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On a glycemic diet, you try to avoid foods with a high glycemic index. So carbohydrate-rich foods are taboo. We explain whether this makes sense.

The Glyx Diet is all about the glycemic index (GI). This indicates how quickly blood sugar levels rise after eating carbohydrate-containing foods:

When you eat a cube of dextrose (glucose), the sugar goes directly into your blood – so the blood sugar level rises very quickly. Glucose thus has the highest GI, the value is 100.
Conversely, when you eat a slice of whole grain bread, it takes your body a while to convert the long-chain carbohydrates in the bread into glucose. Therefore, the blood sugar level rises more slowly. In other words, whole grain bread has a lower GI.
According to the German Society for Nutrition (DGE), a GI below 55 is low, between 55 and 70 medium and above high.

But why should eating only low GI foods help you lose weight? The basic idea is that when blood sugar levels rise slowly after a meal, you stay full longer. Because the slower it rises, the slower it falls again and we only have a need for sugar supplies later.

Glyx diet: lose weight through changing your diet

The Glyx diet goes back to the ecotrophologist Marion Grillparzer. The concept has been around since 1999 and is still quite popular. The Glyx diet is not intended to be a short-term diet, but rather a permanent change in diet.

Getting started begins with two to three soup days, during which you mainly eat soup. This is supposed to stimulate fat burning.
This is followed by a “fat burner” week, which has a recipe plan for three meals a day. By primarily eating plenty of vegetables and protein (the diet recommends 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight per day), you should lose up to half a pound per day.
In the third phase you should change your diet permanently. There is a table for this in which the foods are divided according to GI into green (low, i.e. good), yellow and red (high, i.e. bad). Some foods that only have a medium GI but contain a lot of fat are also marked in red. Overall, you should eat lots of vegetables, as well as regular (low-fat) meat and fish and high-quality fats such as olive oil.
Basically, you should avoid processed products, especially if they have a high GI. Sweets, high-carbohydrate fast food such as fries and most alcoholic beverages are taboo (list: high-carbohydrate foods).
In addition to meal plans, the Glyx Diet requires you to exercise for 20 to 30 minutes a day.

Effect of the Glyx Diet on the Body

In a statement on the Glyx diet, the DGE summarizes various studies that deal with the effects of the diet. Overall, the DGE came to the conclusion that the Glyx diet can be beneficial for people suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus or a pre-form. Studies have shown that diabetes patients improve their glucose metabolism when they avoid foods with a high GI.

Also, a meta-analysis suggested that low GI diets may lower blood pressure. However, according to the DGE, the study had systematic errors. Effects such as a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and types of cancer have been studied. However, there are no clear results yet.

In healthy people, there is no evidence that the Glyx diet has a positive effect on health. Whether it is an effective method for losing weight and whether you actually lose half a kilo per day during the “fat burner” week has also not been proven by any study.

Criticism of the Glyx Diet: The Concept GI

Some things about the Glyx diet can be seen positively: You should eat lots of vegetables, avoid ready meals and exercise regularly. In a statement, however, the DGE criticizes the idea of ​​orienting nutrition to the GI:

Orienting yourself solely on the GI of a single food is of little use. Because the concept no longer works in a wholesome meal. For example, fats and proteins ensure that the body absorbs blood sugar more slowly. So you could also say that fats and proteins lower the GI of the meal. So, a single potato can potentially trigger cravings as it has a high GI. However, if you eat it together with herb quark, it becomes a healthy and filling food.
Some extremely healthy foods like pumpkins and watermelon are high GI. So are these foods not healthy after all? The problem is that the GI only indicates how quickly the carbohydrates from a food are utilized – not how many carbohydrates are actually contained in the food. Watermelons have a GI of 80, but only contain about five carbohydrates per 100 grams. The parameter, which considers the proportion of usable carbohydrates in addition to the GI, is called “glycemic load” (GL). And here it turns out: The GL of 100 grams of watermelons is quite low.
Even the GI of individual foods is often only an estimate. It may be that a certain whole grain bread was found to have a GI of 74. However, another whole grain bread, where the grain has been ground a bit finer, may already have a different GI. Because it depends very much on the processing. It is also unclear how exactly dietary fiber affects the GI.

