Some answers to your nutri questions: Did you know that Sushi contains sugar? Did you know that losing weight doesn’t reduce the number of fat cells in your body? Did you know that drinking too much water is bad for you?

Did you know that Sushi contains sugar?

But if you are a sushi lover don’t worry it doesn’t contain that much sugar! Just careful with the quantity you eat, too much rice, sugar and salt at the same meal and day can be very bad to control your weight! To prepare sushi, sugar is needed to give rice an ideal consistency. For every cup of rice, 1 full table spoon of sugar is needed.

Did you know that losing weight doesn’t reduce the number of fat cells in your body?

Actually it reduces the size of fat cells available in your body but not the number of cells. Fat cells are made during childhood so if you are overweight or obese during childhood you determine the number of fat cells you will have in your entire life increasing the chance to be overweight or obese when older because of the high number of fat cells available.

Did you know that drinking too much water is bad for you?

This is because huge volumes of liquid can cause water intoxication and lead to gastrointestinal pain and vomiting. It can also lead to hyponatremia which is low blood level of sodium that can lead to death. So careful, drinking too little water is bad, but drinking too much can be bad too! Moderation is everything in life!

Guys! I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 or via email to take an appointment live or online.

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Low self-esteem is associated with many mental health problems

They can feed off each other in a vicious circle; the more depressed or anxious you become the lower your opinion of yourself and your abilities, the more you avoid activities that could help to build-up esteem and address depression or anxiety. Even if you don’t have a mental health diagnosis, you will recognise the impact that your view of yourself has on your mood and nerves.

Most of the research on low self-esteem has been done by psychologists and the most promising treatment outcomes have been with cognitive-behavioural therapy (a process that helps you to identify how you think interacts with how you feel and what you do as a result).
One of the pioneers is Melanie Fenell, a Clinical Psychologist at the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre. Dr Fenell has developed a model of how low self-esteem occurs, is maintained and interacts with depression and anxiety. A simplified version of the model looks like this:

This diagram may look daunting but can be understood if you have low self-esteem yourself and can provide valuable insight.

Early experiences

Most self-esteem problems start with an early experience (which could be as late as teenage years) of either failing at some highly valued task, or more tragically by being told that you are not measuring up. Recognising this is valuable and might be helpful for putting the experience into more realistic perspective; but dwelling on it can also make things worse.

Foundation beliefs

The early experience will have been interpreted and its meaning taken deeply to heart as one of your foundational beliefs about yourself, usually concerning your general incompetence; it gets translated into a set of assumptions about how you will fail to cope in specific situations.

Trigger of assumptions

Each of these assumptions about failing to cope is like a little trap waiting to go off when it hits the right trigger, usually a situation that has similarities with the early experience. You immediately expect the worst and all the emotions that come with it, usually anxiety.

Vicious circles

A vicious circle begins with you painfully aware of how much your anxiety about the situation is interfering with your ability to deal with it.
At this point you either withdraw to avoid the trigger; or the anxiety has such an impact that things do go as badly as predicted and your foundation beliefs, assumptions and expectation of the worst are all made stronger. You can see even less of a chance of a way out of the problem and so become depressed and the whole process is repeated when you come across another trigger of assumption.
You may think this cycle cannot be broken, even with this insight, but this isn’t so. The first step is to take the model and put together a version that is unique to you. It helps to get a notebook and draw out something similar to the diagram above, but give yourself a page per box. Sit down and ask yourself a lot of questions, but don’t expect to get it done quickly. You might want to keep a diary over a week or a month to be really clear. If you feel too overwhelmed or too distressed, then stop. You may want to consult your GP and ask to be referred for further help with discussing the issue.
Start by clearly listing your trigger situations first and be really clear about them. Is the trigger:

• A place
• A task
• A person
• A combination of all three
• Is there one situation you do manage to muddle through?
• Is there another you cannot even thinking about facing?

