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What Calorie Intake to Lose Weight Should You Stick To – An Essential Guide
By Roger Brian Shann

What calorie intake to lose weight should you stick to?

You want to lose weight and achieve the figure you always wanted but the problem is you keep getting all sorts of conflicting information. Eat just this or that, try such and such fad diet, low carbohydrate, low fat etc. there are numerous systems out there that try to tell you what to do. this article will help you solve some of those problems but there is also more information available by following the link at the bottom.

It is actually all much simpler than that. The golden rule is take in fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight.

The body needs food to work properly and without it then the first thing to lose is muscle because that is the first readily available source. You do not want to lose muscle though as that is the one tissue that will really burn off fat. So in that case very low calorie diets are bad news. once you start eating normally then the calories tend to be stored as fat and the inches go back on in all the wrong places.

There is an optimum level then to make sure that you continue to function healthily and still lose weight. it may frustrate many people but slow and steady is the best way.

So what should that calorie intake to lose weight be? The figure generally quoted is for men 2000 calories and for women 1500 but there is actually more to it than that. there are several factors that come into play, which are height, current weight, age and gender. There are some fairly complex sums you can do to work out the optimum for your self but the good news is that there are plenty of on line calorie calculators to do the job for you. After all why make life hard for yourself.

The same applies to the food we eat. It is fairly easy nowadays to find out the calorific value of any food and apply that to your daily intake. It just takes a little effort but is not really that complicated. Once you have done it a few times and noted down the values it becomes easier and easier to keep a track.

You also have to bear in mind what kinds of foods you are going to eat to keep the calorie intake to lose weight just right. Again there is good news here. You could almost eat what you like just as long as you keep measuring. Ideally though you should go for a balanced diet.

What do I mean by a balanced diet? Simply a little bit of everything but sticking to the right quantities. carbohydrate for energy, protein to give essential body building blocks and certain healthy oils and fats. This sort of balanced diet will give you all the nutrients you need as well as ensuring that you get sufficient essential minerals and vitamins.

As far as fats go it is certainly better to avoid certain ones but some such as olive oil have been proven to be good for you and because they are slower to be digested can really help you to suppress any hunger pangs.

Keeping the hunger pangs at bay is really helpful if you do not want to slip. There are plenty of healthy snacks to be found that will do the job, but they are beyond the scope of this article.

To find out more including a link to my favorite calorie calculator and more information on what calorie intake to lose weight you should use then have a look at Calorie Intake to Lose Weight With further information at the main page http://healthyweightlossonline.com/.

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7 Day Belly Blast Diet is a method that promises to assist you drop belly extra fat quick. It was designed by Josh Bezoni, a vitamin specialist who’s identified to have worked with some of the world’s foremost extra fat burning up professionals. In this quick evaluate, i want to go around how this method works and what it has to offer you.

I hope that by reading this evaluate via, that you’ll be able to make an knowledgeable determination about this product or service and see whether it is for you or not…

How does the 7 Day Belly Blast Diet Operate?

As Josh Bezoni is a nutritionist, this method is mainly about what you require to consume to shed extra fat and what you ought to stay apart from. Fitness and exercise are important and they are a portion of the method but to a lesser degree than your vitamin. This is one thing that I’ve no see too usually with abs method and it’s a refreshing change. Even though exercise is vital for bodyweight loss and for your health, there’s no beating the value of what you’re placing into your body for your health and for your looks.

There are two primary parts of the applications: calorie manipulation for metabolic rate maximization and great foodstuff options.

Calorie manipulation is what provides the method its identify. You see, one particular of the primary good reasons why men and women can’t get long expression outcomes with diet programs is that weight-reduction plan usually sets you up for failure. This is because our body does not deal nicely with lack of foodstuff or deprivation. We developed in a world wherever foodstuff was scarce, so our body learned to conserve foodstuff (and extra fat) when we’re not feeding it adequate. It does so by slowing along your metabolic rate.

What happens with diet programs is that after a couple of days of lowering your calories from fat, your body slows along your metabolic rate so that it’s more challenging to continue dropping bodyweight. Then you get caught and because your metabolic rate is so gradual you both have to cut your calories from fat additional (which may possibly make it challenging to stick to the plan) or to chance gaining bodyweight as a substitute of dropping it.

In the 7 Day Belly Blast Diet, Josh Bezoni exhibits you how to escape this fate by altering your volume of calories from fat every 7 days. This stops your metabolic rate from slowing along as you’re ‘tricking’ your body into believing that you’re not actually weight-reduction plan. It’s a effective technique when carried out proper.

Belly extra fat burning up Meals

The second portion of the method is wherever Josh Bezoni’s nutritional experience actually comes into play. It is here wherever he exposes some minor-identified extra fat burning up Meals that have the capacity of boosting your metabolic rate higher and supporting you drop bodyweight. You also find out about the Meals that you should stay away from to be able to cut extra fat apart from your body.

Eating the proper belly extra fat burning up Meals and keeping your metabolic rate higher by manipulating your calories from fat is what tends to make the 7 Day Belly Blast Diet so successful. This is why following it can be a way to shed belly extra fat quick.

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7 Day Belly Blast Diet Official Web site
Information from 7 Day Belly Blast Diet Review

Red scorching chili or capsicums have compounds called capsaicinoids which cause hot spiciness within the chilies. When one consumes them, the hot compounds generate heat in the body which in turn increases metabolic rate, the charge at which our body burns calories. This leads to burning more calories and stored fat and thus can aid slimming.

According to the clinical trials conducted on capsicum primarily based slimming supplements capsaicinoids enhance thermogenesis, increase energy expenditure, improve loss of calories, help reduce caloric intake, stimulates carbohydrate oxidation, burn up carbs, stimulate fat oxidation and burn up fat.

But taking a small amount of hot capsicums might not increase metabolic charge significantly and so might not lead to fat burning. But taking much more hot chilies in their original form can trigger abdomen pain, oral and gastric irritations. Taking them in concentrated type without reducing the hotness is next to impossible as it would be unbelievably hot.

What is Capsiplex?

Recently a diet pill in the name of Capsiplex has got into the market and is becoming very popular due to the massive media exposure. It’s a capsicum based supplement which is said to have made using a patented coating to nullify all of the unwanted effects of hot capsaicinoids.

As per Casiplex website, it helps 1 burn 12 times more energy than regular. Their patented coating releases the hot chili extracts only in the higher PH levels of the intestine, where no discomfort is felt.

Any Side Effects?

Though the slimming pill seems to work well for several users, few users have reported scorching flushes and abdomen irritations. Even fraudulent sellers have started selling fake products online. So, enough care has to be taken before decides to go for chili based dietary supplements.

Ready to buy capsiplex?

Capsiplex fat burning diet pill really work well if you are willing do some exercise. Buy capsiplex today and start losing weight!

Does my medication avandryl have one and the same restrictive of heart diesase ar the avandia?
There is a warning about the diabetic medication avandia go to the medications web site, im sure its www.avandryl.com they will enjoy a list of all the side effects. uuuhm,mmm..wowowowowowoowwowowowowowowow?i close to big butts…lol ..jk…?yeah i like big butts. – Avandryl is…

Has anyone be diagnosed beside type 2 diabetes and be prescribed avandia?
My doctor recently put me on avandia hoping to lower my blood sugar, because I hadn’t had a period in 2 months. My husband and I are trying to enjoy a baby, and the doctor said we would try lowering my sugar, and then put my on a medicine called Byetta ( which…

Has anyone taken avandia, i hear that it make you gaing bulk?
I took it for three days next my doctor relized he miss diagnosed me as a type 2 and I was really type 1. I was deathly ill so I don’t know. However i have hear alot lately about it being used as a preventive drug with people that have…

Has avandia be recall nonetheless?
I heard on the news tonight that the FDA will not take it off the flea market, just give it a black label. Actos is another one with heart risks. I don’t think it’s be pulled from the market.. but there are enough warnings in the order of it that husband’s doctor switched him to a similar but…

I am 34 yrs outdated and be on Avandia 8mg for roughly speaking 4 yrs, should I secure the Avandia Lawsuit? And which Law firm?
I was on avandia from Apr 2002 thru Mar 2007 before my doctor moved me to Glucophage. During this period my Cholestrol levels hold been switching between bad and worse based on my diet/activity levels. I be also diagnosed…

I hold be taking avandia for sugar problems,,,is this locked?
the doctor at the vetran’s hospital has me taking this medicane and i have seen several things on the tv that say’s it is not good,,please support While Avandia raise some risk factors, the increase is small. I asked my Doctor, since I’m taking it, and she says she will not prescribe it for people…

I hold type two diabeties I newly see the FDA warning for avandia?
I have type two diabeties I just seen the FDA warnings for avandia – I whip 2 mg 1x daily when I go off my of it for any length of time and resume I get severe headache especially in the nape of my neck/skull and a back ache in my upper…

I stop taking avandia 4mg because of the reproving, I did not put in the picture doctor. How much points does avandia drop?
I stop taking avandia 4mg because of the warning, I did not tell doctor. How much points does avandia drop the sugar down anyways. I do the 4 mg tablet. I need help near this. – Of course you…

I’d resembling to know long permanent status affects of avandia and metformin gratitude?
Since these will improve glycemic (glucose or sugar) control the long term effects are that they are very beneficial. Metformin has be linked to lactic acidosis and when this occurs the mortality rate is 50% with or without treatment. I do not commonly use metformin although I will admit that…

Is at hand an aternitive prescription for Avandia?
I have no insurance and the price of avandia is keeping me from buying it. Is there anything that I can replace it with. Thanks for the help. – Talk to an herbalist contained by your area about cinnamon. Cinnamon is showing great promise for some people. Will it get you stale Avandia?…

Is avandia excluded within USA for Diabetes?
Warnings have been posted and must be given to patients by their doctor if he prescibes it. My doctor gave it to me for a week. And it made me ill every time i took it. So he told me to dump the sample and go back on my other meds. This just happened up to that time…

Is There A Class Action Suit In Effect For Avandia?
I would like to inquire is anyone knows if there is now within effect a class action suit for avandia ? My mom would like to get in the suit if nearby is because we feel this is what caused my dad to die of a heart attack. Any information you may have…

Is within a tablets within place of Avandia?
you need to parley to the specialist and see if they can switch you Actos is pretty much the same entity, that is it works the same way as avandia Another medication that is the same type of drug as Avandia is Actos. It does not have the same soaring risk. I have…

Latest on the drug avandia. related to heart problems.?
I read that before you start to take avandia, you’re supposed to let your doctor know if you have congestive heart washout or heart disease, but not too sure if it is directly related to heart problems. Source(s): http://advandia.blogspot.com/2007/05/most-important-info-about-advandia.html