Other criticisms of the Glyx diet

Then there are other criticisms of the Glyx diet:

The Glyx table alone hardly helps to put together a healthy and wholesome meal, since it makes no statements about fats, proteins and micronutrients such as vitamins or minerals. There are recipe suggestions, but no deeper knowledge of healthy cooking is imparted.
The Glyx diet recommends consuming 1.5g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. The recommendation of the DGE is only 0.8 grams. It has not been proven that this amount of protein is harmful to health. However, there is evidence that too much protein is harmful to the kidneys. The Glyx diet is therefore not suitable for people with kidney problems.
Fructose has a low GI and is therefore not a problem in the Glyx diet. According to studies, too large amounts of the simple sugar are said to promote obesity, among other things. At least the Glyx diet bans ready meals, which often contain a lot of fructose.
The consumer advice center criticizes the fact that it is recommended to eat meat regularly and fish at least three times a week. Even if you buy humanely farmed meat and fish, they still have a pretty bad life cycle assessment.

Conclusion on the Glyx Diet

It is quite possible to eat healthily after the Glyx diet. Going through GI charts before every meal, however, is quite exhausting – and, as has been shown, not necessarily useful. If you want to lose weight healthily, you should eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. You don’t need a special diet for this.

How can you lose weight on a banana diet? And how useful is this type of diet? We explain how the delicious fruit should help you lose weight quickly and what you should consider.

Banana Diet: How it works

For the banana diet, it is important that you use green, unripe bananas. They contain a resistant starch that keeps blood sugar levels low so fat burning is accelerated. These are the basic assumptions of the banana diet:

The idea behind the banana diet is that you eat bananas instead of snacks and a regular breakfast.
You can eat as many bananas as you want for breakfast until you are completely full. It is best to drink water to boost digestion.
A light meal is recommended for lunch. There are no specific rules for this. However, you should avoid fatty foods because they would counteract the desired effect of the diet.
If you get hungry in the afternoon, use bananas again. At this point, consciously avoid sweets.
The choice of your dinner is also up to you. However, make sure to eat very early in the evening so that there is at least four hours between eating and going to bed.
Tip: As with any diet, the banana diet also means that you should exercise as regularly as possible and move around a lot.

Why do bananas help you lose weight?

There is a lot of sugar in bananas. But they contain no fat and no cholesterol. Instead, they shine with lots of vitamin B, magnesium and potassium.

Fructose: Due to the high fructose content, bananas are considered to be a fast supplier of energy, as studies show.
Magnesium and potassium: Both nutrients are important for your muscles. They strengthen your bones and teeth.
Vitamin B6: stimulates the metabolism and supports the immune system.
The following nutritional values apply to 100 grams of bananas:

Calorific value: 96.0 kcal
Fat: 0.2g
Carbohydrates: 22 g
of which sugar: 17.2 g
Protein: 1.1g
Fiber: 2.0 g

How useful is the banana diet?

Although bananas contain no fat, they do have a relatively high proportion of fructose. Nevertheless, bananas are very filling, making it easier for you to do without sweets.

As with many other diets, the banana diet can also cause possible deficiency symptoms. Therefore, you should not follow this one-sided diet for longer than three weeks. You can lose weight quickly with the banana diet, but it is not healthy in the long term and does not replace a balanced diet.

You should also keep in mind the ecological characteristics of the fruit: bananas travel long distances. They come from the tropics and are delivered to Europe, for example, from Colombia and Costa Rica. In addition, conventional bananas in particular are usually treated with chemical-synthetic pesticides, which also causes a number of negative effects on the health of workers on the plantations. So look out for the Fairtrade seal when you buy bananas.

It makes sense to do regular exercise and eat a balanced diet instead of such diets. Such a lifestyle can lead to your desired weight in the long term.

Every year, from New Year’s Day to Easter, you hear new and old suggestions on how best to implement the good intention of “finally losing weight” – the low-carb diet is a classic. Right?

To put it simply, the low-carb diet is about consuming fewer carbohydrates, as these are considered “fatty foods”. Instead, protein meals are supposed to make the body believe it is hungry and force it to burn fat.

Depending on the low-carb nutrition plan, one to all meals a day should be prepared with as few carbohydrates as possible. As a result, the pounds should tumble. That doesn’t happen, because no diet can do it quickly and easily. Losing weight with low carb is very possible – but only if you change your diet in the long term and don’t shy away from more sport and exercise.

Everyone can get in – something with these 5 low-carb recipes that focus on protein. In the supermarket there is also a growing number of industrial foods and cookbooks, from low-carb bread to low-carb pasta and low-carb pizza, everything is there. Because you can make money with diets and corresponding products.

But is all this really necessary? So we took a closer look at the nutrition trend.

Low-carb diet: only for healthy people

Basically, all metabolic processes and quantity recommendations in this article refer to healthy people. For example, someone who already suffers from type II diabetes due to being overweight has a different metabolism and therefore needs different nutritional recommendations.

Low Carb: Diet without carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are basically a very good source of energy, which benefits our muscles and brain. If you eat the right carbohydrates in the right amount, you won’t get fat. Carbohydrates can keep you full for a long time and ensure, among other things, that the body forms the so-called happiness hormone serotonin.

If you always eat enough carbohydrates, you will also do something good for your soul: you will become more resistant to stress, keep your mood and have a lower risk of developing depression. Because: Perhaps you have already noticed that many people are in a bad mood during a diet and when losing weight, are more easily stressed and do not seem happy.

There are two different types of carbohydrates:

complex carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, grain products, muesli …), i.e. starch products, and
simple carbs (fruit, candy, cookies…), meaning things with sugar
The body converts both types of carbohydrates into glucose, but at different rates. Complex carbohydrates are absorbed into the blood more slowly in the form of glucose than simple carbohydrates. Prerequisite for a long-term low-carb diet: at least one meal per day contains complex carbohydrates.

It’s not like complex carbohydrates are any better for losing weight. But the simple carbohydrates definitely carry the risk of weight gain.

Eating carbohydrates raises blood sugar levels, which leads to insulin release. Insulin is a metabolic hormone that ensures that the glucose from the meal is also transported into the cells and stored as glycogen. As long as this process is going on, the body can’t get to its fat deposits, and therefore your love handles can’t get to the collar either.

The consumption of carbohydrates is therefore unproblematic as long as you allow the body time between meals to burn up the nutrients transported into the cells. During this time, for example, you should not eat any more carbohydrates and also refrain from anything else that would raise the insulin level again, such as consuming high-calorie drinks or snacks.

Carbohydrates in themselves are neither unhealthy nor bad, but an important nutrient for muscles, brain and psyche! The clever low-carb diet is less about losing weight and more about not gaining weight through the wrong carbohydrates thanks to a sensible change in diet.

Is protein better than carbs for weight loss?

Of course, you also need protein, and every balanced meal includes a source of protein. Also read: Vegetable protein: These foods provide a lot of protein. The protein is broken down into amino acids in the body, which do not increase the blood sugar level and therefore do not initially lead to insulin release.

However, a few of these amino acids cause the body to start producing glycogen itself. What is intended as an “emergency program” in order to still have energy in times of hunger no longer makes sense in modern everyday life, but it nevertheless leads to an increase in blood sugar levels and thus to a release of insulin. However, this only happens after about six to eight hours.

A meal that contains no carbohydrates and consists only of protein only leads to an interruption in fat burning after many hours due to the delayed release of insulin. If you avoid carbohydrates, you can give your body at least six hours more time to burn fat. That’s why the low-carb diet is so often recommended for weight loss.

Does the low carb diet really work?

First of all: No “diet” works in the long term – unless you also follow this diet in the long term. A change in eating habits is therefore better than a short-term diet. And they can very well include aspects of a low-carb diet.

Ideally, with a low-carb diet, one or two of the three meals a day are prepared according to low-carb. If possible, such a meal contains a lot of protein, no carbohydrates and only a little high-quality vegetable fat in order to avoid an increase in insulin levels and the associated interruption in fat burning.

However, it is important not to eat or drink anything between meals, which increases the blood sugar level and thus leads to the release of insulin. Snacks, fruit, coffee with milk and other solid or liquid carbohydrates between meals are completely taboo.

The low-carb diet allows snacks, but these are generally not recommended because they train the wrong eating habits with snacks between meals.

