Please play the sound
bite above before reading. (Just click on arrow)
My deep interest in nutrition resulted from a simple birthday gift of a mountain bike. When I first received
it, I lamented the thought of biking around town breathing in car exhaust. The fact that I live about two miles from
the base of Mt Lemmon was a godsend. I looked up at that mountain and I immediately new I would someday reach the
summit. At the end of this story is a recommendation on a book that teaches us that life's changes are obtainable
one small step at a time. The book is based on the theory of Kaizen (Kai-good and zen-change or small steps to
reach desired results) Consequently, if you are trying to accomplish or improve something, your mind is given the ability
to come up with the solutions needed to do so, by not overwhelming it (creates mental fear) but rather by taking tiny incremental steps which develops self actuating
motivational habits. The best thing I love about biking now is that it allows you to experience thought
provoking revelations that occur while in a meditative state that one falls into while pedaling. I've
solved many a problem because of it. The following is what transpired and greatly benefited me by setting
a goal to reach the top of this beautiful mountain pictured above.
Before I rode my new mountain bike, I decided to dust off an old ten speed I had in my garage and put it in the
back of my jeep and drove to the base of the mountain. I hopped on my bike and quickly realized that this thing was
in terrible shape and that it needed serious care that I never provided. As I started up the mountain, I thought to
myself, boy, this is hard! (My bike wasn't the only thing out of shape)! I managed to go about a 1/4 mile up and
around the first bend and quickly turned around to go straight home. In retrospect, what happened next was hilarious!
As I was cowardly coming back down and around that bend, a group of cyclists were coming up the mountain. Once they
saw me, they quickly smiled one by one and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up as though I had been to the top and
was about to coast down to the finish line! If they only knew, he he... This is when I unknowingly became determined
to succeed by starting the Kaizen theory of taking small steps to what ended up being life lasting healthy habits.
On my 50th birthday, May 18th
2001, I knew
that my physical conditioning needed improvement before I attempted to ride any bike. I incorporated a bicycle training
routine that quickly taught me that I needed a balance of mental will power, weight lifting, aerobic conditioning
and proper nutrition in order to achieve a personal goal of bicycling to the top of Mt Lemmon. I began by
first visualizing myself doing it and then broke down the goal to tiny increments needed to succeed. My mountain bike
was better suited for climbing because of the comfort and ease of pedaling it provided (like stair stepping) so
I began by biking a couple of miles then three and so on until I went as far as I could. At the
time, I could only bike up nine miles because of road construction, so by knowing that the summit was 29 miles,
I prepared by biking up and down three times without stopping. (The highway flag lady looked at me like I was nuts).
Finally the construction ended and the road opened up, so with exhaustive preparation, I initially attempted
to climb the full 29 miles non-stop to
the observatory but unlike my training routine that allowed me to coast downhill half the time, this was now a steady
arduous climb. Regrettably after 20 miles, I nearly passed out. (It's called "bonking" or "hitting the wall") which means that I didn't have enough
stored energy from needed carbohydrate.
(Your liver stores blood sugar or glucose made
from food, especially carbohydrates in the
form of glycogen that is converted to energy
by a hormone produced by your pancreas called insulin, once this is depleted, it draws on the stored glycogen in
your muscles) I quickly realized that it wasn't my mental will power or strength that failed me but a combination of
sustained strength and endurance that could only be achieved through proper nutrition. Your brain can only function with a constant supply of glucose (Blood sugar) from carbohydrate plus oxygen, (the brain is totally glucose dependant
and is unable store it) once your glycogen (Stored Glucose)
reserves are depleted and you continue to exercise you will get disoriented, confused and eventually, comatose. (That's
why I almost passed out) Once I learned this, I was better prepared (I took carbs for energy with me) and made it to
the top laughing at how easy it was in comparison to my first attempt. Developing these Kaizen style
techniques in my life has made it possible for me to repeatedly bicycle non- stop to the Steward Observatory, which is as high as you can climb up Mt Lemmon (9,157 FT) and to
do the 113 mile - El Tour De Tucson, with just a couple of months of training. I entered the 113-mile long city
tour and except for a mandatory river wash crossing by foot, managed to do it non-stop with relative ease and in excellent time. When you exercise this intensely or when you have
any kind of muscle pain, you can relieve this by using natures best clay for detoxifying your body by taking a clay bath
(use this as a facial as well). Any infected external body sore can be healed with Bentonite clay-
http://www.naturalnews.com/022475.html
These achievements
would not have been possible without me acquiring the knowledge I needed on nutrition through proper diet. This
lesson demonstrated the incredible importance of carbohydrate and oxygen. An interesting example is when we are
at work all day, we unknowingly take shorter breaths in the afternoon, so by doing a simple breathing exercise (oxygenates
the blood to your brain) and consuming a small amount of a proper
simple or complex carbohydrate
(providing needed glucose) that contains either a soluble type fiber, protein or an acid (acids like apple cider
vinegar or lemon can and do slow sugar assimilation, just drink a tea or water with either of these mixed in before consuming
most meals) which will temper the carbs, will fuel
your intelligence by making you alert and ready to handle the rest of day. (A great afternoon meal is
to use a small container that measures about a cup and a half and place a combination of cooked millet, buckwheat
groats, quinoa, amaranth and basmati brown rice (Jay's Mix) add blue/rasberrie/marion berries and mixed nuts with little
cinnamon/applesauce. This will really give you a great source of protein, acid, complex carbs to fuel the
rest of the day. If, however, you decided to consume a hamburger/fries type meal (which has to be the #1 American
curse for disease) containing artery clogging saturated fat and worse yet, the white bread and fries would
