Archive for December, 2011
Diets High in Protein and Carbs Can Impact Colon Health
There’s a small study that suggests the type of diet you choose to help you lose weight, a worthy goal to be sure, might also have an impact on colon health. The research included 17 men classified as obese who the team discovered had colon changes that may, given time, contribute to dangerous colon cancer. We do know that diet plays a role in this disease; eating high fat, low fiber foods and diets high in protein are often blamed for increasing your risk.
When it comes to losing weight and eating healthy, cancer risk is probably the farthest thing from your mind. This research gives you something to think about when it comes to choosing the right eating plan for dropping those extra pounds.
It’s important to understand that this research examined only short time shifts in some compounds that are produced during metabolism. This isn’t the same thing as disease risk. The research doesn’t show conclusively that high protein/low carbohydrate diets increase the risk of diseases of the colon, but it’s certainly possible.
To be considered a high protein/low carb diet, you should be getting from 30% to 50% of your daily calories from protein. This is thought to put the body into a different metabolic state (ketosis) where you burn your own fat for fuel. Your body makes a switch from a carbohydrate-burning engine to a fat burning one. Some of the risks that come with this type of diet include kidney failure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, kidney stones, and more. Read the rest of this entry »
How To Perform Meditation
Posted by admin in Meditation on December 3, 2011
Meditation has many obvious benefits for your mind, body and soul. Once learned, meditation does not have to be a formal practice. Using meditations informally throughout the day will allow you to be a calmer person and the trials of life can be navigated in a subtle manner. Many people find that meditation opens their conscious mind to their subconscious mind. Some find that the practice of meditation allows them to feel strongly connected to the world around them. Others experience transcendence and great clarity of the mind.
Meditation is done in many forms across the world. It can be looked at as a form of prayer or a method of looking within for guidance. Meditation is often coupled with yoga which expands the mind and body. No matter what form of meditation you learn, you will find benefits. First there are the psychological benefits. If you suffer from negative thinking patterns or depression, meditation can help guide you out of the patterns of negativity by simply calming your thought processes. When you base your existence upon negative thought patterns, your very life is compromised by negativity. Meditation can help you release these thoughts and begin to train your mind to think more positively about yourself. Calming visualizations and letting yourself have thoughts and subsequently letting them go can make a world of difference in your view on the world.
Meditation also has been known to deepen your connection with those around you and not around you. Tapping in to the collective unconscious is part of meditation. When it boils down to it, we are all inner connected. No matter who we are, what we look like, how rich or poor, where we live or what our core beliefs are: we are connected. Meditation brings about a collective experience as it brings you closer to those you think are outrageously different from you. Granted, the existence of evil can not be totally overcome by meditation, yet meditating can draw good into your life, or give you the strength to make positive changes. Personal positive changes within your own patterns of thinking and through meditation brings good into the world. Read the rest of this entry »