Drinking green tea could help in the fight against HIV, research suggests

rinking green tea could help in the fight against HIV, research suggests.

Scientists found a component called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) prevents HIV from binding to immune system cells by getting there first.

Once EGCG has bound to immune system cells there is no room for HIV to take hold in its usual fashion.

However, experts said the joint UK and US work, which appears in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was at a very preliminary stage.

Researcher Professor Mike Williamson, of the University of Sheffield, said: "Our research shows that drinking green tea could reduce the risk of becoming infected by HIV, and could also slow down the spread of HIV.

"It is not a cure, and nor is it a safe way to avoid infection, however, we suggest that it should be used in combination with conventional medicines to improve quality of life for those infected.

"Future research is also currently under way in order to determine how much effect can be expected from different amounts of tea."

More work needed

Keith Alcorn, senior editor of the Aidsmap web service, said tests on animals would be needed before any conclusions could be safely drawn on the potential protective effect of drinking green tea.

"This study only looks at the ability of a chemical in green tea to block HIV binding to human CD4 immune cells in the test tube.

"Many substances shown to prevent HIV infection

in the test tube turn out to have little or no effect in real life, so I think there's a long way to go before anyone should rely on green tea to protect against HIV infection."

Lisa Power, head of policy at the HIV charity, Terrence Higgins Trust said: "Condoms keep HIV at bay. Anything that boosts your immune system is beneficial for people with HIV, but green tea can't be a substitute for proper medication and prevention techniques."

Green tea has been linked to a positive effect on a wide range of conditions, including heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's

source : www.articlesbase.com

Pure Vanilla Extract and Flavorings Reduce Fat

Vanilla extract is an ingredient every chef should have in the kitchen. There are dozens of recipes that call for vanilla flavoring, and if you want to do a recipe right, pure vanilla extract is the only choice. Those bottles on the supermarket shelves may all look the same, but real vanilla extract is made from only real vanilla beans (the best ones are called Madagascar Bourbon), while vanilla flavoring simulates their taste through chemicals.

During World War II, teenage girls used pure vanilla extract as a perfume, dabbing a little on their pulse points because of its delicate but lasting aroma. If you tried to do this with artificial vanilla flavoring, the only scent you’d get would be alcohol.

If you want to make your own vanilla extract, an easy vanilla extract recipe is as follows: pour two cups of grain alcohol (if it’s not available, vodka can be substituted) into a mason jar. Take six vanilla beans (not dried ones from the supermarket; you’ll need to order them from a gourmet or fragrance supply house) and cut them in half lengthwise. Put them in the jar, cover the jar and put them in the closet where they’re out of the light. (This is just like making sun tea except for the sun part.) Leave them alone for several days and then taste them periodically. The longer you leave them in, the stronger the extract will be. When you’re happy with the taste, strain the beans out and pour the vanilla extract into smaller containers with lids. You can give them as gifts or keep them for your own use.

If you’re used to the sweet taste of store-bought vanilla extract, you can add a little sugar to the mixture, but it’s really not necessary as most recipes using vanilla extract will also have sugar in them. Alternately, you can buy an already prepared product like Rawleigh’s vanilla, butter and nut flavoring, and get the added benefit of superior butter and nut flavoring in addition to the delicious taste of those Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. This is a good way to cut down on calories in recipes like pecan pie where adding too much butter and nuts adds too much to your waist line. Real vanilla extract gives you plenty of flavor while reducing fat.

Source :
Dustinkerry

Keys to the Best Exercise to Reduce Fat

We can all go to the gym and workout. For many of us the goal is to exercise to reduce fat. In order to accomplish this, there are key factors in your exercise performing that are necessary to get the most out of your exercise in order to achieve fat loss results in the shortest time possible. Here are keys to remember:

1.) Work at an intensity that will get your heart rate elevated. Doing this creates the need for energy. One of the fuel sources to provide that energy is fat. As the energy is being used, calories are being burned and ultimately fat loss occurs.

2.) Perform your exercises using proper form and techniques. This will ensure that all of the correct muscles are being used, you get the most effectiveness from the exercise, and that you don’t get hurt.

3.) Exercise self control when it comes to eating. Food for so many of us is the biggest issue when it comes to weight loss and fat reduction. But it is necessary to limit your food intake not only in quantity but quality as well in order to achieve fat loss goals.

4.) Exercise self discipline in completing an exercise routine. It is so easy when that alarm goes off so early in the morning to hit the snooze button and roll over and go back to sleep for another hour. After all that hour is the time you had set aside to go workout. As hard as it may be initially, when the alarm sounds get up and get moving. Consistency is a necessity in exercise to reduce fat.

5.) Incorporate a combination of cardio and résistance training into your exercise routine. Cardio work helps burn calories and reduce fat almost immediately. Resistance training provides payoffs down the road. Adding muscle helps increase metabolism which causes more calories to burn even at rest. (Not to mention the shift in body make-up from fat to muscle simply give the appearance of weight loss.) Put these keys of “exercise to reduce fat” into practice and you’ll see your weight loss and fat reduction goals conquered in no time.

Source :www.articlesbase.com

Author : Jo Chris

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Fat in Your Diet

Cutting fat from your diet is one of the most important things you can do concerning your digestive health. According to M. Sarah Rosenthal author of 50 Ways to Prevent Colon Cancer "Of all the studies done on cancer and dietary fat, the strongest connections can be made between high fat diets and colon cancer." You can help reduce your risk of colon cancer by reducing fat in your diet. You don't have to cut out fat completely, just begin making some substitutions gradually.

Ms. Rosenthal offers some great fat cutting tips:

1. Whenever you refrigerate foods containing animal fat (soups, stews, or curry dishes), skim the fat from the top before reheating and re-serving. I do that all the time with chicken soup and it doesn't affect the flavor at all. You can also buy a gravy skimmer to help remove fat from liquids. A gravy skimmer is usually a plastic cup where the spot pours from the bottom which helps the oils and fats to coagulate on top.
2. Substitute something else for butter: yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese, or, at dinner just dip your bread into olive oil with some garlic. With sandwiches use mustard, yogurt, salsa, pickle relish etc. to substitute for mayonnaise. .
3. Powdered low fat milk can used in place of milk or cream. If you feel you will compromise on taste - just substitute half of the recipe. In other words if you need two cups of milk, use one cup of skim and one cup of regular.
4. Try having a fruit recipe for dessert once in awhile. There are some fabulous sorbets and low fat yogurts in all sorts of exotic flavors in the grocery stores now.
5. Season low-fat foods well. That way, you won't miss the flavor fat adds. I find those spices that come in the bottle that has a grinder built in are very flavorful..
6. Lower-fat protein comes from vegetable sources (whole grains and bean products): higher-fat protein comes from animal sources.
7. Broil, grill or boil meat instead of frying, baking or roasting it. (If you drain fat and cook in water, baking/roasting is fine.).
8. Trim off all visible fat from meat before and after cooking.
9. Adding flour, bread crumbs, or other coating to lean meat adds fat.
10. Try substituting low-fat turkey meat for red meat.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marianne_Wolff

Did you know that fat loss does not have to be an enormous struggle? If you have had trouble with this in the past then this statement may seem a little extreme, but you must understand that it is true.

This article will outline three common fat loss mistakes with diet and exercise

. Please pay attention to the whole article because you should avoid these common fat loss mistakes at all cost!

There is so much information out there that it is time to set the record straight about 5 of the most common mistakes that so many people make when trying to achieve effective and long lasting fat loss.

Mistake #1: Not keeping a food log

Permanent fat loss without keeping an accurate food log is next to impossible. If you were trying to save money, wouldn't you want to keep a record of where you were spending the most?

The same concept applies to keeping a food log. It is absolutely amazing how much we sometimes underestimate how much food we eat. Fat loss occurs when we consume less calories then we currently do. It really all comes down to that!

By having a record of what foods you are eating and what time you are eating them you are laying a roadmap that you can consistently tweak and adjust until you reach your goal!

If you are trying to lose fat and are not currently keeping a food log, go buy one online or get a notebook you can use as soon as possible. But beware, you may have to spend extra money on new clothes very soon if you do.

Mistake #2: Focusing too much on slow cardio

Did you know that slow cardio can be one of the worst ways to achieve long lasting fat loss? This may seem very counterintuitive but bear with me.

Slow cardio can be effective for burning calories and can work well in the short term. It is in fact very good for your cardiovascular system and for preventive measures. For fat loss, the same principles do not necessarily hold true.

What happens is that when you do the same cardio workout (30-60 minutes) at a slow pace, your body adapts very quickly. If you go too slowly, you will not burn significant calories or even break a sweat. You see, once your body adapts, it becomes more efficient at doing the same workout. Once this happens, you burn fewer calories with each repeated workout.

If you went outside to run a mile right now, it might feel pretty difficult. But if you ran a mile 5 times a week for 2 months, it would get a lot easier. What happens is the same workout becomes less and less of a challenge the more you do it. As a result, you burn less calories due to the fact that the same workout is not as challenging as it once was. For fat loss, this is one of the worst ruts to fall into.

Trying to lose fat with doing the same cardio workout over and over is sure to lead to a plateau and almost all your results will come to a screeching halt.

The solution is to use a different method of cardio called interval training. It is faster, more effective, and burns lots more fat calories than slow cardio.
Mistake #3: Avoiding strength training

Fat loss that is permanent largely depends on your body composition and your diet. One of the best ways to do this is to increase muscle mass!

The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn while exercising and at rest. It has been said that every pound of additional muscle burns approximately 60 more calories per day.

If you gained just 3 pounds of lean muscle mass, that would come out to an extra 1260 calories per week! Combine this with reducing your daily calories by 300 and you are losing approximately 1 pound per week!

Many people think that strength training will not help their fat loss efforts because of the myth that is makes you "big and bulky." This belief is a huge mistake! Unless you are eating and training specifically for huge muscles you will have nothing to worry about. If you are training for fat loss you are training to make your body smaller. It simply cannot respond by getting bigger.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the biggest fat loss mistakes that so many people make. That being said, fat loss does not have to be a struggle. You just need to take in less calories and burn more. Making the right food choices and exercising the right way will help you lose fat faster and easier than ever before!

How to Reduce Fat Fast

Nearly everyone is searching for simple systems to reduce weight easily. Actually, if people have commitment and desire to do that, it won’t seem so difficult. Before talking deep about the solution, let’s see some example which we should not do. Almost everyday, we see people who take double or even triple size for food portion. Then, they are taking lots of sweets, high calories desserts and other side dishes. After that, when they get thirsty, they will take sodas for drink. For your information, sodas are considered high calories because it mostly contains sugar.

If you want to cut your fat, those are not the things you want to do. It is just drinks like sodas are wasted calories. Sodas don’t have any good effects on losing your weight. If you say you are really fond of sodas, please consider the alternatives. One of the good alternatives is juice with the pulp. Juice especially one with the pulp will help you to feel full and that is good. If you feel full, it means your appetite will be lower therefore it can help you to suppress your food cravings. Other great and health alternative is water. Water has many beneficial effects on our health and can be used for your strategies on losing weight. The trick is to drink a full glass of water 30 or 15 minutes before having your meal. It will definitely fill your large part of stomach and therefore we feel full. Afterward, when we have meal, we won’t take those extra foods as we have already felt satiated.

Next, we have other useful tips for choosing food to help you lose your weight. First of all, avoid cheese. Today, cheese is very popular to be used in a lot variety of meal, side dishes and even drinks. With the amount of calories the cheese contains, it is not a good choice of food if you wish to get an ideal weight. If you want cheese that bad, you can try our tips. Instead of taking cheese as a whole, try to shred the cheese. By shredding the cheese, you will wrap equal amount of area, with up to 50% less cheese. 50% less cheese means half of the calories you consume.

Another tips, you need to avoid mayonnaise as much as possible. With high calories and so much percentage of fat contained in mayonnaise, it is definitely not good for your diet plan. Then, reduce the taking of side dishes including breads, snacks or desserts. Instead of taking those, consider the alternatives like fruits and vegetable salad which has low calories, low fat and rich in dietary fiber. For the main dishes, keep away from fatty meat. Choose lean meat when you buy. If you have to, trim the fat. It will reduce the fat you will take. Then, reduce the consumption of dairy product. Instead of having fresh milk, you can choose the low fat or non-fat milk. If you find it too tasteless, add the flavors of fruit in them.

Other important thing that you need to apply is being active. Don’t just sit in front of your computer or sleep all day along. You need to go somewhere, do simple exercise like jogging or you can go the gym then do some fitness. If you want to lose weight fast, you need to burn fat and calories that reside in your body. So lower calories taking + exercise = fast weight loss. Follow the tips and you will find yourself slimmer each day.

Author:Jeff Rhames
Source :www.articlesbase.com