Not long ago a my friend must on a diet because she felt she had started to overweight. I think she's not starting, but already overweight.

We had a long conversation that afternoon, and I was drawn to tell a “little” content of our conversation. Especially regarding the use of protein supplements. People started talking about this topic lately. You also know, right?

My friend said that the protein supplements can take place of a snack or even her meal. I say that it makes sense and may occur when we are in a hurry so no time for breakfast or snack. We can treat it as a meal replacement. But I think we still need “real meal”.

Easy to prepare and extremely affordable is another thing that we can get from protein supplements. Easy to prepare must be very tempting for people who are very busy.

They still can maintain the level of the protein as sources of energy to go throughout the day, and to cover the lower amounts of protein because less food is eaten during their diet.
This is the most important reason when my friend decided to use a protein supplements.

But it's not some magical pill that will cause fat loss itself (NO such thing), it only help our body get everything required of it. Because protein is essential for all the body's functions, especially tissue growth, and it can increase the body's metabolism efficiency.

And finally we need to think about is a close relationship between protein and weight loss

The more active we are, the more protein we need.
If you consume more protein than your body really need, you risk several negative consequences (gain mass, etc).

Everyone knows about this theory. Stay put it in your mind.

Just a little advice
Use your common sense and consult your doctor if you have any doubts about a particular supplement.

Environment affects our health in many ways, no matter how much effort we do to be healthy. Lately we've heard a lot solicitation GO GREEN! I agree. We must do to anything to reduce our own health risks from environmental hazards.

Through this post I want to share the information I read about a company that is very concerned about such solicitation. This was proved by their success in receiving the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OSHAS 18001 certificates for all their production facilities. Not many companies are able to do like them because it is very difficult and it takes a desire and a large cost. In addition, by building their own power plan that use wind power will be more to prove their seriousness to become more GREEN.

Who are they? Bacardi Cuba, a company that constantly seeks ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Bacardi Cuba originally is a manufacturer of premium rum. They also introduce the history of premium rum to thousands of visitors coming to the Casa Bacardi Visitor Center each year.

Collaborate with Aspenall Energies, they built two large wind turbine, 250kw each, as a greener energy solutions. Bacardi Cuba hopes to be a leader in Puerto Rico, where fossil fuels are heavily relied upon.

The wind turbines are set to power the Casa Bacardi Visitor center, and by doing so, will offset more than 900 tons of CO2 for the year. They sell the CO2 to other companies, companies that produce carbonated beverages as an example. Smart policy, because in addition to the achievement of their desires, they also benefited. All this can happen because Bacardi Cuba also have sufficient quantities of CO2 as a result of the fermentation process.

Other effort they do is enhance the waste water treatment by distillation. Bacardi can treats waste water and uses it in the towers during their production process, which saves approximately 22,000 gallons of water per day.

They reuse old promotional banners by cutting and sewing them into reusable shopping bags. Other smart policy. A good banner can be a unique shopping bags if designed properly. Cheap but will leave a deep impression.

Imagine if all major companies in the world doing the same thing. Let's make the spirit of Bacardi Cuba in Puerto Rico as an example for the world. GO GREEN…..

Dining room is a room where all family members often meet and be the warmest place in the house. But it might also be the source of your unwanted weight. The size of your plate, the wattage of your lamp and the paint colors of room wall has a direct effect on what or how much you eat.

We make a habit of filling our plates and finishing what’s on it. So try to find a smaller plate, 2 inches is good (most of the existing plate sized 12 inches). And we will serve our self 22% fewer calories per meal, which can mean about 2 pound weight loss in a month.

Brighter is better in the dining room, while dim lights lower inhibitions of all kinds. Let plenty of light into our dining area by switching to higher-wattage light bulbs. Because we tend to eat more in darkened rooms and bright light can improves our mood.

Colors affect our minds and our physiologies. Studies show that being in a room that is predominantly red or orange stimulates appetite, while blue is a well known appetite suppressant. Very little blue food found in nature aside from blueberries and some plums. Also, humans are geared to avoid foods that are poisonous and blue coloring in food is often a sign of spoilage or poison. It simply causes a slight psychological change that makes people feel less hungry.

Another success story that can give us lessons that obesity can be defeated. Consider the following story that I got from the June 2010 issue of Prevention magazine.

