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Almost everyone has attempted to follow diets and weight loss programs at some time in their lives. The trouble with so many diets and low fat diets is that they are hard to follow. Some diets leave you hungry and craving food all the time. A healthy diet is one that you feel good about following and encourages you to eat in a healthy way while at the same time reducing the overall calorie content.

When choosing from among the many diets available, keep in mind what your reason is for altering your eating and exercise habits.

Do you want to feel better and have some more energy?

Are you tired of not fitting into your clothes and that has caused you to consider one of the weight loss diets?

Experts agree that it’s not good to try and loose excess weight in a quick manner. It’s better to take your time and incorporate a package of exercise, proper nutrition and, in general, balance.

As with all new diets, weight loss and exercise plans, it’s always best to consult with your physician and have a complete physical examination before starting.

There are many different diets products to choose from. Choose from only the best providers of coral calcium products that offer great prices. That way you’ll be guaranteed quality and they can even be shipped right to your door.

There are so many diet fads going around today it is hard to find diets that work. When you say a diet works it means that you lose weight and keep the weight off. However, some creators of diets are under the assumption that a diet works if you are able to lose a few pounds. However, this does not necessarily mean that it works completely. This is something people should understand when they are looking for diets that work. They need to look for diets that produce long-term results not just short-term immediate results.

Diets that work are really hard to find. The common mistake that most dieters make is that they are looking for diets that will enable them to lose a great amount of weight quickly and easily. There is one thing that they fail to realize; dieting is never quick and easy. Dieting always takes a long time and great deal of effort on the part of the dieter. Those diets that promise that you will lose a lot of weight in a short period of time are just fad diets. If you follow these diets you will usually gain back the lost weight plus more.

The diets that work are the diets that require a great deal of commitment. These diets are those that promise that you should lose about one to two pounds a week, not those that claim that you can lose ten pounds in the first week. The diets that work are the ones that teach you how to eat right and how to keep off those unwanted pounds once you discontinue the diet. If you need to remain on a diet even after you have lost the desired amount of weight then that is not a diet that works. It may take some time before you find a diet that works for you and you might need to experiment with a combination of a couple of diets in order to shed those unwanted pounds.

The easiest thing to remember about low-fat diets is that you can follow one just by adhering to the famous food pyramid that appears on many grocery store labels. The food pyramid is the number of servings from each foods group that the United States Department of Agriculture recommends for a healthy diet. The tip of the pyramid is fat, which you are instructed to use sparingly. If you do that, you’re following one of many low fat diets.

Low-fat diets are what most physicians have encouraged their patients to follow for decades. However, proponents of high-protein diets like Atkns, the Zone and South Beach, say that low-fat diets, often high in carbohydrates, actually make you fatter and less healthy.

Both may be right, because most nutrition experts will say that not every carbohydrate is good for you and neither is every fat. Some health care professionals will now tell you to follow low fat diets but watch your sugar intake when eating the up to 11 servings of carbs that the food pyramid recommends each day.

Some of the most popular low-fat diets include Pritikin, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem and Fit for Life. All of the diets allow you to eat pasta, breads, grains, fresh vegetables and fruits. The focus is cutting out fatty foods like butter, fatty beef and cheese out of your diet, and eating more complex carbohydrates. Sugar is also out when you follow low-fat diets.

The anti-low fat diets crowd says that the evidence that it doesn’t work is the plethora of fat-free products on the market and the increase in fat people. Americans are fatter than ever, but studies have found they eat much larger portions than they need of just about every food. It may not be the fault of following low fat diets alone.

If you have never followed any of the high-fat diets, you’ll find it to be simple. Just eat 8-11 servings of carbohydrates a day, 3-6 servings of vegetables, 2-4 servings of fruits, 2-3 servings of dairy products and 2-3 servings of meat. Avoid fats, oils and sugar when trying low-fat diets.

Low carbohydrate diets have become quite popular in recent years. Many low carb diets have been put on the market and many people have used them. But what are the true results?

