2012 Best Weight Loss Strategies on the Internet

The popular website Diets in Review.com has listed the most trafficked diet trends and the best weight loss strategies during the past year. Contrary on the expectations, not famous people’s diets are the most used and commented, but the more generic and conventional weight loss plans and programs.

Raspberry Ketones as New Weight Loss Miracle

This year, Raspberry Ketone Diet has become a national trend in America as an effective weight loss solution. The Raspberry Ketones is all over Internet and televisions, after a promotion in the Dr. Oz Show as the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn fat. So, it was the green coffee bean extract a while ago, but how  effective are these anti-obese products?

Research has found green coffee bean extract helps weight loss

An enormous media buzz initiated by a doctor's claim during a TV show that green coffee bean extract helps losing weight, recently brought new hope to people who are struggling with  their weight. 

Questions looking for answers popped out. Is it confirmed? Does green coffee bean extract have side effects? Where we can buy it? Can we trust what the media reports?

Schools to be educated on healthy foodstuffs

"Heads of schools need to be educated on encouraging healthy foodstuffs in school canteens," said a senior official from the Ministry of Health.

Dr Fawzia Al Jaziri, Director of School Health Department, Dubai at the Ministry of Health, said lack of proper knowledge on the right kind of foods for children led to availability of unhealthy foods on school premises.

Pointing to the lack of proper laws on the issue in all emirates except Dubai, Dr Fawzia said it created a gap between the 'rules' and their strict implementation.

'The emirate of Dubai has formulated it's own rules in cooperation with the Dubai Municipality. If schools do not adhere to these rules, they are penalised. This is what is still required in all the other Northern Emirates,' she explained.

She pointed out that the MoH's role was to recommend to the Ministry of Education (MoE), the kind of foodstuffs to be made available in school canteens.

'The MoE is required to give a letter of regulations and conditions (after consultations with the MoH) to school heads pointing out the exact requirements for school canteens which should be followed. But complaints against food available in canteens can be lodged with the MoH though the MoE is required to take action,' she explained.

According to the MoH, healthy food should be stocked in canteens (no fizzy drinks, cheese, chips, burgers, i.e junk food is allowed) with proper refrigeration facilities. The ministry is also required to monitor school clinics.

'Samples of food are taken from the government school canteens randomly and occasionally to be checked for freshness. In case, there is a case of food poisoning, we need to have proof,' she said, stressing that laws needed to be tightened.

Dr Fawzia had conducted a study on school canteens in the UAE which she presented in the recently concluded Arab Children Health Congress.

Local organic produce to arrirve in market shortly

Locally produced organic products will soon be available in the UAE market with organic agricultural farms in the emirate of Abu Dhabi growing mostly fresh vegetables.

The project was initiated and developed by Al Qudra Agriculture, a division of Al Qudra Holding.

According to Dr. Abdulaziz Al Harbi, consultant and board member of Al Qudra Holding, the first organic crops will include a few varieties of green salad, cucumber, tomatoes and sweet pepper, which will be available in the market this summer.

“Right now, we are looking to get the international quality certificates, like Ecocert or Globalgap, which will recognise the organic quality of our products worldwide,” said Dr Al Harbi. Once the products are certified as organic, they may be labelled and sold, either locally or exported.

Unlike ordinary foods, which are grown using various forms of chemicals such as fertilisers, pesticides and even hormones and form the bulk of food items available in the market or unlike genetically modified foods, which in the UAE do not require labelling, organic products are free of any chemicals.

Since it takes more manpower and generally more care to grow organic foods, they are usually more expensive.

Dr Al Harbi is convinced, though, that these will become popular here, simply because they are healthier and tastier. “There is a big price gap between local products and overseas imports and this is where we will fit in,” he said, explaining that Al Qudra organic vegetables will be more expensive than ordinary local products, but cheaper than international ones, while the quality will be higher.

Al Qudra Agriculture is growing its organic crops in the Al Shwaib area near Al Ain. “We have bought the latest technology for production, using glass greenhouses, rather than plastic, which offer better control of the environment,” Al Harbi stated.

Engineer Mohammed Al Rasheed, Vice-Chairman of Al Qudra Agriculture, added that the first step is to create awareness and explain to the public what is organic food and why is it better than ordinary products. “We will soon launch a campaign of educating the consumer about organic fruit and vegetables,” he pointed out.

Study: Tomatoes no defense against prostate cancer

Heinz might no longer be able to claim its ketchup can prevent prostate cancer.
The FDA-approved and popularly held notion that antioxidants in tomatoes can prevent prostate cancer appears to be false, according to a large study done by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and National Cancer Institute.
"It was an hypothesis based on observational studies and the fact that cancer can be caused by oxidative damage to DNA," said Ulrike Peters, a Fred Hutchinson scientist and lead author on the report published in the current journal of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
Natural dietary compounds known as carotenoids, especially the antioxidant lycopene, have been proposed as cancer-fighters because of their ability to protect against the kind of chemical and genetic "oxidative" damage in cells that can lead to cancer.
Tomatoes are especially high in lycopenes and some earlier studies, including one done in 2002 by Harvard, found epidemiological evidence that men who ingested large amounts of tomato products had lower risks of prostate cancer.
This, along with other studies suggesting the protective benefit, prompted the Food and Drug Administration in 2005 to allow the world's largest maker of tomato-based products, H.J. Heinz Co., to advertise that: "The risk of prostate cancer may be reduced by eating just 1/2 to 1 cup of tomatoes -- such as a single serving of Classico{+®} pasta sauce -- per week."
The FDA now allows makers of tomato-based products to claim their foodstuffs may reduce the risk of gastric, ovarian and pancreatic cancers as well. Continue to the full story from source.

The Top 5 food recommendations:

This is the list of the 5 superfoods all women should include in their diet & surely most of you already do:

Cranberries - These help fight off nasty Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs). About 10 oz of juice a day (the unsweetened kind) is all you need to kick that infection out the door.
Not only that, but cranberries are high in antioxidants, so they can help fend off colds, stomach bugs, and certain types of cancer. Drinking cranberry juice can also prevent plaque from forming on your teeth. You can add unsweetened cranberry juice to smoothies or dried cranberries to salads and baked goods.
Walnuts - These are rich in Omega-3s, which help increase the good cholesterol (HDL) levels in your body. These are the "healthy" fats.
They may even help with depression and reduce your risk of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Top your salad with 1/4 cup or try them in pesto. I like to add them to my oatmeal.
Beans - These little legumes are great sources of protein, and they may also prevent heart disease. Rich in two heart-friendly phytochemicals, beans are packed with magnesium, potassium, folate, and fiber.

Fish - Fish are the best sources of Omega-3s because they are high in two particular fatty acids that are crucial to good health, DHA (docosohexanoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). These two fatty acids are important in preventing heart disease and cancer.
Everyone can safely eat up to 2 meals (total of 12 oz) of fish a week.
Tomatoes - These gems are loaded with the antioxidant lycopene. Women with lycopene-rich diets can have as much as a 50% lower risk of developing breast cancer. This miracle antioxidant can also lower your blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels (LDL), and may even reduce your risk of getting macular degeneration (problem with your eyes) and a host of cancers.
Raw tomatoes aren't your only option. Cooked tomato products like tomato sauce count too. 1 cup on your pasta will give you 32 mg of lycopene.

Focus on what you can add to the diet menu

Diets often focus on what you have to eliminate: no carbs (you know that I think that is a bad idea), sugar (good to eliminate for a little bit), all food but cabbage (really bad idea).
Instead of focusing on the plate being half empty, why not fill it up with foods you should be eating.
We all should be eating 5 to 7 servings of fruits and veggies, and some diet plans recommend trying to eat up to 13 servings a day. So focus on what you can and should add to your meals and snacks.
The fruit and vegetables market in Dubai near Shindaga tunnel can be a great source. If you consider it a hard trip due to the hot weather now, please note that all supermarkets recently have cut down the prices on all greenery.

Here are a few ideas of how to increase your intake of healthy foods:

• Use vegetables as chip substitutes. Carrots sticks, cucumber slices and celery are great vehicles for hummus.
• Add berries to your breakfast cereal. Strawberries are just coming into season so they should be less expensive. Blackberries are super high in antioxidants too.
• Add extra vegetables to your salads. Left over steamed green beans or broccoli can go right onto your greens.
• Try vegetable purees instead of mashed potatoes. Celery root, cauliflower and squash are tasty substitutes for mashed potatoes.
• Use an apple instead of crackers for cheese or peanut butter.
• Take a banana with you wherever you go. You don't need to pack it in anything especially since it naturally comes with a nice thick skin.
• Add steamed veggies to pre-made soup.
• Cut up some fruit for dessert, it is a great palate cleanser and light enough to not push you over the edge.
• Snack on carrots.

Changing your lifestyle is all about attitude, so focus on the positive. In fact, we can all focus on eating more fruits and veggies.

Reducing salt intake 'cuts heart disease risk'

Cutting back on the amount of salt eaten could reduce a person's chances of developing cardiovascular disease by a quarter, according to a new report published in Telegraph UK.
Scientists have also discovered that reducing the amount of salt consumed could lower the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases by up to a fifth.
The research provides some of the strongest objective evidence to date that lowering the amount of salt eaten reduces the long-term risk of future cardiovascular disease, according to the report's authors.
Researchers who carried out the study, published on the British Medical Journal's website, followed up participants from two trials completed in the 1990s staged to analyse the effect that reducing salt in the diet had on blood pressure.
All of the people studied by the US team from Boston had high-normal blood pressure - pre-hypertension - and were therefore at greater risk of developing conditions like a stroke or heart disease.
Scientists examined 744 people in the first study in 1990 and 2,382 in the second, which ended in 1995.
In both trials participants reduced their sodium intake by 25 per cent-35 per cent alongside a control group who did not cut back on their intake.
Detailed information about cardiovascular and other health problems was collected from the people taking part in the trials.
Researchers found that participants who had cut back on salt during the study tended to stick to a lower salt diet compared to the control group.
In total, the scientists collected information from 77 per cent (2,415) of the participants, 200 of whom had reported some sort of cardiovascular problem.
The results showed these pre-hypertensive individuals were 25 per cent less likely to develop cardiovascular problems over the course of 10 to 15 years following the trial.
There was also a 20 per cent lower mortality rate. At present, the average salt consumption in the UK is around 9g per day, far higher than the recommended maximum of 6g.
This is a very important study because for the first time it shows that reducing salt intake does reduce the number of people suffering and dying from strokes and heart attacks, the biggest causes of death and disability in the UK.
Previous studies have predicted that reducing salt intake by 6g a day will reduce the number of heart attack and strokes by approximately 70,000 events (35,000 deaths) a year in the UK alone, and this new research confirms these results.

Rich Ice Cream good for pregnancy

Did you know that eating rich ice cream and drinking whole-fat milk, and using heavy cream for coffee, may help reward women shooting for pregnancy.

Women wanting to become pregnant should consider changing low-fat dairy foods to high-fat foods, for instance by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating rich ice cream.
Also these women should maintain normal calorie intake and limit their consumption of saturated fats. Once they have become pregnant, they are advised to switch back to low-fat dairy foods.
On the other hand, if pregnancy is not the goal, low-fat dairy foods, such as skimmed milk and low-fat yogurt, may the better bill of fare.
In a turn-about from the standard health prescription, researchers found that women who ate two or more portions of low-fat dairy foods a day increased their risk of ovulation-related infertility by 85%, compared with women who ate less than one portion a week according the Feb. 28 issue of Human Reproduction
If women ate at least one portion of high-fat dairy food a day, their risk of infertility was 27% lower compared with women who had one high-fat dairy serving a week, or even less.
The study also found that the more ice cream the women ate, the lower their risk, so that a woman eating ice cream two or more times a week had a 38% lower risk compared with a woman who ate ice cream less often than once a week.

Tip: Baskin Robbins and Haagen Dazs are at every corner of all the Shopping Malls in Dubai.

Raw Food Weight Loss

A raw food diet creates major improvements in health. The reasons are not known, but the experience is unmistakable. Weight normalizes, which generally means a reduction in fat. At the same time, a person feels extremely energized. It's as if energy would rather be burned up than converted to fat.There seems to be a major shift in physiology which makes one feel highly energized from raw food. Health gets so refined and perfected with a raw food diet that a personnotices positive effects of all types.

