Is it true that smoking can help you lose weight? Check frightening new trend of teenagers who smoke just to lose weight. Did wisely chose this way? How big are the side effects?

Nowadays, where losing weight has become a passion, mainly among women, we are ready to do almost anything to lose weight.

I’m sure that almost all women think smoking is a bad habit, but many say smoking helps them lose weight and relieve stress. Some of them said this: “When I used to smoke, I almost not ate. As soon as I stopped smoking, I ate all the time.” while another girl remarked that smoking “makes me not want to eat”.

Smoking does increase the metabolic rate by about 10 percent and decreases the desire for sweet foods. And studies suggest that nicotine acts as an appetite suppressant. Therefore, the more you smoke the less hungry you feel and the less you are likely to eat.

But if the teenagers are smoking with these reasons, it will be very difficult to stop (fear of gaining weight). What if later they were married and pregnant? Smoking will damage their health, and in pregnancy the innocent babies in their womb would be affected. Everyone knows the dangers of smoking for the baby who was conceived by the mother. Women who smoke have a greater chance of certain pregnancy problems or having a baby die from SIDS.

Smoking causes cancers in parts of the body, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, and throat cancers, chronic lung diseases, coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, etc.

Smoking may be able to fix weight problem, but in the long term, the detriments that it brings to our health is not really worth it. Moreover, if bad for the people we love.

What kids drink at 5 could affect weight at 15
By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents may be setting their daughters up for weight problems simply by allowing them to drink two or more sweetened drinks daily while young, study findings hint.

Higher sweetened beverage intake, such as sodas and fruit and sport drinks, at age 5 years was linked to more body fat during the following 10 years, Dr. Laura Fiorito, at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, told Reuters Health in an email.

Higher body fat during the teen years has been tied to long-term overweight and other health problems such as diabetes and later heart disease, Fiorito and colleagues note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Fiorito's team looked at what 166 non-Hispanic white girls drank between the ages of 5 and 15. They also measured their weight, height, and body fat.

Body fat and weight did not vary depending on how much milk or juice made from 100 percent fruit the girls drank.

By contrast, after allowing for other factors tied to weight and body fat levels, girls who drank two or more sweetened drinks daily had higher percentages of body fat, weighed more, and were more likely to be overweight than girls who drank lesser amounts of such beverages.

For example, of the 5 and 15 year old girls drinking less than one drink, the researchers found about 16 and 19 percent overweight, respectively. Among those drinking 2 or more sweetened drinks, about 39 percent were overweight at 5 years, while and 32 percent were the same when 15 years old.

Therefore, caregivers of young children should substitute sweetened drinks with reduced-fat milk and water, Fiorito and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2009.

Although sodium is essential for the body functions, too much sodium can be harmful for our body. The research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are linked with bigger rate of decline in kidney function.

Sodium is a mineral that is present in our foods, usually through the salt because we use salt to enhance flavor. So our body receives sodium primarily in the form of table salt.

As you know, sodium can helps our body to retain a healthy fluid balance. Sodium helps to keep calcium and other minerals soluble in our blood, as well as stimulating the adrenal glands.

What if too much sodium?
Read the following article which I took from health.msn.com

"There are currently limited data on the role of diet in kidney disease," researcher Dr. Julie Lin, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. "While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function."

The first study looked at diet and kidney function decline in more than 3,000 women enrolled in the national Nurses' Health Study. The researchers found that "in women with well-preserved kidney function, higher dietary sodium intake was associated with greater kidney function decline, which is consistent with experimental animal data that high sodium intake promotes progressive kidney disease."

The second study looked at the association between sugar- and artificially-sweetened beverages and kidney function decline in the same group of women. The researchers found an association between two or more servings per day of artificially sweetened soda and a two-fold increased risk of faster kidney function decline. There was no connection between sugar-sweetened beverages and kidney function decline.

The association between artificially sweetened beverages and kidney function decline persisted after Lin and colleague Dr. Gary Curhan accounted for other factors, such as age, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, physical activity, caloric intake and cardiovascular disease.

Although further research is still needed, I think we have to anticipate. Cut back on your sodium intake gradually.

While you don’t want to take too much sodium, you should not take too little sodium either. Moderation is the Key.

In this post I want to talk about the Nutrient Density. Many nutrition experts advise us to consider the nutrient density of the foods when you choose our foods. What is nutrient density? Here is the meaning of Nutrient density, which I took from wikipedia.

First, nutrient density is defined as a ratio of nutrient content (in grams) to the total energy content (in kilocalories or joules). According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, nutrient-dense foods are those foods that provide substantial amounts of vitamins and minerals and relatively few calories. Fruit and vegetables are considered nutrient-dense food, while eggs, meat, cheese, and products containing added sugars, processed cereals, and alcohol are not.

Second, nutrient density is defined as a ratio of food energy from carbohydrate, protein or fat to the total food energy.

Third, nutrient density is understood as the ratio of the nutrient composition of a given food to the nutrient requirements of the human body. Therefore, a nutrient-dense food is the food that delivers a complete nutritional package.

Apparently, a food that gives you a lot of nutrients when compared to its calorie content is a healthier choice than a food that gives you only a few nutrients but numerous calories.

Nutritionally dense foods naturally tend to be light on all the stuff that most of us are trying to avoid, such as saturated fats, cholesterol, lots of sodium, etc. In other words, they're the opposite of empty calories.

You can use the fruit, vegetables, nuts or seeds as a nutrient-dense snacks as they are low in calories and packed with dietary fiber and vitamins. Do this if you feel hungry between your meals time.

But remember that the nutrient-dense food alone is not enough to meet all the needs of your body, especially if you are a very active person.
Eat nutrient-dense food will make you feel full, because of the fiber and nutrients contents from that kind of food, even though your body needs for calories not being met. Your body still needs calories.