Despite the growing popularity of low carb diets, the dismal statistics remains: 95% of all people who go on diets fail. And why is that so? Why do low carb diets fail in high numbers?

Low carb diets became popular because they promised a fast fat loss. And they did deliver on that promise, but what the marketers of low carb diets didn’t tell the public was that this weight loss will be short termed only.

The reason why any weight loss from low carb diets will be short termed is that low carb diets is just a fancy name for Starvation Diets. Of course you lose weight if you eat a small amount of carbs. That’s because you’re naturally cutting down on the amount of calories you eat and so you lose weight. Initially.

What happens to your metabolism ensures that you will not be able to lose weight in the long run.

You see, your metabolism adjusts to the amount of calories you eat and slows itself down to that level. When you go on a low carb diet, your metabolism is initially high. You reduce your calorie intake so you lose weight. But then your metabolism slows down and you stop losing weight even though you’re still eating that reduced amount of calories.

Another thing which is bad about low carb diets is that it’s hard to keep at them for a long time. Why? Try to imagine eating no carbs or very little of them. Sure, you can pull it off for a while. But not for long. When you stop being on that diet what happens? Your metabolism is still slow but now you’re eating carbs again. What happens is that now you gain back all the weight that you lost and more.

That’s why if you’re using a low carb diet, you’re doomed to fail.

What you should do is follow a diet which lets you eat a reasonable amount of calories of all food groups and use the Shifting Calories method to keep your metabolism running high. Then you’ll succeed in losing weight and maintaining your weight loss for a long time.

Low carb diets, such as Atkins, are very popular and get a lot of discussion and publicity. This is despite the fact that statistics studies state that 95% of diets fail dismally. 95% of the people end up gaining back all the weight that they’ve lost and even more, so they end up fatter than they were to begin with. Why does that happen? Why do these diets which seem so promising end up failing? Why do they work for a while and then seem to stop?

The most important question, though, is why is it so hard to stick to these low carb diets for a long time?

I mean, if you could stick to these diets for a long time, you wouldn’t end up gaining weight back. But it’s virtaully impossible to do that due to the depriving nature of these diets. If you truly believe that you can eat as little carb calories as these diets dictate (The Atkins diet allows you 20 grams of carbs a day during its 1st phase), then go for it. Most people want to lose diet without starving themselves, and eating so little carbs is starvation. And most people don’t want to spend months without eating carbs. It is also extremely difficult.

The thing which is most detrimental in low carb diets to your long term weight loss is the effect such diets have on your metabolism. Since these diets are basically deprivation diets, your metabolism believes that you’re starving and slows itself down to burn less and less fat and calories. That’s why the weight loss rate in such diets slows down as time goes by. Once you stop eating low carb meals, your metabolism is so low that your fat deposits and weight shoot up.

A good diet allows you to eat a reasonable amount of food and does not deprive you of any food group like carbs. That’s why the Shifting Calories method was created: to find a way to lose weight without depriving your body and starving you. Low carb diets may provide a short term solution, but in the long run may lead you to failure.

The Calorie Shifting diet, better known as the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet, has become very popular all around the world. Why did this diet become so popular? What makes it so successful? And the most important question: Why is this diet better than other diets?

Most of the diets on the market today are basically deprivation diets marketed under different names. The various low carb, low fat, or low calorie diets, which were so popular in the 90’s and early in this decade, held great promise but for many turned out to be a grave disappointment. The statistics state that over 95% of diets fail. This happens because deprivation diets cause your metabolism to slow down and they are also extremely hard to stick to for a long time.

The reason why your metabolism slows down when you go on a deprivation diet is that, on a biological level, your body believes it is starving. Your metabolism slows done in order to burn less and less calories. That’s why so many deprivation diets provide short termed initial weight loss but not a long termed one. After a while you simply stop losing weight.