Because protein also leads to a (delayed) insulin release, it makes sense to fill the time of this insulin release with a carbohydrate-rich meal in order to make at least a minimum of it available to the muscles, brain and psyche. A balanced, mixed-food meal with at least 50 percent complex carbohydrates (preferably whole grain) is advisable here.

Most of us love fish dishes. Useful tips will help you learn how to cook fish quickly, tasty and hassle-free.

  1. You need to cook fish on low heat. If you smell fish in the kitchen, it means that it takes too long or too fast to cook.
  2. The best way to preserve the flavor of the fish during the cooking process is to grill it, in the oven, steam it, simmer it in a sauce or broth, or fry it in a little fat. To enjoy the taste of fish, it is better to forget about cooking.
  3. Overcooked fish becomes too oily to be eaten. You cannot salt the fish in advance – as a result, it will lose juice and become tasteless. 30 minutes before cooking, you should keep the fish in the marinade and sprinkle with lemon juice.
  4. Finished fish of some varieties lose their inherent transparency and become snow-white (flounder, haddock, cod). To check if the dish is ready, you need to pierce the thickest part of it with the tip of a knife: the fish is ready if the fibers are easily separated from each other. Cooking too long will soften the fish and give off an unpleasant odor.
  5. A slightly dry fish will taste better with a garnish of peas, parsley, mushrooms, cheese, green beans, onions, and milk or tomato sauce.
  6. Fatty fish (herring, mackerel, pink salmon) go well with seasonings based on sour fruits such as lemon or gooseberry.
  7. It is better to make vegetable garnish and salads in advance so that the fish can be served on the table as soon as it is ready. If you try to keep it warm, it will become tasteless. If you do not have time with the side dish, and the fish is already ready, you need to remove it from the heat and pour over the sauce, and reheat it before serving.
  8. Before giving a fish to a child, you need to carefully check if there are any bones in it: once having experienced fright, having choked on a fish bone, he can maintain a dislike for this valuable product for life. Some adults never eat fish just for fear of choking on the bone. It is necessary to teach the child to always check the fish that is given to him and find bones.
  9. For cooking, use: fish in its entirety, links, portioned pieces, portioned pieces from plastered fish with skin and bones, with skin and without bones. The pieces are cut across the fibers, while holding the knife at right angles to the fish. On each piece, the skin is cut in 2-3 places so that the fish does not change its shape during heat treatment.
  10. Fish in whole form, medium-sized links, portioned pieces of plastered fish with skin without bones, without skin and bones (pure fillet) are used for poduspaniya. The pieces are cut starting from the tail, holding the knife at a 30 ° angle to the fish. In this case, flat wide pieces are obtained, convenient for quick and uniform heating in a small amount of liquid.
  11. For frying, the main method is used: fish in its entirety, links, portioned pieces, portioned pieces cut from plastered fish with skin and bones, with skin without bones, without skin and bones. Round and fillets with vertebral bone are cut, holding the knife at right angles to the fish; fillets with rib bones or without bones are cut at an angle of 30 ° into wide flat pieces that have a large surface of contact with the frying surface.
  12. So that the fish does not lose a lot of liquid and nutrients during frying, and a crispy crust forms on its surface, the prepared fish is breaded. Breading is the application of breading to the surface of a semi-finished product. Depending on the further use, different breading methods and different breading are used. For a better attachment of the breading to the product, it is moistened in a special liquid – llezone, which is a mixture of raw eggs with milk or water, with the addition of salt. For deep-fat frying, fish is used in its entirety, portioned pieces cut from plastered fish without skin and bones. The fish is cut, holding a knife at an angle of 30 °, dried, sprinkled with salt, breaded in flour, moistened with lezon and breaded in breadcrumbs.

Most people associate barbecue with a warm summer breeze, with green tree branches hanging over the grill and sunlight that accompanies the party almost until its end. But the Big Green Egg grill shouldn’t get dusty in the garage in winter, because this is not seasonal sports equipment, it is suitable for use at any time of the year.

In winter, cooking is even more pleasant: insects do not get bored, gathering at the lamps; the drinks are not heated, and the guests are even more delighted to welcome your little culinary masterpieces.

  • Place the grill in the least windy corner of the yard, as it is the icy wind that penetrates the blower and cools the heat;
  • The day before your planned BBQ party, bring the charcoal into your home to warm it up and dry, making it easier to fire.
  • It is only necessary to store coal in paper bags, as condensation can form on the walls of the plastic packaging due to temperature differences. The resulting water droplets will be absorbed by the coal, from which its quality will only suffer.
  • Close the charcoal bag tightly. Many people store grill charcoal in their garage, which has a ton of chemical odors such as gasoline, paint, or furniture varnish. If this smelling air gets to the coal, then you risk getting a steak for lunch with the smell of gasoline, engine oil, etc.
  • Equip yourself with tools: buy Big Green Egg tongs for meat and vegetables, and a metal spatula for fish. Under no circumstances pierce the grilled food with a fork, as you will only damage them and lose juice, turn juicy tidbits into dry and sinewy. The fork is only useful for slicing the finished dish.
  • Don’t tackle complicated recipes in winter. Bad weather can quickly ruin plans, be prepared for this. Cook simply and with passion.
  • If you want something like that, then it’s time to get a set of spices from the cabinet and make a fragrant sauce. With the Big Green Egg Pickle Syringe, you can make your steak or poultry even more juicy and tender.

If you decide to seriously consider preparing simple salads, it is important to remember a few secrets of success. Each hostess will need these recommendations! In addition, even the busiest man will be able to pleasantly impress his beloved, children and relatives if he starts to act this way.

  1. A selection of products is always available. First of all, it should be noted that there should always be at least a minimum set of ingredients in your refrigerator. You can always make simple salads from them, changing dressings and ingredients. The best option is to maintain five to six staple foods and replenish stocks of herbs, spices, and dressings.
  2. Salads with similar compositions. You can use recipes where many of the ingredients are the same. For example, you don’t have the ability to hold too many foods. But I want to eat salads every day. Then you should provide a variety of menus, but not create difficulties for yourself. Take similar recipes: chicken with vegetables, pineapple, tomatoes. Vegetable salads are well suited for such experiments: changing one or two vegetables, you get new salads.
  3. A kaleidoscope of gas stations. Experienced housewives, real gourmets and professional chefs have appreciated the huge role of gas stations. In salads, the importance of various sauces is especially great. For the dishes to be tasty, it is important to carefully prepare the dressings, always have a set of ingredients for them. You can completely change the flavor of your dish by using a different dressing. Where can I get gas stations, what products do they need? It is best to stock up on a few ready-made dressings, sauces in bags. Make sure to keep lemons, olive oil, low-fat yogurt, and sour cream in the refrigerator. Then your salads will delight you with juiciness, emphasized by flavoring bouquets.
  4. Shelf life. Many housewives face one problem: how to cook a lot, tasty, varied, if the products have a limited shelf life? You can’t even imagine how many wonderful salads you can create using canned foods, frozen vegetables and fruits! In addition, some fruits and vegetables retain their freshness for a long time, if they are properly selected and stored. For example, they must “breathe” while lying on open shelves.
  5. Everything for health. You shouldn’t forget about health either. Salads from fresh fruits and healthy vegetables should be regularly present on your table. In addition, simple recipes will not do without meat. You will be able to use ready-made chicken breasts, ham and sausages, fillets, quickly boil meat. Such dishes for every day will give you energy, give you a boost of vivacity for the whole day.

Salad is a very important part of the diet regardless of the season!

  1. The radish salad will become tastier if seasoned with onions lightly fried in vegetable oil.
  2. It is recommended to refrigerate vegetables for salad. It is not necessary to combine warm foods with cold ones, this quickly spoils the salad.
  3. A few drops of lemon juice or vinegar added to the salad immediately after cooking will retain more vitamin C.
  4. Salt should be salted just before serving. Vegetables produce a lot of juice if done beforehand.
  5. Vegetable salads are seasoned with sour cream, mayonnaise or vinegar just before meals.
  6. Lettuce with mayonnaise and vinaigrette will taste good if you briefly put a lemon rind in them before serving.
  7. It is good to add pickled vegetables to salads from meat and fish.
  8. Mayonnaise in a salad can be replaced with sour cream with crushed yolk of a hard-boiled egg, adding a teaspoon of mustard.
  9. Vegetable oil should be added to the salad only after the salad has been salted by adding vinegar and pepper (salt does not dissolve in oil).
  10. For the vinaigrette to acquire a delicate and pleasant taste, pour a tablespoon of milk into it and add a teaspoon of sugar.

No one will argue: bunches of greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, washed and laid whole on a platter, will decorate any festive and everyday table. But there are vegetables and herbs that are almost never consumed as a whole – radish, for example, or celery root, you just can’t serve it on the table!
Salads should not be forgotten for another reason. Other substances contained in vegetables and root crops (for example, carotene in carrots) are much better absorbed in combination with salad dressing. There are salads that are seasonal, others are prepared all year round.

  1. Whatever the salad is – very simple, hastily cooked, or complex, festive – there are rules according to which you need to cook it. First of all, my vegetables. How? Root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets and turnips) – with a brush.
  2. Salad, sorrel, my spinach in a basin, in cold water, “afloat”. At the same time, we change the water several times. Dill and cucumbers are washed only before serving, otherwise they lose their aroma and quickly deteriorate. The vegetables for the salad need to be cooked ahead of time so that they cool down well before we start cutting them. Hard-boiled eggs for salad must be cooked for at least ten minutes.
  3. Bean and pea pods should be immersed in highly boiling, salted water to preserve the green color.
  4. Salads from boiled vegetables should be cut chilled, then they do not spoil so quickly, they are not small crumbs. Cut vegetables into a salad evenly and thinly, the slices should literally show through! Then they are well impregnated with the dressing and will create a “bouquet” characteristic of the salad. When all the products are put in a salad bowl, then everything must be mixed carefully and carefully: with movements from the bottom up, so as not to break or crush thin slices.
  5. The salad is ready, seasoned and stacked in a salad bowl. Now you can decorate it. Slices of ruddy apples and mouth-watering pieces of fish and meat are also suitable for decoration. We decorate the salad only with those products that are included in the salad. The exception is parsley, dill and celery.
  6. A salad laid out in a high slide and decorated with a “mesh” of mayonnaise looks very nice. In general, everyone usually has enough imagination to decorate. And these are fungi from a hard egg and halves of a tomato, stripes of red sweet pepper, a spiral of apples or an orange … everything is fine, the main thing is to observe the measure.

These tips will definitely come in handy!

  1. If you want the vinaigrette to acquire a delicate and pleasant taste, pour a tablespoon of milk into it and add a teaspoon of sugar.
  2. Lettuce with mayonnaise and vinaigrette will taste especially good if you put a lemon crust in them for a short time before serving.
  3. Vegetable salads are seasoned with mayonnaise, sour cream or vinegar just before meals, since after 2 to 3 hours they lose almost all their nutritional value. It is not necessary to cook a salad for several days and it is not tasty and has little benefit.
  4. Vegetable oil should be added to the salad only after the salad has been salted, vinegar and pepper have been added (salt does not dissolve in oil).
  5. Salt should be salted just before serving. If you add salt in advance, the vegetables will give off a lot of juice.
  6. A “fan” of cucumbers will greatly decorate the salad. Cut strong small cucumbers lengthwise into thin slices and straighten – here’s a “fan” for you.

Vegetables, due to the presence of organic acids and essential oils, have a pleasant taste and allow you to diversify your food.

  1. The daily use of bell pepper has a beneficial effect on the state of the body, since this fruit contains calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, aluminum, as well as vitamins B1, B2, C, PP, etc.
  2. Vitamin A and carotene are preserved when vegetables are cooked, but are destroyed by acid.
  3. To carefully remove the core from tomatoes, it is recommended to use only sharp, thin-bladed knives.
  4. The flavoring qualities of salads largely depend on the dressing. They are seasoned with mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice or vegetable oil.
  5. For dishes with radish, it is advisable to serve sauces with a base of vegetable oil.
  6. The contrasting combination of yellow, green and red bell peppers, as well as white pieces of feta cheese will give the salad an appetizing look.
  7. Fresh peeled vegetables should be thoroughly rinsed under cold running water before slicing.