NTN78… Do you expect that avandia will adventually assistance me near a pious diet and exercise? I’m type 2?
– Avandia and the combination of good diet and exercise will definitely help in control of your type 2 diabetes. In regard to ovulation and fertility, only time will tell whether it works or not. I would recommend following your doctor’s advice. Ask your doctor…

What are the side effects of avandia?
– Recently there have been studies showing increased cardiac complications from using avandia. But no one examination study is the total answer. As a diabetic myself I was told by my doctors its the choice of the individual as to whether the benefits out way the problems with any medication. the most dangerous of the side…

What do you deduce of this statement give or take a few Avandia?
I think it is good advice. If my patients ask, I am recitation them to continue the avandia until they can speak with the doctor who gave them the prescription for the avandia. If they have have significant cardiovascular problems in the past, I am urging them to talk…

What is the alternative(s) to avandia that doesn’t motive cargo gain?
From what our MD tells us there is none currently. The new med Januvia is it, but be just OK by the FDA today and is very expensive. He’s on Byetta and that works great he was losing weight after the avandia put it right back on. its was weird.! Our MD…

What time of sunshine is it best to whip avandia, morning or up to that time dinner?
I would ask about one of the older drugs for diabetes. I would be scared to take Avandia. http://heartdisease.about.com/od/heartat? You really have to talk to your doctor, in that are specific instructions for taking diabetes medicines.. Your pharmacist can help you also, and the medicine…

Whats up near avandia?
If avandia is bad for you then y did my dobtor presribe me to that drug last week I was taking avandamet since, what is this world comming to, what should I do? I was on avandia for around 8 years before it stopped working effectively – no bleak side effects, it just stopped working well enough to control by blood…

Which directive firm is handling avandia class endeavour suits?
Which law firm is handling avandia class action suits? – http://www.audetlaw.com/avandia/index.ht??

Are near any recall on avandia or adavent made by park davis?
MY MOTHER IS NOW 78. SHE WAS PRESCRIBED AVANDIA AND ADAVENT. It caused her a stroke and park davis is the maker and the drug and food administration never answered the complaint. Go to AVANDIA legal view.com and read it thoroughly. I don’t believe it was recall, but new warnings were put…

Avandia assistance please?
what if i was taking avandia for one year? – Have you noticed any problems? I was on avandia for a few months, but it threw me into horrid lows, so my doctor took me off it past it was recalled. You might check with your doctor to be sure. And if there is any problems, draw…

Can i go and get pregnant while taking avandia and metformin?
Even the pill is only 99% effective. So the answer would be yes Yes, because they are diabetes medications and not birth control or contraceptives. if you wish not to concieve use a condom or other form of contrceptive. But if you are trying to it should not interfere , But…

How lots of you believe that avandia have to be vetoed ?
Glaxo really pushed the FDA in to releasing the drug into the market without warning the public just about the safety concerns. phase II trials itself have shown an increased risk of heart attack. Its not with the sole purpose avandia its all other medications which are used to NOT TO TREAT…

Can you return with pregnant from taking avandia and byetta?
As a general rule, you must have intercourse to win pregnant. I haven’t heard of any magic pills that will make you pregnant. You can go and get prego by having sex with a man. No, you get pregnant from a sexual intercourse beside a man. no! only by have sex!…

Is your Quack Doctor. Killing you beside Actos or Avandia?
I have been for years trying to tell people not to use avandia or actos. Before it be because of problems with heart disease. Now it is with bone disorders. glitazone” diabetes drugs Actos and Avandia may double or triple the risk of broken bones after a year or two of use. The finding…

My legs are swollen and i own taken avandia surrounded by days gone by plus i have scan and mris done does this could be ?
I been a diabetis for many years almost twenty have not taken a good guardianship of my self in the beggining I dont excersice at all I live in hell only piece is satan is my mother in law…

On Levemir and Urine have a massively strong Fishy odor
I am a type 2 diabetic, was on avandia for years. Avandia controlled it nicely, then because of cardiac concerns Dr changed my meds. I went through several different pills and none would control it or I have adverse reactions, Have been on Levemir now about 6 months and Urine other smells fishy.

Diabetes and avandia?
I am a 31 year old female with type 2 diabetes. I also have a congenetial heart disease call PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale). I am not on any medication for the PFO because it is small. They are just watching it for now as I grow older. Here is my problem. There has be a…

More Avandia questions please visit : DrugsFreeFAQ.com

The glycemic index is a way to rank foods according to the effect that they have on our blood glucose levels. Here we find a sample of a glycemic index chart for fast foods. This is especially accurate in relation to carbohydrates. Particularly, the glycemic index measures how much a 50-gram portion of carbohydrates raises your blood-sugar levels. Each food is assigned a number that ranges from 1 to 100. The highest rating, 100, is the reference score for pure glucose.

Foods are regarded as high if their score is greater than 70, moderate if it rates from 56 to 69 on the index, and low if the score is less than 55. The slower your body processes the food, the slower the insulin is released and the healthier the overall effect is on your body. Foods with high glycemic index are those you need to avoid in order to lose weight; foods with moderate glycemic index are those you can eat every so often; and foods that low in GI are the foods that are preferred for your diet. Foods with low GI will be digested more gradually than moderate and high glycemic index foods so you will feel full longer and will be able to eat fewer calories without feeling hungry. It is also significant to note that adding a low G.I. food to a meal will lower the glycemic index of the whole meal.

You are almost certainly a lot more familiar with the effects of the glycemic index on your body than the actual description of it. When your blood sugar drops too low, then your body act in response by bringing about a general tiredness, what we have come to call that “sugar crash”. For a lot of us, it takes place soon after lunchtime. Three in the afternoon seems to be one of the favorite times for this to hit. We turn to cure this feeling of weariness by eating a snack and fast foods – and usually an unhealthy one at that. Many of us turn to a candies, jelly beans, potato chips or chocolate bars. And this, without a doubt, solves the problem, at least for a short time. But some of these foods only raise our glucose level quickly. But you can somehow refer to the glycemic index chart for fast foods for these kinds of food.

The GI chart for fast foods shows that most of the snacks and fast foods have moderate to high glycemic indexes. But there are particular snacks and fast foods that are ranked low in glycemic index.

FOOD Rating Glycemic Number

Peanuts Low 15

Banana Cake Low 47

Chocolate bar; 30g. Low 49

Jams and marmalades Low 49

Potato Chips/Crisps Low 54

Oatmeal Cookies Medium 55

Power Bar Medium 55

Rye crisp bread Medium 57

Table Sugar (sucrose) Medium 63

Wheat Crackers Medium 65

Soda Crackers High 67

Waffles High 76

Jelly beans High 76

Pretzels High 80

Rice Cakes High 81

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Diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin or produces no insulin.

Insulin is required by the body to metabolize the glucose in the blood and transport this vital energy into the blood cells, which results in lower glucose levels in the blood.

There are two major types of diabetes and one minor classified as Type I Diabetes and Type II Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes.

The first two forms of diabetes (Type I/Type II) are also classified as Chronic Medical Conditions because in almost all cases they will last a life time and require either constant management or life long medication to manage.

Gestational Diabetes on the other hand is a result of certain unbalances which occurs when some women become  pregnant.  This condition though tends to self  adjust itself after pregnancy and no medication is required to manage it.

Treatment of Type I Diabetes normally requires a regiment of injecting insulin, a regulated diet and exercise and constant monitoring to make sure other illnesses don’t develop as a result of a person having diabetes.

Treating Type II Diabetes rarely requires the use of insulin but implementing a sensible dieting plan and putting together a regular exercise plan and monitoring one glucose levels is something that must be done life long.

The various symptoms of diabetes include for Type II increased urination, fatigue, increased thirst, weight loss, nausea, vomiting; while Type I Diabetes also includes blurred vision and ulcers.

You need to realize that insulin is an artificial means of controlling the amount of glucose that is in the blood and is not a cure for the disease, as a result the amount insulin an individual takes increases as time goes on and other illness develop as a result of the disease.

Suzanne was astonished, even appalled. All she wants to do is have a child not fund the space program. Suzanne had always assumed that bearing a child was something that as a woman you just had this natural right to experience. She did not realize that sometimes fertility is reserved for those with money, power or influence. She had shown up for the free consultation that the fertility specialist had offered her but never in a million years did she expect for the actual treatment to be so far out of her price range. She had assumed that using a specialist would be the best fertility method but was now quickly coming to the realization that she was grossly mistaken.

Suzanne was going to find that the best fertility method may have been right at her fingertips the whole time, and she didn’t have to pay extravagant amounts in order to see a specialist. Therefore, here are some fertility methods that you can use at home, so that you can stop wishing for a child and start having one.

Some of the best fertility methods are things that you and your husband can do from home and only entail some slight lifestyle changes that you will find are well worth it. The first in this list of home fertility methods is about eating responsibly. It has been found that certain foods actually boost ovulation and make it more likely for you to conceive. By consuming monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, trans fats, vegetable protein, high fiber and low glycemic foods as well as moderate amounts of high-fat dairy products such as ice cream, whole milk and cheese a woman can actually increase her fertility.

It has also been shown that being underweight and or overweight can decrease your ability to reproduce. A study of women showed that those who carried a body mass index above normal took nearly twice as long to conceive as those with a normal body mass index. While in men those who were overweight were more likely to have low testosterone. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have concluded that a 20 pound weight increase can boost infertility chances by about 10%. One of the best fertility methods may revolve around your ability to maintain a healthy weight.

Age also plays a role in a woman’s ability to conceive. The decline in a woman’s fertility begins about age 30. Experts agree that if a woman under the age of 35 has been attempting to get pregnant for over a year that she should consult with your doctor. An attempt to find the best fertility method for you, your doctor may recommend an over-the-counter test that will allow you to establish what your current egg supply is and whether or not that is affecting your ability to get pregnant.

These are all factors that can play into a woman’s ability to find the best fertility method for her or that generally affect any woman’s ability to conceive. While you are attempting to take that plunge into motherhood these are important factors to be aware of.

There are many more resources available on the Internet that you should take a look at on your quest to locate the best fertility method.

