FitSugar

Love Your Liver

FitSugar — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:45:00 -0800

There must be 50 ways to love your liver, but to truly love something you have to know what it is all about. Right?

Well, what impresses me most about the liver is not that it is the largest internal organ of the body, but that it performs over 5,000 functions. A small list includes balancing your cholesterol, storing vitamins, activating hormones, and metabolizing fat into glucose to give your body energy. It also acts as a filter to remove toxins (harmful substances) and waste products from the blood. Check this out - a healthy liver filters blood at a rate of about 1.5 quarts per minute. That's 540 gallons of blood a day and more than 13 million gallons over a lifetime! Wow.

The liver continues to function even with considerable damage, but that doesn't mean it is doing all of its jobs well. Signs of poor function include: tiredness, dark circles under the eyes, poor digestion and dull skin.

If your holiday season started out with a partying bang and lots of alcohol and fatty foods, you might want to do something nice for your largest organ. Want to know what foods help your liver out, then read more

Bitter food like broccoli, dandelion greens, cabbage and brussels sprouts have a cleansing effect on the liver.
In multiple studies, artichokes have been proven to promote liver health.
The spices turmeric, cinnamon and licorice are beneficial to the liver.

Of course it helps to avoid: saturated fats, refined sugar and alcohol (limit yourself to two drinks a day). Drinking plenty of water is always a good idea.

Reality Check: Gwyneth Paltrow's Detox Diet

FitSugar — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:30:00 -0800

There are many ways to usher in the New Year. After a couple weeks of nonstop holiday celebration replete with rich foods and plenty of drink, many folks decide that the best way to begin anew is with a detox cleanse. I firmly believe there really is no need to detox, but if you insist on doing a cleanse, you can detox without starving yourself. This issue is a place where Gwyneth Paltrow and I have agreed to disagree.

Although her daily diet is incredibly healthy, Gwyneth believes in the New Year detox. After collapsing last January at the end of a five-day live-food fast, she is at it again following a week long cleansing regimen. This time, though, she is following the advice of detox specialist Dr. Alejandro Junger. Gwyneth is also sharing the details, recipes and all, on her website goop.com.

The lovely, leggy blonde and mother of two writes:

It is that time of year, folks. I need to lose a few pounds of holiday excess. Anyone else? I like to do fasts and detoxes a couple of times during the year, the most hardcore one being the Master Cleanse I did last spring. It was not what you would characterize as pretty. Or easy. It did work, however. As I do not wish to subsist on lemon water in the middle of winter, I asked my doctor, a detox diet specialist, for the guidelines he uses to achieve a good detox that is not as hallucinogenic (in a bad way) as the Master Cleanse. He actually thinks that the Master Cleanse can be dangerous because the liver is not supported by the nutrients it needs.

To see what she is eating and why, just read more.

While her explanation sounds sensible, just reading over the menu left me feeling hungry and deprived. The majority of the meals are liquids - smoothies, soups, or juice with hardly any grains (read: carbs to fuel your brain) in the meals. The simplest way to explain is to list the foods she will be avoiding for seven days:

No dairy
No grains with gluten
No meat or shellfish
No processed food including all soy products
No fatty nuts
No produce from the nightshade family - potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant
No condiments
No sugar
No alcohol, caffeine or soda

While jumping back into my healthy habits might be a bit jarring this first full week of the year, I am simply going to return to my old health habits of eating well balanced meals and exercising regularly to cleanse myself of my holiday debauchery.

Gwyneth concludes the detox edition of her newsletter like this: "I will be suffering along with you to kickstart my year a bit lighter." I, for one, do not wish to "suffer" with Gwyneth. I want to enjoy every minute of 2009 and eating just soup is not my idea of health or fun.

