The Gymnastics Kitchen With Betsy: The Dieting Controversy

I advocate proper fueling with complex carbs, proteins, healthy fats, and anti-inflammatory foods that help repair, restore, and support the needs of agymnast.

That being said, as I travel around doing my fitness and nutrition camps, I continue to get a similar question over and over from gymnasts and parents:

Guess what? Any "diet" you go on, will work--but only temporarily!

Now, many of these diets DO have some great principles and support clean eating -- so I'm not saying they are all bad or don't have some good components.

Anytime you restrict calories and increase activity, you will lose weight. But no gymnast should be on a restricted, unbalanced, or extreme diet. Nor should they be focused on "losing weight." Most diets restrict calories and encourage eliminating or increasing certain food groups. So people think these diets work, but most of the time they are a temporary fix for a bigger problem.

The only food sources I really recommend eliminating are processed foods, which are filled with too much sodium, trans fats, and sugar (dangerous stuff). I advocate a clean eating lifestyle for my athletes and families.

Most people who eliminate gluten or sugar or fat are eliminating highly processed and higher calorie foods such asmuffins, cakes, packaged snacks, and sauces, and they increase lower calorie foods such asfruits and veggies. So of course they will lose weight.

Now, for someone who needs to kick-start weight loss or who has special medical needs or allergies --and is recommended by a physician to go on a special diet --that is a separate story. I am talking mainly for the general gymnastics population that is looking for good health andhigh performanceand to be able to power through four- to six-hour workouts and feel light and tight!

In my experience, once gymnasts starteating clean and changetheir lifestyles, results often follow. I recommend gymnasts begin by cutting back on unhealthy, processed foods and increase foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals. A healthy diet must include a balance of complex carbs, healthy fats, protein, and dairy.

2. Support fellow gymnasts during peer pressure moments You are a kid, so enjoy life and have fun and treats -- but not every single day should you be eating ice cream and french fries. No one should! It's often challenging in social situations, so just make the best choices and keep your goals in mind. This is a lifestyle -- not a diet!

3. Dig deep You are a gymnast and spend hours and hours in the gym. Do you really want a bag of M&M's for a pre-workout snack? Is that going to help you reach your goals? Make good choices for your athletic career and you will benefit from the results. Betsy McNally-Laouar is a personal fitness and gymnastics trainer certified in Sports Nutrition. She works with gymnasts all around the country online and through camps. If you need more help with gymnastics recipes, meal plans and fitness, check out her website, http://www.betsymcnally.com and email her at coach@betsymcnally.com or her Facebook page Betsy McNally Laouar Gymnastics Nutrition and Fitness Specialist

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The Gymnastics Kitchen With Betsy: The Dieting Controversy - FloGymnastics

South Beach Diet created by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietitian Marie Almon is originally a diet to prevent heart disease. Dr. Agatston see the danger of low fat diet suggested by American Heart Association in 1980 which increase the risk of heart disease, not reduce it; so he create this diet as its substitute.

There are no complicated theory behind this diet; the principle are simple: replacing bad carbohydrates and bad fats with good carbohydrates and good fats:

1. Replaced foods that contain heavily refined sugar with relatively unprocessed foods such as vegetables, beans, and whole grains.

2. Eliminate trans fat and saturated fats which contribute to LDL cholesterol and replace it with unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids which will contribute to HDL cholesterol.

The diet is not consist of one golden session to solve all your problem. Instead, it will divide the process into 3 phases where the first two phases are aim to make you familiar with the concept and lose weight at the same time. The 3rd phase is a maintenance phase which will be last for life where you are expected to understand the basic principles and apply it in your every days life.

Pros

1. The diet is originally created to prevent heart disease; weight loss in only one of its side effect.

2. Low saturated and trans fats; most diet author, nutritionist, or physician will suggest you to minimize consumption of these kind of fats. South Beach Diet food list will help you do that.

