Three Reasons To Make Your Snack Protein

The western type diets that most of us consume encourage us to eat way more calories than we need. Marketers and advertisements encourage us to super-size (ourselves). The convenience of quick snack like candy bars or chips hits us right in the gut.

During the depression people did not have money to buy food. Soup lines were common place. The wealthy would entertain extravagantly with food to flaunt their wealth. A chubby wife was indication of you wealth.

With obesity a major contributor to the cause of the #1 killer, heart disease, it is time to change our ways. We need to make ourselves aware of the harm that we are doing to our bodies with extravagant consumption. It is time to take those extra pounds off.

Dr. David Heber, MD, PhD, FACP, FACN, founding director of UCLA center for human nutrition, chairman of the Herbalife nutrition institute and nutrition advisory board, tells us research shows that protein is extremely beneficial to our diet as well as our weight control. Below you will find 3 primary reasons Dr. Heber recommends we to choose protein when we are choosing our snack food:

1. Physiologic phenomenon - There is a physiologic phenomenon, supported by recent clinical research, showing that protein is more satisfying than sugar and fat because of the signals it send to the brain. This brain talk gives your body the feeling of being full which in turn helps control appetite between meals. This control helps you cut calories and manage your weight.
2. Thermogenic effect - The body uses much more energy to digest protein than sugar and fat. This causes you to burn more calories digesting protein than the other two. A bonus that protein offers is that it tends to be low in calories causing your body to work harder on fewer calories.
3. Metabolism - Protein replenishes the building blocks of the muscle tissue. It is important to replenish the building blocks of the muscle tissue because muscle determines our metabolism. You want to maintain a healthy lean muscle mass to maintain a higher metabolism.

We are learning. Life expectancy charts show us that we were living almost ten years longer, overall, in 2010 than in 1950. Women are actually living more than 11 years longer. Could this extended life expectancy be due to the publication of research on how our diet affects our health? I think so.

It is necessary, when expecting a long healthy life, to consider this research as we determine the diet we will live by. When you live by a healthy and nutritious diet you won't have to worry about ever having to go "on a diet" again.

You will find more valuable information on living a better life longer at http://www.healthandnutritiontraining.com.

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