14 of the Most Impressive Keto Diet Before-and-After Pictures

“Accountability is the key”

In early 2016, Mary Alexander saw a photo of herself in a bathing suit and decided something had to change. A few weeks later, she started the keto diet, an ultra-low-carb, high-fat diet that’s becoming increasingly popular, partly because of the many keto diet before-and-after pictures. After two years, she’s lost 60 pounds with ten to 15 more to go to reach her goal.

“The hardest part of keto was getting started,” says Mary, a 54-year-old marketer from Rockwell, Texas. “Bread and sweets had been my friends for years, so giving them up was really hard.” She kept herself accountable with her Instagram account, @ketohabits: She’s gained more than 26,000 followers since she started her journey. “I attribute all of my success to my account, as well as weekly weigh-ins.” Check out the 15 things you should know before trying the keto diet.

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12 Things That Happen to Your Body on a Keto Diet

You lose weight rapidly

One of the primary reasons people are curious about the keto diet is the promise of fast weight loss. “The keto diet has a notorious reputation for quick and aggressive fat loss,” says Brett Osborn, MD, a neurosurgeon, ketogenic specialist, and medical expert with BPI Sports.

While most significant weight-loss stories come from people on extreme low-calorie, low-fat diets, this is not true for the keto diet. “It is not a starvation diet. Quite the opposite, in fact,” Dr. Osborn says. “To preserve as much muscle as possible while on the ketogenic diet, be sure to feed your body at least as many calories as it demands.”

“The weight loss is both good and bad,” says Mary Weidner, co-founder of Strongr Fastr, a keto meal-planning app. “It’s motivating and really helps people become confident in the diet, though it also is mostly water weight. Once the weight loss stalls, it can cause people to lose faith and fall off the diet.” A weight-loss plateau is one reason people quit the keto diet. Discover the 11 reasons most people fall off the keto diet.

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10 Reasons Apple Cider Vinegar Weight Loss Works

Apple cider vinegar helps to control blood sugar

There are all sorts of suggestions out there for how to lose weight—and adding apple cider vinegar (ACV) to your diet might be one that actually works. How? An apple cider vinegar weight-loss plan affects how blood sugar is regulated, according to a study by Carol Johnston, PhD, at Arizona State University. “Her research provides evidence that drinking vinegar before eating actually led to a decrease in change of blood glucose post meals,” says Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, New York City-based registered dietitian, best-selling author, and founder of the F-Factor Diet. “Drinking apple cider vinegar before a carbohydrate-filled meal can reduce blood sugar spikes that would usually occur after eating.” And that’s not just good for weight loss—it’s good for your overall health, too. Learn some more amazing health benefits of taking apple cider vinegar.

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How the Keto Diet Plan Helped Me Kick My Sugar Habit

I’ve never met a candy bar I didn’t like. For years, I finished every meal with a little something sweet. At holidays, people knew the way to my heart: peanut butter cups and chocolate-dipped marshmallows. For years, I tried to balance this sweet tooth with my efforts to lose weight—which was fine until it wasn’t. It was then, as my weight was creeping up, that I turned to a radical new plan that not only cured my sweet tooth but helped me shed more pounds than I thought possible. And it was easy.

Prior to discovering the keto diet plan, I counted calories. I even managed to drop 60 pounds with the help of exercise. Then last summer, I noticed my pants were just a bit too tight for comfort. I knew something had to change. As sad as I was to admit it, I knew I had to cut out sugar. But I also knew that just eliminating the sweet stuff wouldn’t work long-term—I would eventually give in to cravings. I needed something that would completely reset my eating habits. I decided on a ketogenic diet plan.

(Read what it’s like to follow the keto diet.)

The keto diet plan (keto is short for ketogenic) is high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. It allows only 20 grams of carbs per day, which doesn’t leave room for many fruits and vegetables—and sweets and starches are entirely off limits. Your main food sources are fat and protein, like beef and cheese or chicken and avocados. On the keto diet, you hijack your body’s preferred quick energy source, carbohydrates and force your body to start converting stored fat into energy. This metabolic process actually burns fat from your hips, thighs, belly, and organs (fatty liver, anyone?). The keto diet plan cuts carbs so dramatically your body has no choice but to turn to your fat stores.

I decided to start on a Monday, and just like that keto was in and carbs were out.