3. Fast weight loss feature; up to 13 pounds in the 1st phase.

4. All the foods in this diet is selected based on low Glycemic Index (GI), thus restrict junk food consumption.

5. When you finish 1st phase, the food selection will be broader and doesnt erase certain food groups.

6. Simple; no calories counting or portion control, just choose your foods from the food list provided.

7. With no portion restriction and complemented with 2 snacks time, hunger definitely is not part of the process.

Cons

1. The 1st phase is very strict, limiting the consumption of all carbohydrates completely. Some people believe that the weight loss gained during the phase is all water loss, not fat loss; this will cause you to gain weight again after you resume your carbohydrates intake.

2. Various side effects; during the strict phase 1, there are lots of side effects, including fatigue, dehydration, lack of vitamins and minerals, and weakness.

3. Using GI to determine good and bad foods is not approved by all the experts in medical community. This method is still controversial because it will remove any food with high GI even when the food is nutritionally beneficial.

4. The diet doesnt include proper instruction on exercising; this make some dieter wondering about the importance of exercise in South Beach Diet.

5. The diet will make your kidney work harder since it contain high protein intake.

6. Require extra cost; especially on the first phase since the high protein foods are more expensive than the carbohydrates foods.

7. This diet doesnt put vegetarian or people who cant eat dairy products into consideration; it forbid soy for the first two weeks and we all know that vegetarian use soy product as meat substitute. Most of the snacks suggested also contain of dairy products.

8. The fist and second phase consist of very limited food choice that can make you get bored really quickly if the cook is not creative.

9. Preparing the meals using the suggested recipes usually takes a lot of time and complicated process.

South Beach Diet is only one of many alternatives when you decide to pick a weight loss program. Put the pros and cons into consideration, you should have known whether it is good for you or not. The main issues I want to focus here is the diet offer lifetime maintenance, which is great; but it is not put consideration into the importance of exercise in a healthy diet, which is bad.

Selecting a diet that suit you is not an easy task; before you decide anything, visit Diets That Work to get a great guide regarding selecting a diet wisely and healthy diet to found out criteria that a good diet should have diet by Stefan Vincent. Hopefully by read both of them, your task will be easier

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casanisa/ShutterstockYou might not normally associate takeoutfood with clean eating, but Grubhub, a leader in the takeout marketplace, knows that plenty of people aim for healthy options, especially with summer right around the corner. The company recently announced the results of a study of the top trendinghealthy eating plans in the United States.And its not what you might think.

For their work, Grubhub analyzed orders related to the most popular healthy eating plans in the United States: Paleo, raw diet, juice cleanse, vegan, gluten-free, low-fat, Mediterranean, and ketogenic diets. Reviewing data from 2016, Grubhub looked at a combination of dietary tags and an in-depth analyzation of foods aligned with the specific eating plans. Their analysts were then able to pinpoint the most popular eating plans across the nation, and the preferred plans by city and gender.

Their main findings:

Paleo is the most popular healthy eating choice across America, with orders increasing by 370 percent in 2016. The Paleo diet, which is the most popular eating plan in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Philadelphia, is designed to mimic foods from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and involves meat, fish, and other animal products, along with fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. There are no processed foods or sugar allowed. Nicole Osinga, a registered dietitian, can understand why Paleo reigns supreme among the healthy eating plans. I think the Paleo diet promotes some good conceptslots of veggies, whole foods, adequate healthy fats, and proteins. Following a Paleo diet can assist people with weight loss, as you feel full quite quickly and carbs are limited. (Theres some evidence that a Paleo diet can also help with chronic pain.) But Osinga noted that legumes are a healthy foodthat shouldnt be restricted from ones diet. In addition, excessive red meat intake can increase your risk for different types of cancers. If it were up to me, she adds, I would swap in some legumes for protein instead of some red-meat based Paleo meals.

