All posts tagged Healthy lifestyle

December 26, 2012 · Blog

What Can Make You Younger, Thinner, Healthier and More Energetic?

There is one thing that can make you younger, thinner, healthier, and more energetic it can:

Make your skin smoother
Reduce fatigue
Make your immune system function more efficiently
Help with weight management.
It can help to offset the progression and symptoms of hormone-related health issues such as hot flashes and osteoporosis.
It is the main lubricant in the joint spaces and helps prevent arthritis.
It rids the body of toxins.
It helps prevent the loss of memory as we age and reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

There is only one substance on this planet that has the purifying, reverse-the-clock qualities we are talking about. That substance is water. Yes we like to splash around in it, but the fact is that 60-70 percent of the body and 85 percent of the brain is composed of water.

Dehydration. What does it mean? What does it do? Think grape-raisin, plum-prune…get it?

Most of us don’t realize how much of our physical and mental well being depends on being well hydrated. Water can be a therapy, a healing substance for your body.

Okay people, how many of you are now calculating how much water you drank

so far today? How’d you do? Let me inspire you to drink water. Did you know that chronic dehydration could have severe effects? Some of those include:

Muscle spasms
Shriveled skin
Dim vision
Painful urination
Seizures
Back pain
Fatigue
Constipation
Digestive disorders
Irritability
Depression
Not sleeping well
Increased cravings
Fear of crowds or of leaving the house
Poor circulation and congestion of lymph glands
High or low blood pressure
Gastritis and stomach ulcers
Respiratory troubles
Excess weight/obesity
Eczema
High cholesterol
Headaches
Urinary infections
Rheumatism
Skin aging, including wrinkles and loss of elasticity

Okay, now how many of you are asking yourselves if your headaches, back pain, leg cramps and eczema could be from dehydration?

I don’t think people realize the profound effects of dehydration. I hear things like “Yes, I know I should be drinking more water, but…”

“I don’t like water it’s too plain…”

“ I forget to drink…”

All of the things I listed above are your bodies’ cries for water! This can be a difficult

Habit to learn because most of us didn’t grow up seeing our parents drink water. The trend of carrying around bottled water is a very recent one, and many of us still do not do it.

Dr. Batmanghelidj’s first book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water testifies to the many health benefits that can be accomplished solely by restoring sufficient hydration levels. In this book he documented the many diseases he was able to reverse with just ordinary water, minerals and sea salt.

Water is the thing that takes the toxins and carbon dioxide out and carries vital nutrients in. The health of our cells depends on it.

So get to it! Here are some important tips to remember:

It’s important to drink throughout the day, don’t depend on a “dry mouth” to remind you. Keep a glass or bottle beside you all the time and drink it!
To keep your body well hydrated, drink at least half your body weight in ounces. If you are physically active or live in a warm climate, drink even more.
Sorry to be so graphic, but a hydrated body produces clear colorless urine. If your urine is yellow, you are dehydrated. If your urine is orange or dark colored, you are severely dehydrated.
Set a timer to drink often, and accomplish your water quota for the day.
When you wake up in the morning immediately drink two glasses of water to rehydrate after loss of fluids during the night.
To keep your body and brain functioning at peak performance, have at least half your water intake before noon.
Drink a large glass of water 15 minutes before a meal to aid digestion.
Do not drink large amounts of water with a meal. It will dilute needed stomach acid.
Drink room temperature or hot water.
Skip the coffee. Take water breaks instead. Coffee is dehydrating and water is the true energy source.
Read Dr. F. Batmanghelidj’s book Water for Health, for Healing, for Life: You’re Not Sick, You’re thirsty! It will definitely convince you to drink more water.
My last tip is for those of you who just can’t get the water down. Flavor your water with a little bit of lemon and stevia, or a flavored stevia, or some fresh fruit sitting on the bottom of the bottle (berries, pineapple, orange), or a shot of passion tea. Some fresh mint and cucumber slices can really make you feel like your having spa water. Reduce the amount of flavorings over time, and try to learn to love the fresh taste of the plain water. If you need the flavor, well, better to have it than not to drink.

