Josh Perez Fitness

Thanks Mark for the article and thanks to Dr. Mao and his team for the research!

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives. A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet
Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let’s talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly. Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Skip the soda and go for:

Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.

On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.

Fruit Juice
If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.

Tea

Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods. Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.

If tea doesn’t satisfy your sweet tooth, try adding cinnamon or a little honey, which has important health benefits that refined sugar lacks. For a selection of healthy teas that promote total body wellness, click here.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

Red meat can be part of a healthy diet, but eating too much — especially fatty cuts and processed products — raises your health risks. If you eat a lot of fatty and processed red meat, you may be setting the stage for a variety of medical conditions, including obesity, heart disease, even cancer. Here’s the scoop on what to avoid and what to eat in moderation.

The Health Risks:

Fatty red meat is high in saturated fats, which tend to raise the “bad” cholesterol in the blood, otherwise known as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Elevated levels of LDL cholesterol increase your risk for coronary heart disease.

Fatty cuts of beef, ground beef (especially if less than 90 percent lean), lamb, pork, sausage, hot dogs, and bacon are all culprits. Deli meats, too, can contain high levels of fat. In addition to being linked to an increased risk of heart disease, eating large amounts of fatty red meat increases your overall calorie intake, possibly leading to excess weight and obesity.

Cancer Research:

A recent study from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) found that if your diet includes a lot of red meat and processed meat (like salami, bacon, or deli meats), rather than non-processed white meat (skinless chicken and turkey), you may have a shortened life span because of the link to heart disease and cancer. The study specifically noted that people who ate the most red meat increased their risk of death by more than 30 percent compared to those who ate the least. This included death from heart disease and cancer.

Another study highlighted the link between a high consumption of red and processed meat and colon cancer. High consumption of beef, lamb, or pork was described as 3 or more ounces a day for men and 2 or more ounces for women; high consumption of hot dogs, bacon, ham, sausage, or cold cuts was considered to be 1 ounce eaten five to six days a week for men, and two to three days a week for women. In this study, people who ate the most processed meat had a 60% greater risk of colon cancer and a 30% greater risk of rectal cancer as compared to those who ate the least.

Choosing Lean Meat:

Protein, found in meat, is an important part of a healthy diet, along with carbohydrates and the right kinds of fat. The body uses protein as its building blocks for your muscles, bones, cartilage, blood, and skin. As long as it’s not your only source of protein, lean meat is the better way to enjoy red meat. Look for cuts that have no visible fat (these often include the word “loin”) or with less marbling; opt for ground beef that’s at least 90 percent lean.

Fatty fish, such as salmon, trout, and herring. These are high in a type of polyunsaturated fatty acids (one of the good fats) called omega-3 fatty acids. Eating these fish may reduce your risk of death from heart disease.
Seeds and nuts, like walnuts and flax. These are particularly good sources of essential fatty acids. Others, such as sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, and almonds, are also good sources of vitamin E. They are all, however, very calorie-dense, so watch your portions.

Reduce Fat When Cooking:

To further reduce the amount of fat in cooked lean meat, opt to broil, bake, roast, or simmer, rather than fry. Then, drain and discard any fat released during cooking. Be aware that the NCI recommends avoiding overcooking meats, especially blackening or charring meats, because of evidence that there may be increased risk of some cancers from eating meat prepared this way.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

We all know the pleasures of a eating a good meal and how that can be followed by discomfort around the belt buckle when we’ve eaten too much. While occasional episodes of feeling bloated after eating are the price we pay for overindulgence, for some people this unpleasant sensation is an all too common occurrence. With the right nutrition adjustments and simple changes in eating habits, it is possible to enjoy food and feel good afterward.

Feeling that uncomfortable, bloated-after-eating feeling is typically caused by too much intestinal gas and or excessive contents in the intestine. This in turn makes the stomach swell and feel tight. The exact cause of bloating, however, can vary from individual to individual. Some people feel bloated after eating because they simply ate too much. The more a person eats, the longer it takes for the food to move from the stomach to the small intestine for digestion and the more bloated after eating you can feel. Or you may be sensitive to certain types of food and spices.

For people who are lactose-intolerant, consuming regular milk and dairy products can cause discomfort. In addition, too much fiber in your diet can contribute to bloating after eating.