The first week of the keto diet plan wasn’t easy. I still craved chocolate every evening. I also experienced the dreaded “keto flu” about 48 hours in—this happens due to a lull in energy, as your body makes the switch from burning carb fuel to fat. I felt tired, sluggish, and unfocused. But amazingly, what I didn’t feel was hungry. Just like that, cravings stopped. Fat and protein, which are very filling, digest more slowly than carbohydrates; this meant I wasn’t hungry at meal times.

(Here are 10 keto recipes that are so good you’ll forget you’re on a diet.)

About four days later, the keto flu fog lifted, and I felt more energized and focused than I had felt in years. Over the next seven weeks, I lost 15 pounds and slid easily back into the pants that had been too snug two months before. The biggest change, however, came with my control over my sweet tooth. Each doughnut or cookie I came across was a challenge—but it was also an easy decision: Eat too many carbs and my body would fall out of ketosis. I’d have to start the whole process again. Would it really be worth it? The answer was plain: No.

When I did finally eat sugar again—the holidays—I feared one bite would unleash a wave of uncontrollable sugar cravings. Fortunately, the opposite happened: I took one bite and I found out how much my palate had changed. I couldn’t eat cake. I barely finished a bite.

(Here are the 9 signs may indicate you’re eating too much sugar.)

Keto helped me accomplish my two main goals: I jump-started my weight loss and I tamed the sugar monster that had ruled me for years. Plus, I learned a helpful trick. If I crave chocolate—and sometimes, those cravings do come—I can happily snack on a square of ultra-dark chocolate (88% cacao or higher) and quietly calm the call of my once-insatiable sweet tooth in a mostly healthy way.

(Don’t let these reasons why many people fail the keto diet derail your success.)

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A Healthy Lifestyle Is Not a New Year Resolution, It's a Discipline

From the dawn of civilization, mankind always wanted to thrive a life of wellness and liveliness, all for a better tomorrow. However, we seem to be forgetting the idea, lately. Today we once again remind you of the sheer necessity of a Healthy Lifestyle and the importance of a balanced Nutrition, in order to achieve it. Nutrition provides fuel to your muscles, bones and joints and good nutrition is important for their optimal function. We talk about the factors like exercise, nutrition and proper sleep; the combined result of which is Good Health. Taking care of ourselves is not an indulgence, it should be a way of life. It requires utmost discipline, motivation and persistence to overcome the attitude of idleness and dullness. Here's to Good Health.

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9 Common Mistakes That Make You Regain Weight

You’re off your “diet”

Dropping the weight is only half the battle: the results of your “diet” don’t matter if you’re not able to maintain the weight loss for good. If you abruptly give up your diet or workout routine after you reach your goal, you’re not giving yourself the tools necessary to sustain it. “While fad diets may be fast-acting, they’re unsustainable and don’t show you how to keep the excess weight off,” says Adam Rosante, fitness coach and creator of The People’s Bootcamp. “As soon as you go off whatever plan you’re on, the pounds come creeping back to where they were, and then some.” Rather than going on a crash diet, make small changes that you can incorporate into your lifestyle for years, not weeks, to come. Try out these 50 ways to lose weight without a lick of exercise.

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Why Most People Fail on the Keto Diet

You’re not prepared

The keto diet will be unlike almost any other diet you’ve tried. That’s why going into this eating style without helpful strategies, plans, and ideas for making day-to-day food decisions easier can backfire.

“It’s a lot more involved than cutting out bread and pasta,” says Mary Weidner, cofounder of Strongr Fastr, a keto meal-planning app. “It requires planning and tracking just how many carbs you’re eating. Make no mistake, it takes effort and work—more so than other diets—and this can be overwhelming.”

Fix: Put in the prep work. “Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail,” says Lisa Davis, PhD, PA-C, CNS, the chief nutrition officer for Terra’s Kitchen, a food delivery service that caters to many different types of eating plans. “Meal prepping is crucial in achieving ketosis because the macros are so specific.” Before you begin prepping, make sure you check out the hidden dangers of a keto diet.