Coeliac Disease

Arriving in a new and exciting country is an adventure for young and old - arriving in a new country with special dietary needs could be quiet daunting. In Dubai it could be an adventure to find gluten-free items.
In the 1950's doctors believed that it was a childhood condition but now it is recognized that many more adults than children are diagnosed. Coeliac Symptoms can manifest themselves at any age. Coeliacs remain sensitive to gluten throughout their life and must remain on a gluten-free diet.
Gluten is a protein contained in the cereal grains wheat, rye, barley and oats and derivatives from these. There are many obvious foods which contain gluten but there are also a whole range of ingredients which can be sources of undisclosed gluten. you need to make yourself ingredient aware.
A friend who has been in Dubai for six years, searched super markets and nutritional shops for gluten-free foods. The prices are quiet high as the import costs are always added to all products, but on the whole one can manage a diet quiet sensible.
The best find is from Choitrams Supermarkets where they actually make Gluten-Free bread on the premises, at AED 6 a loaf that is good value.

If you have any questions or you can recommend places especially restaurants or you would like to swop recipes or even form our own Dubai Coeliac Society please email Diane Kirkwood at Dianekirkwood28@yahoo.co.uk.

Remember the golden rule: "If in doubt - leave it out!"

Unhappy Meals (Part 2)

The continuention of Unhappy Meals:
Last winter came the news that a low-fat diet, long believed to protect against breast cancer, may do no such thing — this from the monumental, federally financed Women’s Health Initiative in US, which has also found no link between a low-fat diet and rates of coronary disease.
The year before we learned that dietary fiber might not, as we had been confidently told, help prevent colon cancer.
Just last fall two prestigious studies on omega-3 fats published at the same time presented us with strikingly different conclusions. While the Institute of Medicine stated that “it is uncertain how much these omega-3s contribute to improving health” (and they might do the opposite if you get them from mercury-contaminated fish), a Harvard study declared that simply by eating a couple of servings of fish each week (or by downing enough fish oil), you could cut your risk of dying from a heart attack by more than a third — a stunningly hopeful piece of news. It’s no wonder that omega-3 fatty acids are poised to become the oat bran of 2007, as food scientists micro-encapsulate fish oil and algae oil and blast them into such formerly all-terrestrial foods as bread and tortillas, milk and yogurt and cheese, all of which will soon, you can be sure, sprout fishy new health claims.
It's quite confusing.....isn't it???

Unhappy Meals (Part 1)

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long story.
But will go ahead and add a couple more details to flesh out the advice. Like: A little meat won’t kill you, though it’s better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat “food.” Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.
Yep. Things are suddenly sounding a little more complicated, aren’t they? Sorry. But that’s how it goes as soon as you try to get to the bottom of the whole vexing question of food and health. Before long, a dense cloud bank of confusion moves in. Sooner or later, everything solid you thought you knew about the links between diet and health gets blown away in the gust of the latest study.

Food to Sleep On

Around 10 pm the rest of the world is slowing down, only you are up and around. Maybe you have got plenty of energy or it could be what you are eating too. Here is the list with the top 10 foods to calm you down and help you for a good night sleep.


Bananas. They practically are a sleeping pill in a peel. In addition to a bit of soothing melatonin and serotonin, bananas contain magnesium, a muscle relaxant.
Chamomile tea. The reason chamomile is such a staple of bedtime tea blends is its mild sedating effect - it's the perfect natural antidote for restless mind/bodies.
Warm Milk. It's not a myth. Milk has some tryptophan - an amino acid that has a sedative - like effect - and calcium, which helps the brain use tryptophan. Plus there is the psychological throw-back to infancy, when warm bottle meant "relax, everythink is fine".
Continue to the rest of the sleepy food (Link).

What's the Deal with Green Potatoes

You buy potatoes, because you love baked potatoes (Link). You store potatoes. You forget you have potatoes. You remember you have potatoes. You pull them out and their skins are GREEN!
So what's the deal with green potatoes? I heard that the green skins are poisonous. Is it true? And why doesn't turn green in the first place?
The green coloring on the skin is build-up of a chemical called Solanine (Link). It is natural reaction to the potato being exposed to too much light.
Solanine causes a bitter taste and if eaten in large quantities, can cause illness (you would have to eat a lot though).
If you find slight greening on your potato skins, simply peel it off. Try not to peel off the entire skin because it contains valuable nutrients and the majority of the potato's fiber (Link). Cut away any sprouts as well since they are also toxic.
The potato skin mystery is solved.