Wishing you all a well-hydrated body, youthful beautiful skin, and complete health and happiness. When you are blessing that clear, delicious, amazing water don’t forget how lucky we are to have clean water that is available to us in our homes.

In many parts of the world people have to walk for miles to get clean water, then carry it home in buckets. I am truly grateful for that, just sayin’.

December 5, 2012 · Recipes

String Beans and Carrots with Orange and Rosemary

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal

3/4 pound string beans, trimmed and cut in thirds

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 orange -grate 1/4 tsp of the orange zest and juice the half orange

2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary

himalayan salt to taste

Parboil sliced carrots for about 3 minutes. Use a heavy skillet and heat over medium-high heat, add the coconut oil and sauté the string beans, drain carrots and add to skillet. Sauté until everything is just tender approx. 10-12 minutes.

When the vegetables are tender add the zest, juice, salt to taste and rosemary to them. Stir for another minute or two just until the juice reduces to a glaze, then serve.

Enjoy!

December 5, 2012 · Blog

Against The Grain: 10 Reasons to Give Up Grains

Imagine a world where heart disease, diabetes, autoimmunity and other modern diseases are rare or don’t exist at all. Imagine we are naturally lean and fit and we are fertile throughout our childbearing years. We sleep peacefully and deeply. We age gracefully without degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis.

This sounds like pure fantasy today, however, anthropological evidence suggests that this is exactly how human beings lived for the vast majority of our evolutionary history. Today, most people accept diseases like obesity, diabetes, infertility, and Alzheimers as normal. They may be common, but they are anything but normal. What on Earth has caused this?

In a word? The modern lifestyle. And though there are several aspects of our current lifestyle that contribute to disease, the widespread consumption of food toxins is by far the greatest offender. Specifically, the following four dietary toxins are to blame:

▪ Cereal grains (especially refined flour)

▪ Omega-6 industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean, etc.)

▪ Sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup)

▪ Processed soy (soy milk, soy protein, soy flour, etc.)

Now I have to admit, I love a big fluffy piece of bread as much as the next person so I will reveal to you 10 reasons that helped me in my decision to give up grains.

1. If you can get it from grain, you can get it elsewhere.

The big heroes of most grains nutrient profile are dietary fiber and B vitamins. The truth is if you can find the nutrient in grain, you can find it in better quantities in other foods for example:

100 grams of whole-wheat flour – 44mcg of folate

100 grams of lamb liver will give you 400mcg of folate

100 grams of yardlong beans will give you a whopping 658mcg of folate!!

Whole grains are often praised as health foods for their fiber content but you can find dietary fiber in better quantities in other, more nutrient dense foods.

100 grams of cooked brown rice has 1.8 grams of dietary fiber

100 grams of cooked collard greens has 2.8 grams of dietary fiber

Green peas contain about 5 grams of fiber per serving.

2. Grains are not good for your gut. (or your brain)

Intestinal health is critical to your overall health. If your gut isn’t healthy, you can’t absorb nutrients from the foods you eat. If your intestines can’t absorb nutrients from the foods you eat, your body is malnourished and is more prone to disease.

There is a very strong connection between the gut and the brain, healthy gut=healthy brain.

Grains are associated with a condition called leaky gut syndrome. Tiny particles of grains, when ingested, can slip through the intestinal walls causing an immune response. This causes your immune system to be excessively taxed by constantly attacking these out of place particles of grain. It can lead to autoimmune disorders, allergies and generally wreaks havoc in the body.

3. You’re probably gluten-intolerant.

Current research estimates that about 1% of the population suffers from celiac disease, an auto-immune condition related to the ingestion of gluten containing grains like wheat and barley, however some researchers on celiac disease and gluten intolerance estimate that 30% to 40% of people of European descent are gluten intolerant to some degree. That’s a lot of people who are regularly consuming a food that makes them sick.

4. Grains cause inflammation

(You can check inflammatory markers on www.nutritiondata.com)

Grains are inflammatory foods. The more refined the grain, the more inflammatory it is. Chronic inflammation is linked to a myriad of degenerative, modern diseases including arthritis, allergies, asthma, cardiovascular disease, bone loss, emotional imbalance and even Cancer.