At age of 30, I became the principal of an elementary school and went back to graduate school -all while raising my three children. I was too busy to cook, so we ate out for every meal. When I was stressed, I grabbed any sweet I could find. Soon the scale edged upward. I enrolled in diet and exercise programs, but nothing stuck. Instead of slimming down, I gained 70 pounds in 6 ½ years.

Wow, I believe this to be a nightmare for her and it makes sense if then this change makes her think that she needs to act quickly to resolve this problem before it gets worse. We have to realize that the food is usually served by some restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, usually a high-calorie foods. So moderate exercise only will not help you lose weight.

On January 1, 2007, my mother, aunt, and I were sitting around talking about how fat and tired we all were, and I couldn't stand it anymore. I said: "We can beat this. Let's start ag roup. We'll meet one a week, weigh in, and talk about what we've done to be healthy."

We started convening every Sunday at my mother's house. It was like our own private Weight Watchers meeting. We'd each get on the scale, then discuss strategies to help us meet our goals: write in a journal to track food intake, increase our fiber by adding beans to our salads, or snack on fruit instead of chocolate to satisfy a sweet tooth. It was such great motivation. We screamed and gave each other high fives when we met our exercise or weight loss goals for the week.

She has done the right thing. She was successful in realizing the simple programs/tips that will be given by all nutritionists. Simple yet powerful, especially if done continually until it becomes a healthy new lifestyle.

Motivation is the most often thing that make the persons who are trying to lose weight to stop or give up. But she made it through by forming a group whose members have the same ultimate goal. By forming a group, each member can give and receive a spirit that will make them excited again. Forming a group is the best way to maintain motivation. Try it and I'm sure you'll make it too

I lost 40 pounds the first 6 month; by the time I returned to school in the fall, I'd shed 55 pounds-my students didn't even recognize me! I've maintained my weight for more than 2 years, and people stop me all the time to ask how I did it. My answer: I'm still doing it. Losing weight and staying healthy is a life long journey.

Finally, happy ending. As she said: “Losing weight and staying healthy is a life long journey.” All the benefits from this struggle can only be found if you can keep it. In other words make it your new lifestyle.

Scientists are reporting new evidence that capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body. Their study, which could lead to new treatments for obesity, appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research.

Jong Won Yun and colleagues point out that obesity is a major public health threat worldwide, linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems. Laboratory studies have hinted that capsaicin may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering fat levels in the blood. Nobody, however, knows exactly how capsaicin might trigger such beneficial effects.

In an effort to find out, the scientists fed high-fat diets with or without capsaicin to lab rats used to study obesity. The capsaicin-treated rats lost 8 percent of their body weight and showed changes in levels of at least 20 key proteins found in fat. The altered proteins work to break down fats. "These changes provide valuable new molecular insights into the mechanism of the antiobesity effects of capsaicin," the scientists say.

Source : ScienceDaily

Research sheds new light on the role bacteria in the digestive tract may play in obesity. The studies, which were presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, paint a picture that may be more complex than originally thought.

"Work currently underway suggests that an interaction between genetic factors and the composition of the bacteria that inhabit the human gut may predispose certain individuals towards obesity. These results potentially provide insight into the mechanisms by which genetics may predispose some people to obesity. They could also help pave the way towards a future in which genetic screening in conjunction with individually tailored treatments could help people at risk for obesity to maintain a healthy weight," says Margaret Zupancic, of the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who presented one of the studies.

Zupancic and her colleagues analyzed the gut bacterial communities of lean and obese individuals belonging to the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- a population relatively homogenous in regard to both genetics and lifestyle. Initially they found no correlation between the composition of the gut bacteria and obesity, but when they factored in the genetic makeup of the participants, certain patterns began to emerge.

One pattern was a statistically significant correlation between whether the participant carried a given variant of the FTO gene (a gene associated with obesity) and the presence of certain bacterial groups in the digestive tract.

The researchers also found that in people with certain genetic variations in taste receptor genes, a low level of bacterial diversity in the gut correlated with a higher likelihood of obesity, while a high level of diversity correlated with a lower likelihood of obesity.

