Dieting Dilemma
Dieting is the byword of fashion, however it is in the archives of good health too! Good Diet and nutrition are essence to healthy living and fitness both physical and the mental fitness. Depression is a medical condition affecting the unhealthy body and mind. Supervised dieting and balanced diet can achieve health body and a fit mind. However in the mad rush to social and economic nirvana frequent dieting is common is often practised and one is often sacrificing the most essential of all assets-a fit body!
Dieting in essence mean consuming lesser food, in the diet to achieve a better weight, not necessarily an optimum weight. Dieting is a very much a common practise especially among women and the professionals in the entertainment industry! Celebrity dieting their way to achieving better looks is well documented, however crash dieting may have their own pitfalls as medical science has proved.
Crash dieting means suddenly lowering the intake of food drastically; the body is put in a stressful situation, when the energy requirements are not met by the diet consumed.
Health supplement manufacturers as weight loss pills frequently market low carbohydrate diets and nutritional supplements to dieting individuals. However one must be careful in choosing the type of product, and dieting has to be carefully planned by putting enough calories and minerals in the food, so as the body has enough nutrition in the diet. The best dieting plan is the one made in conjecture with the medical specialist or dietician. Dieting can then be a joy.
Water is an integral part of the diet, it can be consumed without any limits; the kidneys flush out of the body’s toxic by-products, which is helped by consuming more water while dieting.
So when one is following a diet plan, consuming enough water is very important.
Weight loss programmes also stress on the effectiveness of controlled dieting along with some physical training. A body building diet is different from a modelling diet! So definitely dieting has to be planned out with professional advise before starting a dieting program. Good dieting recipes would include: Vegetables and salads, without the garnishing! Soups, especially vegetable soups, and all colored vegetables and fruits, these also give lot of fibre which aids in digestion. Taking fish products while dieting is good as fish has polyunsaturated fatty acids which are the good fat (!) and are required by the body for producing antibodies and other essential cells. Consuming legumes and nuts while dieting will give the protein and also some calories. Getting the diet totally free of junk food is very essential tool of controlled dieting. And plenty of water to wash the food downs the throat.
Dieting should be paced properly and crash diets or unregulated and unsupervised dieting will only harm the health, So professional supervision of a dietician or medical professional, charting a proper plan to see that there is enough of the required nutrition in the diet, and understanding that each body is unique with its own requirements will help choose a suitable dieting regime and bring better health to people.
Selenium – A Powerful Antioxidant
Selenium is a micromineral and a powerful antioxidant which protects your body from damaging free radicals. It also acts in a protective capacity throughout the body. In this article I will be discussing this nutrient in greater detail and providing you with a summary of its main functions, the best food sources, the recommended daily allowances (RDAs) and the potentially adverse effects of consuming too much or too little.
1) DISCOVERY:
Selenium was discovered in 1818 by two Swedish chemists Jons Jakob Berzelius and J. G. Gahn who were studying the chemicals within sulphuric acid. During their studies they discovered that these chemicals contained a new element which became known as selenium.
2) FUNCTION:
The main role of selenium in the human body is to act in a protective role as an antioxidant. It protects the body from oxygen related damage, prevents certain types of cancer, prevents heart disease, prevents joint inflammation and reduces the symptoms of arthritis. This nutrient has also been linked with potentially slowing the progression of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) although more research is needed to confirm this suggestion.
3) RDA:
You need to consume more selenium as you get older. Children aged between 0 and 6 months are advised to consume 0.015 milligrams (mg) of this nutrient each day. This requirement increases to 0.04mg per day for children aged between 9 and 13 years. The RDA for adults aged 14 years and older is 0.055mg per day. The tolerable upper limit (TUL) for this nutrient is 0.4mg per day.
4) FOOD SOURCES:
Nuts and fish are two of the best selenium foods. Some of the richest sources include Brazil nuts (1.92mg per 100g), mixed nuts (0.42mg per 100g), salmon (0.038mg per 100g) and shrimp (0.048mg per 100g).
5) OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS:
Selenium overdoses are normally the result of excessive supplement consumption. When an overdose does occur it is referred to as selenosis. The symptoms of selenosis include bad breath, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, irritability, mild nerve damage and white blotchy nails.
6) DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS:
Dietary selenium deficiencies are very rare and are normally only observed in countries where the soil has a very low selenium concentration. Intravenous feeding and serious gastrointestinal problems can also cause a deficiency. The symptoms of deficiency include Kashin-Beck disease (a bone and joint disorder), Keshan disease (a heart disorder), myxedematous endemic cretinism (a disease that causes mental retardation) and osteoarthritis (the chronic breakdown of cartilage in the joints).
Tom Parker owns Free Fitness Tips – a fantastic source of free, impartial fitness advice. You can learn more about selenium and the other microminerals by visiting his website.
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