The reason why it’s so hard to stick to these diets for a long time is that they just starve you. How long can you avoid eating carbs or eat very little of them? It’s unnatural, and most people break sooner than later. The road to gain back all the weight you lost is very short from that point.

The Calorie Shifting Diet (Fat Loss 4 Idiots) is different because the weight loss isn’t based on deprivation. You eat a balanced menu of 4 meals a day. You lose weight by constantly shifting the types of calories you eat. This keeps your metabolism running high at all times and burning more and more fat. Because you eat 4 meals a day, you never starve and it’s easy to stick to for a long time. Because your metabolism remains high, your weight loss rate remains steady over time. You get a fast and continuous fat loss.

For Black men, who already feel imperiled, there is yet another sobering wake-up call — prostate cancel: “More Black men get the disease, and more Black men die from the disease,” warns Harry Belafonte, the celebrated singer and entertainer; who went public last year on national television. Before Belafonte learned he had prostate cancer, he recalls, “Somehow I felt quite omnipotent. Just untouchable. And then when my doctors told me I had it, it gave me a huge pause to focus in on what that really meant.”

Sidney Poitier, world-renowned actor; Marion Barry, mayor of Washington, D.C., and former civil rights activist Kwame Toure (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) are living with this malignancy. Sadly, Robert Johnson, well-known executive editor of Jet magazine, died of the disease a few years ago. Such tragedies strike close to home, and we wonder about our own risk. Unluckily, prostate cancer; like scores of other health problems, disproportionately strikes African-American men.

Black men, rich and poor, are dying at alarming rates from this treatable cancer. The “sex gland” cancer’s impact on our families and communities is far-reaching. It exacts a heavy toll in grief, pain and hardship. Most Black people have a relative or friend living with this illness–or one who has died from it. And no wonder: According to the American Cancer Society, Black Americans have the highest prostate cancer rate in the world.

Over the past 25 years, the incidence in Black men has doubled. The rate of prostate cancer is about 37 percent higher in African-American men than in Whites, and they are more likely to develop the illness at an earlier age. More than 6,000 Black men die each year from prostate cancer, a rate that is rising–a shocking reminder that we are at particularly high risk for tumors of a gland that most Black men know little about. One man, who at age 75 learned he had prostate cancer, recalled that it was the first time he had ever heard of “this prostate gland.”

It is not surprising that considerable ignorance exists among Black men about prostate cancer. Until recently, health programs have done little to educate the Black community about this killer disease. As a result, too few go for regular checkups when early detection of a prostate tumor increases the chances for successful treatment. Black men’s life expectancy is already shorter than it should be due to high rates of heart disease, stroke, homicide and AIDS. The risk of prostate cancer is yet another reason Black men must become more conscientious about their health care.

Many Black men diagnosed with prostate cancer report that ignorance and “macho” attitudes deterred them from medical checkups that included a digital rectal exam and routine blood screening. Dr. Richard Majors, a Black psychologist, put it bluntly: “Many Black men feel that it’s one thing to go to the doctor; but it’s another thing to have somebody stick something in your behind.” One man told a reporter he’d “rather die than have a test for prostate cancer.”

To some males, a psychological stigma surrounds this cancer, often stemming from misconceptions. For instance, Phillip Gant, a Chicago prostate cancer survivor and support group leader; reports that many Black men believe this cancer is “a venereal or other communicable disease that has sexual connotations.” He observes that wives and girlfriends who believe such myths shun their partners from fear of “catching” the illness. A number of men and their families feel such a stigma about cancer that they never reveal the diagnosis to anyone, even after the person’s death.

Fear and embarrassment about a disease that includes the genital area run-deep. While women are accustomed to rectal exams during routine pelvic exams and childbirth, men are not. Though there is no reason to feel their masculinity is threatened by a complete physical examination, many men do. Others avoid checkups even when symptoms are present because they expect pain to accompany cancer. Harry Harris, in a Time-Life Medical video, explains: “When I was told I had prostate cancer, I said, `Wow. Do I? I don’t feel anything. How do you know?’ I had not experienced any pain whatsoever…none.”

