Tag: Tips and Tricks

by The Editors of Prevention, on Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:29am PST

Protein is a dieter’s best friend. It is an essential ingredient for losing weight and keeping it off because it’s a potent calorie burner that plays a role in nearly every body function, from building shapely biceps to regulating sleep and boosting immunity.

High-protein foods take more work to chew and longer to leave your stomach, so you take more time eating (and have more time to register that you’re full). They also slow down the release of carbs and fat into your bloodstream. You feel full sooner and stay satisfied longer.
Thing is, eating a steak or a piece of chicken in your car or at your desk at work isn’t always realistic, so most of the foods we choose for single-fisted consumption are highly processed and lacking in this essential nutrient. Here are 6 grab-and-go proteins to take with you for a midday snack.

18 ways to simplify your diet for easy weight loss

1) Jerky: Jerky (beef or turkey) makes a great snack because it’s low in fat, lean and savory, and high in the chewiness factor (look for lower-sodium varieties if you’re concerned about the salt). You can find a wide variety of flavors, from teriyaki to barbecue. You can also find chicken and buffalo (and, in certain parts of the country, salmon) jerky. Jerky packs 10 g of protein and about 100 calories per ounce.
2) Roasted soy nuts: Almonds, peanuts, and cashews are great. But let’s face it: You can get burned out on the same nut mix. Try roasted soy nuts for a complete protein snack; for a little extra heat, try the wasabi-flavored ones. Each 1⁄4 cup provides 6 g of protein and 120 calories.
3) Cheese packs: Not just for kids’ lunch boxes, string cheese and other portioned cheeses such as The Laughing Cow Wedges or Mini Babybels are the perfect complements to an apple, pear, or bunch of grapes. These low-calorie protein packs  are satisfying enough to carry you through to your next meal.
Dig in! Get 15 low-calorie cheesy, gooey comfort food dishes

4) Protein bars: They are the perfect filling, portable snack to save you from a desperate trip to the vending machine or drive-thru. Pick up bars that are about 200 calories each, such as Luna Protein bars (170 to 190 calories, 12 g of protein) or Honey Stinger 10-gram protein bars (190 to 200 calories, 10 g of protein), to stash in your purse or work bag.
See 5 tasty crash-free energy bars

5) Hard-cooked eggs: Eggs really are one of nature’s most perfect portable foods. Packed with protein and antioxidants, they satisfy your hunger and improve your health. Try Eggland’s Best Hard-Cooked Peeled eggs for a no-muss, no-fuss snack or meal. Along with the usual protein punch, these edible orbs also deliver 10 times more vitamin E and two times more omega-3 fatty acids than other eggs.
Get 21 more delicious packaged food ideas for your shopping cart

6) Fat-free or low-fat milk: It’s the perfect pre- or postexercise snack. You can stock up on small containers of shelf-stable milk (such as Horizon’s 8-ounce cartons); they don’t even need to be refrigerated. Two cups deliver more than 16 g of high-quality, filling protein that will satisfy your hunger and help keep you hydrated. In one study, women who had 18 g of protein 20 minutes before strength-training torched almost 9% more calories at rest 24 hours later than if they didn’t drink the pre-workout milk.
Nosh better with one of these 14 healthy snacks that help drop pounds

Original Article

Paul John Scott, DETAILS

You probably spend all of one second deciding what kind of milk to put in your coffee. What’s to debate? If you want to keep the pounds off and avoid heart disease, choose skim. This is gospel, after all: It’s recommended by the USDA and has so permeated our thinking that you can’t even find reduced-fat (2%) milk at places like Subway—and forget about whole.

But is it true? Let’s start with the question of what’s fattening. Whole milk contains more calories and, obviously, more fat. A cup has 146 calories and almost 8 grams of fat, reduced-fat (2%) has 122 calories and almost 5 grams of fat, low-fat (1%) has 103 calories and 2.5 grams of fat, and nonfat (skim) has 83 calories and virtually no fat.

But when it comes to losing weight, restricting calories has a poor track record. Evidence gleaned from numerous scientific studies says that if you starve yourself for lunch, you typically compensate at dinner. And according to a 2007 report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, telling overweight and obese patients to cut calories led to only “transient” weight loss—it didn’t stay off. The same goes for cutting saturated fat. In 2003, the Cochrane Collaboration, a respected source for unbiased reviews of research, compared low-fat diets with low-calorie diets and found that “fat-restricted diets are no better than calorie-restricted diets in achieving long-term weight loss.” As Walt Willet of the Harvard School of Public Health wrote in the American Journal of Medicine, “Diets high in fat do not appear to be the primary cause of the high prevalence of excess body fat in our society, and reductions in fat will not be a solution.”

