Macadamia Nuts Lower Cholesterol Levels

Even though macadamia nuts are high in calories and fat, they can help to keep arteries clear. The type of fat they are high in is called monounsaturated fatty acids, which is what causes it to lower levels of blood cholesterol. Adding 1 1/2 ounces of the nuts to your diet each day can lower cholesterol levels by about 9 percent after 5 weeks. Macadamia nuts are originally from Australia but have been imported to Hawaii to be grown and used for commercial use.

Good Posture Increase Weight Loss

It is found that good posture can help weight loss efforts. Slumping your body during a workout increases the heart rate and makes the workout seem more difficult. Pulling back the shoulder blades lets you take in more oxygen and makes it easier to work harder during exercise, which will allow your to burn more calories.

How Hormones Affect Food Cravings

It is found that how tempting food may seem could depend on a person’s level of the hormone leptin. Weight is not only controlled by calorie intake and exercise, but also by complex brain complexes. Someday, scientists might be able to develop weight-loss drugs that modify the brain’s reaction to food.

Fiber and Diet

If a person wants to lose weight, it is a good idea to have a diet rich in fiber. Fiber leads to decreased food intake and an increase of excretion of calories from the digestive system to help a person lose weight. The average person should be eating 20 to 30 grams of fiber each day. Foods that are rich in fiber include whole-grain breads, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, unpeeled fruit, and some cereals.

What a Mother Eats Can Determine Sex of Baby

A new British research suggests that what a woman eats before getting pregnant can affect the gender of what the baby will be. Eating potassium-rich foods, including bananas, and eating breakfast each day can raise the chances of having a boy.

The study was based on 700 first-time pregnant women in the United Kingdom who didn’t know the sex of their fetuses and they were asked about their eating habits in the year before they had gotten pregnant. 56 percent of the women with the highest calorie intake before pregnancy had boys and only 45 percent of the women with the lowest calorie intake had boys.

The women who ate at least one bowl of breakfast cereal each day were 87 percent more likely to have a baby boy than the women who ate less than one bowl of cereal each week. The women who gave birth to boys also ate an additional 300 milligrams of potassium each day on average before getting pregnant. The women who had boys also ate about 400 calories more each day on average than the women who had girls.

Next Biggest Diet Craze

The drug Taranabant is known to be apart of the next biggest diet craze. The drug is considered the “anti-marijuana” and works by erasing food cravings by blocking the same receptors in the brain that cannabis stimulates, causing appetite suppression. A 12 week study found that obese patients consumed 27 percent less calories when they were taking the drug. The downside of the drug is that it can possibly make a person feel nauseous, irritable, or anxious.

Artificial Sweeteners Could Make You Gain Weight

It is found that artificial sweeteners could make a person gain weight. The sweeteners confuse the body and the body is already programmed to associate sweet tastes with calories consumed. When we break that connection by eating or drinking something with little or no calories, our bodies become confused and want more food. Also, sugar substitutes don’t increase metabolism so fewer calories are burned. A larger appetite combined with a slower metabolism can cause a lot of weight gain.

Burger King Will Have Healthier Kid’s Menu

Burger King has decided to offer healthier items on their menu for children under age 12. They plan to sell flame-broiled Chicken Tenders and apples cut to look like thickly cut french fries. They also have set nutritional guidelines to follow when targeting children under 12 years old in advertising by only advertising Kids Meals that have less than 560 calories with less than 30 percent of the calories from fat and no more than 10 percent of the calories from added sugars.

The company is making a Kids Meal that will have the flame-broiled Tenders, organic unsweetened applesauce, and low-fat milk. The meal would have 305 calories and 8.5 grams of fat. They are also in the process of developing the BK Fresh Apple Fries, which are red apples that are cut to look like french fries and are served in the same containers as fries. They are not fried and are served without the skin and cold. They will only have 35 calories. Burger King will use U.S. grown apples that are cut and packaged in a clean and sterile environment. They will wash the apples with a pre-wash that contains lemon to prevent them from turning brown.

All of the changes and improvements are an effort to offer healthier options and make people more aware and cautious about what they eat and feed their children at fast-food restaurants. It will only be successful if the food tastes good and is filling. It may bring positive and healthy changes.