create an extreme glucose or better known as a sugar rush that spikes your fat producing hormone insulin that
will make you sleepy after you come down from it. New research has shown that this meal creates 3
to 4 hours worth of inflammatory damage to your body. Check this out-
https://www.amsa.org/healingthehealer/antiinflam.cfm
In this busy world we live in, we don't manage our time well enough to eat nutritionally but the lessons I learned
from biking taught me that you have to make the time! Bad habits lead to more bad habits that drain your energy and cause you to lose
self control over proper food choices. In researching my nutritional needs, I soon discovered a practical program that maintains body weight, provides
sustained energy, helps prevent adult onset type II diabetes and lowers your bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
I lost 25 Lbs, dropped my cholesterol from 208 to 141 (raised my HDL to 60 and lowered my triglycerides to 37) and have never
gained it back thanks to this rewarding knowledge. Most people don't know that some of the worst foods
we consume are staples of the American diet (wheat & dairy). Celiac disease is when a person cannot tolerate
a grain protein called "gluten" in grains like wheat, barley and rye. The grasses (wheatgrass or barley grass) of these grains
are closer to vegetables than grains and are good for you. High gluten grains are utilized for bread making because it
binds them like "glue" and that is why farmers have purposely grown higher and higher gluten rich grains so the bread won't
tear. (bread makers even add more gluten
beyond what is in the grain!) Casein is the dairy protein that is also used to make glues. You may have seen a bottle
of Elmers Glue with the picture of a cow on it, Yep, cow dairy is where they get that sticky stuff! Goat milk/yogurt
has an insignificant amount of this glue type
protein, therefore it is much much easier to digest and consequently better for your health. 65% of the world utilizes
goat milk products with good reason, it has 13% more calcium than cows milk and its fat globules are smaller so
it's easier to digest. Soy and corn have what are called glycoproteins and contain this glue like adhering problem as well. They can make super glue out of soy! Why is it important to avoid these glues? Because our stomach
acids can't and don't break them down sufficiently and they clog up what are known as villi, small filament type hairs that give you a large surface area
to assimilate nutrients with in our small intestine called the duodenum. Unfortunately, this happens to be
where we absorb most of our food nutrients such as calcium. When the Villi are plugged up by the glue that passes through, the coating prevents
you from absorbing the minerals they're rich in! One of the reasons that Italians and Greeks don't suffer as bad as us by
eating these glues is because they generally drink red wine and eat salads after meals that can clean the villi to some
degree. It is possible that as we age we can become deficient in nutrients becasue of this and so perhaps the best thing
to do is to avoid these foods. Humans are the only living beings that continue to drink milk past childhood. That is because we were never taught differently by our parents. We are all consistantly
mesmerized and brain washed by tv ads (especially kids) to consume these potentially harmful foods (Love that
white smile)? I can personally attest to the fact that when I ceased to consume these glue like proteins, I
was amazed at the difference in the way I felt and my cravings for breads, bake goods, dairy etc all but disappeared even
when I thought it would be really difficult around Christmas! Here is a site that shows you a video on the subject-
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/hurtful-food-the-hard-truth-about-milk.html
Is it that hard to live without these food items? No, as I mentioned above, by experimenting I discovered a great
substitute I call the "Jay's Mix" It is something that is really beneficial and nutritious (especially the Buckwheat
groats, man I'm so glad I discovered these). You can still have bake goods if you really need to by buying Quinoa,
buckwheat and oat flours which are readily available and you can still have some goat milk with them). It's not hard
to convert, plus you will find new foods that make you feel great and sleep well at night ! Check out the recipe link
on the left and you will see how Jay's Mix is made. Please go to a website (shown below) I use to store my nutritional
files called Diinoweb, once there, left click on the nutritional mp3's folder then left
click on the folder called "Doctor J8.mp3"
and then right click on that file and select "Save link as" (I would suggest
saving it to your desktop or where you can find it easily). You will be astonished on what you will learn, by the way,
there is a wealth of info on my site, listen to all the files when possible.
Dr John Symes is a veterinarian who
has discovered some valuable information and he has his own website to help his patients owners better understand what he
has discovered.
You will see that he
doesn't try to sell you anything! He like myself are passionate about what we have learned and compelled to
want to share it with others. Thanks to him, many people still have their pets because they took his advice and
they quit feeding them wheat (high in gluten) & dairy, as you may have read, a bad Chinese gluten was introduced in many
of the reputable companies dog food products which in turn took the lives of many pets. Good work Dr Symes!
Once my goal of biking these long
distances was finally accomplished, (Oh, to those of you who ride road bikes, yes, all these type of bicyclists past me up
the mountain but when they turned around to head back, like the tortoise, I continued to the top without stopping) I
continued to do the long mountain biking runs once per week but then I learned that it is healthier to do shorter biking
rides or any aerobic type exercise that breaks a sweat after twenty min's or so two to three times
per week. This is a health conditioning routine that produces less internal inflammation. (Internal inflammation
is being implicated in many diseases and is what ages us) Please be aware that being a weekend warrior and doing
long extended rides or over exercising can be counterproductive because you create high internal inflammation
from the creation of free radicals. As in anything, moderation is key. This is why it is very important to
incorporate lots of fruits and vegetables that contain a rainbow of colors with anti-inflammatory spices like ginger,
turmeric, cinnamon, oregano, hot peppers and garlic that will combat and neutralize this premature age causing inflammation.
