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Quote of the Day

"Although... the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the President of a party only, but of the whole people of the United States."

James Polk



 


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Rating The Diets, A Mindless Exercise
 

There has been a recent surge in the experts weighing in (pun intended) on popular and celebrity diets to rate them in terms of effectiveness, nutritional adequacy, and balance. Look at the latest crop of magazines, Internet news reports, and television specials.

What is a semi-motivated would-be dieter to do?

Every diet listed seems to give rise to a chorus of criticism. Either it contains too few fruits and vegetables, not enough fiber, not enough fat, or too few calories. The glycemic index is too high or too low, the nutritional content of its staples are not good enough, there is too much or too little of something.

Who rates what we are eating now? We simply pig out on everything from pizza, to fast food, to snacks (did you know that potato chips are the most popular snack food in America - accompanying 32% of our lunches?), desserts, ice cream and beer.

While it would be nice, I suppose, to have a population who ate only healthy foods, in moderation, exercised daily, and took care to ingest at least the minimum requirement of vitamins and minerals, that is not reality, my friend. We overeat on all the wrong foods, we avoid regular exercise like the plague, and huff and puff our way into enlarged bodies that are twenty to fifty pounds heavier than our frames deserve.

Any way that we can take off some or all of that weight is worthwhile. No one is going to stay on any of the popular diets for a lifetime, let's face it. We look at them as temporary (which is part of the problem, but I digress) fixes. The last thing we need are experts who make us afraid to start because we might not be obtaining the right nutrition. Or do we take a certain degree of self-satisfaction in telling ourselves that we can't start until the "perfect diet" is identified?

Are we eating the right way without a diet? No, our nutrition is still deplorable, it's just that we are eating a lot of everything. Let's have at least one expert come out and truthfully report that no matter the deficiencies of any specific diet - going on it is absolutely better than eating the way we are now!

Let's get our collective weight down, and then start worrying about nutrition and health. Diabetes, heart attacks, and gall bladders care a lot less about what we eat than how much.

Start a diet, ANY diet, and follow through for a few weeks and I guarantee you'll be in a much better place, physically and mentally, to start looking after your health and long term fitness than when hemmed in by too much blubber, reading scare stories from the media about how your intended diet is somehow unbalanced.

About the Author
Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she is currently working on a psychologically-based weight control book: Diet with an Attitude. She can be reached at http://dietwithanattitude.blogspot.com

Diets News



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CDC: Breads top list of salt sources in American diets
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1 source of salt in the American diet, accounting for more than twice as much sodium as snacks like potato chips and pretzels. That surprising finding comes in a government report released Tuesday that includes a list of the top 10 sources of sodium.
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Study Warns Low Protein Diets May Cause More Than Just Weight Loss
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By Ellen Topness If you are having success on a low-protein diet plan, be aware that you may actually be losing pounds from body systems that can ill afford to lose mass. This is the warning message of a recent study completed by Dr. George Bray of ...
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Australian Dietary Guidelines put whole foods first
Science Network Western Australia
Image: suzienewshoes NEW Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating are now open for public review. It is the first updated version released by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) since the 2003 ...

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Dietary restrictions driving communion changes
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Churches are trying to adjust to changing diets by offering gluten-free options for communion, including at Third Presbyterian Church where the gluten-free bread is in a little baggie. / KRIS J. MURANTE / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The Rev.

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Diet helps ease arthritis aches — and then some
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He knew that one of the biggest keys to weight loss was diet. With the help of Polo and a diet program she introduced him to, the weight started coming off at last. “Before [seeing Polo], I had tried many different diets over 45 years without any ...