Too many Black men stubbornly deny their risk for cancer. A campaign to overcome apathy and increase awareness of prostate cancer is overdue. African-American men, both young and old, need to become knowledgeable about the prostate gland.

The prostate gland is located just below the bladder. It is a walnut-shaped gland, approximately the size of a chestnut. It surrounds the base of the urethra (the tube that carries urine and semen through the penis). The prostate plays a role in sexual function by supplying part of the seminal fluid needed for ejaculation.

Non-cancerous conditions can also affect the prostate. Symptoms such as pain and urinary problems can develop from infections or from an enlarged prostate, particularly in older men. These illnesses require medical treatment but are usually not life-threatening. On the other hand, prostate cancer can kill if uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells spreads to nearby tissue and throughout the body.

A VICIOUS serial killer with a preference for Black men is stalking the nation’s males with a deadly efficiency that makes the most notorious mass murderers look like amateurs. Dubbed “the silent enemy” because there is no prior warning, the killer preys largely on men “in the prime of fife.” Experts in tracking the killer warn that if you are a Black male and 40 years old if older, the next victim could easily be YOU!

Each year, prostate cancer, the killer disease, claims the lives of some 30,000 men nationwide, with Black men dying at a rate that’s three times higher than that of their White counterparts. If the killer disease isn’t stopped, medical experts predict, its toll will rise substantially in the years to come due to the increasingly age of the U.S. population.

So much for the bad news.

The good news is that prostate cancer can be stopped provided its potential victims cooperate. To cooperate, says Dr. Terry Mason, a prominent Chicago urologist, men age 40 and older need to do no more an submit to at least one medical prostate check each year in order to detect the presence of cancer in its earliest, most treatable stage. But there’s the rub. For a variety of reasons, men have been studiously avoiding to do the right thing, some because of the indelicate nature of a rectal examination via a physician’s educated, rubber-gloved finger, some because of fear of what the examination might reveal and some because of indifference or ignorance.

The situation is exacerbated, Dr. Mason says, by the fact that early prostate cancer produces absolutely no symptoms. “You don’t need to feel anything to know that there’s a problem,” he explains. “That’s why it is so hard to get men to deal with this. Black men in particular only come to doctors when bones are sticking out, when they are bleeding all over the place or when they feel so bad that it seems they can’t make it anymore.”

The result of this pervasive neglect has been a tragic, unnecessary waste of lives since some of the more overt symptoms of the disease — blood in the urine, painful and frequent urinating or the inability to urinate at all — often surface only after it is too late. Too late, Dr. Mason explains, means that the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland and invaded other parts of the body.

A great deal of what causes the walnut-size gland at the base of the urinary tube that produces much of the semen to become cancerous is still every doctor’s guess. Unlike several other types of cancer, prostate cancer has no known cause or trigger, such as smoking in the case of lung cancer, and no specific dietary or environmental links have been positively identified. That means that at the present there is not much men can do, or stop doing, to minimize the risk of developing the disease. Another characteristic that distinguishes prostate cancer from other cancers is the fact that it can lie dormant for years without producing any symptoms or health problems whatsoever until one day — for no known reason — it may strike.

While Black men, according to the American Cancer Society, have the highest incidence of prostate cancer of any racial or ethnic group in the United States (1 out of 9 for Blacks, compared with 1 out of 11 for Whites), the reasons for this disparity are still shrouded in mystery. “The urology section of the National Medical Association is taking a very hard look and trying to identify what may be some of the factors,” says Dr. Mason, “but we’re not yet sure. Some people think that high fat diets might be implicated. it definitely appears that prostate cancer runs in families, much like diabetes. There are even some suggestions that if you have a living female relative who had breast cancer, there may be a higher incidence for you to develop prostate cancer. But none of it has been totally proven.”

