I have heard about all I can stand about the "nutritional benefits" of the Acai Berry or Goji Berry or any other so called exotic "Super Berry" out there...
It's not the berry though, that I have a problem with, nope, it's the companies that are taking advantage of the ill-informed public and marketing these fruit drinks and supplements as a "must have" for optimal nutrition.
First of all, all of these companies pushing this voodoo juice use the famous pyramid scheme to not only hook some poor soul into becoming a user, but also a dedicated seller as well with promises of making you rich... oh yea, and healthy too of course.
Secondly, it's the Non-Organic way in which these fruit drink products are produced, and trust me it makes a difference.
Thirdly, it's the (and I'm speculating here so bare with me) poor working conditions, braking many U.S. labor laws I'm sure, that most of the people harvesting these fruits are probably working under... I mean if Martha Stewart "didn't know" about the sweatshops, than can you honestly be sure that these Amazon natives harvesting these fruits are being treated fairly?
Fourth... There are PLENTY of Fresh Organic Seasonal fruits and vegetables from local organic farmers that are just as healthy for you, that I'm sure you're not currently eating.
So is it really worth the carbon footprint that this product leaves, from the jungles of the Amazon to your front door?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Stocking Up On The Essentials
The calm before the storm... whether it's a winter blizzard or a summer/fall hurricane stocking up on the essentials becomes priority one with most people, and if you don't believe me try going to the grocery store the day before. What's disturbing though, to me anyway, is what people are stocking up on... what they consider the "essentials". It's always white bread and milk, and I assure you if you had to survive on only one of them or a combination of the two you would be anything but healthy.
As you may or may not know white refined flower is lacking in any of the nutrients it once had in its natural whole grain state, and truthfully the only effect your body will get from eating it is an unwanted spike in your blood sugar immediately after eating it.
And as far as milk goes, since it lacks the proper ratios of calcium to magnesium (which aids in calcium absorption) and calcium to phosphorous (which reduces the utilization of calcium and even promote excretion of calcium if consumed in high enough quantities), it becomes on obvious POOR choice for your daily calcium intake.
Unfortunately these are the "essentials" that we all grew up knowing. Maybe it stemmed from the era of the great depression, when things were so bad that you were considered lucky if you came home with a loaf of bread and some milk... either way it's time to put that behind you and rethink what the word "essentials" really means.
Essentials, for the sake of this subject, would be what is essential for life... health... and in order to LIVE HEALTHY you need to give your body food that contains what really is essential. Your body requires nutrients like vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, protein, and complex carbohydrates, as well as anutrients such as antioxidants, enzymes, and carotene. These are the essentials that will be the difference between a healthy state and diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and any of the many chronic illnesses that plague our country.
So the next time you go to the store for the "essentials" pick up some fresh organic fruits and vegetables, natural whole grains and legumes, because that's what's really essential for good health.
As you may or may not know white refined flower is lacking in any of the nutrients it once had in its natural whole grain state, and truthfully the only effect your body will get from eating it is an unwanted spike in your blood sugar immediately after eating it.
And as far as milk goes, since it lacks the proper ratios of calcium to magnesium (which aids in calcium absorption) and calcium to phosphorous (which reduces the utilization of calcium and even promote excretion of calcium if consumed in high enough quantities), it becomes on obvious POOR choice for your daily calcium intake.
Unfortunately these are the "essentials" that we all grew up knowing. Maybe it stemmed from the era of the great depression, when things were so bad that you were considered lucky if you came home with a loaf of bread and some milk... either way it's time to put that behind you and rethink what the word "essentials" really means.
Essentials, for the sake of this subject, would be what is essential for life... health... and in order to LIVE HEALTHY you need to give your body food that contains what really is essential. Your body requires nutrients like vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, protein, and complex carbohydrates, as well as anutrients such as antioxidants, enzymes, and carotene. These are the essentials that will be the difference between a healthy state and diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and any of the many chronic illnesses that plague our country.
