Does an animal’s state of mind during its final hours affect the storage life of meat?

Yes, if a mammal (or fish) is agitated, afraid, startled, or otherwise psychologically disturbed, its body automatically starts to convert the carbohydrate glycogen stored in its tissues into sugar for quick energy. This natural biological reaction gives the animal greater strength to fight or take flight, thus increasing its chances for survival. However, should the animal die, any conversion that occurred will shorten the meat’s storage life. After death, the glycogen remaining in the muscles converts into lactic acid, a substance that retards bacterial growth. It follows that the lower the glycogen level, the less lactic acid is produced, and therefore the shorter the amount of time the meat will stay fresh. Every experienced deer hunter has heard the so-called chestnut that the venison will be more tender if the arrow or bullet is well targeted, slaying the animal instantly. This advice is not only humane, but also sound, because if the deer struggles, runs, and enters a state of shock before dying, it will use up much of the glycogen in its muscles. When this happens, the venison meat cannot safely be hung for very long, and therefore it will not become as tender as it should be. For the same reasons, modern slaughterhouses kill – be it with an electric probe or whatever – with such surprise and swiftness that an animal barely has time to contemplate its fate. Some slaughterhouses go one step further and try to maintain an environment that is as serene as possible for the animal. ** Asian Recipes ** Continue…

Healthy Main Dish Recipes: Tomato Chops I | Submitted By: Christine Johnson

Seasoned pork chops are quickly sauteed and then slowly simmered in a simple, home-made tomato sauce until they couldn’t possibly be any more tender. Continue…

Gourmet Main Dishes: Honey Duck | Submitted By: Kaylee

Orange-stuffed duck sprinkled with fresh basil and ginger and basted with a honey citrus glaze. Delicious, flavorful, moist duck recipe! Full recipe…

What Exactly Makes a Good Low Calorie Diet Plan

by Kevin Prott

It’s not good enough to simply say “Tomorrow I’m going on a diet.” To be truly effective at weight loss, you have to have a plan, and you have to set goals. As you’re deciding what your plan and goals are going to be, keep the following suggestions in mind:

Instead of eating; large meals only 2 or 3 times a day; opt for smaller meals. Try to eat between 4 -6 meals per day.

Plan ahead for your meals rather than allowing yourself to rummage through the refrigerator for what looks good whenever you get hungry. The night before, select what healthy foods will be part of your meals and what healthy foods you will eat as snacks. Keep these healthy snacks close at hand throughout the day.

Have a good variety of healthy foods in your diet. Meals should consist of fruits and vegetables, low fat dairy, whole grains and cereals, and lean meats and fish.

A lot of people think about the foods they eat, but not always about how the food is cooked. Remember it’s healthier to grill or steam your foods rather than to fry them in fatty oils.

While you don’t have to totally abstain from all of your favorite foods, remember that popular foods like pizzas, doughnuts and cheeseburgers are high in fat and calories. Therefore, these should be rare treats.

Watch out for any food heavy in sugar, as it’s probably going to be high in calories. Look for low-sugar desserts instead. Fruits are best!

The daily recommended allowance of fruit and veg is 5 per day. This is a good starting point for any low calorie diet plan. You could boost this by having fruit smoothies (homemade of course) or vegetable soup that is also homemade.

Another good tip for changing your lifestyle is swapping most of your white foods for brown! Change white rice to wholemeal rice and change white bread to wholemeal brown bread. You don’t have to cut carbohydrates out of your low calorie diet plan altogether; you just have to east the right kinds of carbohydrates.

Remember, though, that losing weight is not all about what you eat. Along with changing how you eat, you must also make exercise a regular part of your new lifestyle. Get outside for some walking or running. Or if you must stay in the house, rather than watching TV, how about doing some chores that get you up and moving? This is a good way to get things accomplished and burn calories at the same time.

Before starting a low calorie diet plan and taking more exercise, it is a good idea to speak with your doctor or health professional to make sure that you are getting the right kinds of foods at the right time.

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Keep Off the Pounds for Good With the Calorie Shifting Diet

by Kevin Prott

If you are one of the millions of people around the world suffering from obesity, then you have probably tried all sorts of different diet plans in an attempt to get the weight off. If any of them had worked, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.

The answer for thousands of these people has proven to be a technique called calorie shifting. In this article we’ll discuss why a calorie shifting diet works where others don’t. First, we need to talk about the problem with traditional diets. Specifically, they fail at keeping the pounds off because of a natural tendency within yoour body’s functions.

Here’s how most diets try to get rid of your unwanted pounds. At their core, they starve the body, thus robbing it of calories needed to give the body the energy it needs to run. Hopefully by doing this, the body will instead make use of the body’s fat to provide energy. There’s just one problem: The body’s natural tendency is to consume muscle tissue before it will consume fat.

