Maximize your multivitamins

You can maximize the absorption of multivitamins by taking them with a meal. Food increases absorption and minimizes the chance the vitamin will upset your stomach.

To help making taking your multivitamin a habit (many people have multivitamins but don’t take them), take it with the same meal everyday.

If you take them with breakfast, don’t wash them down with coffee though. Caffeine can prevent absorption of some vitamins & minerals.

Choose light roast over dark roast coffee (Acrylamide Part 1)

Recently I read somewhere that when faced with the life-altering decision of dark or light roast coffee you should choose the latter. I was grateful to read this because:

1) I always panicked at Starbucks when faced with sooooo many questions & options. Especially when the person in front of you just machine-gunned off an order like a “hot tall skinny upside down with whip caramel macchiato with room” or a “double ristretto venti nonfat organic chocolate brownie frappuccino extra hot with foam and whipped cream upside down double blended.” Yeeesh. I would need 3 or 4 espressos before I could even say that!

2) Dark roast might cause cancer. It seems the jury is still out on this, but I think I will still go for the light roast while they are deliberating.

How & why does dark roast possibly cause cancer? Well, the roasting process produces acrylamide which is a classified as a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the US National Institutes of Health, among others.

The US EPA classifies it as more toxic than benzene, chloroform and lead (in other words, slighty less than Twinkies).

Food is the most common source of exposure for many people , and coffee is one of the worst offenders due mainly to the amount some people drink.

Acrylamide levels increase with the time-span of heating, so lighter roasts should have lower levels of this chemical. You might also want to reduce your coffee intake if you have a many-cups-a-day habit.

Dark roast or light? One less thing for me to worry about in the morning.

Avoid pasteurized and homogenized foods

Homogenization is a recent process, widespread since the 1940s or so, where the fat globules in dairy products are forcibly broken up in order to make them smaller & uniform (homogenous) in size.

If you put regular milk, straight from the cow, in your refrigerator the cream will rise to the top. You will have a layer of cream on top of what is essentially skim milk. Homogenization prevents cream from rising to the top by making its particles smaller & less likely to float. This is what allows us to buy 2% milk, instead of just whole or skim milk.

The potential problem is that because the fat globules are so small they may scar your arteries. Scarring of the arteries means the arterial walls are no longer smooth, and therefore easier for plaque or cholesterol to attach itself and begin to clog your arteries. This can eventually lead to a heart attack.

There are other potential problems related to homogenization (cancer, diabetes) as well, so I suggest reading the links below, doing a search on “homogenized dairy products,” and decide for yourself.

As with many health topics nowadays there are the group or doctors and experts that say “this” is true, and another group that says “that” is true. I, for one, have decided to pretty much eliminate dairy from my diet—milk anyhow. I still enjoy cheese & yogurt, but have reduced my intake, and will be doing some research & reading on these as I have heard contradictory info on the health benefits/risks of these as well.

One other interesting point that was made on one site that I read was that humans are the only mammals that drink the milk of other mammals. And we do it into adulthood. Even cows don’t drink cow’s milk very long after they are born…

Pasteurization is a process where dairy products, among others, are heated to kill potentially disease-causing bacteria. The problem here is that it also reduces much of the nutrient content of dairy products and destroys its live enzymes. Because much of the good bacteria that actually fight contamination are killed off during pasteurization, pasteurization itself becomes even more necessary! Pasteurization is probably not as problematic as homogenization, but it is something to be aware of.

Today it’s illegal to sell unpasteurized milk in many areas due to the belief that raw milk causes or carries sickness. However, if you read the article below at westonaprice.org you may want to reconsider drinking commercial milk at all, given the environment in which commercial dairy cows live.

Again, I encourage you do to do further research & reading on your own & make you own decisions. I had no idea there was even a possible health hazard from milk or dairy products until a couple months ago, and what I have learned since is disturbing. I only hope to let you know of the possible health threats in everyday practices that we are often unaware of—things we think are healthy are often not. I thought drinking milk was a healthy habit, but I now avoid it. I shop for unpasteurized, organic, unhomogenized dairy products now if I can find them.

