Agel Baltazar was walking to his car. Hed just gorged himself on roasted suckling pig at a buffet, and simply walking to his car left him winded. Taking stock of things, the 24-year-old graphic artist from the Pampanga province in the Philippines, then 284 pounds, decided he needed to change.

It wasnt the first time Baltazar had tried to get fit. Years before, hed cut rice, a staple of Phillipine cuisine, out of his diet. Eating mostly oatmeal, bananas, and bread, he hit his lowest weight. But it was unsustainable; after starting a new job and relying on grab-and-go convenience store food, he started gaining weight again. He started getting nighttime acid reflux and heartburn; his back began to hurt, and hed start sweating while walking through an air-conditioned mall.

This time, he wanted a diet-and-exercise routine he could maintain. He bought a kitchen scale and downloaded a calorie-counting app, MyFitnessPal. He went grocery shopping, looking at nutrition labels for the first time. I budgeted my calories like I would my budget, he says. If I craved for something thats high-calorie, Id adjust my spend on other meals, or other days.

For four months he ran a daily calorie deficit, while working his way up to an hour of walking a day. That dropped his weight to 220, and he started on his DIY gym routine. Despite being a newbie, he had the confidence of having already lost 64 pounds. He started with cardio while he acclimated to the gym, then moved on to weights. For the first few months he did a six-day push-pull-legs split, then switched to a full body program three days a week.

In 12 months he lost a total of 120 pounds; the first 60 came off mainly through diet, while the next 60 were a combination of diet, cardio and weightlifting. At first he didnt tell most people he was dieting, but once he lost 30 or 40 pounds, they couldnt help but notice. And the changes motivated him, too: his acid reflux, heartburn, and back pain disappeared; his sleep improved; even his hair got healthier. Without his usual diet of junk food, he started to taste what he ate. He could wear clothes that hadnt fit him for years, and he saw definition slowly develop in his muscles.

He also felt happier and more confident. Most importantly, he says, through the process Ive learned how to like and appreciate myself as I am at the present moment. He still watches his calories, though hes not at a deficit, and he still goes to the gym. Hes ready to really start building muscle.

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A Simple Diet and Workout Routine Helped This Guy Lose 120 Pounds in One Year - menshealth.com

Achieving an appropriate calcium balance in dairy cows is critical near calving, but not only to ensure a healthy transition to lactation.

According to a new study from the University of Illinois, calcium added to acidified prepartum diets can improve a whole suite of postpartum outcomes, including lower rates of uterine infection and quicker return to ovulation.

We know that calcium metabolism in dairy cows is very important. Theres research saying that 50% of multiparous cows [those on their second or third pregnancy] suffer some sort of deficiency of calcium, says Phil Cardoso, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Illinois.

Cardoso explains that the common practice of feeding an acidified diet prior to calving forces the cow to manufacture and redistribute calcium from her bones. This activation of internal calcium production carries the cow through to lactation, when she resumes consuming calcium in her diet.

Photo: Robin Britstra

Producers commonly feed negative DCAD diets in the weeks before calving, usually supplemented with a small amount of calcium (1% of dry matter). The practice is typically enough to avoid full-blown milk fever, or clinical symptoms of calcium deficiency. But Cardoso says there has been little guidance on how much to acidify the diet to remobilise the optimal amount of calcium and avoid excretion in the urine. He also says no one has tested the effects of adding different concentrations of dietary calcium to the fully-acidified DCAD diet.

Webinar on demand: Calcium, the double-edged sword - view now

Calcium is important for many cellular processes. Without adequate calcium concentrations, tissues dont work optimally and are subject to inflammation and susceptible to disease. We wanted to test whether an increased amount of calcium -- 2% of DM -- added to an acidified diet during the last month of pregnancy could prevent those issues and lead to more favourable reproductive outcomes, Cardoso says.