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10 Easy Tricks to Shedding Pounds (and Feeling Great!) This Summer

Make the summer calendar count

Summer is approximately 90 days long. That’s more than enough time to break bad habits and start healthy new ones. Starting today, take a look at how many days you have left before mid-September when the season typically ends. Then, decide on a weekly weight loss goal. Use your calendar to pencil in workouts to help you meet that goal. Pick an event or two that will keep you motivated, such as participating in a 5K walk/run. To find one coming up in your area, check out Active.com. Schedule family bike rides or plan to meet friends at the local pool for lap swimming on a regular basis. Want to get creative? Invite the neighbors over for a summer dessert party, and draw from this list of 14 healthy frozen summer desserts as your guide. This way you can look forward to fun plans that are in line with your health goals.

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Seven Days of Solitude, Silence and Water Fast

I wanted to sit with my self and watch my inner sky, with the space to notice the patterns of my thoughts and the growing emptiness arising in between them. I wanted to clear and crystallise my mind and my body so that I could become an open channel for the words to flow through me.

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Convulsions - First-Aid Measures

Convulsions, or to use a common, although distinctly un-medical term, "fits", often result in well-meaning bystanders doing more damage than good owing to erroneous and outdated beliefs. Let us clear these misconceptions and watch out for the correct first-aid measures to be taken.

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What Habits Make You Crazy Nuts?

I speak from experience -- don't wait until you have a major health crisis to let the excuses, and the bad habit, go. Close the door to that unfriendly behavior and enjoy the freedom of an open, healthy body and environment.

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The 15 Best Weight-Loss Recipes You Can Make in 30 Minutes or Less

Thai steak salad

Steak lovers rejoiced in 2015 when research in the International Journal of Obesity proclaimed the high-protein diet was the winner of weight-loss diets. The conclusion: Increasing your protein, dropping your carbs slightly, and focusing on getting higher quality carbohydrates like whole grains and produce helps you lose weight and keep it off. Thats’ where this fresh-tasting weight-loss recipe for Thai steak salad by celebrity Food Network chef Ellie Krieger comes in. It’s brightly flavored with lime juice, ginger, basil, and cilantro, and once the meat is marinated, it comes together in just half an hour. Learn 12 more diet secrets of people who maintained their weight loss.

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This Is the Worst Diet Advice Nutritionists Have Ever Heard

“Load up on supplements to burn fat”

You might need certain vitamin and mineral supplements if you’re not getting them in your diet, but they won’t magically help you lose weight. “Once a patient asked me if taking excessive amounts of vitamin E would burn fat, based on information she found on the Internet,” says Shannon Giese, RD, LD, clinical dietitian at University of Kansas Hospital. But there’s no scientific evidence behind the claim. Worse, taking unnecessary vitamins could have negative impacts on your health or be dangerous if taken with other medications. Talk to your doctor about which supplements (if any) may be appropriate for you. These are the healthy diet plans nutritionists follow to lose weight.

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The 8 Healthiest, Nutritionist-Approved Foods You’ll Find at the Fair This Summer

Corn on the cob

Nothing screams summer like corn—after all, it’s a true American original. Indulging in this fair food treat is a great choice. “Corn on the cob is the healthiest and best choice at the fair,” says Brigitte Zeitlin, MPH, RD, CDN. “It’s fresh, delicious, and high in fiber that can help fill you up until you can get to a real sit- down meal. Just go light on the butter, and you’re in great shape with this traditional summer fair snack.” Watch out for these 50 things that nutritionists never eat.

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10 Ways Your Body Changes When You Start Drinking Enough Water

You’ll have more energy

The cells throughout your body need water to function, which is why we can all use tips on getting more water into your diet. “Water is a basic need for cellular health,” says Ronald Navarro, MD, orthopedic and sport medicine surgeon at Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City, California. “Cells contain water and are surrounded by water. In dehydration, cell membranes become less permeable, hampering the flow of hormones and nutrients into the cell and preventing waste products that cause cell damage from flowing out.” When that’s happening throughout your body, your energy is sapped, and fatigue can take over, according to a review of hydration research published in the journal Nutrition Review.

How much water do you need to boost energy? Depending on who you ask, the exact amount varies. Dr. Navarro points to the most agreed-upon recommendation of six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. This could change though, depending on the climate you live in and the type of lifestyle you lead. “Some adults may need more or less, depending on their overall health, including if they have certain illnesses, take specific medications and more. It also depends on how much they exercise and the level of intensity, and how hot and dry the weather is,” he explains. If you’re interested to know how much water your body is hankering for, talk to your primary care doctor.

