Is Linux a free alternative to Windows and Mac OS?

The most important part of your personal computer is the operating systems aka OS, operating systems are everywhere, in tables, laptops, desktops notebooks and so forth.A bad OS means a lot of troubles, time wasted as well as money and energy.
I have been using Mac OS since 1991, while my first introduction to Microsoft Windows OS was about in 1994.(this topic is still in progress)

Facts About Hops, Alcohol and Your Beer Belly

The relationship between beer consumption and belly fat has been noticed since centuries. Yet, our modern doctors and nutritionists are still regarding alcoholic beverages as ordinary foods and sources of calories. Alcohol’s calorie content is, in fact the only visible tip of the iceberg. Relaying solely on calorie charts used in cutting-edge calorie-counter softwares and websites to evaluate the effect of wine, beer or hard liquors on belly fat syndrome, is not a sufficient option.
Actually, brewski hinders your body’s ability to burn fat in several ways:

Alcohol is a source of unwanted empty calories:

Each gram of Ethanol, aka Alcohol, contains seven calories; these are called empty calories, which means that your body doesn’t burn any calorie while “digesting” alcohol.
This being said, a single small beer contains 150 empty calories, this is roughly the equivalent of 15 min of jogging. Remember! The calorific effect is only the visible part of our iceberg.

Alcohol can hamper dramatically fat oxidation process:

Human body uses stored fat as a primarily source of fuel, especially during sleep and mild physical activities. However, whenever ethanol is available, it is rapidity converted to Acetaldehyde then eventually to Acetate. The body shut down fat oxidation and starts using Acetate as its primarily fuel. Some studies have shown that a dose as small as two shots of vodka, is able to shut down the whole body oxidation by 73% for several hours!

Alcohol intake leads to androgen deficiency in men

Acetylaldehyde, a product of alcohol metabolism, affects interstitial cells of Leydig by lowering considerably their ability to produce testosterone; a highly important hormone for gaining muscles, losing fat and male reproductive health. Alcohol also affects testosterone level in a different approach; it does this by hindering the P450 liver enzymes’ normal functions. The liver ceases breaking down estrogen molecules which increases estrogen levels in blood stream, therefore lowering testosterone level. If you are yearning to ditch that fat tummy for ever, try to cut-down or avoid completely alcohol consumption.

Hops: a “wicked and pernicious weed” in your beer

If you are a crazy beer lover like I was, you must be certainly acquainted with the wonderful relaxing effect of hops. As soon as I would sip my first beer, all tensions and jitters would vaporize completely in a matter of seconds. Hops, also known as Humulus lupulus, is a powerful herb against anxiety, it has also a strong sedative effect. Lots of home fires, SPA home drowning accidents and other types of such misfortunes are caused solely by the sedative effect of this beer additive.
Hops has also another catastrophic drawback; its effect on testosterone is even worse than alcohol itself. It is considered, the most potent anti-testosterone consumed plant par excellence. Due to its high phytoestrogen content, and just by its olfactory propriety, hops was known to cause menstrual cramps, as well as irregularities in the menstrual cycles of women working in hops field. In men it affects testosterone production, libido, fat gut and man boobs.
For that matter, hops was dubbed “wicked and pernicious weed” and was banned for a period of time in England during the 16th century. Today, hops is mainly used as a beer additive and also as a main ingredient of breast enlargement pills.
Not only both alcohol and hops cause androgen deficiency in men but they are also strong appetizers and lead to overeating. I’m sorry to say this, but I have to say it: I really think any man whose wish is to ditch his beer belly, and by the way increase his virility, should stop consuming beer altogether.

More articles from the same author :

• Belly Fat, Weight Loss and the famous crunch effect myth
• Fast Easy Recipe: Moroccan Green Tea with Mint

Belly Fat, Weight Loss and the famous crunch effect myth

Do crunches and sit-ups affect body fat?
I have always restrained myself from writing about this topic. The reason behind this is that I thought the myth of crunch and sit-ups’ effect on belly fat had been entombed forever.
I was wrong, this myth is still propagating not only amid ordinary people but also among famous fitness gurus.

Why do we have body fat?

