THE FAT TYPES AND THEIR EFFECTS

High consumption of fat or of the combination fat and carbohydrates causes obesity, heart disease and other health problems. However the different types of fat have very different effects on the health. Here is a survey of the different fat categories and their effects

Mono-unsaturated fat – This type of fat prevents heart disease and circulatory disease in moderate amounts.

Omega-6-poly-unsaturated fat – This fat type prevents heart disease if you do not consume too much of it. However it causes inflammatory reactions. This type of reactions are benign when they are moderate and when they are provoked to fight disease. But a constant high inflammatory response is dangerous, and can cause rheumatism, heart trouble and cancer. A very high consumption of this type of fat is therefore dangerous.

Omega-3-poly-unsaturated fat – This type of fat prevents heart disease and reduces inflammatory reactions in moderate amounts. Therefore it also reduces the risk of cancer, intestinal inflammations and rheumatism.

Omega-9-poly-unsaturated fat – This type of fat also prevents heart disease and reduces inflammatory reactions in moderate amounts. Therefore it reduces the risk of cancer, intestinal inflammations and rheumatism.

Saturated fat – This type of fat is probably not dangerous in small amounts. In higher amounts, saturated fat gives high cholesterol levels, causes clogging of the blood vessels, causes coronary heart disease and increases the risk of infarct of the heart and other organs.

Cholesterol – Cholesterol is a fat-like compound found in the food, but also synthesized from saturated fat by the body. High intake of saturated fat or of cholesterol itself therefore elevates the cholesterol level in the body. Cholesterol is a necessary compound, but in higher amounts it causes clogging of the blood vessels, causes coronary heart disease and increases the risk of infarct of the heart and other organs.

Trans-fat – This type of fat is produced by chemical processing to yield specific mechanical properties. Margarine often contains this type of fat. This type of fat is dangerous, and is a probably a causal component for heart disease and cancer. There is however one exception Some amount of fat containing the trans acid conjugated linoleic acid seem to be benevolent for the skin health and may help reduce weight. Conjugated linoleic acid is found in milk and butter.

COMMON PROBLEMS OF THE AVERAGE DIET

The average American and European diet generally contains too much fat and carbohydrates combined. The fat consumed is generally a mixture of trans fat, saturated fat and omega-6-poly-usaturated fat. This bad fat consume causes overweight and is probably a major contributing component for the incidence of heart disease, cancer, intestinal inflammatory diseases, rheumatism and other inflammatory conditions.

RECOMMENDED AMOUNT OF FAT IN THE DIET

A common advice is to let 25-30 of the energy needed be covered by fat and the rest by carbohydrates. However, experts do not agree at his point. Some recommend a low carbohydrate diet with more fat, and others recommend a high carbohydrate diet with a low fat amount.
In either case, the combined intake of fat and carbohydrates should not be much higher than your daily energy consumption if you have a normal or wanted weight. If you want to loose weight, this combined amount must be lower. If you want to gain weight, it should be higher.

THE RIGHT MIXTURE OF FAT TYPES

The right mixture of different fat types is as important as the amount of fat in the diet to keep good health. However, you must not take the percent ratios given here too literally, since there is little agreement about the exact ratios that should be recommended. Furthermore, if you have an active lifestyle that demands much energy, this is best achieved by increasing the amount of carbohydrates and mono-unsaturated fat.

Mono-unsaturated fat – Ideally as much as 35 of the fat consumption should be from this type of fat. You can find this fat in olive oil, raps oil and walnut oil.

Omega-6-poly-unsaturated fat – 30 of the fat consumption should be from this fat type. You find it in soy oil and corn oil.

Omega-3-poly-unsaturated fat and omega-9-poly-usatureted fat – 20 of the fat consumption should be this type. You find it in fish oil and in fat fish. If you suffer from inflammatory conditions like rheumatism and intestinal inflammation, you will probably benefit from increasing the amount of this fat type, and reduce the amount of other fat types.