Seattle residents ordered takeout tailored to different diet plans more than any other major city in the country, making it the most health-conscious city from the perspective of this survey. The preferred plan in Seattle was found to be a gluten-free diet, which excludes gluten, a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye, and a cross between wheat and rye called triticale. Gluten-free was also the eating plan of choice in Atlanta, Phoenix, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon.These are thegluten-free foodsnutritionists love.

Men and women across the nation were found to have very different preferences on food. Fitness-focused men preferred a low-fat diet, which is up 21 percent from previous yearsand very popular in New York City, Boston, and San Francisco. A low-fat diet features plant foods along with a moderate amount of lean and low-fat, animal-based food.

Women favored a juice cleanse, a fasting method and a detox diet in which a person consumes only fruit and vegetable juices, abstaining from food consumption anywhere from a few days to several weeks. The popularity of juice cleanse orders soared by 89 percent over the previous year, according to the study, and was most popular in Miami and Nashville, Tennessee. If youre thinking about doing a juice cleanse or otherdetox diet, read this first.

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Raw diets saw a 92 percent increase in orders in 2016 compared to the previous year. A raw diet involves uncooked, unprocessed, and mostly organic foods with staples like raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains. Food may be slightly warmed but not above 118 degrees.

Vegan diet foods are on the rise, especially in Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San JoseGrubhub saw a 58 percent increase in vegan diet orders in 2016 compared to the year before. A vegan diet is comprised of only plant-derived foods, with no animals or animal products, including flesh (land or sea animals), milk, eggs, or even honey. There are manyhealth benefits to going vegan.

You might think the Mediterranean diet, credited with amazing cardiovascular benefits, would be one of the more popular types of takeout, but in fact, orders of Mediterranean diet foodwhich featuresfruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and olive oil, and prioritizesfish and poultry over red meatincreased only 7 percent over last year. Heres how to make your diet more Mediterranean, which could help you lose weight.

Grubhub found a slight uptickjust 5 percentin takeout customers ordering food tailored to a ketogenic diet, essentially a low carb diet where the body is put into a state of burning fat instead of blood sugar for more fat loss. Heres how one woman used the ketogenic dietto drop 15 pounds in six weeks.

Did you just get hungry for some fresh, delicious restaurant food? Here are 20 tricks to eating healthy while eating out.

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This Is the Most Popular Healthy Eating Plan in AmericaNo, It's Not the Mediterranean Diet - Reader's Digest

Posted June 08, 2017 12:14:06

The diet book industry is a global behemoth that has spawned hundreds of titles over the years.

From the Atkins diet to the paleo diet and lemon detox diet, there is no shortage of suggestions for how to lose that unwanted weight.

Dr Michael Mosley has built a career out of presenting TV shows on medicine and biology and in the last few years has turned his attention to diet books.

He popularised the 5:2 diet which calls for minimal calorie intake for two days a week and having unrestricted eating for the other five and more recently he has released books titled The Fast Diet, The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet and the Clever Guts Diet.

Read an edited Q&A about his growing body of work.

Absolutely not. They're all based on the latest science.

So the 5:2 diet is based on more than 40 years of research and the guy who inspired me most was Professor Mark Mattson, who is probably the world's most famous neuroscientist.

The blood sugar diet was different, it was an extension. That is based on the work of Professor Roy Taylor, who is one of the world's foremost diabetes specialists.

And this new thing, the Clever Guts Diet, is not really a calorie restriction diet, it's more about how you can look after your gut. And that in turn is based on conversations with some of the world's leading specialists, microbiome specialists.

So what I do in these books is I give you 40 or 50 scientific references. You will see a lot of endorsements from scientists including one or two Nobel Prize winners.

If they are fad diets, they are well supported by the scientific community.

Unfortunately, when people say eat healthy and exercise that doesn't mean anything.

It's like saying the way you win at footy is by scoring more points than the other side. It's true, but it's not a very healthy or helpful way of dealing with life.

You actually need to know what healthy means. So once upon a time healthy meant low fat, now we know that's almost certainly not true.