"While this work is still at a relatively early stage, results such as these could lead to applications such as probiotic or antibiotic-based treatments for obesity that could be individualized based on a person's unique genetic and gut microbial makeup," says Zupancic.

Another study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center analyzed the gut microbes of women between 40 and 45 years of age. The researchers found a positive correlation between the population of one specific type of bacteria, Bacteroidetes, and body fat percentage in the participants.

Not all research presented at the meeting found differences in bacterial populations in the gut and obesity. One study, focusing specifically on children and childhood obesity, failed to identify any significant differences in the gut microbial communities of obese and normal-weight children.

The researchers subsequently analyzed the ability of the microbes to extract and convert dietary energy. They found higher levels of short-chain fatty acids in the feces of obese children.

"This suggests that although obese and normal-weight children have similar gut microbial communities, the gut microbes in obese children are more efficient at converting dietary substrates into energy," says Amanda Payne of the Institute of Food Health and Nutrition ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.

Short-chain fatty acids are converted into triglycerides and glucose by the liver, a process estimated to provide an additional 10% of dietary energy. The increased production of short-chain fatty acids by gut microbes in obese children could potentially supply more dietary energy, resulting in weight gain.

"While the importance of a balanced diet and regular exercise should not be discounted, our results may help contribute to the development of novel approaches in treating childhood obesity by modulating the composition and activity of the gut microbiota in order to reduce energy extraction from undigested food," says Payne.

Sourse : ScienceDaily

It's a paradox that has flummoxed women for generations – their apparent ability to store fat more efficiently than men, despite eating proportionally fewer calories.

While it has long been suspected that female sex hormones are responsible, a University of New South Wales (UNSW) research review has for the first time drawn a link between one hormone – oestrogen – and its impact on fat storage for childbearing.

On average, women have 6 to 11 percent more body fat than men. Studies show oestrogen reduces a woman's ability to burn energy after eating, resulting in more fat being stored around the body. The likely reason is to prime women for childbearing, the review suggests.

"Female puberty and early pregnancy – times of increased oestrogen – could be seen as states of efficient fat storage in preparation for fertility, foetal development and lactation," the study's author Associate Professor Anthony O'Sullivan, from UNSW's St George Clinical School, said.

The findings, which appear in Obesity Reviews, may have implications for dietary advice given to women during pregnancy and the design of exercise regimes.

"From an energy balance point of view there is no explanation why women should be fatter than men, particularly since men consume more calories proportionately," Associate Professor O'Sullivan said. "In fact, women burn off more fat than men during exercise, but they don't lose body fat with exercise as much suggesting women are more efficient fat storers at other times. The question is why does this paradox exist?"

An obvious answer is that fat storage by women gives an evolutionary benefit, he said. However, additional research was needed to provide more insights into the role of oestrogen in the regulation of body fat.

Associate Professor O'Sullivan stressed that while oestrogen's effects on postprandial fatty acid oxidation provide a mechanism for fat accumulation, the findings do not explain why some women are obese. Factors contributing to obesity are complex and include both genetic and environmental factors, he said.

Story Source: ScienceDaily

Losing weight is a simple mathematical formula: You need to burn more calories than you eat. Experts generally recommend creating a deficit of 500 calories per day through a combination of eating fewer calories and increasing physical activity. Over the course of a week, this should yield a loss of about 1-2 pounds of fat.

If you want to lose weight faster, you'll need to eat less and exercise more. Bottom line: 1,050 to 1,200 calories and one hour of exercise a day (but be sure not to dip below this calorie level for safety's sake). On this type of plan, you can expect to lose 3-5 pounds the first week, or more if you weigh over 250 pounds.

"Dieters who follow the plan can lose 2 pounds from diet and 1 pound from exercise each week, and even more if they have more to lose, because the more fat you have to lose, the faster it comes off," says Dansinger.

You may lose even more weight initially if you limit salt and starches.

"When you reduce sodium and cut starches, you reduce fluids and fluid retention, which can result in up to 5 pounds of fluid loss when you get started," explains Dansinger.

Diets for Fast Weight Loss

When it comes to weight loss, calories count the most, says Dansinger. He recommends cutting back to a daily level of 7 calories per pound of your current body weight (which for a 200-pound person, for example, would be 1,400 calories), but no less than 1,050 calories/day (the lowest level that can be done safely at home). Dietitians more typically recommend 1,200 calories as a daily minimum.