Saturated fat – Not more than 15 of the fat consumption should be saturated fat. Saturated fat is found in fat from mammals, coconut fat and in milk.

Cholesterol – The cholesterol level in the body depends upon the combined amount of consumed cholesterol itself and saturated fat. To keep the cholesterol level right, you should not consume too much saturated fat, and not very much of food containing cholesterol, like eggs and spawn.

Trans-fat – This type of fat should ideally not be a part of the diet at all. Margarine, cookies, snacks and often also bread contain this type of fat. It is therefore important to reduce consume of margarine, cookies, snacks, and to check the composition of the bread you consume.

Conjugated linoleic acid – This is perhaps the only trans fat acid that is benevolent in some amount. It is found in natural milk fat, and you can buy dietary supplements of this substance. A small amount of this substance may help keep your skin healthy and may help you to reduce weight.

The bigger you are the better you are – well not in this case. The world’s 25 biggest food companies are failing to take the global crisis in diet seriously and often only change their practices when faced with adverse publicity that could damage their sales, a new study claims.

From Wal-Mart to McDonald’s to Coca-Cola to Cadbury, the world leaders of the food industry are accused of a “pathetic” performance on meeting targets set by the World Health Organisation WHO in 2004 to take basic action to improve diet that will in turn tackle obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The study judged each company on responsible marketing, in particular to children; reductions in fat, sugar and salt; portion size; and developing healthier new products. Just four of 25 said they were taking action to reduce the total fat content of their products. Only five said they were cutting sugar and 10 said they were reducing salt.

The comprehensive review of the policies and practices of the companies, including four British conglomerates, found that their global reach meant they were largely unaccountable for how they addressed the epidemic of diet-related disease. Researchers at City University in London said the only factor which seemed to produce action on issues such as salt and fat content was public discontent.

If the best way to get companies to take health seriously is to have critics give them a wake up call, do these companies care? Many dont even have the correct policies in place to deal with the crisis.

This lack of commitment to health paints a poor overall picture. Diseases such as cancer, heart disease and obesity currently account for 60 per cent of global deaths- that figure is predicted to rise to 73 per cent by 2020. Does this epidemic have to rise to this level before these corporations accept some kind of accountability?

In most of my newsletters, I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is looking for. In this article, I’d like to give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I’d just give you some ideas of what I stock my kitchen with. Remember, if you don’t have junk around the house, you’re less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthy food around the house, you’re forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding temptations when you make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you’ll enjoy.

Alright, so let’s start with the fridge. Each week, I try to make sure I’m loaded up with lots of varieties of fresh vegetables. During the growing season, I only get local produce, but obviously in winter, I have to resort to the produce at the grocery store. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like zucchini, onions, asparagus, fresh mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, red peppers, etc. to use in my morning eggs. I also like to dice up some lean chicken or turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat cheeses. Coconut milk is another staple in my fridge. I like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich, creamy taste. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy taste to lots of dishes, but it’s also full of healthy saturated fats. Yeah, you heard me…I said healthy saturated fats! Healthy saturated fats like medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid. If the idea of healthy saturated fats is foreign to you, check out an eye-opening article at truthaboutabs.com called “The Truth about Saturated Fats”.

Back to the fridge, some other staples

Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt – I like to mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.

Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias, etc. – delicious and great sources of healthy fats.

Whole flax seeds – I grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to yogurt or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, potentially creating inflammation causing free radicals from pre-ground flax.

Whole eggs – one of natures richest sources of nutrients and high quality protein and remember, they increase your GOOD cholesterol.

Nut butters – Plain old peanut butter has gotten a little old for me, so I get creative and mix together almond butter with sesame seed butter, or even cashew butter with macadamia butter…delicious and unbeatable nutrition!

Salsa – I try to get creative and try some of the exotic varieties of salsas.

Butter – don’t believe the naysayers; butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet just keep the quantity small because it is calorie dense…and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to assure yourself a heart attack.

Avocados – love them…plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.

Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs.