5. Grains are fairly new on the scene

While still a traditional food, grains are the new kids on the block. Prior to the advent of agriculture, humans relied on hunting and gathering for their foods. They gathered wild greens, berries, fruits and other plants. They hunted, and fished. So for the better part of human existence grains did not comprise any portion of the human diet.

6. Grains aren’t good for your joints.

Due to their inflammatory nature, grains are linked to joint pain and arthritis.

Synovial tissue in the joints and grains are chemically similar, your body has difficulty differentiating between the two.

So, when your immune cells get all hot and bothered by inflammation caused by grain and begin to attack it as a foreign invader, they also begin to attack the soft tissue in your joints. That leads to pain and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and more inflammation.

Just let me add here that my joints in my thumbs were swollen and very painful 6 months ago when I was still eating grains, and now are back to normal. My knees really hurt. When I squatted down it hurt to stand up. Now, no grains, no pain!

7. Poorly prepared grains prevent mineral absorption.

When grains are properly soaked and fermented, well at least there is a shot at neutralizing the phytates and making the nutrients in grains more absorbable, but most often they are improperly prepared.

8. Grains are bad for your teeth.

Due to those high levels of phytates in grain, grain is linked to dental decay. Some anthropologists use the presence of tooth decay as an indicator of an agricultural society. Our pre-agricultural ancestors records indicate very little to no tooth decay. I don’t know about you, but I can very happily skip the dental work thank you.

9. Grains aren’t good for your skin either.

Grains have a very high carbohydrate content and while they may be complex they are still broken down into sugars. This causes elevated insulin levels that lead to a cascading hormonal response and these hormones activate the sebum-producing glands in your skin, encouraging them to produce more oil.

This insulin response is also linked with the increased production of keratinocytes, which also contribute to acne.

We all want beautiful skin, no?

10. Eating grain makes you crave grain.

Grains break down into sugar, they create a rise in insulin levels when those levels fall, you crave more grains and the vicious cycle continues…unless of course you stop it 😉

Of course if you’re not ready to give up grains in their entirety, take care to make sure you eat the best quality grains prepared for optimal nourishment. Choose organic grains and make sure you eat them sprouted, soaked or fermented.

I have a better idea, go on a grain free trial with me for the month of January! See what happens.

November 18, 2012 · Recipes

Coconut Honey Candy

1/2 cup honey
1 cup Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream (pureed meat of coconut)
1/4 cup cocoa powder(could omit for a non-cocoa candy)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut(omit if you prefer smooth candy)
optional:3/4 cup broken up raw walnuts

Heat the honey in a saucepan over medium heat until it boils. Boil for 2 minutes while stirring
constantly. Remove from heat and add coconut cream, cocoa powder and vanilla. Stir to blend well.
Coconut cream will melt from hot honey. Add coconut and walnuts. Stir until well combined.

Press into a parchment paper lined 8″ square pyrex. Refrigerate for a half hour and cut into squares.
Store in refrigerator.

November 14, 2012 · Blog

Mom Alert: Can ADD, Autism, Dyslexia, and Anxiety be Cured with Diet?

The Gut-Brain Connection

“One area of medicine is particularly prone to look at its organ separately from the rest of the body. That area is psychiatry. Mental problems are examined from all sorts of angles: genetics, childhood experiences and psychological influences. The last thing that would be considered is looking at the patient’s digestive system. Modern psychiatry just does not do that. And yet medical history has plenty of examples, where severe psychiatric conditions were cured by simply “cleaning out” the patient’s gut. A renowned Japanese professor, Kazudzo Nishi, has estimated that at least one in ten psychiatric conditions is due to self-intoxication coming from the bowel.”- Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS DIET) by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD

How do people become self-intoxicated? Alcoholism has a serious connection to gut and psychology syndrome. When sugars or complex carbohydrates are eaten, the bad bacteria overgrowth produces alcohol as a by product of digesting the sugars. There is no part of the body that will not suffer from a constant supply of alcohol, even in small amounts.

