Tempting foods may trigger the urge to indulge (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – see a milkshake can activate the same areas of the brain light up when a cocaine addict looks, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The study helps to explain why it can be so difficult for some to maintain a healthy weight, and why it has been so difficult for drugmakers and health experts find obesity treatments that work.

“If certain foods are addictive, this may partially explain the difficulties people experience to achieve sustainable weight loss,” wrote Ashley Gearhardt from Yale University in Connecticut and colleagues in archives of General Psychiatry.

Gearhardt’s team wanted to see what happens in the brain, when young women is tempted by a tasty treat.

They used a kind of brain imaging known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study brain activity in 48 young women who was offered a chocolate milkshake or a tasteless solution. Women in the study ranged from lean to overweight.

The team found that see milkshake triggered brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and medial orbitofrontal cortex–the brain areas that have been implicated in a drug addict in trang to use drugs.

And this activity was higher among women in the study who had high scores on a scale, as assessed their eating habits for signs of addictive behavior.

“These findings support the theory that compulsive food consumption may be kept in part of an improved anticipation of food making properties,” wrote Gearhardt and colleagues.

Persons who are dependent on a substance are more likely to react with the physical, mental and behavioral changes when exposed to the substance concerned. Change “picture clip”–signs of tempting treats, for example–might help curb urge to indulge, they said.

“Ubiquitous food advertising and the availability of cheap edible food can make it extremely difficult to comply with healthier food choices because the ubiquitous food cues trigger the reward system,” they wrote.

The study suggests that advertising can also play a role in the nation’s obesity problem, and future studies should look at whether food ads trigger this same kind of brain activity.

Obesity is one of the biggest health challenges for the United States, and health officials have already added a requirement to President Barack Obama’s new health care law requiring restaurants to add calorie counter to their menus.

(Editing by Laura MacInnis)

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Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Today, obesity is one of the world’s greatest health concerns. Unfortunately, many people worldwide have health risks and expenses, as they face diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other weight-related problems. Obesity also increasingly causes problems resulting in crushed esteems, as well as people being unable to do daily tasks . Because of the many negative aspects of obesity, the passion to lose some pounds is often difficult to conquer. However, the bad eating habits are so embedded that many people are unable to lose the weight without aid.

For those who just cant seem to break the habit, there is a new type of weight loss program out that seems to be working wonders for people. Its called weight loss by hypnosis. Hypnosis itself, most simply put, is a way of relaxing until you enter a state of trance and can access the deepest part of your mind. Once inside, your mind can be re-programmed to have your subconscious to aide in weight reduction.

Hypnosis is more of a way to help you relax and focus. It has been proven that hypnosis is a very effective way to build positive thoughts and motivational traits and ultimately can help you break your bad habits. Weight loss through hypnosis helps the person change their outlook on life and become more focused, be it to do with exercise or diet in order to accomplish their goals. Using the commands given at the time of hypnosis, the person battling with weight issues will be pushed towards following them with no side effects.

Tags: aide, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, hypnosis, obesity, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 07:51 and is filed under Hypnosis for Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Weight Loss: Exercise and Diet

Weight loss is something that does not just happen because you signed up and semi-stick to a diet plan that you saw on t.v.. To effectively and healthily lose weight, it takes a combination of both diet and exercise, as well as dedication and hard work.

To begin, you will want to re-evaluate your current diet. You will want to drop most of the fatty foods you are eating and go for the healthy ones. For meats, you will want to stick to the less fatty ones such as chicken, but all types are a good source of protein. You may also want to eat some nuts or peanut butter for protein.

In addition to protein you need fruits and vegetables. As long as you eat them the right way which is by steaming them, there is a lot to gain from having them in your diet. In fact, with all the vitamins and nutrients in each of them they are very important to your diet. But there are some that are much better at helping you lose weight. Some of them include fruits, such as, plums, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries (have tons of antioxidants), watermelon, pears, plums and cantaloupe. There are more, but these are the more popular, and all of these taste great, so you are bound to find something you like.

As for vegetables, dark green vegetables, carrots, lettuce, spinach, artichokes, cucumbers and tomatoes all help you burn fat fastest. Another great part of adding fruits and vegetables to your diet is that many of these fruits and vegetables are negative calorie foods. Negative calorie foods are just foods that take your body more calories to burn than gained by eating them, it is only good to have up to 10 of these foods a day.

Finally, you MUST include some type of exercise to go along with your diet. Whether it be walking, running, swimming, or even some type of sport, you have to do something daily to keep your heart rate up and keep you losing weight healthily. I recommend going to see a nutritionist and a personal trainer to get an idea of the things that you can be doing for exercise.

Tags: food tips, fruit, nutritionist and a personal trainer, veggies

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 08:18 and is filed under Weight Loss Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Fasting for Weight Loss

People will try anything to lose weight quickly and easily. The truth of the matter is that it just isn’t that easy and if it is, its not healthy for you.

