Delicious but useless January 31, 2010

In my last post I wrote about the Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate Diet, and this week I have been trying it out. I must say, that this is one of the most delicious diets I have been on. The breakfast which consisted of wheat muesli with strawberries was simply optimal. And the fact that you were allowed to eat popcorn and chocolate really gave this diet a few extra points.

The only down-side of this diet is the constant eating of pasta dishes which really becomes monotonous after the third day. There is only so much you can do with pasta and low-fat dressings. Though the pasta part of the diet annoyed me, I must say, that I never felt hungry. Because of the many snacks with popcorn and fruit, I never felt like I was forcing myself to be on this diet. I actually enjoyed it.

I still think that this diet is too good to be true though. I cannot imagine how your healt could benefit in any way by the use of this diet. The high level of carbs and starch gives me doubts, and any diet that comes with warnings of maximum duration (1 week) basically cannot be optimal.

The Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate Diet is a fun, but useless diet. If you are going for weightloss and healthy lifestyles, this diet is not for you. But if you are just looking for a fun project or a change in diet, I can recommend it. It is fairly easy to keep, and as I said, the breakfast ist unbeatable.

If you have ever tried the Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate Diet, please comment and tell me about your experiences and what you think about it.

The Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate Diet January 24, 2010

  

You, my dear readers, may have frowned when you read the title of this diet, just as I did when I first heard about it. It pretty much sounds preposterous that these 3 main components of the diet, namely pasta, popcorn and chocolate, can in any way be included in a diet. It goes against everything nutritionists and the media has been telling us about what a healthy diet should consist of. This diet just sounds too good to be true.

The Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate diet, also called The Chocolate diet, was invented by film maker and screen writer Lenny Neimark. His book, that was just 32 pages long, was published in 1999. A few years later in 2001 Sally Ann Voak a British journalist also wrote about the diet in her book “The Chocolate Diet“.

The diet was first catagorized as beeing  just a silly hoax, but it quickly gained a lot of popularity – specially in 2007 when it became out-of-print. Despite of the controversial name and content, this diet was proven effective both by doctors and to a large degree by the fans.

The plan

According to the The Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate Diet you must follow basically the same diet plan every day. You may alter the diet a little bit by using different dressings on your salads and pasta and by eating different fruits and vegetables.

Breakfast
For breakfast you may eat fresh fruit and shredded wheat with skimmed or non-fat milk and strawberries. The recommended fruits are apples, pears, grapes and oranges - remember no bananas. You are allowed to substitute the milk with fresh orange juice, if you want a change.

Forenoon snack
At the forenoon snack around 11 am you may eat sweet popcorn and fresh fruit. 

Lunch
At lunch you may eat salad with low-calorie dressing, spaghetti, and pasta salad eg. with tomato sauce.

Afternoon Snack
At about 3 pm you may have a fruit smoothie, vegetable sticks and sweet popcorn. A recommended recepie for the smoothie consists of half a frozen banana, half a cup of frozen peaches, and half a cup of skimmed milk.

Dinner
For dinner you may eat steamed vegetables, salad, and fettuccini with tomato sauce.

Evening Snack
As an evening snack around 7 pm you may eat up to an ounce of chocolate (28.3 grams) and sweet popcorn.

The forbidden stuff

During the diet there are also food that should be avoided. You should not eat or drink alcoholic beverages, salt or sodium-rich foods, red meat, sugar, oil, nuts and seeds, high sugar or calorie fruits eg. bananas and figs, dairy products and caffeine.

For health reasons you should not keep this diet for more than a week. Inbetween the diet experiences there should be a break of at least 2 months.

So this week I will be trying out the famous Pasta-Popcorn-Chocolate diet, and I am very excited. If you have ever been on this diet or are interested in it, please write me a comment. Next week I will let you know how it all went..

Whats your type? January 16, 2010

Like I wrote in my last post, I have become a big fan of the blood type diet. It is very appealing to me, because it is all based on science and human biology. This diet doesnt just give you a specific diet plan to follow. But it tells you directly what you should avoid and why, and gives you advise on which foods will benefit your body.

I have the blood type 0, and the last week I have tried to follow the recommendations of the blood group diet. You are suposed to follow the diet at least 4 weeks to clean your body, but after 1 week I already feel better. I have been eating a lot more meat than I normally do, and I have tried to avoid wheat (which is very diffucult). I will continue to follow this diet, and see how it makes me feel.

I can truely recommend this diet to everyone. Not only to people who just want to loose weight, but also to people who are interested in their over-all heath and well-being. To read more about this diet please follow this link.

The Blood Type Diet January 8, 2010

I have read the book “Eat Right 4 Your Type” written by Dr. D’Adamo about the blood type diet, and have become a huge fan of it. I almost could’nt stop reading and I felt so inspired. Normally I only write about the different diets in my posts, but this diet is so comprehensive that I decided to put all the details on a page for you.

