For you who are on a diet program, don't be fooled by what people call as food that help you loss weight. Apparently, certain diet food will give you more weight because they increase your appetite.

According to Marjorie Nolan, RD, a national spokesperson for American Dietetic Association, there are several diet food that will make us fatter. Here, they are:

1. Light yogurt

Synthetic sweetener usually makes our stomach produces more gastric acid. Eating only 4-6 onces non-fat yogurt will give you enough energy to digest, so your stomach will ask for more food. That's why you should choose plain yogurt instead of non-fat yogurt.

2.Rice cookies

Indeed one stick of rice cookies is good, but four sticks are too much. Rice cookie is low fiber food and contains high glycemic index. This classic diet snack won't make your stomach full longer.

3. Chewing Gum

There are several opinions that chewing gum can prevent us from snacking. But, Nolan disagree. He explained that the flavor on chewing gum makes liquid in our stomach flows. When we are chewing gum, it will prepare our stomach to receive food. If you want to chew something, it better to choose healthy nuts such as almond or fruits.

4. Diet soda

Just as chewing gum, the sweet on diet soda will increase our appetite since it triggers our digestive system to work. Caffeine and carbonation can reduce hunger for the short time, but it will eventually come back and be worsen than before with energy reduction. A research that was done in University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio showed that people, who consumed diet soda, had belly fat increased for 7-50 percent. It was equal with 10 years increase compare with them who don't drink diet soda.

5. Apple

Yes, apple riches with vitamins and fibers, but only have an apple for lunch will make unbalance nutrition in your body. If you only have an apple for lunch, you will risk to have more when you have a dinner.

If you are on diet program, it's better to find 'eating partner' who doesn't have huge appetite. Why? Well, according to a research, a person especially a woman tends to follow people's diet. Especially from whom they ask to accompany them when they are eating.

This tendency is called behavioral mimicry, or spontaneous behavior to mimic people's eating habit. For example, when two people are eating together, one of them tends to follow the other's eating speed even his/her eating portion.

RCJ Hermans, a scientist from Radboud University Nijmegen in Netherlands revealed that when he was doing research to 70 couples of volunteers. All volunteers, which were involved, are women and they didn't know each other before.


With his team, Hermans observed speed and number of bites or sop that were done by each couple where they were eating together. The result showed that there was a strong tendency from each couple to mimic eating habit of each other's.

According to Hermans, this tendency generally are not realized. Naturally, this behavior is one way that people do to be socially connected with others in near environment, but they don't realize that.

"Our research result showed mimicry tendency were happening mostly at the first 20 minutes when the couple were interacting on the dining table," other scientists from Duke University, Dr. Rick Hoyle, who was involved on the research, said as quoted by Healthday.

Some research that were done before indeed showed that there are many things people don't realize, but those things influence their eating habits. For instance, plate color, tablecloth color, the size of spoon and fork or the gender of people who eat with them.

A research mentioned that diet doesn't only promise a slim body, but it is also believed can increase brain ability.

This result came from scientists research in the USA. Researchers at National Institute for Aging, as quoted by Times Health, mentioned that healthy diet can protect brain and cardiovascular system.

"We found that limited energy in diet, especially if it is done in regular time, can activate cellular response line in neuron," Professor Mattson, one of the scientists said.

The research was done to two groups of white mice. Where in one experiment set, a group of mice was only given food in certain time, while the other group was given food continually.


From the research, it was found that mice that were given food regularly more sensitive to insulin, which is really needed by brain system work. Then, brains from the two groups were examined and the researchers said that limited calorie diet seemed increases brain synapses function and also promote new cells generation and makes them durable to stress.

Chamomile flowers were found thousand years ago in Ancient Egypt time. At that time, Chamomile flowers were rare flowers and expensive, of course because its powerful benefits. Later around 1600s, Chamomile started to be famous in Europe. In this continent, Chamomile became more popular as a medicine to cure insomnia, back pain, rheumatic, headache and nervous/anxiety.