Try to arrange them in order.
Now ask yourself:

• What is it that you are expecting?
• Why does this affect you so badly?
• What happens when you are experiencing anxiety?
• Are you more aware of racing thoughts of disaster or of physical sensations?
• What actually happens in the situation?
• Are you always right to expect the worst?
• How often do you just withdraw?
• What are you not doing as a result and how much does this contribute to your depression?

Try not to make this a list of your life failings and include challenging situations that you do deal with and note how they differ from the difficult situations.

It‘s easy to write down these instructions but they can be harder to follow.

Take your time. You‘re the only person this has to be ‘good enough’ for. If you feel it has to be done perfectly you might start looking at challenging some of your assumptions; if not you might look for some common themes in the triggers and expectations and see if they point to any assumptions that you make about yourself. The key is to establish new assumptions.

To do this, try a series of experiments. First take one of your less difficult situations write down your expectation of the worst and ask how strongly you believe this on a scale of one to ten?

Then ask if there is an alternative way of dealing with the situation and how strongly you believe it between one and ten. Question the thoughts that race through your head, stand back and decide if they are accurate.

Try using some of the anxiety management strategies and try to put yourself in the situation and observe yourself; does the worst happen? If so try to find an easier situation to work on; if not rerate your beliefs in your expectations, have they changed and what are the implications for your assumptions if they have.

By slowly working on the triggers changing your expectations and establishing new assumptions about yourself you can begin to work on improving your self-esteem.

Track the changes in your notebook; and remember there will be some setbacks but they are not the end of the story, and if it gets too difficult seek help through your family doctor.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/emotion_esteem.shtml

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Yalla I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 or via email to take an appointment.

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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Hope for new diabetes treatment!

 

• New molecular target for diabetes treatment discovered

BY KRISTA CONGER

Seung Kim

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a key molecular pathway responsible for the natural decrease in the proliferation of insulin-producing cells that occurs as a person ages. Artificially activating this pathway, which is normally not functional in adults, may be a new way to combat diabetes.

“We’re hopeful that soon we might be able to manipulate this pathway in a therapeutic way in humans,” said professor of developmental biology Seung Kim, MD, PhD, “perhaps by rekindling its expression and then activating it through a drug we could give in an injection or through some other route. This could be a kind of one-two punch against diabetes.”
Kim, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, is the senior author of the research, which was published online Oct. 12 in Nature. Research associate Hainan Chen, PhD, is the first author.

The researchers found that, in mice and humans, the pathway is governed by the expression of a molecule called platelet-derived growth factor receptor. PDGF-receptor expression declines over time in mice and humans in a pattern that parallels the decrease in the proliferation of pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin to control blood sugar levels.

Beta cells are found in the islets of the pancreas. They are the only cells in the body that produce insulin, a hormone that signals the body to remove sugar from the blood after a meal and store it in a variety of cells. Without adequate insulin production, blood sugar levels can become dangerously high — a condition called hyperglycemia — and cause organ damage or even coma and death. Type-1 diabetes is caused by a failure to produce insulin; type-2 diabetes is caused by combined deficits in the body to respond to and make insulin. Both types have been linked to reductions of insulin-producing beta cells.

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Kim’s experiments in mice showed that artificially activating the PDGF-receptor pathway increases the number of pancreatic beta cells in the animals without compromising their ability to appropriately control their blood sugar levels. The finding is important because other treatments previously shown to stimulate beta cell growth have led to excess insulin production and dangerous hypoglycemia.

It’s been known for some time that beta cell proliferation in the pancreas, which is robust in newborn and young animals, decreases dramatically with age. The expression of one molecule known to be involved, Ezh2, declines over time in a similar manner. However it was not known what controlled the changes in Ezh2 expression levels in beta cells.

Because PDGF signaling regulates the proliferation of many types of cells, and is known to affect Ezh2 responses, Kim and Chen wondered if the PDGF pathway was involved in changes in Ezh2 expression and beta cell proliferation. They found that the expression of PDGF receptors was also reduced in pancreatic islet cells from juvenile mice in a pattern similar to the reduction in beta cell proliferation.