GAPS people develop a whole overgrowth of pathological flora in their bodies; I call them ‘bad guys’. One of the bad guys is Candida. Candida + sugars = alcohol. Scary.

Opiates are drugs like opium, morphine and heroin. Gluten is a protein. Casein is a milk protein. When GAPS people cannot digest gluten and casein they turn into substances with the same chemical structures as opiates. Those opiate like substances go right into the system of people with this syndrome causing many of the psychological disturbances we see. Even scarier.

These gut-brain toxic connections are just a couple of examples of what is going on with people who have many of the psychological problems we are talking about.

So here is what the GAPS diet does; It restores balance to the digestive and elimination systems to function correctly. When a good balance is reached, symptoms disappear. So beautifully simple. Yes, Diet can cure.

It cured me! Read my very personal story.

November 7, 2012 · Recipes

kefir Parfait

This kefir parfait makes a delicious, fresh tasting dessert or a nice breakfast idea.

2 cups of organic milk kefir
2 tsp cinnamon
2 teaspoons of raw honey, grade B maple syrup or liquid stevia
2 cups of grain-free granola (see recipe)
2 peaches (diced)
1 cup of strawberries (diced)
1 cup blue berries

In a wine flute or dessert cup layer 1/4 cup kefir (mixed with sweetener and cinnamon), some granola and then some of the fruit mixed together. Repeat. Makes 4 servings

October 29, 2012 · Blog

Arsenic in Rice?!

There’s been a lot of talk lately about arsenic in rice! Oh, of course! The gluten-free wonder!

Is nothing sacred? Recently Consumer Reports Magazine released their analysis

of arsenic levels in rice products including;

white rice
brown rice
organic baby rice cereal
rice breakfast cereals

which were all found to contain arsenic.

Arsenic can be harmful to a child’s developing brain and is a potent known carcinogen.

The study found arsenic levels in the blood directly increase with greater rice consumption. Many products tested had more arsenic in each serving than the 5 parts per billion (ppb) limit for adults set by the EPA as safe.

So many rice products are marketed to children and infants as health food. Kids are very susceptible to the dangerous impacts of arsenic exposure.

It is associated with neurobehavioral problems as well as cancer and lung disease.

This means parents should be especially careful to avoid serving their kids food with a lot of arsenic.

Even though we should not serve rice and rice products to pregnant women and children, for an adult a few servings a week of white rice (which was found to have much lower arsenic levels than brown rice) would probably not be an issue.

If you choose to purchase white rice, buy a brand from California like Lundburg

(their white Basmati Rice has well below the safe limit of arsenic).

Also, rinsing the rice before cooking and boiling it in a high water to rice ratio can help to reduce the arsenic content.

Brown Rice is NOT a Health food!

Brown rice and brown rice products should be avoided. Avoid;

brown rice syrup
brown rice pasta
rice cakes
brown rice crisps

In my opinion, aside from arsenic, brown rice is not the health food it has been said to be.

It has phytates that are hard to digest and are anti-nutrients.
These phytates reduce the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals present.
Brown rice also reduces dietary protein and fat digestibility compared to white rice.

Having said all that, no food is completely safe or without some level of contamination risk. So while rice may contribute an unsafe level of arsenic, we need to be cautious about demonizing an entire class of food. While I don’t think rice is an essential part of a healthy diet, I do think it can be eaten occasionally, if we pay attention to the brand and method of preparation.

October 23, 2012 · Recipes

Fudgy Cacao Balls

This is a special recipe for all my readers who feel they just NEED a healthy chocolaty treat, OCCASIONALLY!

2 cups ground raw almonds

3/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 cup raisins

8 dates, pitted

1 tbsp coconut oil

a pinch of himalayan salt

3 tbsp water

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes

Soak almonds in water for 24 hours, then rinse well.
Place them in a dehydrator or on 150 degrees in oven until dried.
grind almonds to a flour .
add dates, raisins, cacao, coconut oil and salt
blend well in food processor
add water blend again
take a small amount of batter and roll with damp hands into a walnut sized ball
dip in coconut and place on tray
repeat until the mixture is all used up
Refrigerate to harden to a fudge like consistency

NOTE: These delicious fudge balls are a treat and are meant to be enjoyed in moderation. Cacao has many beneficial elements, but also caffeine and other compounds that are not healthy in large amounts.