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Include Cashews In Your Diet To Get The Following Health Benefits

It is no secret, that cashews nuts are loved by all. Its salty and sweet taste tingle the taste buds of everyone. They are also the overloaded with essential nutrients, which are the important requirement of the body.

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Tips to Prevent and Support PTSD Awareness

PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Help and support people on this PTSD Awareness Day and let them know about it with tips to prevent.

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The One Food 12 Nutritionists Eat Every Day to Maintain Their Weight

Chia Seeds

Getting the inside scoop on what the smartest eaters eat is revealing. And then there are those you don’t expect: “Chia seeds are my go-to food—not only are they super versatile, they can be used on top of yogurt, oatmeal, smoothies, or even made into a pudding. They’re loaded with protein, fiber, and healthy fats making them the trifecta of nutrition. These three components make them very filling and satisfying and help to make a quick plain snack on the go, like grabbing a yogurt, a whole lot better.” – Brooke Alpert, MS, RD, CDN, and founder of B Nutritious. Check out some more vitamin-packed foods health experts favor.

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7 Foods Men Should Eat More of—and 5 That Should Be Avoided

Eat more: fatty fish

No matter how old you get, how long you can run, how much iron you pump, or how many expert tips you follow for your heart, the old ticker is always going to need a little extra TLC, according to registered dietitian Cara Walsh. You want to make sure that your circulation is strong so you can keep moving at whatever pace you set for yourself. Fatty fish—like salmon, tuna, trout, and sardines—are good additions to your meal plan, she says. “The healthy omega-3 fatty acids found in fish are a good source of Vitamin D, which is especially low in men’s diets should be eaten at least twice a week,” she notes. These are the superfoods that every healthy man needs in his diet.

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Not Sure How to Have a Healthy Life? Here You Can Get Some Ideas

What is the most beautiful think we possess? It's life... that needs extra care and love. But, we usually fail to take maximum care of it. Rather emphasize on having an unhealthy lifestyle which naturally leads to complicated health problems. Though, it is a desire of every individual to have a fit body and mind, but we take things for granted. Having a positive mindset along with a healthy lifestyle can surely increase your life span.

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Fail-Safe Tips For Deep Sleep - One Is Bound To Work For You

When drifting off is a struggle, it may seem like one of life's greatest frustrations. It needn't. In most cases, choices made during the day can have a big impact on whether going to sleep is a pleasure or a nightmare.

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20 Foods That Are Never Worth the Calories

Cream soda

A ton of research suggests limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, which are pretty much the ultimate example of zero nutrition. In fact U.S. Dietary Guidelines suggest there’s strong evidence these beverages contribute to excess weight in adults and children. Surprisingly, some choices in this category are better than others. Ginger ale has 32 grams of sugar per can versus 49 grams in the same amount of cream soda, according to the USDA Food Database. But it might be better to just cut this category of drinks from your diet. For more evidence, here are 10 reasons to avoid all soda.

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Why Everyone Is Counting Macros These Days to Lose Weight

What are macros?

The “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFIYM) diet is the latest weight-loss trend sparking eye-popping before-and-after transformations across the Internet. If you want to try it (or other popular macro-counting diets, like the ketogenic diet), you need to understand exactly what macros are. Dr. Pat Salber, Founder of The Doctor Weighs In and Board Certified Emergency Physician and Internist says, “Macros as used in IIFYM talk stand for macronutrients or broad classifications of food types. Protein, carbohydrates, and fat are the three primary macronutrients that we consume to supply our bodies with the energy it needs to function properly.”

What can be easily skimmed over in a diet that looks broadly at macros is the great variability within each macronutrient group. All carbs, for example, are not equal. “Table sugar (sucrose) and split peas are both examples of carbohydrates, but the body reacts to each of them differently,” Dr. Salber says. “Sucrose is rapidly broken down into its components, glucose and fructose, which leads to a rapid spike blood glucose and insulin, followed by a relatively rapid decline in blood glucose levels. This may lead to an early return of hunger sensations. Split peas, on the other hand have a high fiber content. Fiber is a carbohydrate that the body cannot break down so it stays in the gut after ingestion and helps to make the stool bulky and easy to pass. It also is calorie free,” Dr. Salber adds.