His team fed 76 multiparous Holstein cows one of three diets in the month before calving: a control, non-acidified DCAD diet with no added calcium; an acidified DCAD diet (-24 milliequivalents per 100g of dry matter) with no added calcium; and an acidified DCAD diet (-24 milliequivalents) with added calcium at 2% of dietary dry matter. The DCAD formulation was mixed with typical forages and corn silage in prepartum diets. After calving, all cows were switched to a typical postpartum diet with 1% of dietary dry-matter calcium.

The researchers then monitored changes in the blood, uterus, ovaries, and pregnancy status at two and four weeks post-calving. There was a tendency for cows fed the negative DCAD + calcium diet to get pregnant at a higher rate than cows fed the control diet, but we need to test that in a larger population to be sure of that result, Cardoso says.

That could be why we saw better pregnancy rates, - Phil Cardoso, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Illinois.

What he is sure of is that cows fed the diet with added calcium took less time to ovulate and had lower levels of uterine infection than cows on the other diets. This was likely due to the fact that cows on the calcium-added diet had more tight junction proteins in the uterine lining; these proteins bind adjacent cells, preventing a leaky tissue that could allow pathogens to enter the bloodstream during calving. Ours is the first study showing tight junction proteins even exist in the uterus of the dairy cow, and also clearly indicates that added calcium improves their number and function, Cardoso says.

Cows fed the calcium-added diet also had more favourable disease-fighting antioxidants in the blood and more glands in the uterine lining, which keep the organ clean and produce hormones that can kick-start ovulation. That could be why we saw better pregnancy rates, Cardoso says.

He points out that many producers have been using a negative DCAD strategy for decades, but arent acidifying the diet enough, taking it to only -5 milliequivalents and not adding calcium, or adding it at only 1% of dietary dry matter. We are saying that you need to go to -20 milliequivalents and up to 2% of dietary dry matter for calcium, he says.The message to the dairy industry is clear: A negative DCAD diet with added calcium is helpful not only to get through the transition to lactation. It can help improve future pregnancy outcomes in the herd. Cardoso wants to get the message to both nutritionists and veterinarians, who hed like to see talking to each other more often to create strategies for improved reproduction.

Source: Sciencedaily.com

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Benefits of calcium in prepartum diets for dairy cows - All about feed

ROCK legend Meat Loaf is going vegan for Veganuary in a bid to help the planet.

The 72-year-old refused to rebrand himself as Veg Loaf for the month as part of a Frankie & Benny's campaign but has pledged to ditch animals products.

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He told the Daily Star: "When Frankie & Bennys first approached me to rebrand to Veg Loaf I said no way in hell.

"But, Id do anything for our planet and dropping meat for veg, even for just one day a week, can make a huge difference.

The Bat Out Of Hell singer is no stranger to vegetarianism, having stopped eating meat for 11 years in the past.

It was a stomach churning restaurant order while out with friends in 1981 that changed his attitude to food.

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He told the Mirror: "I ordered rabbit and they served it with its head on, no ears and its eyes closed.

I said, Take this away and I want vegetables and a salad, and from that moment I became vegetarian for maybe 11 years.

He returned to a meat diet after health reasons forced him to lose weight.

I stopped because I wanted to lose weight," said the star. "The carbohydrate diet worked to a point, I lost 30lb but it went right back on. I lost 70lb on the low-fat no-sugar diet.

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You dont need calories, you need a lifestyle change and less fat.

Veganuary encourages people to try a vegan diet for a month at the start of the year.

It's typically tied to New Year resolutions as people look to change their ways and become more healthy.

The month-long event is dedicated to trying to change people's attitudes, help the planet and the animals as well as improve your own personal well-being.

A vegan's diet consists solely of beans, grains, fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables.

However, there are many substitutes which can be used in place of animal-based ingredients.

For example, cow's milk can be replaced with soy milk, and vegan margarine is a great alternative to butter.

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Meat Loaf reveals hes ditching animals from his diet and going vegan for Veganuary - The Sun

Meal time at Alynn Casgrain's home requires some co-ordination.

