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Diets suggested by readers

The "one aliment" diet

     I want to share with you a weight-loss diet I successfully kept. It is not too hard to keep it because you won't starve; it is just a little bit monotonous. You can eat as much as you want one single food all day long: grilled or boiled chicken (and nothing else - bread, salad, garnish, sweets or fruits), grilled or boiled fish, boiled or grilled beef (fried aliments are excluded), fruit or vegetable salads, boiled potatoes - but one of them exclusively. It is the so called dissociated diet launched by the Greek singer Demis Roussos. If the dieter doesn't cheat, he can lose up to 4 kilograms a week. It is important to drink 2/3 liters of plain water daily. If you keep the diet more than a week, you must take a multi-vitamin pill a day. Don't forget: every time you are hungry, eat as much as you want - but the same aliment- all day long.

Fruits diet

     The fruits diet must last three days a week, with the interdiction of eating something else. It is not dangerous and the only side effect is that, besides the lost kilograms, we benefit from the healthy and necessary infusion of enzymes and vitamins.

Principle: the fruits are aliments rich in carbohydrates and contain an insignificant quantity of proteins and fats. Fruits contain vegetal fibers which can cause a laxative and disintoxicating effect and facilitate digestion. Fruits produce an important decrease of cholesterol and of the arterial tension.

Benefits: fruits are quite cheap, they are tasteful and aromatic. Each fruit has a different taste and they can be easily combined. Fruits give quickly the impression of satiety, due to the big size and to the large quantity of fibers and water they contain. This diet is successful because it provides few calories - between 800-1200 a day, and because it assures (if kept systematically) the loss of 2 kilograms per week.

Conditions: one can eat any fruits (except for bananas, which fatten). The fruit juices which can be obtained by squeezing the fruits (which can be mixed with carrots and with beets) are as good as energy drinks.

Caution: No bread! No sugar! No alcohol! No industrial carbonated beverage! Just FRUITS!

The 1.500 calories diet

     It is part of the category of hypo-caloric diets. These are based on the limitation of calories consumption. They are the "traditional" and the healthiest diets kept for the weight loss.

     It is the predecessor of all diets and its concept is to burn all the fat reserves and to adjust the daily quantity of calories according to the energy consumption. An adult needs 2.500 up to 3.000 calories a day. Under this value, the body's weight decreases.

     - The five basic elements: spinach, bread, apples, fish, milk.
     - Period of time: one month up to four months.
     - Lost kilograms: after the first month - five. Then, kilograms are lost slower.
     - Indications: Recommended to any healthy person.

Diet Structure

Breakfast: - a glass of fat-free or low fat milk
- a slice of toast with butter or margarine or a glass of fat-free milk
- 2-3 spoons of cereals

Lunch: - 250 de grams of steamed (or green) vegetables prepared as salad with one spoon of olive oil
- meat - fish or chicken (up to 100 grams) - boiled or grilled
- a slice of integral bread

Afternoon snack: - an unsweetened tea, a slice of cheese or a yogurt

Dinner: - one egg omelet
- 150 g ham or fish
- green salad
- Between meals you can eat a fruit (an apple)

Advantages

     It is one of the diets which contain all the necessary nutritive elements as well as enough vegetal fibers for a normal digestion. It can last several months without provoking damages to the body but always only under a doctor's observation. It guarantees the weight-maintain even if one continues with a normal (but equilibrated!) alimentation.

Inconveniences

     Starting with the second month the weight loss is slower because the body adapts little by little the energetic consumption to the calories received daily.





Other medicinal plants

Aloe Vera plant
Anise
Apple
Arnica
Artichoke
Asparagus
Banana
Barberry
Barley
Basil
Bean
Bilberry Bush
Bindweed
Birch Tree
Black Currant
Black Locust
Brier
Buckthorn
Buckwheat
Butterbur
Caraway
Castor Oil
Celandine
Celery
Chamomile
Chicory
Cider
Clover
Clubmoss
Coneflower
Coriander
Cornflower
Cowslip
Dandelion
Elecampane
Elder
Endives
Fennel
Garlic
Gentian
Ginkgo Biloba
Ginseng
Horseradish
Horsetail
Hot Pepper
Iris
Jasmine
Lady's Mantle
Laurel
Lavender
Linden Tree
Lemon
Pansy
Pot Marigold
Marijuana
Marjoram
Marsh Mallow
Meadow Sage
Milfoil
Mint
Mistletoe
Mullein
Mustard
Nettle
Oat
Onion
Parsley
Parsnip
Patience Dock
Peach
Pumpkin
Rattle
Red Poppy
Roadweed
Rockcap Fern
Rosemary
Rye
Savory
Sea Buckthorn
Sesame
Shepherd's Purse
Silverweed
Spinach
Soy
Underbrush
Wheat
Wild Strawberry
Wood Avens
Wormwood


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Healthy family lifestyles

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