Some further reading:

http://health101.org/art_milk_cancer_fuel.htm

http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/dairy.html

Don’t use plastic water bottles

Do you drink bottled water out of a plastic bottle? Ten years ago many would have laughed at the idea of paying for water, yet today I know hardly anyone (city dwellers anyhow) who drink tap water.

I don’t drink tap water either, unless I am way out in the countryside. Tap water is full of chlorine & fluoride in most cities, and neither of these is good for you (see my post on show filters for more about chlorine). I drink filtered water at home & often buy a plastic bottle when out & about. Many of you will no doubt have a reusable plastic bottle you use when at the gym, out for a walk, etc, and I used one for years. The need for clean, pure water is obvious, and many of us can’t get this from our taps, but bottled water, meant to meet this need, is a good idea poorly executed.

A few months ago I met a lady who owns her own water company. In getting to know her and what she does and why, I have learned some interesting and disturbing facts about bottled water. Here are a few of the most important related to health.

Most bottled water comes in a PET bottle (polyethylene terephthalate (PET #1 plastic). These bottles have been approved for one-time use only, yet it is common practice for many to reuse them, often for convenience, money saving, or environmental reasons. This may be a very unhealthy thing to do, however. Plastics Are Toxic. Studies show that bacteria easily breeds in PET bottles when reused and that reuse may cause DEHA, a carcinogen, to leach from the plastic into water in the bottle. A 2006 study revealed that significant levels of antimony, a toxic chemical, seeps into water sold in PET plastic bottles. This is one of the reasons why bottled water has an expiry date.

Bisphenal-A is a toxic compound found in polycarbonate (#7 plastic), the translucent, hard plastic used in Nalgene water bottles and many baby bottles. It is a hormone disruptor that mimics estrogen and is linked to early-onset puberty, declining sperm counts, obesity, and breast and prostate cancer. Due to the alarming toxicity of this chemical, in March 2007 a billion-dollar class action suit was filed in Los Angeles against five leading manufacturers of baby bottles containing Bisphenal-A.

So we can see that plastic bottles may be unhealthy, but there is also the environmental angle to consider. The pollution and energy consumption involved in the production, shipping and disposal of plastic bottles is staggering. According to Rick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Defence, the production of one kilogram of PET plastic requires 17.5 kilograms of water and sends over half a dozen significant pollutants into the air. In other words, the water used to create one plastic bottle is significantly more than that bottle can hold.

Plastics are the fastest growing form of municipal waste. They do not biodegrade, and an estimated 88% of water bottles are not recycled. And because they float, and bottles that make it to the ocean can be mistaken as food by birds & fish. If they eat them, they are in the food chain and have the potential to harm those who don’t or can’t afford to drink from plastic bottles.

So, what to do? There are alternatives. Replace your Nalgene or other plastic bottles with a reusable stainless steel water bottle. No chemical leaching to worry about and much better for mother earth. At home, you can keep your filtered water in glass bottles. A quick internet search and you should be able to find some, or your local outdoor or health store may have some as well.

Another health book to check out

I recently came across another health book that seems quite good, though maybe a touch eccentric. It’s called Can We Live 150 Years?, by Russian Ph.D Mikhail Tombak.

Dr Tombak talks about spinal health, diet, cleansing, weight loss, food, air, water, food combining & nutrition, health without medication, juice, and apple cider vinegar among many other things.  I will post any good tidbits I find, but you might want to give it a read yourself at your local library or on Amazon.

 

Can We Live 150 Years? : Your Body Maintenance Handbook

Watch out for “fizzy” drinks

Got a nasty pop habit? Might wanna kick it ASAP. One of my friends brags that he drinks a Coke a day, can’t wait to tell him what I just learned…

Fizzy drinks are bad for you. Shocker, I know. Fizzy (carbonated) drinks were #1 on Dr Gillian McKeith’s top 10 worst foods list on her TV show, You Are What You Eat.

Kevin Trudeau (Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You To Know About) also advises avoiding fizzy drinks as well. Why?

Well, first of all they are loaded in sugar. A can of Coke has about 40 grams (roughly 13 teaspoons) of the nasty white stuff. Don’t think sugar is all that bad? Check out my May 16 post “Avoid white sugar…” to see how wrong you are.