October 23, 2012 · Recipes

Eden Crusted Wild Salmon

4 slices Wild Salmon fillet

Eden Shake (a seaweed, sesame condiment)

Braggs Amino Acids or traditional soy sauce

Heat up the broiler. Line up the slices of Salmon on a baking tray. Spoon on about a tablespoon of Braggs or Soy Sauce on each piece. Put Eden shake generously on top to make a nice crust (About 2-3 tbsp). Broil until done throughout.

This is my personal favorite Salmon dish.

October 23, 2012 · Blog

The Truth About Toxic Mercury in Fish

Hey, guess what I found out. Most people do not eat enough cold-water, fatty fish, and this is especially true of pregnant women. Everybody is worried about mercury toxicity. I was.

Believe it or not these worries are not supported by science the majority of the time. In fact, it is much safer to eat fish than it is not to eat it!

DHA is a crucial nutrient for the development of the brain and the nervous system and is derived from eating, you guessed it, fish!

Eating plant sources of omega-3 like flax and walnuts doesn’t cut it. Only a very small percentage of the short chain omega-3 fats found in plants (1%) gets converted into the beneficial long-chain omega-3 fat DHA.

How Does Mercury Cause Problems?

You see, mercury binds with selenium and causes a lack of selenium. Without selenium, vitamin C can’t perform its functions, and then oxidative damage (the cause of many serious diseases) is going to happen fast and furiously!

What I want you to understand is that the ratio of mercury to selenium is the key to the problem. Our soil, here in the U.S. is rich in selenium, this is a very important component. In other countries where selenium is poorly available, mercury exposure is much more dangerous.

Most ocean fish and even most fresh water fish have plenty of selenium, much more selenium than mercury averaging 20:1 (except whale and shark meat which contain an excess of mercury).

Mercury is the only thing we know of that can kill selenoenzymes. (enzymes made from selenium)

Bottom line: As long as you have more selenium than mercury you are in good shape.

Studies have shown that the benefits of eating ocean fish during pregnancy amount to as much as 5 IQ points to the developing fetus!

So the more ocean fish moms eat during pregnancy the more selenium, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D are taken in. They are known to be hugely important for developing healthy brains as well as contributing to the mother’s health during and post pregnancy.

Eating more fish is actually good advice for women. Too many people have misconceptions. People need to know ocean fish need to be eaten in greater amounts! Dr. Ralston recommends eating fish 2 to 3 times per week.

So here’s a great way to start, with my Eden Crusted Salmon recipe mmmmmm.

This information was taken from an interview on chriskresser.com, with Dr. Nicholas Ralston.

Dr. Nicholas Ralston is a research scientist at the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center, EERC, involved in evaluating potential human health effects and risks resulting from environmental exposure to air toxics. He received his PhD in biomedical research biochemistry from Mayo Medical Center and his bachelor’s of science in biology from Mayville State University. Dr. Ralston’s principal areas of expertise include the biochemistry and analytical approaches to quantitative assessment of immune research and inflammation at the molecular and cellular level. His primary interests are in trace element physiology and the pathophysiology of toxic trace element exposures as well as prevention, protection, and remediation strategies. His current research interests include examinations of the molecular mechanism of methylmercury toxicity, selenium-dependent biochemical processes involved in preventing the neurotoxic effects of mercury, mechanisms of pulmonary particulate pathologies, mercury phytoremediation, and other means of diminishing bioaccumulation of mercury in fish.

Prior to his position at the EERC, Dr. Ralston worked at Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center and Bowman Gray Medical School at Wake Forest University. He has authored or coauthored over 50 professional publications, research articles, and book chapters and given numerous invited presentations on health issues related to methylmercury-dependent inhibition of brain selenoenzymes and beneficial effects of maternal seafood consumption on child development outcomes.

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