Health Articles Blog

Experts tell us that overweight or obese children have reached epidemic proportions. If you spend your childhood being obese then there is a very good chance you will spend your adulthood being obese. Our children could end up as adults facing problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and poor self esteem. These are problems we do not want our children to have to deal with.

How can help our kids reach their ideal weight and live a healthy lifestyle? First off, remember that your child did not become obese quickly nor will they reach their ideal weight quickly. Take a long term approach - healthy lifestyles develop slowly over time and remember that your kids watch you and learn - Some of your lifestyle habits may need to change during this process. If you are living an active healthy lifestyle it will make it much easier to teach your kids. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Limit the amount of time your child can watch television - Take a walk after dinner and don't turn the TV on until 8:00 pm.

Likewise, limit the video games and look into some of the new "active" video games such as dance dance revolution or ddr. These games allow your child to move while they play.

Remember to reinforce a good food choice or exercise with positive feedback.

Limit snacking and make available healthy snacks.

Keep tabs on whether or not your child is eating at a friends house or being exposed to food advertising away from home.

Keep only healthy foods in your house - eliminate temptation

I introduced in my last article the concept of intestinal health and detoxification of the body as key principles behind weight loss. I think to many people this will be common knowledge, and to many others it will be news. However even if you're au fait with the virtues of detoxing, it might be worth reading on to hear how I have detoxed myself.

Detoxing should be to my mind a gentle progressive procedure which we use to degunk our systems. Unfortunately modern living exposes us to so much junk, in every sense of the word, that we all really need to take steps to look after ourselves in this regard.

Now, I am really going to get technical here, because to my mind it cuts to the quick of the matter. There are all sorts of junk, non-foods basically, that we eat in our modern Western diets, things like trans-fats, which cause our bodies huge problems. But I will cover all this later. I want to speak right now about "adipogenesis". Adipogenesis is the formation of fatty tissues, and there is now scientific evidence coming out that the all the chemicals floating around our environment cause adipogenesis.

These chemicals are everywhere, washing powders, air fresheners, food preservatives, paints, etc etc etc. Many products these days are chemically treated, and the scary thing is that the chemicals used are fairly unregulated, so we have all sorts of things to which our bodies are now exposed. Now there seems to be a clear link between these chemicals, and our putting on weight.

One explanation for this is that when our bodies are exposed to high levels of toxins, our livers become unable to handle the load, and therefore the toxins are sent to a safe place in our bodies where they can do less damage. I.E rather than floating around our essential organs, they are sent to our fatty layers, where they are effectively stored until our body is able to process them. Of course if we are continually under toxic stress, then we will never process them, and we will just continue to put on weight.

Detoxification Diet works wonders

Every detoxification diet you will come across will have some differences from each other. Some programs may completely restrict intake of food, while others will advice you to eat nothing more than just fruits and vegetables. This is the usual scene once you begin with a detoxification diet program. Whichever you take, each one will take you towards the great benefits of being cleansed from the inside.

Your body is constantly bombarded by a multitude of toxins and other harmful substances, and it does its best just to flush these things out. With a detoxification diet, your body will receive a great deal of help in naturally eliminating these culprits. There may also be some side effects when you first try this cleansing program, like when you are used to drinking coffee every morning, then you will need to exert efforts just to withdraw from something you are used to doing, and that isn't easy. This may seem like a torture for most people, but this is just normal and symptoms of withdrawal will gradually subside. Once your body gets accustomed to the new routine, you will feel much better and more energized.

Fatigue and lethargy is often considered to be primarily caused by constipation. Undergoing a detoxification diet program will help cleanse the colon area, and can improve your symptoms of constipation. I once had this room mate who was regularly taking narcotic pain killers for more than a year because of a recent injury. It was this drug that made him constipated most of the time. The moment she finished with her medication on narcotic pain killers, she immediately tried getting into a detoxification diet. She experienced improvements in her health like getting rid of her narcotic dependency, and she does not experience being constipated anymore. She currently gets her colon cleansed and undergoes detoxification every time she had difficulty in bowel movements. She felt really cleansed from the inside and felt so much lighter after getting into a detoxification diet.

Normally children with weight problems also have brothers or sisters who are overweight and sometimes overweight parents. This is why you need to inspect your whole family when trying to deal with childhood obesity. Assuming you all eat together for most means then it could be that something is wrong with the food you're eating. It's impossible to solve weight issues with your children unless you get to the root of the problem. One way to ensure your child is eating healthily is to book them into weight loss camps for kids.