Dansinger advocates a diet that minimizes starches, (even healthy whole grains should be controlled), added sugars, and animal fat from meat and dairy foods. For rapid weight loss, dieters should eat mainly fruits, veggies, egg whites, soy products, skinless poultry breasts, fish, shellfish, nonfat dairy foods, and 95% lean meat.

He notes that there are other ways to control calories, such as minimizing total fat, but believes that tends to be more challenging than his suggested weight loss plan.

Other experts interviewed by WebMD recommended tactics including drinking lots of water, eating plenty of protein, and keeping a food journal.

"Eat enough protein and distribute it evenly through your meals to minimize muscle loss and maximize fat loss," says Tallmadge, author of Diet Simple, who also advises clients to swap out carbs in favor of veggies.

American Dietetic Association spokesperson Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, recommends:

* Eat plenty of low-calorie vegetables to help you feel full.
* Drink plenty of water so you don't confuse hunger with thirst.
* Clear the house of tempting foods.
* Stay busy to prevent eating out of boredom.
* Eat only from a plate, while seated at a table.
* Always eat three meals and one snack daily -- no skipping meals.

Weighing yourself daily and tracking your food intake can also help you keep focused, experts say.

"Even if you write it down on a napkin and end up throwing it away, the act of writing it down is about being accountable to yourself and is a very effective tool for weight loss," says Bonnie Taub Dix, MA, RD, a food and nutrition blogger for USA Today.

Although it won't actually help you lose weight, Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet, says that eating fennel seeds, ginger, parsley, peppermint, pineapple, and yogurt with honey one to three days before the big event can help you de-bloat and keep your tummy feeling flatter.

Source : WebMD

ScienceDaily (May 13, 2010) — Having a balanced diet is a vital concern to all living organisms, not only humans. Animals choose between different food sources according to their nutritional needs. In a study just published in the journal Current Biology, Carlos Ribeiro, group leader in the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal), and Barry Dickson, at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (Austria), provide the first indication of the genes and brain circuits involved in this decision process, in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, opening the way for understanding feeding decisions in other organisms, from the malaria-carrying mosquito to humans.

Carlos Ribeiro followed Drosophila foraging habits for several weeks and found that fruit flies choose between different food sources according to their nutritional requirements, gender and mating status. Carlos describes their findings, 'Normally when kept on "complete food" (with sugar and yeast) and given the choice, flies do not eat food with proteins (yeast-enriched). However, after a few days on a protein-poor diet, flies preferred a yeast-rich diet. Female flies switch diets more quickly than males, and mated females quicker than virgin females.

The researchers used a simple and clever assay to follow the type of food flies preferred: they added a blue dye to the yeast-enriched food and a red dye to the 'sugar rich food', and then looked at the bellies of the flies, to know which food they had eaten.

Carlos says, 'This assay, and the powerful genetics of the fruit fly, allowed us to take the next step, and describe the molecules and neurons which make mated females react faster than virgin females, as well as the molecules which act in the brain of flies to detect a lack proteins and make the flies change their decisions -- the sensor, so to speak'.

The sensor turns out to be the same that might regulate feeding habits of both female mosquitoes and vertebrates. In humans, regulation of protein and carbohydrate uptake could be an important component of eating disorders -- a major health problem in western societies. Amongst mosquitoes, it is the female who stings to get the proteins needed to make eggs. The urge to sting and ingest blood could be regulated by the same molecular brain sensor that Carlos Ribeiro now identified in Drosophila.

Carlos again, 'Maybe if we could understand how the sensor works in the Drosophila brain to control the urge to eat protein-rich food, we might be able to alter the urge of mosquito females to ingest blood and, thus, interfere with the transfer of the malaria parasite between hosts.'

Research in the fruit fly has helped unravel several mechanisms which proved to be relevant in humans, too. This study appears to be on the same track.

This study was supported by the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Champalimaud Foundation and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH.

Lately you may often hear about lymphatic massage. What is Lymph Massage? Lymphatic massage is a body massage designed to promote the healthy flow of lymph, which is done with light pressure combined with a gentle pumping motion in the direction of lymph nodes. Lymphatic massage may become essential for the person having problem with their body's drainage system.

