Two ways to lose more fat....

Today's Post: Monday, 7-6-2009

Last week on Thursday, 7-2 the Early to Rise email I get had an interesting article on fatloss.

In my own experience, I find that the two methods listed have more health benefits than fatloss effects. In addition, the French get their lower rate of obesity and heart disease in several other ways not listed in their article.

However, the health benefits are real for the two methods they list. And, for you, they may work better for fat loss because there are individual differences in how people react to things.

I’ll comment after the article. Here it is.:

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com .

The French Cure for Obesity

By Kelley Herring

I admit it. I’m in love with the French. They make even the most urbane words sound like music. They frown upon frumpiness. And for them, the presentation of food is revered as art.

But what really gets me is this. The French culture revolves around decadent cuisine and copious amounts of red wine (an average of 20 liters per year, per person). And amazingly, they stay trim enough to don their skinny jeans and haute couture without sporting “muffin tops” or “man boobs.”

Researchers just may have discovered why.

It looks like resveratrol - the compound responsible for red wine’s anti-aging properties - may flip the body’s fat storage function to the “off” position.

A recent study published in the Journal Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology found that fat cells converted less glucose to fat in the presence of resveratrol. What’s more, fat cells got “skinnier” in the presence of resveratrol and adrenaline, meaning a little red wine could boost the benefits you see at the gym.

To do as the French do, rely more on your bike or feet to get around. Enjoy organic red wine (in moderation, of course), and make delicious, home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients a central part of your everyday life. As a result, you may find that you’re not only slimmer… but happier too.

[Ed Note: Want to get the anti-aging, fat-fighting benefits of red wine? Make sure it's organic! Grapes grown conventionally contain some of the highest levels of pesticides, many of which are known obesogens - compounds that cause weight gain…..]”

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Resveratrol may slow aging and help turn off cancers -- at least to some extent. The initial research on its health effects showed the biggest benefit was in helping to keep your heart strong and healthy. Source Naturals and others make resveratrol supplements with the effective trans-resveratrol in 100 mg sizes or a bit more.

So, you don’t need the calories or the alcohol in red wine to get resveratrol. But you can both take resveratrol and drink red wine in moderation since red wine does have many other health benefits besides resveratrol -- including increasing HDL and lowering LDL and stress.

The French also eat far more fresh vegetables than most Americans; they tend to walk a good bit more; they eat treats a few times a month instead of a few times a day; they eat far less hamburger than Americans and drink some nonfat milk instead of lots of full fat milk; & perhaps of most importance, they drink a LOT less soft drinks.

As a result they get fewer heart attacks. But because they do eat a lot of full fat cheese and butter they are moderately low in heart attacks instead of very low; and within France the regions that eat the least butter and full fat cheese have the fewest heart attacks.

Taking resveratrol and enjoying organic red wine moderately will very likely improve your health. And in some people it may also help fat loss too. (I think Oregon and California make the most organic wine; and one store likely to carry it would be Whole Foods Markets.)

But if you want to be as fat free as the French or even more so, do the other things they do right.

Eat several servings of fresh vegetables each day. Walk often when you can and/or do interval cardio or strength training to substitute for walking. Eat very few hamburgers if any. Choose nonfat or very lowfat dairy mostly; and eat cheese occasionally instead of daily. Eat treats a few times a month instead of a few times a day. (Two or three times a month is massively fewer calories and sugar than four times a day!) And, of most importance, drink no regular or diet soft drinks.

Those things will help many people lose fat reliably.

Organic red wine and resveratrol supplements clearly will be good for your health. And, some people may find they help fat loss as well.