In addition to these herbs and spices, there is a proven supplement that has a synergistic group of ingredients that will
really curtail inflammation. Here's a site that explains the herbs and spices it contains followed by a study on prostate
cancer-
It is very beneficial to
incorporate a weight lifting program a couple of times per week that helps build fat burning muscle but more importantly
strong bones which delays osteoporosis both
in women and men.
Weight training is also valuable for weight loss because it keeps burning calories post exercise and keeps burning calories
by trying to repair muscle for 24 hrs without you knowing that it is even happening. In preventing type
ll diabetes, exercise helps stabilize blood sugars. Over the years I have gone from trying to build muscles to a better
understanding that being lean and mean is not only healthier but easier on your system. To build and maintain large
muscles takes an incredible amount of fuel that can be hard on your organs not to mention the time and money to sustain them.
Moderation. Learn this word well. It is so critical to get proactive with your personal health, ignorance is
anything but bliss here, it can prematurely shorten your life with disease and discomfort that can be avoided or delayed
if you get off your butt and start researching what you need to know now. One of the best books on any disease
prevention and heart health is located on the navigation links bar up top and to the left called "Stop Inflammation Now" by
Richard Fleming MD. Do whatever it takes to read that book! Over the years I've bought several types of machines
to squeeze out a higher amount of nutrients from food. I ultimately discovered that the key to nutrition is to consume
the whole food and not just the juice. The Vitamix (Please remember I get no compensation from any product I recommend)
is by far the best tool you can own for health producing benefits. It is demonstrated at the home shows and
occasionally at Costco. If you see what it can do, you will be convinced as I was.
Another good machine for making masa gluten free tortillas out of the five
Seed/Grains (Jay's mix) is:
A quick example is that most people would think that drinking carrot juice is very good for you but did you know
that while it is rich in beta carotene, it is also very high in sugar! Your body could handle all this sugar if you
were exercising but the idea is to eat whole foods
which provide a balanced meal/drink. Fiber is a vital part of healthy eating and by removing it as typical juicers do,
you are left with everything but the fiber. The Vitamix is awesome at grinding whole foods. The biggest advantage
over normal blenders is that the manual knob gives you better variable speed control to go from making hot
soup to a healthy nut type ice cream and more importantly, the noise level is low for what this machine can crank. Having said that, I recommend the Jack
Lalanne Power juicer (Costco) to juice hard to digest vegetables like cabbage. (Juicing carrots, beets, apples and adding
it to the vitamix concoction is a good way to get the sugar from those items to assimilate slower due to the fiber) Cancer
cells are always present in our bodies so it is important to keep them at bay with nutrients that keep them from going crazy
and it is most common in seniors because it takes years for our natural defenses to break down and give up. Unfortunately,
diabetes is growing among younger adults because of poor nutritional choices. Traditional doctors are trained to diagnose
symptoms and are taught to prescribe drugs which
can save your life in extreme situations but are to often administer unnecessarily not to mention that their clients
demand them! Would it not be better if they would make it a prerequisite to educate themselves and their
patients on nutrition to help get to the root
of their symptoms? This is why you need to take the initiative to take care of yourself. Everyone is different and only a professional can determine what diet or exercise program
is best. I highly recommend that you find a physician that has a strong background in nutrition.
Today, there are physicians that are trained in integrated
medicine (this is a physician that has been trained in nutritional/physical therapies to help prevent and
treat common medical symptoms seen in their patients) that are seasoned. Unfortunately not every health insurance plan covers them but your health is more
important then perhaps some of the frivolous purchases we commonly make in our lives. After reading about
a dozen books on nutrition, I found that the Glycemic
Index concept made the most sense and can honestly say that it really worked for me! Though there are several
books on this subject, I found the "New Glucose Revolution", by Jennie Brand Miller, to be one of the best and easiest to
understand. (Available at your local library) If you have a library card, go to the "Library/Store Locations" link located up top to the left and follow
the directions to reserve it online. The Glycemic Index concept (GI) is about how certain
carbohydrates, known as high glycemic carbohydrates, break down very rapidly, sending an excess amount of glucose into
the bloodstream. When this happens, the pancreas responds by sending out large amounts of hormone called insulin
to handle the load. Why is this important? Because when we consume these high glycemic foods, insulin is called
upon to convert these blood sugars or glucose
into energy with the help of an enzyme called lipoprotein
lipase. However, If we are not exercising at the time to use this available energy this enzyme converts
that sugar to unwanted body fat, high triglycerides (blood fat) and high cholesterol. When doing strenuous exercise
however, this excess blood sugar becomes vital by being converted to energy that the body and brain need to keep
us from getting exhausted and mentally disoriented. Plus, consuming carbs/protein during and immediately after
exercising restores our liver/muscle glycogen (remember, glycogen is stored energy) and prepares our bodies for the next
exercise session with little or no muscle soreness. This is also important when you are weight lifting to
build muscle which can be fruitless if you don't get the protein/carbs you need to repair the muscle you broke down
within 30 min's after lifting. These books describe which foods will help you maintain your weight while providing
a level of sustained energy while alleviating your cravings for sweets or relenting to commercialized saturated trans-fatty, partially hydrogenated cottonseed
oils contained in crackers, donuts, candy and pastry goods. Check out the "Cravings Exposed" link I provide
up left of this page. Various foods have been tested and are rated between 1-100+ with glucose setting the
standard at 100. Sugar is 50% sucrose and 50% fructose, oddly enough, the fructose gets absorbed much slower then say
white bread, (white bread is worse than sugar because it is processed into such fine molecule particles that your
body absorbs faster, consequently, it is like adding gas to an open flame, which in turn spikes the hormone insulin and
unfortunately re-starts that fat convergence cycle if your not exercising)! There was a time when only the rich