While her 11-month-old twin boys, Sam and Jake, wait patiently in their high chairs, four-year-old big sister Noelle cuts the vegetables for a pizza the whole family will soon be eating.

Casgrain and her husband, David Upper, believe their children should eat the same things they eat. That's because the Toronto mom was surprised by the added sugars she found in products designed for infants and toddlers.

"Those yogurt drinks were shocking. Low fat, all sugar,"said Casgrain.

A recent study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics backs that up. It found that nearly 61 per cent of infants (6-11 months) and 98 per cent of toddlers (12-23 months) consumed added sugars as part of an average daily diet.

The added sugars were mainly found in flavoured yogurts and fruit drinks.

"We wanted to understand what the consumption of added sugars were among infants and toddlers. It's a group that's not very well studied, so we wanted to add to the research base," said lead investigator Kirsten Herrick, with the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.

Herrick's team analyzed data from 1,211 young children. They found that infants consumed about one teaspoon of added sugarsdaily;toddlers consumed about six teaspoons.

Experts, including the World Health Organization, say children should consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugar daily an amount equal to about 25 grams.

"What was surprising was how early added sugar consumption started and how quickly it increased,'' she said.

Herrick describes added sugars as an extra amount of sweetener that's added to any food product. It could be table sugar, honey, maple syrupor fruit concentrate. And it's "everywhere in the food system," she said, from fruit drinks and baked goods, to yogurts.

Jess Haines, an associate professor of applied nutrition at the University of Guelph, isn't surprised by the findings.

"Kids eat like we do. And adults, both in the U.S and Canada, we eat a fair bit of sugar,"she said.

Haines said the university came to similar conclusions in itslong-term Guelph Family Health Study, where researchers looked at various routines of children between 18 months and fiveyears of age. When it came to diet, it found that 54 per cent of them exceeded the six teaspoons of sugar per day.

Haines says that all this added sugar can have long-term health effects, starting with cavities.

"We also see that when kids have higher intakes of sugar that's sustained over their lifetime, we can see an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabeteslater in life."

As a parent herself, Haines understands that many babies and toddlers can be picky eaters. She also knows the time constraints many mothers and fathers face during the day, so she tries to recommend solutions that involve re-imagining what a snack can look like.

"Think of snacks, really, as mini-meals. Why not take some of the foods that you've had for either breakfast or lunch, make it smaller and they can have a snack like that during the day," she said.

Alynn Casgrain agrees. She and her husband try to control the added sugar intake of their children, particularly at home, bymakingmuch of their food from scratch.

Casgrain hopes this will lay the groundwork for healthy eating decisions later in lifebut she knows it won't be easy.

"You have to be realistic about the fact that wherever they go, whether they're going to see friends or grandparents or when they get older and make their own decisions, there's going to be sweet stuff in front of them."

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Added sugar found in the diets of many babies and toddlers - CBC.ca

Coconut oil has seen a surge in popularity in recent years due to many touted health benefits, ranging from reducing belly fat to strengthening the immune system, preventing heart disease and staving off dementia. These claims are often backed by celebrity endorsements and bolstered by proponents of popular diets such as ketogenic and Paleo, with little support from scientific evidence.

On the flip side, and further adding to the confusion, you also may have seen headlines calling out coconut oil as pure poison, implying that it shouldnt be consumed at all. Given these contradictory claims, a question of much public and scientific interest is whether there is room for coconut oil in a healthy diet.

Coconut oil largely consists of saturated fat (80% to 90% of fat in coconut oil is saturated), making it solid at room temperature. Other sources of saturated fat include animal products such as meat and dairy, and other plant-based tropical oils such as palm oil. Consumption of saturated fat has long been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to its ability to raise harmful LDL cholesterol levels.

Unlike saturated fats, unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. They can improve blood cholesterol levels and reduce inflammation, among other cardiovascular benefits. Unsaturated fats are predominantly found in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds and fish.

The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend consuming no more than 10% of total calories from saturated fat. And last year the American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific advisory statement recommending the replacement of saturated fats in the diet, including coconut oil, with unsaturated fats. In their statement, the AHA cited and discussed a review of seven randomized controlled trials, in which coconut oil was found to raise LDL cholesterol levels.