Secondly, fizzy drinks have no nutritional value. At least beer (http://beer.about.com/od/beernutrition/a/beernutrition.htm)  or wine (antioxidants)have some redeeming qualities. Pops really are all negative.

The diet ones are even worse. Aspartame, Splenda, etc, may have few or no calories, but according to Kevin Trudeau, they are just toxins, or man-made poisons.

Fizzy drinks also may block absorption of vitamins & minerals. According to Kevin Trudeau they can prevent calcium absorption which can lead to conditions such as arthritis or osteoporosis. My Coke-a-day friend was diagnosed with juvenile-onset arthritis about about age 14. May just be a coincidence…or maybe not. He certainly isn’t doing himself any favors. Drink water (filtered), and do one for your body.

Recommended reading:

You Are What You Eat

Natural Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About

Daily mini detox & metabolism booster

A nice simple thing you can do now to improve your health: drink a warm cup of water each morning first thing with a little lemon juice in it.

According to Dr Gillian McKeith, among others, this will give your metabolism a boost, helping you possibly lose weight, and also act as a “mini detox” each morning. You can also try it at night too just before you go to bed.

Why warm water? Well, apparently very hot or very cold foods & drinks “shock” your body (slurpee headache anyone?), so probably not the best thing to do.

Recommended reading:

You Are What You Eat

The Math of Weight Loss

People often ask questions like:

 

“How do I lose fat?”

“How much weight can I safely lose per week?”

“How do I know if I am losing fat, water or muscle?”

Luckily a little math can help answer these questions. And you thought it would never be useful after high school!

First, I suggest you Google “basal metabolic rate” and use one of the BMR calculators (or try this one: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator) to see how many calories a day you need just to live, breathe, blink etc. Any activity, such as weightlifting or walking, will add to that number.

Then, all you have to do is make sure you have a slight calorie deficit each day, and you will lose weight. One pound of fat is 3500 calories, so if you have a 400 calorie a day deficit you will lose 7×400=2800 calories per week, or a little less than one pound. If you want to work backwards, then 3500/7=500, so this means you need about a 500 calorie deficit each day to lose one pound of fat (not muscle or water!) per week. This doesn’t sound like much, but if you lose it slowly it’s much less likely to come back.

Why? Well, any more than a 20% calorie deficit and you risk entering metabolic slowdown, or “starvation mode.” If this happens, you will find it more difficult to lose weight, burn fat, and risk gaining back more fat than you lost if and when you abandon or stray from your calorie deficit. In starvation mode, your body would rather burn anything but fat because it thinks food is scarce, so you will start to lose muscle instead, and your slower metabolism and reduced muscle mass makes regaining the fat lost (and then some) more likely.

Do not confuse weight loss with fat loss. Anyone can lose two pounds or more per week if they eat some ridiculously low number of calories like 800 per day, and your bodyweight can fluctuate by 1-2 pounds a day based on factors such as how well/poorly hydrated you are. Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you go on a starvation diet you will lose weight quickly, but it will be muscle that you are saying goodbye to.

It’s also a good idea to check and monitor your body fat percentage. This is the best way to check that you are burning fat rather than water or muscle. Many scales have body fat calculators on them, or you can get some calipers & measure that way. There are also some online estimators based on various body measurements. Some ways are more accurate than others, but the point is to measure and look for nice, consistent drops in your percentage about every week or so. Men are considered “lean” if they are in the 10-15% range, women 16-20%, and “lean” sounds like a nice way to be described!

See www.BurnTheFat.com for more. I highly recommend Tom Venuto’s ebook “Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle” if you want to do this right.

Avoid white sugar & simple carbs if at all possible

We all know sugar is bad for us right? But why is it really bad? We all know it makes your teeth rot & causes us to gain weight, but is that really it?

Recently I read You Are What You Eat by Dr Gillian McKeith, as well as Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau (actually I am still reading the latter & will post about in the future).

If you have been reading my blog regularly you will know I am a big fan of You Are What You Eat. In fact, I even gave it to my mom for Mother’s Day. She loves the book too & was very excited & happy to have such an easy to read, valuable source of info at hand. I am sure it will make the rounds in my family, or maybe even another copy or two will be purchased. My sister in law suffers from eczema, and there is a whole section in there on that as well.

