Good Gluten Free Options
Going gluten free isn’t always the best option for everyone, but it does have its benefits for people who are gluten intolerant. If you have celiac disease, are gluten sensitive or intolerant, then gluten free options are definitely necessary in your diet. What is gluten? Gluten is a protein found in grains like wheat. It’s higher in protein, which is a plus. It also makes the final product thicker and chewier. It can be difficult to digest and can cause diarrhea, skin conditions, exhaustion, anemia, depression, auto-immune disease, stomach pain, headaches and more. It’s becoming more frequent due to the prevalence of a high gluten wheat that now accounts for 80% of the wheat on the market today.
Choose your gluten free option wisely.
When companies remove fat from products, they replace it with sugar to give it flavor. The same is true of gluten free options. While sugar is a go-to option, so is salt and saturated fat. Unless you have a reaction to gluten, you’re often better off consuming the gluten than the ingredients they added to replace the gluten or to make the product more palatable. With that said, many products are already naturally gluten free, so they don’t need extra processing. Quinoa, corn, oats and brown rice are a few options.
Consider almond flour instead of wheat flour.
What is almond flour? It’s flour that’s made from blanched, ground almonds. A cup of almond flour has approximately 90 almonds crushed and processed. It’s nutritious and a good option that gives the final product a nutty flavor. Always check the label on both the flour and products made with almond flour to ensure it wasn’t made where products containing gluten were manufactured that could contaminate the almond flour.
Buckwheat and amaranth flour are also good substitutes.
Whether you’re making your own products from scratch or buying ones that are premade and gluten free, finding the product is made with either amaranth flour or buckwheat flour is a good sign. Even though it has wheat in its name, buckwheat isn’t a wheat, it’s actually a pseudo cereal, just like amaranth. Buckwheat is rich in B vitamins, iron, magnesium, zinc, folate, manganese and fiber. It has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Since both contain no gluten, they tend to produce final products that are crumblier. In fact, amaranth can only replace 25% of wheat flour.
- Arrowroot flour was once used in baby formula because it was easy to digest. It also helps maintain the alkaline/acid balance in the body. Be aware that many products with arrowroot flour also contain wheat flour.
- Cutting out gluten can also reduce your intake of grains, increasing the risk of heart disease. While cutting back on products containing gluten may be beneficial, it takes a lot of planning to ensure you get all the nutrients you need.
- A very good option is choosing products made from brown rice flour. Since the whole grain is used, it offers many health benefits, including weight loss, lowering blood sugar levels and providing protection from heart disease.
- One ancient grain that’s the smallest grain in the world is teff. It’s the only grain that contains vitamin C and is high in protein, calcium, and fiber.
For more information, contact us today at UpFit Training Academy
Upfit Academy in New York, NY, focuses on creating a healthier, better version of you. There are many things you can do to avoid serious conditions or improve issues you already have. In fact, you can improve your chances of having healthy cholesterol levels by using these tips provided. A poor cholesterol profile can lead to atherosclerosis, gall stones, heart attack and memory loss. Having the right balance of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol can make the difference. You can lower your bad cholesterol or overall cholesterol levels by making a few changes.
We don’t dictate what type of healthy diet people should eat at UpFit Training Academy in New York, NY. What we do is help our clients create a healthy diet for their personal taste and needs. One question often asked is whether people should become vegetarians. People often ask this because they want to lose weight faster and believe vegetarians lose weight easier. No matter what your preference for food or special needs, you can lose weight with healthy eating, no matter what you choose. To address the question, let’s first look at what a vegetarian is and is not.
If you’ve been hearing about intermittent fasting—IF—as a technique for weight loss and think it’s one of the latest diet fads, think again. It’s not new. In fact, it’s been around for quite a while and used as part of religious ceremonies, then to help control epilepsy before medications were created. Early man fasted periodically, sometimes longer periods when food was scarce. The body was meant to fast for short periods. In fact, some intermittent fasting isn’t longer than a day. It simply means you eat within a 6-8 hour window and fast the rest of the time. Other types, require fasting for a day or two.
Do you enjoy a few drinks after work each day, but find that your waistline is getting bigger? That’s because alcohol can make you gain weight. That’s right. Even if drinking a couple of glasses of wine daily has been shown to be heart healthy, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have other consequences. It’s especially bad if you’re trying to lose weight, since not only the food you eat, but the calories you get from what you drink can add pounds. It has other health consequences, too, such as an increased risk of liver disease or diabetes.
Most people want to lose body fat, while they also retain muscle mass or even build more muscle mass. It’s not a pipe dream but is hard to do if you’re not using the right exercise techniques and have adequate nutritional guidance. The fat/muscle composition of your body not only affects how you look, it also makes a difference in how quickly you lose weight. If you want a six-pack or the muscular look, you need to do both, lose fat and gain muscle.
If you’re like many people, you may want to find ways to supplement your time at the gym on the days you don’t go. Some people find that biking, walking or running are good ways to do that. Adding more activity that isn’t intense can keep you healthier and provide active recovery if you’ve had a tough workout the day earlier. There are some things to remember if you use running as your alternate exercise program.
At Upfit Training Academy in New York, NY, we provide a program that’s scientifically based so you get the success you deserve. One of the many things that makes our small group workouts so effective is the timing. Unlike traditional gyms, you’re working hard for the full time. If you’ve ever worked out on your own, you know that there’s a lot of time wasted. When you time your workouts and have a specific schedule, you’ll get more benefit in far less time.
Reaching a fitness goal that makes you feel more energetic, look great and be healthier, but before you can reach a healthy fitness goal, you have to set healthy fitness goals. The goals must be realistic. No matter how hard you try, if you’re 5’8″, you’ll never naturally attain the goal of being 6’5″. Losing 100 pounds in two weeks is also not an attainable or healthy goal. Focus on setting goals that are realistic, but also make sure those goals follow other steps that make them attainable.
If you feel like you’re missing something important if you don’t take your chewable over-the-counter—OTC—vitamins, maybe you should reconsider. Are OTC vitamins really that beneficial or have you been bamboozled by years manufacturers propaganda. Can OTC vitamins be dangerous? Did you know that every year Americans spend approximately $12 million on vitamin and mineral supplements? It’s big business, but are there good reasons for taking OTC vitamins?