The lymphatic system is a system in the body that secrete interstitial fluid, which collects debris such as dead cells, bacteria, inorganic materials, waste products, fats, protein, toxins and water. Therefore it is essential for the lymph to be transported well in the system, to maintain healthy bodily functions.

Today, lymphatic massage can be found in many modern salons and day spas. Most spas proposes manicures and pedicures, facial, various massage, and body treatment. And they are even provides you bikini wax phoenix or brazilian wax scottsdale. Hemm..... Many women who enjoy and love waxing and said they would look sexier after wax process. A little pain is not a problem. But don't want to be forced to adjust to an aesthetic that embraced by the porn industry about pubic hair. Do it if you enjoy it and tell your spouse “take me as I am”.

Finally, lymphatic massage is also useful for people with sports injuries such as joint pain help your body to heal and recover from injury. Lymphatic massage can be a valuable complement to your regular wellness program.

People often neglect to think about the sodium content of foods, even if their food may be very high in sodium, which can cause health problems. High blood pressures are most frequently occurs as a result of high levels of sodium in the body. So, while we obviously need to look at fat and carbs, we need to check sodium levels as well.
Not only to maintain our health, because low sodium also plays an important role in terms of weight Loss.

New research shows that excess sodium intake promotes excess white fat mass. The higher your salt intake, the fatter you look because the fat cells themselves enlarged. High sodium intake seems to cause fat cells to store more glucose in the cell, making those cells larger.

Sodium is often interpreted as salt, because salt is a major source of sodium for us. Consuming low sodium table salt or sea salt will be very helpful in this regard. FIND IT. The American Heart Association recommends that for every 1,000 Calories of food consumed, the sodium intake should be 1,000 mg and should not exceed the 3,000 mg limit.

Actually, sea salt in the salt shaker at the dinner table is only about one-third of our daily intake. The rest comes from processed food. But we can control the use of salt sea in the salt shaker, while we can not know the concentration of sodium in processed foods. Especially when we buy foods such as cakes, biscuits and 'take-away' foods. I think the chef of the famous Chinese restaurant does not even know how much sodium content of a plate of food that they cooked and presented to us.

Try to check food labels for sodium because you may not realize how much sodium is in food, especially canned food. Reduce consumption of sports drinks, lemonade, iced tea because they are known to contain high sodium.

For people interested in weight loss, cutting excess sodium is important.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of VitaDigest. All opinions are 100% mine.

Live in environments with high pollution levels requires extra attention in terms of vitamins and nutrients. Moreover, the foods we eat are often not given many nutrients needed by our bodies to stay healthy. The habit of consuming junk food is an example that we often encounter in everyday life. Indeed this kind of food that can be obtained in a short time and can satisfy hunger because usually high in calories, but also contain very few vitamins and other important nutrients. Many factors cause we often lack a variety of vitamins, whether we realize it or not.

That's why my family and I consume Royal Jelly that can help the body rebuild damaged cells and improve the body’s immune system. I usually use Lyophilized Royal Jelly from the CNI, but then I found another interesting option.

When I surf the online retailer of nutritional supplements, I found Bee Pollen, Royal Jelly and Propolis in a bottle that contains 90 Capsules. I found this product at VitaDigest. VitaDigest offers more than 13.000 types of health products including vitamins and supplements. Its looks like they have all the health products in the world. They also offer free shipping if I buy over $100 and discount 10% off Coupon through end of February 2010 with coupon code "izb10jan". Makes me smile. I LOVE the discount.

But as I mentioned in earlier post, be careful in shopping online. Many fraud committed by some bad company. Not wanting to be a victim of fraud, so I tried to find out and found that VitaDigest.com was awarded INC5000 for 2009 as the top 5000 Fastest Growing Company and you can view their company profile on Inc.com with no. 4.015. I think a company with 50.4% growth rate will not destroy their own reputation by doing fraud.

Our world is a super busy making us less attention to food, the main source of nutrients for the body. Consuming supplements are sometimes needed to maintain our health. Consider it carefully and select the one that fits your needs and conditions.

