Diets claiming “rapid weight loss” or “miracles” don’t normally work when considering the long term effect. In fact, these diets are often dangerous. Fads, such as The Cabbage Soup and The Twinkie diets, usually focus on one particular type of food. Thus, these fads violate the first principle of good nutrition according to The American Heart Association (AHA).

Food Hell

Consuming a balanced diet that includes many different foods is crucial when considering long-term weight loss and overall health. In its heyday, The Cabbage Soup Diet was marketed as a “fat burning soup”. The trick was the soup was eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables. As discovered during the cabbage soup craze, The Cabbage Soup Diet lacked protein, caused gas and discomfort, and most dieters regained the lost weight (to include extra pounds) shortly after ending the diet.

Fad diets, or quick weight-loss diets, have increased Americans’ awareness of food folklore. Exercise is almost nonexistent when you hear about fad or trend diets. Mostly they set people up for failure, and the statistics show that people have a 5% success rate on fad diets. This is a recipe for failure – failure to lose weight and keep it off and failure to maintain optimal health. This state of being is called “food hell” for many people who gain more weight after starting a diet that wasn’t right for their particular situation.

The Importance of Being Fit

Physical activity helps individuals lose weight and keep it off. People in “food hell” almost always change their eating pattern without sound reason behind the change. The changed pattern usually lasts a few weeks before the dieter gets frustrated and reverts back to their old pattern. Since fad diets have resulted in little to no physical activity, the dangers of these diet regiments far outweigh any short term benefits.

Achieve Better Health in 3 Steps Right Now!

Dieters need to know how to recognize fad or trend diets. Getting out of food hell; the place of suffering where one doesn’t like the food they eat (but eat it anyway), then reverting back to unhealthy habits until the next cool thing comes around is no way to enjoy life. Better health and weight loss can be achieved in three easy steps:

1. Based on your lifestyle, find foods that will keep you full, satisfied, and focused throughout the day. Usually these foods are non-processed and come in the form of complex carbohydrates, lean protein, plenty of vegetables and healthy fats.

2. Find an exercise program you enjoy, and look forward to doing. Examples could be Zumba classes with a friend, jogging, or exercise videos.

3. Get adequate sleep! Do not sacrifice your efforts by getting less than your body needs to refresh and rejuvenate. There are plenty of current studies available that shows the linkage between a lack of sleep and body fat.

So keep these points in mind and most of all, enjoy your food and respect what different food choices can do to your body!

Vianesa Vargas is a former military officer and Iraq War veteran with over 10 years of personal training and nutrition counselling experience. She offers a free diet planner to help people achieve diet goals in 30 days at diet. Her new book, Food Hell! is available at diet

Allergies are becoming more and more common with people and dogs, particularly food and scent allergies. What are some clues your dog could be allergic to something?

Common dog allergy symptoms can include:

Itchy, red, moist or scabs on the skin Increased scratching Ear infection Itchy, watery eyes Itchy back or base of tail (most often this is a flea allergy) Itchy ears & ear infections Sneezing Vomiting Diarrhea Snoring caused by a swollen throat Paw biting/licking/swollen paws Rubbing the face Incessant licking

The worst of these dog symptoms is scratching, because an animal can scratch himself raw, which can possibly lead to secondary infections, excessive shedding, and loss of hair.

What Might Your Dog Be Allergic To? Tree, grass and weed pollens Cleaning chemicals Prescription medication Dust mites Mold spores Dander Feathers Rubber & plastic materials Cigarette smoke Food ingredients Fleas and flea-control products Perfumes Fabrics Shampoo products

How to Identify What Your Dog is Allergic to

Is your dogs allergies seasonal or do the symptoms for your dog seem to happen year long? If the symptoms are all year round, one method you can try is to swap out your dog’s food. The most common symptoms for dog food allergies are licking, itchiness, and different types of skin issues.

Have you made a recent change in your dogs routine since the allergy problems started? You may need to sort through the above allergy list one by one and try to make changes until you have narrowed down the cause.

Remember, even though your dog might have the above issues, he may not have allergies. He may be suffering from any number of other medical conditions, such as fleas, worms, or hormonal disorders. Check with your veterinarian to be safe.

Could your dog have allergy symptoms? What are the symptoms for dog allergies?. This article, Dog Allergy Symptoms, What are They? is available for free reprint.

It is believed that the first coffee trees were found in Ethiopia. Several urban legends surround the discovery of the coffee bean – the most familiar being a farmer who watched his goats eating the beans, and out of curiosity, ingested one and was impressed with the surge of energy the bean produced – but cannot be substantiated. But what we do know is that coffee beans found its way through the Arabian Peninsula that led to Yemen and Arabia. Coffee bean is cultivated first in Yemen. From there, it made its way to Turkey, where coffee beans were first roasted and then crushed and boiled in water, producing a very primitive version of the coffee we drink today.

In the past decade the specialty coffee and tea business has exponentially grown. Many specialty coffee and tea shops have been sprouting and eating up each other’s neighborhood market share, each of then brewing and concocting their own original flavors and mixes. The way coffee and tea is consumed has drastically changed over the years. Before coffee and tea was only taken hot and straight out of the coffee maker or from an instant foil pack. Now, specialty coffee and tea drinks are made hot or cold depending on the consumer’s preference. Vast variety of flavors and other ingredients such as grounded biscuits and whip creams are added to the drink to have that perfect specialty coffee and tea concoction.

Do you have a old coffee machine and not happy with the taste after brew?, why don’t start cleaning it. A clean coffee machine will brew better tasting coffee. All you have to do is pour a pot of half vinegar and half water into the coffee maker’s water reservoir. It goes without saying that white vinegar should be used. Steer clear of the red wine or apple cider vinegar varieties. Then just turn on the regular brew cycle.

You’re kitchen will probably have a nice salad smell while it’s brewing which you may even like. If you’re not a salad fan though, just remember that it’s a small price to pay for a good cup of coffee. Now rinse the coffee brewer out by using only water this time in the water reservoir and running the brew cycle again. You may have to do this a few more times if you still smell vinegar. Another easy way to keep the coffee brewer clean is to put a glass marble in the water chamber. All the mineral deposits that would usually accumulate inside the coffee machine will instead accumulate on the marble. Every once in a while just remove the marble, wash it and then place it back in the chamber.

It is advisable to use fresh beans to brew coffee as the quality diminishes rapidly with age. This is quite noticeable when comparing a supermarket grade coffee with a coffee made from freshly ground beans at a coffee shop. Remember the supermarket coffees generally have a lower blend quality and in many cases the blends also have a proportion of older beans to reduce the production costs. To ensure the quality of taste, it is better to get fresh quality gourmet. Once you have acquired the taste for gourmet coffee you might never want to drink commercial grade coffee again. You can buy coffee from many different regions throughout the world and each one has it’s own unique flavor.

Trying to make your own gourmet coffee?, start with the coffee beans. Gourmet Coffee beans can be purchased in several forms, by the pound or by the kilo and so on and there are several varieties from which to choose. Some of the most admired gourmet coffee beans include Kona, Jamaican Blue Mountain, and Sumatra types. To keep the optimum freshness you will only grind what you need for that one gourmet cup of coffee. You will want to grind your coffee beans until they are extremely fine, but don’t pound them into dust. If the ground coffee is to fine the heat of your coffee machine with dry up all the oils of the coffee bean and it is this part that gives the gourmet coffee its exquisite flavour.

Before you get ready to buy coffee maker, make sure you check out author’s excellent cost-free resource on best drip coffee maker and pod coffee makers before you make the right decisions.