Are Slimming Pills Safe?

Slimming pills will probably help you lose weight, but that weight loss comes at a price: your health.

Slimming pills don't contain the right balance of macronutrients (carbohydrate, fat and fibre) that your body needs for good health and proper function.

Plus by reducing the amount of fat in your diet, slimming pills risk your mental health. Your brain's cells need a type of fat called Omega 3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA) to build their protective membranes. PUFAs are only found in a select group of foods including seafood, flax send, canola oil, soy bean oil and walnuts. A lack of PUFAs can disrupt your brain's cell membranes, a condition that has been related to clinical depression (1). In fact studies have found that it only takes one month for mood to deteriorate when the proportion of daily energy intake from dietary fat is reduced from 41% to 25% (2).

There's absolutely no need to risk your health to lose weight: weight loss should improve your health not harm it!

To lose weight the healthy way you need to eat a nutritious diet, with small meals and snacks every 2-3 hours, as well as engaging in regular exercise. To find out how you can integrate a healthy, balanced diet into your lifestyle see an Accredited Practicing Dietitian. If you are based in Queensland, you can see a Dietitian at the Wesley Weight Management Clinic.

References:
1. Lombard, C. 2000, 'What is the Role of Food in Preventing Depression and Improving Mood, Performance and Cognitive Function?' Medical Journal of Australia, 173:s104-105
2. Anita S. Wells, Nicholas W. Read, Jonathan D. E. Laugharne and N. S. Ahluwalia, 1998, 'Alterations in Mood After Changing to a low Fat Diet' British Journal of Nutrition, 79 , pp 23-30

The Cabbage Soup Diet

A couple of reporters at Fox News have been trying the Cabbage Soup Diet this week.

They say that if you want to get a kick start on losing weight, it might be worth a try for one week. The cabbage soup diet is not limited to just eating cabbage soup all day as I had thought. They say it worked great for them. The diet helped them both realize they were not eating enough vegetables and fruit. It also helped them become more creative in trying different combinations of vegetables cooked in different ways.

They say that after seven days they have both lost five pounds.

See more about the pros and cons of the cabbage soup diet at Wikipedia.

The latest book about the cabbage food diet sells for $5 on Amazon - The New Cabbage Soup Diet

Going great guns

Still got the same restriction... still having the occasional puke, but I have been able to keep myself in check in the main.

Today's food...
Breakfast:
Apple

Snack:
mini bite size cadbury's caramel

Lunch:
2 slices bread, cheddar chesse, tomato toasted... but not eaten. I managed 1 quarter of this toastie... most likely 1 bit of tomato, a bit of cheese and half a slice of bread... and then most of that ended up in the sink when I pb'd.

Dinner:
2 little fish cakes, spoon of baked beans and a spoon of mashed potato.

Evening snack bowl of ice cream.

Total for today 850 cals.

Oh, and by the way... don't tell any one, but today I sneakily weighed myself... It said 17 stone 8 and a half... Oh BLISS! But I wont record it until monday so that I get my same weekly result.

Food Fight

This is an amazing video. The foods of nations fighting against each other from 1939 to present. Does anyone else find this to be a profound work of art?

25 Extreme Diets

RNCentral has compiled a list of the 25 most ridiculous and ineffective popular diets.

Though I agree most of these are not good for long term weight loss, I think the South Beach Diet and the Macrobiotic Diet shouldn't be on this list. If most people ate as prescribed in these diets, their daily choice of snacks and meals would be much healthier than the average persons daily food consumption.

Check out their list of the top extreme diets.

The macrobiotic meal above consists of brown rice, kale and brocolli.

Salt, Soda and Obesity

Salty snacks equal soda-guzzling, heavier kidsStudy suggests cutting back on salt, even a pinch, could curb obesityThe Associated Pressupdated 3:12 p.m. MT, Wed., Feb. 20, 2008DALLAS - Kids who load up on salty meals and snacks get thirsty, and too often they turn to calorie-filled sodas. So maybe cutting back on the salt is a good way to cut the calories.That is the idea coming from a British

Ok, not much to report, but here it is...

Breakfast:
Nothing

Lunch:
Spaghetti (140g cooked) and 3 meatballs

Snack:
1 glass of orange juice

Dinner:
Cottage Pie and peas

Total cals today 545.

Thats todays breakdown. Nothing happened of interest today. Got up, taught DS, went to work, came home and am now off to bed.