Some researchers attribute the higher prostate cancer rate among Blacks to economic factors rather than race per se, pointing out that there is also a strong correlation between prostate cancer and poverty. Poor people, they say, all too often lack health information, health insurance and thus access to proper health care facilities, and, as a result, fall victim to life-threatening diseases that routine health examinations by a physician could have easily prevented.

Since physicians’ success in stopping prostate cancer before it kills depends entirely on early detection, science has developed new diagnostic tools that substantially supplement the digital examination. Doctors report that these new tests have dramatically increased their ability to detect cancers while they are still curable. One of these relatively new diagnostic methods is a blood test that measures levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced exclusively in the prostate gland. Elevated PSA levels in the bloodstream may indicate the presence of cancer cells in the prostate long before they have spread to other parts of the body. Another new diagnostic tool is the transrectal ultrasound, which employs ultrasound waves that make the size and shape of the prostate visible on a screen, and can pinpoint suspicious areas without the use of surgery. Each of these tests is relatively simple to administer and takes only a few minutes.

He has prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease, a broken hip and pelvic bone. He calls it a crusade simply to mount the podium. But 86-year-old Billy Graham led a three-day crusade at Flushing Meadows in Queens, 48 years after his first New York City crusade in Madison Square Garden. He said, as he has been saying for all those years, “Prepare to meet your God,” and “God loves you.” The admonition, and the promise.

When he first came to New York, Graham’s brand of Protestantism seemed beleaguered in an ocean of Catholics and Jews. It is still a minority, but it is a lively one, including many Africans, Koreans, and Chinese. Surely it is the end of the line, or near it, for Graham. But not for revivalism. As Garry Wills wrote in Under God, “Nothing has been more stable in our history, nothing less budgeable, than religious belief and practice. Religion does not shift or waver; the attention of its observers does…. Revival is, like respiration, the condition of its life.”

Six years ago, Amy Burman and Gerry Wadsworth were used to growing peas, parsnips, spinach and other cold-hardy crops in their native Connecticut.

But since moving to Richmond, Va., they’ve made organic tomatoes their crop of choice–in part because of Virginia’s longer growing season, and in part because of tomatoes’ surprising health benefits.

“Some years ago, I read that tomatoes were good for your prostate, so I started growing and eating as many as I could,” says Wadsworth. But it wasn’t until relatively recently that more specific health benefits of tomatoes have surfaced.

As early as 1995, researchers at the Harvard Medical School found that men who eat at least 10 servings of tomatoes or tomato-based products per week are 33 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who never eat tomatoes.

A review of 72 different studies published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in February 1999 identified the reason: lycopene.

Lycopene is a red pigment that’s also found in watermelons, papayas and pink grapefruit. Studies show that lycopene is a more powerful antioxidant than beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and vitamin E. And while cooking often saps fruits and vegetables of their nutrients, the exact opposite is true of lycopene. Two and a half times the lycopene is found in the body after eating tomato sauce than after eating fresh tomatoes.

Combine these facts with the simple reality that “conventional tomatoes are just awful,” according to Burman, and it’s no wonder she and her husband are such avid organic gardeners.

“Eating is one of the last legal pleasures,” adds Wadsworth. “So you might as well enjoy it and have some control over what you eat.”

FAVORITE TOMATO: Oxheart.

HOW TO PLANT: Well-drained soil amended with organic humus. Raised beds generally drain better, and are easier to work in. Use companion plants such as marigolds, nasturtiums or rosemary to keep insects away.

WHY ORGANIC IS BETTER: Better taste, no pesticides, more nutrients. Organic tomatoes have almost five times the calcium, three times the potassium and nearly 2,000 times the iron of commercially grown tomatoes.

FAVORITE TOMATO RECIPE:
2-3 organic tomatoes, diced
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
4-5 oz. fresh mozzarella
cheese, cubed
Handful of fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine ingredients.

2. Marinate at room temperature for
two hours.

3. Spoon over freshly cooked pasta.

4. “Enjoy,” says the duo.