It’s no secret that the exercise/diet double whammy is a healthier way to lose weight than diet alone. In addition to shedding fat, exercise improves your cardiovascular system, regulates blood sugar, builds muscle, regulates hormones, and strengthens bones—potentially warding off everything from arthritis to type 2 diabetes to osteoporosis to depression to heart complications.

But a new study out of the University of Cambridge in the U.K. brings these findings into sharper focus. Researchers concluded that while 337,000 Europeans die every year from obesity-related issues, 676,000 Europeans die from inactivity-related issues. In other words, you’re twice as likely to die from sitting around than from being overweight.

Read more here:: http://lowcarbmag.com/inactivity-may-be-deadlier-than-obesity/

We all know that sugar causes health problems, weight gain and even premature ageing, but the idea of giving it up seems completely daunting.

Read more here:: http://lowcarbmag.com/sugar-free-diets-why-you-should-ditch-the-sweet-stuff/

Crohn’s disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects more than a million Americans. It is an inflammatory bowel disease in which the body attacks the intestines. There is currently no known cure for Crohn’s disease; current research focuses on controlling symptoms. There is no definitive medical or surgical therapy. The best we have is a plant-based diet, which has afforded the best relapse prevention to date.

Researchers got the idea to try a plant-based diet because diets rich in animal protein and animal fat have been found to cause a decrease in beneficial bacteria in the intestine. So, researchers designed a semi-vegetarian diet to counter that, and 100 percent of subjects stayed in remission the first year and 92 percent the second year. These results are far better than those obtained by current drugs, including new “biological agents” that can cost $40,000 a year, and can cause progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a disabling and deadly brain disease. And a healthier diet appears to work better.

But what about preventing Crohn’s disease in the first place? A systematic review of the scientific literature on dietary intake and the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease found that a high intake of fats and meat was associated with an increased risk of Crohn’s disease as well as ulcerative colitis, whereas high fiber and fruit intakes were associated with decreased risk of Crohn’s.

These results were supported more recently by the Harvard Nurse’s Health Study. Data revealed that long-term intake of dietary fiber, particularly from fruit, was associated with lower risk of Crohn’s disease. Women who fell into the highest long-term fiber consumption group had a 40 percent reduced risk, leading the accompanying editorial to conclude, “advocating for a high-fiber diet may ultimately reduce the incidence of Crohn’s disease.”

Read more here:: http://lowcarbmag.com/food-additives-that-may-make-our-gut-leaky/

Stephan over at Whole Health Source wrote an interesting article a few years back alleging that paleolithic (and some extant) hunter-gatherers did (and do) utilize wild legumes.

Stephan cites several examples:

The !Kung San from southern Africa, who in amenable regions eat large amounts of wild tsin beans. Tsin beans are about 33/33/33 fat/protein/carb, kind of a cross between a peanut and bean.

The Australian Aboriginals, who ate a lot of acacia seeds. These days, acacia fiber is a popular prebiotic supplement, but the whole seed was a legume providing ample protein, fat, and calories for the native inhabitants.

Read more here:: http://lowcarbmag.com/where-do-legumes-belong-in-the-primal-eating-plan/

Zinc is a vital micronutrient that’s often overlooked. Zinc supports numerous enzymes in the body, strengthens the immune system, and helps with wound healing, synthesis of DNA, and normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence.

It’s associated with many problems when deficient, including thyroid abnormality, acne, infertility (mainly in men due to decreased sperm count), decreased immune system, thinning hair, rashes, loss of appetite, weight loss, growth impairment, delayed wound healing, and even depression.

Zinc is often used in the treatment of acute colds and macular (eye) degeneration. Medication like birth control pills, antibiotics, and over-the-counter antacids can impair zinc function over time.

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Have you ever wondered why so many diets fail? After all, all of them come with certain guidelines and rules whose primary purpose is to ensure a person is on a right track. The reason a vast majority of diet plans prove to be unsuccessful is that dieters adopt or don’t get rid of unhealthy eating habits that undermine their effort. Throughout this article, you’re going to see how unhealthy food habit affects your diet plan.

Are unhealthy eating habits that common?

The herbal remedy fenugreek could help reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal women, and improve their quality of life, according to new evidence.

Data published in Phytotherapy Research indicated that hot flashes decreased by 48% in women taking a standardised extract of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum). Other benefits of the herb were improved, including vaginal dryness, irritability, anxiety, night sweats, mood swings, insomnia, and headaches, wrote the researchers.

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Nutrition is one of the key, if not most important, areas to address in order to successfully manage high blood pressure, cholesterol and to maintain overall heart health. Here are some of the best whole foods that can improve these health metrics through a nourishing lifestyle.

Blood Pressure
It used to be thought that lowering sodium intake was the most important dietary change we could make to help improve blood pressure. However, we now know that there are a few other minerals that play a huge role in blood pressure control.

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Diets high in fat and low in carbohydrates, such as the ketogenic or modified Atkins diet, may reduce seizures in adults with tough-to-treat epilepsy, according to a review of the research published in the October 29, 2014, online issue ofNeurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Epilepsy is a nervous system disorder in which the nerve cells in the brain work abnormally, causing seizures. About 50 million people have epilepsy worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

“We need new treatments for the 35 percent of people with epilepsy whose seizures are not stopped by medications,” said study author Pavel Klein, M.B.,B. Chir., of the Mid-Atlantic Epilepsy and Sleep Center in Bethesda, Md., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “The ketogenic diet is often used in children, but little research has been done on how effective it is in adults.”

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“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is as true today as it was when we heard our grandparents say it. In 2015, Americans should know that what we eat, drink and how much we exercise have a profound effect on our health and well-being. Exposure to harmful, cancer-causing chemicals in our personal care products, cosmetics, cleaning agents and foods is raising our risk for cancer. And our children are most vulnerable to the effects of diet, exercise, and environmental toxins, and will predict their future health outcomes.

As a physician, I recognize that we all have an opportunity to enhance our health, and reduce our cancer risk. That is why I became involved with Less Cancer, a not-for-profit organization founded by Bill Couzens that is dedicated to the reduction of cancer risk.

As author of A World Without Cancer, and a board member of Less Cancer, I understand that the special event we’ve planned for February 4th, National Cancer Prevention Day, is necessary to raise awareness and motivate people in all walks of life to do more to prevent cancer. Less Cancer’s event on Capitol Hill will welcome public health and public policy leaders, university students, cancer prevention advocates, legislators and more. I am honored to serve as moderator for the panel discussion, and look forward to a lively exchange of information and insights.

There is so much we can do right now to reduce our cancer risk. Over 50 percent of all cancer is preventable by applying what we know right now. Attention to diet, exercise, avoiding or at least limiting alcohol, ending smoking, protecting our skin from the sun and avoiding stress are important to live healthier lives, with lower cancer risk.

Our children are our future. A critical time of growth and development occurs from childhood to adolescence, when we can improve our children’s health, and reduce their cancer risk. Nutritious meals, including lunch in school, and daily physical exercise, are essential for children and adolescents.

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