Diabetes

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4 Reasons Why You Should Eat Real Food

Published by on 30th June 2023

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Real food is usually unprocessed or minimally processed foods that are rich in nutrients and is a whole single ingredient. For thousands of years, whole foods was 100% of the human diet. Today, many foods are processed, packed in unnecessary calories and harmful to human health. Eating whole foods is the best way to achieve good health and have a quality life.  Here are 4 big reasons why you should eat real food:

Packed in Nutrition

Real foods are loaded in vitamins and minerals. Daily dietary needs can be easily met in whole foods unlike processed foods which are high in calories for the wrong reasons. Ever wonder why your take-out doesn’t keep you feeling full for long? Processed foods don’t feed what your body actually needs and can quickly make you feel hungry again. Maintaining a balanced diet based on real foods can not only give your body the nutrition it needs but can also keep you feeling full for longer.

Prevents Sickness and Disease

It’s no secret sugary foods and refined carbs can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a whole list of other illnesses. Real foods are generally much lower in sugar than processed foods and processed foods are known to cause inflammation which is a major driver of heart disease. The good news is, it is never too late to get healthy. Giving our body’s the nutrients it needs can not only prevent illness and disease but can also prevent conditions from getting worse or even reverse certain illnesses.

Energy Boosting

Feeling tired after a big meal? Contrary to popular belief, feeling tired after a meal is not normal. Food is supposed to boost energy levels which is why many people eat before a workout. Healthy carbs, proteins and fats boost energy levels and give us the strength to power through a workout. Real foods give us the energy to keep our bodies working through the rest of the day.

Real Foods are Delicious

Believe it or not, real foods are delicious. Switching from an unhealthy diet to a healthy one is hard. The good news is, starting is the most difficult part. Once healthy eating becomes part of your permanent lifestyle, you will start to notice you no longer crave the foods you used to crave. Real foods will one day become the foods you naturally crave for. There is nothing better than a home cooked meal using real and fresh ingredients!

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Beautiful domestic girl eating chips, drinking soda, watching tv, sitting at sofa at home. Copy space.

4 Ways to Stop Emotional Eating

Published by on 21st April 2023

 

Emotional eating can greatly affect our weight-loss efforts. While food can give us a sense of comfort, we can also use food to relieve stress or to simply feel better. This type of eating is a way of filling our emotional needs and not our stomachs. Unfortunately, emotional eating usually makes us feel worse afterwards and leads to overeating accompanied with guilt. Emotional eating can be controlled as long as we can identify our triggers which are key to staying in control.

 

 

Start a Food Diary

Keep a food diary and log everything you eat every day. Be sure to include when you ate and how you felt while eating. Over time you may be able to find patterns between your mood and the food you ate. Identifying emotional triggers will help you stay in control and help you differentiate cravings from real hunger.

Find Other Ways to Relieve Stress

Finding other ways to relieve stress will stop us from opening the fridge or scrounging the pantry. Activities such as yoga, reading a book or writing are all great ways to relieve stress. Even simple deep breathing is a form of meditation that can be done anywhere to help us regulate our emotions.

Keep the Temptations Away

If there is no junk food at home, then we can’t eat any! Toss out or give away foods that are high in fat, sugars or calories. Replace unhealthy foods with real foods. Whenever you are feeling a little down, grabbing an apple instead of a bag of chips will not only support weight-loss, but you won’t feel guilty about it afterwards!

Seek Support

During moments of sadness or anxiety make sure to resist isolation. Having a family member come visit or even making a quick phone call can relieve negative emotions. The key to overcoming emotional eating is to find other ways to cope with our emotions other than eating.

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Are Avocados Good For Diabetes?

Are Avocados Good For Diabetes?

Published by on 15th September 2021

If you have type 2 diabetes, you’re probably worried about the effects of everything you eat. You may also be overweight and feel it’s almost impossible to lose excess pounds and stay healthy. At Pro Weight Loss in Massachusetts, we understand your confusion. We also know that even thought you have diabetes, your body is unique and you may require even more refinement in your diet. Eliminating food high in calories isn’t necessarily a good option. For instance, avocados are high in both fat and calories, but it’s healthy fat. Avocados provide other benefits for diabetics and could be a good addition to the diet.

Controlling your blood sugar is important.

Carbohydrates tend to cause spikes in blood sugar levels that can create havoc in the body of a diabetic. Luckily, avocados don’t have much of an effect on blood sugar levels. They are low in carbs and according to a more recent study, including a half an avocado in a traditional diabetic lunch has little or no effect on blood sugar levels in overweight, yet healthy people. An avocado is a high-fiber food. Soluble fiber tends to slow the absorption of glucose by increasing the thickness of the contents during digestion. That slowing of the digestion of carbs and glucose absorption helps prevent spikes in blood sugar.

Avocados may help regulate sugar metabolism because of the nutrients they contain.

Avocados are a rich source of vitamins, phytonutrients and minerals that are beneficial to weight loss. It’s also a good source of vitamin K. Vitamin K aids in the regulation of insulin sensitivity and sugar metabolism. One study tested both men and women for vitamin K intake. The results showed that the those that ranked in the top 25% of intake had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes. Leafy greens were another good source of vitamin K. Another survey showed that eating a medium avocado daily reduced the risk of metabolic syndrome by 50%.

Avocados help diminish belly fat.

Research on the fat and oils in avocados triggered interesting results. Avocado oil is rich in oleic and monounsaturated fatty acids. Switching from regular cooking oil to avocado oil can help reduce abdominal fat, which can lower the risk of metabolic syndrome. One study compared a two groups, one used oils high in polyunsaturated fat, such as a flax/safflower blend and the other used oil high in oleic fatty acids, like avocado oil. The group using the high-oleic oil daily for four weeks reduced abdominal fat 1.6% more. Using monounsaturated fat may also prevent belly fat.

  • You need fat to absorb many nutrients. Avocados can provide that fat. It’s monounsaturated, which has shown to increase absorption of fat soluble nutrients, such as carotenoids, compared to saturated and polyunsaturated fat.
  • Help keep your cholesterol in check with an avocado a day. One study compared a low fat diet with two medium fat ones, one containing avocado and one not. The diet containing avocado lowered LDL—bad cholesterol—levels by 13.5 mg/dL compared to the low fat diet.
  • Avocados are high in antioxidants, which can neutralize free radicals that attack your mitochondria that are responsible for regulating metabolic activity and providing energy. Damaging mitochondria negatively affects your metabolism.
  • Research showed that consuming food higher in monounsaturated fat, compared to those consuming higher amounts of saturated fat, were more active and had a 4.5% higher post-meal metabolism.

For more information, contact us today at ProWeightLoss

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