Some people will find all the counting required tiresome. Even seemingly simple foods such as walnuts, are made up of more than one macronutrient. “The calories from walnuts come primarily from fat (including Omega 3 fats), but also from protein and carbohydrate,” she says. “Think of the complexity of trying to calculate macros in prepared foods, junk foods, or the typical casserole or stew that you prepare at home.”

What is the IIFIYM lifestyle all about?

The IIFIYM lifestyle is about making sure that, whatever your food choices each day, your macro counts fall into a specific range. That range is personalized and dependent on things such as your gender, age, daily activity level, and weight-loss goals. You start by using the free IIFIYM calculator to figure out exactly how many carbs, fats, proteins, and total calories you should be eating on a daily basis. That’s the easy part.

How do you actually count macros?

Counting daily macros is a numbers game. “After you know your daily calorie needs, you determine the level of calories you can consume of each macro,” Dr. Salber says.

For instance, I’m a 30-year-old female and looking to lose some weight, so the calculator shares that I should aim for 1557 calories per day, focusing on eating 115 grams of protein, 58 grams of fat, 144 carbohydrates and 21 grams of fiber per day. Using a nutrition app like Lose It or MyFitnessPal can help you keep track.

How do macros help with weight management?

If IIFIYM doesn’t sound all that revolutionary to you so far, you’re right. “There is nothing new about a diet that allows you the flexibility of selecting different foods from different categories as long as you stay in a calorie deficit,” says Dr. Salber. “Weight Watchers has been doing this for years… But there is more to a healthy diet… you need to consider other physiologic effects of foods, such as on the brain, hormones, and microbiome, as well as other nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and healthy fats.”

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So why are so many people touting success counting macros? Dr. Salber believes the focus on numbers encourages followers to eat at a calorie deficit. “People on IIFYM who are able to significantly decrease their calories below their daily needs, should be able to lose weight.” But at what cost to their overall health? This depends on the quality of their food choices. The IIFIYM site encourages followers to “eat the foods you love.” For some that might include a lot of processed foods with a long list of chemical ingredients and bad fats that have little in the way of vitamins and minerals. And over the long haul, that’s going to take a toll on their health.

“Substituting a balanced diet of fresh, whole foods for processed foods and junk foods may make you happy in the short term,” says Dr. Salber, “but is unlikely to lead to a healthy body in the long run.”

Why is the IIFIYM diet all of a sudden gaining popularity?

The IIFIYM site makes the diet sound almost too good to be true. “The IIFYM diet plan allows you to eat the same food you already eat while triggering rapid fat loss. No more restrictions. No more suffering. No more dieting!” Those words are pretty convincing and the concept has taken off like a wild fire. Dr. Salber says, “Who wouldn’t want to believe this claim?”

What are the most important things to take note of when counting macros?

“When it comes to classifying foods by macros, realize that some foods have impacts on weight gain or loss that go beyond how many calories they have, Dr. Salber says. She sites a recent study demonstrating that ingestion of walnuts was associated brain activity that may reduce certain food cravings.

“Other foods, such as fiber-rich foods are beneficial to our gut microbiome, the collections of bacteria that not only inhabit our intestines, but also help regulate factors related to weight gain or loss,” she points out.

And of course, food also contains micro nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals. “We know that vitamins and minerals may have different effects on physiology depending on how they are ingested. This is why most doctors and nutritionists recommend getting your vitamins and minerals via the foods you eat, not as supplements,” Dr. Salber says.

Is there any research that proves that counting macros is effective?

While there has been research over the years about various different diet plans, there hasn’t been anything to prove (or disprove), how effective counting macros can be.

“Although the Internet is filled with testimonials about the effectiveness of this diet, I didn’t find any scientific papers that actually demonstrated that it works. Weight Watchers, on the other hand, has been shown to help people lose weight compared to standard dieting approaches. And the Mediterranean and DASH diets have been shown to have significant impacts on cardiovascular health,” Dr. Salber says.

“The bottom line is there are no magic bullets when it comes to weight loss. Whether you count macros, count points, or count calories, [the success of these diets] boils down to consuming fewer calories than you burn each day,” she says. But for long-range health, the key is being mindful of the non-calorie impacts (either beneficial or deleterious) different foods have on things like our gut microbiome, neurotransmitter signaling, energy, sleep, digestion, and feelings of satiety.