After being digested and processed, macro-nutrients such as fat and glucose are first converted after several steps into glucose and fatty acids. Glucose is released in the blood for urgent energy needs. Likewise, some of the fat becomes available in the blood as free fatty acids. The surplus is stored as fat and glycogen.
Both glucose and fatty acids are used as primary sources of fuel. Glucose is more used for physical activities that require speed, power and so forth. While fatty acids are mostly called on during periods of sleep, indolence or mild physical activity. Those two sources of energies are stored as fat and glycogen when the body doesn’t need them. Since glycogen cannot be stored to a great extent but fat can, any calorific surplus – be it from protein, carbs or fat – is automatically converted to fat.

Abdominal obesity is a stored amount of energy:

Each pound of body fat yields 3500 Cal, this means; if you had 10 pounds of fat hanging on your body, the amount of energy you are storing would be:
10 X 3.500 Cal = 35.000 Cal.
You have to burn this amount of energy you have accumulated or stop eating and therefore letting the body use the stored fat as a source of energy.
Crunches and Sit-ups can’t extinguish this particular spot of fat. Spot reduction is not possible, don’t waste your time. The only possible solution is to cut your calorie intake and exercise regularly. Your workout must include aerobic and resistance training for better results
Why does crunch have no effect on belly fat?
Crunch is a very poor exercise in terms of aerobic effect. 100 crunches burn roughly between 5 to 10 Cal. Let’s see how many crunches you’ll need to in order to lose a mere 10 pounds of belly fat.
35.000 cal/0.05 = 700.000 crunches.
Let’s assume that you are going to do three sets of 15 crunches everyday with no break. This means doing 45 crunches per day seven days per week.
700.000/45 =15.555 days = 42,62 years!
You'll need 42,62 years  to remove that 10 lbs of fat!  And wait! You would never be able to ditch those 10 pounds of fat in 42.62 if ever you did take one calorie per day above your weight maintenance calorie intake.
Maybe you may think that I was unfair to crunch because I have used the value of 5 Cal per 100 crunches which seems to be the most accepted value. If I changed the value to 10 Cal, or even 50 Cal, the amount of time needed to lose 10 lbs of fat would be respectively 21,31 years and 4,26 years.
Where did the crunch myth come from ?
Thanks to infomercial scams, they are still using the same technique and the same skit. In order to sell their machines, they compare them to crunch in terms of effect on abdominal muscles. Yet, some machines can contract abs 700% or 250% more than crunches, but this is a moot argument. Abs contraction has no effect on fat loss.

More articles from the same author : 

Facts About Hops, Alcohol and Your Beer Belly

Fast Easy Recipe: Moroccan Green Tea with Mint

Mint green-tea is famous among North African countries where it has a longstanding history; this traditional beverage is normally consumed all the day long, by all people regardless of their social status. Whether they are members of the royal family or just ordinary commoners, Moroccans’ love towards this refreshing and unifying beverage is unshakable.

What is mint green-tea?

Mint green-tea is an ordinary green tea prepared along with fresh spearmint and some sugar. What makes this beverage so exceptional is that it comprises synergetically two fabulous herbs: green tea (Camellia sinensis) and spearmint (Mentha spicata). Both of them have a howling array of beneficial properties

Green tea:

With about 2,500 studies in its capital, green tea is surely the most studied food-beverage so far. No other food can even come close to its firm standing in the face of a myriad of skeptical studies. I don’t think if there is anybody who still needs further proof to embrace this new green tea-mania.
Nevertheless, some people may still ignore the full range of green tea’s health benefits. Some of them have already been known for centuries by religious monks and healers while others have juts been discovered lately by up-to-date science.
Green tea has been scientifically credited to cure a lot of illness, such as reducing high blood pressure, preventing and treating diabetics, lung protection for smokers, preventing and treating cancers, rejuvenating body from heart strokes, clearing obstructed arteries, boosting immunity, losing weight and preventing tooth decay.

What about spearmint?

Besides its pleasant aroma and freshness, Mentha spicata can add more healthy proprieties to your cup of tea. Spearmint is an excellent antioxidant. It has also some unique anti-androgenic properties suitable to treat hirsutism in women. Spearmint is used to treat gastrointestinal ailments, as well as gas and fungal infections.