Life, inventions, and business career

Early life

Ray Kurzweil grew up in the New York City borough of Queens. He was born to secular Jewish parents who had escaped Austria just before the onset of World War II, and he was exposed via Unitarian Universalism to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing. His father was a musician and composer and his mother was a visual artist. His uncle, an engineer at Bell Labs, taught young Ray the basics of computer science. In his youth, he was an avid reader of science fiction literature. In 1963, at age fifteen, he wrote his first computer program. Designed to process statistical data, the program was used by researchers at IBM. Later in high school he created a sophisticated pattern-recognition software program that analyzed the works of classical composers, and then synthesized its own songs in similar styles. The capabilities of this invention were so impressive that, in 1965, he was invited to appear on the CBS television program I’ve Got a Secret, where he performed a piano piece that was composed by a computer he also had built. Later that year, he won first prize in the International Science Fair for the invention, and he was also recognized by the Westinghouse Talent Search and was personally congratulated by President Lyndon B. Johnson during a White House ceremony.

Mid-life

In 1968, during his sophomore year at MIT, Kurzweil started a company that used a computer program to match high school students with colleges. The program, called the Select College Consulting Program, was designed by him and compared thousands of different criteria about each college with questionnaire answers submitted by each student applicant. When he was 20, he sold the company to Harcourt, Brace & World for $100,000 (roughly $500,000 in 2006 dollars) plus royalties. He earned a BS in Computer Science and Literature in 1970 from MIT.

In 1974, Kurzweil started the company Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc. and led development of the first omni-font optical character recognition system computer program capable of recognizing text written in any normal font. Before that time, scanners had only been able to read text written in a few fonts. He decided that the best application of this technology would be to create a reading machine, which would allow blind people to understand written text by having a computer read it to them aloud. However, this device required the invention of two enabling technologieshe CCD flatbed scanner and the text-to-speech synthesizer. Under his direction, development of these technologies was completed, and on January 13, 1976, the finished product was unveiled during a news conference headed by him and the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind. Called the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the device covered an entire tabletop. It gained him mainstream recognition: on the day of the machine’s unveiling, Walter Cronkite used the machine to give his signature soundoff, “And that’s the way it is, January 13, 1976.” While listening to The Today Show, musician Stevie Wonder heard a demonstration of the device and purchased the first production version of the Kurzweil Reading Machine, beginning a lifelong friendship between himself and Kurzweil.

According to former Kurzweil Computer Products employees, the Kurzweil Reading Machine’s designer was engineer Richard Brown, a KCP employee at the time.

Kurzweil’s next major business venture began in 1978, when Kurzweil Computer Products began selling a commercial version of the optical character recognition computer program. LexisNexis was one of the first customers, and bought the program to upload paper legal and news documents onto its nascent online databases.

Two years later, Kurzweil sold his company to Xerox, which had an interest in further commercializing paper-to-computer text conversion. Kurzweil Computer Products became a subsidiary of Xerox formerly known as Scansoft and now as Nuance Communications, and he functioned as a consultant for the former until 1995.

Kurzweil’s next business venture was in the realm of electronic music technology. After a 1982 meeting with Stevie Wonder, in which the latter lamented the divide in capabilities and qualities between electronic synthesizers and traditional musical instruments, Kurzweil was inspired to create a new generation of music synthesizers capable of accurately duplicating the sounds of real instruments. Kurzweil Music Systems was founded in the same year, and in 1984, the Kurzweil K250 was unveiled. The machine was capable of imitating a number of instruments, and in tests musicians were unable to discern the difference between the Kurzweil K250 on piano mode from a normal grand piano. The recording and mixing abilities of the machine, coupled with its abilities to imitate different instruments made it possible for a single user to compose and play an entire orchestral piece.

Kurzweil Music Systems was sold to Korean musical instrument manufacturer Young Chang in 1990. As with Xerox, Kurzweil remained as a consultant for several years.

Later life

Concurrent with Kurzweil Music Systems, Ray Kurzweil created the company Kurzweil Applied Intelligence (KAI) to develop computer speech recognition systems for commercial use. The first product, which debuted in 1987, was the world’s first large-vocabulary speech recognition program, allowing human users to dictate to their computers via microphone and then have the device transcribe their speech into written text. Later, the company combined the speech recognition technology with medical expert systems to create the Kurzweil VoiceMed (today called Clinical Reporter) line of products, which allow doctors to write medical reports by speaking instead of writing. KAI exists today as Nuance Communications.

Kurzweil started Kurzweil Educational Systems in 1996 to develop new pattern-recognition-based computer technologies to help people with disabilities such as blindness, dyslexia and ADD in school. Products include the Kurzweil 1000 text-to-speech converter software program, which enables a computer to read electronic and scanned text aloud to blind or visually-impaired users, and the Kurzweil 3000 program, which is a multifaceted electronic learning system that helps with reading, writing, and study skills.

Raymond Kurzweil at the Singularity Summit at Stanford in 2006

During the 1990s Ray Kurzweil founded the Medical Learning Company. The company’s products included an interactive computer education program for doctors and a computer-simulated patient. Around the same time, Kurzweil started KurzweilCyberArt.com website featuring computer programs to assist the creative art process. The site used to offer free downloads of a program called AARON visual art synthesizer developed by Harold Cohennd of “Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet”, which automatically creates poetry. During this period he also started KurzweilAI.net, a website devoted towards showcasing news of scientific developments, publicizing the ideas of high-tech thinkers and critics alike, and promoting futurist-related discussion among the general population through the Mind-X forum.

In 1999, Kurzweil created a hedge fund called “FatKat” (Financial Accelerating Transactions from Kurzweil Adaptive Technologies) http://www.fatkat.com, which began trading in 2006. He has stated that the ultimate aim is to improve the performance of FatKat’s A.I. investment software program, enhancing its ability to recognize patterns in “currency fluctuations and stock-ownership trends.” He predicted in his 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, that computers will one day prove superior to the best human financial minds at making profitable investment decisions. In 2001, Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace released an album, titled Spiritual Machines, based on Kurzweil’s book. Kurzweil’s voice was featured in the album, reading excerpts from his book.

In June 2005, Ray Kurzweil introduced the “Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader” (K-NFB Reader) pocket-sized device consisting of a digital camera and computer unit. Like the Kurzweil Reading Machine of almost 30 years before, the K-NFB Reader is designed to aid blind people by reading written text aloud. The newer machine is portable and scans text through digital camera images, while the older machine is large and scans text through flatbed scanning.

Ray Kurzweil is currently making a movie due for release in 2010 called The Singularity is Near: A True Story About the Future based, in part, on his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near. Part fiction, part non-fiction, he interviews 20 big thinkers like Marvin Minsky, plus there is a B-line narrative story that illustrates some of the ideas, where a computer avatar (Ramona) saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots.

In addition to Kurzweil’s movie, an independent, feature-length documentary was made about Kurzweil, his life, and his ideas called Transcendent Man. Filmmakers Barry and Felicia Ptolemy followed Kurzweil, documenting his global speaking tour. Premiered in 2009 at the Tribeca Film Festival, Transcendent Man documents Ray’s quest to reveal mankind’s ultimate destiny and explores many of the ideas found in his New York Times bestselling book, The Singularity is Near, including his concept of exponential growth, radical life expansion, and how we will transcend our biology. The Ptolemys documented Ray’s stated goal of bringing back his late father using AI. The film also features critics who argue against Kurzweil’s predictions.

Kurzweil said during a 2006 C-SPAN2 interview that he was working on a new book that focused on the inner workings of the human brain and how this could be applied to building AI.

While being interviewed for a February 2009 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Kurzweil expressed a desire to construct a genetic copy of his late father, Fredric Kurzweil, from DNA within his grave site. This feat would be achieved by deploying various nanorobots to send samples of DNA back from the grave, constructing a clone of Fredric and retrieving memories and recollectionsrom Ray’s mindf his father.

Books

Kurzweil’s first book, The Age of Intelligent Machines, was published in 1990. The nonfiction work discusses the history of computer AI and also makes forecasts regarding likely future developments. Other experts in the field of AI contribute heavily to the work in the form of essays. The Association of American Publishers’ awarded it the status of Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1990.

Next, Kurzweil published a book on nutrition in 1993 called The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life. The book’s main idea is that high levels of fat intake are the cause of many health disorders common in the U.S., and thus that cutting fat consumption down to 10% of the total calories consumed would be optimal for most people.

In 1998, Ray Kurzweil published The Age of Spiritual Machines, which focuses heavily on further elucidating his theories regarding the future of technology, which themselves stem from his analysis of long-term trends in biological and technological evolution. Much focus goes into examining the likely course of AI development, along with the future of computer architecture.

Kurzweil’s next book published in 2004, returned to the subject of human health and nutrition. Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever was co-authored by Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, a medical doctor and specialist in alternative medicine.

The Singularity Is Near was published in 2005. The book is currently being made into a movie starring Pauley Perrette (NCIS), and scheduled for 2010 release.

In February 2007, Ptolemaic Productions acquired the rights to The Singularity is Near, The Age of Spiritual Machines and Fantastic Voyage including the rights to Kurzweil’s life and ideas for the film Transcendent Man. The feature length documentary was directed by Barry Ptolemy.

Kurzweil’s newest book, Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever, a follow-up on Fantastic Voyage, was released on April 28, 2009.

The book he’s currently working on is called “How The Mind Works and How To Build One”.

Recognition and awards

Kurzweil has been called the successor and “rightful heir to Thomas Edison”, and was also referred to by Forbes as “the ultimate thinking machine.”

Kurzweil has received these awards, among others:

First place in the 1965 International Science Fair for inventing the classical music synthesizing computer.

The 1978 Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery. The award is given annually to one “outstanding young computer professional” and is accompanied by a $35,000 prize. Ray Kurzweil won it for his invention of the Kurzweil Reading Machine.

The 1990 “Engineer of the Year” award from Design News.

The 1994 Dickson Prize in Science. One is awarded every year by Carnegie Mellon University to individuals who have “notably advanced the field of science.” Both a medal and a $50,000 prize are presented to winners.

The 1998 “Inventor of the Year” award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The 1999 National Medal of Technology. This is the highest award the President of the United States can bestow upon individuals and groups for pioneering new technologies, and the President dispenses the award at his discretion. Bill Clinton presented Ray Kurzweil with the National Medal of Technology during a White House ceremony in recognition of Kurzweil’s development of computer-based technologies to help the disabled.

The 2000 Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology. Two other individuals also received the same honor that year. The award is presented yearly to people who “exemplify the life, times and standard of contribution of Tesla, Westinghouse and Nunn.”

The 2001 Lemelson-MIT Prize for a lifetime of developing technologies to help the disabled and to enrich the arts. Only one is meted out each year to highly successful, mid-career inventors. A $500,000 award accompanies the prize.

Kurzweil was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002 for inventing the Kurzweil Reading Machine. The organization “honors the women and men responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social and economic progress possible.” Fifteen other people were inducted into the Hall of Fame the same year.

The Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award on April 20, 2009 for lifetime achievement as an inventor and futurist in computer-based technologies.