So the next time you go to the store for the "essentials" pick up some fresh organic fruits and vegetables, natural whole grains and legumes, because that's what's really essential for good health.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Effects of Stress
Stress effects our bodies in many ways, and although our bodies have evolved to handle even high stress situations in short bursts, it's the chronic stress lasting days weeks and even months that so many people in today's society often deal with that is relatively new for our bodies and is doing the most damage.
As I sit here writing this post I am well aware of this fact... I am also well aware of the slightly painful knot that sits just below and to the inside of my shoulder blade. It is no doubt stress related; work the past month or so has been extremely stressful, and I know I am not alone when it comes to stressful jobs. Unfortunately we need our jobs if we plan to remain living in our houses and driving our cars and well eating for that matter, which leads me to believe that it (the stress) will always be there.
This of course leads me directly to the point... it's how we deal with this stress that can make all the difference in the world. There are many approaches to dealing with stress; meditation, exercise, talking it out with friends, but at the center of it all a healthy diet must be a part of your regiment. There are many nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as anutrients (antioxidants, caratenes, etc.) that our bodies require in order to deal with stress and the toll they take on our immune system.
It is important to address the cause and not to get caught up with trying to deal with all the many side effects as if they were independent and unrelated. If you simply pop a pill for the aches and pains, and a pill to help you sleep, and a pill to help with the anxiety then you are fighting the same losing battle that so many others get caught up in... the same losing battle that is making pharmaceutical companies very very rich.
What your body needs is nutritional support that you can only get from a healthy diet consisting of fresh organic produce and natural whole grains, a "break from the madness" in the form of daily meditation or yoga or exercise, and any of the many natural (non-medical) remedies to help deal with the many symptoms your stress has brought with it.
For me it's this painful knot in my back, and I can assure you I will not be reaching for any over-the-counter drug for pain relief.
As I sit here writing this post I am well aware of this fact... I am also well aware of the slightly painful knot that sits just below and to the inside of my shoulder blade. It is no doubt stress related; work the past month or so has been extremely stressful, and I know I am not alone when it comes to stressful jobs. Unfortunately we need our jobs if we plan to remain living in our houses and driving our cars and well eating for that matter, which leads me to believe that it (the stress) will always be there.
This of course leads me directly to the point... it's how we deal with this stress that can make all the difference in the world. There are many approaches to dealing with stress; meditation, exercise, talking it out with friends, but at the center of it all a healthy diet must be a part of your regiment. There are many nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as anutrients (antioxidants, caratenes, etc.) that our bodies require in order to deal with stress and the toll they take on our immune system.
It is important to address the cause and not to get caught up with trying to deal with all the many side effects as if they were independent and unrelated. If you simply pop a pill for the aches and pains, and a pill to help you sleep, and a pill to help with the anxiety then you are fighting the same losing battle that so many others get caught up in... the same losing battle that is making pharmaceutical companies very very rich.
What your body needs is nutritional support that you can only get from a healthy diet consisting of fresh organic produce and natural whole grains, a "break from the madness" in the form of daily meditation or yoga or exercise, and any of the many natural (non-medical) remedies to help deal with the many symptoms your stress has brought with it.
For me it's this painful knot in my back, and I can assure you I will not be reaching for any over-the-counter drug for pain relief.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Don't Ignore Your Body
I've learned this myself the hard way and continue to tell others this when I see them going down the same road I did... Don't ignore your body!
Our body speaks to us all the time letting us know when we are mistreating it, whether it's physically (pushing ourselves too hard with physical labor be it at the gym, at work, or at home), or mentally, or and for the sake of this post, with our diets (food allergies). When you eat something that you are allergic to and ignore the symptoms; stomach pains, intestinal issues, ear aches, headaches, hives, swelling... you are damaging your digestive system and ultimately your immune system.
I've mentioned this in earlier posts, how (from my own personal experience) ignoring symptoms of a dairy allergy affected me and my body's ability to properly digest other foods, resulting in (in my opinion) my food allergy to soy, along with a handful of other health issues most of which I have since fixed.