could afford to consume these highly refined white flour non-foods because they were very labor intensive
and expensive to produce but modern technologies have made them universally available so consequently the poor now
develop diseases that only the sedentary wealthy unwittingly
previously acquired. (As an example- adult onset type II diabetes). White bread and high fructose corn syrup products
found in an unbelievable variety of foods combined with less routine exercise is the main reason that this country has
such an obesity/health crisis. Conversely, foods like nuts and seeds that have a low glycemic rating are healthy (if
eaten in their natural state) because of the type of good
fat they provide but should be consumed with no refined sugar or salt and in moderation. In order to eradicate cravings, the key is to consume
low to mid glycemic fiber rich foods with moderate amounts of good fats (this combination satisfies your hunger for food longer
which means less weight gain) i.e. (mercury free fish
oils, extra virgin olive oil, unrefined flax oil (flax oil is recommended for women
more then for men because a very small amount of studies have indicated a correlation between consuming this oil concentrate
and prostate cancer, the seed is much safer to ingest because again the whole food has the fiber and co factors to make it
healthful and not harmful, I personally grind a tablespoon each of this plus chia and sesame seed in a coffee grinder and
add it to my breakfast) Along with this you could have a tablespoon of lemon flavored fish oil like Carlson's Fish
Oil, It isn't fishy at all, it tastes good. You will notice that I refer to various oils on this page but you must be
aware that all oils are high in fat and should be used with extreme moderation (there's that word again) plus all
oils are prone to going rancid, as most of us have good intentions of consuming oil we buy in a timely manner,
more often then not it sits for weeks or months and invariably goes rancid so it becomes more harmful than healthful.
Any oil you buy should be kept in dark glass with a wine type nozzle that has a manual valve for removing all the air
out. This will assure that it stays as fresh as possible as long as you don't forget about it. Incredible as it
may seem, most oils in supermarkets and especially in health food stores are really "white oils" meaning that, as in white bread, they have had all their
nutrients stripped by chemicals or high heat processing that leaves them more carcinogenic then healthful. (Look
for "Unrefined" on the label). Don't assume cold pressing
is OK, because that is only part of the oil making process, after it is pressed, it may be deodorized with chemicals etc.
The only oil safe to consume available in supermarkets is extra
virgin olive oil and the only safe oils in health food stores are the unrefined ones. You may have tried and discovered that low fat diets don't work primarily because
the little fat you do ingest is usually a saturated type and you unknowingly consume the wrong high glycemic carbohydrates that get converted to fat because they are absorbed
too quickly. This also means that they don't satiate
your hunger so you consequently tend to eat more of them and gain more weight! - as an example, "rice cakes" The way to temper the insulin spiking effects of high carbohydrate food is
to consume it with some sort of acid, (Want some proof about the power of an acid helping to negate an insulin rush? Check
this out-
So, how simple would it be to consume some olive oil and apple cider vinegar on a pre-meal salad? Of these three,
protein, fiber or a good fat, fiber is the easiest to employ for stabilizing blood sugar, as an example, take
the different ways one can consume an apple, there is apple juice, apple sauce and the whole apple, all three
contain carbs, apple juice is the least desirable for weight control/health because it is almost pure sugar, (when
consuming any type of fruit juice, it is better to mix it with water 3 parts to 1) it has no fiber so it gets converted to
fat the easiest (unless your exercising) and is considered high glycemic, apple sauce has the pulp, so now we have added some fiber, so consequently it is slower
to raise your blood sugar levels which requires a less insulin response, but clearly the whole apple is the overall winner because it has the peel and the pulp so consequently
your body really has to work hard to digest it which makes it a moderate glycemic food and is the least harmful in weight/health management. The peel contains
a strong antioxidant call quercetin found in abundance in red apples. An added note is that applesauce has a great
virtue of helping reduce blood glucose but when you add cinnamon, it becomes a dynamo duo. You can add cinnamon
to applesauce or buy it already mixed. Check it out-
and here is some scientific info on cinnamon-
Nay sayers of the glycemic index theory claim that most meals have a combination of carbs, proteins and fats so the
meal is balanced and the theory doesn't hold up but just the size of a meal, even a nutritional one, creates a glycemic load that can spike your insulin, so it is advisable to keep your meal sizes down
and to have a preferable mixture of lean protein, low/moderate glycemic carbs, and healthy fats at every meal if at all possible, by doing this,
you can focus on utilizing the Glycemic Index theory benefits on the snacking part of your diet. Once you learn
this concept, you will find that this diet is easy to implement and consequently, keep for life. A great book that can
help you learn these low to high glycemic foods by color coding them for you, is the GI Diet by Rick Gallup. Just
left click on his book shown below to take you to his website for more info. Another good book is "Eat, Drink and
be Healthy" by Walter Willett (Available at your
local library which you can reserve on my library link up top to the left) He is a master in long term
human studies dealing with health related diseases and the nutrition that can help. The most important thing I learned
from his book was the need for multivitamin/mineral supplement. I never bought the theory that overly cultivated soils
were so nutrient depleted that they couldn't produce vitamin rich foods, because in reality, plants synthesize vitamins as they grow. Minerals, however, are dependant on soil quality. So, even if you
ate a perfect diet and exercised as you should, this may
not be enough because today's environment has introduced us to thousands of new chemicals, toxins and pesticides/herbicides which have found their way into
our food, water and air. Add this to today's tremendous amount of work related stress and you may just agree
that a good diet is insufficient to combat all this. He recommends a simple inexpensive multi as
a safeguard. When looking at vitamins try to get something that has government assurances of quality and assimilation and
are balanced in vitamin percentages across the board. B-12, Folic Acid, and B6 are extremely important! Click
on the "Methyl Magic" link on the navigation bar up top to the left and you will see why. B-12 is made in various qualities,
be sure to buy the form "methylcobalamin" and not "Cyanocobalamin" if at all possible, your body assimilates it better.
