weight loss products
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Joy and I have been around here for a while as authors of the Meat Lite column, offering recipes that go easy on the meat, inspired by the ones we created for our book, Almost Meatless. Cooking and eating this way is second nature for us. Neither of us thinks of it as a diet but rather as a completely delicious and satisfying philosophy on eating meat consciously. We love meat-lite meals for the variety they bring to our tables.
The top of the year is a perfect time to get on the bandwagon with us. There's a lot of noise in January about committing to losing weight, getting healthy, saving money, doing good, but most of us confess to losing steam by February. If any or all of the above are included on your list of 2010 resolutions, rest assured knowing that adopting a Meat Lite approach to eating covers all the bases. But you'll be having too much fun discovering new ingredients, and you'll be too full to feel like changing the way you live with food has been any effort or sacrifice at all.
An Almost Meatless or Meat Lite philosophy will save you money. Meat is expensive, so if you cut back on how much you use, you'll notice a marked decline in your grocery and dining budget. Better quality meat, like beef or pork sourced from a local, small farm that follows sustainable practices, costs more than supermarket meat from factory farms. Recipes like the ones we develop for Meat Lite call for small quantities of better quality meat, sparing your wallet but promoting the benefits of purchasing and eating good food.
A diet centered on plants and grains is healthier for people and the planet. Minimizing the meat we eat has been proven to maximize wellness in the forms of weight loss, heart disease decline, diabetes elimination and countless other ailment eradications. We're not talking about vegetarianism here; we're simply promoting less meat. Plus, if we collectively cut back on the amount of meat we consume, we can contribute to a major reduction of carbon emissions that are the byproducts of meat production.
When Joy and I wrote our book, we took plenty from the pages of cookbooks of world cuisine. Other countries are better at cooking just a bit of meat for texture, flavor and nutrients along with plenty of non-meat ingredients. It's not about abstinence or trickery (we don't use a lot of faux-meat products), it's about technique and good food.
Some Meat Lite favorites you may have missed or forgotten about are linked to below. Here's to an appetizing (and healthy, slim, prosperous, environmentally sound) 2010.
Rich Comfort Foods
- Butternut Squash and Sausage Bake
- Smoked Turkey Soup
- Lamb Chili
Cooking with What's In Season
- Spaghetti with Roasted Cauliflower and Bacon Herbed Breadcrumbs
- Summer Vegetable and Sausage Stew over Polenta
Discovering Whole Grains
- Quinoa Pilaf with Sweet Potatoes, Kale and Bacon
Mastering (and Inventing) Technique
- Black Beans and Rice My Way
- Cemita Strata
Using Eggs as the Perfect Food They Are
- Eggs Any Style Shaksouka
- Smoky Kedgeree with or without Fish
Celebrating the World's Flavors in Less meat Meals
- Eggplant Lamb Lavash Wraps
- Stuffed Savoy Cabbage
- Mushroom Sausage Red Gravy
- Pork, Pear and Mushroom Ragu
- tir Fried Bok Choy with Soba Noodles
About the author: Tara Mataraza Desmond writes about, cooks, and eats food for a living. She blogs about food and life through words and pictures at Crumbs On My Keyboard.
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The Spanish government is cracking down on television advertising that promotes weight-loss products and other related goods and services, including plastic surgery, by creating legislation that would bar the ads from being shown until after 10 p.m. —KA
Advertising Age via Gawker:
Ads for diet products, some beauty treatments and plastic surgery are now officially considered more dangerous for young people than commercials for alcohol, which can be advertised from 9 p.m.
The lower chamber of Spain’s parliament has passed the law, and the upper chamber is expected to ratify it within weeks. It’s unclear when the ban will go into effect.The new law states: “Broadcasters cannot carry advertisements for things that encourage the cult of the body and have a negative impact on self-image—such as slimming products, surgical procedures and beauty treatments—which are based on ideas of social rejection as a result of one’s physical image or that success is dependent on factors such as weight or looks.”
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More Below the Ad
Lose weight while you sleep! Eat all you want and watch the inches melt away! Wish that these statements – and others like it – were true! Yet unfortunately they are part and parcel of the ads touting weight loss herbs, herbal weight loss products, natural weight loss diet pills, and of course numerous weight loss tea products. Yet as unlikely as it might seem, there are some gems out there. Here is a list of five products that present the cream of the herbal assistance for significant weight loss crop – the good, the bad, and the downright dangerous.
The Good
Although it always pays to be wary when herbal supplements promise fat loss, energy, and claim to be a bona fide weight loss formula, at times some of these claims are actually true.
Chitosan: Chitosan is a starchy substance derived from shellfish. If you are allergic to shellfish, do not bother to read on but avoid any and all weight loss products that contain it. Significant weight loss is purportedly possible because indigestible Chitosan in tablet form binds to fat molecules in the intestinal tract and sheds it from the body via bowel movements.
Unfortunately, when compared to the Xenical (a prescription drug), Chitosan does figure as negligible, as evidenced by a fecal fat excretion experiment conducted in 2001. On the other hand, when combined with diet and exercise, Chitosan may offer a small leg up to the dieter.
Glucomannan: A thickener derived from the elephant yam, this substance provides a feeling of fullness and also has the added benefit of containing cholesterol reducing fiber. The supplement has fallen into disrepute because unscrupulous marketers made fraudulent claims about the speed a large amount of weight could be shed without dieting.
A 2005 review for the National Institute of Health speaks quite favorably about the significant weight loss that may be reached by adding Glucomannan to the daily dieting regimen.
Dandelion: Dandelion is a natural diuretic, meaning that it removes water from the body. This will cause significant weight loss, but unfortunately it is not fat but water that is removed. On the other hand, it is a save means of providing the early success experiences dieters so critically need to keep going. The FDA has filed dandelion away as being basically a safe substance to use.
The Bad
Cascara: Cascara bark is derived from the Bearberry or Rhamnus purshiana. Truth be told, Cascara is little more than a laxative derived from the plant's bark. Yet even as the FDA acknowledged in its ruling back in 2002 that the products containing Cascara were often mislabeled, the private sale has continued unabated.
It is true that in the short term, Cascara can be used as a laxative to initiate significant weight loss with a colon cleansing regimen; however, just like any other laxative, taken excessively it will lead to bodily dependence on the subject for voiding, thus opening up the door to a host of problems — of which obesity may be the least.
The Downright Dangerous
Ma-huang a.k.a. Ephedra: The sale of Ephedra is illegal in the United States, as has been exhaustively stated by the FDA. Even as it is true that it may help a dieter attain significant weight loss, it is also considered a performance enhancing drug and has been linked to high blood pressure, erratic heart beat, stroke, and also death.
Since the substance is illegal in the USA – which is not making an iota of a dent in the online sale of ma-huang — there is no formal dosing guide and your next dose may be your last. Conversely, you may shed a ton of weight only to drop dead from a heart attack or stroke when you finally do go out to buy that skimpy bikini. The choice is yours.
Sources:
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v9/n6/full/oby200147a.html
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/opa-appa.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16320857
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/050902a.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01434.html