What is healthy now is probably the Mediterranean diet. Well what is the Mediterranean diet?

If you actually look at the science, what scientists describe as the Mediterranean diet is completely different to what, for example, the Department of Health in the UK would describe as one, because the Department of Health in the UK still describes the low fat diet, which has been tested and tested and tested to death.

Same is true of exercise. Yes, exercise is good for you, but what sort of exercises?

You need to do heart and lungs but you also need to do strength, and you absolutely have to put a bit of oomph into it, because just jogging along or indeed just going for a walk is not going to do a huge amount of good.

The first three worked brilliantly. They're extensions, they're for different things.

So the 5:2 diet was a kind of a starter out the gate. It was kind of intended for anyone who was a bit overweight and wanted to lose some weight and generally improve themselves.

The Fast Diet was obviously completely different, it was about what is the optimal way of exercising to get the most benefit in the least amount of time.

The Blood Sugar diet was much more aimed at people who had type 2 diabetes or who had pre-diabetes.

Clever Guts is about something different. Clever Guts is about how to improve your gut bacteria so they work with you rather than against you.

I did a degree at Oxford in politics, philosophy and economics and I was a banker.

Then I was a doctor, then I was doing psychiatry and I went into television.

Indeed, I am not a nutritionist and indeed at medical school, like most doctors, I learnt almost nothing about nutrition.

My education in nutrition began pretty much five or six years ago.

The things that qualify me to do so are, I suppose, partly I do it on myself. And partly I get access thanks to my reputation to all the world-leading experts.

So none of these books are based on my original research, they are based on the work of people who have been in the field for a decade, sometimes more, and they've very generously shared their time.

So they know what I'm doing, I'm not stealing their work, and they endorse it.

Absolutely. So the reason I did the 5:2 diet in the first place is because I discovered I was a type 2 diabetic.

And I didn't want to start medication, which is what my doctor was offering me, so I went and looked for alternatives.

I came across intermittent fasting, I made a film about it with myself as the subject. I lost 10 kilos, reversed my type 2 diabetes and that was five years ago.

With Clever Guts diet, my freezer is stuffed with poo samples.

It's gross, and I send them off to be analysed.

So these days you can get your microbiome analysed your poo analysed within a few weeks.

Topics: diet-and-nutrition, health, arts-and-entertainment, australia

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Five questions for a serial diet book author - ABC Online

Life can easily knock you off your feet and get turned upside down in one quick moment.

One of the greatest gifts of yoga practice is that we practise poses that put us in positions that are uncomfortable, challenging and sometimes even alittle scary.

This type of yoga practice helps to prepare usfor the hard stuff by offering us the opportunity to discover who we truly are and what we are capable of.

We challenge our idea of whats possible and slowly and safely, move beyond our perceived comfort zones.

When weare living with fear and anxiety and life is stressful, we dont always have the tools we need to help us through.

This is where your Yoga practice will become your greatest ally

We learn how toconnect to our breath, our bodies, and our inner power. We learn where we grip and hold tension in our minds and bodies. We learn to lean into challenges and not shy away from them. We learn how to expand our breath, our bodies and our perception of who we are and our perceived limits.

And with each step we strengthen our bodies, our minds and lift our spirit.

As you approach each of the following poses, come in with a sense of adventure and meet each challenge with a sense of softness and a sense of ease.

Keep your facial muscles relaxed and smile. Breathe normally and enjoy being in your body and strongly connecting to all parts of you. Notice when fear of weakness creeps in, and affirm your commitment to yourself by bringing in a positive and inspiring mantra.

Let your mantra be, I Got This.

photos

Downward Facing Dog/Audo Mukha Svanasana with heels on a tree (or wall)

Begin to firm your foundation in preparation for the next two poses. Firm your hands into the earth and hug your arms toward each other. Soften your heart space between your shoulders and hug your shoulder blades on to your back.