How to prepare mint green-tea:

1.Wash your fresh spearmint
2.Put about 2 whole stems in a glass.
3.Put your tea bag and some sugar.
4.Pour hot water and wait 5 minutes.
5.Enjoy it.
PS: this is the most basic method, and the best-known, normally some people would add some absinthe.

Moroccans do not add peppermint; they use a local cultivar closely related to spearmint but has a more pungent aroma. In other words, classical Moroccan green tea contains spearmint and sometimes they add another kind of local "peppermint" which is related to spearmint with some sort of peppermint aroma. But they never add the "western" well-known peppermint.

The Easiest Way to Stop Caffeine Addiction

How to stop and quit caffeine addiction? Like any other drug addiction, caffeine addiction is not easy to overcome. This is because caffeine affects our emotions and behaviors, impairing our judgement and wit and consequently making the struggle against it even more difficult.
For a lot of people the word caffeine means literally coffee, while in fact, caffeine does not occur solely in coffee beans but in a wide array of both natural and human made foods and beverages.
Caffeine is present in coffee beans, tea leaves, kola nuts, yerba maté, guarana berries, cola drinks, energy drinks and to a much lesser extent in chocolate. Caffeine effects may differ slightly depending on its source, and whether it is natural or synthetic. I have personally noticed that Caffeine found in some coffee beans such as Robusta, is much more potent than caffeine from Arabica beans while the effect of the synthetic caffeine normally added in cola soda drinks, was the softer form I have encountered, which may be because of its synthetic nature.
Caffeine addiction
Caffeine is an addictive drug, more addictive than marijuana, even close to nicotine and cocaine's addiction level. That means cutting caffeine cold turkey will triggers several withdrawal symptoms ranging from severe headache or back pain to serious depression-like symptoms.
Personally, I have quitted caffeine consumption several times during a 10 year period, but never succeed to stick with my abstinence plan more than two months. I obviously tried all methods before finding the right solution.
Cutting caffeine methods:
1- Cold turkey:
This method consists of stopping caffeine abruptly; it works like a charm but gives you the strongest withdrawal symptoms.  Mine was so severe that I stayed on my bed one week, back pain, depression, annoying tingling sensations in my legs and flu-like symptoms to name but a few.  You can try this way if you don’t have a job, attend a school, or you have any social duties that may be ruined by your sudden anger.
2- Cutting back gradually:
By cutting back caffeine gradually, you will let your body to accommodate itself to the absence of caffeine gradually. As appealing as it may seem to be, this method has its own downside too, it requires a strict discipline, if you are a real caffeine freak then you will not be able to cut caffeine intake steadily and smoothly. As with cocaine or nicotine, once your body tastes its first matutinal dose of its cherished drug, it starts claiming more of it; the craving that follows the first caffeine ingestion is the biggest problem. It is preferable to take your first coffee hit later rather than taking it in the early minutes of your day.
3- Switching to decaffeinated coffee:
Decaffeinated coffee does contain caffeine. I have switched to it and ended using large quantity of decaffeinated coffee powder in my kettle to have the same hit. I was just ingesting the same amount caffeine plus the unwanted effect of coffee acidity.
So what is the easiest method?
As I have explained, the “cold turkey” method's problems are the withdrawal symptoms while the “Cut back gradually” culprit is the craving and the impossibility of following the plan rigorously.
The easiest method that has worked for me is this:

1. Switch to green tea or black tea as a primary source of caffeine in the morning, avoid coffee in the morning.
2. Decrease your amount of coffee during the day, until you stop it. But meanwhile, keep increasing tea intake during the day. At this stage, green tea has to replace coffee.
3. Remove from your home and environment if possible any trace of coffee. Your cabinet must contain only tea.
4. Commence exercising and start also decreasing your tea intake as well.  Sport helps regulate body hormones levels. This would assist your body to overcome withdrawal symptoms.
5. Continue exercising and decreasing tea consumption, at this moment your breakfast should be 100% free of caffeine, opt for healthy breakfast such oatmeal, fried eggs, bacon, barley soup, fruit juice. If you like to drink something hot, try Rooibos tea.
6. Stick with your caffeine-free plan tightly for at least for 6 months in order to allow your body to forget caffeine.