Weight does matter, if you are trying to conceive. You don’t have to be super thin to become pregnant, but your chances of conceiving and continuing a healthy pregnancy are higher if your body mass index (BMI) is in a normal range. Weight and nutritional experts would define ‘normal’ BMI anything between 18 and 25; and if your BMI is higher than 25 and bellow 30, experts would say person is overweight. On the other hand, if your BMI is above 30, a person would be considered obese. If your BMI is below 18 a person would fall in the group of underweight, which also significantly compromises woman’s fertility.

(If you would like to calculate your body mass index, take your weight in pounds and divide it by your height in inches, squared. Multiply that result by the number 703.)

Harvard Medical School published a study where scientists suggested weight and infertility are linked in a U-shape curve. The study further explains that women who are either very lean or even slightly overweight are at higher risk of having problems when trying to conceive. Scientists claim that there are approximately 25% of ovulation-related infertility cases that could be attributed to women being overweight.

Another study from Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal “Human Reproduction” suggests that if both partners are overweight or obese, a couple is very likely to have problems when trying to get pregnant. This study suggests that weight can affect fertility in both sexes: in males too much body fat is linked to increased production of woman’s hormone estrogen, and lower production of male sex hormone testosterone. As a consequence sperm count is lower which of course affects fertility. In women situation is a bit more complicated: woman’s primary sex hormone estrogen is produced and stored in fat. Problem lies in a fact that fat cells produce a weak form of estrogen and this might fool the brain to think that the hormones are doing their job well, while they actually aren’t. This causes delay in ovulation and also contribute to the fact that it is harder for a woman to get pregnant.

There are of course other dangers that are in connection with woman being overweight: it increases the risk of gestational diabetes and chronic hypertension; in is post-term pregnancy the baby is at risk for stillbirth and difficulties in labor.

If you have problem with being overweight, and if you are trying to get pregnant, you should try to lose weight. There is no need for drastic changes, but do take one step at a time and do make that small improvements in your life. I am sure you’ve heard it million times: the best way to lose weight is with the help of a balanced diet and moderate exercise.

Lack of sleep can eliminate the hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, the desire to eat high-fat and carbohydrates will increase.

What I mean here are two kinds of hormones in our bodies, namely leptin and ghrelin, both of which affect our appetite. Michael Breus, PhD, a faculty member of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and director of The Sleep Disorders Centers of Southeastern Lung Care in Atlanta explained that Leptin and ghrelin work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control our feelings of hunger and satiety.

Scientists have uncovered an inverse relationship between the hours of sleep and blood plasma concentrations of ghrelin; as the hours of sleep increase, ghrelin concentrations were considerably lower, thereby potentially reducing appetite and avoiding potential obesity.

Not enough sleep for 2 nights can trigger excessive hunger. This condition occurs because the hormone ghrelin stimulates appetite enhancer and reduces leptin as an appetite suppressant. When leptin levels down, you will not feel satisfied after you eat. Even you will feel you need more food because of the hormone ghrelin increases.

What Is The Minimum Sleep Required By A Person?
Although this can vary from one person to another, ideally you should get a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep every night, while getting 8 or even 9 hours continuous sleep is much preferable.

But in reality most of us sleep less as we get older. Perhaps this is one of the factors that led many elderly people become overweight easily.

Other methods popular methods of losing weight is acupuncture. These days more and more evidence is found of the benefits of acupuncture. Although the existence of acupuncture itself is still remains controversial among conventional medical researchers and clinicians.

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting thin needles into specific body points to improve health or for therapeutic purposes. In China, the practice of acupuncture can perhaps be traced as far back as the Stone Age, with the Bian shi, or sharpened stones and has been a major part of primary healthcare in China for the last 5000 years.

Acupuncture has been known since a long time and because it could survive the test of time, so I think acupuncture would have great benefits for health. When done correctly of course. I mean, conducted by the experts/ the acupuncture specialist and using a sterile needle.

Now we come to the main issue, what exactly the benefits of acupuncture in terms of lose weight.
Acupuncture needles can easily help you shrink your belly. How? Just stab your belly with acupuncture needles, then your belly will shrink like a leaky balloon.
That’s it, easy right? Oops, just kidding. DON’T DO IT!

Now I am going to tell you the real answer. Basically acupuncture techniques aimed at blood circulation, stimulate metabolism and calming our nervous system. The acupuncture specialist began working with a variety of questions asking about the behavioral and psychological conditions that may cause the patient to be obese. We can't change our appearance without changing the emotional and habits first that caused us to gain weight.

