Finance Tips

Over the past several years, high protein, low carb diets have gained a lot of popularity, but the truth is carbohydrates should be an essential part of your diet. They provide important nutrients, vitamins and provide your body with the fuel it needs to get through the day. The trick is to know what carbs are good for you and what carbs are bad for you. That is where the Glycemic Index comes in.

According to Wikipedia, the Glycemic Index, or GI, is the measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Basically, what this means is how your body is able to convert carbohydrates into glucose.
Glucose is a sugar that is found in your blood, hence the term, blood sugar. The GI is based on a scale of 0-100, with pure glucose (which is a reference point on the scale) scoring 100.

Your body feels best when your blood sugar remains constant.

If your blood sugar becomes too low, your body becomes lethargic and you get hungry. If your blood sugar becomes high, your brain signals your pancreas to release more insulin. By doing this, the insulin brings your blood sugar down. At the same time that this is happening, your body is converting the excess sugar into stored fat.

Now, if gaining and storing excess fat isn’t bad enough for you, it can get worse! Those persons with diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, are at a greater risk. Their bodies are unable to process or secret any insulin at all, thus, forcing them to take medication to control their blood sugar levels.

This also puts them at risk for additional health risks. Why is all of this important? By knowing and monitoring your GI, you will be able to stay in better health, thus feeling better and avoiding many health risks.

However, the Glycemic Index alone is not the only important factor.

Many times, the amount of food that you are consuming gets overlooked. You must pay attention to the serving size! When these two parts are combined and managed, then you have much more control over your GI.

Foods that score 55 and below are low on the Glycemic Index are usually good for you. Most fruits and vegetables fall into this category, although you need to pay attention to the size of the food. Foods that score 70 and above are high on the GI and are not good for you. These types of foods include: white bread, potatoes, chips, candy, and pasta. Foods such as bananas and watermelon are high on the Glycemic Index, but do have many health benefits. Eat them sparingly.

How do you monitor your GI? You can always carry around a list of where your favorite foods stand on the GI in case you need to check before you make a choice. Generally, the rule of thumb is to avoid too many carbohydrates. Do not sit down and eat a bag of potato chips, or make a loaf of toast! Of course, there is nothing wrong with eating one serving of carbs at each meal, but again, pay attention to the serving size.

The reason that monitoring your carbohydrate intake works is because that information is readily available on labels, whereas the GI is not. It will take some time to learn where foods stand on the list, but it is well worth the investment. After all, it is your health and well being that is the number one priority. If you are feeling your best, you can do anything! Isn’t it worth your time to make sure?

Juice fasting is a quick, efficient, and effective way to cleanse the whole body and do a reset on all the systems. Juice fast as another form of fasting is becoming more and more popular today. During the juice fast, you should expect to urinate more and to have more frequent bowel movements. Juice fasting is a great way to get toxins out of the body that are stored in the fat. It is great to get back on track to healthy eating and healthy living.

With that said, the best juices for a juice fast come from carrots, celery, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, bean sprouts, zucchini, beets, cabbage, and tomatoes. Juice fast itself is different one from another; certain juice fasting diets only target certain parts of the body. Once your juice fast or diet is over, start slowly transitions back to eating solid foods again. A 3 day juice fast also reduces some of the side effects associated with water fasting such as headaches, light headedness, and tiredness.

Fasting is the most effective method known to draw out poisons and toxins from your cells throughout your entire body. Fasting has been used for many years to promote good health and help the body heal by eliminating toxins and other harmful wastes.

Juice fasting is a type of fasting and detox diet in which a person consumes only fruit and vegetable juices. Juice fasting is known to have many advantages. If you do some research you will find that some experts say that there is actually no program that is the best detox for weight loss. Periodical fresh fruit juice fasting not only makes you healthy and good-looking but also helps you to think well.

People tend to juice fast in order to become healthier. A juice fast can be quite beneficial, and everyone should try a juice fast at least once a year for better health. A juice fast is a short period of time during which you drink fruit and vegetable juices instead of eating solid food. You can buy fresh juices or spend a few dollars on a juicer and make your own dinners. Fruit and vegetable juices are great suppliers of nutrients to your body and provide a healthy detox. Cleansing your body with juices is an important step in maintaining good health. From guzzling lemonade and gulping green juices to popping herbal pills, it seems everyone is talking about detoxing and cleansing these days. During the juice fast, you should expect to urinate more and to have more frequent bowel movements.

Even still, a juice fast is recommended for improvement of overall health and wellbeing; it should not be used only as a weight loss plan. When breaking a juice fast, it requires some transitional techniques as well. Many experts say that juice fast is another great way to do whole body cleanse which is far more effective way to clear out toxins within your organs than just focusing on certain parts of your body. Remember, the goal of a juice fast is to cleanse your body, not lose weight, so remember to drink lots of water while fasting.

The lawmakers in Colorado are debating a change in the law to correct the gender discrimination currently requiring women to pay more than men to insure their health. The facts are uncompromising. In some 90% of all private health plans, women have premium rates 60% higher than men. This is so even though the statistics show women enjoy better health than men and make fewer claims. This is so even though the men used for comparative purposes are significantly older. And, if you feel you need any more confirmation of the basic unfairness, even men who smoke pay less than female non-smokers. As one of the women promoting the bill commented: insurers often refuse coverage because the applicant has a pre-existing condition. The way the premiums are loaded, it seems being a woman is a pre-existing condition.

The people who are paid to speak on behalf of the insurance industry usually fall back on the tried and trusted defense that women have medical needs specific to their gender. The most often quoted example is maternity and prenatal care. Ignoring the fact that men also have problems specific to their gender, such as erectile dysfunction, women are still quoted premiums 60% higher on policies excluding reproductive health needs. In other words, the discrimination persists even though the scope of the medical coverage is identical. So what’s going on? The answer, in this instance, is slightly complicated. If we start with auto insurance, it’s common knowledge that young men are statistically more likely than any other group of drivers to crash into another vehicle or some stationary object. Thus, where the policy discriminates between different groups of drivers, young men pay significantly more than women who tend to drive more safely. Not all auto policies do discriminate. By spreading the risk among a big group of drivers, the good subsidize the bad. But, most auto insurers do set different premium rates for different groups of drivers distinguished by gender and age. In medicine, it’s a fact that men fall ill and die, whereas women tend to recover from illnesses. This is one of the reasons why women have a longer life expectancy than men. But it also explains why women cost more. They survive for longer with chronic problems requiring continuing treatment. Thus, if the premium is a reflection of the likely costs of treatment over a person’s lifetime, it may appear slightly more reasonable to charge women higher premiums. Except this ignores the general rule that private health insurance stops at 65 as Medicare kicks in. The major long-term costs tend to occur after 65.

Colorado looks as though it may join the one or two other states with equality provisions. There’s no evidence from these other states that men now have to pay significantly more. For now, insurers simply make less profit. As a woman, it’s particularly important to research exactly what the different companies offer. Because of this, searching for cheap health insurance is a greater challenge. Always refer to the websites of the companies making the best quotes to see if there are additional discounts available or special policies for women. If there seems to be no cheap health insurance available, talk directly with the insurers to see whether the difference between the male and female premium rates can be reduced. Not everyone is lucky enough to live in a state committed to equality. It is for you to protect yourself as best as possible.