In 2008, the Arizona-Based experimental band “The Singularity Is Near” was formed, later changing their name to “Ray Kurzweil’s Face” in 2009. They are now respected as one of the most influential musical groups in Arizona over the past several years, raising awareness about Ray’s world-changing ideas and inventions, more specifically how humans will relate to technology and the universe in the coming 4060 years.

Kurzweil has received sixteen honorary degrees from as many institutions:

Type of degree

College

Year awarded

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters

Hofstra University

1982

Honorary Doctorate of Music

Berklee College of Music

1987

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Northeastern University

1988

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

1988

Honorary Doctorate of Engineering

Merrimack College

1989

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters

Misericordia University

1989

Honorary Doctorate of Science

New Jersey Institute of Technology

1990

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Queens College, City University of New York

1991

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Dominican College

1993

Honorary Doctorate in Science and Humanities

Michigan State University

2000

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters

Landmark College

2002

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

2005

Honorary Doctorate of Science

DePaul University

2006

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Bloomfield College

2007

Honorary Doctorate of Science

McGill University

2008

Honorary Doctorate of Science

Clarkson University

2009

Involvement with futurism and transhumanism

This section is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (June 2009)

After several years of closely tracking trends in the computer and machine industries, Kurzweil came to a realization: the innovation rate of computer technology was increasing not linearly but rather exponentially. With this, Kurzweil formed a method of predicting the course of technological development. As a computer scientist, Kurzweil also understood that there was no technical reason that this type of performance growth could not continue well into the 21st century.

Since growth in so many fields of science and technology depends upon computing power, such improvements translate into improvements to human knowledge and to non-computer sciences like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and materials science. Considering the ongoing exponential growth in computer capabilities, this means many new technologies will become available long before the majority of peopleho intuitively think linearly about technological advancexpect. This core idea is expressed by Kurzweil’s “Law of Accelerating Returns”.

Kurzweil projects that between now and 2050 medical advances will allow people to radically extend their lifespans while preserving and even improving quality of life as they age. The aging process could at first be slowed, then halted, and then reversed as newer and better medical technologies became available. Kurzweil argues that much of this will be due to advances in medical nanotechnology, which will allow microscopic machines to travel through one’s body and repair all types of damage at the cellular level. But equally consequential developments will occur within the realm of computers as they become increasingly powerful, numerous and cheap between now and 2050. Kurzweil predicts that a computer will pass the Turing test by 2029, by demonstrating to have a mind (intelligence, self awareness, emotional richness) indistinguishable from a human’s. He predicts that the first AI is built around a computer simulation of a human brain, which is made possible by previous, nanotech-guided brainscanning. An AI machine could handle the full range of human intellectual tasks and would be both emotional and self-aware. Kurzweil suggests that AIs will inevitably become far smarter and more powerful than un-enhanced humans. He suggests that AIs will exhibit moral thinking and will respect humans as their ancestors. According to his predictions, the line between humans and machines will blur as a natural part of technological evolution. Cybernetic implants will greatly enhance human cognitive and physical abilities, and allow direct interface between humans and machines.

Kurzweil’s standing as a leading futurist and Transhumanist has gained him positions of prominence within pertinent organizations:

In December 2004, Kurzweil joined the advisory board of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

In October 2005, Kurzweil joined the scientific advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation.

On May 13, 2006, Kurzweil was the first speaker at the Stanford University Singularity Summit.

In February 2009, Kurzweil, in cooperation with Google and the NASA Ames Research Center, announced the creation of Singularity University. The University’s self-described mission is to “assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity grand challenges”. Using Kurzweil’s Singularity concept as a foundation, the University, whose initial class of 40 Fellows began their nine-week graduate program in June, 2009, provides students the skills and tools to guide the process of the Singularity “for the benefit of humanity and its environment”. Singularity U encompasses cross-disciplinary studies in ten different scientific and future-oriented tracks, taught by industry experts.

Stand on nanotechnology

Wikinews has related news:

Climate change

Kurzweil is on the Army Science Advisory Board, has testified before Congress on the subject of nanotechnology, and sees considerable potential in the science to solve significant global problems such as poverty, disease, and climate change, viz. Nanotech Could Give Global Warming a Big Chill (July, 2006).

He predicts nanobots will be used to maintain the human body and to extend the human lifespan.

Kurzweil has stressed the extreme potential dangers of nanotechnology, but argues that in practice, progress cannot be stopped, and any attempt to do so will retard the progress of defensive and beneficial technologies more than the malevolent ones, increasing the danger. He says that the proper place of regulation is to make sure progress proceeds safely and quickly. He applies this reasoning to biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and technology in general.[citation needed]

The Law of Accelerating Returns

Main article: Accelerating change

In his controversial 2001 essay, “The Law of Accelerating Returns”, Kurzweil proposes an extension of Moore’s law that forms the basis of the concept of “Technological Singularity”.

Predictions

Main article: Predictions made by Raymond Kurzweil

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (December 2007)

The Age of Intelligent Machines

Arguably, Kurzweil gained a large amount of credibility as a futurist from his first book The Age of Intelligent Machines. It was written from 1986 to 1989 and published in 1990. Building on Ithiel de Sola Pool’s “Technologies of Freedom” (1983), Kurzweil forecast the demise of the Soviet Union due to new technologies such as cellular phones and fax machines disempowering authoritarian governments by removing state control over the flow of information. In the book Kurzweil also extrapolated preexisting trends in the improvement of computer chess software performance to predict correctly that computers would beat the best human players by 1998, and most likely in that year. In fact, the event occurred in May 1997 when chess World Champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue computer in a well-publicized chess tournament. Perhaps most significantly, Kurzweil foresaw the explosive growth in worldwide Internet use that began in the 1990s. At the time of the publication of The Age of Intelligent Machines, there were only 2.6 million Internet users in the world, and the medium was unreliable, difficult to use, and deficient in content, making Kurzweil’s realization of its future potential especially prescient, given the technology’s limits at that time. He also stated that the Internet would explode not only in the number of users but in content as well, eventually granting users access “to international networks of libraries, data bases, and information services”. Additionally, Kurzweil correctly foresaw that the preferred mode of Internet access would inevitably be through wireless systems, and he was also correct to estimate that the latter would become practical for widespread use in the early 21st century.

Kurzweil also accurately forecast that, by the end of the 1990s, many documents would exist solely in computers and on the Internet, and that they would commonly be embedded with sounds, animations, and videos that would inhibit their transfer to paper format. Moreover, he foresaw that cellular phones would grow in popularity while shrinking in size for the foreseeable future.

The Age of Spiritual Machines

In 1999, Kurzweil published a second book titled The Age of Spiritual Machines, which goes into more depth explaining his futurist ideas. The third and final section of the book is devoted to elucidating the specific course of technological advancements Kurzweil predicts the world will experience over the next century. Titled “To Face the Future”, the section is divided into four chapters respectively named “2009″, “2019″, “2029″, and “2099″. In each chapter, Kurzweil makes predictions about what life and technology will be like in that year.

While the veracity of Kurzweil’s predictions beyond 2009 cannot yet be determined, many of the ideas of the “2009″ chapter have been scrutinized. To begin, Kurzweil’s claims that 2009 would be a year of continued transition as purely electronic computer memory continued to replace older rotating memory seems to be disproved by continued rapid growth in hard-disk capacity and unit sales, while high-capacity flash drives have yet to catch on in high-volume applications. Nonetheless, solid state storage is the preferred means of storage in low-volume applications such as MP3 players, handheld gaming systems, cellular phones and digital cameras. Many companies produce a 256 GB solid state drive for use in laptops and desktops, but these drives will cost over $600, making storage on them cost roughly five times the price of comparable hard-disk storage. On the other hand, Kurzweil correctly foresaw the growing ubiquity of wireless Internet access and cordless computer peripherals. Perhaps of more importance, Kurzweil presaged the explosive growth in peer-to-peer filesharing and the emergence of the Internet as a major medium for commerce and for accessing media such as movies, television programs, newspaper and magazine text, and music. He also claimed that three-dimensional computer chips would be in common use by 2009 (though older, “2-D” chips would still predominate). But although IBM has recently developed the necessary chip-stacking technology and announced plans to begin using three-dimensional chips in its supercomputers and for wireless communication applications, chip stacking remains a low-volume technology in 2009.

The Singularity is Near

While this book focuses on the future of technology and the human race as did The Age of Intelligent Machines and The Age of Spiritual Machines, Kurzweil makes very few concrete, short-term predictions in The Singularity is Near, though longer-term visions are present in abundance. He recently discussed the singularity with Vice Magazine and was filmed for a documentary on the magazine online network VBS.tv.

Work on nutrition, health and lifestyle

Ray Kurzweil admits that he cared little for his health until age 35, when he was diagnosed with a glucose intolerance, an early form of type II diabetes (a major risk factor for heart disease). Kurzweil then found a doctor that shares his non-conventional beliefs to develop an extreme regimen involving hundreds of pills, chemical i.v. treatments, red wine and various other methods to attempt to live longer.

Kurzweil believes that the radical technological advances made throughout the 21st century will ultimately culminate with the discovery of means to reverse the aging process, cure any disease, and repair presently unrepairable injuries. Kurzweil has thus focused himself towards following a lifestyle intended to heighten his odds of living to see the day when science can make him immortal. Kurzweil calls this the “Bridge to a Bridge to a Bridge” strategy: The first bridge to longer life is Kurzweil’s regimen, whereas the second- and third bridges are based on advanced biotechnologies and nanotechnologies, respectively, that have not yet been invented. Kurzweil believes they will allow for progressively longer human lifespans to the point of immortality and that successfully implementing the first “bridge” now allows one to reach the second in the future, which then allows one to reach the third.

Some elements of Kurzweil’s lifestyle are conventional. He exercises frequently, does not eat to excess, and does not abuse recreational drugs. Many others, however, are controversial and may be explained by his obsession with living as long as possible. Kurzweil ingests “250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea” every day and drinks several glasses of red wine a week in an effort to “reprogram” his biochemistry. Lately, he has cut down the number of supplement pills to 150.

Although not supported by science, Kurzweil and many others believe that consuming large amounts of water is necessary for flushing toxins out of the body, and that alkaline water allows the body to preserve important enzymes used for neutralizing acidic metabolic wastes. For this reason, Kurzweil abhors soft drinks and coffee, which are both acidic. Kurzweil believes that acidic drinks drain detoxifying enzyme reserves. Kurzweil has taken criticism from nutritionists and scientists for his advocacy of alkaline water’s alleged health benefits and other unconventional beliefs, and he responded to this over the Internet. Green tea and red wine contain antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Kurzweil also consumes red wine because it contains the compound resveratrol, which may help to fight heart disease according to some evidence, but it is also a potentiator of breast carcinomas which may prove to out-weigh any suggested benefit. Kurzweil also takes pills containing high concentrations of the chemical because the amount in red wine is extremely inconsistent.