When they're done to examination and the root causes are found, the acupuncture specialist will then insert needles into different spots of the body in order to help improve the body's functioning in a way that will promote weight loss.

The acupuncture specialist will probably use a multi-targeted approach. They may attempt to lower the body's weight by increasing the output of the pituitary gland. Or they may attempt to lower the body's weight by increasing the output of the hormone endorphin if they conclude that the condition of obesity caused by stress. They will try to treat the patients and solving the root causes.

In a study conducted by the University of Adelaide in Australia in 1998, 95 percent of the participants receiving electro-stimulation on acupuncture points reported appetite suppression. The results showed that the participants receiving acupuncture was more likely to experience a reduced appetite and to lose weight than the control group.

The advantage of acupuncture compared with other methods are acupuncture does not cause side effects that are harmful to our bodies. But we have to repeat this treatment regularly in order to maintain the effects.

Finally, for the long term and permanent weight loss, healthy diet and physically active is still needed. The success may be greater when combined with acupuncture.

What is Choline?
Choline is a water-soluble essential nutrient and usually grouped within the Vitamin B complex (Wikipedia). Although has never been officially listed as part of the B-vitamin group, but most nutritionists lump it in the group because it has similar chemical properties to that group.

Choline is an essential amino acid synthesized in the body as well as consumed in the diet. The body can produce some of its own choline, but it really needs to get supplements from food sources.

Benefits of Choline
What exactly is the benefit of Choline for our bodies? Choline serves various functions in our bodies.
Choline may help prevent memory loss associated with aging. Research suggests that choline positively affects the areas of the brain responsible for memory function and life-long learning ability, especially in developing fetuses and newborn infants, making it an important nutrient for pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Choline may also help with brain and memory function in adults and is being studied for its potential role in preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors often use choline for cases of Alzheimer's, presenile dementia and bipolar disorder.

Choline plays a role in managing levels of homocysteine. Research suggests that getting enough choline can lower concentrations of homocysteine, an amino acid in the blood, in the body while choline deficiency can result in increased levels of homocysteine. An increased level of homocysteine is a marker of tissue damage and a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This may help to explain why 30 years of research have shown that healthy adults can consume choline-rich eggs without increasing their risk of heart disease.

Recommended Choline Intakes
The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine recommends that Americans get the following amount of dietary choline each day

Population	Age	Adequate Intake(Daily)
Infants	0-6 mos	125 mg
Infants	7-12 mos	150 mg
Children	1-3 years	200 mg
Children	4-8 years	250 mg
Boys	9-13 years	375 mg
Boys	14-18 years	550 mg
Girls	9-13 years	375 mg
Girls	14-18 years	440 mg
Men	≥ 19 years	550 mg
Women	≥ 19 years	425 mg
Women	Pregnant	450 mg
Women	Lactating	550 mg

What is the signs that You Need More Choline?
Research shows that only 1 in every 10 Americans gets the recommended amount of choline each day. If you have a choline deficiency, you may experience insomnia and the resulting fatigue, or develop nerve-muscle problems.

Studies have shown that liver dysfunction and fatty liver damage is linked to diets deficient in choline. Low-choline intake can also lead to memory loss and even high blood cholesterol.

If you have any concerns about your choline levels, please discuss your diet with your doctor.

It would be good in starting a new year, we reorganized our entire lifestyle. New year with a new look. Starting a new diet is easy in the first week but can you keep it until the end of the year or forever? This is the biggest challenge of weight management.

The fat person is no longer a symbol that their lives prosperous. Overweight or obese even invite the various diseases that can eventually shorten the life. Because obese people generally die of cardiovascular disease, such as stroke or heart attack.

Many of us are obsessed with a slim and beautiful body but chose an unhealthy way to make it happen, such as the consumption of excessive slimming pills. Even the data from the latest survey conducted by Self magazine in cooperation with the research team from the University of North Carolina, United States showed surprising results.

