How does the food we eat give us energy? From the anti-inflammatory benefits of a garlic-rich diet to the digestive impact of oatmeal and berries, understanding nutrient synergy is the foundation of an effective detox diet.
Severely restricting your calorie intake for fast weight loss causes your body to go into "starvation mode," which means your metabolism slows because it's not getting enough calories. If you've fallen prey to a low-calorie fad diet and fear your weight-loss rate has plummeted because of it, there is hope.
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Sweet and acidic, rice vinegar has a mild flavor and is most commonly used in Asian-style dishes such as sushi rice or sweet and sour dishes.
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Simple sugars are known as "monosaccharides," and are a carbohydrate found in may different foods, according to the Elements Database website. Simple sugars are digested quickly by the body because there are typically fewer nutrients for them to break down. Simple sugars include glucose, fructose and galactose.
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Vegetable glycerin, also called glycerol, is made from soybean, coconut or palm oil, so it contains no animal products. Glycerin is used to keep foods moist, help mix oil- and water-based ingredients and sweeten foods. It also has some medical uses and may have some beneficial effects on hydration during exercise.
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Eliminating meat from your diet might help lower your risk for certain health conditions and make it easier to get the recommended amounts of different nutrients. Healthy diets limit lean meat and skinless poultry to no more than 6 ounces per day, according to BreastCancer.
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Garlic not only makes food delicious, it may also have a number of health benefits. Some of these benefits are more likely if you eat your garlic raw, since cooking it may reduce the amounts of certain chemicals garlic contains.
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Everyone experiences gas at one time or another. Gas in the digestive tract can cause abdominal pain, discomfort, flatulence and burping. Most people experience mild symptoms related to gas, which is normal. Others have an intolerance to complex carbohydrates.
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Having high cholesterol can increase your risk for heart disease and stroke. While medications can help lower your low-density lipoprotein, or "bad" cholesterol, you can also make changes in your diet and exercise habits to lower your LDL levels.
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Plant sterols provide one primary benefit: They help lower cholesterol. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute reports that adding 2 grams of plant sterols to your daily diet may lower cholesterol by 5 to 15 percent. The challenge is getting enough sterols in your diet to have an impact.
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Not everyone can thrive eating carrot juice, soaked cashews and non-fat yogurt alone. If you enjoy digging into a good steak and a baked potato, you can still trim down a few pounds by rounding out your diet and keeping your portions reasonable. The U.S.
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Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that can improve mood, enhance sleep and reduce the sensation of pain. It's difficult to boost serotonin levels with diet alone, because foods affect different people in different ways. However, it's possible to boost the production of serotonin in the brain by eating specific foods.
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When you think of the health benefits of watermelon, the seeds probably don't come to mind. You probably think about the sweet, juicy pulp, with the seeds an afterthought and maybe good only for spitting contests.
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Other than being a recognizable brand name, Knox gelatin is no different than any other flavorless gelatin made from the collagen in animals. As a source of collagen, Knox gelatin has been touted to help in the treatment of arthritis, but there's no evidence to support such claims.
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Sodium bicarbonate and bicarbonate of soda are one in the same -- you may know it better as baking soda. This chemical compound has uses that go beyond acting as a leavening agent in your baked goods. It's a safe ingredient in food, but if you're using it as medicine, talk to your doctor.
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Since 1995, the South Beach diet has served as an alternative to other popular low-carb diets. This diet differs from the others because it not only restricts your carb intake, it also encourages you to make healthy protein choices and to limit your intake of saturated fat.
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Whether you love mouth-puckering sourness or prefer a slightly sour sensation, the intense flavor of sour candy comes from organic acids. While there are at least eight different acids used in sour candy, the four most common are citric, malic, tartaric and fumaric acids.
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The idea behind the Anti-Estrogenic diet is that high levels of estrogen increase your risk for hormone-related conditions, such as fibroids, menopausal symptoms, premenstrual syndrome, endometriosis and cancer.
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A caffeine withdrawal headache usually begins within 18 hours of reducing or eliminating caffeine from the diet, according to the National Headache Foundation. That headache is the worst about three to six hours after it begins and is usually completely gone without seven days.
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Eating a diet higher in nonacidic foods than acidic foods can benefit your health since it means you'll be consuming a diet higher in fruits and vegetables and lower in sodium. Reducing the total acid in your diet may help prevent chronic disease such as cancer, osteoporosis, hypertension and stroke.
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Bergamot is commonly used to make Earl Grey tea, which is composed of black tea and bergamot oil. The oil is extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange -- a citrus fruit native to Italy -- giving Earl Grey its characteristic flavor. As with other teas, it's likely safe for healthy adults.
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