Source

You Can Detox Your Body Without Starving Yourself

FitSugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:30:00 -0700

Spring is here and it seems many of you are interested in Spring cleaning your body as well as your home. I have received many questions over the last few weeks about detox diets and fasting. Let me begin by stating, I never think fasting is a good idea, even a juice fast. Not feeding the body is just too extreme for me, plus it can lead to headaches, fatigue, irritability, aches and pains, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, muscle breakdown, loss of "good" bacteria and blood-sugar problems, not to mention frequent bowel movements. If you lead a busy life, have a full time job, and/or have two young and energetic girls to raise, living off of just water and juice isn't going to cut it. You're going to need energy, and energy comes from food. I also want to add here that exercise is a great way to help "detox" the body, but you shouldn't and probably wouldn't want to go for a run, jump rope or practice some vigorous yoga if you are not fueling your body with food.

To see what you can do to Spring clean your body, just read more.

Eat a robust and healthy diet low in fat (especially saturated fat), high in fruits and veggies and high in fiber. During a detox time, I would steer clear of meat (no pun intended) and eat a plant based diet. Not sure what to eat? Check out Top 10 Detox Foods. To that list I would add artichokes and dandelion greens.
You also need to lighten up the toxin load by eliminating alcohol, cigarettes, and refined sugars. Avoid harsh chemical cleaners as well.
Exercise! Your body eliminates toxins by sweating. Getting your heart rate up will get your blood flowing.
Drinking the lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper concoction from the Master Cleanse might be a good idea. Lemon juice is high in Vitamin C, which helps the liver create an amino acid chain that helps drive toxins away. Cayenne helps stimulate the body's self cleaning process and breaks up mucus that is clogging the body. Skip the maple syrup and add some hot water to your concoction and drink it like a tea. Just be sure to eat well too.
Breathe deeply and regularly. Chronic stress can have a toxic effect on the body, focused breathing, and meditating can reduce the power of stress.

I suggest taking a week to focus on healthy living and eating practices and detox without starving yourself.

Fit's Tip: Many people use detox cleanses and fasts as a means of losing weight. The weight lost during a fast is all water weight, which will be gained back once you begin eating.

Source

Learn to Love Watercress

FitSugar — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Although watercress is farmed all year round its true season is Spring. The spicy yet odd taste of watercress is something people either love or hate. It is easy to love if you're an Anglophile - I totally associate cress with those lovely crustless tea sandwiches.

This pungent green is high in both vitamins C and A with a touch of calcium too. Considered an anti-cancer food, watercress is low in calories, only four per cup of raw greens.

Watercress is also considered a detox food since it helps energize cleansing enzymes in the liver. Toss this green into salads or put it on sandwiches. I personally love it with egg salad. Watercress makes a nice Spring soup when cooked and pureed with potatoes and broth. At a loss for how to fit this superfood into your diet. My culinary pal YumSugar has many recipes featuring watercress. How do you like to eat watercress? Share the details below.

Source

Detoxing: There Really is No Need

FitSugar — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:45:00 -0700

There are so many ways to pursue the quest of health and there are many "detox" remedies out there for folks looking for a quick internal cleanse. However, the majority of health experts don't recommend detox cleanses or juice fasts, especially long term ones since fasting for more than 3 days robs the body of vital nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Your best bet is to avoid a liquid detox regimen, since they can leave you both hungry (read: irritable) and gassy (read: anti-social). Instead, you should focus on adding fruits, veggies and whole grains to your daily diet since these types of foods all help to keep your system running smoothly. Plus, as I like to say "slow and steady wins the race." By focusing on what you can add to your diet daily, you have a much better chance of fully adopting healthy eating habits so thus avoiding the need to detox.

Limiting alcohol to one serving a day for the ladies, and two servings for the guys, will help keep your liver from having to work overtime. Of course, limiting the amount of acetaminophen you take will help your liver as well. This OTC painkiller used in Tylenol can cause liver damage if taken in excess.

The bottom line: take care of your body and it will take care of you!

Source

Top 10 Detoxifying Foods

FitSugar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:30:00 -0700

I'm not a big fan of detoxes. I think that in most cases, they're unnecessary for the average person. With that being said, there is nothing wrong with adding some good fruits and veggies with detoxifying properties to your existing diet to help keep things moving along.