According to this diet, your blood type determines what food you should eat in order to satisfy the needs of your body. When you only eat food that is benificiary to your body, you can optimize your immunesystem, metabolism, digestion, and your general well-being.

Each blood types react differntly to special kind of food groups. One food can be beneficial to a person with one blood type, while for a person with an other blood type it is like poison to the body. The reason for this is the chemical reaction that happens when you eat food containing protein lectins that are incompatible with your blood type antigen. That is, when you eat food with a specific lectin that does not fit to your blood type, your body sees it as a foreign material and tries to neutralize it. So some foods are beneficial, and can even work as medicine for your body, while others are neutral and even poisonos to your body.

The 4 Blood Types

The four blood types are 0, A, B and AB. These blood types have a very different history and purpuse and thus a different genetic base that react different on some lectins. Blood type 0 is the oldest blood type. People with blood type 0 derive from the hunters, and should eat more meat. Later type A developed when we became farmers. People with type A were the first vegetarians. Later type B developed. The optimal diet for people with type B is a combination of animal and vegetable food. The newest developed blood type is type AB, who shares characteristics with both type A and type B.

If you want to know more about this diet, please follow this link to my page with more detailed descriptions of the history, the diet, and other recommendations.

Stupid Cabbage soup diet December 20, 2009

 In my last post I wrote about the Cabbage Soup Diet. And this week I have tried to follow it. Well just from the word “tried” and the head line, you may guess that I was not particularly comfortable with this diet, to put in nicely. I only cooked the soup once, and it took forever! It did taste allright though, but I just couldn’t get my self to spend another 3 hours in the kitchen in order to have enough for the entire week. Instead I ate some other soups, and tried to stick to the other parts of the diet.

Since I did not follow this diet properly I also didn’t exxperience the promised results. So I did a lot of research on how other people reacted to this diet. To my surprise many of then were positive. If you are interested in doing this diet, you should read about the stories of others first. Here is a link to just a few of then out there.. www.aboutcabbagesoupdiet.com/testimonial

Over christmas I will finish reading the book about my next diet about blood groups. And I am really excited about it. I wish you a very merry christmas, and a happy new year!

The Cabbage Soup Diet December 13, 2009

This diet is one of the most debated diets around. It is supposed to be the absolute best diet if you want to loose weight and cleanse your body fast, and it has millions of fans. But on the other had the diet also has many many critics, including me. But I have decided to give it a chance.

The rules

The Cabbage soup diet runs 7 days (More is not recommended!!), and then you should return to your normal eating habits. You must minimum make a 2 weeks break inbetween if you want to go on the diet again. Your main source of nutritiom is the Cabbage soup, which you must eat every day. You are allowed to eat as much of the allowed foods as you want – you are not supposed to hunger yourself. It is also recommended to take multi vitamins to supplement this diet.

Recepie of the Cabbage Soup:

6 large green onions, 2 green peppers, 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes, 3 carrots, 1 container mushrooms, 1 bunch of celery, half a head of cabbage, 1 package Lipton soup mix, 1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional), season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.

Slice onions, peppers, cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms into bite size piezes, and put it into the pot. Put in the wished spices and bullion. Then put in about 12 cups of water. Put the top on and let it cook by low heat for a long time – optimal 2 hours.

The Plan

Day one: You may only eat the soup and fruit. You may eat as much as you want, but bananas are not allowed! You should also drink a lot of water.

Day two: You may eat vegetables and soup. But no heavy vegetables like corn or peas, and no fruit! At dinner you should eat one big baked potato with butter.

Day three: You may eat soup, fruit, and vegetables. No baked potato.

Day four: You may eat up to 8 bananas and the cabbage soup. Also you may drink as much skim milk as you want.

Day five: You may eat up to 20 ounces of beef (chicken and fish also allowed) and up to 6 tomatoes. Drink a lot of water and eat the soup.

Day six: You may eat beef and vegetables and soup.

Day seven: You may eat brown rice, unsweetend fruit juice, vegetables, and soup.

Here we go..

I must admit I am not that enthusiastic about this diet. The anti-diet gene in me is giving me resistance. The fact that the soup itself takes such a long time to make is a mood-killer for me. But as I said, I will now try it out. So here it goes, wish me luck and strength.

A diet you can actually enjoy December 3, 2009

In my post from last week I talked about The Plate Diet. I have tried it out for more than a week now, and I must say I have become a big fan of the plate diet. I did not think that I would ever find a diet, that I could actually enjoy to be on. But I did!