Le Pain Quotidien

Mall of The Emirates (Link) with its countless shops, stores, boutiques and coffee shops becomes the shopping and meeting spot number one in Dubai. Among the widest variety of products are some unique products as the L’Occitane (Link) which was described here last month. Another European range of products is based on the very similar principals of producing and Organic agriculture technologies.
Le Pain Quotidien (Link) represents the Belgian Organic & Rustic Dinning Experience. It is very famous with its bread essentially created from stone ground flour, fermented with a traditional sourdough and left to rise for six hours, swathed in linen in willow baskets. Le Pain Quotidien returns to the golden origins of bread that is healthy, wholesome and delicious.
You can sample it on the 1 floor at the Mall of The Emirates near the Food Court or in Beirut, Brussels, Geneva, Kuwait, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Rome.
The Dubai phone number is 04 3410041

Cumin

Cumin (Link) is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum , a member of the parsley family. The Cumin plant grows to about one to two feet tall and is harvested by hand. Cumin is the key component of both Chilly Powder and Curry Powder. Cumin seeds are used as a spice for their distinctive aroma, popular in North American, Middle Eastern, Western Chinese, Indian and Mexican cuisine.
Cumin fruits have distinctive bitter flavor and strong, warm aroma due to their abundant essential oil content. In herbal medicine, cumin is classified as stimulant, carminative, and antimicrobial.
Cumin can be used to season many dishes, as it draws out their natural sweetness. It is traditionally added to curries, enchiladas, tacos, and other Middle-eastern, Indian, Cuban and Mexican- style food. It can also be added to salsa to give it extra flavor. Cumin has also been used on meat in addition to other common seasonings. The spice is a familiar taste in Tex-Mex dishes and is the lingua franca of the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent.
Historically, Iran has been the principal supplier of Cumin, but currently the major sources are India, Syria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Superstition during the Middle Ages cited that Cumin kept chickens and lovers from wandering. It was also believed that a happy life awaited the bride and groom who carried Cumin Seed trough the wedding ceremony.

Lemons

The lemon is a cultivated hybrid deriving from wild species such as the citron and mandarin. When and where this first occurred is not known. The “medicinal fruit” seems to have been the first citrus fruit known in the Mediterranean world. Depictions of citrus trees appear in Roman mosaics of North Africa, but the first unequivocal description of the lemon is found in the early tenth-century Arabic treatise on farming by Qustus al-Rumi. At the end of the twelfth century, Ibn Jami, personal physician to the great Muslim leader Saladin, wrote a treatise on the lemon, after which is mentioned with greater frequency in the Mediterranean. However, it is believed that the first lemons were originally cultivated in the hot, semi-arid Deccan Plateau in Central India.
The origin of the name “lemon” is trough Persian, akin to the Sanskrit nimbuka. They were cultivated in Genoa in the mid-fifteenth century and appeared in the Azores in 1494. More recent research has identified lemons in the ruins of Pompeii. Lemons were once used by the British Royal navy to combat scurvy, as they provided a large amount of Vitamin C (Link). Therefore lemons are the first item on my shopping list whenever I go the supermarket. We serve them sliced at home with every glass of water and every cup of tea.
Lemons are great component for cakes too and here is the recipe for a Lemon Cake (Link) that a friend gives it to me, but I am still in the preparation period.

Peppermint

Two of my favorite treats are hot mug of peppermint tea and a cold dish of peppermint ice cream. I must also say that candy canes receive an honorable mention.
Peppermint has long been grandma's answer to belly aches and you know what? She was right on target. Peppermint calms the belly and stimulates digestion. It is often taken by folks with Irritable Bowel Syndrome to lessen the syndrome's irritating symptoms like bloating, gas and diarrhea.
More than just a tonic for your tummy, peppermint is also an expectorant and a decongestant. It may offer some relief for mild asthma attacks, lessening bronchial constriction and making it easier to breathe. Peppermint promotes sweating, which could possibly help regulate body temperature during a fever, which is good news during cold and flu season. Medicinally, peppermint is available in many forms: tea, tinctures, capsules, creams, ointments, or essential oil. It is generally considered safe when used properly.