The rationale behind the AHA recommendation is that consuming unsaturated fats in place of saturated fat will lower bad LDL cholesterol, and improve the ratio of total cholesterol to good HDL cholesterol, lowering the risk of heart disease. For those at risk of or who already have heart disease, the AHA advises no more than 6% of total calories from saturated fat, or about 13 grams based on a 2,000-calorie diet. One tablespoon of coconut oil comes close to that limit, with about 12 grams of saturated fat.

With such salient evidence supporting the replacement of saturated fat, including coconut oil, with unsaturated fat for optimal cardiovascular health, where do the myriad health claims for coconut oil come from?

Many of the health claims for coconut oil are based on studies that used a special formulation of coconut oil made of 100% medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). This is not the coconut oil available on supermarket shelves. MCTs have a shorter chemical structure than other fats, and are quickly absorbed and metabolized by the body, which is thought to promote a feeling of fullness and prevent fat storage.

However, the coconut oil found on most supermarket shelves contains mostly lauric acid, which is absorbed and metabolized more slowly than MCT. As a result, the health benefits reported from specially constructed MCT coconut oil cannot be applied to regular coconut oil.

Interestingly, lauric acid itself has also been purported to have health benefits. While lauric acid has been shown to increase LDL cholesterol levels, it also raises HDL cholesterol levels, suggesting a potential heart-protective role of coconut oil. However, large epidemiological studies have failed to report protective associations between lauric acid and cardiovascular disease.

Findings from epidemiological studies that report low rates of cardiovascular disease among populations who consume coconut oil as part of their traditional diets (in India, the Philippines, and Polynesia, for example) have also been cited as support for the health benefits of coconut oil. However, in these studies many other characteristics of the participants, including background, dietary habits and lifestyle, could explain the findings.

Based on the current evidence, coconut oil is neither a superfood nor a poison. Rather, its role in the diet falls somewhere in between. Coconut oil has a unique flavor and is best consumed in small amounts, as a periodic alternative to other vegetable oils like olive or canola that are rich in unsaturated fat. This dietary choice should be made in the context of an overall healthy dietary pattern, and within the recommended limits for saturated fat intake.

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Is There a Place for Coconut Oil in a Healthy Diet? - Chicago Health

A man who consumed a whopping 10,000 calories a day and soared to 23 stone has shown off his new physique after turning his life around.

Brandon Pickup, 22, used to chomp through steaks, burgers and fried breakfasts by copying the diets of bodybuilders on Instagram .

But despite being able to lift an impressive 53 stone, he piled on pounds of fat.

Since ditching the high calorie diet he has shed nine stone.

He changed his ways when his dad, Jason, 48, suffered a stroke and sepsis , and was left fighting for his life.

Now 18 months on, Brandon from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is a buff 14st with huge muscles and aspirations to compete at Worlds Strongest Man.

Personal trainer Brandon said: "When I set out all I knew was I wanted to be as strong as I possibly could and I didnt care about the effects that had on my body.

I had a passion to get strong and was inspired by Eddie Hall and the bodybuilders I followed online.

I took on board what they did and caved in to the pressures to eat loads of food.

I had an obsession to get strong and wanted to go all out.

My mentality was to eat as much as I physically could, regardless of how fat it made me.

I was willing to do anything to be the strongest and I started eating at least 8,000 calories a day.

It made me feel awful but I was getting really strong."

Brandon used to weight 14st a was a fit and active teenager and professional rugby player with Castleford Tigers when he was 17.

But he fell out of love with the game and turned his attention to weightlifting, and started piling on the pounds in 2016.

He read about World's Strongest Man Eddie Hall, and how the 31st champion ate 12,500 calories a day.

While doing a six-day-a-week weightlifting routine, Brandon went from eating a regular diet to gorging between 8,000 and 10,000 calories a day.