Rice bran and wheat germ – these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.

Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots – for salads with dinner.

Home-made salad dressing – using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo’s Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil source of inflammation-causing free radicals.

Some of the staples in the freezer

Frozen fish – I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored. Plus, frozen fish is usually frozen immediately after catching, as opposed to fresh fish, which has been in transport and sitting at markets for days, allowing it more opportunity to spoil.

Frozen berries – during the local growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a supply of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies

Frozen veggies – again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.

Frozen chicken breasts – very convenient to nuke up for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.

Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other “exotic” lean meats – Yeah, I know…I’m weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you’re serious about a lean healthy body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that’s sold at most grocery stores.

Alright, now the staples in my cabinets

Oat bran and steel cut oats – higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.

Cans of coconut milk – to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.

Various antioxidant rich teas – green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best. Surprisingly, even chammomile tea has been shown to provide important trace nutrients and antioxidants.

Stevia – a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.

Organic maple syrup – none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap…only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time I really use this because of the high sugar load is added to my post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin surge to push nutrients into your muscles.

Raw honey – better than processed honey…higher quantities of beneficial nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve glucose metabolism how you process carbs. I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas.

Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta – much higher fiber than normal pastas

Brown rice and other higher fiber rice – NEVER white rice

Cans of black or kidney beans – I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!

Tomato sauces – delicious, and as I’m sure you’ve heard a million times, they are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.

Dark chocolate as dark as possible – This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the same time. It’s still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don’t feel like I need to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges. Choose dark chocolate that lists it’s cocoa content at 70 or greater. Milk chocolate is usually only about 30 cocoa, and even most cheap dark chocolates are only around 50 cocoa. Cocoa content is key for the antioxidant benefit…the rest is just sugar and other additives.

Organic unsweetened cocoa powder – I like to mix this into my smoothies for an extra jolt of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.

Of course, you also can never go wrong with any types of fresh fruits. Even though fruit contains natural sugars, the fiber within most fruits usually slows down the carbohydrate absorption and glycemic response. Also, you get the benefit of high antioxidant content and nutrient density in most fruits. Some of my favorites are kiwi, pomegranate, mango, papaya, grapes, oranges, fresh pineapple, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and all types of berries.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my kitchen. Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good ideas you can use next time you’re at the grocery store looking to stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.

Plastic surgeons are doing more and more tummy tucks as the effects of poor nutrition, stress and a lack of exercise takes affect on all of us. This brings up the issue of tummy tucks and scarring.

Tummy Tucks and Scarring

Many people who find that diet and exercise are not enough to shape their abdominal area are turning to abdominoplasty. Abdominoplasty, which is also known as a tummy tuck, is one of the most common body sculpting plastic surgery procedures that is performed today. While this procedure is a relatively quick method for getting rid of that spare tire, you need to give some thought to the potential scarring that will result in some cases.

Tummy tuck scarring is very common after having the operation. The traditional tummy tuck procedure involves making a large cut horizontally across the lower abdomen from hip to hip. This cut allows surgeons to access the underlying abdominal area, where they can remove fat, tighten muscle and get rid of excess skin in the stomach area. Often, this procedure can require other areas to be cut and realigned such as the area around the navel or belly button. All of these cuts can, and will, leave scarring to some extent.

Luckily, most tummy tuck scarring is usually positioned below the waistline where bathing suit bottoms and underwear cover the scar from view. Some people are still upset by the idea of purposely inflicting a large mark on their body, however, it becomes an issue of weighing them against the excess skin and fat in the area. Furthermore, your plastic surgeon is not a mad scientist. They are trained to provide you with body enhancements, not large disfigurements. They will do everything possible to minimize scarring.

So, should your abandon the idea of undergoing abdominoplasty because of scarring? It is a decision that only you can make, but you must only make the decision when you have all of the facts. In this case, the facts mean sitting down with your plastic surgeon and reviewing pictures of other patients. The surgeon should have before and after pictures of tummy tuck patients. You can view their tummy tuck scarring and ask your plastic surgeon to identify the pictures that represent what he or she believe will be closest to yours.

