Thursday, December 13, 2007

Health and Fitness Tips

Dietary fat consists of a huge variety of fat molecules divided into groups and subgroups; each plays a different role in the body.
Numerous studies demonstrated the critical functions of essential fatty acids (EFAs), phospholipids and cholesterol compounds, in regulating blood pressure, inflammation, lipid metabolism, stress reaction, build up of cell membranes, nerves functions, immune actions and steroid hormone production, respectively.
It's evidently clear that the role of dietary fat goes far beyond just being a fuel for energy or storage. The real question is does dietary fat convert efficiently into energy? And for that matter, is the human body primarily well adapted to utilize fat as an immediate fuel for energy?
There is a substantial amount of evidence that certain variables profoundly affect the capacity to utilize fat fuel. These variables include gender, exercise intensity, source of dietary fat and diet composition.
Men's capacity to utilize fat in the muscles significantly increases with application of intense exercise. Fat utilization seems to be also determined by other variables such as diet composition (ratio of fat/carbs), glycemic index, source of dietary fat as well as the frequency and intensity of exercise.
Following a lifestyle that mimics primal feeding cycles and physical activity triggers genes that help us better survive; making us more efficient in utilizing fat and carb fuel with an increased resistance to fatigue, stress and disease.
From that aspect, we humans generally do better on primal fat rich foods.
Primal fat foods such as nuts and seeds are also good sources of amino acids and fat-soluble vitamins. In their raw state, they contain phytosterols (cholesterol- like plant compounds), which predominately support the production of sex steroid hormones. To take advantage of nuts and seeds, eat them alone or with veggies and protein.
More at: http://www.fitnessattitudes.com/foodcombining.html

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