The quality of food choices always matters, and that’s a fact that so many trendy diets like to gloss over. “Declaring it is not dieting doesn’t make it true,” says Dr. Salber.

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What Is the Whole30?

What is the Whole30?

The Whole30 is a clean-eating “restart,” whose name emphasizes the plan’s focus on non-processed, “whole” foods—including grassfed, pastured, and wild-caught meats, eggs, and fish; organic fruits and vegetables; and healthy fats—combined with the 30-day time frame that the official website claims you need to give it a try in order to “push the reset button with your health, habits, and relationship with food.”

The program has it’s ardent fans and it’s detractors. Learn more about pros and cons of Whole30.

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12 Foods to Never Buy at a Beach Concession Stand

Cheeseburgers

That cheeseburger will be topped with processed cheese that’s more filler and preservatives than it is actual cheese. Order a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger and you can save around 100 calories and 450 milligrams of sodium while still getting plenty of protein from the ground beef. For toppings, ask for extra veggies like lettuce and tomatoes and skip mayo-based condiments that tack on fat and sodium and have little nutritional value. Here are the best summer foods to eat if you’re trying to slim down.

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These Weight Loss Before and After Photos Are Just the Motivation We Need

Stop procrastinating

Ashleigh Smith, 26, suddenly began gaining weight her senior year of high school. By the time she turned 23, she was up to 224 pounds. Following the birth of her daughter, she developed type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease that her doctors told her could improve with weight loss. Armed with determination, she decided to make healthy dietary changes and stick to them. The change in diet paid off for Smith; she lost a total of 98 pounds.

She tells Reader’s Digest, “I think the best feeling is crying happy tears in the dressing room because you can fit in a smaller size.” She wants others to know they don’t need to wait for a special occasion to make better choices for their lives. She advises, “Just do it. Stop waiting for the new year, or a Monday, or the beginning of the month or even a new day. Start now.”

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7 Factors to Poor Posture and 2 Steps You Can Take Right Now To Better Your Own

Poor posture affects more than how you look. Discover the hidden effects of poor posture on your health, and what you can do about it starting right now. Learn the major contributors to poor posture and the approaches you can take to achieve good posture.

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Knee Replacement Cost Guide

Knee replacement surgery has become quite common and more affordable in the last few years. It is now considered as a safe option for people with severe osteoarthritis of the knee joint. This is especially a boon for patients who have end-stage arthritis of the knee.

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14 Unbelievable Food Facts That Will Change How You Eat

Don’t believe everything you read

By now, you’re probably well-versed in antibiotics in your meat, pesticides on your produce, and the pink slime from fast food outlets. But even supposedly healthy foods can pack some surprises. We rounded up some food facts you won’t find on any nutrition label, and the results may forever change what, how, and where you eat. Speaking of nutrition labels, here are 11 common ways people read them wrong.

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Finally! A Vitamin That Could Blast Belly Fat

You might think of vitamin D as being crucial for strong bones and possibly for protecting you against cancer or diabetes, but this nutrient has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Nicknamed the sunshine vitamin (your body can only manufacture it when sunlight hits your skin), vitamin D looks like it may be the key to keeping your belly trim. (If you’re considering vitamin D supplements, read this first.)

According to a presentation at the European Society of Endocrinology meeting in Barcelona, people with low levels of vitamin D tend to have much more belly fat. The researchers tapped the roughly 7,000 people in a Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study to arrive at their results. They found that the people with the highest levels of abdominal fat had the lowest levels of vitamin D. Lead researcher Rachida Rafiq of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam said in a press release, “Although we did not measure vitamin D deficiency in our study, the strong relationship between increasing amounts of abdominal fat and lower levels of vitamin D suggests that individuals with larger waistlines are at a greater risk of developing deficiency, and should consider having their vitamin D levels checked.”

While the study only points to a link between body fat and D, experts speculate that low vitamin D levels may be linked to weight gain. Medical News Today reports that increasing your intake of vitamin D may help eliminate belly fat. In individuals with Type 2 diabetes, insufficient vitamin D levels can make matters worse by interfering with insulin and blood sugar tolerance. Adding more vitamin D to your diet—through supplements or fortified foods like milk and breakfast cereal—may protect against a number of conditions. These are the vitamin D-rich foods you should add to your diet.

