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Making Sense of Portion Sizes top

Top Ten Detox Foods
  1. Green leafy vegetables. Eat them raw, throw them into a broth, add them to juices. Their chlorophyll helps swab out environmental toxins (heavy metals, pesticides) and is an all-round liver protector.
  2. Lemons. You need to keep the fluids flowing to wash out the body and fresh lemonade is ideal. Its vitamin C - considered the detox vitamin - helps convert toxins into a water - soluble form that?s easily flushed away.
  3. Watercress. Put a handful into salads, soups, and sandwiches. The peppery little green leaves have a diuretic effect that helps move things through your system. And cress is rich in minerals too.
  4. Garlic. Add it to everything - salads, sauces, spreads. In addition to the bulb's cardio benefits, it activates liver enzymes that help filter out junk.
  5. Green tea. This antioxidant-rich brew is one of the healthiest ways to get more fluids into your system. Bonus: It contains catechins, which speed up liver activity.
  6. Broccoli sprouts. Get 'em at your health-food store. They pack 20 to 50 times more cancer-fighting, enzyme-stimulating activity into each bite than the grown-up vegetable.
  7. Sesame seeds. They're credited with protecting liver cells from the damaging effects of alcohol and other chemicals. For a concentrated form, try tahini, the yummy sesame seed paste that?s a staple of Asian cooking.
  8. Cabbage. There are two main types of detoxifying enzymes in the liver; this potent veggie helps activate both of them. Coleslaw, anyone?
  9. Psyllium. A plant that?s rich in soluble fiber, like oat bran, but more versatile. It mops up toxins (cholesterol too) and helps clear them out. Stir powdered psyllium into juice to help cleanse your colon, or have psyllium-fortified Bran Buds for breakfast.
  10. Fruits, fruits, fruits. They're full of almost all the good things above - vitamin C, fiber, nutritious fluids, and all kinds of antioxidants. Besides, nothing tastes better than a ripe mango, fresh berries, or a perfect pear.
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Ultimate Detox Recipe
Easy Wilted Garlic-Sesame Salad

Toss dark, leafy greens in hot, garlicky oil for a cleansing?and delicious - dish
4 servings, about 65 calories each
1 Tsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. spinach, stemmed,
- or 1 lb. Swiss chard, stems sliced, leaves torn
- 1 lb. mixture of spinach and watercress
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 Tsp. sesame seeds for garnish
Warm oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir until lightly browned, about 45 seconds. Add greens (do in two batches, if necessary) and toss until just wilted, 2 to 4 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

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Are Artificial Sweeteners Safe?
Even though many everyday foods ? from cereals to chewing gum to diet beverages ? are sweetened with artificial sweeteners, many Americans still wonder if these substances are really safe. Are they harmful? What are the possible side effects of regularly consuming them?

Sugar substitutes are compounds that offer the sweetness of sugar without adding to the calories or elevating blood sugar. These non-nutritive (i.e., no-calorie) sweeteners are highly concentrated; their sweetness ranges from 200 to 13,000 times sweeter than regular sugar. They are helpful for many people trying to cut down on the number of calories they consume, to lose weight, and to control diabetes.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved five artificial sweeteners that are reportedly safe to consume daily over a lifetime. In order for an artificial sweetener to be FDA approved, it must be tested for safety. Although numerous studies have been conducted on artificial sweeteners and their relation to cancer, research has found no evidence to support such a link in humans.

With all the dietary supplements around that are not regulated by the FDA, I thought it would be enlightening to list the calorie-free sugar substitutes that are approved by the FDA:
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Eating Breakfast Keeps Calories Down

People in a rush often skip breakfast and then later rationalize that it's okay, telling themselves they didn't need those calories anyway.

But not so fast! If you're among those who think you can escape your calories by running out on them, think again. New research shows that not only will those breakfast calories be waiting for you at dinner time, they'll have reinforcements!

A new study out of the University of Texas shows that people who skipped breakfast actually ended up eating more overall throughout the course of a day.

Breakfast tends to be a meal where it's easy to eat healthy, because of all the nutritious and convenient foods that are traditional for this first of our daily meals - dairy foods like milk and yogurt, whole grain cereals, breads and muffins, eggs and fruit. There are lots of good choices.

But people often skimp on their morning intake anyway, simply grabbing whatever they can hold in one hand while steering with the other. That leads to a lot of low-nutrition breakfasts of coffee and donuts or pastry that get wolfed down in the car.

Or worse, people often skip their breakfast altogether. Maybe it's the because of the morning rush, but many people skip breakfast on purpose, even if they're hungry, subscribing to the notion that if they can just hold out for a few hours, they can leave those breakfast calories behind them, move on to lunch, and reduce their daily intake by one meal. They couldn't be more wrong.