L Stand on a Tree

Begin in Downward Facing Dog with your heels up the wall and toes on the floor. Walk your hands back and narrow your dog. Hug your arms strongly toward each other and firm your hands into the floor. Step one foot up the wall at hip height. Soften your face by smiling and bring your other foot up the wall. Straighten your legs and draw your belly in to support your low back. Breathe hear for at least five breaths or longer.

Yoga instructor Johanna Steinfeld demonstrates the L stand pose on a tree. Gavin Young Gavin Young / Gavin Young

Walk your feet back down and rest in childs pose.

L Stand with one leg lifted

Come back to L Stand and once you feel firm in the pose, lift one leg straight up into the air. Change legs.

Yoga instructor Johanna Steinfeld demonstrates the L stand with one leg lifted. Gavin Young Gavin Young / Gavin Young

For a quick tutorial on how to move into and out of each posture, follow along with the attached Yoga video class.

Know that whether or not you get into the full pose doesnt matter. Its what we learn along the way that teaches us the most about who we are.

Be inspired by your practice and in turn you will inspire others.

Namaste and Happy Yoga.

Johanna Steinfeld teaches Yoga to people just like you in Calgary SW http://www.itsjustyoga.com

Explore all you are and join me for a soul nourishing Yoga retreat in Guatamala Oct. 21 28, 2017. You dont have to be a serious or experienced Yogi to benefit from a Yoga retreat http://www.itsjustyoga.com/guatamala2017

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The ketogenic diet, described as Atkins on steroids for its focus on foods high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates, is growing in popularity but some nutritionists warn it may not live up to the hype.

The diets proponents say that it is the best way to lose weight without feeling hungry and that it increases energy levels. Celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Adriana Lima and athletes from LeBron James to Tim Tebow have all reportedly followed some form of low carb diets.

Absolutely this diet works, New York-based registered dietitian nutritionist Maya Feller told ABC News. It is going to give people weight loss.

The ketogenic, keto for short, diet was developed in the 1920s after it was noticed that after fasting, epileptics would experience a marked reduction in their seizures. The diet is designed to get your body into a state called ketosis where your body is so low on carbohydrates it starts burning fat for fuel.

Ketosis is also what the body does when fasting.

Keto dieters drastically cut carbohydrates to about 10 percent of their daily diet, which in some cases can be just 20 grams of carbohydrates per day.

That amount of carbohydrates is equivalent to one slice of white bread per day, according to Feller.

Nutritionists also stress that followers of a keto diet should get their fat intake from healthy fats like olive oils and nuts.

Samantha Kafedzic, 31, has lost 17 pounds since starting on a keto diet four weeks ago.

Kafedzic, who admits she now eats very different meals from her daughter, said she feels better overall in addition to the weight loss.

I have more energy with this one running around, Kafedzic said, pointing to her daughter. My workouts are so much better. I definitely have more stamina.

The key to being successful on the keto diet is getting about 20 percent of your calories from protein and eating lots of fat. For some keto followers, the amount of fat could equal more than 70 percent of their diet.

The amount of fat someone following the keto diet may consume in one day could be more than five times the recommended intake for daily fat for the average American, according to Feller.

The diets critics argue that it is nearly impossible to follow long-term, could lead to muscle loss and could deprive your brain of its preferred source of fuel, carbohydrates.

Feller agrees that the keto diet is not a diet she would recommend following for an extended period of time.

The jury is out on if that is safe for the long term, she said. What most studies say is that you can follow a ketogenic diet for some months. You dont want the body to stay in ketosis long term.

ABC News' Lana Zak contributed to this report.

