Tag Archives: weight loss

Health and Beauty

Embrace Spices for Health and Weight Loss

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Spices are a great way to transform and flavor a dish without adding sodium or other processed ingredients. And because many contain capsaicin they can have a termogenic effect – which means that they can boost a person’s metabolism and help them lose weight.

One of the first spices that may surprise you is cinnamon. It’s not only good for sweet desserts and drinks – it’s also a hidden key ingredient in some Middle Eastern dishes as well as many curries. It has come to light that cinnamon has a beneficial effect on blood sugar, which can boost weight loss. Also, recent studies have found that cinnamon can help reduce high cholesterol. Cinnamon can also be found in Chinese 5-Spice powder and Jamaican jerk rubs, which makes it a delectable addition to many meals.

Black pepper is a spice that helps boost metabolism by 8 percent because of the piperine found in the pepper. Black pepper can also aid digestion, which makes it a valuable tool for weight loss and health. For best results, freshly grind the pepper as opposed to buying it pre-ground.

Cayenne is loaded with capsaicin, which helps to burn fat. It also helps with weight loss and nutrition because it has termogenic properties that help to burn calories. And its spiciness makes food with cayenne more difficult to eat quickly. This helps people realize when they’re actually full so they tend to eat less.

Another great spice is ginger. Its unique flavor makes everything around it shine and it also helps to settle an upset stomach. But, it also has another great benefit, which is burning calories. People can burn up to 43 extra calories after eating if they drink a cup of ginger tea.

So, remember to look to the spice drawer for overall good health and fat burning properties.

Home and Family

Chef Ben Vaughn Cites an Interesting Study on Low Fat vs. Low Carb Diets

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During his career, Chef Ben Vaughn has seen the culinary debate swing back and forth between different dieting trends. For a time, says Chef Ben Vaughn, it may seem that low fat diets are best for fitness and weight loss. Then a new rhetoric emerges, notes Chef Ben Vaughn, and low carb diets get touted as the most effective diets for health and weight loss.

It is Chef Ben Vaughn’s strong desire to restore balance to the way people think about eating. In light of this goal, Chef Ben Vaughn reports on a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This journal published a study that compared the efficacy of low carb diets to low fat diets.

The study found, says Chef Ben Vaughn, that neither diet is better than its competitor. Chef Ben Vaughn says the study revealed that neither a low fat diet nor a low carb diet produced lasting healthy weight loss. The two-year study, notes Chef Ben Vaughn, followed the efforts of 307 people diagnosed as obese. These people were divided into two groups based on their diets.

Chef Ben Vaughn reports that both groups experienced comparable average weight loss, about 22 pounds. What’s more, says Chef Ben Vaughn, both groups gained nearly 1/3 of the weight back during the second year. Being restricted to low fat or low carb diets, says Chef Ben Vaughn, also had an effect on the health and morale of the participants.

Side effects of the study, reports Chef Ben Vaughn, included hair loss, bad breath and constipation. Chef Ben Vaughn says that the study was also illustrative of the shortcomings of diets in another way, namely dropout rate. Chef Ben Vaughn notes that over one third of the participants in the study dropped out because the diet was too difficult or unpleasant to stick with.