You just don't have to torture yourself by drinking an unappatizing lemonade/maple syrup mixture for two weeks to gain the benefits. Yahoo has listed its top 10 detoxifying foods that you may want to think about adding to your diet. Here are highlights:

Green leafy vegetables: Eat them raw, throw them into a broth, add them to juices. Their chlorophyll helps swab out environmental toxins (heavy metals, pesticides) and protects the liver.
Lemons: Its vitamin C, considered the detox vitamin, helps convert toxins into a water-soluble form that's easily flushed away.
Watercress: The peppery little green leaves have a diuretic effect that helps move things through your system. And cress is rich in minerals, too.

There's more so read more.

Garlic: In addition to the bulb's cardio benefits, it activates liver enzymes that help filter out junk.
Green tea: This antioxidant-rich brew is one of the healthiest ways to get more fluids into your system. Bonus: It contains catechins, which speed up liver activity.
Broccoli sprouts: They pack 20 to 50 times more cancer-fighting, enzyme-stimulating activity into each bite than the grown-up vegetable.
Sesame seeds: They're credited with protecting liver cells from the damaging effects of alcohol and other chemicals.
Cabbage: There are two main types of detoxifying enzymes in the liver; this potent veggie helps activate both of them.
Psyllium: A plant that's rich in soluble fiber, like oat bran but more versatile. It mops up toxins (cholesterol too) and helps clear them out.
Fruits, fruits, fruits: They're full of almost all the good things above: vitamin C, fiber, nutritious fluids, and all kinds of antioxidants.

Source

Detox Dangers

FitSugar — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:00:00 -0700

Detoxing is hot right now. I am not really sure how this trend came to pass, but somehow forcefully purifying the body of harmful (or even worse, toxic) substances by running to the restroom every other minute seems to be the "thing" to do right now.

The thing is, our bodies (ones without major medical conditions) do a darn good job of getting rid of any toxins all by themselves. Remember your liver, kidneys and lungs? Yeah, detoxing the body is one of their jobs and those organs are good at it. MSNBC is backing this claim further in a recent report on detoxing. The report also says that headaches, fatigue, irritability, aches and pains, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, muscle breakdown, loss of 'good' bacteria and blood-sugar problems - not to mention frequent bowel movements - are just some of the lovely side effects to these detox plans. Sounds fun, eh?

I know a good detox sounds tempting, [insert sarcasm] especially after hearing the side effects, but if you want to lose a few pounds or rid your body from the toxins you've built up, then think about trying this 'health detox'. This means eating a low-fat, high fruit and veggie, high fiber diet. No funky concoctions or frequent pit stops, and the best part, you get to eat solid foods. As with anything, moderation is key and there is no silver bullet, albeit full of lemonade.

Clean it Up: Detox

FitSugar — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:45:00 -0800

They say you are what you eat, and if you are eating a lot of processed food you might feel worked. If you feel exhausted, bloated and at the mercy of mood swings -- eating to detox your digestive system might be just what you need.

Looking for a simple way to detox? Alex Jamieson helped her boyfriend Morgan Spurlock,Super Size Me, detox after his month long Mickey D's bender and she suggests avoiding the most toxic foods. Not surprisingly these are: caffeine, refined sugars, refined carbs, artificial sweeteners and food additives. I would add alcohol to that list since it can make your liver work overtime.

To detox you should eat a diet of simply prepared foods, whole grains, beans, lots of veggies and lots of fruit. Eating bitter foods like broccoli and dandelion greens help cleanse the liver, which in turn cleanses your blood.

Of course you should drink lots and lots of water too.

Get a copy of Jamieson's book here.

Nutrition Questions Answered

FitSugar — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:30:00 -0700

March is National Nutrition Month (here are some quizzes to test your nutritional knowledge) and since the month is about to go "out like a lamb" I thought a short interview with a nutritionist would be a great way to end our celebration of the month.

I met with nutritionist Rania Batayneh, MPH, of Essential Nutrition For You. I had a lot of questions for her and she in turn had some really great answers. So informative, in fact that I wanted to share them with you. Here is a bit of the interview for you to read. You are sure to learn a thing or two from it - I sure did.

