Archive for July, 2009

Food Intolerance Can Prevent Weight Loss

Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 8:24 pm  
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Having trouble losing weight or just not as healthy as you think that you should be? Could the foods that you are eating be stopping you from losing weight or just simply causing you major discomfort every time that you eat?

It is amazing just how many foods can cause health problems for some people, but have absolutely no effect on other people. The big problem is trying to work out what (if any) health problems are being caused by food intolerance.

Food intolerance can take the form of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (sorry, perhaps you would prefer the initials IBS), headaches, itchy skin, abdominal pains or bloating. And they are just a few of the more common symptoms! Sure, they may be caused by other health problems, but imagine (if you can) the relief for the sufferer if it could be determined that their major health problem was solely due to a particular type of food that they ate regularly.

Fortunately there is now available a simple two stage food intolerance test that could identify foods contributing to these problems – and it only requires a “simple” prick of the finger to get a blood sample. Yes – probably a lot easier to say than to do, but again, think of the possible benefits from only one second of discomfort; discomfort that is a lot easier to live with than some of the problems listed above.

Food intolerance testing is now simple. How simple? Just 2 or 3 drops of blood could provide relief from your problems quickly and easily. But, best of all, you can take the blood sample in your own home. This test will tell you if a food intolerance exists or not. From there, if required, a second series of tests will test for intolerance to 113 individual foods to determine what could be causing the problem. What have you got to lose? More importantly, what have you got to gain?

Only your health. Oh yes – and you will be able to get your diet back on track again.

© 2009 www.LastDietUTry.com

Aspartame as a Diet Sweetener?

Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 10:37 am  
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The short answer is NO. Ensure that none of the foods that you eat while dieting contain Aspartame. Putting it very briefly, Aspartame will slow down your weight loss and could even prevent you from losing weight.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener (of the non-saccharide type for those interested in the chemical side of it). It is known in Europe as the additive E951, but is probably better known around the world as Canderel, NutraSweet or Equal, to mention just a few trade-names. It is used in over 6,000 foods and beverages world-wide including some so-called diet products.

The Chemical Technical Stuff

As Aspartame is chemically manufactured, it can be produced to meet different requirements. This generally means altering the pH of the final product. (pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is.) Aspartame is most stable at a pH of 4.3 where it has a half-life of around 300 days. This can be taken to mean that after 300 days, half of it has disintegrated into other components and is no longer recognised as Aspartame. When manufactured with a pH of 7, the half-life reduces to only a few days.

When used in “diet” soft-drinks, it generally has a pH of between 3 and 5.

Aspartame was discovered (by accident) in 1965, but it was not until 1994 (in Europe) and 1996 (in the USA) that it was given full unrestricted approval for use in all foods.

When consumed, it breaks down into (to list the main chemicals in no particular order) methanol, aspartic acid, formic acid, formaldehyde and phenylalanine.

What It Does

In a typical situation, Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than natural sugar without the energy value. This means that used as a sweetener replacement it has a very low number of calories which is one reason why it has become popular as a diet-food additive. However, it has now been show to inhibit weight-loss!

Another important point is that the high levels of phenylalanine produced in the body when Aspartame breaks down is a recognised health hazard to sufferers of phenylketonuria .

As Aspartame breaks down inside the body, its components can travel anywhere in the body and be deposited anywhere in the body. Currently 92 reactions to and side-effects of Aspartame have been identified including decreased night vision, problems with contact lenses, hearing problems, dizziness, slurring of speech and ulcers.

Oh, did I mention that in some situations E. coli that has been genetically modified is used in the manufacture of Aspartame?

Well, I have now.

© 2009 LastDietUTry