The University of Texas researchers tracked a week's worth of intake for nearly 1,000 people. What they found was that when the participants ate a healthy, reasonable-sized, breakfast of about 400 or 500 calories, they consistently ate less throughout the rest of the day! When they ate a breakfast of just a couple hundred calories, they tended to load up later, even without meaning to.

Aside from the temptation to binge after depriving themselves, there's apparently something more at play.

It seems that any given number of calories eaten earlier in the day tends to provide a more lasting satiety than the same calories eaten later in the day. The researchers speculated that the body's mechanism for feeling satiety is functioning more fully in the morning hours.

That would be consistent with the diurnal sleep/wake cycle that has governed our species since time immemorial.

Just think, even 100 years ago, most people didn't have any kind of light other than firelight once the sun went down, and that pretty well put an end to the day's activities. There was none of this staying up for the late-night comedy with a quart of ice cream or a bag of popcorn.

Generally speaking, we didn't have much need to keep our bodies going into the night. It makes sense that the body's mechanism for sending messages of, "Thanks, I've had enough," wouldn't need to function as well late in the day.

Of course, the advent of electricity has pretty well messed up that cycle. We can now munch well into the night, and we do.

The researchers also noted that as the day wears on into night, our meals and snacks get closer and closer together, time wise. They saw that it was an average of four and a half hours hours between breakfast and the usual lunch break at noon, but then it's usually only a couple hours from the afternoon snack that we go for dinner. And after dinner, it's as little as an hour and a half before we're having that nighttime snack, so any late day eating is more likely to be followed by more eating.

And then add to that all the social and environmental distractions that come at us later in the day. We may be eating as part of some activity, perhaps a party, or even just when refreshments are served at meetings or classes. It could be that we're watching television while we dine or snack, and other research has shown that if we're distracted from what we're eating while we're eating, we'll eat more of it.

Whatever the reason for the early-eating effect, our response to it should be pretty obvious: have a good breakfast. Previous studies have shown that people who eat good cereals tend to be lower weight, and plenty of evidence that shows that breakfast eaters have a lower rate of obesity overall.

But the key here is GOOD - good cereals, good breakfasts- no sugary, 400-calorie Danish and a swig of juice! That sort of thing will only cause a spike in your blood sugar and leave you ravenous in an hour and a half.

That doesn't mean you need to whip up a big fluffy omelet. Instead, have some good dairy protein from milk or yogurt, a nice whole-grain muffin or toast, and a piece of fruit. If you have the time to sit and eat some cereal, remember that breakfast cereals are notorious sources of added dietary sugar, so choose a good, whole-grain selection without the extra sugar.

And don't settle for just knocking back a glass of juice. That will give you some vitamins and nutrients, but again, it can cause a spike in your blood sugar if it's not accompanied by any bulk. Try to have a piece of whole fruit instead.

The most important breakfast change you make may just be committing to having breakfast in the first place. And while that's easier said than done, it might just be one of those essential lifestyle changes you have to make if you really want to reach and keep a healthy weight.

If you start the day right, you can end it up lighter overall.

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The Size Zero Celebrity Pill

When asked about their recent rapid weight loss, emaciated starlets trip out the same old excuses.

They're on a low-carb, high-protein detox or a juice fast; they're seeing this great new diet guru; they're working out; or they're really busy.

We've heard it all before. But in the past few months the smokescreen shielding the secret world of celebrity slimming has started to lift. It's being openly acknowledged that Hollywood is in the grip of a diet drug phenomenon.

"Trainers like me laugh ourselves silly listening to celebrities talk about their diet and exercise routines," says Jackie Warner, the co-owner of Sky Sport & Spa in Beverly Hills.

"If you want to get your body seriously skinny in three weeks, it's going to be difficult the natural way."

But there's nothing natural about Celeb-land's latest take on the trend to be uber-tiny that has seen some of the world's highest profile women shrink to less than six stone.

Poster girls for this scrawny silhouette include Victoria Beck-ham, photographed at the recent fashion shows looking painfully gaunt, while in the U.S., the pack is led by Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton and now Kate Bosworth, seen this week looking skeletal at a Dazed & Confused party in New York.

All five share the hallmarks of being seriously underweight ? chicken wing arms, deflated, sagging breasts and protruding hip and chest bones.

And three of them are "Zoe-bots", clients of the super-stylist Rachel Zoe.

Pin thin herself, she has championed the boho blonde, big sunglasses look in Los Angeles and masterminds the wardrobes of the Hollywood hot property she refers to as 'my girls'.

Many believe it's Zoe who is behind the emaciated look. But it's an accusation that she's quick to squash.

"I don't think it's fair to say I'm responsible because I'm a thin person, or that because I'm influencing their style I'm influencing what they eat," she says.

"There was this crazy rumour I was getting diet pills from Mexico and distributing them. I was like: 'OK, I've never even tried cocaine. I don't do drugs ? I'm too much of a control freak.' "

But despite her denials, fellow stylists believe the image Zoe is creating is the catalyst for a dangerous craze that sees many actresses resorting to illegal drugs in a bid to stay svelte.

"Now everyone in Hollywood thinks they look fat, every photo shoot turns into a therapy session," says one stylist.

Another adds: "If I get 20 samples and 15 are too small for the client, she needs a strong sense of self not to get caught up in it. Everywhere in LA there's someone slimmer, tanner, blonder." In essence, someone who has been given the Zoe treatment. Jackie Warner and fellow LA trainer Chad Mouton say more and more women are using the drug clenbuterol, a potentially lifethreatening steroid-like substance, to slim down ridiculously quickly.

Legal only for use in horses - it was developed as an equine asthma treatment - its use in professional sport is banned in Europe and the U.S.

But possession and purchase for private use isn't illegal and 'clen', as it's known, is frighteningly easy to buy over the internet. It was first used by bodybuilders who discovered it can burn fat while increasing muscle mass.

"It's a long-acting agent that increases the body's temperature and heart rate, which helps burn fat, even when the user is not exercising," says John McVeigh, an expert in substance use.

The reason behind its ability to build muscle, though, isn't fully understood. "It's not been tested on humans - this is an animal vaccine," says Harrison Pope, a Harvard psychiatrist who has been researching bodybuilding drugs since the Eighties.

"Most of the data available is veterinary, and it reveals a lot of bad reactions in rats. After taking the drug, their hearts started to stiffen. So it seems safe to predict that clenbuterol in high doses when taken by humans increases the risk of strokes and heart arrhythmia."

But despite the dizziness and palpitations, the ladies who don't lunch are getting it from their trainers, who sell it as a 'safe' alternative to steroids. "In looks-obsessed LA, the appeal of this drug to women is obvious," says Professor Charles Yesalis, head of sports science at Pensylvannia State University.

"It's short-sighted, but they see it as a quick fix to get the lean, toned physique popularised by actresses and models." Brooke Hailey, of LA's New Directions Eating Disorder Center, agrees. "I see more and more patients with bundles of disordered behaviours: overexercising, over-zealous exclusion of certain foods, the use of anti-anxiety medicines to curb the appetite - it's the culture and it's very, very accepted." Adderall is a drug that's finding its way into the cocktail mix of cocaine, smoking, dieting and purging that many actresses rely on to curb their hunger.

Introduced a decade ago as a prescription drug for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, its major side effect is weight loss because it suppresses the appetite for up to nine hours.

"For the jet- setting, hardpartying, over-extended girl, who naturally is concerned with her figure, it's become the miracle pill - one, however, with potentially dangerous consequences," reported W magazine recently. Even when taken as instructed, Adderall can cause psychotic episodes, depression and even serious heart problems.

"Last year, someone gave my cousin this doctor's number for weight loss," one woman told a reporter.

"He gave her loads of pills: a mixture of prescription and supplements. My brother had a party and you would not believe the state she got herself in - she soiled herself and was vomiting because of all those pills. The doctor never told her not to drink."

She was recounting this sorry tale in the changing room of her gym when someone overheard and asked: "Have you got his number?" Despite the fact that 20 deaths have been associated with the drug, women are willing to overlook the potential health risks in pursuit of a size double zero body.

"It isn't hard to get or illegal. Plus it's more chic to discreetly take an Aderall with a cocktail than to snort a line of coke," says one user.

Greta Angert, a Beverly Hills psychotherapist and eating disorder specialist, says Adderall doesn't carry a stigma because it is a prescribed drug. "But when someone is using it to lose weight, they should be treated for an eating disorder," she says.

In the U.S., with women only having to tell their doctor they are having trouble focusing to get a prescription for Aderall, and some physicians prescribing it to students to help them get through their exams, this drug is extending beyond Hollywood.

One New York pyschopharmacologist reported a trend in teenage girls selling their prescriptions to fellow students for e2 a pill. Victoria Beckham features prominently in the 'Thinspirational' galleries of proanorexia websites, where girls write in to coo about her 'beautiful protruding bones' and gaunt face, berating the fact they struggle to slim down to her size.

"Among my patients, Victoria Beckham is one of the top icons. As far as they can see, she gets invited everywhere, she's got plenty of money and a handsome husband," says Dr Dee Dawson of London's Rhodes Farm Clinic for Eating Disorders.

"It's not surprising that they associate her body shape with glamour and success." A report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine said body image drugs were being bought by children as young as just 14.

"We've heard of steroid-like substances being sold at the school gates,' says Pat Lenehan, spokesperson for the Drugs and Sport Information Service.

The extent of the damaging effects on still developing bodies is not known. "If famous women are rumoured to take drugs, such as clenbuterol, ordinary people will be tempted to do the same," says Linda Wells, editor of beauty bible Allure magazine.

And at less than e30 for 30 tablets bought over the internet, these dangerous diet aids are barely more expensive than supplements and vitamins.

So where will it end, and who's really to blame? At the recent fashion shows, with activists calling for models to at least maintain a healthy BMI, the focus seems to be on designers.

But the lines between the runway and red carpet continue to blur as actresses become clothes horses for leading fashion houses.

At London Fashion week, the godfather of fashion Giorgio Armani went on record. "I never wanted to use girls who are too skinny. Unfortunately, though, the stylists and the media have interfered and the trend is for models who are incredibly thin," he says.

New York designer Michael Kors agrees that the culpability lies with the LA super stylists and says he is sending them more and more size zero samples. Recently, he's been getting requests for negative zero and even a negative zero size 2.

But while women are willing to overlook the potential health risks associated with popping a pill-sized slimming aid, new evidence is coming to light that this trend has a sting in the tail. While clenbuterol and Adderall create the desired sylph-like effect in the shortterm, long-term users are reporting sudden and uncontrollable weight gain.

Having messed with an user's natural metabolism, the drugs seem to lose their efficacy almost as quickly as they helped shift excess pounds. Jackie Warner has seen the body backlash first-hand. "A friend on clen lost weight, but after a while the drug stopped working," she says. "She was just eating tuna and told me: "If I eat anything, I just blow up.' "

It's an ironic twist that the threat of weight gain, rather than the risk of serious illness or even death, may hold more sway over young women's decision to dabble with Hollywood's most dangerous diet.
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The Russian Gymnast Diet

Credit: Fading Obsessions

This is the diet of Olympic silver medalist Irina Tschachina ( 5"6 and weighs only 99lbs!) it was such a success for her now many other Russian

Gymnasts are following this diet. Here it is: Anyone on this diet for 5-7 days can loose between 4 lbs-11 lbs
*non carbonated means non fizzy, so like normal water.
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General Motors Diet

During the first seven days you must abstain from all alcohol
You must drink 10 glasses of water each day
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Food That Make You Feel Full
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100 Calorie Food Choices

1 cup puffed rice & 1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup puffed wheat & 1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 English muffin & 1/2 tsp butter
1 slice toast & 1 tsp jelly
1 rice cake & 1 T. peanut butter
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 cup skim milk
1 large apple
1 pear
1 small banana
1 cup chicken rice soup
1 cup beef barley soup
1 oz. mozzarella cheese
1 cup minestrone soup
1 cup turkey vegetable soup
1 cup chicken noodle soup
1 cup peas & carrots
1/2 cup prune juice
4 oz. shrimp
2 oz turkey
1/2 cup sherbet
1 cup apple juice
10 walnut halves
15 almonds
4 brazil nuts
30 pistachios
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 cup fruit cocktail
1 ear corn
1 tea matzo
1 tortilla
1 small pita (1 oz.)
1 small oatmeal cookie
1 tsp. peanut butter
1 frozen fruit bar
1/2 cup fat-free frozen yogurt

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75 Calorie Food Choices

1 slice bread
3 cups air-popped popcorn
1 slice American cheese (3/4 oz.)
4 raw kumquats
1 Milano cookie
2 shortbread cookies
1 medium apple
1 large pineapple slice
1 hard boiled egg

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50 Calorie Food Choices

1 Peach
1 cup watermelon cubes
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 papaya
1/2 mango or 1 kiwi
4 oz. orange juice
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 small orange
1 slice cantaloupe
10 small cherries or 1 small apple
2 apricots
1/2 cup fruit salad
1 large tangerine
1 sesame breadstick
2 graham crackers
3 Ritz crackers
10 oyster crackers
2 triscuits
2 saltines
1 Pecan Sandie
1 Oreo
1 Lady Finger
1 cup bean sprouts
5 animal crackers
2 arrowroot cookies
1 fig bar
3 ginger snaps

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25 Calorie Food Choices

5 stalks celery
5 zucchini sticks
1 cup raw green beans
1 large carrot
1 tomato
1 small plum
1 prune
1 apricot
1 stalk broccoli
1/2 cup beets
9 brussel sprouts
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup spinach (cooked)
1 large green pepper
12 radishes
2 whole cucumbers
1 cup cauliflower
7 oz. lettuce
2 large dill pickles
2 large olives
1 saltine
1 marshmallow

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