Related: 5 Foods That Will Make You Look Younger

It’s becoming widely accepted that fats actually curb your appetite, by triggering the release of the hormone cholecystokinin, which causes fullness. Fats also slow the release of sugar into your bloodstream, reducing the amount that can be stored as fat. In other words, the more fat in your milk, the less fat around your waist. Not only will low-fat milk fail to trim your gut, it might even make you fatter than if you were to drink whole, according to one large study. In 2005, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and other institutions studied the weight and milk consumption of 12,829 kids ages 9 to 14 from across the country. “Contrary to our hypothesis,” they reported, “skim and 1% milk were associated with weight gain, but dairy fat was not.”

But surely low-fat milk is better for your heart? We are often told to watch our consumption of dairy because it raises our bad cholesterol, the kind known as LDL. But LDL comes in at least four varieties, and only the smallest and densest of them are linked with heart disease. Dairy fat, it turns out, affects only the large, fluffy kind of LDL—the benign kind.

And here’s a final thought: How would you feel if you opened a carton and poured a chalky, bluish-white liquid into your coffee? That’s the color many nonfat milks are before powdered milk is added to whiten them—a process that brings its own problems. Any way you look at it, there’s been a lot of whitewashing of skim milk’s image.

See Also: The 14 Healthiest Snack Foods

THE SKINNY ON NONFAT MILK
To turn skim milk white, “some companies fortify their product with powdered skim,” says Bob Roberts, a dairy scientist at Penn State. Powdered skim (which is also added to organic low-fat milks) is produced by spraying the liquid under heat and high pressure, a process that oxidizes the cholesterol. In animal studies, oxidized cholesterol triggers a host of biological changes, leading to plaque formation in the arteries and heart disease, Spanish researchers reported in 1996. “OCs are mutagenic and carcinogenic,” they wrote. In 1998, Australian researchers studied rabbits fed OC and found that the animals “had a 64% increase in total aortic cholesterol” despite having less cholesterol in their blood than rabbits fed natural sources of the substance. (A 2008 Chinese study with hamsters confirmed these findings.) Roberts says the amount of OC created by adding powdered skim is “not very much,” but until the effects on humans are known, it’s impossible to say what’s a safe level.

The secrets to rescuing your brittle, over-processed strands might just be in your refrigerator.Let’s face it: Lustrous hair can take a lot of upkeep. Even if your stylist doesn’t make house calls, fear not. “You can give your hair the TLC it needs to look its best by using items you have at home,” notes Lorri Goddard Clark for the Privé Salon in Los Angeles, whose clients include Reese Witherspoon. Here, she dishes on her tried-and-true recipes for getting — and maintaining — healthy hair.


Feed Your Head
“You can’t have full, bouncy hair without a healthy scalp,” says Goddard-Clark. To reduce excess oil, dampen a cotton ball with witch hazel, dab it along your hairline and part, and rinse hair with cool water. Fight flakes weekly by adding five drops of tea-tree oil to your favorite shampoo as a booster. Skip conditioner, though, and apply a detangler only to the ends of your hair — your scalp may be sensitive after this treatment.
Marie Claire Tip: Before any type of scalp treatment, check for burns from hot tools that could be easily irritated.


Add Volume
Lifeless strands got you down? in a bowl, mix one egg yolk, a half cup of honey, two tablespoons of olive oil, and two small, ripe avocados. Apply the concoction to the entire head and leave on for one to two hours, until hard. Shampoo and condition as usual. “This is a miracle cure,” notes Goddard-Clark. “And for extra-bouncy, nonfrizzy curls, Drew Barrymore taught me to blot ringlets dry with paper towels.”
Marie Claire Tip: Short on time? Apply this mask only to bangs or small pieces around your face. These areas are the most abused by heat styling.

Boost Shine“Dull, overstyled hair benefits from regular olive- or jojoba-oil masks,” explains Goddard-Clark. Starting at the roots, brush a quarter cup of natural oil (synthetic oils don’t work as well) through dry hair and leave it on for an hour. Blast the ends with a dryer for five minutes to help oil penetrate deeper. Skip the roots — the scalp emits enough warmth on its own, and applying extra heat could lead to greasy textures later.
Marie Claire Tip: Cut washing time and add shampoo to strands before they get wet to dissolve the oil faster.

Preserve ColorMinerals in the water system can cause brassiness for blondes and redheads. A quick fix? Mix a quarter cup of distilled white vinegar with a half cup of filtered water and pour it over hair before rinsing with cool water. Graying brunette beauties need to be careful, too. “Peroxide-based dyes give darker shades a reddish hue,” warns Goddard-Clark. Use a toothbrush to paint boxed dye over individual strands.
Marie Claire Tip: to neutralize the scent of vinegar or harsh hair dyes, add a few drops of an oil essence, like lavender.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE