New Weight Loss And Diet Books

Attempting to lose weight has never been easier than it is today. Currently there are hundreds of books available on the topic of losing weight and keeping it off. There are also literally hundreds of different kinds of diets, so you can pick and chose one that works for you. The great thing about reading a book on the subject is that you can really think about the words that are being expressed and you can do so at your timely convenience. This allows you to fully process the information that is being shared and expressed with you. With all of this information available achieving your weight loss goals can happen, and there are a few new top selling weight loss books that can help you do it.

The first book to mention is called; Call this not that 1020, the no diet weight loss solution, by David Zinczenko. This book talks about how to plan your calories better by knowing what you`re eating. It recommends certain restaurants over others, and teaches you how to eat smarter, especially when you`re eating out and consuming take-out foods. This book is great for travelers because often fast food is the only available option.

The G.I Diet Revises; The green light way to permanent weight loss revised and updated by Rick Gallop is another bestselling book. This book shows you what red light foods are, yellow light foods and green light foods. Putting food into perspective helps you to understand and give yourself limits when selecting food choices.

The Mayo Clinic diet journal, by the weight loss experts at the Mayo Clinic is a book written by a team of professionals in the field of weight loss. They talk about keeping track of what you eat and setting goals that are realistic. It also discusses the idea of breaking bad habits and forming new ones.

The South Beach Diet Supercharged - faster weight loss and better health for life, by Joseph Signorite PhD. Is a book that touches on the south beach diet and all its elements? The south beach diet has been around for years and was developed by a doctor. Many celebrities have tried this diet and swear that it works. It involves eating certain foods and using portion control to even out food cravings.

The Ten Habits of Naturally Slim People by Jill Podjasek, is a book that looks like a fun read. The cover is bright and playful and enticing to read. The book talks about key points to reaching the optimal weight loss and offers lessons that can change perceptions and attitudes about losing weight.

These books are on the new and top seller list. They are only guides; there are lots of other weight loss books to choose from. When selecting a book, make sure that it looks like it fits your style. If you`re a fun and upbeat person, then reading a boring novel might not be very motivating, however if you like the serious kind of reading it might suit you well! Try to find a book that suits your style and your writing likes and dislikes. Try to find a book with good reviews and that has been recommended.

Finding the right book could be just the thing needed to get you motivated to lose weight. The book can be reflected upon as you start your journey.

You can have access to articles about diet in Portuguese language from page PoloMercantil

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Rapid Weight Loss Programs

Have you tried countless rapid weight loss programs only to fail and gain the weight back right after you get off the programs? After believing all the hype, these workout programs did not work for you. Why?

Yes, drinking water can help you lose so much more weight than you can ever imagine. It burns calories, regulates the metabolism rate and helps your body in every aspect. Some people say to drink warm to even hot water so that it may help dissolve the lipids faster while some people recommend cold water in hopes that your body will have to burn more energy to raise the water temp to your body temp. I say, it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you drink at least five liters of water per day and your dream rapid weight loss is guaranteed.

Liquid diets work too, but are generally though of as a temporary solution. They usually require you to drink a nutrient-rich juice drink for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. You can, of course, accomplish this by yourself simply by limiting your intake to at least eight glasses of water a day, three or four glasses of fruit or vegetable juice or broth, and unlimited herbal tea with no sweetener. It is important to note that, when on a liquid diet, you should avoid strenuous physical activity and stressful situations due to the lack of calories you are taking in for your body to burn. Liquid diets should be used with caution because the body needs some solid food in order to function properly over a long period of time.

The foods aimed specifically at rapid weight loss are ones that speed up your metabolism. This is the underlying principle behind fat burning pills. They contain caffeine and other accelerants that speed up your body to make you lose weight. HOWEVER, these often simply don't work and cause more problems than anything else. Foods that do this include citrus fruits, soybeans, fresh fruits and garlic oil. This is just to mention a few.

To get fit and lose weight quickly appears to be one of the primary goals of our modern society. We regularly discuss diet and nutrition. however the number of people with weight problems is growing constantly. Although slimming down in only a few weeks is certainly possible, usually it will take at least a couple of months. While losing weight quickly is difficult, it's not impossible either. If you have the appropriate attitude and knowledge it is possible to achieve excellent results.

Take a look at the different foods you are eating now and start reading the ingredient labels to see exactly what you are eating. Many people have the misconception that what they read on the front label of the packaging of foods is true. Unfortunately, food manufacturers are able to put pretty much anything they want on the front packaging and only have to admit what is really in the food in the list of ingredients. The problem is, most people are in such a rush when they are shopping for food they do not take time to read the ingredients.

Weight loss is essentially a balance. You need to consume fewer calories than you are burning off. When this takes place, the body starts to use up the calories stored in fatty tissue, and therefore permits you to lose weight. Although this is true don't be fooled. Many people think "I will just eat so little that I barely have to do anything to lose weight". Well, this statement is totally and absolutely incorrect in every way. When the body doesn't consume enough calories for natural body functions, it goes into what we call starvation mode. This is where the body takes everything you eat and immediately converts it into fat in order to preserve it for future needs, and of course, we don't want that if we can help it.

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The Latest Three Calamities From Obama Care

For a while back in June, it seemed like every week brought another unforeseen calamity in the making from Obama Care. One week we found out that the law, as written, mistaken made about 3 million non-needy and non-poor Americans eligible for free Medicaid health insurance, funded by the taxpayer. The next week we found out that the law, as written, discriminated against working Americans vs. comparable Americans who were on Social Security by making the working American group pay 50% more for insurance in Obama Care's insurance exchanges than those that were not working.

These disasters were combined with several other Obama Care disasters that have already been exposed:

We could go on and on but it is pretty obvious that this is one sorry, dangerous piece of legislation. However, it gets worse, as this week we have come across not one more Obama Care calamity but three.

Let's start with a new study done by researchers at the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston. This research analysis examined the effects of the state wide health care reform law that was implemented in 2006 in Massachusetts. That state-based health care reform effort was very, very similar to Obama Care. The law forced all state residents to purchase health care insurance, it placed health care insurance mandates on all businesses in the state with more than 10 employees, it expanded Medicaid coverage, it created a pool of money to subsidy the purchase of health care insurance, and it created health insurance exchanges for those less fortunate people who could not afford insurance company policies. All of these components exist in one way or another in Obama Care.

So, five years after its implementation, what has happened to the health care situation in Massachusetts:

Great, rather than learn and adjust an existing model, the political class in Washington went down almost the same road of disaster as Massachusetts. Einstein once said something to the effect that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. When comparing the Massachusetts health care reform effort to Obama Care we can now see that Einstein was right.

The second calamity comes from a survey of small businesses that was conducted by the National Federation Of Independent Business (NFIB) that addressed the opinions of small business owners:

Same type of results to what happened in Massachusetts. Currently covered small business employees are already losing health care coverage just one year after Obama Care was passed. The cost to the Federal government is likely to be substantially higher than expected as 1) low wage employees go to the heavily subsidized exchanges for coverage and 2) small businesses drop health care coverage for their remaining employees who do not leave for exchange coverage, resulting in more Americans without coverage, the exact opposite effect that Obama Care was supposed to prevent.

The third calamity comes from a new report out ofCornell University by economist Richard Burkhauser and others. The findingsfrom the Cornell analysis found involves how the government originally interpreted the law (family plan thresholds vs. individual plan thresholds) and estimated how many people would opt out of their employers' insurance program and go to the government subsidized insurance exchanges.

Given what is likely to happen, which is not the way the cost of Obama Care was figured, the Cornell analysis estimates that many more workers will end up in the exchanges than was expected, adding an additional $50 billion a year to the national deficit and national debt. If their assumptions and calculations are correct, over a ten year period, about half a TRILLION dollarswould be added to the national debt as a result of Obama Care. Thus, whatever dream/hope/fantasy the political class had of reducing the national debt over the next tens years as a result of this legislation is pretty much gone by now.

Even worse, the researchers think this may be the best case. Obama Care has made it so attractive for employers to shift workers out of their own programs into the exchange programs, they may find it advantageous to shift ALL of their workers out of their health care plans, shutting them down, and forcing all employees to get insurance exchange coverage. If that happens, then it is likely that a full TRILLION dollars would be added to the national debt in the next ten years.

Three different analyses, three different approaches, three different organizations, all coming up with the same conclusion: Obama Care will be detrimental to those that already have health care insurance, will significantly increase the national debt, will not reduce overall health care costs, will likely result in tens of millions of Americans losing their current health care insurance coverage, and will be an administrative nightmare to manage.

Outside of these three new calamities, and the numerous others we have discussed, is there any doubt that this piece of garbage needs to be taken off of life support and put to permanent rest? Time to start over before the legislation kills us all.

Can hardly wait to see what calamities await us next week. Stay tuned.

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Lying, Ignorance, And The Growing Nonsense Of Obama Care

Many Americans believe that Obama's health care reform effort ("Obama Care") could be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed and signed into law. The creators of the legislation never understood the root causes of our ever skyrocketing health care costs. Without an understanding of the underlying problems, there is virtually no chance of developing and implementing a coherent and effective solution.

Before looking at the latest nonsense to come out about the law, let's reviews what some experts have said in the past:

- In a March 1, 2010 article in Fortune magazine, an interview of Dr. Delose Cosgrove, CEO of the renowned Cleveland Clinic, revealed the following knowledge, from a leading expert in healthcare:

* Obesity accounts for at least 10% of the health care costs in the United States.

* Smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise accounts for 40% of the premature deaths in this country.

* These same factors account for the 70% of the health care costs associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease in the United States.

* Smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise account for 75% of the nation's total health care costs.

Thus, according to an expert's view, the root causes driving our high health care costs are public health related questions: diet, exercise and smoking. Rather than attack these true causes of high costs with a public health care effort, Obama Care basically constructed a massive taxation process and bureaucracy that adds complexity and taxation without solving the underlying causes.

Need more, consider the findings from the National Academy of Sciences, an independent Federal agency:

* The United States spends more on health care per person than any other country in the world.

* Despite the high expenses, life expectancy in the U.S. is less than the life expectancies in many other developed countries.

* Smoking and obesity are the primary factors driving the lower life expectancy, and likely higher health care costs, in this country.

More of the same. Rather than address the cause, Obama Care tries to solve the problem administratively.

But the latest research paints an even worse picture. Remember, one of the primary avowed objectives of Obama Care was to reduce the number of uninsured Americans in the United States, estimated to be between 30 and 40 million Americans. However, if you consider the following expert analyses, the legislation will fall far short of this objective also.

According to a recent study by the McKinsey Consulting Group, as published in their publication, McKinsey Quarterly, 30% of the American companies surveyed by McKinsey said they would drop their employee health care plans because under Obama Care, it is a better business decision to not carry a health care insurance program and pay the small fine than it is to continue operating a health care insurance program.

The companies in the McKinsey survey's 30% said that even if they raised wages to compensate for dropping their healthcare plan, it would still be less expensive for the companies under Obama Care.

Mr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin is an economist and the former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). He is obviously someone with some valid credentials to examine Obama Care. He did so in a recent analysis and report that was published by the American Action Forum. His results and findings are damning to the legislation:

* According to his analysis, Obama Care "is fiscally dangerous, raising the risk of higher labor (and other) taxes at a time when the job market is struggling."

* The legislation's weak fine system provides a strong incentive for companies to stop offering their employees and retirees health care insurance coverage.

* This could result in 35 million Americans, who are covered by employer provided health care insurance, being left without health care insurance.

* The Congressional Budget Office estimated, badly, that only 3 million individuals who previously received coverage through their employers will get subsidized coverage through the Obama Care insurance exchanges. Thus, they are off a factor of twelve in their forecast.

* By tossing 35 million more Americans into the uninsured pool, Federal subsidies will increase by over a TRILLION dollars in ten years, wiping out any perceived or touted savings Obama Care was supposed to bring to the national debt.

* Obama Care will have the greatest impact from a marginal tax rate perspective on the lowest earning workers in the country.

* The analysis reviewed individual company feelings towards Obama Care, noting that Caterpillar is on record of saying that Obama Care would reduce their employee health care costs by 70% if they dropped their employee and retiree insurance programs. AT&T has said it's annual health care insurance costs would drop from $2.4 billion to only $600 million since it would be far less expensive to drop their insurance program and pay the fine for not having one.

Great, a piece of legislation that is supposed to reduce the number of Americans without health care insurance will likely increase the number of Americans without health care insurance by tens of millions of people. These analyses were not done by Republicans or Tea Party advocates. McKinsey is a highly respected corporate consulting firm with a long history of high powered analysis and Mr. Holtz-Eakin has the experience and education to back up his work.

Let's look at the numbers a slightly different way. Obama Care advocates claimed that upwards of 40 million Americans did not have health care insurance. But there are subsets within that 40 million. Some more affluent people could afford to buy insurance but decided not to since they feel they could cover health care costs with out of pocket cash as the need arose. Some of the 40 million were found to be sons and daughters of the more affluent and knew that their parents could pay for their health care expenses. Some of the 40 million were older Americans who had not yet gotten around to signing up for Medicare.

Thus, even if you buy the 40 million number, the actual, truly needy Americans who did not have health care insurance, was substantially below 40 million, let's conservatively say it was 35 million. 35 million Americans out of a total population of of 311 million Americans is about 11%. Thus, in order to fix the problem for 11% of the population, we changed the world for upwards of 89% of Americans.

But wait! Out of the 89%, Obama Care is likely to result in another 35 million Americans losing their health care coverage. Ridiculous and nonsensical. How can anyone say this is good legislation?

Want more? According to the statistics in this past Sunday's St. Petersburg Times, there is another set of numbers out that show how stupid Obama Care is. The numbers were within a St. Petersburg Times article on how companies are trying to get their employees involved in exercise and other healthy activities.

The statistics from the article claim that 15% of the population drives 85% of the nation's health care costs, 5% of the population drives 60% of the cost, and 25% of the population have no healthcare costs. Would it not have been a better strategy to focus on these small groups of Americans that cause the vast majority of health care costs and fix their problems rather than upsetting the entire health care system in the country? Nonsense again.

How simple could it be? Address the underlying drivers of high health care costs: obesity, bad diets, smoking, and lack of exercise. Understand who is the primary drivers of health care costs and resources and fix their problems. Instead, we get a cumbersome, complex, expensive, and incoherent 2,500 page piece of legislation that addresses none of the underlying problems while destroying health care insurance for tens of millions.

Which brings us to the the other two topics in our title, ignorance and lying. President Obama stated over and over that Americans who currently had health care insurance through their company could keep it under Obama Care. Was he that ignorant of reality to understand that if a company could save millions or billions of dollars by dropping health insurance that they would do so? Who came up with the measly fines that companies would pay if they dropped health care insurance? Could he and Pelsoi and Reid have been that ignorant of simple business principles?

Or was he lying? Did he actually understand that by passing Obama Care, tens of millions of Americans workers would lose health care insurance but lied about the likely outcome in order to get the legislation passed? Nonsense, lying or ignorant, hardly traits we would want in the President of the United States.

Much like the lost war on drugs, failing public education, the lack of an energy program, the lack of an immigration policy, and a myriad of other problems that have been unsolved for decades, the lack of problem solving skills of the American political class are on constant display. That is why we need to take steps to fix our political processes so that we finally staff Washington with people that know how to define and solve problems.

Like the brilliant Dean Wormer quote from the movie Animal House, "Fat, drunk, and and stupid is no way to go through life," I am getting tired of living the political class equivalent: "Ignorant, lying, and nonsensical is no way to run a country."

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Everyone Will Be Covered By Obama Care...except The 2..6 Million Americans Exempted By Its Waivers

There are many reasons to doubt the effectiveness of the many components of Obama Care. The latest set of numbers from the Department Of Health and Human Services (HHS) adds another layer of doubt that the political class really had any sense of reality when they passed the legislation. Less than a year after the legislation was passed, HHS has already granted 1,040 waivers to the law to various organizations across the country.

This raises some pretty obvious and simplistic questions:

* If this law is so good, why have so many waivers been granted so quickly for temporary exemptions from the law?

* How could the architects of this law not have even a clue that it would adversely affect so many Americans so quickly (the healthcare blog from "The Hill" estimates that these 1,040 waivers/exemptions cover about 2.6 million Americans).

* Since over 800 waivers have been granted just over the past three months, how many more waivers affecting how many more Americans are yet to be granted?

* Accusations have been made that many of these waivers have been granted to union organizations, the very types of organizations that supported Obama Care in the first place: is this granting of waivers a payment for union support for the passage of Obama Care? Just another aspect of this very bad law. Let's review all of the negative aspects of the law that have erupted or oozed to the surface so far:

- While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) originally estimated that Obama Care would reduce the Federal deficit by about $135 billion over ten years, their estimate did not include all of the components of Obama Care that were finally included in the legislation. Associated Press analyses found over $100 billion of excluded costs that at the very, very best case makes Obama Care deficit neutral, not positive.

- Even so, the ten year CBO analysis included ten years worth of revenue and taxes and only six years worth of expenses, an apples to oranges, invalid analysis.

- Some of the starting programs of Obama Care are woefully under enrolled, missing their estimated enrollment totals by over 95% in most cases, indicating that maybe these programs are not as good as the political class would have us believe.

- Twenty six states, more than half of the state governments in the country, are in court trying to stop various aspects, if not the whole, of Obama Care. While there are obviously some degree of partisan politics in play here, if Obama Care was that great, there would be no basis for the state court actions. Given that two judges have already found serious flaws with the legislation indicates that the 26 states may be on the right track.

- New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, an ardent supporter of Obama Care when it was going through the legislative process, has now asked for waivers for some areas in his Congressional district. His reason? He wants to see if their is a less expensive or more flexible approach available besides Obama Care for his constituents. If one of your best supporters is asking for waivers, this is not a good indication that this legislation is worthwhile.

- The enitre state of Maine has been given a waiver to Obama Care, with other states also likely to file for waivers. How effective can this law be if entire states can get out from under it?

- The current legislation gives very little credence or support to medical tort reform, a strategy that has significantly reduced health care costs in states that have already implemented tort reform in this area.

- This legislation gives very little credence or support to allowing insurance companies to easily operate across state lines, which would increase health insurance competition and reduce costs.

- This legislation gives very little credence or support to reducing the main culprits of bad health and increased health care costs in this country: smoking, bad eating habits, and lack of exercise of most Americans. Thus, even if Obama Care works perfectly, which is highly unlikely, the root causes of our high national health care costs will still be in place: Americans smoke too much, Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, and Americans do not exercise enough. These life style root causes will not be solved by Obama Care which is only a doomed taxing and government bureaucracy approach, not a life style and personal responsibility approach.

- Although Obama Care is supposed to reduce health care costs and allow more Americans to get health care insurance, the legislation is structured so poorly that many major U.S. corporations (AT&T, Verizon, John Deere, Caterpillar, MacDonald's, others) have already publicly stated that they may drop health care insurance for their employees and retirees since it would be less expensive, under Obama Care, to pay the Obama Care fine than continuing to offer health care insurance for their people. Thus, a political class action to reduce the number of Americans without health care insurance is likely to attain just the opposite result: increase the number of Americans without health care insurance.

- This legislation, via its mandate that orders all citizens to buy a product/service that they may or may not want, health care coverage insurance, is a basic violation of our freedom to choose and to live our lives as we see fit.

So let's review:

- This legislation is so bad that every month, hundreds of American companies and unions get exemptions from the law.

- This legislation is so bad that it will likely increase the number of Americans without health care insurance, the exact opposite of what is supposed to do.

- This legislation is so bad that it does not address the underlying, American life style root causes (smoking, obesity, lack of exercise), meaning it will never solve the symptoms of high health care costs and high uninsured rates.

- This legislation is so bad that the very people it is supposed to be helping already have basically ignored the programs it introduced.

- This legislation is so bad that over half of the state governments in the country are in court to stop the law, an unprecedented move on any other Federal legislation in our history.

- This legislation is so bad that the Democrats in the political class did not even have the and courage to pass the law in traditional ways, needing to sneak in the side door of reconciliation to get it passed.

- The legislation is so bad that there are serious flaws in the methodology and analysis used to prove its financial worthiness.

- This legislation is so bad that even its supporters are looking for waivers to get out from under its requirements.

- This legislation is so bad that it undercuts our basic freedom of choice in this country with its government mandates.

What is needed is not an individual waiver from Obama Care. What is needed is a waiver of the entire program and a fresh start with experts in the health care field, not politicians and lobbyists, driving towards a solution. We need out a logical, problem solving approach to health care in this country, without the intrusion of politics, an approach that attacks the root causes of our high health care costs. We see what the political class and lobbyists have gotten us, it is time to put a waiver out on them and do the job right the next time.

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More Proof That Obama Care Is Fatally Flawed

Many, many smart Americans truly believe that Obama Care is likely to fail and place an unbelievable financial and bureaucratic burden on the nation. Their theory is that Obama Care never attacked the underlying root causes of the nation's escalating health care costs, most of which should be addressed as a public health problem. Rather, the legislation went after the problem as a government regulation, taxing, and bureaucracy solution, mostly bypassing the underlying root causes and dooming it to an inglorious failure.

The underlying root causes for high health care costs in this country are relatively straightforward:

1) Americans smoke too much.

2) Americans eat too much.

3) Americans eat too much of the wrong types of food.

4) Americans do not exercise enough.

5) Americans' average age is getting older.

The first four likely root causes are public health issues and that is how they should be addressed. The fifth issue is a graying of the population issue and that should be attacked by a focused effort to minimize the effect of aging diseases, the top cancers, heart disease, and all forms of dementia. Even if Obama Care attained all of its taxing and bureaucratic goals, the bottom line is that the above five conditions would still be around and would still contribute to an ever escalating health care cost crisis.

Now, more and more evidence is starting to pile up, beyond what we have already presented, that further indicates that Obama Care is fatally flawed in so many different ways:

- In a February 15, 2011 article in USA Today, "Heart Disease Gets Real," author Mary Brophy Marcus reviewed the latest guidelines from the American Heart Association regarding ways to prevent cardiovascular disease in women. According to the article, every minute of every day a woman dies in this country from heart disease, making it the leading cause of death for women in this country, more than breast cancer. According to the American Heart Association, what should be done to reduce this pubic health and private health issue:

* Avoid smoking and exposure to environmental smoke

* Be physically active, getting 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise.

* Achieve a healthy body weight.

* Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, chose whole grain, high fiber foods, eat oil fish at least twice a week, limit saturated fat, cholesterol and sugar, avoid trans-fatty acids.

Sound familiar? Virtually the same list from above. The root causes of a deadly and widely suffered disease has its root causes in smoking, eating, and exercising. If all Americans did this, disease rates would go down and by reducing the number of times Americans get sick, the costs would go down. Simple, basic economics: reduce demand, keep supply the same and prices have to come down. This was the same advice from the experts at the Cleveland Clinic, when they were interviewed by Fortune magazine and other research and other medical sources. It is not hard if you know how to solve a problem and identify the underlying root causes. Obama Care did none of this.

- One of the major selling and talking points about Obama Care was that needy Americans would rush to enroll in the new programs to get health care coverage. Not so fast, says Amy Goldstein in her Washington Post article from February 11, 2011. According to Ms. Goldstein:

* Although some Americans have signed up for special health plans for people that have been spurned by the insurance industry, signups are far below the levels expected by the Obama Administration.

* The number of people enrolled in these so-called high risk pools is only up to 12,500 across the entire nation, about 250 per state on average.

* Last spring, less than ten months ago, the government's chief actuary forecasted that 375,000 Americans would have signed up for the pools by the end of 2010.

Thus, the government's forecast was off by over 96%.

These are not numbers from Fox News. These are not numbers from the Tea Party. These are not numbers from Rush Limbaugh. These are Obama administration actuals vs. Obama administration forecasts. Missed it by 96%. Pitiful.

Some administration officials say the low numbers are because awareness is so low, which does not change the fact that the administration was so wrong in its forecast and expectations. However, other experts say the new Obama Care program is too expensive for people with existing medical problems. Thus, even when the political class designs a program specifically for certain Americans, by not understanding underlying root causes, they still cannot get the solution right.

- Another major selling point from the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Obama Care trifecta was that the legislation would actually end up being a job creation vehicle, as she stated just days before the final vote: "It's about jobs. In its life, (the legislation) will create four million jobs, 400,000 jobs almost immediately."

How is that prediction coming along? According to an article in the National Review on February 10, 2011 by Yuval Levin, not so good. Mr. Levin was covering a House Budget Committee on that day when he heard Congressman John Campbell ask a question of Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf:

Campbell: You just mentioned that you believe - or that in your estimate - that the health care law would reduce the labor used in the economy by about one half of one percent. Given that, I believe you say, there's 150 million full time people working in 2021, that means that, in your estimation, the health care law would reduce employment by 800,000 in 2021. Is that correct? Elmendorf: Yes. the way I would put it is that we do estimate, as you said, that household employment will be about 160 million by the end of the decade. Half a percent is 800,000.

Obama Care supporters do not dare challenge the credibility of the CBO on this issue since they used the CBO numbers to help pass the legislation. Thus, if anyone believes the CBO was right in their original estimates of how much this legislation would reduce the Federal deficit (which we have proven was based on faulty data and assumptions), you cannot now say the CBO is wrong in their estimates when the say that Obama Care will actually reduce U.S. employment by 800,000, not increase it by 4 million as Ms. Pelosi claimed. Another horrendous estimate.

- However, while many still firmly believe that the five reasons listed above are primary underlying root causes of our high health care costs, there could a potential other reason, unrelated to the public health causes. In the March, 2011 issue of Life Extensions magazine, William Faloon had an interesting article entitled, "No Real Health Care Cost Crisis." (Note: there is a potential conflict of interest here since Life Extension the company is in the business of selling supplements whose sales are likely sometimes competitors with drug company products.)

Mr. Faloon's conclusion is that a leading cause of our high health care costs is the cozy arrangement the drug companies have with the Federal government. His theory goes as follows: the Federal government gives pharmaceutical companies a virtual monopoly over patented and generic drugs which result in outlandish profits earned from their protected drugs which are then used to use lobbyists who work on Congress to pass legislation that leaves the taxpayers on the hook for paying for these over priced medicines.

He gave several examples of this model and potential reality including the following:

* In July, 2009, the FDA officially announced something that those in the medical field knew for a long time: an old drug called colchicine was effective in treating acute cases of gouty arthritis.

* The drug had been around since the 19th century and has its original with the ancient Greeks.

* The FDA wanted the ancient drug officially tested for safety and efficacy and offered one company an exclusive three year protection plan, i.e. they would have no competitors in the sale of the drug for that time period even though the drug predated the FDA.

* In return the company conducted a ONE WEEK trial and proved the drug was all it was supposed to be and was safe.

* Before the Federal government via the FDA got involved, the drug sold for $.09 a pill.

* Once the government granted the monopoly, the price shot up by a factor of 50 to a cost of $5.00 a pill.

* Before the FDA got involved, the Federal government and the American taxpayer had paid out about $1 million a year through Medicare-Medicaid to supply colchicine for Americans who needed it.

* After the FDA intervention, the government and the American taxpayer will now pay about $50 million a year for the same drug that they used to pay $1 million for.

If you repeat this outrageous price mark up strategy across all drug categories, you can see why the nation is paying such high medical bills.

The article lays out another example for the drug Valtrex. According to Life Extension, the raw material to make a one month supply of Valtrex costs about $.60. Yes, $.60. The article estimates that the cost of production is about $1.50 so the total end product to the drug company is $2.10. However, given the government/drug industry connection, one month of Valtrex retails for $200, resulting in about $198 in gross margin for every month's worth of Valtrex sold.

Is Mr. Faloon wrong and biased? I do not know but I am sure most Americans have gagged many times when told what the actual costs of their drugs are. At least his line of reasoning is worth an unbiased investigation and analysis to see if this is another root cause of our high health care costs.

And, according to an article in the January, 2011 issue of Business Week magazine, Congress may actual to this. The article pointed out the fact that the drug industry "offered $80 billion In dIscounts and refunds over 10 years to help pay for the law. The concessions may have insulated the industry from tough new rules or price controls." Maybe Mr. Faloon is onto something afterall.

- Our final example has not been written up in an unbiased, national publication. It is based on a sample size of one but much like high priced drugs, I would bet many people have experienced or heard of the following situation. A good friend of mine runs her own business. She is the only employee of the business. She had a health care plan but dropped it because of its expense and the fact that it never seemed to live up to the hype and coverage it received when she purchased the policy.

Thus, when she needed a relatively major operation, she knew that she would have to pay for it herself out of her funds. However, once her doctor realized she had no insurance, the costs of the operation dropped dramatically. This is a situation we have all probalby seen a number of times. There is often two price lists: one for those that have insurance (the higher price) and one for those that do not have insurance (a lower price).

Seems many doctors are artificially inflating their prices since they know the end customer, the sick American, will be getting help in payment via their insurance company. If the operation costs the uninsured $10,000, it might cost the insured $15,000. Since the insured person is getting help in payment from the insurance company, they are not as diligent as they might be if they were using their own money. Thus, another potential, underlying root cause.

In summary, now what do we know about Obama Care:

* The political class never understood the underlying root cuases of our high health costs, public health issues, and thus, Obama Care's heavy handed government bureaucracy approach is likely to fail.

* Americans currently with health care insurance coverage are likely to lose that coverage because their companies can save money by paying the fine for not having insurance under Obama Care rather than continuing to provide health care coverage.

* The numbers that Obama Care is based on, from a deficit reduction perspective, are flawed since the CBO estimates do not include all of the costs components that were in the final legislation.

* The law criminalize millions of honest Americans if they do not purchase mandatory health care insurance under Obama Care.

* Promised job creation under Obama Care is unlikely to materialize.

* Promised program enrollment under the early components of Obama Care are staggering short of expectations.

* The Federal government via the FDA and the drug companies may be in such a close relationship, along with the Congress and the drug company lobbyists, that the Federal government might actually be a major source of cost escalation.

* The "two price list" syndrome, not addressed under Obama Care, may actually be another major cost factor.

It appears that the major causes of escalating health costs in this country are the ones NOT covered by the burdensome Obama Care legislation. It is fatally flawed and needs to be repealed as soon as possible. We need to impanel a group of smart Americans, similar to the success we enjoyed using the same process for the Manhattan Project, the Apollo Space Program, the Military Base Closing Commission, the Grace Commission, etc. They would identify and quantify the underlying root causes and come up with proposed solutions, sans lobbyists and politicians. These alternative proposals would be voted on by the American voters and the winner would be implemented.

The political class has proven via Obama Care that they cannot solve a problem because they cannot understand the underlying root causes. Obama Care is fatally flawed, lets pull the plug and start over before it is too late and the nation, its citizens, and the country's financial health straight lines.

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And The Wheels Of The Obama Care Bus Never Go Round And Round...they Just Come Off

Since the legislation known as Obama Care was passed back in the spring, it seems like a good time to revisit the legislation and see what has happened in the health care industry since then. Unfortunately, for both the President and millions of Americans, early indications is that this legislation will make a bad situation worse. Keep in mind, two of the big reasons for passing this bill was to provide health care insurance coverage to the 10% of the population which does not currently have health care insurance and to reduce the high cost of health care insurance and medical treatment in this country.

How is the legislation doing vs. these objectives? Not good. Consider:

- In the August 20, 2010 issue of Fortune magazine, there was an interview article with the chairman of AT&T, Randall Stephenson. Although most of the article focused on AT&T's marketing and financial situation, the closing question was about AT&T's likely response to Obama Care. Mr. Stephenson was very clear with his answer. He did not want to drop health care coverage for his employees but under the new legislation, it was a better business decision for AT&T to drop its employee coverage and pay the much smaller fine to the government for not having a health care plan. He discussed "economic gravity" which appeared to be code words for "if my competitors take this path (dropping health care insurance programs) which makes them financially stronger, than AT&T would do so also." Thus, rather than reduce the number of uninsured Americans, this legislation might actually put hundreds of thousands of current and retired AT&T employees on the list of those that do not have healt h care coverage insurance.

- This was not the first time that AT&T was in the news regarding the new health care bill. In a Fortune magazine article on May 6, 2010, it discussed the fact that AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, and John Deere, among other companies, had created financial reserves in the billions of dollars to possibly pay for the increased expenses the health care legislation would incur, implying that these and other companies might drop health care coverage for their employees also. This ticked off Congressman Waxman of California, who demanded to see all of the internal documents these companies had produced relative to Obama Care and scheduled Congressional hearings to review the documents. Waxman initially thought that the companies were making up fear stories to discredit the legislation and he wanted to go after them. However, after reviewing the documents, he abruptly cancelled the hearings, apparently realizing that the companies were right in anticipating higher health care insuranc e costs for their employees. Now, we are not looking at hundreds of thousands of AT&Ters losing their health care coverage, we are looking at millions of Americans losing their health care coverage as a result of Obama Care.

- It gets worse. In a September 30, 2010 Wall Street Journal article, it was reported that McDonald's had warned the Federal government that it also might drop its health care coverage for its restaurant employees since the new legislation was incompatible with some specialized health care insurance plans ("mini-med plans" which are popular in the retail and restaurant industry) it had for its employees. They were asking for a waiver to the new law or they would have to drop their plans since they could not be in compliance with the new law.

I guess the drafters of the legislation never did their homework to understand how mini-med plans might be affected. Since about 1.4 million Americans are covered by these types of insurance plans, the potential is there to add over a million more people, in addition to the millions of AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, and John Deere employees and retirees who may lose their health care insurance coverage.

The other sad part of this situation is that we are already seeing companies looking for exemptions to the law. It is never a good sign when a new law may have t grant exemptions to its own rules within months after the law takes affect. This shows that someone, or everyone, in Congress did not do their homework on the ramifications of this bill.

- In that same article, it is stated that health insurance companies have already proposed a round of double digit increases in premiums in order to cover some of the mandates in the new law. Looks like between the financial cash reserves that bigger companies are setting aside for anticipated higher costs and the insurance companies asking for more money now from their premiums in order to cover the requirements of the law, that we are not going to see any abatement in rising health care costs as promised by Obama Care.

- In a very ironic twist, a November 4, 2010 Associated Press article reported that AARP was raising its health care insurance premiums for its own employees anywhere from 8-13% in 2011. Part of the increase is due to generally rising medical costs but part of the increase is also due to Obama Care that the AARP vigorously endorsed. AARP is trying to avoid a 40% tax on high cost plans that will take effect in later years under the law. The article mentioned that Boeing employees are also going to see an increase in their insurance premiums as a result of the 40% tax. Thus, at least the law's unintended, mostly bad, consequences, does not differentiate friend from foe.

- But it gets even better (or worse, depending on your perspective.) In a November 12, 2010 Associated Press article, the reporter profiled a breast cancer surgeon who had posted a warning in her waiting room that she would stop taking New Medicare patients if Congress allows looming cuts in doctors' Medicare compensation to become law. If nothing is done quickly, Medicare payments to doctors will decrease 23%.

Although this crisis has nothing to do with Obama Care, it is instructive of how things will likely unfold in the the future. This specific cost cutting process started back in the 1990s as an attempt to get Medicare costs under control but the implementation of the law was constantly pushed back year over year. The article quotes sources as saying that if the funding is not restored, two-thirds of doctors would stop taking Medicare patients, endangering the health of tens of millions of Americans. The cost to the government of another delay to the original law's implementation? About $1 billion a month, $12 billion a year.

Why is this important? Obama Care calls for hundreds of billions of dollars to be axed from Medicare payments to doctors over the next decade. In fact, most of the flimsy financial justification for Obama Care assumed that these hundreds of billions of dollars would be saved by shorting the doctors relative to what they get today. However, if the majority of doctors are going to stop taking Medicare patients as a result of the government taking $12 billion away in payments, how many doctors do you think will stop taking Medicare patients if the government takes away hundreds of billions of dollars?

It would get ugly real fast. But I am pretty sure what would not happen. Congress would cave into pressure, would not implement the Medicare cuts called for by Obama Care, and the financial model on which this legislation was sold would be destroyed, leaving the American taxpayer with a health care industry more broken than before and much more expensive than before.

- Much of this legislation was modeled after the health care reform law passed by the state of Massachusetts. Within a few years after that law was passed, costs are already out of control, the expected drop in emergency room visits never materialized, medical coverage is being curtailed, and the system was trying to delay accepting new customers.

- The Obama administration admitted a few months ago that upwards of $100 billion a year is lost through fraud and criminal activity in current government medical insurance programs. How much worse will that fraud become and how many more taxpayer dollars will be lost by implementing an even larger government health care programs without first fixing the current fraud and criminal problems?

So let's review:

1) Millions of working and retired Americans are likely to lose their health care insurance coverage from larger companies for the simple reason it is a better economic decision under Obama Care to not have the expense of insuring their workforce and to pay a much smaller fine.

2) Companies are setting aside cash reserves in anticipation of the higher costs of complying with the law, preventing them from using that money to hire more employees, conduct more research and development, and compete with other global companies.

3) Hundreds of thousands, if not more than a million Americans receiving health care coverage via their retail or restaurant jobs, will likely lose coverage because their specialized insurance programs cannot be made compatible with the requirements of the new health care reform law. Thus, rather than reducing the number of Americans without affordable health care insurance, this legislation is highly to increase the number of uninsured Americans.

4) Insurance premiums are already going up as a result of the new law, including those premiums covered by supporters of the law such as AARP. The hundreds of billions in savings predicted from Obama Care in the area of Medicare doctor payments is likely to never materialize since even a small decrease has already provoked doctors into promising not to accept Medicare patients.

5) The one state that has a similar plan to Obama Care has experienced a nightmare of rising costs, declining coverage, and unexpected steady streams of people into emergency rooms.

6) More and larger government health care programs is likely to result in higher amounts of fraud and crime.

Why has this turning into a disaster within seven months after it was signed? The political class never understood the root causes of our rising health care costs, high costs that put affordable health care insurance out of the financial reach of millions of Americans. Without understanding the root causes, there is very little chance of coming up with an efficient and effective solution. The horror stories listed above prove this point. Higher costs, higher premiums, and fewer people getting insurance coverage, the exact opposite of what the legislation was supposed to do.

What should be done? Two things. First, this law has to be repealed and the process has to start over. It has introduced unbelievable uncertainty into the market, uncertainty that has left companies in a non-hiring mode since they do not understand what their future health care costs will be. Thus, it is better for employers to hunker down with the current workforce than to expand and possibly find out they cannot afford the additional employees due to Obama Care. Plus, at 2,500 pages or whatever the final number was, nobody in Congress or the White House understands what is in the legislation and what the unintended consequences will be.

Second, an entirely new process needs to be undertaken to understand the root causes of our high health care costs using smart Americans from a wide variety of fields of expertise and which minimizes the input of lobbyists and politicians. Obama Care never understood the underlying causes. All this bill did was take the existing money in the national health care delivery system and move it around, and then stir in additional taxation on top of everything. It never got underneath the problem to understand the reality of the situation and the root causes of ever escalating health care costs.

In an old children's song, "the wheels on the bus go round and round." In the world of Obama Care, the wheels on this bus never went round and round since they fell off almost immediately, probably increasing the number of people on the bus without insurance and raising the cost of eventually fixing the bus.

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Diet Herbs

I housands of herbs are available worldwide for a dizzying array of diseases and disorders. And consumers are sold on them: A recent survey found that one in three people spends an average of $54 a year on herbal remedies.



Without question, herbs do work wonders in treating many illnesses and improving health. But herbal medicine has a far less effective track record when it comes to weight control. Only one herb ephedra is believed to directly promote fat-burning, but its dangerous side effects make it unsafe and unwise to use.



There is one particular aspect of your weight you can control to some extent by supplementing with herbs, and that is water weight. Let's say you weigh 150 pounds. About ninety of those pounds are water; thirty are fat. The rest is lean tissue muscles, organs, and bones. So normally, most of your body weight is water. Sometimes you may retain water. You look and feel fat, even though you may have lost a significant amount of body fat. Some days, you can't even fit into clothes you wore the week before!



Puffiness does masquerade as pudge. Disheartening and uncomfortable, periodic bouts of water retention, medically known as edema, may be the result of any number of factors: excess sodium in the diet, food allergies, premenstrual changes, hormone imbalances, a hot climate, and kidney or heart disease. If you're chronically plagued by edema, have it checked out by your doctor.



You can lose some of that fluid by taking a prescription "water pill" (diuretic) or by forcing yourself to sweat in a sauna or steam bath. Neither is a good idea, though, because they can lead to life-threatening dehydration and mineral imbalances.



Some herbs, however, may offer a gentler solution. Most of the herbs promoted for weight loss are diuretics agents that cause the kidneys to draw extra water from the blood into the urine and stimulate the excretion of water. This action promotes temporary water loss. There's certainly nothing wrong with regulating water weight by using herbs, as long as you use them on a short-term basis and with the full knowledge of your physician. In most cases, herbal diuretics are safer than their prescription counterparts. But long-term use of either can flush vital nutrients from the body and cause irreparable harm.



Other weight-loss herbs are really nothing more than laxatives, which also force water from the body. It's much healthier to follow a high-fiber diet and drink plenty of pure water daily than to rely on laxatives for elimination. Prolonged used of laxatives and diuretics, even natural ones, can lead to dependence and serious health problems.



What follows is a discussion of forty-three herbs commonly promoted as diet aids. In most cases, these herbs are found in natural weight-loss supplements in minute amounts, mainly as fillers. In others, they are single-or multiherb formulas, available as capsules, compressed tablets, liquids, extracts, or teas. It's a good practice to read the list of ingredients on any natural weight-loss supplement carefully. The information below will help you make informed decisions about specific products.

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Diet Programs And Meals - The Montignac Diet

The Montignac Diet was invented in the 1990s by Michel Montignac, a pharmaceutical industry executive. In addition to helping you lose weight, this diet has the goal of improving your pancreatic health but to do so you must follow it for at least two months. The initial phase is dedicated to losing weight and is followed until you reach your desired weight. The longer this phase lasts, the better off you will be. The following phase is devoted to stabilization; it may last the rest of your life. Here are some of the diet principles.

During Phase 1 stop eating several foods. These include sugar, bread, glucides such as potatoes and processed rice, alcohol, and drinks other than fresh fruit juice, skim milk, and decaffeinated coffee. Eat as little fruit as possible and eat it only before breakfast or late at night. Add fiber to your breakfast. Eat a balanced lunch that includes vegetables, animal proteins, and cheese. Supper should be based on lipids and fibers. Start with vegetable soup. Try not to eat meat except for poultry. Eat a glucide-rich supper three times a week. During Phase 2 you are allowed to add certain items to your diet. Fruit mousse, chocolate mousse, and ice cream are considered acceptable as are red fruits. Avoid cake or pastry because they contain bad glucides. Red wine is allowed, but must be drunk after the entree.

The Montignac Diet may help those suffering from hypoglycemia by suppressing the production of excess insulin and thus stabilizing the level of blood sugar. Advantages of this diet are the general lack of hunger and its ease to apply. It can be unpleasant for those with a sweet tooth.

Here are two sample menus:

Menu 1 (Phase 1)
Breakfast: A bowl of oatmeal. A bowl of skim milk. Decaffeinated coffee.
Lunch: A plate of ham. Grilled salmon. A plate of zucchini. A yogurt.
Supper: Onion soup. A herb omelet. Green salad. A slice of mimolette cheese.

Menu 2 (Phase 2)
Breakfast: An orange. Two slices of whole-grain bread with margarine. Decaffeinated coffee.
Lunch: Avocado with dressing. Chicken. A plate of ratatouille. A chocolate mousse.
Supper: Cabbage soup. A mushroom omelet. A green salad. A yogurt.

Some information in this article comes from a fascinating new book, La Bible des Regimes, written by Jenny de Jonquieres and published by Amerik Media. Her book describes more than 80 diets and weight reduction programs. Each diet is presented with 5 menu plans, a detailed discussion of its advantages and disadvantages, and a whole lot more. La Bible des Regimes is presently available only in French.

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How Negative Emotions Affect Your Health

The effects negative emotions have on your body are long and depletive - it places a tremendous amount of stress on your system and we all know how dangerous stress can be.

Negative emotions can affect your immune system, making you more prone to colds and 'flu; it can affect your hormones - which is a particular problem for women, causing an increased likelihood of premenstrual tension and menopausal problems. Negative emotions can also affect your circulatory system, your blood pressure, your digestion (stomach ulcers and indigestion) and it also causes insomnia in a lot of people. Sleep is restorative and essential for our overall well-being, so if you are deprived of sleep you are not going to function very well in your everyday life.

Letting go of negative emotions such as resentment and guilt, worry and anger will benefit your life in so many ways. How do you know if you have unresolved negative emotions which are affecting you physically and mentally? Well, that is simple. If you are constantly imagining someone's downfall or dreaming about them in some negative way then it is easy to say that you are harbouring negative emotions because of anger or jealousy or both. If you picture your own failures and misfortunes then it suggests that you are worried about your future or feel guilty about wanting success. When these thoughts are multiplied several times a day, you need to do something about it before it begins to cause stress.

Firstly, pay close attention to what your body is trying to tell you. For example, anger often expresses itself in a clenched jaw or fist, dry mouth, shallow breathing, impatience and a raised voice. These outward displays of anger do not stay on the surface. Inside your body, the anger is causing a chemical reaction which results in your blood pressure becoming elevated, your heart pounding faster, and your stomach tightening up. Your brain is likely to be sending a "fight or flight" message to your adrenal glands to release adrenalin throughout your body, which constricts your blood vessels and can potentially trigger a headache, back ache, high blood pressure, and, in the worst case scenario, a heart attack. As you can see, there is very little pay off for holding onto your negative emotions.

The key to letting go is to begin with your thoughts. It is our thoughts that create our emotions and luckily we have full control over what we think, even if it doesn't always feel like that! If you have negative thoughts, for example an angry thought about someone you dislike, it stands to reason it will create a negative feeling within you. If you replace your negative thoughts with positive thoughts the effect is reversed. Positive thoughts make us feel good, they produce positive emotions such as joy, happiness, love and empathy. And these positive emotions have a wonderful, beneficial outcome on our bodies - protecting us from stress and all its bad effects.

Want to learn how to banish your negative thoughts and emotions? Then visit / for all the answers you need to leading a positive and happy life.

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Herbs for Emotional Health That Work

Emotional or Mental Health basically means a state of mind, where a human being is able to perform well in challenges put in front of them by everyday life along with performing functions of society by using their knowledge and emotions. The advancement and modernization of society has given us many benefits but it has also plagued us with numerous irreparable curses which have resulted in countless new problems for human mind. The most ordinary and common- problems are insomnia, depression, chronic-disorder, neuralgia, anxiety, nervousness etc. All of these names have become familiar in every household because at least one of the family members is suffering with it.

Regular medicine is only capable of heeling our body physically but for emotional treatment only herbal medicine is effective. In fact many of us have been using it knowingly or unknowingly in our daily lives for various emotional treatments such as use of chamomile, lavender and peppermint to cure mild depression, anxiety, insomnia etc. We can easily mix up these herbs in our regular life by supplementing it with food in order to fight various emotional stresses.

All these emotional and mental health evils can only be cured with good-old grandma's herbs and change in living pattern. These herbs are smoothly accessible today for various treatment purposes in comparison to old times when almost a war like situation had been created over it. Herbs not only ameliorate and enhance our memory but also help in better circulation of blood in our brains. Lacks of mental energy and memory problems are not the only problems with brains, with this comes depression, sleep-disorder, mood swings and a million other health hazards. The remedy to all these problems is ordinary household-herbs, some of them are:-

Ginnsuu Ginnssu, also known as Ginseng is a Chinese herb, found mainly in South Asia and North America. It's a very common energy booster which helps in relaxing mind.

Chamomile Chamomile or chamomile is a daisy-looking plant, which helps in treatment of common cold, eczema and provides relief in post-operative sore-throat along with providing many other cures.

Green- Tea Green-Tea is a very common name in every household of China, Japan, South Korea and other regions of Asia. It works as antioxidant, anti-depressant and also helps in memory-enhancement. Although there are no scientific results to show that green tea, helps in heart and cancer related problems but it certainly helps in cholesterol and obesity management.

Rosemary Natively Mediterranean, rosemary herb belongs to Lamiaceae mint family and mythologically believed to be draped around Goddess Aphrodite, when she emerged from the ocean. It helps in depression, muscle-relaxation, anxiety and calmness.

Wild cherry and lettuce Both wild cherry and lettuce have medical benefits; they help in hyper activeness, insomnia, and nerve- disorder. Wild or prickly lettuce is sometimes used as mild sedative.

Lavender - Initially lavender was popular as perfume oil to use in clothes and linens. But now due to its medicinal attribute it is widely being used in treating various emotional problems like body relaxation during pain, relaxation of body muscle etc. by acting as a cooling herb.

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How To Attain Emotional Health

Training the mind to affect certain self development acts is very important for anyone interested in attaining any kind of emotional health. The mind body and soul are interconnected together in order to affect functions in the body. An individual mental health determines how best they achieve any goal in their lives. There are quite a number of ways an individual can do to achieve good mind development act, however it is very important to dig information about how one can influence such minds for self development acts. Finding such information is quite easy especially if one takes advantage of the internet as a primary information source.

There are quite a number of sites which have good information about emotional health and how one can achieve such through affecting mind development acts such as mind games. People who have good mind development acts have better chances of affecting boy synchronization acts which are quite beneficial in attaining an overall body health. Some people engage mind development acts to initiate a lifestyle change or even affect financial goals.

A well trained mind can attain anything an individual sets their minds to do. Most people are never aware of the benefits of emotional health; for any individual to have a healthy lifestyle then emotional health must be affected for it's the main basis of behind sound brain activity and vice versa. Some of the benefits associated with emotional health are such as fast recuperation process from any ailment; better judgment and deterrent thoughts against issues that can influence negative brain functions, good lifestyle and interpersonal communication tolerance and communication.

For any individual who may be interested in affecting mind development acts to enforce emotional health should be aware of the influence of natural laws of attraction and how the results they have on their day to day activities. The effects of universal laws of attraction have created lots of fuss in the past years, however people are starting to learn and understand concepts of natural laws and better still how these individuals can turn universal laws to benefits their life endeavors. It is very important for any individual interested in attaining mind development to affect emotional health to have a well laid plan on how they wish to exercise their minds to achieve this goal; as mentioned before finding relevant information about emotional health is the main recipe for successful mind development acts.

Anyone engaging self development act should also be aware that attaining any mind alteration act through affecting universal laws of attraction is never a one day activity, one must at all times be willing to exercise patience and resilience in any activity they engage their minds to do. Creating visualization acts from things you desire to achieve is the number one way one can influence to achieve personal development acts; such visualization acts aid individual create strong belief systems which are effective in affecting successful self development acts. It is very important to develop a will built within an individual essence of belief if anyone is to attain successful emotional health acts.

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Exercising For Emotional Health

As you build movement into your everyday life, you will begin to notice many changes in your body. You will notice changes in your appearance as your body slims down, your muscles become more defined, and you burn more calories. You may lose enough weight to require a different pant size. You may see body structures (cheekbones, clavicles, ribs, curves) that you have not seen in some time. Your body will feel stronger and you will have more energy to do the things you need to do each day.

As you move, you will become more in touch with your body and be more aware of your muscles. You'll begin to feel more flexible and you may find yourself more capable of running up a flight of stairs without losing your breath. The more you move, the easier it is to keep moving.

As all of these physical manifestations of your exercise plan begin to appear, you may also begin to notice changes. You may notice that you are often in a better mood, that the stress from work isn't getting to you as much, that you don't feel like sitting around and watching TV at night because you have too much energy to sit still.

You may like the changes you are seeing and feel more confident about yourself. You may even find that you are comfortable putting away some of the baggier clothes you have been wearing in exchange for that revealing sundress you were keeping in the back of your closet or the sexy swimsuit you haven't worn for three summers. You may even feel more flirtatious, more outgoing, more amorous with your partner.

The emotional benefits of exercising are nearly as amazing as the physical benefits. Not only is there scientific proof that exercise can improve your ability to concentrate and stave off depression, but more and more research is correlating exercise to increased self-esteem, emotional stability, reduced anxiety, better stress management, and improved mood. This is in addition to the benefits of exercising to lose weight and prevent diseases like diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancer. There is even evidence that regular exercise can help you sleep better at night.

If you are feeling irritable, angry, or sad, your initial reaction may be to eat something. Eating to resolve emotional issues is a habit many people rely on. However, the latest research shows that while emotional eating is extremely detrimental to your health, exercising helps by causing your brain to release mood-altering chemicals into your brain that make you feel happy, positive, and energized.

There is no denying the emotional benefits of exercise. Not only can moving improve your overall health but it has a powerful emotional affect on you as well. The physical and mental benefits of exercise feed off of each other, giving you more and more reason to continue exercising and feeling better about yourself. Before you realize it, your increased exercise will bring about a happier, healthier, thinner you.

Come visit us anytime! TourdePhat.com I'll be at the club and I'll see you there.

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Resveratrol Nutrition

Nutrition is important and there are many different things that you can try to do. You can get healthier by being more nutritious by simply eating better. Diet plays a huge part on how healthy you become. You may also want to through in exercise. It's a well known fact that exercise will help a person to become healthier. If you want to go that extra mile and really do all that you can do to become more nutritious, then you will want to turn your attention to some other things that you can do to help you become healthier. Resveratrol will help you with your health. It helps your heart, blood vessels, liver, and more.

Resveratrol is found in the skin of red grapes. Actually, it can be found in other parts of the plant such as, the seed, root, and vine; but the highest concentration of it comes from the actual skin of the red grape. This is the reason why red wine is so healthy for you. Because the red wine contains resveratrol it has the many health benefits that are also associated with the consumption of resveratrol. These include those health benefits to your heart.

The French are able to consume very large amounts of fattening foods and somehow remain in good health as far as the health of their hearts is concerned. This tends to baffle many people. Well, the reason why they are able to eat such fattening foods and still have healthier hearts than cultures that consume healthier foods is because of the amount of red wine they also consume. The red wine that they are drinking also contains resveratrol, this is what is helping their hearts health. By consuming the red wine they are giving themselves the health benefits of the resveratrol.

The nutritional value of resveratrol supplements give you the health benefits of the red wine without having to consume the alcohol for it's age reversing properties. Luckily we now know that you can go straight to the source now and just take the Resveratrol as a supplement. Since it is actually the health beneficial component in the red wine you will be helping out your hearts health, as well as your liver and blood vessels, and other parts of your health by going straight to the source itself, cutting out the need to consume the alcohol.

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How Safe is The Special K Diet Challenge

The facts about the Special K Diet Challenge?

Many people are familiar with the availability of and have take the Special K Challenge.

It would appear that there are an unending stream of diets which claim to be the ultimate solution in attaining weight loss.And although I am not identifying with any program on either a positive or negative basis, I would encourage you to select a sustainable healthy diet plan, because living in a state of obesity is hazardous to your health, and a better quality of life is available to those in better physical condition.

As human beings we are not designed to subsist off of one type of food or food group. You must attempt to keep a balanced diet, using proper portions of fats, carbohydrates and proteins, and fiber in addition, to help digestion.Calcium and magnesium, the most vital of the minerals group, are necessary components of your diet as well.

Some people find it surprising to hear that you need to consume some fat, this is not as much of a problem as some would have you think.Your body's collection of fat is not induced by the consumption of animal fat, it is induced by the ingestion of calories which are not then used by the body as energy.It is due to this fact that the habit of engaging in physical exercise has become so crucial.There is a measure of fat in healthy foods like bananas and nuts, however these fats are not detrimental to your health.Animal fat consumption may result in high cholesterol, while the fat in virgin olive oil does not, distinguishing between fat types is important.

No matter where you shop for groceries in America, or how you get your visual information , provided you can see your fingers in front of your face,you will be subjected to the promotional efforts of Kellogg,and the Special K Diet Challenge will be visible.The Special K diet Challenge is a based on Kellogg's effort to encourage the Obese in America to correct the situation by substituting one meal a day with a bowl of Special K cereal, or one of the products created therewith, i e Special K waffles, or Special K protein bars. There is nothing wrong with trying the Special K challenge, I would suggest however that you utilize the services of a licensed nutritionist to ensure you consume enough other foods to ensure a balanced nutritional diet.

Additionally, it is quite feasible that you will lose weight if you use the Special K Diet.You would be properly informed however that the reason you are losing weight is not due to some special substance in the cereal, but rather due to the fact that by eating the special k diet products that you will reduce the caloric basis of your diet.So if you decide to take the Special K Diet Challenge, make sure that you monitor your other food ingestion with precision.

The Special K Diet Challenge is published as a promotional program on the Kellogg Website.Modules for selecting a Special K Diet Challenge buddy, and for developing an electronic mentoring relationship with a diet coach are both available on the Kellogg website.The prognosis for success improves for most people when they are able to involve themselves with others who are in similar circumstance.and many can benefit from the optional on line coaching that is available through the site,in addition to the email and Facebook support programs that reside there as well.And while the plan is relatively easy for most to follow,and may be a time saver as well,because it saves you meal prep time for one meal a day,however the real lesson to be learned is that the reduction in calorie intake is a pragmatic approach to dieting,and control it by making a better meal plan.

I would like to mention, as in every entry, that the initiation of any diet, may result in exacerbating an already problematic set of eating habits, even resulting tn the opposite of the result you desired, Just because something gets promoted by a large corporation, or is published in a magazine, does not make it effective or healthy. If you don't exercise caution you may end up less healthy, so be sure to talk to your doctor and a nutritionist before you get into a diet. Remember, you can eat everything you already eat, you just need to cut that amount down to a reasonable caloric basis, and add exercise to your daily routine, if you take these steps your health will reflect it You can get additional information by visiting EliKen Health and Fitness.

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Dog Bad Breath Remedies Are Essential For The Present Day Dog's Health And Wellbeing

The Food and Drug Administration is approving weight-loss, anti-obesity drugs, medications that treat cognitive degeneration and even doggy Prozac at increasing rates, approving around FORTY different pet prescription drugs a year. But it's not merely medicinal drugs for a dog's health and wellbeing that are currently being utilized at escalating rates; dogs are likewise receiving treatments to slow afflictions once considered to be a aspect of the natural aging progression for most dogs.

The bad breath of dogs once tolerated as standard by dog lovers is now becoming subjected to the same contempt as with human halitosis. While liposuction on dogs may perhaps continue to be believed as a bizarre, wanting your dog to possess clean white teeth and fresh breath is these days very common. Cleaning dog teeth has turn out to be a regular task for the modern dog owner and the quest of dog bad breath remedies is in high demand. A dog's oral health falls into two wide-ranging types, prevention and treatment.

Many elements, such as a dog's age, diet, chewing habits, and reaction to bacterial plaque establish a dog's predisposition to poor oral health. Bacterial endotoxins and other bacterial byproducts largely lead to tissue destruction, but a dog's immune system response to inflammation of the gums can result in continued tissue inflammation and destruction if a dog is not getting daily oral care. For this reason it is important to handle the harmful bacteria in their mouth, eliminating the long term break down of tissue in their mouths includes the benefit of getting rid of a dog's bad breath and cleaning their teeth.

The modern dog is getting health care that used to be appropriated solely for people, like chemotherapy for tumors, root canals on rotting teeth, and advanced coronary surgical treatments. The successful treatment of periodontal disease in pet dogs has proven valuable to the well-being of senior canines that lacked the every day oral care available with modern oral care sprays. The VitaHound staff is worried contemporary medical interventions for dogs are showing problematic parallels to numerous human's approach to health care. Methods of prevention have a hard time contending alongside treatments that can reverse years of neglecting one's health. Family pets have very little control over their surroundings and preventative healthcare behaviors therefor products that are far more likely to be applied by owners are very important. For this reason progress in veterinarian dentistry are important along with the oral care sprays that help make daily care simple and effective.

Cleaning a dog's teeth with canine oral care sprays has proven to be both a dog bad breath remedy and a system for preventing the harmful bacteria on a dog's teeth and gums. The advanced formulation of these products kills off damaging bacteria utilizing all natural ingredients. Numerous years of high bacteria loads in a dog's mouth will probably result in harmful outcomes for the wellbeing of a dog's teeth and gums. Moreover if a dog is suffering from severe periodontal disease they are going through a great deal of agony.

The availability of canine oral care treatments that are simple to use are being driven by the need for dog bad breath remedies. The simple fact that these products act as preventative measures for oral ailments that have an effect on a dog's teeth and gums will only increase their popularity among dog owners. It is highly recommended for dog owners to build their knowledge of the best dog oral sprays and get started utilizing them on a regular bases.

I'm part of the research team at Our website is the industry innovator in supplying information and products that enable owners to turn into their dogs finest health care advocate. We are currently striving to offer owners with dog bad breath remedies. Oral health not only minimizes bad breath in dogs it elevates their overall health and well-being.

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Dried Nuts on a Raw Food Diet

If you've read my article ondried fruit, then you know that dried fruits like dates and raisins are perfectly acceptable (in moderation) on a healthy raw vegandiet.

"In moderation" is really the key here. The emphasis shouldbe on *fresh* water-rich fruits and vegetables, not theirdried counterparts.

But what about dried nuts? Should they be eaten on a healthy raw food diet? If so, where do they fit in?

Should You Eat Dried Nuts?

NO, YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER EAT DRIED NUTS! WHAT WERE YOUTHINKING?!?!

Just kidding. Dried nuts are totally fine on a healthy rawfood diet. ;)

But of course, there's a tiny stipulation...

How Much Can I Eat?

Although mainstream media, medicine, and raw foodism willhave you believe otherwise, it's important to remember thatnuts are high in fat.

They are not the high-protein, energy-sustaining food thatnutritionists and marketers alike promote them to be.

For instance, take one ounce of pecans. According to, an ounce of pecans contains 195calories, of which87% comes from fatandonly5% fromprotein.

That means at 8%,pecans are actually more carbohydrate-richthan they are protein-rich!

Here's another example. 1 ounce of brazil nuts contains 186calories, 85% from fat and 8% from protein.

As you can see, nuts are not a high protein food, but a HIGHFAT food. And given thedangers of a high-fat diet, fatty foods should always be kept to a minimum

This generallymeans no more than 1-2 ounces or 1-2 tablespoons of nuts perday, depending upon your caloric intake.

So that's it! You can totally eat dried nuts as part ofyour healthy raw food diet. Just remember thatnuts are a high-fat food and should be eaten in smallamounts (think a single small handful as opposed to a fullbowl or bag).

And don't forget that nuts should be consumed on theirown or with vegetable matter, not with sweet fruits.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

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Raw Foodism Explained

Raw foodism promotes a diet where raw foods are consumed for at least 75% of the time. Foods that have been cooked above 115 degrees Fahrenheit are avoided for the most part, simply because the cooking process destroys the enzymes and lot of vitamins and minerals that the body needs in order to function properly.

On top of the food losing its nutrients, cooked foods also become toxic to the body. According to studies these toxins can cause many age related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and more.

So What is Raw Foodism?

Raw Foodism can be divided into several different diets, all of which focus on eating raw foods.

The most popular raw food diet is a raw vegan diet, which is said to be the healthiest diet. This diet restricts all animal products, and focuses on eating only foods that come from a plant source. This diet is able to provide you with all the nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids that your body needs in order to live a long and healthy life.

The diet promotes a lot of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts and seeds as well as many superfoods such as sea vegetables, acai berries, goji berries, raw cacao and protein powders.

Organic foods are also highly promoted because they contain more nutrients than conventionally grown foods. In addition, organic foods do not contain any pesticides, herbicides or any other chemicals that are often found on conventional produce.

Next is the raw vegetarian diet, which also focuses on eating the same foods as the raw vegan diet. But this diet allows you to have dairy, eggs and honey. However, there are some raw vegetarians who refuse to eat eggs, but will consume dairy, and others are the opposite and refuse to consume dairy, but will consume eggs.

Another diet is the raw omnivore diet which actually promotes eating raw meats such as beef, chicken, fish as well as other sea animals. The diet allows you to eat basically anything that you want as long as it is raw at least 75% of the time. Thus you can eat all the raw vegan foods, the vegetarian foods as well as raw meats.

These meats however, are not the kind that you can get in the grocery store, but rather these come from free range or grass-fed animals. According to studies, these animals contain far more nutrients, and do not contain near as many harmful bacteria such as E. coli, than those animals that are raised conventionally.

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Ideas for Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss - Food - Low Calorie

It could be very difficult to get the kids to eat healthily if they have access to processed foods everywhere they go. Giving kids foods which are high in sugar is very bad even if the sitter or their grandma mean well. When kids develop a sweet tooth, getting them to incorporate healthy snacks for weight loss diet in their daily routine will be very hard. You have to find innovative techniques for getting your children to foods that will aid their weight loss diet. Try providing them with healthy snacks for weight loss in order to see if you could possibly get them to acquire good eating habits they will deal with until they get old.

Although what you wish is for them to eat foods they may have tasted before, fun and healthy snacks for weight loss may also be about the presentation and not foods served. For example should you give them broccoli and then they dislike it, you might avoid broccoli this time and offer them something else. You could possibly serve them broccoli at another time. You can serve them with a food they may have tried and enjoyed before and go from there.

A sensible way to include healthy snacks as part of your children's weight loss diet is to provide them with food prepared creatively. If this is a new challenge for you, you may draw inspiration from many sources. One favorite recipe is 'ants on a log'. It's simply a celery stick with smeared peanut butter inside. Raisins can be sprinkled atop the peanut butter. The ants are the raisins and the celery certainly is the log. This snack would appeal to kids, especially boys, who like trying out fun and gross stuff. You can use purple raisins as the black ants and yellow raisins as other insects.

Most kids love dips. However, dipping potato chips in fattening dips doesn't help their weight loss diet so you ought to try different things. For healthy snacks for weight loss diet you could give to them rod pretzels and also you could give them that along with fat-free ranch dressing for their dip. They will love that. You can come across a recipe for layered dip that has grated celery, radish (for some tanginess), carrots and other vegetables you wish to include in websites for weight loss diet recipes. You can layer fresh, healthy cream cheese or sour cream on the grated vegetables and you can give your children baked tortilla chips to dip in. This could just become their preferred fun healthy snacks for weight loss.

Those are just a few fun healthy snacks you can test with your kids. There are a lot of ideas these days that you can use. There are cookbooks with proven and delicious ideas for you to try, in addition to some intricate meal plans that use foods you would like your kids to try. Also try to enhance foods that they like, for example cake, and use applesauce to keep the cake moist instead of oil. This lessens the calories and many people can't even tell the difference. Keep up your hard work and you will see a pay off out of your happy and healthy kids.

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How to cook pasta the Italian way

Pastasciutta and pizza are the iconic Italian foods . You all probably known the spaghetti alla Bolognese, the most know preparation of pasta in the world. That is just one of the endless possibilities you have to garnish your pasta.

I dont have to tell you why pasta is good for your health . Nor why any kind of food, if consumed in excessive quantities, is not good for your health. All you need to know from me is that pasta is quick to prepare, it comes in many different sizes and shapes and can be accompanied by an almost limitless number of sauces. You can eat pasta every day and yet never have the same dish before you. Of course, pasta is very high on carbs , so I dont actually recommend to have pasta for lunch and dinner every day.

Anyway, Im going to tell you how an Italian cooks his pasta . The Italian being me, it actually is how I cook pasta. But my method is quite the canonical way.

This guide is easy and the instructions are simple to follow. But I don't want to scare you with a long text, so let's start with a summary of the steps for a perfect pasta :

First of all, cooking pasta means actually cooking the pasta and the sauce. While cooking the pasta itself is basically made by the one step throw pasta in boiling water, the sauce can be a more complicate affair. I will give you the recipes for two easy sauces , very popular in Italy. Since the basic steps are more or less the same, you can go on and create your own sauce from there.

Second point: each kind of pasta has a cooking time , usually indicated on the package. Cook pasta for less than the cooking time, and it will remain hard, go over the cooking time and it will become softer and softer. Go well beyond the cooking time and congratulations! You have inedible glue! We Italians like our pasta al dente , that means a little hard. You usually get it al dente by cooking it for exactly the indicated cooking time. But beware: since foreigners often prefer their pasta soft, you may find on the package a cooking time that reflects this and advises you to cook the pasta for much more time than an Italian would. Since pasta is cheap, you can throw away a little and experiment until you find your perfect cooking time .

Third point, just do me a favour: no ketchup . No ketchup. Repeat with me: No ketchup. Ever.

Ok, lets start.

Take a pot , fill it with water for 3/4 of its capacity and put it on the stove, heat it untill it boils . Put a lid on, to make it boil faster.When the water boils, add salt . We use sale grosso, my dictionary calls it cooking salt. Its salt in big grains of irregular shapes. You can use the finer table salt, it wont change the flavour, but you will need a lot more and in my opinion its harder to measure the right quantity but remember: Im doing this on almost daily basis, so Im working out of habit here. You my find that for you its easier to get the right quantity of salt by using table salt. The right quantity of salt is a personal taste affair, experiment until you find yours. Why waiting until the water boils to add salt? Because salted water takes longer to reach the boiling point . Adding salt right away wont affect the final flavour, but it will lengthen the time to reach the boiling point. After adding salt, wait half a minute, then put the pasta in . Put the p asta in the water when it boils , not before, or you will ruin it!Wait for the cooking time indicated on the package, stir the pasta often to avoid it gluing to the surface of the pot. Now, cooking pasta is simple and there are no secrets in it. But there is one trick . Pasta is like a sponge: it absorbs the fluid in which its immersed. Cooking it immersed in water is ok, but cooking it immersed in the sauce is better! It will be flavoured by the sauce from the inside . So heres the trick: one minute before the cooking time is over pour one or two table spoons of cooking water from the pot in the pan where you are heating the sauce, then strain the pasta out of the water and pour it in the pan , mixing it with the sauce and ending the cooking time in there. Let it heat for a minute, a minute and a half, then take the pan from heat and serve your pasta. Thats it: true Italian style pasta .

Now, the recipes of the sauces . The first one is a classic: tomato sauce . Youll need:

Put a table spoon of oil in a frying pan, add tomato sauce, a hint of pepper or finely minced chilli pepper, let it heat for 5-6 minutes stirring from time to time, pour the pasta in the pan, keep cooking for a minute more. When its ready, take out from heat, add a few leaves of basil and serve. Of course you will be heating the sauce while the pasta is cooking in the boiling water.

The second one is zucchini and shrimps . Youll need:

Put a table spoon of oil in a frying pan, add the zucchini, the shrimps (without shells) and spray lightly with pepper. Let cook on low fire for 10 minutes stirring from time to time, then add the pasta and keep heating for a minute more, stirring the mix. When its ready, take out from heat and serve.

There you are. Original Italian pasta .

To save time I usually prepare the sauce and start heating it while I wait for the water to boil and for the cooking time to be over. You can also prepare a variety of sauces in advance and freeze them , taking them out of the freezer when you need them, letting them unfreeze naturally or microwaving them, then heating in the pan while the pasta is cooking up. You can also use industrial made sauces, theres nothing wrong in that. Remember: the only trick is to heat the sauce in a pan, cook the pasta one minute less than suggested, then pour it along with a couple spoons of cooking water in the pan and finish cooking the sauce and the pasta together in the pan .

Buon appetito!

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