Men's Health, Losing belly fat, is it possible?

People are posting this question online over and over, a lot of people want to get rid of their fat tummy; fat tummy is not only disgusting to behold, but also, it is an evident sign of a poor health, low self-control and stupid habits.

If fact most of those who are carrying this extra fat in their waist, are negligent towards themselves, their mundane duties and their jobs.

Losing that belly needs self-determination, good judgment and perseverance. If you are weak; chances that your belly vanquishes you, are high. It is much easier and funnier to order a jumbo pizza with an oily heap of French fries and bottle of cola drink, than going for a jog at 7h: 00 am.

What is belly fat?

Abdominal fat is the combination of visceral fat-found deep in your stomach- and subcutaneous fat. Fat is nothing then a stored energy; when the body has more calories than it needs, it stores the leftover into fat for future needs.

How to get rid of that belly?

The fat belly itself was nothing but the cause of a net energy imbalance — the organism consumes more usable calories than it expends. To make this fat disappear again, one has to create a calorie deficit by eating less and burning more.

The best approach to eradicate belly fat is to follow a low calorie diet coupled with exercise three or four times a week.

Here is what you should do at fist:

1- Follow a low calorie diet; cut 500 cal to 1000 cal from your maintenance calorie intake value (weight maintenance*)

2- Start exercising three to four times a week, incorporate both aerobic and resistance training in routine (aerobic means jogging and walking while resistance training means bodybuilding)

3- Avoid alcohol, and if possible caffeine if you are sensitive to it.

4- Try to sleep enough.

5-   Drink at least 8 cups of water a day.

6- Track your calorie intake; you can buy a diet software or joint for free, an online diet journal and start tracking your foods, exercises, weight loss, and goals.

7- Join forum discussions to get some help from people in the same situation as you.

8-   (*) To calculate your weight maintenance use this free online calculator below.

Breast Enlargement: Fenugreek Safe Solution to Enlarge Your Breast Naturally

If you are willing to enlarge your breast, without the side effects of modern surgeries, without losing your money or even your life, give a try to this home made Fenugreek seeds drink

For centuries, Moroccan women have been using Fenugreek seeds to enlarge their breasts naturally. This is by far the most trusted solution, the cheapest and also the most publicly credited to yield startling results in a matter of days and without any side effects.

Fenugreek seeds are used in Middle Eastern, African and Indian cuisine. They are the main ingredient of the famous curry powder. They are used also in Moroccan barley soup as well meat or chicken tagines and “Rfissa”. These lovely flavorful yellow seeds are packed with rare nutriments; their versatility allows them to be used as a spice, food or condiment. For that matter they can be found in Middle Eastern shops or any ethnical grocery stores.

Fenugreek drink for natural breast enlargement:

1-Take an equivalent of two tablespoons of dried Fenugreek seeds, sort them then wash carefully with tap water.

2- Let them soak in a covered cup of water overnight at room temperature.

3- Drink the water every morning. Refill the cup with fresh water reusing the same seeds for about two to three days.

4- Discard the seeds or eat them, then start a new cycle.

5- After a month or so you will start getting outstanding results.

What are the side effects of Fenugreek seeds?

There are no side effects of consuming fenugreek seeds, you will only experience mild rise of appetite in the first few days.

Are they safe?

Fenugreek seeds are as safe as your daily bread, or any other mundane food. They can be savored by all your family members. I remember when my mum was still preparing her delicious barley soup we used to enjoy before heading to schools.

Can Fenugreek seeds enlarge men’s breast?

No! They can be consumed my males, kids without a hitch. The main active phytonutrients behave differently depending on the gender.

What are some other health benefits?
Fenugreek seeds can increase tremendously breast milk production in nursing mothers of as much as 900%! Several clinical studies have shown that Fenugreek seeds or Fenugreek extract can be a greet tool for nursing mothers surfing of lack of adequate milk supply.

They are also used to increase appetite and in healing join pain with any side effects. In India, Fenugreek seeds are used to heal everything.

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