Neostoric - holistic health on the web.

Are you Afraid of Germs?

Author: Malin - Admin
• Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

On the subway in Stockholm, the lady in front of me suddenly pulled a small glass bottle from her back pack. Don’t tell me she’s about to spray perfume on her self in here, I thought, and prepared to leave the car. She poured a small drop in one of her palms. When she rubbed it in a smell of disinfectants spread and then she peeled and ate an orange.

I look angry and crazy while thinking and she gave me a few horrified looks.

I felt urged t ask her if she seriously believed that it was better to eat chemicals than germs, but I kept my mouth shut.

My thoughts wandered to antibacterial soaps and further to when the heck did we decide that our homes were supposed to be clean? When our houses had dirt floors could anybody be yelled at for stepping in with dirty shoes? Didn’t we build better houses to keep safe from harsh weather and predators? When did we start decorating? And when did we decide that human beings could not to be around dirt and mud?

Aren’t anti bacterial soap and antibiotics really he same thing?

We use antibiotics to kill germs: bacteria. There are a bunch of bad germs so it’s good we’re able to get rid of those, but all the friendly and essential bacteria get wiped out at the same time. We exterminate our immune system every time we use antibiotics.

We exterminate the bacterial flora in our homes and our immune systems weaken and allergies occur.

I have a hard time understanding why people are so terrified of small germs but don’t give one thought to the harmful detergents they breathe in, get on their skin and sometimes in their mouths.

It’s like it has to smell of chlorine to convince some people it’s clean.

No thanks, I’ll stick to baking soda, vinegar and Castile soap.

Category: Environment, Immune System  | Tags: allergies, anti bacterial, antibiotics, chemicals, weak immune system  | Leave a Comment

Weightloss Part 4

Author: Malin - Admin
• Sunday, November 09th, 2008

How to divide the food and escape calorie counting.

As always we all heve different needs. You can often read thar the protein intake is supposed to be 20% and the carb intake way more, but what I have written here is what most of the doctors I trust have said and also what works for me.

In general the food should be divided like this:
30% fat
30% protein
40% carbs

Don’t forget that enzymes, vitamins and minerals are essential building blocks to the body even though they don’t contain any energy. Without them the body can’t function properly and you won’t get full, which makes it harder to stay slim.

Example
In part 3 we came to the conclusion that a woman, 35 years old, 154 lbs and 65 inches tall needs 1340 kcal a day.
She divides the calories like this In grams this is
Fats: 0,3 x 1340 = 402 kcal 402 / 9 = 45g
Protein: 0,3 x 1340 = 402 kcal 402 / 4 = 100g
Carbs: 0,4 x 1340 = 536 kcal 536 / 4 = 134g

It’s good to write down how much you’ve been eating during a week and compare it to a calorie table to get an idea of what and how much you actually eat.
I did that for a while and came up with a system that works for me without counting calories.
I hope it can help you as well.

Carbohydrates
The most important is to keep down on the carbs. It’s very easy to eat too much of them.

Eat as much as you please of vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, fennel, jicama, parsley and zucchini.
No matter how much I have eaten it’s usually between 150 and 200 kcal.

1/2 cup grains/beans = 80-100 kcal (rice, quinoa, pasta, a piece of bread, beans or lentils)
1 fruit = 60 – 70 kcal (banana counts as two fruits)

If the woman in the example eats 2 fruits, lots of vegetables, and 1 cup of grains/beans it adds up to about 500 kcal
(150 + 150 + 200 = 500 kcal)

Now she knows that she can eat 1 cup of grains or/ and beans and 2 fruits a day without exceeding the carb intake.

Protein
Protein is not only found in meat, eggs, beans and lentils, but also in grains. Quinoa contains a lot of it and 1 cup of quinoa mixed with red lentils has almost as much protein as 100 grams of chicken.
It’s easy to eat too many grains while trying to get enough protein like that, and the best source is animal products. If you don’t want to eat meat you can eat fermented soy like tempeh.

