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goji berries ukMaking Healthier Thanksgiving, Christmas and Holiday Desserts

They say there's always room for dessert and unfortunately this is very true. Even if you've eaten more turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing than you can handle, once you see that chocolate cake coming to the table, it seems like your stomach opens up an extra slot to make more room. Thanksgiving is full of all types of food and desserts are no exception. There are ingredients you can use to up the healthiness of of your desserts.

Sugar is a main component of most desserts. There's not much you can do to replace sugar but you can use brown sugar or honey in place of white sugar in your recipes. These 2 substitutes still contain a lot of sugar but they also have a small amount of extra nutrients (keyword, small) . You shouldn't start eating honey or brown sugar by the cup full since they both are basically sugar, but they will slightly improve your desserts.

Flour is also used in almost every dessert. Most recipes call for white flour but an easy alternative is to use whole wheat flour. It contains more vitamins and minerals but most importantly, it contains a lot more fiber which will keep you from eating as much. If you're not comfortable replacing all of the white flour with whole wheat flour, split it up and use 50% of one kind and 50% of the other.

Some recipes, especially the ones for pie crusts call for either lard or shortening. Lard is taken fat from an animal and contains a high amount of saturated fat. Shortening is made from vegetable oil but is high in trans fat. If possible, try using vegetable spreads which have a consistency of butter or margarine but is healthier than either, including lard and shortening.

Instead of substituting ingredients, you can also add some to improve the health of your desserts. The main way of doing this is to add fruits. You can top a cake with strawberries, peaches or cherries. When making pies, try using fresh or frozen fruit and avoid the canned variety if possible.

For extra crunchiness, you can add bran which is the outer layer of grain stripped away when making white flours. It's filled with vitamins, minerals and fiber. Another healthy ingredient you can experiment with is oatmeal. You can make cookies and muffins that are healthier and taste great.

Desserts are made from years of recipe development. Starting to replace ingredients after awhile of proven taste can make you feel uneasy about how your guests will accept your new creation. You can alleviate this uneasiness by testing your recipe beforehand. Remember that even a few healthy ingredients can make a difference. Make small changes and eventually you'll have your own healthy holiday recipes.

The Holidays are a time to spend with the family and eat a lot of food. The eating and lack of exercise can contribute to unwanted weight gain during the holidays. The Guide to a Healthy Holiday has articles, FAQs, tips and tools to help you eat healthy, exercise and enjoy the holidays.

Straight Health was started in July 2006 to spread accurate and easy to understand information about health, diets, exercise and nutrition. At StraightHealth.com you can read articles and tips, use the tools and gain a further understand about the world of health.

Safely Transitioning Off Meal Replacement Plans

Meal replacements have been part of the diet landscape for decades. They have helped numerous people lose weight, and more importantly, they have helped people learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy eating choices. Both quantity and quality of life improvements can be credited to the concept of meal replacement solutions.

Those that have successfully relied upon a meal replacement plan can reflect fondly on how the plan helped address a fundamental diet obstacle: choosing what to eat.

One of the greatest challenges that a dieter faces � if not the greatest � is discovering what to eat, and what to avoid. Answering the latter is usually easier, since most experienced dieters are rather well aware of what they should not be eating. Yet they are often left wondering: what should I eat? Dieters who are fortunate enough to be able to answer this with a simple: I�ll eat my meal replacement foods often see their diets succeed beyond its vulnerable infancy [i].

Dieters who rely on willpower alone, or follow a poorly designed �fad� diet, often do not lose weight. The most that these dieters usually experience is maintenance of current weight, or perhaps a few pounds lost, likely through water loss.

As with most weight loss solutions, there are some potential pitfalls that can undermine dieters. And perhaps the most ironic of these pitfalls exists for those dieters who have chosen a meal replacement route to achieve their weight loss goals. This difficulty is explained, and solved, below.

Diets supported by meal replacement plans are often successful; and herein exists the potential problem. Once a dieter has lost his or her desired weight, there is a transition period from meal replacement food to �normal� food. Without the proper nutritional supplements in place to ensure that this transition is both smooth and long-term, a high number of dieters revert back to their pre-diet unhealthy eating habits. The result, regrettably, is the regaining of weight; and for many dieters, yet one more failed attempt to shed pounds and inches [ii].

The blame for this regained weight is typically, and incorrectly, assigned to two sources. The first target for this misplaced blame is the meal replacement plan itself, which promised long-term weight loss yet apparently failed to deliver. The second misplaced blame, and the one that can do the most damage, is directed towards the dieter him/herself. It is just �another failure�, and a crushing blow to self-esteem.

However, as noted above, this blame is misdirected. The cause of the problem is neither the meal replacement plan, nor the dieter�s lack of willpower. The culprit here was that once the meal replacement plan had done its job, there was no strategy in place to maintain that accomplishment over the long term.

Fortunately, there exist some very well designed nutritional supplements and plans that support this transition strategy. These nutritional supplements are not candy bars posing as �energy bars�, or protein powders laden with calories and fat grams [iii].

Rather, these authentic nutritional supplements are scientifically designed, low-calorie, complete eating solutions. That is, they can be used to supplement a meal that is not fortified with vitamins or complete protein, or they can be used -- without health risk -- to replace a meal when healthy eating choices are not available.

Meal replacements have proven their value in the �battle of the bulge�; especially since they provide dieters with an easy answer to the question: what do I eat today? However, it is just as clear that the period just after weight loss, when the meal replacements program ceases, is critical.

Far too many dieters are left without a transition plan that enables them to safely return to a diet of non meal-replacement items. Fortunately for these individuals, and for future dieters as well, there exist authentic and medically engineered nutritional supplement solutions that bridge this gap, and help ensure that a hard won weight loss battle is a long-term victory.

ABOUT PROTICA

Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm with offices in Lafayette Hill and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Protica manufactures capsulized foods, including Profect, a compact, hypoallergenic, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates and zero fat. Information on Protica is available at http://www.protica.com

You can also learn about Profect at http://www.profect.com

REFERENCES

[i] Source: �Are you Sabotaging your Diet?�. Prevention.com. http://www.prevention.com/article/0,5778,s1-4-57-190-4559-3,00.html

[ii] Source: �Meal Replacement Diets�. All About Info Ltd. http://dietsnutrition.allinfoabout.com/features/replace.html

[iii] Source: �Nutritional Supplement�. Rolf Rasmussen. http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Nutritional-Supplement&id=8188

Copyright 2004 - Protica Research - http://www.protica.com

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