The idea of fasting has been around for thousands of years, but is it really an effective way to lose weight. Most places that you do research you will find that it is recommended to not skip meals or to not eat less as a way of losing weight. Fasting, however, has been considered by both sides of the argument as not really a starvation diet, but a needed shock to your body. The main question here is is it effective for weight loss? And is it effective a long term solution?

The answer is both yes and no. Yes, it will cause you to lose weight because anyone who does not eat for a period of time will lose weight no matter what their body type is. A person would normally burn 2,000 calories a day without exercise, just by doing their normal day to day activities. When a person goes on a fast there are no calories taken in your system, but you still burn the ones stored in your body. This however makes your body go into a “survival mode” where your metabolism slows down to maximize the stored fat in your body in order to survive.

Anytime your metabolic rates slow down, it is not a good thing. This will cause you to make less energy for your body and also retain more and more calories. On the other hand though, it has also been said that fasting is a good way for our bodies to be able to clean themselves out, removing harmful toxins from the body. However, this is only short term. Fasting for long periods of time can lead to serious medical complications.

Tags: fasting, less energy, starvation, term solution, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 07:55 and is filed under Fasting for Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Your Health: Before and After Weight Loss

Being overweight or obese has many negative effects on the body. Your health is a major concern with people who have excess body fat, and should not be taken lightly. If something is not done, extra weight can lead to permanent damage to your internal organs, or even death.

Some of the most common effects of excess weight on the body are high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney problems, diabetes and much more. Fat has also been known as a storing place for carcinogens, which are a chemical that causes cancer. These are all very serious conditions, and if you do not take care of your body they can easily become a reality for anyone with extra weight.

Once you have decided its time to make a move and change some things in your life concerning your weight, it is important to choose a weight loss program that works for you. You should combine a healthy diet with a daily exercise routine to lose weight quickly and effectively. Stay away from diets that extremely change what you eat or tell you to eat a very small amount of food each day. Remember, it is good that you are losing weight, but if you lose weight too quickly, that can also have a negative effect on the body as well. Your body must adapt to the changes that you are making, so it should take time.

As the weight comes off, you will start to feel better not only physically, but mentally as well. you will feel healthy and proud of the changes you have made.

Tags: cancer, chemical, diabetes, food, health, heart disease, high blood pressure, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 07:49 and is filed under Weight Loss Before After. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

In past years it was thought that cardiovascular exercise, such as running, was the best way to burn fat. However, nowadays experts have switched their beliefs to a more intense workout, such as weightlifting for the best results when trying to lose weight. Resistance workouts get the body working quickly and burning fat even quicker. Exercises that involve the whole body, such as dead lifts, squats, or lunges make your whole core work hard.

Not only will you lose weight from these core workouts, you will also be building muscle on top. All workouts are also accompanied by a diet when on a weight loss plan. If you are trying to build muscle, you would want to incorporate a lot more protein into your diet than you normally would eat. Proteins such as egg whites in the morning, and chicken throughout the rest of your day is healthy and low in fat. You can also take protein supplement shakes that are loaded with beneficial protein for when you muscles are rebuilding after an intense workout.

If muscle gain is not part of your goal, you may want to stick to a more cardiovascular workout. Cardio and healthy eating will more than do the job for healthy weight loss. it is important to note that if you do go the cardio route, you should not just jog at a continuous pace, but do a type of interval training where you run at different intensity levels for the most effective weight loss.

Finally, as I have stressed in most of the articles on this blog, you should set realistic goals for yourself and figure out where you want to be. Weight loss and health is not something that is short term, you must continue some type of diet and exercise to maintain the weight that you lose as well. Do not get discouraged in your weight loss routine as well.

Tags: Adam, Adam Waters, body building, Exercise, lifting weights, strength training, Tom Venuto, weight loss plan

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 14:28 and is filed under Fastest Fat Loss Ever. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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How to Lose Weight

Losing weight is really not as hard as everyone thinks. There are a few things that anyone can change in there diet that can make a huge difference when trying to lose weight. Here is a small list of a few things you can do to better your health and start to burn off some fat.

1) Set goals for yourself. Having a goal or something to work towards can give you the drive needed to either get started on your weight loss program or even push you to the next level.

2) Eat a hardy and full breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of your day because it gives you the energy and vitamins needed to push your through your day. It will also jump start your metabolism for the day and get you burning calories.

3) Drink water! Drinking water is a very healthy replacement for any soft drink or sugary juices. You will want to drink at least the minimum 8 glasses a day to help clean out the inside of your body. Drinking water all day can actually deter you from snaking as well as speed up your metabolic rates throughout the day.

4) Be aware of how much you are eating. Make sure that you know exactly what it is that you are eating and how many calories that your are consuming throughout the day. Remember that 3,500 calories is exactly 1 pound of fat – they can add up quickly.

5) Exercise! Exercise is an essential part of any weight loss routine. You must have some type of daily exercise to lose weight effectively and healthily. Remember that any exercise is better than none, so if all you can do is walk, do it!

Tags: drink water, energy, Exercise, food journal, How to Lose Weight, setting goals, wrong diets

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 07:53 and is filed under How to Lose Weight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

This article is form acupuncture for weight loss