Capsules are preferable but here is a suggestion for any tablet
supplement you may take, soak it in water
the night before. You will get the most out of it this way. In weight loss, assuring yourself of certain
vitamin/minerals can curb your cravings (Check out the cravings exposed link up top to the left). If you eat well, try
taking half the dosage they recommend, supplements will last longer this way. You can get a glimpse of
his book on Amazon's site. I found a 50-page excerpt that you can read, check it out! You need to left click on the link below and then left click on the book
photo to get the sample pages
Left click on the Glycemic Index link or
the book photos below for more info - (I recommend the links they provide as well)
After learning about the glue like problem of
glycoproteins from Dr John Symes' interview on an anti-ageing conference in Europe, I learned that the two main
genetically modified foods are corn (of which cows are fed and the public then receives the potentially problematic milk
and the meat of course) then there's the soy of which Mansanto has manipulated for their chemical "Round Up". So, now
it's not only the glue of these two foods but the genetic modified organisms and their ramifications that we face. If
you are unaware of these genetic modified foods, you need to get proactive and understand this information for the safety
of your family! I just listened to a 3 hour interview with Jeffrey Smith author of "Genetic Roulette". I
wish I was able to record it but there's some info you can get listed below. Jeffrey Smith is unemotional and very lucid
with such incredible scientific scrutiny and back-up in writing his book "Genetic Roulette." It will
shock you, make you mad and will cause you to get involved in stopping this practice of experimenting with our food supply,
buying organic will have a new meaning to you. Left click on the following link, once there watch the video "The Future
of Food" film clip to better understand all this. Secondly, go to the next link and look around this website because
there is a wealth of information-
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Home/index.cfm
If you don't believe that corporations like Mansanto are killing us
for profit, read this article of what Monsanto did to this town alone-
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/07/60minutes/main528581.shtml
Here is a link to a Google Video with reknown nutritionist Gary Null's "Supercharge Your Immune System" Good viewing...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-568252164579596678&q=Supercharge+Your+Immune+System&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Left Click On Book to Learn an Easy Method! |
|
Traffic Light Method of Catagorizing Food Choices |
A leading jounalist who has diabetes
and specializes in its info is David Mendosa and here is his website which is very comprehensive-
People who utilize the Atkins
diet or weight watchers programs do lose weight but in my opinion risk eating foods that are just not that healthy for us.
The late Dr Atkins has to be given credit for raising the publics awarness on junk carbohydrates including white
flour products such as bread but in the beginning he promoted high levels of saturated protein foods to replace carbs.
(they recently backed off and said to curtail high intake of saturated fatty food) The Atkins diet encouraged
large amounts of saturated fat found in meat, eggs and dairy. The Adkins Foundation now recommends the Glycemic
Index for choosing your carbs to consume. A modified Atkins diet is better because it is good to limit the junk
carbs we consume while eating mostly low to mid glycemic complex carbs but it is also critical to consume
good quality protiens and fats (These are carbs that digest slowly and protein/fats that contain
essential fatty acids (EFA'S) which are simply the most important fats for optimal health. Essential
Fatty Acids (EFA's) are found in foods such as nuts especially walnuts, freshly ground flaxseed or its oil, chia
seeds, dark green leafy vegetables like spinach/collard greens /kale and it is not necessary to eat meat. The higher concentration
of omega-3 fatty acids in the body also makes the red blood cells more flexible and comfortable, allowing them to readily
reach oxygen starved tissues which improves the utilization of energy in the body. Here's a site that
helps explain the importance of omega 3 and nutrition for joint health-
Your body can't make EFA's
on their own, you have to consume them from the foods you eat. Flax/hemp seeds and eating rich greens which provide
the healthy EFA's found in nature. Feeding livestock grains produces high saturated
fat that makes your blood platelets sticky, which in turn plug up your arteries. Pork can be problematic because
its meat has a greater potential for viruses and parasites. The Adkins foundation now recommends buying organic
hormone chemical free meat products but you can be sure people do not do this and consume meat that is high in nitrates, hormones,
antibiotics which lead to health problems. Because meat in general has such a propensity for disease and unhealthy
fat, one could argue for a diet based on being vegetarian (organic fruits, vegetables and nuts & seeds) as being
desirable. I found it really interesting to learn that good fat (essential fatty acids) attacks saturated
fat in our arteries because EFA's contain high levels of LNA (Alpha-Linolenic Acid) which disperse saturated
fatty acids that clog your arteries. Additionally, the Adkins diet that is high in protein may be harmful
to your kidneys long term. There are health risks to be considered with the Atkins style of weight loss.
