Misleading Nutrition Labels Lead to Weight Loss Failure

(Article first published as Are Nutrition Labels the Real Reason You Can’t Lose Weight? on Technorati.)

We all pick up food items in the grocery store and quickly glance at the nutrition label to see how many calories are in our favorite meal. Some make it down to the fine print to check out the carbs, sugar, fats and sodium. The problem is most people don’t make the connection between the misleading serving sizes listed.

Manufacturers know that their customers examine the required labels before they make a purchase, and do a good job to make you think you can eat more and consume fewer calories. Even the portion size on the nutrition label can influence whether you view the product as fattening. And we all know this has a direct impact on how much you eat and your ability to lose weight.

Label Size Influences Caloric Perception

It appears that people are easily misled when it comes to interpreting food labels, and will eat more of an item if they believe it is a small portion. Information from a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that the way a manufacturer listed the portion size on the label influenced how much a consumer would be likely to eat.

Researchers provided consumers with different food items and determined how much people would eat based on the food label. Large portions were intentionally labeled as small, and participants ate more and felt less guilt in their choices. The study authors called this ‘guiltless gluttony’. Similarly, when the large serving was labeled correctly, people ate less and experienced a higher level of guilt if they overate.

Manufacturers Use Food Labeling as a Marketing Gimmick

Food manufacturers have been slowly altering the portion sizes on many food products to intentionally fool the consumer. The result is the expanding American waistline and the problem we know as the obesity epidemic. People want to make the right food choices by selecting lower calorie fare with less sodium and no hydrogenated fats. Food selection becomes much more difficult when manufacturers use their marketing tricks so we purchase products that are unhealthy and laden with excess calories.

Be Vigilant When Grocery Shopping

The key to winning the food labeling battle is to become an empowered consumer. Examine every label and scrutinize the serving size and calorie content. Do the math to determine the total calories in the serving that you will actually eat, not in the small serving size listed on the label. Most people will eat at least twice as much as listed for one serving, and feel the calories they consumed is the amount listed on the label for one serving. This type of miscalculation rapidly leads to weight gain and obesity.

Food manufacturers utilize focus groups to find ways to compel you to buy their products and eat more than you intend. Deceiving food label practices are just another way being used to drive sales and encourage over consumption. Read nutrition labels caully, determine the actual calories in a real serving and use that information to your health and weight advantage.

Brain Tumor Symptoms and How They Lead to Brain Cancer Diagnosis

Brain Tumor Symptoms and How They Lead to Brain Cancer Diagnosis

There are a lot of possible brain tumors symptoms, and most of them can also be found in people who do not have this ailment. Thus, some people tend to dismiss the signs they experience without knowing that they can lead to a cancer diagnosis. Knowing the common symptoms of brain cancer can help by alerting patients who experience these so that they would undergo a brain scan to determine whether a cancer is present.

Brain Tumors Symptoms

Headaches. The most common symptom is a persistent headache. Over 46% of patients with brain cancer experience headaches, although they usually experience them differently and with no defined pattern. Headache that may be due to a tumor is usually accompanied by nausea and vomiting, and can get worse when you bend over.

Seizures. Seizures are the second most common among all brain tumors symptoms, with 33% of patients reporting a seizure prior to a diagnosis. Seizures are also linked to other diseases such as stroke or epilepsy. If a person is diagnosed with epilepsy or hypertension, seizures should still be brought to the attention of a doctor. However, if it is a persons first time to have a seizure, it is usually indicative of a new illness that he might not be aware of. One of the possible illnesses this may point to is a brain cancer. Thus, a person should get a brain scan immediately after the incident.

Vision or Hearing Problems. A person with a brain cancer will also most likely experience some problems or abnormalities in vision or hearing. Around 25% of patients experience vision problems. These problems occur when a tumor is causing an increased intracranial pressure on the areas of the brain that control hearing and vision.

Behavioral and Cognitive Abnormalities. Some changes in behavior and cognitive ability have been reported among patients with brain tumors. These include problems in short-term memory, inability to concentrate, inability to find the right words to use, and abnormal behavior such as uncharacteristic lack of patience or loss of inhibitions.

Strange Sensations. Since the brain controls much of the body, a tumor can also cause some problems with any body part. Usually, these manifest in strange sensations or a weakening feeling in the legs, arms, facial muscles, head, or hands. These symptoms have been reported in 25% of patients. However, these are also signs of a stroke. When these suddenly occur, the patient must be brought to the doctor. If a stroke is ruled out, then the patient will be advised to get a brain scan to check for tumors.

Brain tumors symptoms and diagnosis can be tricky. When doctors are faced with these, they usually consider the more common causes first before they consider brain cancer. However, some doctors tend to take too long testing different diagnoses, and this may lead to a delay in treatment. Thus, trust only a cancer specialist experienced in dealing with the symptoms.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7224864

11 Patients With This Disease Lead People To Be Grumpy

When there are angry people, the disease is often associated with hypertension or high blood pressure. Yet hypertension does not always make people so angry, in fact there are other health problems are more likely to influence temperament.

Some of the diseases that may increase the aggressiveness either because the treatment process as well as the effects of the disease itself are as follows.

1. Hyperthyroidism
An estimated 1 in 100 women who have overactive thyroid or hyperthyroidism also experience mood changes or mood. Increased heart rate and body temperature due to excess production of thyroid yan makes people more irritable.

2. Excess cholesterol
Approximately 7 million people with hypercholesterolemia or excess cholesterol in the UK became more grumpy when taking statins, a type of controller medication cholesterol. Experts suspect, cholesterol dropped suddenly makes the production of serotonin or happy hormones involved reduced.

3. Diabetes
Hypoglycemia or blood sugar levels to drop below normal are often experienced by people with diabetes or diabetes, both type 1 and 2. Reduced sugar levels affect brain function, which one effect is an increase in temper, anger, confusion, and panic attacks.

4. Depression
This psychiatric disorder causes the production of serotonin, a hormone that triggers the pleasure is reduced. The effect can be quite varied, ranging from the leg can not be silent, insomnia and also includes a grumpy without any apparent reason.

5. Alzheimers
Someone particularly the elderly who have started to develop Alzheimers dementia because it usually become more sensitive and irritable. Changes in brain structure, especially in the frontal lobe causes emotions more difficult to control than when I was young.

6. Swelling of the liver
The term or phrase heartened is often defined as a patient nature, but a big heart swelling due to cirrhosis or very far from the trait. According to the study, cirrhosis of the liver can lead to a condition called hepatic enselopati and can change personality.

7. Epilepsy
People with epilepsy can suddenly get angry after having a seizure. It is believed, symptoms can last up to several hours or even days it happens because the neural circuitry in the brain to crash during a seizure.

8. PMS (Pre Menstrual Syndrome)
Its not unusual if in one day in every month a woman be more sensitive, irritable or angry. It is not known exactly what causes it, but it often occurs before menstruation.

9. Insomnia
To treat insomnia or trouble sleeping, doctors often prescribe benzodiasepine which is also an anxiety medication. One side effect is a decline in brain function, which make up about 1 percent of patients became more aggressive.

10. Wilson Disease
Genetic disorder that affects 1 out of 30,000 people this causes heavy metal accumulation in the brain and liver. Stacking too much can cause damage in the brain, one of the commonly reported trigger personality changes to be more grumpy.

11. Stroke
Brain damage is very common after a stroke. If such damage occurs in the frontal lobe, the ability to control the sense of empathy, emotion and aggression can be greatly reduced.