FitSugar: Is it important to eat protein at breakfast?

Rania: I always recommend that my clients have a balance of protein and carbohydrate at every meal. You can incorporate protein into your breakfast by eating a ½ cup of non-fat plain yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit. Other ideas include a veggie omelet with 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites and 1 slice of toast. If you are more the cereal or granola type, you will get protein in your milk, or you can try it with ½ cup of cottage cheese which will give you 14 grams of protein.

FitSugar:I have heard that it is good to avoid carbs at night…is that true and why?

Rania: Our bodies use carbohydrates during the day to fuel our brain and muscle. At night we are less active, so that means that we do not need that “immediate energy” that comes along with carbohydrates. Now, realize that vegetables are carbohydrates but they are not the starchy variety that you want to eliminate. Enjoy veggies and a protein source at night.

By limiting your carbohydrates at night, your body will actually be burning fat at night- thus allowing you to become naturally leaner and feel less bloated in the morning.

There are a couple of more questions, so read more

FitSugar: What do you think of fasting as a means to detox your body? Are there foods you recommend for detoxing the liver, and/or kidneys?

Rania: I am not an advocate of “detox” diets or fads that exist out there. What most of us do not know is that the body naturally detoxifies itself through our lungs (think….breathing), sweating, and through the liver and kidneys (always check to see that your urine is not too bright yellow- a sure sign that you are dehydrated).

For optimal “detoxing” make sure that you are hydrating daily, eating at least 25 grams of fiber/day to keep you regular and limit your consumption of packaged and processed foods. Think fresh is best and natural.

FitSugar: Do you have a supplement you recommend?

Rania: In all of my years as a Nutritionist I have never recommended a supplement until now- MONAVIE- you can learn more about it on my website at www.essentialnutritionforyou.com. I have been using if for 3 months now and what I notice most is a boost in my energy, my skin looks better ( I don’t’ need to use my Retin-A every night) and best of all, my sugar cravings are down. I used to be a dark-chocolate chip kind of girl and now I go anywhere from 4-8 days without it. I enjoy using this product and I believe that prevention is the key to living well.

Check out Rania in action on MSNBC - gives her interpretation on the recent study claiming that diet soda is making Americans fat.

You Asked: What Does Wheatgrass Do For Me

FitSugar — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:00:00 -0800

You're asking and I'm answering . . .

Hi Fit!
I've read about how great wheatgrass is for the body (starting tomorrow it will be part of my diet) and was wondering if you will ever do a post about it? Thanks in advance!
– leeluvfashion

Having tried wheatgrass a few times and not being able to handle the taste, I applaud the strength of your palate. I must say though that the jury is still out regarding all the benefits this drink supposedly offers. Wheatgrass juice is extracted from quick growing red wheat sprouts, and it is 70 percent chlorophyll. It tastes, unsurprisingly like freshly cut grass, with hints of asparagus. A shot of the juice joint costs anywhere from $2 to $3 for an ounce.

The health claims made by wheatgrass juice companies range from preventing tooth decay and gray hair, detoxing the liver and blood, as well as aiding in the prevention and curing of cancer. However, none of these claims have been supported by scientific study. There is some evidence wheatgrass juice can help manage the painful symptoms of ulcerative colitis, inflammation of the lining of the colon and rectum.

To see what vitamins and minerals wheatgrass has to offer, read more.
According to Calorie-Count, two ounces of wheatgrass juice contains 70 percent of the recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin A and 20 percent the RDI of iron. It is also relatively high in calcium. Many food scientists believe that a shot of this green juice is no better than a serving of broccoli or spinach. Slamming a shot of wheatgrass is certainly a quicker way to get a serving of veggies. For the price and taste though, you might want to substitute turnips for your daily shot. All in all, drinking wheatgrass each day is not going to harm you and if any of those benefits turn out to be true you might never go gray.

If you are a fan of wheatgrass juice tell me about it in the comments section below.

Source