacho cheese sauce, French onion chip dip, blue cheese dressing, and mayo. In their place, swap a couple of varieties of salsa, vinaigrette dressings, and mustards, and other low-carb steak, barbecue, and cocktail sauces that are free of added sweetners.

      Fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt
      It’s typically more sugar than anything else. Instead, stick with sugar-free, plain variety (mix in your own fresh fruit and nuts for flavor), or Greek, which is loaded with extra protein.

      Extra Beer
      Sure, you need one . . . maybe two . . . some nights. But unless you’re having a party, only chill a couple at a time. If the beer isn’t there, available and cold, you’ll be much less likely to overdo it on a nightly basis.

      Things to Stock up On:

      Lean proteins like chicken or turkey breast, fresh fish, and red meat
      Buy in bulk at a wholesale grocery, split the family-size packages into smaller bags or containers, and freeze smaller servings to save money.

      Lots and lots of produce
      Strive to eat things with one ingredient, the food itself. Broccoli. Spinach. Apples. Get it? Buy precut veggies to save time on prep. But only buy what you can eat one week at a time. Otherwise, the excess is bound to go to waste.

      A giant water pitcher
      Get yourself a good water filter and keep it topped off at all times to prevent you from using those wasteful plastic bottles. Every time you pour a glass, top off the filter so you have cold water at arm’s reach when you’re thirsty.

      Click here to check out things that you need to clear from your pantry, as well as things to stock it with.

      Cholesterol, Diets, Food preparation, Foods products, Men's Health and Wellness, Nutrition

      America?s Unhealthiest Restaurants

      March 25, 2009 /

      YAHOO! Health handed out grades for the unhealthiest restaurants and some might surprise you:

      D-
      On the Border
      On the Border is a subsidiary of Brinker International, the same parent company that owns Chili’s and Romano’s Macaroni Grill. It should come as no surprise then that this chain is just as threatening to your health as its corporate cohorts. The overloaded menu offers appetizers with 120 grams of fat, salads with a full day’s worth of sodium, and taco entr?es with an horrific 960 calories?and that?s the calculation without rice and beans. Border crossing is a decidedly dangerous enterprise.

      SURVIVAL STRATEGY: The Border Smart Menu highlights four items with fewer than 600 calories and 25 grams of fat. Those aren’t great numbers considering they average 1,800 mg of sodium apiece, but that’s all you’ve got to work with.

      D-
      Baja Fresh
      It’s a surprise Baja Fresh’s menu has yet to collapse under the weight of its own fatty fare. About a third of the items on the menu have more than 1,000 calories, and most of them are spiked with enough sodium to melt a polar icecap. Order the Shrimp Burrito Dos Manos Enchilado-Style, for instance, and you’re looking at 5,130 mg sodium?that’s more than 2 days’ worth in one sitting!

      SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Unless you’re comfortable stuffing 110 grams of fat into your arteries, avoid the nachos at all costs. In fact, avoid almost everything on this menu. The only safe options are the tacos, or a salad topped with salsa verde and served without the belly-busting tortilla bowl.

      D-
      Baja Fresh
      It’s a surprise Baja Fresh’s menu has yet to collapse under the weight of its own fatty fare. About a third of the items on the menu have more than 1,000 calories, and most of them are spiked with enough sodium to melt a polar icecap. Order the Shrimp Burrito Dos Manos Enchilado-Style, for instance, and you’re looking at 5,130 mg sodium?that’s more than 2 days’ worth in one sitting!

      SURVIVAL STRATEGY: Unless you’re comfortable stuffing 110 grams of fat into your arteries, avoid the nachos at all costs. In fact, avoid almost everything on this menu. The only safe options are the tacos, or a salad topped with salsa verde and served without the belly-busting tortilla bowl.

      Read the entire article, here.

      Cholesterol, Diets, Foods products, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

      Your guide to healthy Chinese food

      February 23, 2009 /

      Eating Chinese food can also be interpreted as a ?healthy choice.? But as MensFitness.com pointed out, Chinese dishes can be loaded with sodium, fat and calories.