When the researchers blocked the expression of PDGF receptors in laboratory mice, they found that young animals (2 to 3 weeks old) made less Ezh2 and had significantly fewer beta cells than control animals. They also had slightly elevated blood sugar levels and were less effective than control animals in disposing of blood sugar when challenged with high glucose. Adult animals lacking expression of the beta cell PDGF receptor were also less able than their peers to regenerate beta cells that were artificially damaged by a chemical compound, and they became severely diabetic after such treatment.

In contrast, islet PDGF receptor expression was increased in normal mice treated with the same compound, and the animals were able to replace the damaged beta cells within about three to four weeks. Although those animals did become moderately diabetic after treatment, they regained control of their blood sugar levels after the cells were regenerated.

“When we destroyed the beta cells with this toxin, the expression of PDGF receptor was induced,” said Kim, “and the beta cells naturally recovered. Crucially, the cells didn’t go crazy; they underwent only modest, appropriate proliferation. This is good, because it means the beta cells remained in control, and didn't lose critical functions while growing.”
When the researchers added the PDGF protein (which binds to and activates the PGDF receptor) to islet cells grown in the laboratory, they found that beta cells in islets from young (3-week-old) mice began to proliferate. In contrast, those from adult (7- to 9-month-old) mice did not respond — because they no longer express the PDGF receptor.

The researchers then created a strain of laboratory mice in which the PDGF receptor was always active in beta cells. When these mice were 14 months old (middle-age for mice), the rate of beta cell proliferation was nine times that of age-matched controls. Despite the increased rate of growth, however, the mice continued to regulate their blood sugar levels appropriately.

In what is arguably the most exciting aspect of their work, Chen and Kim investigated if a similar pathway is functioning in human beta cells. To do so, they obtained pancreatic islets from young human organ donors between the ages of 6 months and 6 years, and compared the patterns of PDGF receptor expression in these beta cells with that of islet beta cells from adults. They detected no PDGF receptor in the adult beta cells, but found it readily in the islet beta cells from young donors. Additional experiments showed that human beta cells function similar to the mouse beta cells in the study, and suggested that it may be possible to regulate human islet beta cell growth and insulin expression by manipulating PDGF receptor expression and activation.

“This work revealed that there are some pathways that haven’t been explored in human beta cells that underlie the age-related loss of beta cell proliferation,” said Kim. “This gives us a handhold onto a vaster problem: how to control human beta cell proliferation in a therapeutic way.”

In addition to Kim and Chen, other Stanford researchers involved in the study include research assistant Xueying Gu; laboratory manager Yinghua Liu; senior researcher Jing Wang, MD; postdoctoral scholar Stacey Wirt, PhD; and associate professor of pediatrics and genetics Julien Sage, PhD.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Stem Cell Network NRW, Deutsche Krebshilfe, the Dewey Family Fund, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Snyder Foundation, the Stinehart Foundation, the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Information about Stanford’s Department of Developmental Biology, in which the research was conducted, is available at http://devbio.stanford.edu/.

--> Source: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2011/october/kim.html

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Yalla I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 or via email to take an appointment.

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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Kids feeding: Here are 10 Mistakes to Avoid!

Hola moms and dads!!! I know it’s so difficult to find solutions to feed your kid that’s why I thought it would be so useful to write for you the following tips! Good luck! ;)

1-      Don’t say always yes: it is very bad to give them all they want to eat because they won’t have any limitations as timing of eating, quantity of food, and type of food they eat. So be careful make it clear for them what is allowed and what is allowed only during the weekends and in small quantities.

2-      Don’t let them “Snack” all the time. There is time for snacking. Once between breakfast and lunch and once between lunch and diner. Anything they eat outside these meals or snacks is considered wrong. So Make sure they know they have 2 snacks per day and not one every 30 minutes!

3-      Don’t give food as a reward. This is the worst thing to do because your kid will always think that because he ate the soup he got the cake as a reward which means the soup is so horrible and the cake is a super hero! This will give a special “touch” to the cake or biscuit or chocolate or whatever you like to offer your kid as a reward for eating something healthy!