Many children are given too many freedoms these days and they are often allowed to choose the foods that they want to eat. A couple of generations ago kids were only allowed to eat whatever was on offer. Children were not able to choose what food was put on the table and didn't have as much access to unhealthy snacks.

A recent study found that a staggering 4 out of 5 families allows children to decide what the family want to eat. Healthily eating habits are more common when the family eat together regularly. If there are regular family means then it is much less likely that your children will become obese. A family meal isn't just a nice thing to have but it can also make your children much healthier!

Some other studies have suggested that children suffering from low self esteem may become obese, however many scientists have tried to find out whether low self esteem caused the child to put on weight, or whether they had low self esteem because they were obese. There are a number of teen weight loss camps which are designed to teach a teenager how they can control their weight.

Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard of the detox diet. It has been featured on television, on radio, and in news papers. Celebrities swear by it, online you can read testimonials from everyday average people that are using the detox diet (also known as the lemonade diet) to drop inches and pounds fast but can it work for you and is it even safe.

First I would like to say that using detoxification for weight loss is not a long term solution for someone who has 30 or more pounds to lose but you can use it to kick start your weight loss plan than follow a more traditional weight loss plan to lose the rest of the pounds. It can also be used if you have been on a traditional weight loss plan and have stopped losing weight as you get close to your goal weight sometimes the body can become very stubborn in dropping those last 10 pounds.

As for the safety of the detox diet you'll be taking in plenty of vitamins and minerals and pure water to keep your body hydrated. As always you should consult your family doctor. The reason the detox diet is so effective is the drink as mixture of lemons, organic maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.

Lemons have many health benefits such as improved digestion, high in vitamin C, can reduce the symptoms of heartburn, and lemons are a powerful antioxidant. Organic maple syrup contains minerals like potassium, magnesium, zinc, calcium, iron, and vitamin B2. Cayenne pepper can help stimulate the metabolism and promote healthy blood circulation.

Detoxification is something our bodies do on a daily basis. It is the process of eliminating toxins through the five eliminatory channels:

Liver

Colon

Lungs

Kidneys

Lymph

Skin

In the world we live in today, with polluted water, air and food, our bodies regularly get overloaded with substances that do not support our body - toxins! Our bodies become overloaded and are over-burdened with eliminating toxins. So many undesirable substances stay our bodies.

Surrounding these substances with mucous and fat is one way our system tries to shield us from these invading substances. a good portion is stored in our fat deposits!

A detoxification program is a good way of assisting our body to eliminate and neutralize these harmful toxins.

Let us look at the 5 organs for detoxification:

Liver

The liver is the largest internal organ in the body and plays a crucial role in maintaining normal metabolism and detoxifying the body.

Colon

Disease begins in the colon. The colon is responsible for both carrying wastes out of the body and nourishing the body. Nutrients are absorbed in the colon. So if your body is storing toxins and excess mucous they will be stuck to the intestinal walls of the colon. Making it very hard for your body to absorb the required nutrients and eliminate the wastes traveling through the colon.

Lungs

Your lungs are responsible for helping your body get the required oxygen it needs by processing the air we breathe. The lungs are one of the first organs to intake toxins. A cold is usually a sign that your body is trying to rid itself of toxins and waste matter that has built up to the point of overwhelming your immune system.

One of the main concerns about detoxification diets like the Master Cleanse lemonade detox diet is the effect they have on the body's metabolism. After all, detoxification diets always involve a period of fasting or not eating anything except for the detoxification diet for a relatively long period of time, typically ten days.

For people who are trying to lose weight through detoxification, this is especially a major concern. But to answer the question, during detoxification,what lowers your metabolism are the hunger pangs. Weight loss experts have always warned against skipping meals to lose weight; the hunger pangs that are incidental to habitually not eating proper meals makes your body go on "starvation mode".

During starvation mode, the body will keep all the calories in your body instead of burning them (thus lowering your metabolism. Since detox diets are "restrictive", meaning you won't be eating anything SOLID for a period of ten days, the trick to maintaining your metabolic rate is to drink plenty of water during detoxification (aside from drinking the lemonade recipe, for example), and to eat some foods that won't jeopardize the detoxification process.

How Detoxification Works To Jumpstart Weight Loss

Detoxification diets should NOT in any way be used for long-term weight loss. What detoxification diets can do is to jump start your weight loss by ridding your body of accumulated toxins and to condition your body to eat healthier.

During my time at a naturopathy center in the Philippines, I fasted for ten days using a packet mix of Selium Husk Bentonyte clay, apple pectin, ginger and pineapple juice. The mixture was to prevent me from feeling any hunger pangs. I also took several herbal detox capsules everyday. (This type of detox diet should only be done with a naturopathy professional.)