This diet restricts carbohydrates considerably but as I mentioned above, your brain can't store glucose
so it needs a constant supply of good carbs. Fruit has received a bad rap from low carb diets like Atkins but here is
a site that will educate you about the importance and benefits of fruit
eaten in moderation. Don't
leave home without them!
The key to consuming carbs is
to eat only as many as you can burn or they will be converted to fat! (tropical fruits are higher in fructose than fruits
like apples, pears, cherries and blueberries) This concept is compounded as we age because our metabolism tends to slow down.
This is why it is so important to develop good eating habits when we are young. Click on the "Dangers of Protein Diets"
up top to the left to read the thorough dangers of Atkins type diets. The most important fact about consuming proper
amounts of carbs from fruit/vegetables/nuts is that they contain micronutrients/phytochemicals, a phytochemical is a natural
bioactive compound found in plant foods that works with nutrients and dietary fiber to protect against disease (remember,
look for the rainbow of colors). They may help slow the aging process and reduce the risk of many diseases. Recently,
I saw this number one seller at the bookstore called The South Beach Diet by a famous cardiologist, Arthur Agatston,
amazingly, it encompasses for the most part what I believe and have studied and shared with you on
this website. He essentially discovered what I did, the importance of the glycemic index and the need for the right
types of fats (Essential Fatty Acid's) while restricting saturated fat. The only difference between us is that I wouldn't
recommend eating grain fed red meat or any amount of dairy he allows. While he recommends exercise, I
take some exception to his "you don't need to exercise option" and his recommendations on milk substitutes (not real food,
is it?). He also doesn't warn you about the dangers of heating most oils (read Udo Urasmus's book shown below to learn
the structure of all oils and how they affect you). Dr Agatston also admits taking a statin drug (lowers cholesterol)
for maintenance reasons, cholesterol is so easily handled by proper nutrition and one does not need to resort to this.
I strongly feel that people look to drugs to continue with their bad habits. Any drug that is used has a negative
response on your liver of which we can not afford to hamper because it is so vital for functional health. Red
rice yeast which is a natural statin, can have the same side effects as synthetic statins which are muscle pain and muscle
weakness and is hard on the liver as well. (as an example, eggs are low in saturated fat and high in nutrients but they
are also high in both good and bad cholesterol. That is why it is important to eliminate animal
rich cholesterol food with the vitamin / mineral / essential fatty acids / fiber from a healthy vegan diet plus exercise which will
always raise your good cholesterol. People who have high/bad cholesterol can reduce it by consuming more fiber
as in oats, apple pectin, beans, peas and ground flax meal (use a coffee grinder so it is fresh). If this is not enough
to do the job, a combination of niacin/chromium supplementation has been shown to to reduce cholesterol. Dr
Agatston does a great job of explaining the potential for heart disease and the potential for diabetes as it relates to your
diet. Check out his website by left clicking on the his book photo shown. Weight watchers is another program of
concern because you can eat anything you want as long as you count the allotted daily points (which takes time to learn)
but again if you still make poor choices in foods it will still be garbage nutrition which means a weakened
defense system in the long run. So, the key is to eat moderate portions of balanced meals which contain a variety
of the right type of foods balanced with a fun exercise program! Check the Calorie Control
Council's low carb craze page for more info on all this (once you read the article, go to the main
Calorie Control Council's main site by pressing on the home link shown on this page)
It is a constant battle to balance
food consumption with energy needs. This unequivocally proves that you can gain more weight the less you exercise but you
can lose more weight by the way you eat! The food pyramid has been revamped and Dr Willit author of Eat, Drink and Be
Healthy, has done a good job of helping us understand what the latest research from long studies have shown. I personally
feel that there are to many ethnic groups to recommend certain foods to and feel that everyone should write down what
their traditional foods are and do the research to see if they are healthy. Here is a list of foods you should consider
if you don't have strong traditional recipes. Try to consume these foods as often as possible because they
contain the important essential fatty acids (EFA's) / antioxidants / nutrients / fiber that help prevent most human diseases.
Here is a video explaining the value of these high ORAC foods (rich in antioxidants)
- Industrial Hemp Oil (For Vegetarians, it's the best)
- Unrefined Canola Oil (Buy raw in can type,
Guess what? Olives are fruits)!
- Black Mission Figs (Fruit richest in
soluble & insoluble fiber- no preservatives)
- Prunes (High ORAC Value and great
for vitamin Aand digestion)
- Flax/Chia/Sesame/Pumpkin Seed (Release nutrients with
coffee grinder and eat immediately with whole grains- Quinoa, Oat Groats, Buckwheat Groats)
- Chlorella or Dulse Seaweed (Nutrient rich & flushes metals like Mercury,
PCB's)
- Organic Chard or Spinach (If iodine intolerant
skip the Spinach)
- Bok Choy/Red & White Cabbage/Sprouts (Nutrient dense
food)
- Pumpkin/Carrots/Sweet Potato/Butternut Squash (Beta Carotene Rich)
- Organic Black/Pinto/kidney Beans (Fiber
rich nutrient base foods)
- Broccoli/Cauliflower/Asparagus/Brussels Sprouts (Try steam cooked)
- Red-Orange-Yellow Sweet Bell Peppers (Rich in antioxidants
- red is the best)
- Pink Grapefruit/Orange/Lemon/Limes (Eat whole grapefruit & oranges,
juice lemoms/ limes with other vegetables and add fish/flax oil)
- Garlic/Onions/leeks/Scallions (Sulpher rich foods-Use Parsley
or Cilantro for odor control)
- Fresh or Canned Salmon/Sardines (Alaskan
Wild is one of the best sources of EFA's)
- Avocado (Healthy monounsaturated fat / shock
full of vitamins -replace saturated fat)
- Tomato Sauce (Cooking provides more Lycopene same with
carrots)
- Skinless Chicken Breast (Safest are the
free range/drug free lean type)
- Acai/Pomegranate/Aronia/Blueberry/Strawberry/Rasberries/Cranberries
(Extremely rich in antioxidents)
- Pineapple/Papaya/Grape/Cantaloupe/Mango/Apple/Watermelon)(Antioxident rich! Fights inflammation)
- Turmeric/Cinnamon/Ginger/Rosemary/Oregano/Cayenne/Holy Basil (Eat these and you will live to see your great great grand kids)
- White or Green Tea /Rooibos Tea (Best
teas you can drink. Drink as much as you can- White tea is Green tea leaves with hardly any caffiein)!
