Archive for December, 2008
December 5th, 2008 | 
Author: Statistics show that more than 60% of the American population is considered overweight, and that every year almost half of it vows to lose weight. No wonder why fad diets and nearly all available diet programs are popular.
But do you know that dieting can actually reduce the amount of nutrients you receive each day? Most people tend to eat less whenever they want to lose weight, and this means less nutrient intake.
So you need vitamins for a weight loss supplement. Here’s why:
1. Vitamins help boost weight loss
Experts say that obtaining the right amount of vitamin supplements facilitate weight loss. Some diets focus on certain kinds of foods. Hence, you may not be getting the right amount of vitamins in your diet. So it is important that you take vitamin supplements to replenish the lost or lacking nutrients in your body.
Moreover, some vitamins promote weight loss by stimulating the other organs to facilitate the process, usually the thyroid glands. These glands activate the metabolic rate needed by the body to burn fats and calories.
2. Boosts metabolism
Some vitamins act as metabolism boosters. Most dieters starve in order to lose weight. This shouldn’t be the case because when your body is in the starvation stage your metabolism slows down. Hence, no amount of calories or fats is burned. That is why it is harder to lose weight.
Moreover, you become weak and tired, so the tendency is not to exert so much physical effort. In the end, you won’t be burning much calories either because your body isn’t working its way out and burning calories and fats.
With the so-called B-vitamins, you don’t just get the energy that you need; your metabolic rate is also increased.
3. Vitamins increase your energy
B vitamins, such as vitamin B5 can increase your energy. This energy helps you get through the day even if you are on a diet program.
4. Control weight
Vitamins help in regulating insulin levels and blood sugar. This results to decreased levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. In this way, you lose harmful fats in the body and develop lean mass.
Vitamins don’t just facilitate normal body processes. They also help you lose weight. So with the right amount of vitamin supplements, you are definitely on your way to success.
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Vitamins are highly essential in the maintenance of the body’s health and their uses can’t be discounted. They prevent many diseases and can actually improve your health, affecting not only your body but also your mind. More importantly, they also help prevent one of the most feared diseases in the world, cancer. Here are some of the vitamins that are known for their cancer fighting properties:
Vitamin C:
Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid and was first discovered to help fight scurvy. Recently, it has been thrust into the limelight once again because of its purported anti-cancer properties.
In a study by Dr. Mark Levine of the National Academy of Sciences, Vitamin C showed some promise in fighting cancer. In the study, the team used the vitamin to see how it would affect cancer cells. The lab tests showed that Vitamin C seemed to increase the production of hydrogen peroxide. This destroyed the cancer cells but didn’t affect the healthy cells.
In order to achieve this effect, the vitamin had to be administered in very high doses, which meant it had to be injected through an IV. If that sounds like good news, don’t celebrate yet.
According to Levine and his team, this doesn’t show the direct link between Vitamin C and cancer. It only shows that Vitamin C is essential in increasing the production of hydrogen peroxide, a substance that can’t be injected directly into the body. Furthermore, the test was conducted on human cancer cells and not actual patients.
It is still too early to make any conclusions about Vitamin C as an anti-cancer vitamin and it still can’t be used on patients. However, it’s good to note that the vitamin is currently being used in tests on people for a new project. For this, we will just have to wait and see.
Vitamin D:
Vitamin D is an antioxidant and if new studies are confirmed, an anti-cancer vitamin as well. Vitamin D seems to help reduce the risk of breast cancer as well as ovarian cancer. In high doses, it could be instrumental in reducing risks of colon cancer as well.
In a study presented to the American association for Cancer Research, Vitamin D seems capable of lowering a woman’s chances of developing the abovementioned cancers. They believe this is due to the flavonoids contained in foods rich in Vitamin D.
It still isn’t known how flavonoids (and the fact that the vitamin is an antioxidant) work, but researchers say it must be because these chemicals are anti-estrogenic. Estrogen has been linked to breast cancer in the past.