On weekends, Kurzweil also undergoes intravenous transfusions of chemical cocktails at a clinic which he believes will reprogram his biochemistry. He routinely measures the chemical composition of his own bodily fluids, undergoes preemptive medical tests for many diseases and disorders, and keeps detailed records about the content of all the meals he eats. On that last note, Kurzweil only eats organic foods with low glycemic loads and claims it has been years since he last consumed anything containing sugar. Kurzweil considers foods rich in sugars and carbohydrates to be unhealthy since they spike the levels of glucose and insulin in the bloodstream, leading to health problems in the long term. He instead eats mainly vegetables, lean meats, tofu, and low glycemic load carbohydrates, and only uses extra virgin olive oil for cooking. Kurzweil also diligently eats foods rich with Omega-3 fatty acids (including small, wild salmon).

Moreover, Kurzweil makes it a priority to get sufficient sleep for physical and psychological health, and he maintains low stress levels in part by meditating and getting massages weekly. He exercises daily with walking, bike-riding and using workout machines, but advises against high-impact forms of exercise. Kurzweil claims that his rigorous efforts have yielded positive results, pointing to his vitamin-selling business partner who claims his “biological age” is more than a decade younger than his chronological age. In fact, Kurzweil claims that his personal health regimen has actually slowed down his rate of aging. He also advocates maintaining a slightly below-average body weight on the grounds that it imparts some of the life-extension benefits of full caloric restriction.

Kurzweil joined the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics company. In the event of his death, Kurzweil’s body will be chemically preserved, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at an Alcor facility in the hope that future medical technology will be able to revive him.

Kurzweil has authored three books on the subjects of nutrition, health and immortality: The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever and TRANSCEND: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever. In all, he recommends that other people emulate his health practices to the best of their abilities.

Kurzweil and his current “anti-aging” doctor, Terry Grossman, MD., now have two websites promoting their first and second book, and sells their “longevity products”, many of which can be found on medical scam warning sites.

Stance on religion

Though Kurzweil’s parents were Jewish, they raised him as a Unitarian and exposed him to many different faiths during his youth. Kurzweil gave a 2007 keynote speech to the United Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut, alongside Barack Obama, who was then a Presidential candidate. In The Singularity is Near he expresses a need for a new religion based on the principle of mutual respect between sentient life forms, and on the principle of respecting knowledge. This religion would not have a leader, instead being purely personal to adherents.

According to Kurzweil he primary role of traditional religion is deathist rationalizationhat is, rationalizing the tragedy of death as a good thing. In order to benefit from what the Singularity can bring, we need to overcome our deathist rationalization. We need to sweep traditional religion out of our road.59]

“Religious tradition might attempt to slow down technological innovation, transhumanists accuse religious representatives of holding a vested interest in provenance over matters of death and immortality. One of the impediments to the advance toward cybernetic immortality is religion, they say. Religion stands in the way. Religion threatens to block progress. This is because religion has traditionally sought to provide a palliative for people faced with death. Religion brings acceptance of death, and comfort with that acceptance. Ready to engage in combat with traditional religion, in Promethean style Kurzweil wants to defy death and use nanotechnology as a weapon to defeat death.”

Criticism

Even beyond philosophical arguments over whether a machine can “think” (see Philosophy of artificial intelligence), Kurzweil’s ideas have generated much criticism within the scientific community and in the media. Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, has called the notion of a technological singularity “intelligent design for the IQ 140 people…This proposition that we’re heading to this point at which everything is going to be just unimaginably differentt’s fundamentally, in my view, driven by a religious impulse. And all of the frantic arm-waving can’t obscure that fact for me.”

VR pioneer Jaron Lanier has been one of the strongest critics of Kurzweil ideas, describing them as ybernetic totalism (totalitarianism), and has outlined his views on the culture surrounding Kurzweil predictions in an essay for Edge.org entitled One Half of a Manifesto.

Pulitzer Prize winner Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gdel, Escher, Bach, has said of Kurzweil’s and Hans Moravec’s books: “It as if you took a lot of very good food and some dog excrement and blended it all up so that you can’t possibly figure out what’s good or bad. It’s an intimate mixture of rubbish and good ideas, and it’s very hard to disentangle the two, because these are smart people; they’re not stupid.”

Although the idea of a technological singularity is a popular concept in science fiction, some authors such as Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling have voiced scepticism about its real-world plausibility. Sterling expressed his views on the singularity scenario in a talk at the Long Now Foundation entitled The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole. Other prominent AI thinkers and computer scientists such as Daniel Dennett, Rodney Brooks, and David Gelernter have also criticized Kurzweil projections.

Bill Joy, cofounder of Sun Microsystems, agrees with Kurzweil’s timeline of future progress, but thinks that technologies such as AI, nanotechnology and advanced biotechnology will create a dystopian world.

Daniel Lyons, writing in Newsweek, criticized Kurzweil for some of his predictions which turned out to be wrong; such as the economy continuing to boom from the 1998 dot-com through 2009, a US company having a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, a supercomputer achieving 20 petaflops, speech recognition being in widespread use and cars that would drive themselves using sensors installed in highways; all by 2009. To the charge that 20 petaflop supercomputer was not produced in the time he predicted, Kurzweil responded that he considers Google a giant supercomputer, and that it is capable of 20 petaflops.

Biologist P.Z. Myers has criticized Kurzweil’s predictions as being based on “New Age spiritualism” rather than science and says that Kurzweil does not understand basic biology. Myers also says that Kurzweil picks and chooses events that appear to demonstrate his claim of exponential technological increase leading up to a singularity, and ignores events that do not.

See also

Accelerating change

Paradigm shift

Simulated reality

Singularity University

Technological singularity

Transhumanism

Transcendent Man (film)

Predictive medicine

Full Genome Sequencing

References

^ Inventor of the Week

^ KurzweilAI.net

^ Piano performance is seen at the beginning of his C-SPAN interview on CSPAN-2 Book TV, November 5, 2006

^ a b Intel Science Talent Search (STS): STS Alumni & Their Honors

^ http://www.kurzweiltech.com/raybio.html

^ links.jstor.org

^ See details at: http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=542059.

^ The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earthay 14, 2007

^ a b Raymond Kurzweil at the Internet Movie Database

^ KUSHNER, David (February 19, 2009), “When Man & Machine Merge”, Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25939914/when_man__machine_merge 

^ Era of smart people is dawning

^ “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You: The Singularity”. http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/11/kurzweil_qa. Retrieved 2008-01-12. 

^ Singularity The Movie release date

^ “Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever”. http://www.rayandterry.com/transcend/. 

^ “Interview H+ Magazine Winter 2009″. http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/ai/ray-kurzweil-h-interview. 

^ http://www.kurzweiltech.com/rayspeakerbio.html

^ Survival of the Machines

^ http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS106533+03-Jan-2008+PRN20080103

^ ACM Awards: Grace Murray Hopper Award

^ ACM: Fellows Award / Raymond Kurzweil

^ Engineer of the Year Hall of Fame, 6/12/2007

^ Dickson Prize

^ Corporation names new members

^ National Medal of Technology Recipients, Technology Administration

^ The National Medal of Technology

^ Telluride Tech Festival

^ Winners’ Circle: Raymond Kurzweil

^ Lemelson-MIT Prize

^ Ray Kurzweil Inventor Profile

^ Hall of Fame Overview

^ Hall of Fame 2002

^ http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id=10468

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n http://www.kurzweiltech.com/raycv.html

^ http://www.planetpatent.com/Articles/RayKurzweilLandmarkInventions.htm

^ http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=100220

^ http://www.clarkson.edu/news/view.php?id=2249

^ singinst.org

^ lifeboat.com

^ sfgate.com

^ http://singularityu.org/about/faq/

^ Nanotech Could Give Global Warming a Big Chill (July, 2006)

^ “Machines ‘to match man by 2029′”. BBC News. 2008-02-16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248875.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-17. 

^ a b “In Depth: Ray Kurzweil”. CSPAN-2. Book TV. 2006-11-05. Archived from the original on 2007-02-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20070220014203/http://www.booktv.org/feature/index.asp?segid=7515&schedID=457. Retrieved 2008-02-17.  at 85, 147, 167 and 173 minutes into 3 hour interview

^ “In Depth: Ray Kurzweil” (RealAudio). Book TV. http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/1106/arc_btv110506_4.ram. Retrieved 2008-02-17.  direct link to 3 hour Kurzweil interview

^ “The Law of Accelerating Returns”

^ Fleeing the dot.com era: decline in Internet usage

^
^ IBM Extends Moore’s Law to the Third Dimension

^ RAY KURZWEIL- That Singularity Guy Vice magazine. April 2009

^ Youtube video :The Singularity of Ray Kurzweil

^ Wired News: ” Never Say Die: Live Forever”

^ Glenn Beck Interview with Ray Kurzweil

^ Five Myths About Water

^ Ray Kurweil Discusses Alkaline and Ionized Water

^ Quackwatch.org article about resveratrol

^ Fantasic Voyage

^ Ray and Terry’s

^ Quackwatch.org’s list of supplements, etc.

^ a b Simon Young and Robert A. Freitas (2005). Designer Evolution, p. 372, Prometheus Books, ISBN 13-9781591022909.

^ O’Keefe, Brian (2007-05-02). “The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earth”. Fortune. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/14/100008848/. Retrieved 2008-08-28. 

^ Lanier, Jaron. “One Half of a Manifesto”. Edge.org. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier/lanier_p1.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28. 

^ Ross, Greg. “An interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter”. American Scientist. http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hofstadter. Retrieved 2008-08-28. 

^ Miller, Robin (2004-10-20). “Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor”. Slashdot. http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/20/1518217. Retrieved 2008-08-28. “My thoughts are more in line with those of Jaron Lanier, who points out that while hardware might be getting faster all the time, software is shit (I am paraphrasing his argument). And without software to do something useful with all that hardware, the hardware’s nothing more than a really complicated space heater.” 

^ Brand, Stewart (2004-06-14). “Bruce Sterling – “The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole”". The Long Now Foundation. http://blog.longnow.org/2004/06/14/bruce-sterling-the-singularity-your-future-as-a-black-hole/. Retrieved 2009-06-08. 

^ Sterling, Bruce. “The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole” (MP3). http://media.longnow.org/seminars/salt-0200406-sterling/salt-0200406-sterling.mp3. “It an end-of-history notion, and like most end-of-history notions, it is showing its age.” 