“High fiber intakes are not a problem if you are used to them, but going from a low to high [fiber diet] too rapidly can cause temporary discomfort in some people,” says Susan B. Roberts, PhD, professor in the nutrition and psychiatry departments at Tufts University in Boston and author of The Instinct Diet (Workman). You definitely want to enjoy the health benefits of a high-fiber diet, but add fiber to your diet more gradually if you think that’s the source of your bloated feeling.

The number of calories you eat can also be a trigger. The body secretes hormones from the walls of the intestines that can cause nausea and bloating when too many calories are consumed. Try eating four to six small meals rather than three large meals a day. “Eating smaller meals can help prevent bloating,” says Joan Salge Blake, RD, clinical associate professor in the department of health sciences at Boston University. “And slow down!” Eating or drinking too quickly can cause excess air to be swallowed, which contributes to the problem, she says.

In addition, watch what you eat. “Fatty foods take longer to digest,” says Lona Sandon, RD, assistant professor in the department of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Also, vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and beans can cause more gas to be formed when digested in the small intestine.” Of course, this doesn’t mean you should avoid these healthful choices, just try to eat smaller portions of them at each sitting to see if that helps your body digest them more easily.

Here are some tips to relieve bloating after eating:

• Drink plenty of fluids, like water, to aid digestion. Sip slowly throughout the day, however; don’t chug. as that will defeat the purpose.
• Carbonated beverages and drinks like coffee that have a diuretic effect don’t count.
• Consider adding some probiotic yogurts to your diet to encourage a healthy digestive tract. Keep in mind it may take a few weeks to notice its positive effects.
• Take a walk after you eat and get adequate exercise on a regular basis; both can ease bloating and help with overall digestion.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

It is extremely important for you to find an exercise plan that will help you achieve your goal weight without putting you at risk for further injury. I always suggest consulting a fitness professional to create a customized fitness plan based on your goals, injuries, and time frame.

First, it’s important to stretch before you attempt any kind of exercise. Stretching exercises will help increase the mobility and flexibility of the soft tissues that surround your spine. Focus especially on the hamstrings, in the backs of your thighs, and the gluteal muscles of your buttocks. It’s also important to increase the strength of your core muscles, which stabilize your back and abdomen. There are a number of different approaches for this that a fitness professional can teach you.

Lastly, remember that you should seek low-impact activities, such as walking, biking, and swimming. Try to avoid exercises that put undue strain on your back, like sit-ups, or those that require you to twist or use weights. Shoot for 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions for timely holds. Each repetition should be held for a minimum of 10 seconds. I always suggest doing core stability work with self myo-fascial release stretching. These approaches will help you reach your desired goal of losing weight without the risk of re-injuring your back.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

What Vitamin World is:

High-quality vitamins and supplements at unbeatable prices! The first Vitamin World store opened its doors in 1976. Headquartered in Long Island, NY, Vitamin World manufactures over 1,000 superior-quality vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other nutritional supplements in our own state-of-the-art facilities. The manufacturing facilities total over 1 million square feet and we produce supplements in every available form, including tablets, two-piece capsules, softgels, powders and liquids.

They’re high-tech laboratories are located right here in the USA, where their quality control experts can oversee every step of the manufacturing process. Their commitment to producing the highest quality products is evident in the many sophisticated tests that they perform throughout the production process. In many ways, Vitamin World has set the standard for high quality vitamin manufacturing.

The scientists and researchers in their laboratories adhere to the strictest government testing procedures to assure the potency, stability and purity of their products. Additionally, they guarantee that their vitamins and supplements are absolutely free of contaminants.
For more information please visit the Vitamin World website.

Vitamin World’s Guarantee: Vitamin World is proud of the quality of their products and want to make sure you are completely satisfied. Vitamin World guarantees every product that they sell. Vitamin World products are manufactured under even more stringent quality controls than required by federal and state agencies for food. Your satisfaction is totally guaranteed for a full year from purchase date. If you are not completely satisfied, return the unused portion with a short explanation and they will promptly refund your money for the unused portion.

