Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Three New Tips to Help You Lose Weight This Year and Lower your Blood Pressure!

Sure, weight loss boils down to a matter of calories in and calories out. But a few subtle and surprising diet changes could greatly increase your pound-shedding potential.

Heather K. Jones, nutrition expert and author of Good Housekeeping's Drop 5 lbs: The Small Changes, Big Results Diet, recommends these three unusual waist-slimming tactics: Tempt your taste buds with vegetable juice, have a vegetarian lunch once a week, and get a regular seafood fix.

The Fat-Fighting Fare
Here's how these small adjustments can offer big boosts in your overall weight loss results, according to Jones:

Sip vegetable juice every day. No need to demonize juice for its calorie count. Research suggests vegetable juice may help control your appetite. In a study, people following the DASH diet lost four times as much weight in 12 weeks when they drank an 8-ounce glass of low-sodium vegetable juice each day, compared with those who ditched juice. Choose natural vegetable juice with no salt or sugar added.

Decreasing the amount of sodium you eat is important in lowering your high blood pressure.

One dietary change that has been shown to help lower blood pressure is the DASH diet.

DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

This plan helps you reduce your blood pressure. You'll eat foods that are low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and have more fruits, vegetables, and lowfat dairy foods.
The DASH eating plan includes whole grains, poultry, fish, and nuts; and, has low amounts of fats, red meats, sweets, and sugared beverages.
It is also high in potassium, calcium, and magnesium, as well as protein and fiber.
Under the DASH plan, you would eat seven to eight servings of grains; four to five servings of vegetables; four to five fruit servings; two to three servings of low fat dairy products; two or fewer servings of meat, poultry or fish; and no more than two to three servings of fats and oils.
In addition, you would add four to five small servings of nuts, seeds or dry beans each week and limit yourself to no more than five servings of sweets weekly.
Ask your healthcare provider if the DASH diet is right for you.

Have a meatless lunch. Research suggests this simple act could knock off 5 pounds or more in a year if you do it once a week, writes Jones. In a study, people who ate mushroom-based lunches instead of beef-based ones ate 30 fewer grams of fat the rest of the day and felt equally satisfied.

Seek protein from the sea. A study suggests you can lose more weight on a reduced-calorie diet that includes fish rather than on a seafood-free weight loss plan. Fish packs fewer calories per ounce than beef, pork, and most skin-on poultry. And the omega-3 fats that fish contains may help stimulate fat burning in cells, researchers claim.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER

Oven-Poached Salmon Fillets

Baking salmon fillets, covered, with a little wine and some shallots produces moist, succulent results as long as you remember the two cardinal rules of fish cookery: choose only the freshest fish and don't overcook it. Serve topped with Light Lemon Sauce with Herbs or Creamy Dill Sauce.

Serves 4

Total time 30 min

Ingredients

1 pound(s) salmon fillet, cut into 4 portions, skin removed, if desired
2 tablespoon(s) dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon(s) salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoon(s) finely chopped shallot (1 medium)
Lemon wedges, for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch glass pie pan or an 8-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Place salmon, skin-side (or skinned-side) down, in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with wine. Season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with shallots. Cover with foil and bake until opaque in the center and starting to flake, 15 to 25 minutes, depending on thickness.