^ Dennett, Daniel. “The Reality Club: One Half Of A Manifesto”. Edge.org. http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#dennett. “”I’m glad that Lanier entertains the hunch that Dawkins and I (and Hofstadter and others) ‘see some flaw in logic that insulates [our] thinking from the eschatalogical implications’ drawn by Kurzweil and Moravec. He right. I, for one, do see such a flaw, and I expect Dawkins and Hofstadter would say the same.”" 

^ Brooks, Rodney. “The Reality Club: One Half Of A Manifesto”. Edge.org. http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks. “I do not at all agree with Moravec and Kurzweil’s predictions for an eschatological cataclysm, just in time for their own memories and thoughts and person hood to be preserved before they might otherwise die.” 

^ Transcript of debate over feasibility of near-term AI (moderated by Rodney Brooks): “Gelernter, Kurzweil debate machine consciousness”. KurzweilAI.net. http://www.edge.org/discourse/jaron_manifesto.html#brooks. 

^ Joy, Bill (April 2000). “Why the future doesn’t need us”. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html. Retrieved 2008-09-21. “…it was only in the autumn of 1998 that I became anxiously aware of how great are the dangers facing us in the 21st century. I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil…” 

^ a b Lyons, Daniel (May 2009). “I, Robot”. Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/197812/page/2. Retrieved 2009-05-22. “During the height of the dotcom boom in 1998, Kurzweil predicted that the economy would keep on booming right through 2009 (and on to 2019, for that matter) and that one U.S. company (he didn’t say which) would have a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. Not even close. Kurzweil also predict-ed that by 2009 a top supercomputer would be capable of performing 20 quadrillion operations per second (20 petaflops in computer jargon), the same as the human brain. In fact, the top supercomputer just broke the one-petaflop markhough Kurzweil says he considers all of Google to be a giant supercomputer and that it is, indeed, capable of performing 20 petaflops. Kurzweil also predicted that by now our cars would be able to drive themselves by communicating with intelligent sensors embedded in highways, and that speech recognition would be in widespread use.” 

^ Lyons, Daniel (May 2009). “I, Robot”. Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/197812. Retrieved 2009-07-24. “Still, a lot of people think Kurzweil is completely bonkers and/or full of a certain messy byproduct of ordinary biological functions. They include P. Z. Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who has used his blog to poke fun at Kurzweil and other armchair futurists who, according to Myers, rely on junk science and don’t understand basic biology. “I am completely baffled by Kurzweil’s popularity, and in particular the respect he gets in some circles, since his claims simply do not hold up to even casually critical examination,” writes Myers. He says Kurzweil’s Singularity theories are closer to a deluded religious movement than they are to science. “It’s a New Age spiritualismhat’s all it is,” Myers says. “Even geeks want to find God somewhere, and Kurzweil provides it for them.”" 

^ Myers, Paul Zachary (February 2009). “Singularly silly singularity”. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/02/singularly_silly_singularity.php. Retrieved 2009-07-24. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Raymond Kurzweil

Kurzweil Companies web site

KurzweilAI.net – a vast resource, including some of his books for free

Raymond Kurzweil’s IP – all of Raymond Kurzweil’s US patents & patent applications

Ray and Terry’s Longevity Program

Singularity University, Ray Kurzweil, Chancellor

Transcendent Man – Official Site. Movie about Ray Kurzweil

Singularity is Near Movie (2009) – Official Site

The Singularity A comprehensive documentary about the Singularity (2010) – Official Site

Big Think official Ray Kurzweil page

Machine Dreams – CIO Magazine interview, October 15, 2004

Warfighting in the 21st Century – The Remote, Robotic, Robust, Size-Reduced, Virtual Reality Paradigm – Keynote address, 24th Army Science Conference, November 29, 2004

TED Talks: Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us at TED in 2005 (audio/video)

Robot Wars – news@nature site interview, February 8, 2005

The future, just around the bend, The Economist, 10 March 2005

The Council on Foreign Relations; An Exponentially Expanding Future From Exponentially Shrinking Technology, November 30 2005

Interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday – December 23, 2005

The Singularity Summit at Stanford, May 2006

Human v 2.0: Ray Kurzweil vs. Hugo de Garis October 24, 2006

25th Annual Army Science Conference November 27, 2006 Web Hosted Presentation, Slides, Video

Debate between Ray Kurzweil and David Gelernter at MIT on November 30 2006

Web 3.0 – How the next version of the Web will prepare us for the Singularity December 11, 2006

- The Edge Annual Question – 2007; What are you Optimistic About? Why?

Interview with Ray Kurzweil and Sample of Ray Kurzweil keynote from Interwoven’s GearUp Podcast

Ray Kurzweil interview on C-SPAN2 Book TV, 3 hours in length

The smartest futurist on earth – CNN Money article May 2, 2007

Accelerating Change presentation from Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), Third Conference, Queens’ College, Cambridge, England, 9 September 2007

Glenn Beck interview of Ray Kurzweil, May 30, 2008 and transcript of the interview.

Interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday – June 6, 2008

Audio: Ray Kurzweil in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum

Raymond Kurzweil at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata

NAME

Kurzweil, Raymond

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Author, Scientist, & Futurist

DATE OF BIRTH

February 12, 1948

PLACE OF BIRTH

Queens, New York, United States

DATE OF DEATH

PLACE OF DEATH

Categories: 1948 births | American health and wellness writers | American science writers | American technology writers | Artificial intelligence researchers | Austrian-American Jews | Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery | Futurologists | Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates | Lemelson-MIT Prize | Life extensionists | Living people | Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni | National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees | National Medal of Technology recipients | Singularitarianism | Transhumanists | ImmortalityHidden categories: Articles with hCards | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from June 2009 | All articles needing style editing | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from January 2008 | Articles that may contain original research from December 2007 | All articles that may contain original research | Articles with obsolete information | Cleanup from section | Wikipedia external links cleanup | Wikipedia spam cleanup

If you’re like the majority of people that are trying to lose weight, tone up and get fit, you’ve probably read countless weight loss books and tried all the fad diets. As you probably know by now those fad diets don’t work, do they? And if you are one of the lucky ones to lose some weight while on the diet, how long do you manage to keep it off? As long as you stay on the diet right? As soon as you come off the diet you’ll put it all back on, and then some.

And then there’s the fat loss supplement industry, how many miracle pills have you popped? How many weight loss shakes have you already drank? When you fail on these as most people do you feel it’s your fault, right? In reality it’s not your fault. The weight loss industry is making a fortune at your expense by feeding you rubbish and misleading you, they know how much you want to change the way you look and feel.

The truth is the majority of people just don’t know how to eat properly. We all know we should eat 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables everyday but how many people do? 95% of Australians are undernourished and you are probably one of them.

When you think of someone being undernourished you immediately see images of people starving in Africa, but in reality if your overweight you’re actually undernourished. Because you keep putting the wrong foods into your body, you’re body keeps sending you signal’s that you’re still hungry. If you ate foods that are high in nutritional content your body will stop craving the vital nutrients it needs, and you’ll be closer to your perfect weight!

This report is normally worth $29.99 because the information contained inside is truly powerful if applied correctly and consistently. As a gift I’m giving it to you for free. It’s the accumulation of years of Personal Training experience, reading all the latest information the fitness industry has to offer, testing out and applying what really does work!

Now, you may be asking yourself why I am giving away all of these fat loss secrets for free. It’s because I’m a firm believer of you reap what you sow and hopefully this will go towards helping you reach some of your fitness and weight loss goals.

Below I have listed some guidelines that will help kick start your weight loss regimen and put you on the road to living a healthier life. Obviously these are just are a few of the many things that you can do to help you lose weight, but if you apply and make these changes to your daily lifestyle, you can be free from the hype and propaganda and on your way to a new you.

Fitness tip # 1 – Eat low GI foods. Eat foods that are low on the GI index. Put Simply, The Glycemic Impact Index (GI) of a food tells you whether the carbohydrate in the food is fast or slow releasing. Eating foods that have a high GI rating causes your insulin levels to rise, it’s a known scientific fact that your body has trouble burning fat when your insulin levels are elevated. Foods that are low GI will give you longer lasting energy whereas high GI foods will give you a short burst of energy, leaving you feeling hungry shortly afterwards. Avoid simple sugars which are found in sweets, soft drinks, cakes, bread, bagels, white pasta/rice and juices. Limit alcohol consumption. Instead get the majority of your carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, beans and brown rice.

Fitness tip # 2 – Healthy Fats. Not all fats are bad for you, the right kind of fats are essential for optimal health and help reduce the risk cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and a host of other illnesses. Foods that are high in saturated fat, which are found in animal based foods and Trans fats which are in processed foods should be kept to minimum. Totally eliminate fatty meats from your diet (bacon, sausages etc). If you do eat meat, make sure it’s a lean cut. Make sure you eat plenty of seeds, nuts, avocado’s and fish and be sure to take an omega 3 supplement.

Fitness tip # 3 – Drink plenty of water. Two thirds of the human body consists of water, which makes it our most vital nutrient. Water is necessary for the transportation of essential vitamins and minerals as well as carbohydrates. If your water intake is low you lose the ability to transport nutrients through your body and substances such as urea, uric acid, ammonia and other nasty matter begin to accumulate, leaving you feeling lethargic. If you don’t drink enough water your body will actually store more water because it’s not sure how long it will have to wait for you to drink again. So by drinking more water it’s actually possible to lose 1-2 kg of bodyweight of stored fluid. Drinking a glass of water before your meal can also help control your appetite and stop you from overeating.

Fitness tip # 4 – Eat 5-6 meals times a day. Eating at regular intervals will keep your metabolism burning strong throughout the day. You’re also less likely to binge eat, will have stable energy levels and will burn more calories through increased meal consumption (digestion burns calories). If you have trouble eating 5-6 meals a day, try adding a meal replacement to your diet, make sure its ‘whole food based’ so it has genuine nutritional value.

Fitness tip # 5 – Eat more fiber. A diet that is high in fiber will aid in fat loss whether you’re eating less calories or not. Fiber assists weight loss by releasing sugar into the bloodstream slowly. High levels of sugar in the bloodstream cause an insulin spike which will slow fat burning. Good sources of fiber are found in whole grains, lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and vegetables. Avoid refined and overcooked foods.

Fitness tip # 6 – Calorie deficit. Through proper diet and regular exercise create a calorie deficit. This simply means burning more calories than you’re consuming. Keep a journal and get a calorie counter, you can record your diet for free at www.fitday.com. How are you supposed to know how many calories you’re putting into your body if you’re not keeping track of what you’re eating and drinking? By creating a calorie deficit you’ll be using energy from your energy stores (body fat). The trick is not to create a calorie deficit that’s too high or your body will think its starving and will begin too slow your metabolism down, your focus should be on losing fat, not necessarily weight. A too high calorie deficit can also cause a reduction in lean muscle mass making it harder for you to lose weight.