When we are cooking, we absolutely want delicious, tasty foods and of course, if it possible, low fat foods. What should we do to get low fat cuisines? Let's try these tips below:



1. Make sure that you measure oil that you use to cook, don't only pour oil from a bottle.

2. Use non-stick pan, so you don't need too much oil. When you are sauteing, use a bit of chicken stock or wine as butter or oil replacement.

3. To make free fat stock, cool chicken or meat stock on fridge. The fat will float so it is easier to dump it.

4. Nutrient content in some vegetables and fruits, such as potato and apple, apparently available more on their skins. So, cook vegetables and fruits with their skins.

5. Vitamin C dissolves faster when we are cooking, so cook vegetables that contain vitamin C with less water and short time.

6. Always provide spices on your cupboard. The key to making delicious low fat foods is on spices. Don't hesitate to use spices on your foods.

7. Buy one set of the best nonstick cooking tools.

8. When you cook food that requires vegetables and meats, try to reduce the meat for one-third, and use vegetables to fill the gap. There will be no different. And even more healthier.

9. To thicken sauce that uses milk, add a bit of powder, and cook a bit longer so the powder won't taste raw.

10. Use olive oil to sauteing or make salad. It will add flavor to your cuisines and of course, healthier.

Drink chocolate milk apparently can make our body slimmer. That was a conclusion from a research. Really? In our daily lives, most adult people reluctantly or even stop to drink milk because they are afraid that it will add their weight.

Whereas, according to a study that was published in Journal of Strenght and Conditioning Research, drinking a low fat chocolate milk will build muscles, reduce fat and enhance body immune system.



Dr. John Ivy, a main researcher from The University of Texas explained, both professional athletes and amateur athletes enjoyed physical recovering benefit when they drank low fat chocolate milk after they practiced.

"Benefits that study contestants gained were more muscles in their bodies compositions and less fat so it enhances physical form for overall better than their colleagues that only consumed carbohydrate," Dr. Ivy explained.

If we compared with another drinks, they who drink chocolate milk will absorb oxygen better. They also look more fit when they bike for four and a half weeks, doing intense training five days in a week.

Maximum oxygen absorbing is one indicator an athlete has endurance and ability to do continuous training. The study involved 32 females and males biker athletes both professional and amateur. Nevertheless, you need to consider about sugar composition in chocolate milk. Moreover, adult people and kids have different muscles and different metabolism systems than athletes.

We need to remember that too much sugar can cause obesity, just like drink soda. "Indeed, we haven't really understand yet the exact mechanism what caused low fat chocolate milk gave such a big benefit for athletes," Dr. Ivy explained.

However, according to Dr. Ivy, there are natural protein and carbohydrate mixture in milk that offers significant benefit.

Some people don't like to eat tomato. Usually, they always separate tomato from foods. Whereas, tomato not only contains vitamin C, but also helps fight against free radical on our body. According to several experts, tomato also effective to against premature aging.



Several England researchers have found that added cooked tomato on our food every day can increase skin ability to protect itself against dangerous ultra violet light.

Researchers at University of Manchester and University of Newscastle found that added five tablespoons of tomato paste on daily foods on ten volunteers can help prevent skin damage by providing protection to ultra violet effect. The damage that was cause were premature aging and skin cancer.

On a study, the researchers gave 10 volunteers as much as 55 gram standard tomato paste that contained cooked tomato and 10 gram olive oil every day, while other 10 contestants were only given olive oil.

After three months, skin sample from group that was given tomato showed that they had 33 percent of additional protection from burnt by sunlight, as equal as with SPF cream, but with higher procollagen level. Procollagen on molecules give skin its structure and keep it elastic.

The study showed that antioxidant lycopene, which was found on cooked tomato. But, they added that tomato should be looked as useful additional food and not as replacement for sun protection cream.

The researchers also said that the study was smaller and short, and they considered to do new research about benefits of lycopene for skin.

Besides that, according to research that was done by Rowett Research Institute in Scotland, was found that yellow slippery fluid or yellow jelly that are found around tomato seeds contain compound that was effective to against stroke and heart disease. If you drink tomato juice without remove its seeds, so you have reduced risk of blood clotting as much as 72 percent and it will prevent you from suffer heart attack.