      Below is MF?s guide to eating healthier at Chinese restaurants.

      Chinese food may be tasty, but more often than not it’s an ab-killer. We asked Jim White, R.D., a Virginia-based dietician, to help us make some smarter choices.

      LEARN THE LINGO
      Anything steamed is obviously good, as is Jum (poached), Chu (broiled), Kow (roasted), Shu (barbecued), lightly stir-fried, dry stir-fried, or braised. Anything breaded, fried, or coated in flour is not.

      USE THE RIGHT TOOLS
      Chopsticks are your friend. “You’re going to get less oil than you would with a fork,” adds White.

      GET SAUCED
      Steer clear of thick gravy or sauces made from sugar, flour, or cornstarch (such as those found on General Tso’s or Sweet and Sour Pork). They’re loaded with corn syrup. Instead, White suggests hot mustard sauce, hoisin sauce, or oyster sauce. And no matter what, always make your order “half sauce.” That way, you get half the sauce?and half the calories?of what they’d normally use in the dish.

      GO VEGGIE
      Here’s an inside tip: Order your meal cooked in vegetable stock (a traditional Chinese style of cooking called “stock velveted”) to reduce the calories in your dish by 150-300 and the fat by 15-30 grams. “Expect your protein to be a bit more moist and tender, with less crunch than usual,” says White.

      SKIP UNNECESSARY SIDES
      A serving of crispy noodles can set you back as much as 200 calories and 14 grams of fat, and Lo Mein is even worse. That dark brown color in the noodles? It comes from soaking up all that oil. A large portion generally runs in the thousands of calories.


      Click here to read the entire article      .

      Cholesterol, Diets, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

      Ways to dress up oatmeal

      February 18, 2009 /

      OatmealIf you research the benefits of oatmeal, you?ll find that its health benefits range from lowering your blood cholesterol to helping you reduce the risk of heart disease when you combine it with a low-fat diet. Simply put, oatmeal is one of the healthiest carbohydrates that you can consume regardless of whether you?re trying to bulk up or drop weight.

      But anyone who eats oatmeal on a daily basis (and I?m not talking about the crap you find that?s already pre-loaded with preservatives and sugars) knows that it can be boring as hell. The taste can be bland and therefore you could wind up punting it out of your diet and replacing it with an unhealthy cereal.

      Raisins seem to be the go-to when oatmeal is involved, but there are alternatives. Personally, I like to eat steel cut oatmeal, which already has a nuttier taste than regular rolled oats. (Although fair warning ? steel cut oatmeal takes longer to cook.) With my steel cut oatmeal, I also like to mix in a serving of all natural peanut butter for a good dose of protein and fat, as well as a sprinkling of cinnamon for taste. I?ve also seen some people mix cinnamon and Splenda together for even more taste, but I state away from sweeteners as much as I can because they can be a trigger for migraines.

      If the peanut butter and cinnamon aren?t enough for you, mix in a scoop of your favorite protein powder. It may sound strange but trust me ? depending on what flavor protein powder you use it can be very tasty. I?ve also heard people mixing in applesauce to help improve the taste of oatmeal, but for those that want to add size, going with a serving of peanut butter and/or protein is more beneficial. I’ve been known to cut up a banana and mix in it, as well.

      Cholesterol, Diets, Food preparation, Foods products, Men's Health and Wellness, Nutrition, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

      Good Calories, Bad Calories By Gary Taubes

      September 25, 2008 /

      For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates are good, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. With seven years of research, Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) ?via their dramatic effect on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation?and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the numbers. There are good calories, and bad ones. Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960’s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then?wrongly?were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

      Good Calories Bad Calories is the end of the debate about the foods we consume and their effects on us.

      Anti-Aging, Book Reviews, Cancer, Cholesterol, Cholesterol levels, Diabetes, Diets, Food preparation, Foods products, Heart disease, Medical Issues for Men, Men's Health and Wellness, Nutrition, Obesity, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

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