- Almond/Walnut/Filberts/Macadamia/Brazil Nuts/Pecans (Presoaked) Great fats and
nutrient rich)
- Best Anti-Inflammatories-
Turmeric, Ginger, Cayenne, Holy Basil, Garlic! (Keep all four handy to put on main meals of the day)! Also, cinnamon,
is an incredible spice for insulin because it makes your cells more recptive to this hormone so your body doesn't have
to over produce it, (remember, it causes you to gain weight easily) consequentley, it's a great sugar regulator
that will help prevent insulin resistance which will help you in avoiding diabetes!
- Buckwheat/Oat
Groats/Quinoa/Basmati Brown Rice (Jay's Mix)(Buckwheat is
the best anti-cholesterol food to date! Try Buckwheat/Quinoa. Oat flour with Goat yogurt pancakes and add Berries and Agave
Nector as your topping! Delicious!))
Once you get accustom to eating
these foods, you will unknowingly get really creative and mixing them in ways you never dreamed about! Be creative!
It's fun! My recipe's (available on the link up left of this page) are concoctions I've mixed from this list and
they taste great to me, you will probably like to combine them differently. Learn to be a top craftsman by
utilizing these foods as your tools in shaping your current and future health. Here is some sound advice-
http://sciencedaily.healthology.com/hybrid-player/hybrid-autodetect.asp?b=sciencedaily&f=cancer&c=nutrition_gutfriendly
Two tests that can reveal the potential
for heart disease are your levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) (measures inflammation) and your Homosystine Levels. Worried
about cholesterol? Learn about it: (Check out the "Fat" link near the bottom of this page.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4648
Here is a good site for how food is utilized
by your body:
http://www.whfoods.com/
Just click on each link provided.
Health Tea -
Here's
a great alternative to sodas, regular tea or coffee. Combine White/Green/Rooibos tea with sliced fresh
ginger and lemon then enjoy the great taste and tremendous well researched health benefits they provide. You won't
need to sweeten this tea because it tastes great! Heat enough water to fill one of those snapple size bottles
(which equals 2 cups) and place 1 bag each in the bottle and let it brew for about 4 minutes. Squash slices of fresh
ginger with a garlic press into your drink. The antioxidants last for about 48 hrs so you can refrigerate it in the
summer for ice tea. You should reuse the same bags once. Think of ways that you can have as much of this
tea as possible daily, because studies have demonstrated beneficial health effects. 4 to 10 cups
daily will give you the most benefit. This may very well detox your system. (Ginger is a tremendous
anti-inflammatory). It is very important that this be consumed between meals as the tannins in tea prevent complete
absorption of protein and iron. I highly recommend Rooibos red tea in the morning with breakfast (use it as the base
for your smoothie) and before bedtime. Most people don't know that white,green,oolong and black tea are from the same
leaf! It's all in the processing. White has the least caffeine and has the most antioxidants, Black tea has the most
caffeine but still rich in antioxidants check it out-
http://www.planet-tea.com/what_is_tea.html#
We
get enough sugars from the fruit we eat and I recommend adding very little sweeteners in your diet so you don't
crave them as much in other meals or drinks. So consider dumping your sodas which contain- Phosphoric Acid: (may
interfere with the body's ability to assimilate calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis or softening of the teeth and
bones. Phosphoric acid also may neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which can interfere with digestion, making
it difficult to utilize nutrients). The soda and calcium thing may be that we are just substituting a poor liquid and therefore
we don't get the best nutrition because of it. The teas mentioned above can help cleanse your body and taste good
to boot! Try grinding a stick of cinnamon in a coffee grinder and adding it to this tea for an after dinner
drink. It has no caffeine and is naturally great for digestion plus helps with sugars. Everyone recommends drinking
plenty of water with good reason and we get about four to six glasses worth of water from the food and variety of
drinks like I just recommended so you really only need to drink a glass of water before and after each main meal
which will help you feel full so you won't eat too much! Heavy work-outs will require more. Check these
links out for info on teas.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030805072109.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/04/000410084553.htm
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/herbaldrugs/101230.shtml
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THIS BOOK REALLY ADHERES TO ALL MY RECOMMENDATIONS |
Ann Louise Gittleman has some great advice for those of us that need to lose weight.