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What to know about the ketogenic diet - ABC News - ABC News

National Institutes of Health (press release)

Pregnancy diet high in refined grains could increase child obesity ... National Institutes of Health (press release) Children born to women with gestational diabetes whose diet included high proportions of refined grains may have a higher risk of obesity by age 7, compared ... What To Eat When You Are Pregnant? Diet High In Refined Grains Could Cause Child's Obesity By Age 7International Business Times Can pregnant moms set up their child for obesity by eating white rice?Fresno Bee Study suggests link between diet drinks during pregnancy and ...Hindustan Times TheHealthSite all 10 news articles »

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Pregnancy diet high in refined grains could increase child obesity ... - National Institutes of Health (press release)

Its true. Strict vegan diets do not contain all essential nutrientsheres a guide to what vegan diets can be missing. However, says dietitian Sharon Palmer, an expert in plant-based nutrition, the crux of this announcement is not so much a recommendation against raising your children as vegans as much as it is a recommendation to ensure that the diets are well-planned.

The bottom line is that vegan diets are acceptable and appropriate for infants and children, according to Palmer. A recent position paper from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) agrees. AND states that appropriately planned vegan diets can be nutritionally complete. Research shows health benefits for eating a vegan diet for children, including lower rates of obesity and chronic disease later in life. Hereare more health-related benefits of a vegan diet. But its also true that a vegan diet can be incomplete and unhealthy.

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Parents committed to a vegan lifestyle can provide a completely balanced diet for their children, with proper planning. Palmer, author of the book Plant Powered for Life, encourages parents to include a balance of nutrient-rich foods, including soy foods, fortified soy milk, beans, grains, healthy fats, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. Kids require enough calories, protein, fats and all vitamins and minerals for growth and activities.

For infants, Palmer recommends breastfeeding for a nutritionally complete dietvegan diets just dont hit the mark. When thats not an option, feed infants commercially prepared vegan formulas. Never use milk alternatives, such as plant-based milks, which are low in protein and other nutrients essential for the foundation of a babys diet. Weaning off the bottle needs to move to fortified soy milk, which is nutritionally similar to cows milk, according to Palmer.

To cover potential nutritional shortfalls of a vegan diet, Palmer has some advice. Vitamin B12 is only available in animal-based foods, she points out, and vegans should supplement with this nutrient, which is key for neurological function, DNA synthesis, and red blood cell formation.

Vegan children will also need vitamin D, essential for bone mineralization and neurological development. Although kids typically get the nutrient in fortified cows milk or fish, they can also get it in fortified cereals and orange juiceand through sunlight. If your child isnt getting these sources, a supplement is necessary.

Parents may want to supplement with essential omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA); these are vital for the brain and immunity, and theyre primarily found in seafood. Vegan sources include algae, walnuts, hemp and chia seeds. Research published in the Medical Journal of Australia found plasma, blood, and tissue levels of omega-3 fats are significantly lower in vegetarians compared to omnivores.

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Iron is another concern, because the good iron (heme) is primarily found in red meat. Vegetarians have lower iron stores than omnivores, probably due to the lower quality iron (non-heme) they get from dark leafy greens and other vegetable sources. Children with iron-deficiency anemia have depressed immune function, according to a recent study published in Medicine. Fortified breads and cereals are an iron-rich alternative for vegan children, but supplementation may be required.

While most children get their bone-growth-stimulating calcium from milk and cheese, vegan children can easily consume adequate calcium from tofu and other soy products, almonds, fortified fruit juices, and calcium-rich vegetables such as bok choy, kale and turnip greens. Another concern is how well the body is absorbing the calcium it gets. The high-fiber, high-phytic acid nature of vegan diets can flush calcium through the digestive tractor bind with itbefore it can help shore up bones. Ensuring adequate calcium intake in children is essential, and parents should consider supplementation.

For peace of mind and professional advice, find a registered dietitian nutritionist in your area if youre considering raising vegan children. In fact, Palmer recommends consultation before the child is born. The Vegetarian Resource Group provides a My Plate version for vegans, providing a simple well-balanced visual to ensure inclusion of all food groups. Misinformation abounds on the internet, so seek out an expert in your area or through the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group.

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Vegan Diets CAN Be Good for KidsBut Only If You Follow This Rule - Reader's Digest