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When it comes to weight loss we always hear about carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are always thought of as a major enemy to being overweight. What are carbohydrates actually? Carbohydrates are the body's main source of energy that comes from plant based food groups. Carbohydrates are used two ways in the body. Your body uses them right away for energy or they are stored by the body by converting them into fat to be used later at a later time.

There are three types of Carbohydrates; sugar, starch and fiber. All carbohydrates no matter how large or small are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Lets take a look a sugar first.

Simple sugars are the tiniest units of sugar. It is simple sugar that the body uses for energy. The simple sugars are called Glucose or Monosaccharides/One Sugars. Glucose is the primary energy source in the body. This type of sugar comes when carbohydrates are digested and converted to a chemical that we can use for energy. Our bodies digestive system breaks down the sugar and starch into glucose using bile and enzymes. This form of energy gets absorbed through the small intestine into the bloodstream. There the hormone known as insulin which is excreted by the pancreas meets the glucose. Together they can enter the cells in the muscles and brains which serves as an energy source. It is because of glucose that we can lift a phone book or remember a name. This category includes Galactose, Fructose and Ribose. Galactose is found in milk, Fructose in fruits and vegetables and Ribose is the component in Ribonucleic Acid which is used for genetic transportation to cells in our body.

Now simple sugars can join to form combinations called Disaccharides or Two Sugars. This sugar category includes: Lactose, Sucrose, and Maltose. Lactose is also called milk sugar. It is a combination of glucose and galactose molecules. It is this sugar that some people don't digest properly thus resulting in a condition called Lactose Intolerance. Table Sugar or Sucrose is made up of Glucose and Fructose molecules. It is this combination we know as white sugar and use it in cooking and eating. Maltose which is malt sugar, is produced by a malting process of cereal or grains such as barley.

Simple sugars are easy to digest and are water soluble as is also Sucrose known as white table sugar. These types of sugars are easily absorbed thru the bloodstream via the small intestines.

This is where we come to complex carbohydrates. These are long chain combinations of simple sugars. The carbohydrates we refer to as starches are made up of complex carbohydrates (Polysaccharides). Complex carbohydrates include starch, glycogen and cellulose.

Starch is the energy form that is stored in plants, especially in the seeds and roots. Starch is comprised of many glucose molecules chained together. Starch is not water soluble and requires digestive enzymes called Amylases to break them apart. Some examples of starchy foods are rice, wheat, corn, carrots and potatoes.

Glycogen is the energy stored in animal muscle and liver. Although meat has no carbohydrates in it, glycogen affects the meats PH due to the amount in the animal at the time of its slaughter.

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How to use plugins to optimize your WordPress site for Google (SEO)

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it means to make your site as friendly to the search engines as possible. Your goal is to get your site to rank higher in the search results. This is one of the best ways to get traffic to your blog.

For the purposes of this tip, we will look at the plugins that can be simply added to make your site more powerful or relevant in the eyes of Google. All WordPress blogs will benefit from the following plugins:

All In One SEO Pack - This is a very popular plugin for WordPress and most savvy users have it installed. It will help you handle your META and TITLE tags, automatically, as well as let you specify these tags for each page or post. It is simple to use and can run as is, once you install it. You will have to go to the settings, to enable this plugin though.

Google XML Sitemaps - This plugin will create a sitemap for your website. A sitemap is something that Google values, and with a blog it is especially important. This plugin will also notify the search engines when your sitemap changes. For example, when you add a new post.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin - This plugin will automatically link to other related posts at the bottom of your posts. This will hopefully keep people on your site. From an SEO outlook, it helps by funneling search engines through all of your content. Makes your posts easier to find for sites like Google.

SEO Friendly Images - When it comes to SEO, the ALT and TITLE tags of your pictures matter. The ALT tag describes your image to search engines and the TITLE tag produces the tooltip when a user hovers over the picture. This plugin will automatically fix the alt and title tags of your pictures according to the options you set.

ShareThis - This plugin will add a ShareThis button to you posts. This will allow people to share your posts in a number of ways. Tthe SEO benefits might not be apparent right away, but if people are sharing your post it may be generating backlinks. Add that to the fact that Google is moving towards a more real time based search. If your blogpost is being virally posted to Twitter and Facebook, it could mean it popping up at the top of searches.

FD Feedburner Plugin - Feedburner is a great blogging tool. It basically controls your RSS feed. Many people find a Feedburner RSS feed more professional, so it helps for first impressions. It also lets you track the people that subscribe to your RSS feed, To top it off Google now owns Feedburner, and using it could potentially boost your site’s relevance in Google. Considering all of the other benefits, it is basically a no brainer to add Feedburner to your site. This plugin will help with the process.

Easy Policy Privacy - If you use Google Adsense you need a privacy policy, but here is something people might not know, a privacy policy can help your Google rankings. I know this because it came straight from a meeting at the Toronto Google offices and that is the one tidbit they were willing to share. This plugin has some templates that make it really simple.

There are a lot of plugins available for WordPress but if you are using all of these listed ones, you will have a leg up over other bloggers.

Install them today, and learn all you can about how to use them. You will thank me when your site is ranking higher than ever on Google!

How to increase interaction with your blog’s readers using WordPress plugins.

One of the best ways to increase the time people stay on your site, and to keep them coming back, is to increase the interactivity of your blog. This gives people a stake in your site, they will feel more connected. It can help you retain readers, increase comments and reduce your bounce rate.

The following plugins will increase user interaction on your blog:

CommentLuv - This plugin is designed to increase your comments. It is a very simple plugin and will add a button to your comments that will let your readers add a link to their latest blog post. This is a great and simple way to encourage people to comment on your website.

WP-PostRatings - This plugin adds a rating system to your blog posts. This is useful in two ways. First, it shows you exactly what type of content your readers enjoy. Secondly, it gives people a chance to give their input to your site, in turn making them feel more invested. It is a win-win.

Comment Rating - Much like the above plugin, this will allow readers to rate a certain aspect of your site. In this case it allows them to rate comments. Highly rated comments will be bumped, while lower rated ones will be hidden. The benefits are the same as the above plugin for the most part.

DISQUS - This is a plugin that will replace your comment system entirely. it will install seamlessly though, and add a lot of interactivity to your comments. First off people will be able to log in in a lot more ways (including Facebook login). They will also be able to “like” your post. The comments will be threaded, there will be some great subscription options as well as spam filtering. Lastly the DISQUS discussion community is large, and this allows your blog to tap into that community.

WP Greet Box - This plugin will greet your web visitors with a welcome message that is tailored to how they visited your site. If they got there via Digg, it will prompt them to Digg your post. If they found it through a Twitter link they will be prompted to retweet and follow you on Twitter. This is a great way to get people to interact with your blog.

Top Commentators Widget - This plugin will add a widget that you can use to display the top commenters on your blog. This is one way you can acknowledge your most loyal followers. It also promotes a bit of competition, and that is never a bad thing. This is a great way to increase your comments.