Fitness tip # 7 – Weight training. Muscle is the only tissue that is metabolically expensive. Therefore increasing muscle mass will elevate your metabolism at rest, you’ll burn more calories sitting behind your desk and whilst you’re asleep, you will also burn a considerable more amount of energy whilst you’re exercising through greater energy demand from the increase in lean muscle. Perform exercises that will give you the biggest return, compound exercises such as deadlifts, squats, pushing and pulling exercises and use a variety of combination lifts and circuits. Use drop sets and superset’s and keep the rest period in between exercises to a minimum.

Fitness tip # 8 – Consume more protein. Eating protein will keep you fuller for longer, meaning you’ll consume less overall calories in a day. Eating protein also makes your digestive system work twice as hard as eating carbohydrates and fat, so by eating more protein you’ll be burning more calories through digestion (this is known as the thermic effect). One of the biggest mistakes people make when dieting is that they lose muscle as well as fat, which will in turn slow down their metabolism. By eating plenty of protein and following a suitable weights program this will ensure you maintain your muscle tissue. If you have trouble consuming adequate amounts of protein, try supplementing with a ‘whole food based’ protein drink.

Fitness tip # 9 – Interval Training. Interval training is the #1 cardiovascular exercise for weight loss. It includes high intensity exercise (for10-60 seconds) broken up with periods of low intensity exercise. The good thing with interval training is that you burn more calories in a shorter amount of time. So there’s no need to spend hrs pounding away on a treadmill, you can be done in 20-25 mins and that’s including your warm up and cool down! This form of training will keep your metabolism elevated for up to 24 hrs after you’ve finished training, through E.P.O.C (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), so you’ll be burning calories even while you’re sleeping.

Fitness tip # 10 – Include a cheat day once a week! Keep your body guessing and have a cheat day once a week. This will stop your body from hitting a plateau and stop your metabolism from slowing down. A cheat day is a good time to eat the foods you’ve been craving throughout the week. No-one can eat perfectly 100% of the time without cracking, so hold off any foods that aren’t in your nutrition plan until this day. Having a cheat day will allow you to be good for the other 6 day’s of the week, (just don’t go too mad)!

Fitness tip # 11 – Eat whole foods. Whole foods have formed the basis of the human diet for millions of years. In the last hundred or so years we have been subjected to countless foods that are totally foreign to us. Much of what we call food today (McDonalds, potato chips, sugar coated cereals, French fries) are highly processed and have no nutritional value, these foods will be stored as fat by your body. You are what you eat, if you eat wholesome foods that are full of nutrients, your body has all the raw materials it needs to keep you nourished and maintain a weight that is ideal for you. Whole foods are foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains all of which are full of vitality. It is also a good idea to take a ‘whole food based’ supplement everyday. Check out Juice Plus+

Fitness tip # 12 – Write your goals down. On a piece of paper write down your goals, set yourself a timeframe and look at it everyday. Make sure their realistic enough for you to achieve but tough enough to make you work hard for them. Every time you reach your goals, set new goals and timeframes, this will help you stay motivated and maintain your results. Having goals gives you a path to follow and something to strive for.

Fitness tip # 13 – Be around like-minded people. Be around people that are going to give you the support you need. Research shows that people who have the support from friends and family stuck to their goals and those without support failed time and again. If you’re around overweight people that are not dieting what do you thinks going to happen? That may seem a bit tough but how many millionaires do you see hanging around with people who are penniless. Surround yourself with what you want to become!

Fitness tip # 14 – Be prepared. The majority of us are so busy with everyday life that we don’t have time to cook nutritious rich foods everyday. Preparing your meals a week in advance is the key to good food choice. Take time out to write a weekly shopping list, shop, and cook up a stack of nutrient dense food on the Sunday night or whenever you have the most time, put them in the freezer so that you don’t get caught short later in the week.

Fitness tip # 15 – Eat slower, smaller portions. Research shows that if you eat slowly you’ll eat less. There is a signal that goes off in the brain after about 20 minutes of eating that tells you you’re full. Be sure to chew your food completely and take breaks in between bites. Reduce the size of your portions, even if your eating quality food, too much of a good thing can make you put on weight, remember weight loss tip # 6, you need to create a calorie deficit. Eating more than you need will cause you to store fat.

Fitness tip # 16 – Positive mindset. You are what you think you are, visualize yourself walking round looking and feeling exactly how you would like to and then take the necessary action. Every time you look in the mirror visualize what you want to look like and ask yourself what you’re going to do today to become that person. Things may not always go your way, losing weight can be tough, if you think it’s too hard you’ve already lost the battle, stay positive and focused and you’ll succeed.

Reading this report will mean nothing to you if you don’t take action and begin to implement some changes into your everyday life, without taking action you’ll be stuck in a vicious circle of fad diets and magic pills only to find yourself back where you started, frustrated and confused. It’s up to you to make things happen and to take control of your own health, don’t you think you’re worth it?

We’ve all got certain guilty pleasures. Maybe yours are donuts, cookies, chocolate candy, chips, etc. What these all have in common is a high glycemic index. This means that they break down more quickly in your body, causing blood sugar levels to rise more quickly as well. In terms of your day-to-day habits, if you are consuming a lot of high glycemic foods, you’re more likely to get hungry in between meals, and that tends to result in snacking on whatever’s handy.

Overall, this means that those foods have a doubly negative effect on you: first of all, most of them are empty calories, which means you are either replacing good food with them, or eating way too many calories by having them in addition to healthy food. Second of all, those foods will cause you to get hungry and force your body to bring out insulin more frequently. This is what leads to diabetes.

So, what you want to do is switch to low glycemic index foods. The reason this is so difficult is that you are used to your guilty pleasures. It might be comfort food, it might have some sentimental value (like a tradition), or it might just be a bad habit that you never bothered to reevaluate. Whatever the reason, those foods are getting in the way of your health and fitness goals. Imagine a giant pizza slice, donut, or cookie blocking a doorway, and you have to fight to rid yourself of it before you can succeed. Perhaps it’s a corny metaphor, but the point is still valid: you can’t be at your best when you allow high glycemic foods to get in the way of your health.

What you should do is figure out all the high glycemic foods you eat, and make it a point to cut down on them gradually. The key is to make it something you can actually commit to. If you say that you want to switch your entire diet over tomorrow and never look back, you are setting yourself up to struggle, and perhaps even fail, right from the start. Drastic changes are very hard on people who are set in their ways, so the name of the game is baby steps.

When committing to low glycemic index foods, also try to go shopping for foods that you could see yourself eating. It’s not supposed to be about torturing yourself. While you might think giving up certain high glycemic foods is a challenge, it isn’t nearly as difficult if you can find healthy foods that you still would enjoy. Even if you start by only picking up one or two items each time you go shopping, eventually you’ll adjust and it will get easier.

So, why should you devote your diet to low glycemic index foods? It’s because of how much better you’ll feel, how much energy you’ll have, and how much more satisfied you’ll feel between meals. You’ll think better, work harder, and give yourself one of the best gifts of all: a healthier life.

Diabetes mellitus is a nutritional disorder, characterized by an abnormally high level of blood glucose and the excretion of the excess glucose in the urine. It results from an absolute or relative lack of insulin which leads to abnormalities in carbohydrate metabolism and metabolism of protein and fat. The word diabetes is derived from the Greek word meaning “to siphon, to pass through”, and mellitus comes from the Latin word “honey”. The cases of diabetes are much higher these days as compare to the past. The most commonly used screening tests are the determination of the fasting blood glucose level and the blood glucose level tested two hours after a meal. The normal fasting blood sugar content is 80 -120mg. per 100 ml of blood, this can go up to a level of 160 mg. per 100 ml of blood two hours after meals. Anything above these levels can be termed as diabetic levels. It occurs in all age groups but the most common sufferers are obese people in middle or older age

Read more on Home Remedies for Diabetes

Types of diabetes

1.    Type 1  diabetes

2.    Type 2  diabetes

3.    Gestational diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is also known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile onset diabetes. In this type the body stops producing insulin or produce less to regulate the level of blood glucose.

In Type 2 diabetes the body is not able to use insulin secreted by the pancreas. It is also known as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus or adult onset diabetes. The most sufferers are people of middle and older ages. It can be controlled with diet, exercise and weight loss

Gestational diabetes occurs during the second half of pregnancy and disappears after the delivery.The women suffering from gestational diabetes have higher chances of type 2 diabetes in the later stages of life.

Causes

1.    The major cause of diabetes now days are the nutritional efficiency.

2.    Consumption of diet rich in carbohydrates may also relates to in casual factor for diabetes mellitus.

3.    Stress and mental trauma is another factor that leads to diabetes.

4.    Decreased physical activities and lack of physical exercise may also cause diabetes.

5.    Diabetes is said to be running in families thus can be considered as a hereditary factor.

6.    Certain disease of pancreas may also lead to causing diabetes mellitus.

Diet Plan for Diabetes

Eating right for diabetes comes down to three things:  

1.    What you eat. Your diet makes a huge difference!! You should eat mostly plant foods, cut back on refined carbs and sugary drinks, and choose healthy fats over unhealthy fats.

2.    When you eat. Diet is part of it, but keeping regular meal and snack times also affects your blood sugar levels and will help to keep them more constant.

3.    How much you eat. Portion sizes matter. Even if you eat very healthy meals, if you eat too much you will gain weight, which is a factor in diabetes.

Home Remedies of Diabetes

1.    Mango leaves also fight diabetes. Take about 3-4 mango tree leaves and boil them in water. Have this water when warm.

2.    For people who have higher sugar level, chew 3-4 leaves of jamun (Syszygium cumini) in the morning and evening. One can also mash 3-4 leaves of jamun tree in half cup of water and drink it.

3.    Dip 60 grams of fresh ripe fruit in 300 ml of boiling water and cover it. After about half an hour, mash the jamun and strain it. Drink this juice three times a day.

4.    Mix 3 tablespoons of cinnamon powder to a liter of water. Heat this water for 20 minutes. Strain this mixture and have the water when warm.

5.    Another easy yet useful home remedy to reduce blood sugar level would be to chew two leaves, each of neem and bilva in the morning.

6.    Soak a few almonds and keep them overnight. Have them first thing in the morning in an empty stomach.

7.    Consume ten leaves each of basil, neem and belpatras with a glass of water on an empty stomach in the morning. This would be very useful in treating diabetes.