But I digress. Kevin Trudeau is controversial to say the least. If you read the reviews of his books on Chapters.ca or Amazon you will see that many, while not bad, are less than stellar. I will withhold judgment on Natural Cures until I have finished, but I would say it’s at least worth getting from the library.

The one thing I have noticed so far is that there are alot of similar points in the two books. To me, hearing Kevin say something Dr McKeith also said just gives him more credence. One of the most noticeable points for me was they both strongly recommend avoiding white sugar.

Sugar does all of the things we all know, sure, but that’s not the worst of it. Sugar, especially the refined white variety we put in coffee etc, has virtually no nutritional value. Worse, it causes your insulin levels to spike. Some of you will have heard of the glycemic index, the theory behind of which is that foods that cause insulin spikes will cause you to gain weight, and, taken to the extreme, lead to type 2 (the kind you do to yourself)diabetes.

Whats so bad about insulin spikes? Well, this phenomenon is what causes you to “crash” a few hours after a high carb meal (Chinese anyone?). White sugar has the same effect (insulin spikes) as simple refined carbs such as white bread, white pasta, white rice, baked goods such as donuts, etc, but is even worse since it has zero nutritional value–the others at least have some (well maybe not the donuts).

When you “crash” this is your insulin levels (or more properly, your blood sugar levels), dropping after a spike. Insulin regulates blood sugar & if your blood sugar is high after a high carb/sugary meal, insulin levels have to rise to counteract this. This is when you feel sleepy or even hungry again. This is why people joke about being hungry an hour after a big Chinese meal. You are not really hungry, but because your insulin levels have dropped from their unnatural peak, you feel hungry, sluggish, & maybe lightheaded. Many will often have a snack, and this leads to overeating (since you are not really hungry) & weight gain. This is why carbs are often viewed as “bad” nowadays & hence the popularity of diets like Atkins.

If this cycle (simple carbs/sugary food intake, insulin spikes) continues, eventually your body will become insulin resistant—aka type 2 diabetes. Your pancreas will not be able to produce enough insulin, or your body will have become so tolerant to high levels of it, that it no longer has the needed effect: regulation of blood sugar.

This vicious cycle is also addictive. A diet high in sugary foods will knock your blood sugar levels out of balance, and this will cause cravings for…you guessed it, more sugar. Any coincidence it’s a white powder…? Once your body has more sugar in it than it can deal with, it will be stored in the liver as glycogen. If there is more than your liver can deal with, it becomes fat. Sugar also slows your metabolism, so not only do you have more fat, but you actually burn calories at a slower rate, a negative double whammy.

Additionally, white sugar is highly processed & grown with chemicals. There is nothing “live” about it, so how can it be good for you?In short, sugar is the worst of the simple refined carbs because it has all the bad & none of the good.

So what to do? Well, brown sugar isn’t any better, it’s just white sugar with molasses in it. And also stay away from artificial sweeteners. They are not natural, are made from chemicals, & are linked to many health problems & even some diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Kevin recommends a few things, such as pure organic, unpasteurized honey, stevia, evaporated cane juice, or turbinado sugar, the granulated juice of raw sugar cane. Make sure it’s organic & unpasteurized as the pasteurization process kills pretty much all of the good things in any food. I put away my sugar bowl yesterday & bought some honey.

Dr McKeith has many suggestions, from small to large changes you can make to kick the sugar habit if you are already addicted (an how to find out if you are). In fact, she has too many to list here. Buy or get her book from the library & prepare to go cold turkey!

Also, try to avoid or limit simple refined carbs. Fiber is one of the best ways to counteract blood sugar spikes as it slows digestion of food and “flattens out” the spikes. This is why brown bread, brown rice & whole wheat pasta are better choices.

Recommended reading:

You Are What You Eat

Natural Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About

Bananas: Miracle Food!

Got an interesting email from my sister-in-law today about bananas. Seems they really are super healthy. Glad I eat one almost everyday…

BANANAS – Some Interesting Facts

Never put your banana in the refrigerator!!! This is interesting. After reading this, you’ll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber.

A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world’s leading athletes.

But energy isn’t the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills – eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a “cooling” fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In
Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking &Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body’s water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrates, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, “A banana a day keeps the doctor away!”