I bring this topic up again because of a question a fellow co-worker asked me today. She informed me of an allergic reaction she had over the weekend to something she ate, and also mentioned that she feels she has become allergic to more and more foods over the past few years; she blames it on "getting older", I disagree. I reminded her of a few other food allergies that she has had for some time now (chocolate and cherries to name a few) that she continues to consume and continues to ignore her body's cry for help. She will eat the chocolate and complain about the headaches that always follow or the cherries and comment on the numbness/pins-and-needles feeling in the tongue and lips, but doesn't seem to realize that these seemingly insignificant reactions are the body's way of trying to alarm her to a much more serious issue going on inside her.
When our bodies cannot break down the proteins within a food, it causes poorly digested food to enter the small intestine. These undigested food particles collect along the intestinal wall, damaging the lining and allowing some of these undigested food molecules to enter the bloodstream where they are perceived as being foreign bodies attacking the body. This is what triggers histamines to be released causing the inflammatory response we all know as itching, swelling, pain...
Unfortunately most people think that if the allergic reaction isn't anaphylactic shock it's no big deal, and that's where we are so wrong. It's not just the undigested food molecules that escape into the bloodstream that we need to worry about, but the effects it has as well as those that collect on the inner lining of the intestinal wall, have on our immune system. Once the integrity of the intestinal wall is compromised it's like we've opened Pandora's Box, allowing parasites and unwanted bacteria to thrive which can only lead to bad news.
It has been documented that food allergies are the cause of many of the chronic health issues so many people are living with and this include a hyper sensitivity to other foods. It's a snowball effect that inevitably makes us susceptible to many diseases and illnesses.
So we can choose to address a food allergy with the urgency it requires, or ignore it and deal with the debilitating and eventually lethal effect it has on our body.
Our body speaks to us all the time letting us know when we are mistreating it, whether it's physically (pushing ourselves too hard with physical labor be it at the gym, at work, or at home), or mentally, or and for the sake of this post, with our diets (food allergies). When you eat something that you are allergic to and ignore the symptoms; stomach pains, intestinal issues, ear aches, headaches, hives, swelling... you are damaging your digestive system and ultimately your immune system.
I've mentioned this in earlier posts, how (from my own personal experience) ignoring symptoms of a dairy allergy affected me and my body's ability to properly digest other foods, resulting in (in my opinion) my food allergy to soy, along with a handful of other health issues most of which I have since fixed.
I bring this topic up again because of a question a fellow co-worker asked me today. She informed me of an allergic reaction she had over the weekend to something she ate, and also mentioned that she feels she has become allergic to more and more foods over the past few years; she blames it on "getting older", I disagree. I reminded her of a few other food allergies that she has had for some time now (chocolate and cherries to name a few) that she continues to consume and continues to ignore her body's cry for help. She will eat the chocolate and complain about the headaches that always follow or the cherries and comment on the numbness/pins-and-needles feeling in the tongue and lips, but doesn't seem to realize that these seemingly insignificant reactions are the body's way of trying to alarm her to a much more serious issue going on inside her.
When our bodies cannot break down the proteins within a food, it causes poorly digested food to enter the small intestine. These undigested food particles collect along the intestinal wall, damaging the lining and allowing some of these undigested food molecules to enter the bloodstream where they are perceived as being foreign bodies attacking the body. This is what triggers histamines to be released causing the inflammatory response we all know as itching, swelling, pain...
Unfortunately most people think that if the allergic reaction isn't anaphylactic shock it's no big deal, and that's where we are so wrong. It's not just the undigested food molecules that escape into the bloodstream that we need to worry about, but the effects it has as well as those that collect on the inner lining of the intestinal wall, have on our immune system. Once the integrity of the intestinal wall is compromised it's like we've opened Pandora's Box, allowing parasites and unwanted bacteria to thrive which can only lead to bad news.
It has been documented that food allergies are the cause of many of the chronic health issues so many people are living with and this include a hyper sensitivity to other foods. It's a snowball effect that inevitably makes us susceptible to many diseases and illnesses.
So we can choose to address a food allergy with the urgency it requires, or ignore it and deal with the debilitating and eventually lethal effect it has on our body.
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