In an average day he would eat eight rashers of bacon, four slices of toast, four eggs and an ice cream protein powder smoothie for breakfast.

He would then snack on beef jerky, cakes and muffins before a lunch of FOUR burgers and a pint of milk.

A typical tea time would see Brandon eat out at steakhouses or burger bars, or scoff a large portion of takeaway fish and chips.

He said: I used to eat so much that it made me feel sick and I was sleepy all of the time.

But in terms of strength, I saw massive improvements.

I went from lifting 220kg to 340kg in 18 months. This did make me feel happy but not for very long.

I was pleased that I was able to lift a lot but it didnt really fulfil me.

But a near-death experience for his dad, Jason, 48, made Brandon to realise his diet was putting his health at risk.

He weighed 23st 7lbs, had piled on nine stone in just over a year, and would get out of breath just walking up the stairs.

I realised I needed to start living a healthier life and that I was putting pressure on my heart, he said.

I wondered if Id end up in that position.

Brandon began to gradually slim down his meals and his waistline, adding cardio to his workout routine, and eating 4,000 calories a day.

Brandon now eats little and often - six 400 calorie meals a day, such as eggs and oats for breakfast, beef and rice with vegetables and chicken, potatoes and greens.

By this summer, Brandon had lost all the weight he put on and now weighs 14st 6lbs - and sports an impressive physique.

Brandon said: I now wake up and look at myself in the mirror with a smile on my face.

I can now see the results of everything I have worked towards since I was young.

This is what I have always wanted and I am so proud of myself.

I hate how I used to look but no one used to say anything, although I could see the look on peoples faces.

I have a much more positive outlook on life now.

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Man who ballooned to 23st by copying Instagram diets sheds 40% of body weight - Mirror Online

By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Updated: January 2, 2020 11:29:25 am Add more glow to your skin on your wedding day with these lifestyle changes. (Source: File Photo)

The great Indian wedding season is on, and if your D-day also happens to be approaching we are sure you have your trousseau, jewellery, make-up and hair in order. But have you given a thought to what you must (and must not consume) in the lead up to your wedding day so that your skin is glowing and you feel healthy. No? Do not worry. A simple way to get started on your wedding preparations is with a 30-day diet plan, suggests Praveshh Gaur, founder and director, Srauta Wellness.

When it comes to planning a diet, it is important to consider factors that will help you achieve great results for a healthy and glowing skin, and a fitter body. The diet changes must be robust and interesting at the same time, he says.

A balanced diet, which comprises nutrients in the right proportion, will help you keep fit and lose weight without much effort. Keep carbohydrates to a minimum, avoid dairy, add at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, include lean proteins and vitamin E-rich produce, and fibre for a wholesome diet plan for the day.

Going for a pre-wedding shoot? Seek some inspiration from Neeti Mohan. Read more here.

Make a conscious effort to keep track of all that you are eating. You can easily make a journal for your diet plan and follow that. Instead of skipping meals, eat smaller ones.

Making abrupt changes to your diet in the form of crash dieting may seem like a tempting idea to lose some weight before the wedding, but beware of the pitfalls first. Crash dieting can deprive your body of vital nutrients and while you may lose weight, it will leave your skin looking dull.

For long-term results, avoid packed and ready-to-eat foods which are high in sugar, carbs and sodium. This will only wreak havoc on your body, and may lead to hormonal imbalance and increased blood sugar levels. It is advisable to opt for natural sources of sugar and healthier snacks like crudits, nuts and dried fruit.

Alcohol causes bloating, while caffeine dehydrates. With both of these out of your diet, your skin will feel much healthier.

To flush out the toxins from your body, drink lots of water. Plain water, coconut water, lime water, and natural fruit juices are great to keep yourself hydrated and cleanse the body too.

Along with the 30-day diet plan, follow a workout regimen with at least 30 minutes of exercise. Add in a few sessions of yoga and by the end of the 30 days, youll find yourself feeling more energised and glowing.

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Glow on your wedding day with these simple diet tips - The Indian Express