Then of course, eventually you will start eating again – usually reverting back to your old patterns. Now things get really ugly. Your body still thinks there’s a food shortage, and so as soon as you start eating, it starts converting more food into fat than ever before. It does this so that in the future, it won’t be caught off guard again without a sufficient fat supply. So now, the result of your diet is more fat and less muscle. And you likely feel guilty because of your “failure” on top of it all!

Calorie shifting effectively takes on these weaknesses associated with traditional dieting. With a calorie shifting program, instead of three daily meals, you eat four or five smaller ones during the course of the day. You eat the foods you like and alternate them with lower-fat ones. The key to making this work is to keep mixing things up: different foods with different calorie amounts all the time.

When you eat, you do so until you get rid of the hunger pangs, but stop eating while you’re still just a bit hungry. You want your body to always be guessing about what’s coming next, and never completely deciding that it needs to go into starvation mode (wherein it would again begin consuming muscle tissue). You want it to instead consume fat to replace the energy its lost from the missing calories.

Most people report a couple of important results with this kind of diet. They tend to stick with the diet longer because it never gets old and they never feel starved, and also, they don’t have the loss in muscle tissue, losing fat instead.

As you’re incorporating your new diet into your life, remember to incorporate regular exercise as well. This is the second key to ensuring weight loss. Even if you’re not the weight-lifting kind, you can still take a walk each day or maybe go for a swim. You can increase the exercise as you adapt to the new routine. It is actually safer to mix exercise with a calorie shifting diet than it is with a traditional diet.

Calorie shifting is an approach to weight loss that keeps food enjoyable yet nutrious, and makes it easier to lose the pounds and then keep them off. It’s something that anyone serious about long-term weight loss should consider.

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Diabetic Recipes: Refried Bean Salad | Submitted By: Diana Orlemann

There is so much flavor in this tasty bean dip that your guests will never dream that it ‘s low-fat. Everything is layered into a bowl, so when you ‘re ready to eat, all you need are some sturdy tortilla chips for deep dipping. Continue…

How to Burn More Calories and Have Your Desired Body

by Kevin Prott

How many times have you heard the promise of a quick and easy path to weight loss? Chances are, if you bought into it, you were soon disappointed. The sad truth is that losing weight is neither fast nor easy. You can follow the details of your diet down to every small detail – and still find that the weight is lose to come off. Is it your fault? Not necessarily. Part of it is probably just your body’s natural actions and reactions. When the body feels it is being starved (as happens when you go on a diet), it reacts by slowing your metabolism in order to protect the fat supplies it has stored for the future.

There are many ways in which you can kick start your diet again and start learning how to burn more calories the right way. Here are a few ways in which you can improve your metabolism and start burning calories at a faster rate.

Become a tea drinker–specifically green tea. If you’ll drink three glasses of it a day, you’ll find that it will work to keep your metabolism high so that you can keep burning more calories. It does this because of all the caffeine it contains as well as other natural chemicals that also assist your metabolism.

You have to keep your workouts ever changing. Don’t get stuck in a rut and train at the same times and doing the same exercise. Your body will soon become used to it and stop working with you and start working against you. Not only will your body get bored but so will you. Keep your workouts fresh and different and remember to change the intensity and the difficultly of the exercise program as you become more proficient.

Analyze how you’re going about your exercise session – and next time, take it up a notch or two. You don’t necessarily have to work out for longer. Figure out ways that you can make the exercises you’re doing more intense. Add a few pounds to the weights, or add some twists to your pushups to make them harder. By doing this you burn more calories in about the same amount of time.

Develop some “nervous habits”. Really! Start tapping your fingers or your legs; click your fingers. Every little movement adds to the number of calories you burn.

Avoid the temptation to starve yourself. It will only make you sick, and your body reacts by slowing your metabolism and consuming muscle tissue. A better option: Eat low-fat, nutritious foods instead.

Remember that water is your friends. Fluids are at least as important as solid foods on your diet. Health professionals recommend that you drink several glasses of water a day, or about five bottles. Increasing the amount of water you consume actually accelerates your metabolic rate, which helps you to burn calories faster.

Make Mother Nature your workout partner. It’s fine to workout in the gym, but weight-loss experts have noticed that walking or jogging outside in the fresh air actually makes a person more likely to stick with his program. Maybe it’s because it’s so invigorating!

So now, armed with these suggestions for how to burn more calories at a faster pace, it’s up to you what you do with this information. If you’ll put it to use, in no time at all, you’ll be the more fit person that you desire to be.

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