She recognized and demonstrates how it's necessay to do a thorough cleansing of our vital organs like our liver to
facilitate an efficient metabolism for weight loss. She has done an awesome job
of designing a nutritionally healthful and beneficial process to get in shape and stay that way! By trying to make it easy for you
to follow her regime, she offers supplements designed to follow the plan easier, however the reason I like her is because
she also recommends that you shop for the best products on your own and save some money if you wish. I found the Clorox
wash very informational for removing pesticides from our food. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did...
When you strive to lose weight,
never look at a scale especially if you do weight lifting exercises because muscle is heavier than fat. A more accurate
way of determining fat loss is by looking at your shrinking belt size, this allows you to see true fat loss. This is
why the BMI (body mass index) method of determining obesity is too simple and does not apply to people that build muscle,
follow the links on this site for the waist measuring aspect. (Click on the limitations of BMI link on that
page)
This is a must read book - Who is Udo
Erasmus?
Udo
Erasmus is an international authority on fats, oils, cholesterol and human health. In 1980 his life took a significant
turn when he was poisoned by pesticides. When conventional medicine was unable to provide help, he concluded that his
health was his own responsibility and turned his attention to nutrition. Several years of research culminated in his
Canadian best-selling book, Fats that Heal Fats that Kill which earned him a PhD in nutrition. In 1983, he began
to pioneer technology for pressing and packaging edible, fresh oils made with health in mind, by excluding the three main
factors that can transform nutritious oils into toxic ones - light, heat, and oxygen. Until that time, oils were highly
processed by destructive methods, sacrificing health benefits in order to attain longer shelf life. This book will open
your eyes to the importance of fats and how they can either promote or degrade your health. If you want
to learn how fats affect you and how they are altered by heating and their manufacture, read this book! I love this comment
he once stated - "In order to cure ourselves of these diseases, we need to know what health is. Health is easier
to master than a language, far easier than algebra. It is about as difficult as learning to ride a bicycle." For
more information on Udo Erasmus left click on his book photo.
Wow! These books are great! If you would like
to keep your memories, alertness, overall mental health and help prevent Alzheimer's, then you need to read these books.
the Edge Effect really does a great job of informing you about how the brain controls all aspects of your physical and mental
health. The Better Memory Kit is even better! Left click on the the photo of each book to
go to their respective websites.
The key
to optimum health is to balance all this by incorporating an exercise program that is fun/enjoyable and certainly
not boring. Exercise is where the high glycemic foods help you sustain and rejuvenate your body without gaining the
weight! (Check out the Exercise for Life Link up top to the left) It seems that everyone is looking for that magic pill or
diet that allows you to avoid exercising. It will never happen! Exercise is the best all around solution because
it will allow you to live a longer and healthier life if you balance it with a good diet and by focusing on your mental health
through meditation. Meditation is highly recommended for stress and is tremendously helpful to our lives but most of
us can't seem to find the time to implement this life altering habit. Starting an exercise routine, eating better or
learning to meditate can be somewhat daunting. Relax I will help you. You may think that you have to hire
professionals to help you meet your health goals but you don't necessarily need to spend the money, you can ask the people
you know that are well trained in their discipline and you can just practice Kaizen which literally
means: Change(Kai) to become good (Zen) which is an ancient Zen philosophy that was ironically reintroduced
in Japan after the second world war by an American named Dr Edward Demming to help the Toyota corporation become
extremely efficient in their industrial development. Most of us are conditioned to think that effective change has to be painful. But the kaizen
philosophy can teach you that you can achieve enormous benefits when you improve by the tiniest increments. We
can use this theory in accomplishing great life long habits by taking incredibly small steps to reach our
ultimate health goals. Robert Maurer author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life, is awesome in explaining this concept
and I highly recommend the book, your life will greatly benefit from this helpful knowledge. Left click on the book to see
some more info.
Complimenting a healthy lifestyle
is the power of a good nights sleep. I hope to make it a priority in my life as it plays a dramatic
role in your overall health-much like proper nutrition and exercise. Studies published last year in the Journal
of the American Medical Association and Lancet found that loss of sleep can negatively influence a hormone called cortisol
that is responsible for controlling appetite. The result? You may find you're hungry even after eating an adequate amount
of food. In addition to affecting appetite control, sleep loss can also interfere with carbohydrate metabolism, leading to
an increase in blood glucose levels and increased fat storage. Without enough sleep, your body will be challenged
to reach its optimal state of health, in fact it can be deadly, more auto accidents occur while falling asleep at the wheel
then I care to mention. I've read mixed reports on the timing of your sleep- for example from 1am to 7am versus 9pm to 4am will affect its quality. The more hours that you sleep before midnight and in synch
with the sun the better off you will be. I also attended a health conference where a sleep specialist explained that as long
as you get the number of hours you need, it really doesn't matter. (though he did say that your body temp is the coolest
aroung 3AM and you should go to sleep 3 hours before this occurs) I like the idea of going to bed early if you can
train yourself. It is hard to start this routine and the few times I've managed to do it made it very rewarding.
The early morning hours are very relaxing, I found that my thinking and creativity were more acute due to the fact that
I felt more refreshed and relaxed, which naturally allowed me to get more done. If you would like to know more about
the food you eat, click on the link below...
Here are a few thoughts I'll leave you with....
Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths
we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away... So as always....
Love as though you've never had your heart broken,
Dance as though nobody is watching you,
And work like you don't need the money
DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this article should be construed as medical advice. Consult you health
care provider for your individual nutritional and medical needs. The opinions are strictly those of the author and are
not necessarily those of any professional group or other individual
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