The links between obesity and vitamin D deficiency are growing, according to Rafiq, but “due to the observational nature of this study, we cannot draw a conclusion on the direction or cause of the association between obesity and vitamin D levels,” she said. Next, check out these other simple ways to blast belly fat in a single day.

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Baking Soda to the Rescue With These 6 Problems

Baking soda is not just an ingredient you use in your cooking efforts to make the best chocolate chip cookies. Believe it or not, this item has a ton of uses in home cleaning, which you will do well to consider the next time you are engaged in any such activity. It is an excellent abrasive, which is quite effective and also gentle enough. It possesses superb deodorising properties and can easily be your go-to solution for some cleaning emergencies. Here are some of the uses you should know about:

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Spinal Cord - How Is It Formed?

Neural tube is the backbone for spinal cord. The morphogen's gradients' position matters a lot when it comes to the formation of the neural tube. The whole structure of morphogen is important to foster a well balanced cellular responses.

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If You Don’t Stop Eating These 7 High Carb Foods, They Could Kill You

Killer carbs

Some people are just plain eating too many carbs, and these are the signs you are one of them. If you overindulge on high carb foods, limiting those carbs can be a life-saver, literally. In one study, people who ate a lot of carbs (more than 60 percent of their daily calories) had a nearly 30 percent greater risk of dying during a seven-plus year period than people eating a low-carb diet.

Here’s how the researchers figured this out: In their Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, they followed people aged 35 to 70 from 18 countries for 7.4 years on average. Participants answered questions about the foods they ate using a standard questionnaire, and researchers categorized them into groups based on their intake of carbs, fats, and protein.

During the study period, 5,796 participants died and 4,784 had heart attacks or strokes. Researchers took a look at their diets and found that those who consumed the greatest amount of carbs were more likely to die, when compared with their counterparts who consumed the least. Fat, however, seemed protective. People who ate high-fat diets (about 35 percent of daily energy intake) had a 23 percent lower risk of mortality, and an 18 percent lower risk of stroke compared to low intake group (11 percent energy).

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10 Crucial Health Tweaks to Make by Your 50s

Get a colonoscopy

For most people, your 50th birthday is the signal that it’s time for a first colonoscopy screening—and you should know the best time to schedule your colonoscopy. During the procedure, your doctor will use a long, lighted tube called a colonoscope to examine your colon for polyps, which can be early signs of colon cancer. The procedure, which is done while you’re under sedation, is painless and the benefits are great. Discovered early, colon cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer—but it rarely has symptoms until it’s progressed to a deadlier stage. According to the Colon Cancer Alliance, colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men and women in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of new cases occur in people over age 50. Colon cancer usually begins as a small, slow growing growth in the colon that, if left unchecked, can progress into cancer. “It is a disease that is 90 percent beatable if caught early,” says Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Colon Cancer Alliance. For those fearful of the procedure, which requires sedation and taking a day off of work, other procedures are available, but the colonoscopy is the most complete screening method available because it can identify and remove polyps in a single session and there’s really nothing to be nervous about. Check out these colonoscopy prep tips from doctors. “If you are not doing it for yourself, do it for others—your family,” says Sapienza. While most adults have a first colonoscopy at age 50, those with risk factors such as a family history of colon cancer, may need to be screened at an earlier age.

 

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10 of the Healthiest Vegetables You Can Eat

Onions

You’ll get the most out of this veggie’s cancer-fighting antioxidants by eating it raw; cooking onions at a high heat significantly reduces the benefits of phytochemicals that protect against lung and prostate cancer. Try combining chopped raw onions with tomatoes, avocado, and jalapeño peppers for a blood sugar–friendly chip dip. Finish with a splash of lime juice. Learn why you should never double dip, though.

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According To Science, Why Low Calorie Diets Don't Work In The Long Run

Anyone who's ever attempted to stick to an extremely low-calorie diet will be able to tell you that they don't work in the long-run and you inevitably end up putting the weight back on and more. And now a leading British neuroscientist has revealed why this happens. According to Dr. Jason McKeown, one of the country's leading young neuroscientists, highly calorie-restricted diets is destined to fail when it comes to long-term weight loss because our brains will try and override the results.

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