4-      Don’t punish your kid if he doesn’t eat what he promised to eat. This is bad too for the same reason, he will hate so much the healthy food you want him to eat because he will always associate it with punishment! Just offer him the healthy food and make sure he eats it. If he doesn’t then don’t give anything to him for the next few hours until he feels hungry, and then offer him the same healthy plate. He will have to eat it, just don’t make a big deal of it otherwise it will worsen the situation.

5-      Don’t play when you are trying to make your kid eat. Don’t do the plane thing or other games J If he likes the game then it will be tough for you, you will always have to find games and strategies to play with him every time he eats because it’s the only way he likes it. Food time is food time and playing time is playing time, totally separated activities! Deal?

6-      Don’t surrender on the first time he says:” I don’t like that”. That’s so wrong, don’t give up. Insist. Tell your kid to try it. Sometimes they say they don’t like it before even tasting it! Never give up! If he really doesn’t like it and you want him to have it, hide this particular food (for example spinach) on some potato soufflé or nouille! He’ll never notice and you’ll be feeding him some healthy food!! Creativity is the key to succeed in most things we do! Never give up, always try to find solutions to your problems!

7-      Never substitute a meal by milk for example. This mistake is very common and very wrong to tell the truth because if your kid succeeds once at this, he will always do this to you, he will end up drinking milk all day and night and not get his nutritious meals throughout the day!

8-      Don’t let him think that going to the restaurant is a super plan! Also bad… your kid will think that restaurants are great deals and homemade food is booooring!

9-      Don’t give him always the same food because you know he loves it and just want him to eat. Variety is so important, keep offering your kid new meals until you have a list of all the meals he likes and always alternate so he doesn’t get bored of eating the same things and you will guarantee that he’s eating from all food sources.

10-  Give the good example. If you tell your child to eat salads and not to eat chips and he sees that you never eat salad and is always snacking on chips, he’ll never believe you and won’t do what you say. You are your kid’s superhero, he likes to do what you do, if you eat healthy and in good quantities and exercise he will most probably do the same…think about it;)

      

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Yalla I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 or via email to take an appointment.

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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What to drink or eat in the car?

Well…as a Dietitian I shouldn’t be giving advices to eat in the car but the problem is many people do! So I am not encouraging people to eat in the car J I am just giving a few tips to those who do it frequently as they can replace bad foods with healthy ones to watch their weight and gain their health!

Many people who come to me to lose weight tell me that they have to be in a car mostly all day going from one place to another because of their work and especially salespersons. Can these people be on a diet? Or because of their lifestyle they can’t do it? Well, of course they can! What they cannot do is let themselves go and keep on gaining weight and harming their health! As long as breakfast and diner are healthy, balanced and eaten in the right quantities prescribed by the dietitian, doing the right choices to eat or drink in the car will make a huge difference!

So if you spend too much time in the car, options are:

1-      Don’t stop at every drive thru fast food place you pass by! This is very dangerous! Consuming burgers, fries, pizzas, soft drinks and milkshakes frequently will make your weight go up very fast and damage your arteries and heart very badly! You don’t need that!

2-      Bring raw walnuts and almonds with you when you are hungry this is a very nutritious snack. Consume only 6 walnuts or 12 almonds because it’s highly caloric.

3-      Bring an apple with you or pear or grapes or banana

4-      Bring carrots with you

5-      Bring a low calorie (70-80 calories)  high fiber cereal bar with you

6-      Take with you a healthy sandwich made of 2 whole wheat soft toasts with turkey ham and mozzarella light

7-      Water: Some people forget to drink water all day then don’t understand why they have headaches and lack of concentration and memory!

8-      Now if you insist on driving thru you can have HEALTHY DRIVE-THROUGH: Choose meal items that focus on vegetables and lean sources of protein, such as salads, grilled chicken and tuna. Instead of french fries, order a side salad or some fruit with your meal. Skip the soda and instead stay hydrated with water. For dessert, try a small ice cream or a yogurt fat free!