Too much protein is not good either, but the risk to over eat is not big if you keep it to normal portions.

Fats
What is easy to forget is that most food already contains fat; not only butter and oils. Meat, fish and beans have all a decent amount of fat.

I usually make sure I’ll get 1 tablespoon of olive oil every day. If I have eaten an avocado, fatty fish or egg, and also fried food in coconut oil I might reduce it to a half of a tablespoon. If I didn’t get a lot of fats through the food I might get some more olive oil.

Did you know that
1/2 cup walnuts contains 309 kcal fat!
1/2 cup raisins contains 260 kcal carbs!
1 piece of pie is about 500 kcal.

It’s not that hard to figure out how much you should eat.
The question is how long you can manage before you fall back into your old pattern. How is your self-discipline?
I’ll write about that another time.

Category: Weight  | Tags: calories, how much carbs, how much fat, how much protein, lose weight  | Leave a Comment

Weightloss Part 3

Author: Malin - Admin
• Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Calories, BMI and BMR
Don’t get scared now when I start to talk about calories. You don’t have to count them, but it’s good to know a little about how many you need.

A calorie and a Joule are two units that are used to measure energy. When it comes to energy in food, we usually use kilo calories; kcal.

How many calories you need a day depends on who you are. Bones, muscles, gender, height, age, level of exercise and lifestyle; all of it matters in relation to how much energy you need and use. On labels the percentage of the Recommended Daily Intake is usually stated. That is based on a 2000 kcal per day diet, which might not be right for you.

There are many formulas on how to figure out if you are overweight or not. One of them is BMI, Body Mass Index.

BMI = (weight (lb) x 703) / (height (in)) x (height (in))
BMI = weight (kg) / (height (meter)) x (height (meter))

Example:
Woman 35 years old, 154 lbs and 65 inches tall.
BMI = 154×703 / (65) x (65) = 25,6

Normally BMI should be between 18,5 and 24,9 and the woman in the example is a little bit overweight. But what if she’s a body builder with a lot of muscles and no fat? Or perhaps she’s hardly got any muscles, but a lot of fat?

As you can see BMI is just a guideline. Take a look in the mirror, use a measuring tape or see if your favorite pants are too small, or maybe even too big.

Now we’re going to find out how many kcal you’ll need each day to keep your present weight. To do so, we’ll figure out your BMR, Basal Metabolic Rate. There are many formulas for this as well, but I’m using the Mifflin-St Jeor equations.

Male: BMR = 10×weight + 6.25×height – 5×age + 5
Female: BMR = 10×weight + 6.25×height – 5×age – 161

Height conversion: Height (inches) x 2.54 = Height (cm)
Weight conversion: Weight (lbs) / 2.2 = Weight (kg)

Example: Woman 35 years old, 154 lbs and 65 in tall.
Height in cm: 65 in x 2.54 = 165
Weight in kg: 154 lbs / 2.2 = 70

BMR = (10 x 70) + (6,25 x 165) – (5 x 35) – 161 = 1395,25

To determine your total daily calorie needs a day without exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.2.
Our example: 1395,25 x 1,2 = 1674,3 kcal

If this woman wants to lose weight she can eat 80% of 1674 kcal a day and exercise more, or both.
You’re not supposed to eat too little, partly because it is better to lose weight slowly, and partly because if the body doesn’t get enough energy it will turn on its saving mode and it will be even harder to lose weight.

In the example, she can eat 0,8 x 1674 = 1340 kcal per day.

Certainly you’ll need more kcal the more you move your body. What we have figured out here is what you need in a normal day without any exercise except for a few ten minute walks to the bus or so.

In Part 4 we’ll find out how much you need to eat of what and some tips on how not to overeat without counting calories.