8.    Take a jar of water and immerse the peels of green plantain, after it has been washed. Intake this water three to four times in a day.

9.    Consume 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar thrice a day to relieve of diabetes.

10.    Diabetic patients should increase the consumption of soybeans, celery, cucumbers, string beans, onion and garlic in their diet.

Most of us know the many benefits of including oranges in our diets. Oranges are loaded with Vitamin C, which is an important treatment for cancers and is required for many important bodily functions. Oranges provide fiber and are helpful in controlling blood sugar and insulin. Oranges should be included as a part of every diet. But, did you know that the orange peel that most of us toss in the trash also contains health benefits.

Orange peel, or more specifically, orange zest (the shavings of the orange portion of the peel), contain a unique flavonoid called hesperidin. Hesperidin helps to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff), lower triglycerides (fats found in the blood) and reduces the risk of heart disease. An added benefit is in normalizing blood pressure. Studies also show that hesperidin is helpful in reducing bone loss, acts as an anti-inflammatory and is good for fighting some types of cancer, especially breast cancer.

Hesperidin is found bountifully in the orange zest. Although small amounts are found in the orange flesh itself, it does not provide the same benefits as orange zest. The zest is so easy to use. Before you peel the orange use a grater or rasp to shave off the orange portion of the peel, leaving behind the pith (white skin between the orange of the skin and the orange flesh). I make a habit of shaving the orange zest into the blender as I make my daily smoothie, saving the balance to use in baked goods, such as muffins and cookies, and in other recipes.

Orange peels also contain natural oil which is utilized by the body to help keep the elasticity of veins and arteries. The oil will help keep your skin strong, elastic and beautiful. Add some orange peel to a bath and let your skin absorb these beneficial oils. The sweet citrus scent will help give you a boost.

Orange zest is a good source of pectin. Pectin is a natural fiber which the body utilizes to control blood sugar, reducing the immediate effect of blood sugar rising rapidly. This makes it ideal for diabetics. Pectin also works to lower bad cholesterol levels, helping to scrub cholesterol plaque from artery walls. Need more benefits? Pectin acts as a natural appetite suppressant, reducing the desire to overeat. Additionally, pectin helps promote the production of healthy bacteria in the intestines.

Want to know how you can easily include this highly beneficial food in your diet? Add orange zest to rice, couscous, grains or oatmeal to give it an added citrus flavor. Use orange zest as part of a salad dressing or marinade. Add it to jams or jellies. Sprinkle it on salads or to add flavor to soups. Use it as a spice to add flavor to fish and meats and vegetables. Orange zest is a well-known addition to baked goods. People love my orange, raisin, cranberry, oatmeal cookies. The orange zest gives them that extra added flavor. The list of foods that are accented by orange zest are nearly endless.

Next time you reach for a piece of fruit consider an orange and grate off the orange peel. You will get the great benefits of the orange flesh and the added benefit found in the orange zest. You will help maintain healthy cholesterol, control blood sugar levels, suppress overactive appetite, keep your skin smooth and provide other benefits to your body.

Despite the many dire warnings many individuals don’t take obesity all that seriously. If you need evidence on this, merely stroll on any downtown street anywhere in the country at rush hour and count how many individuals you observe that are overweight. If the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is right, almost one in three adults you see will be obese.

Whether a person is regarded as obese medically is directly driven by that individual’s “body mass index” (Body mass index). BMI is a computation applying an individual’s weight and height and it is a really good indicator of the volume of body fat present.

For adults, a BMI between 25 and 29.9 will not be considered to be obese, but just overweight. Obesity starts at a BMI of thirty.

For teenagers and children, the meaning of obesity continues to be based on Body mass index however with some variations due to the natural variations in body fat between young ladies and young men.

For kids in between the ages of 2 through 19 years old, a child is determined being either “overweight” or “obese” as a result of where their BMI falls on a growth chart developed by the CDC.

A child is classified as being overweight if their Body mass index reading is plotted on the CDC chart at or above the 85th percentile and lower compared to the 95th percentile.

A youngster is regarded as being obese if their BMI measurement plots at or above the 95th percentile when compared to other youngsters of the identical sex and same age.

Where a possible weight difficulty exists then actions to get rid of the surplus weight should be taken as quickly as possible. While dieting, by itself, is a good way to get slimmer, so called “yo-yo” dieting where weight increases and lowers significantly over relatively short periods of time will be very challenging on internal organs like the liver, heart, and kidneys.

Far better is to maintain a healthy, sensible diet plan over time, together with a continuing exercise routine to maintain the weight under control.

Lastly, when dieting, make certain that you don’t lose out on having the critical nutrients that are required for health. Be sure to include nutritious fats, reasonable calories, in addition to veggies, fresh fruit, in addition to a supplement as well.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it seems that with our busy lifestyles, breakfast has fast slipped down our list of priorities. Breakfast it seems, has been reduced to a sugary muffin and coffee on the go, losing all nutritional value.

Our body starts demanding a supply of energy as soon as we wake up, whether we’ve eaten or not. Our brain cannot store any energy for itself and constantly requires a supply of glucose. Not eating, especially in the morning, can hamper mental alertness and put a strain on both our bodies and brain.

Here are some tips for eating a healthy breakfast that will set you up for an energized and mentally alert day:

1) Avoid refined carbohydrates

These include white breads, bagels or pastries. Normally refined carbohydrates have a high GI (glycemic index). This means that glucose is released rapidly into the blood stream, giving a very short-lived energy boost. Low GI carbohydrates such as wholemeal/ wholegrain breads, and cereals release energy slowly, allowing you to have a constant supply of energy until your next meal.

2) Include protein

These can be from meats from dinner left-overs, eggs, bananas or milk. Protein helps keep you fuller for longer.

3) Fruit and Vegetables

Most fruit and vegetables contain no cholesterol and are of low GI. You’ll also get a good dose of important vitamins, minerals and fiber.

5) Get Creative

If you’re getting bored of cereal, then try another cereal or something different all together. You could try making exotic fruit smoothies or fancy omelettes.

6) When on the go

Not having time shouldn’t be an excuse to not eat breakfast. Give ready made liquid breakfasts a go. A quick trip to your supermarket should be enough to show you the varieties available. Cafes usually serve healthy food with fresh ingredients. Try grabbing a sandwich on your way to school or work.

7) Just eat something

Even if you’re in a rush, have something, anything. Some juice, a glass of milk, a piece of toast. Anything that provides your body with an energy source.

Always keep in mind that your body has been starved of nutrients for at least 8 hours while you sleep. Eating a healthy breakfast will restore the depleted nutrients. It will also give you the kickstart you need to begin your day on the right foot.

Did you know? Biologically, there are two ways for every cell in your body to die. There is a good way and a bad way. The good way is called: Apoptosis and the bad way is called Necrosis.

Apoptosis is the way you want it to happen. Apoptosis is the process whereby an ageing cell signals a white blood cell to come and destroy it thoroughly. The result of this is that there is no left over part of the cell that can do damage to other cells.

Necrosis on the other hand is when the dying off of a cell happens unassisted by a white blood cell. The cell breaks off and becomes a free radical. The electrons from this dying cell fall off into other cells creating havoc and causing everything we know as aging, including non-genetic diseases.

Antioxidants and its affect on aging

The result is that the body ages, cancer can develop, hear disases, arthritis, tumours, high blood pressure etc. So theoretically if you stop the process from taking place in your body then you stop the aging process. The only defences we have had so far against necrosis are the antioxidants that appear in nature. These antioxidants are natural compounds that soak up the extra cell parts or free radicals left over from Necrosis, resulting in slower aging and less illness. These antioxidants however have up to now been found only in small concentrations in most foods until the discovery of the Acai Berry.

The first Acai Berry tests

Dr Alexander Shauss, one of the worlds foremost Nutrition Scientists drinks several servings of Acai juice on a daily basis. Dr Alexander Shauss was the first person to run ORAC Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity) assay on Acai and he was so surprised by the results that he asked a few other well known nutritional scientists to do tests on properties of this the berry. The tests found that the Acai berry was the most concentrated source of antioxidants by far!

Are all Acai Berry Products made equal?

Unfortunately the Acai berry is also very fragile, and once picked, it rapidly loses its antioxidant qualities in as little as 24 hours after having been picked, which makes it extremely difficult to find it in fresh form any place other than the Amazon. This has given rise to many fraudsters trying to sell people a product that was not the real thing and therefore would not have the same extreme qualities of the real Acai Berry.

The Acai Berry and Cancer

Since the discovery of the Acai Berry was not too long ago, there have not been too many trials done on it yet. However, a group of scientists at the University of Florida did some tests on it by putting some Acai Berry extracts into a petri dish that was filled with leukemia cancer cells.

The extract from the berry triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86% of the cancer cells. More studies are being done at the moment and it has already been said that a possible cure for cancer with Acai Berry looks very promising. If the berry extract could stop the necrosis, it would be able to prevent and destroy cancer.

This is just one of the many studies that are going on at the moment. In the future there could be possible cures for heart disease by preventing necrosis of the heart cells with the Acai Berry extract, and it could possibly also prevent and destroy Alzheimers Disease.

Acai Berry consumption prevents bad cholesterol

However, antioxidants are not the only amazing property of the Acai Berry. It contains plant sterols that can keep cholesterol from being digested which is good news for high cholesterol sufferers. The list goes on and on. The berry’s low glycemic index improves glucose and lipid levels which again, stops necrosis, and prevents and destroys diabetes.

Acai helps restore stomach health and repair ulcers

The berry is also high in fiber, which aids in digestion while allowing the antioxidants to heal the digestive tract. Ulcers which are caused by bacteria can be prevented and destroyed. The antibacterial properties of the berry destroys bacterial infection and rebuild the intestines with its antioxidant properties.

Acai consumption relieves Astma

It even offers relief to Astma sufferers with the high vitamin c content that is present in the berry, resulting in fewer asthma attacks.

Acai Berry products can keep you young

Even aging can be slowed down by eating high amounts of this berry as the high content of antioxidants will result in preventing necrosis in the body. Almost all non-genetic diseases can be prevented or cured by the use of the Acai Berry. It helps to greatly boost the immune system and thereby preventing possible diseases from taking hold in the body. This is only made possible by the super concentration of antioxidants found in the Acai Berry.

In the Amazon Forest of Brazil where the natives are eating 3 servings a day of this berry, they look very young and they have none of the health problems that plague that average human being. No cancer, no heart disease, no strokes, even wrinkles appear less! Dr Shaus is by no means the only doctor that highly endorses the use of the Acai Berry, there are many other doctors that realise its potential to heal disease.