Which supplements is Vitamin World designed for:

Vitamin World supplements and products are designed for toddlers to the adults. Remember, a supplement is used for exactly like it says it is, to supplement your nutrition. We use vitamins, nutrients and minerals to fill in the gaps with what we are missing from food. Taking a multivitamin, antioxidant, fat burner, muscle builder will help you to achieve your goals effectively than without.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

I wanted all my readers, subscribers, and friends to know that this is the Final Month of the 25% Off Coupon Use Promo Code SAVE25 to Save 25% at eDiets! With eDiets, you don’t have to choose just one plan. There are more than 16 different nutrition plans to choose from and are all specifically tailored to your diet personality profile.

Here are the Coupon Details:

• Coupon: Good for 25% off any online diet plan
• Code: SAVE25
• Expiration Date: May 31, 2009
• Savings good for the life of the membership
• Enter the coupon code SAVE25 on the billing page to instantly save
• Please note coupon is good for 25% off online diet plans only
• Use Promo Code SAVE25 to Save 25% at eDiets!

The results are in, and the critics agree that eDiets.com is the best! In addition to earning Forbes magazine’s Best of the Web award for the diet & nutrition category in both 2004 and 2005, eDiets.com also won PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award in 2004 and 2005. More recently, eDiets.com’s meal delivery service, Deliciously Yours, was acknowledged by the premier award-winning food website, Epicurious.com, as the best meal delivery service. Judged on flavor, nutrition, portion size, convenience, variety, and customer service & support tools.

eDiets.com features the eDiets.com Weight Loss Plan, the Atkins Nutritional Approach, the Glycemic Impact Diet, the New Mediterranean Diet, and many more. We also offer 11 different Healthy Living programs for those with special needs, including the Living with Diabetes Plan, and the Heart Smart Plan.
Since 1997, eDiets.com has offered over 2 million members professional diet and fitness advice, information, services and products to help improve the overall health and longevity of its members. We’re just as committed to our valued partners as we are to our many members, and are constantly seeking ways to maximize your success. Read my complete review of The eDiets program.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

An exerciser or athlete’s expectations of meal replacement formula’s are often unrealistic. This is completely understandable considering the barrage of advertisements that one encounters in the popular media (magazines and television). Like in Flex magazine, Muscle and Fiction whoops I mean Muscle and Fitness and other notable popular magazines. What meal replacement formulas are, as exactly as the name implies, meals designed for a quick absorption. I created this meal replacement formulas buying guide for the understanding of the everyday exerciser and athlete.

Currently in vogue is the high protein, low carbohydrate meal replacement. The implied or stated use and its pre- and post workout aid in creating an anabolic (muscle building) environment. All sports and exercise research shows that carbohydrates are necessary in a higher proportion than protein to facilitate recovery. Carbohydrates are absolutely necessary to replace glycogen lost during high – intensity exercise.

Additionally, the presence of carbohydrates via post workout stimulates the release of insulin, which basically is a anabolic signal, starting the cascade of events leading to protein synthesis (The rate your muscles rebuild themselves after being broken down by intense training). Protein should always be present in the meal replacement formula (but shouldn’t be the highest percentage) to supply the amino acids necessary to rebuild and increase muscle. Remember the more muscle we have – the more calories we will burn at rest and will have a smaller percentage of bodyfat.

The proper ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats can also optimize the anabolic environment by supporting favorable testosterone levels. Many exercisers and athletes consume high protein diets in the hopes of stimulating muscle anabolism (the process in a plant or animal by which food is changed into living tissue) yet this will actually impair ultimate muscle growth through a reduction of serum testosterone (A testosterone test measures the amount of the male hormone, testosterone, in the blood.).

For Females:

If your a female exerciser or a athlete competitor – look for “Lite Meal Replacements Powders.” Each serving typically contain less than 200 calories with smaller amounts of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. This still works well because it is nutritionally packed with essential amino acids, minerals and vitamins. Here are my top picks for meal replacement formula’s for the women exerciser and athlete.

Click on the following Meal Replacement Formulas image for a full description:

For Males:

If you are a male exerciser or a athlete competitor – look for “High Carbohydrate/Protein Meal Replacements Powders.” These meal replacements formulas contain the highest amounts of protein ranging from 39 grams of protein per serving up to 60 grams of protein per serving. These meal replacement formulas cater to men who also seek to elevate their protein intake and performance. Here are my top picks for meal replacement formulas for the male exerciser or a athlete competitor.

Click on the following Meal Replacement Formulas image for a full description:

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.