Weightloss Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4

Category: Weight  | Tags: bmi, bmr, calories, kcal, lose weight, weight-loss  | Leave a Comment

Weightloss Part 2

Author: Malin - Admin
• Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

After you have read part1 and started to eat a little bit healthier it’s time for the next step; to cut down on some foods and increase the intake of others. You may have to read the labels more carefully, but you’ll soon learn which ones you can buy.

A big mistake people tend to make when they want to lose weight is to cut down on the fats. What’s more important is to eat the healthy fats and avoid the harmful ones. Fat is essential and you can read more about it under Food & Nutrition here on Neostoric. You shouldn’t eat too much fat of course, but a tablespoon of olive oil on a salad is just fine.

A better and more efficient way to lose weight is to omit fast carbohydrates. When you eat fast carbs, like sugars and starches, the bloodsugar levels rise fast and forcefully and the body has to produce insulin to reestablish the levels. When the body produces a lot of insulin, the growth hormone that builds muscles, and glucagon, which normally burns fats and sugars, are suppressed. The excess of carbs will convert into, and be stored, as fat. So the problem is rather sugars and starches, not fats.

Another mistake is to switch all sugars to diet-products that contains aspartame or xylitol. These substances are harmful and it’s better to use honey or maple syrup. An even better choice is stevia, a natural sweetener that doesn’t contain any calories and will not affect the insulin.

Ordinary white sugar goes out quickly to the blood stream and doesn’t contain any nutrition, while the sugar in fresh fruit is absorbed more slowly. It is crucial to health which kind of sugar you choose. To lose weight you can omit all kinds of sugars. Sugars are hidden under many names and forms, e g saccharose, fructose, lactose, glucose, maltose, starch, syrup, honey, nectar, saccharum and alcohol.

Omit
sugar in all its forms (see above), wheat (also bread, pasta, pizza), dried fruit, potatoes, sweet potatoes, white rice and white grains (non-whole grains)

Eat sparingly
other grains like brown rice, oatmeal and quinoa, and beans, lentils, nuts, milk products, carrots, fruits and berries

Increase intake of
vegetables and low-starchy root vegetables

Make sure you’ll get enough protein in the form of good meat, organic eggs or fermented soy.

In the next part we’ll find out how much you need to eat each day.

Weightloss Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4

Category: Weight  | Tags: calories, carbohydrates, diet products, fast carbs, fat, insulin, slow carbs, stevia  | Leave a Comment

Weightloss Part 1

Author: Malin - Admin
• Sunday, October 05th, 2008

Healthy Weightloss
As you can read in my last post “All These Diets”, I recommend starting by eating healthier and not worrying about losing weight before that. If you are heavily overweight you will automatically lose weight when you choose to eat healthy and nutritious food.

If you eat healthy food when you are hungry and stop when you are full, there are usually no problems with either health or weight.

But, how do you know when you are full and when you are hungry? Our culture circles around food. We eat because we are supposed to (breakfast, lunch, dinner), we eat when we watch a movie, we eat when food is offered to us, we eat out of comfort and we eat because we don’t have anything better to do. We eat too much. That is the main reason for being overweight.

Many times, we eat to fill something other than the stomach. Maybe our lives are not as wonderful as we wish? There are many things to do to improve your life, but let’s stick to the weight and the food for now.

After a meal you ought to be more alert and have more energy. What most people associate with being full is actually being too full. The stomach is not supposed to be stuffed and neither are you supposed to become tired and dazed after eating.

Eat slowly and stop before you think you are full. Take only one portion, or two very small ones. Perhaps you can eat one of them an hour later, if you’re still hungry then.

Wait to eat until you feel the hunger in your stomach. Not until it’s screaming and you’re about to faint – that is too long.

It’s also better for the body to eat a little amount and often than to eat a lot a few times a day.

Weightloss Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4

Category: Weight  | Tags: eat too much, healthy weith loss, lose weight, weight-loss  | Leave a Comment
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »