Sunday, June 26, 2011

How the hCG Diet can Help Diabetes

How the HCG Diet can Help Diabetes


The HCG diet has proven to help many people shed excess weight and live healthier, happier lives overall. The diet program has also proven to be extremely beneficial to individuals with certain pre-existing health conditions and problems. It turns out that the program is even helpful to people with diabetes who are looking for a way to lose weight and still manage their health.

Is It Right For You?

What type of diabetes you have, and the extent of the problem, determines whether the HCG diet program will be good for you. There are two different types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. While both types can benefit from the program, people with Type 2 diabetes will benefit greater than those with Type 1.

Type 2 Diabetes

People with Type 2 diabetes will have bigger benefits from the HCG diet program because they are not insulin dependent. This is the most common form of diabetes and excessive, abnormal fat is often a big contributing factor. Because of this, most people with Type 2 diabetes are encouraged to embark on a weight loss management program anyway as a way to help get the problem under control. After discussing the plan with a physician, you can start the HCG diet which will see the extra pounds begin to drop off immediately. This results in better blood pressure levels, improved blood sugar in the body and less strain on the heart. You will begin to see these positive results in a matter of days, with the stabilization of glucose in the body dropping to normal levels within weeks.

Pre-Diabetic

If you are pre-diabetic, you will absolutely benefit from the HCG diet program as well. In addition to shedding excess weight which is a huge contributing factor in Type 2 diabetes, you will also be eating much healthier foods. Part of the diet plan involves restricting your carbohydrates and eliminating sugar all together. By losing weight and eating better, you will lower the blood sugar in your body and prevent you from developing long term health problems.

Getting Started

Whether you are pre-diabetic, have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, you will benefit from the HCG diet program. The combination of weight loss and healthy eating habits will help to improve your health dramatically. Just as with any diet or fitness program, be sure to consult your physician first. If you are taking any medication, be sure to discuss how it will affect your diet and whether or not you can reduce the amount once you start to see the positive effects of the diet.

While as a diabetic you may be used to injections, we recommend HCG oral drops because of these advantages.

hCG Diet and Alcohol

Many people who are interested in the HCG diet program want to know whether or not alcohol can be consumed while participating in the diet. While it is not recommended or advised to consume alcohol while on the diet, it does not have to be completely thrown out. In fact, some people have found the HCG diet to be extremely successful even with the occasional alcoholic beverage being consumed.


Reasons To Avoid Alcohol

The reason why alcohol should be avoided is because it is basically just empty calories. When you are on the HCG diet whether injections or hcg oral drops, your daily caloric intake is drastically reduced, making it that much more important to consume foods that are healthy for the body.

Alcohol can:

• Slow down weight loss.

• Contain empty calories.

• Contain an overload of sugar, especially when consumed with soda and other high-calorie mixers.

• Essentially ruin the weight loss from the HCG formula.

The good thing about the HCG diet is that it has been shown to reduce alcohol cravings in regular social drinkers. This is because HCG interacts directly with the hypothalamus. It helps control the area of the brain responsible for eating and drinking. So not only does it curb your food cravings, but also your craving for alcoholic beverages. This helps you keep your consumption of alcohol to a minimum so that you can achieve the most from your diet.

Alcohol Options


If you must have a drink, there are a couple options. The first is to have an orange juice and vodka. To reduce your calories to a minimum when having a drink, you might try having a vodka and soda water with a squeeze of lemon. Remember that this should still only be consumed on occasion and in moderation. Even if you do have a drink or two, do not feel like you have ruined your diet. It seems that a single drink does not tend to have a lasting effect on the overall weight loss of the dieter.

Once you are finished with the diet, you will be allowed to incorporate small amounts of alcohol back into your lifestyle. For example, you can have a single glass of red wine with your meal to take advantage of the various health benefits of wine. Remember that as a general rule, it’s best to stay away from most forms of alcohol in order to maintain your new, healthy weight in the long run. You’ll feel much better for it, and will notice the cravings diminish overtime.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

What to Eat While on the HCG Diet

The hCG diet is something that most people look into trying since it does produce weight loss results. However, many people wonder just what can you eat while on the hCG diet. There are numerous options of what you can eat, however, you must keep in mind that the idea is to only eat 500 calories a day in conjunction with the hCG hormone shot that those people on the diet take.


For breakfast, there are no real foods that you eat. However, you can have 1 cup cereal (Total, Special K, Cheerios) with ½ cup fat free milk or 1 boiled egg with 1 slice Ezekiel Bread or the egg can be 1 cup scrambled egg white. You should focus on drinking coffees and caffeine free green tea. You may have 1 cup a day. Most professionals point out that drinking organic coffees and teas are the best way to go. You may add 1 teaspoon of saccharin. This means that no regular sugar or cream should be added to the coffee, and no regular sugars to the tea. You can also substitute 1 teaspoon of maple syrup to the tea instead of sugar. This is why getting naturally flavored coffees and teas are the best way to go so you can have some flavor in the morning.

For lunch and dinner, your meal will consist of proteins and vegetables. Protein wise, you will want to eat only those meats that are cut lean such as beef or veal. Or you can eat chicken that has the skin removed. You can also choose fish to eat that is low in mercury. Vegetable wise, you can choose from spinach, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes or celery. The important thing to remember about these vegetables is that you do not want to fry or cook this with some type of oil. Instead, steam, boil or grill these vegetables. You can also choose to eat them raw, however, most prefer to cook them. IN addition, you are only allowed one vegetables with the protein of your choice.

You also have a few fruits to choose from that you can add to your lunch or dinner. For example, a small apple, grapefruit or strawberries can be added to the meal in order to make it more filling.

When choosing what to eat for lunch and dinner be sure to choose a different protein and vegetables for each meal that way you are getting a different source of protein with each meal. If you find that you are still hungry throughout the day, then drink plenty of water. In fact, you should continuously drink water in order to curb your appetite.

According to Dr. Simeons manuscripts, “Pounds and Inches” – showing the original 500 calorie a day diet, your day should look like this:

Breakfast:

1. Tea or Coffee in any quantity without sugar. Only one tablespoon of milk allowed in 24 hrs. Saccharin or Stevia may be used as a sweetener.

Lunch:

1. 5 ounces of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, turkey or shrimp. All visible fat must be carefully removed before cooking, and the meat must be weighed raw. It must be boiled or grilled without additional fat. The chicken breast must be removed from the bird.

2. One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following: Spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens, green salad, tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage.

3. One Ezekiel bread or one Melba toast.

4. An apple, orange, or a handful of strawberries or one-half grapefruit.

Dinner:

1. The same four choices as lunch (above).

HCG Diet Precautions

The hCG Diet that was created by Dr. Simeons back in the 1950s has been enjoying a new spell of popularity thanks to a nod from Kevin Trudeau. In his diet book, Mr. Trudeau talks of the benefit of using HCG and organic foods to promote healthy weight loss. While this might be true, there are many skeptics of the approach.


Dr. Simeons researched for many years into the causes and potential treatments of obesity. While it was originally thought that overweight and obese people were fat because of overeating or not being disciplined enough when it came to restricting calories. Dr. Simeons’ research led him to conclude that some medical conditions actually changed a mechanism in the body that regulates food storage. When some people started a calorie-restricted diet, they would actually gain weight as their bodies viewed the calorie restriction as starvation and began to turn all intake of food into fat storage for the “famine” the body thought it was experiencing.

Using hCG, or human chorionic gonadatropin, patients were able to follow a very restricted calorie diet and lose a great deal of weight. Dr. Simeons felt as though he had created an obesity cure and many doctors of the time agreed. Today there is a renewed interest that is again drawing critics to this method of weight loss.

The critics of the hCG diet say that hCG is dangerous and should not be used by anyone to lose weight or for any other reason. Dangers sited include nausea, pain and headaches. Vomiting and fatigue has also been reported. The Food and Drug Administration have not approved hCG usage and so the results that are often reported are deemed by some to be completely fabricated. Odd symptoms of depression and weight gain are not unheard of, which fly in the face of what the proponents of hCG therapy claim.

Is there any truth to the claims of hCG being unsafe? Perhaps there are a few risks, but honestly, most of them are only going to happen when there is an over usage of the hCG. When taken as prescribed, hCG supplements accompanying a healthy diet plan of restricted calories is helpful in most patients. Clinical research has been carried out in many different clinics and has been proven as safe as or even safer than any of the over-the-counter weight loss methods available in your local drug store. Before starting any weight loss system, check with your doctor.

Glossary

HCG – human chorionic gonadotropin.


Structured Fat – Found between joints and organs.

Normal Fat – Located throughout the body; Used to meet your bodies nutritional needs.

Abnormal Fat – Deposits that cause obesity; Only drawn upon during starvation and/or pregnancy.

placenta – The after-birth. In women, a large and highly complex organ through which the child in the womb receives its nourishment from the mother’s body. It is the organ in which HCG is manufactured and then given off into the mother’s blood.

Pounds and Inches: A NEW APPROACH TO OBESITY – a manuscript written by Dr. A.T.W. SIMEONS.

Pituitary Gland – the main endocrine gland. It is a small structure in the head. It is called the master gland because it produces hormones that control other glands and many body functions including growth. The pituitary consists of the anterior and posterior pituitary.

Normal Saline – low concentration of salt in water equal to the salinity of body fluids.

Calorie – A unit of energy-producing potential equal to this amount of heat that is contained in food and released upon oxidation by the body.

Congenital – of or pertaining to a condition present at birth, whether inherited or caused by the environment, esp. the uterine environment.

Cholesterol – is a waxy steroid metabolite found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes, where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity in addition, cholesterol is an important component for the manufacture of bile acids, steroid hormones, and fat- soluble vitamins including Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K.

Assimilate – Absorb digested food from the intestines.

Adrenals – of or produced by the adrenal glands.

Ndocrine – We distinguish endocrine and exocrine glands. The former produce hormones, chemical regulators, which they secrete directly into the blood circulation in the gland and from where they are carried all over the body. Examples: of endocrine glands are the pituitary, the thyroid and the adrenals. Exocrine glands produce a visible secretion such as saliva, sweat, urine. There are also glands which are endocrine and exocrine. Examples are the testicles, the prostate and the pancreas, which produces the hormone insulin and digestive ferments which flow from the gland into the intestinal tract. Endocrine glands are closely inter-dependent of each other, they are linked to the autonomous nervous system and the diencephalon presides over this whole incredibly complex regulatory system.

Cortex – Outer covering or rind. The term is applied to the outer part of the adrenals but is also used to describe the gray matter which covers the white matter of the brain.

Cortisone – A synthetic substance which acts like an adrenal hormone. It is today used in the treatment of a large number of illnesses, and several chemical variants have been produced, among which are prednisone and triamcinolone

Chorionic – Of the chorion, which is part of the placenta or after-birth. The term chorionic is justly applied to HCG, as this hormone is exclusively produced in the placenta, from where it enters the human mother’s blood and is later excreted in her urine.