Tummy tuck scarring sound like a serious matter and they are for some people. The key is to make an informed decision with your plastic surgeon after viewing before and after pictures. For most people, they are sufficiently small that they do not constitute a reason to avoid the surgery.

Flat abs are much sought after in our image conscious society. Alas, they are hard to get. A stomach fat reduction is ideal for those of us that dont have 10 hours a day to do sit ups.

Stomach Fat Reductions and Scars

Stomach fat reductions, also known as tucks or abdominoplaty, are performed on patients who have done everything that they can to shape their abdominal areas with diet and exercise, but still feel unhappy with the way they look. Two major causes of need for the procedure are pregnancy and aging, both of which cause loss of elasticity in the abdomen. A new development in this area of plastic surgery is an effort to do it without leaving large, prominent scars.

The new reduction procedure is performed for the same reasons and in a similar way to the traditional abdominoplasty. Excess skin and fat are removed from the stomach area, and the muscles in the area are also tightened up. This leaves the stomach with a thinner, more toned appearance.

This particular procedure differs from the usual fat reduction in that the procedure is aimed at leaving no visible scars on the stomach area. In truth, no procedure is completely scarless. This procedure, however, leaves a much smaller, less noticeable scar than traditional ones. A small incision is made vertically across the lower abdomen. Once the procedure is done, the scar is typically covered by underwear or bikini bottoms. The navel belly button does not need to be repositioned, and the procedure takes less time than a traditional open procedure. The surgery works best when the area needing correction is limited to the lower abdomen area. Because the scar is intentionally put below the bikini line, the procedure is inadequate at dealing with problems areas high on the abdomen.

There is one other alternative you should consider. The endoscopic fat reduction surgery involves the placement of small surgical instruments into the area through very tiny punctures in the skin. The procedure is an effective way to remove fatty cells throughout the abdomen. It is not, however, an option if the surgery requires the removal of excess skin in the area. In such a situation, you will be required to undergo a more invasive surgery.

Obviously, everyone would like to choose a procedure that leaves no scars if they have the choice. The choice, however, is one that must be made in consultation with your plastic surgeon. There may be medical reasons that limit you to a particular type of procedure and your physician can advise you on those situations.

As we grow older, our waistlines often grow with us in an unwanted manner. Fortunately, we can get rid of our belly with a tuck procedure.

Getting Rid Of That Belly With A Tuck

Life leads all of us down a road of ruin for our midsections. Things we do not want to droop go ahead and droop. Things that were once flat, now have definite rolling waves. This last problem is known as the every expanding belly and evidence of it can be found in increased pant sizes. With plastic surgery, we can turn time back on this particular problem.

One of the more popular procedures performed by plastic surgeons is the belly tuck. Often referred to as a tummy tuck, the procedure will have you pulling out those old jeans and bathing suits you saved for years on the chance you would lose some weight naturally.

The procedure is designed to accomplish three things. Obviously, the removal of excessive fat is the primary goal. Skin, however, may also be removed to get that tight look following the procedure. Finally, most procedures will also focus on tightening up the abdominal muscles a bit to support that new flat stomach look you are after. The procedure takes two to five hours depending on what needs to be done. It can be done under general or local anesthesia.

Following the procedure, your recovery period will depend entirely upon the specific circumstances of your original condition and you should speak with your surgeon regarding these. In general, you can expect swelling, bruising and soreness as the body pushes blood into the area to help the healing. You should expect to spend a couple of weeks off work, although you should follow the specific instructions of your surgeon. The actual fading of the scars from the procedure will take a few months as your body proceeds through the healing process.

As with any surgery, there are risks associated with getting a flat stomach. Your surgeon can explain these to you in detail when he or she obtains your informed consent for the procedure.

While a stressful life and eating on the run can ruin your midsection, you can fight back. A tuck procedure will have you smiling and wearing those favorite old jeans.