A New Diet — Bowel Cleansing for Weight Loss
An ancient practice from Eastern Medicine, bowel cleansing is fast becoming the next new diet for the Western world.What is bowel cleansing and does it safely cause healthy weight loss?
Bowel Cleansing 101
Keeping things simple, bowel cleansing is equal to Western Medicine’s laxative. Practitioners of bowel cleansing will argue that their methods are more effective, natural, and completely unrelated to using laxatives.My point is this: increasing water content in the large colon acts like a “wash” to empty the bowel lumen.
Some Laxatives and “natural” substances used in bowel cleansing both do exactly this…”washing” the colon by trapping water which evacuates undigested food.
Any claims made beyond trapping water simply have not been rigorously studied and represent opinion and theory, at best.
Methods for bowel cleansing are too numerous to cover in this article. The only comment I’ll make is about the one commonality found in all of them…non-digestible natural substances.
Fiber like substances can be found to some degree in all bowel cleansing methods. Remaining in the bowel (colon) lumen, they trap water increasing the bowel’s water content. This results in increased pressure and tension inside the bowel and results in a large bowel movement consisting of undigested food.
This is what is called “washing” or “cleansing” the bowel.
Bowel Cleansing — A Healthy New Diet Option?
A healthy weight loss method promotes fat loss while preserving muscle tissue and water content. Weight loss by bowel cleansing results primarily from water loss. This is not a healthy method for losing weight and will cause weight gain soon after the cleansing. I did find a few small studies that showed the opposite results with some bowel cleansing methods. These particular methods do seem to result in healthy weight loss.
Further investigation of this apparent contradiction revealed that the bowel cleansing methods also placed dieters on a high fiber diet.
Diets high in fiber are significantly lower in calories and if gradually implemented will result in healthy weight loss.
Bowel Cleansing — Is it Safe as a New Diet?
Some bowel cleansing methods are safe but others can be dangerous if abused. Critical electrolytes are also lost in the “washing” or “cleansing” process and if repeated too often can lead to disturbances in your nervous system and heart rhythm. Before you start a new diet, use the new diet Safety Checklist. Make sure it’s safe and won’t cause you harm.
As far as bowel cleansing is concerned, it’s my opinion that you have better options for helping you lose weight.
To Healthy Living!
Michael A. Smith, MD
Chief Medical Consultant
Diet Basics Website
Dr. Smith is the Chief Medical Consultant for the Diet Basics website. His articles, RSS Feed, and newsletter, Annals of Diet Basics, are fast becoming the net’s best weight loss resource. Check out his newsletter, Annals of Diet Basics, and receive the power to continuously update and improve any diet plan you want to start.
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What are the Benefits of the Low-carb Diet?
Are you one of those who hate dieting? Well, you are not alone, almost all of us hate the deprivation from food that dieting brings to us. Aside from the fact that our parents raise us to believe that food intake is necessary to keep us energetic, especially carbohydrates. Potatoes and breads are the essential members of our diet from morning, noon and night. Therefore, we resent the idea that carbohydrates are not good for us.
However, your thinking might change upon reading the low-carb diet overview. In the low-carb diet overview, you will learn that energy does not come from carbohydrates alone. Low-carb diet overview will also tell you that good fats convert to energy much like carbohydrates, as we know it to be. Low-carb diet overview will likewise tell you about the recommended carbohydrates like whole grain, fruits and vegetables. However, you should minimize intake of carbohydrates to as low as 10% of your total calorie intake. If you can maintain your consumption of carbohydrates to as low as 10% of your calorie intake, you should eat more fats and moderate protein. Then, the low-carb diet overview will be the best tool to compliment your weight loss regimen and avoid jumping on the obese bandwagon.
The low-carb diet overview will explain how you can best manage your weight. In contrast with the belief that carbohydrates are necessary to build your energy profile, fat may replace carbohydrates in this arena.
You will also learn from the low-carb diet overview that it is the best diet for obese individuals. Diabetics may also use the low-carb diet overview to combat the cause of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia and type II diabetes because studies show that low-carb diet attacks the condition called hyperinsulinemia. Hyperinsulinemia is a condition where insulin levels in the blood are elevated.
It may also be helpful knowledge you will get from low-carb diet overview is the advantages one will get from low-carb diet. Sustained weight loss is one advantage of low-carb diet. Another advantage you will learn from low-carb diet overview and low-card dieting is stable blood sugar, this is specifically important for diabetics and those people prone to diabetes. If you have a relative who is a diabetic, then you are one of those people prone to diabetes. Low cholesterol level is also an advantage of low-carb dieting. Some low-card dieters also report being more energetic than their counterparts who are not dieting.
Finally, here are some basic guidelines you will get from the low-carb diet overview. You should limit your carbohydrates intake to 10% or less of your total calorie intake. You will also find the list of allowed foods, you will also find the list of foods to avoid and foods with hidden sugar in the low-carb diet overview. Avoiding food containing sugar and white flour is also part of the low carb diet. Avoiding caffeine and drinking lots of clean and clear water also help in the dieting process. Taking fiber supplements and vitamin will help during the initial stage of low-carb dieting, you will understand this need better upon reading the low-carb diet overview.
Low-carb dieting is good for everyone who wants to loose weight, so try it to experience a trim lifestyle. However, when you finally decide to try it, after reading the low-carb diet overview, visit your health care professional just to be sure that low-carb dieting is really, what you need.
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