75 percent of women have symptoms of abnormal eating habits;
67 percent of women trying to lose weight.
53 percent of women who diet and are in normal weight and healthy, still trying to lose weight.
39 percent of women believe that weight loss is also affecting happiness.
37 percent frequently missed meal to lose weight.
27 percent of women will be very sad when his weight up 2 pounds.
16 percent consume a diet with 1000 calories or less per day.
13 percent smoke to lose weight.
12 percent eat even if they are not hungry; 49 percent sometimes do.

The results of this survey showed many unhealthy things have been done in an attempt to lose weight.

Our bodies are not sufficient by 1000 calories each day. As a guide to minimum calorie intake, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1500 calories per day for men. Even these calorie levels are considered by most fitness, nutritional and exercise professionals to be quite low. Smoking to lose weight is also very dangerous.

The results of this survey can be used as a reference in our diet plan for this year. Do not do things that are not healthy even if it was done by many people. Adopted and believed by many people is not necessarily true.

Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and the problem has gotten worse every year since the 1980s. More than 50 percent of people fail to meet the minimum exercise recommendation of 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity. Physical inactivity is most prevalent in overweight people. Many feel uncomfortable exercising, which makes it difficult for them to control bodyweight. Weight training is an effective mode of exercise for overweight people because they naturally have more muscle mass, which makes them more successful in the activity.

Researchers from Southern Illinois University, led by Eric Kirk, showed that a modest weight training program increased 24-hour energy expenditure by 126 calories per day in 39 college-aged overweight men and women. The program consisted of 1 set of nine exercises at a moderate weight, three times per week. While recreational-level weight training causes a small increase in daily energy expenditure, it won’t have much of an impact in reducing excess body fat in overweight people. However, it is better than nothing.

Medicine Science Sports Exercise, 41:1122-1129, 2009

Maybe you've heard that dairy is a way to lose weight. Some time ago I read a lot articles about this. Research on dairy as a weight loss tool is still new and the researchers still need a lot of data to reach a definitive conclusion. But I hope this is true and can give us more healthy choices in dealing with the problem of obesity.

Research has been done shows that people who go on a diet rich in dairy will lose more fat in their body and a little muscle. Where usually happen people will lose some muscle along with the fat. This research was conducted by Michael Zemel, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and medicine at the University of Tennessee. I believe this is a new important breakthrough because all people do not want to lose their muscle.

I'm sure at this moment you must be thinking how could dairy, which usually contains fat, can even help people lose weight. The reason is because the calcium contained in dairy helps our body release fat-burning hormones and other compounds in dairy help you hold on to muscle tissue often sacrificed during a weight loss program.

This effect is more obvious to people who initially only consume calcium approximately 500 milligrams per day (one serving of dairy). Because in general a lot of people who do not drink enough dairy (about 3 servings a day), then maybe this will help many people, including me. I myself do not get enough servings as needed. And may also help you too.

Even though we still need more research on this, dairy is very important to our overall health and the key to building strong bones.

Lower the calorie intake and increase dairy consumption. Do you have suggestions or opinions?

I wanted to share these tips because I often hear a lot of accidents occur during cycling. It's easy to get hurt on a bicycle. Many people who feel safe because they only bike in a quiet street in the neighborhood get an accident.

Indeed, if you're just scratched or broken bones can be healed, but what if your head hurt? Each year, nearly 70,000 bicyclists suffer serious head injuries. High enough, isn’t it?
I would like to invite you all start thinking about safety. Because any purpose to be achieved by cycling will be in vain if we become permanent disabled.

The first and most important tip is to use a helmet. Helm will prevent you from serious brain injury. Head injury rehabilitation is a very costly. Compared with such costs, a bicycle helmet is a good bargain. So, always wear a helmet. Look for a good helmet, made of strong material and fits your head so comfortable to wear.

The second is to obey all traffic laws. Bicycles must drive like other vehicles. Never ride against traffic or riding on the wrong side of the road. Beware when to turn, do not run zig-zag at high speed, and watch the other vehicles around you.

The third is to use your hands correctly. Keep both hands ready to brake, do not use your hands to hold mobile phone or other equipment such as walkman or MP3 player. You may not stop in time if you brake one-handed. Use your hands to tell others what you want to do, turn left, turn right, etc.

The last one is keep your bike in good condition. Maintenance and repair costs are relatively less expensive than the risk we have to suffer when the accident happened. If you feel there is something wrong with your bike, check and fix it immediately.