And because you spend so much time in the car, you should think of exercising daily even if just for 30 minutes…

Hope this was useful to you! Cheers!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 or via email to take an appointment

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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Apple Think Different - Let's be crazy enough and change the world like them

They push the human race forward...

Check this video below to see what I mean


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3KZw_AER90

Let's start by changing our body and improving our health to get energy to change our world...

Samia Khoury Dietitian

I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 to take an appointment

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

Please LIKE my Facebook Page: Samia Khoury Diet Clinic

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Business men and “constant work travelers”….careful with your weight!

Making money is good to have a great quality of life but it is better when you’re fit and healthy to be able to enjoy it otherwise later you could end up spending all the money you made on your health treating diseases led by overweight!

What are the things you business men and men and woman who travel a lot for work and are always in a hurry could do to care aboutyour health and weight? Here go some useful tips!

1-      So you are used to take planes all the time, right? So many of your meals per week or month are eaten at the plane and it is extremely important that you take advantage of the light and low fat options available at each flight. So every time you book for a flight also order your light and low fat dish whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You may think one meal will not make a difference, but believe me by the end of the month those 5-10 meals or more accumulated will make a huge difference on your body and health! You’ll be eating less fried food less bread and less sweet, and this adds up by the end of the week and by the end of the month.

2-      Another thing is that often you forget to drink water. I suggest you put a reminder on your phone to drink water. When you hear the reminder, immediately drink a glass of water and put another reminder to beep again in 2 hours. Do this every 2 or 3 hours for 3 weeks, at the end of the 3 weeks you won’t need the reminder anymore as it will be in your head! You will automatically remember to drink a glass of water!

3-      Order your coffees without sugar, and your nescafe with skimmed milk, especially if you need many per day! Prefer herbal tea to coffee, and also without sugar.

4-      Avoid juices and alcohol as you sit a lot for meetings and since they are liquid we tend not to feel their caloric content filling us!

5-      Also since you are always on meetings, you may go out a lot for lunch and diner. I suggest you have your meetings on coffee or tea times, or water times J or always choose light dishes like a breast chicken or fish salmon or a low fat cut of meat with vegetables or a chicken salad or go for 10-12 pieces of sushi, but avoid pastas, pizzas, fried foods, gravy and sweets! Or you guys can share a nice dish if it’s big; it will also create a nice relationship between you two creating better decisions for the two ends! J

6-      And because you sit so much for meetings and office work, you need to move…so any opportunity you have to move, take it! At the airport instead of sitting, walk the airport many times until you have to catch your plane. You can schedule your appointments in malls so that you can have a walk before and after and why not have a brisk walk meeting with a client you already know for a while? You can even find better solutions for your issues as your brain will be better oxygenated ;)

7-      As for the constant stress you undergo I definitely suggest you to spend more time with God as He is the only one who can give us inner peace. Also going to the gym will de-stress you, not to forget some relaxation massages done at professional spots.

Please practice these tips as your weight and health matter to me! I promise they will make a huge difference in your body, mind…and pocket since all are connected ;)

Samia Khoury Dietitian

I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86 to take an appointment

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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What damage does alcohol do to our bodies?

Guys please check this article on bbc news at the link below, it's really interesting to know these facts!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15114325




Samia Khoury Dietitian

I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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Is Chewing Gum Bad for your Stomach?

The answer is YES if you consume it excessively! I have clients who chew gum all day long, they always have a gum in their mouth and this is really bad.

Why? Because the function of chewing gum stimulates the stomach to work, producing gastric juices in order to digest food. Since there is no food to be digested, the gastric juices which are acidic will attack the stomach lining and this can cause gastritis and ulcers

As your health means a lot to me I really hope this convinces you to chew gum less frequently!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

I am waiting for you to help you lose weight or consult you on health issues at my clinic in Lebanon or over the web wherever you live! Just contact me at 00 961 3 48 31 86

Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com

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