The plate diet is so easy to follow. The rules are simple: for every meal you should eat 50 % vegetables, 25 % starch, and 25 % protein. Except for breakfat of cause. During the week I did not feel under pressure at all abour eating correct, and I did not feel that I had to eat things I didn’t want to. So I didnt cheat. Well a few times I did not have the possibility to eat that much vegetables, but I made up for it in the next meal then.

I do not think that I have lost weight, but well I was only on the diet for about a week. If you keep it up for longer, which is the point of the diet, I am very sure you will see results quickly. If you do not eat a lot of ice cream on the side like I tend to do.

This weekend I will be in London, so I will be on a fish & Chips diet a few days. Which may not be healthy or percieved as a diet at all – but delicious for sure! Furthermore, my mother-in-law recently just gave me a very interesting book about how your blood group can effect your need or tolerence for different foods. I will really look forward to getting informed on this diet, because I have never heard about anything like it. So till next week..

The Plate Diet November 28, 2009

A plate diet is a diet focused on portion control. There are many different plate diets, but what they all have in common is a clear portion division of vegetables, proteins, and starch on your plate. In the basic general model vegetables must fill half of the plate, your meat should fill one quarter, and your starch such as potatoes, rice and pasta should also fill one quarter. To the right you can se the a basic illustration of this idea.
 

So at each meal you can eat a full plate, and thus you will not go around feeling hungry all the time like you do on most other diets. You are also allowed to eat what ever food you like. There are no restrictions of food groups. Everything is allowed, as long as you portion it right. All stach foods are recommended to be high on fibers, while the meat should be lean.
The plate diets are recommended by many doctors and nutritionists. It is simple and easy to follow. There are several types of plate diets out there. One of the most popular ones is The Diet Plate®. The diet plate was the first portion control plate in the world invented in 1995 by Kay Illingworth. The company sells plates with special seperated areas for the different food groups. There are 3 plates designed and adjusted for the needs of women, men, children. Also a soup or cerial bowl is available.

Another plate diet is The Eatwell Plate from the Food Standrads Agency  from the United Kingdom. These plate portion regulations are similar to the others and is based on the 5 food groups. The groups are starch food, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, protein food, and foods high on fat. A full Eatwell Plate gives you the Governmental recommended supply of the nutrients required for a healthy life.

I will now try to follow the basic idea of the plate diets. I find this diet very approachable. It is simple and you do not constantly think about what you can eat and what not. Furthermore you do not hunger yourself, and your body gets all the nutrients and vitamins needed. The fact that this diet is recommended by so many people, also makes it more appealing. I send special thanks to C.Vestargaard who told me about the diet and her experience.

Spinach pizza, pesto and vegetable puré November 21, 2009

So this week I have been 100 % vegetarian And I have actually enjoyed it. I have been focusing on eating vegetarian dishes that I really love, like spinach pizza, cream potatoes, and pasta with pesto. And I can really recommend it, like this vegetable puré from my mothers recipe:

Vegetable puré (12 persons)

Boil all of the following vegetables cut in cubes for 15 minutes: 1,2 kilos potatoes, 4 carrots, 3 onions, 400 gram sellery. Then mush up the vegetables with 50 gram butter and 1 deciliter milk. Put in salt (ca. 4 teespoons) and pebber after taste. Add 4 eggs, and stirr good. Now bake it for 35 minutes at 200 degrees. It is soooo jummy!

I found this week pretty easy, but still I do not think that original vegetarianism is for me. I would miss fish too much. So maybe I could see myself as a semivegetarian, and just eat chicken and fish. I only eat other kinds of meat cirka once a month anyway. But also an occasional steak would be hard to give up. In the future I will try to eat less meat, and when I do feel like eating meat, I will definitely focus more on where it comes from when I have the choise.

Eventhough I will not be a vegetarian in the near future, I have definitely learned a lot this week. I have realised how many awesome vegetarian recepies there are out there, and I look forward to trying out more of them.

The fight against UTIs November 21, 2009

Bladder Infection, also called UTI (urinary tract infection), sucks! It is something that almost every women get at least once in their life. And it is a pain in the ass.. or actually someplace closeby. The reason for the infection are mostly a mysterium (NOT a lack of hygine like most think), and there is not much you can do about it. But after having suffered from it myself this week, I have done some further research on the matter.

Now I do not know if you could call it an actual diet, but here is a list of  foods that are reccomended when fighting or preventing bladder infections:

Cranberry Juice

Blueberries

Celery

Parsley

Watermelons

Probiotics

Vitamin C

 

The effect of cranberry juice or cranberry capsules is even scientificly proven. A specific kind of tannin is found in cranberries and blueberries, that prevents the bacterias from staying in the bladder. Celery, parsley, and watermelon help cleaning your system.

When suffering from bladder infection it is important to drink a lot of water. Also you should stay warm and wear warm clothings. And most importantly – take the antibiotics given by your doctor.