Beebleblog

The Michael Phelps Diet brings in the gold medals

Well, what did you have for breakfast this morning? I know, you felt pretty good having had that plate of muesli, yoghurt and an apple, didn’t you? Well, while you were munching your healthy breakfast Michael Phelps was eating his breakfast and it wasn’t muesli oh no … he has three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise (yes, mayonnaise for breakfast , yuck - Beeble). Then he doesn’t rush off for training, no, he hasn’t finished breakfast yet. He has three chocolate chip pancakes, a five-egg omelette, three sugar coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge) plus two cups of coffee.

… and then after breakfast there’s lunch and then dinner

Technorati Tags: Diet, high calories, Michael Phelps, oplympic diets, sports nutrition

I was interested in an article by Kate Devlin in the Daily Telegraph last Wednesday 13th August. She says that a leading public health expert Professor David Hunter from Durham University believes that fatty foods should carry health warnings to help prevent the growing obesity problem in the UK. He feels that manufacturers should be forced to display warnings on foods that contain excessive amounts of fat, sugar or salt similar to the warnings displayed on cigarette packets.

The financial cost of unhealthy living

Professor Hunter predicts that this problem could make our National Health Service “unaffordable” within decades because it is becoming so expensive treating diseases linked to obesity such as heart conditions and diabetes. The NHS currently spends £750 million a year on drugs that treat health problems that can be directly associated with unhealthy living.

Technorati Tags: fatty foods, unhealthy food

I was interested in an article by Victoria Fletcher in the Daily Express on Friday 1st August. She writes about new research at the Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics at Sheffield University in the UK which has discovered that taking garlic every day can be just as effective as drugs for lowering blood pressure.

Blood pressure reduction

In the research at Sheffield University those patients who took a garlic supplement every day for up to five months experienced a significant drop in their blood pressure. In some patients this reduction in blood pressure was the same as that experienced by patients who take drugs such as ACE inhibitors and beta blockers.

Dr Tim Chico, a cardiologist from the research team at Sheffield said: “The reduction in blood pressure is not trivial, it is the same as gained from taking pills.”

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The Governor of California is at it again: leading America to a healthier life style. He is putting forward legislation to ban the trans fats used in cooking at the local fast food restaurants in the State and it looks like other Californian politicians will approve the ban. On Tuesday Los Angeles officials approved a ban in a 32 square mile area of south L.A.

What are Trans Fats?

The majority of trans fats are man-made and are the result of adding hydrogen to unsaturated fats (good fats - Beeble) creating a more saturated fat (bad fat – Beeble) he unfortunate by-product of this process is the trans fat which has not been completely hydrogenated and is detrimental to our health. This man-made fat allows for a higher melting point which means they are solid at room temperature so less refrigeration is needed and this is used to give food produce a longer shelf life. When used for deep frying it can be reused time and time again, much more so than conventional oils (mmmm that sounds lovely – Beeble). That said they have developed other oils now that can outlast these. Maybe in fifty years time we will know what damage these have done to us.

Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, trans fats, trans fats ban in California, what are trans fats

The weight loss drug rimonabant (known under various brand names, including Acomplia) has recently been approved for use by the National Health Service in the UK. It has not been approved for use in the US due to fears about its safety.

Tell me more…

Well, the drug was first launched in 2006 and is currently being used in 56 countries, the UK, Germany and France being the highest consumers of this product. Up until now rimonabant has only been available privately in the UK. The drug was developed when it was discovered that cannabis smokers often experienced increased appetites. Scientists believed that if substances from cannabis that stimulated the appetite could be blocked then the reverse might happen: a reduction in appetite, making this a type of hunger suppressant drug.

So what are the dangers?

Technorati Tags: drugs, drugs for weight loss, hunger suppressant, rimonabant, weight loss, weightloss