Recommendations for How Much Vitamin C

There is a lot of controversy out there over the right amount of Vitamin C. If you're eating 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, then you can supplement with 500-1000mg and be getting a fairly good amount of Vitamin C.

If you're not eating the 8-10 servings every day, which most of the American public does not do, then you will need to supplement with more. Most sources agree that around 2000mg/day is about the right amount.

Vitamin C is water soluble and is not stored in the body, so it will go out in the urine if the body is unable to use it at that time. A word of caution here. Don't take all 2000mg at once. The body uses Vitamin C as it goes along. So if you take the entire dose at once, it cannot store it and it will go out in the urine. This is why some physicians refer to some vitamins as making the urine rich in vitamins. You need to split the doses in to at least 2 per day and you may want to consider 3-4/day.

Vitamin C Sources

Most of us are aware of the fact that most juices out there contain "added" vitamin C. But there are food sources that contain natural vitamin C. Some of the vegetables that contain high amounts of Vitamin C are green peppers, broccoli, dark leafy greens, and sweet and white potatoes. Fruit sources of Vitamin C include tomatoes, citrus fruits, cantaloupes, and strawberries.

Other sources of Vitamin C in the vegetable world are winter squash, red peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.

Other sources of Vitamin C in the fruit world include blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, papaya, mango, watermelon, and pineapple.

Vitamin C

Since I was talking about Vitamin C yesterday, I thought I would add a few thoughts about Vitamin C. First, let's talk about some of the benefits of Vitamin C.

As I mentioned yesterday, surgeons often order vitamin C after a surgery to help with healing. One of its benefits. Many people take vitamin C to help their immune system be stronger to fight off colds, viruses and infections.

One of the things you may not know about Vitamin C is that it helps in the absorption of iron. In addition it helps maintain the connective tissue. Connective tissue is essential to help protect the body and to help heal the body through the immune system. Cartilage and bone are specialized forms of connective tissue, so you can see that vitamin C is essential here.

Vitamins

Did you see the news a few weeks ago that reported vitamins as being not beneficial in heart disease? I caught this on our local evening news report by a not so prominent physician. While he did not report the details of the study, he was quick to report that the study demonstrated that vitamins made no difference in the incidence of heart disease.

Some research of my own revealed that the study, most likely used synthetic vitamin E and it was only given every other day. We already know the flaw in this one. The vitamin C dose was 500mg every day which is at least something, it is not enough to make a difference. The interesting thing here is that surgeons who order vitamin C after a surgery to help with healing usually order 500mg twice daily. So the set up in this study was that the dose were inadequate to begin with. A study that was bound to show that vitamins did not make a difference.

The news made this sound like all vitamins were not helpful and played that aspect up.

My suggestion, if you hear something like this on the news, check it out. Some of the research out there, while it gets reported and press, there are often flaws in it.

Diet Tip

I'm not a big advocate of diets, but if you are trying to follow a diet during the holidays, here is something that may help you.

We both know that you're probably going to eat things that aren't on your diet. It's OK, go ahead and eat them. You know they aren't on your diet and that's OK. Don't let it overcome you with the thought that you have failed. Let it be OK. In fact, I suggest that you take at least 1 day out of 7 and eat whatever you want. You'll find by giving yourself this permission, it will be easier to follow the diet for the other 6 days during the week.

Fruits and Vegetables

Remember that the best fruits and vegetables are those that are labeled organic. Those labeled with natural may have been sprayed or synthetic fertilizers used.

Organic fruits and vegetables can only be labeled organic if the farm from which they come has been inspected and meets the criteria for organic growers.

Building the Immune System

Following on yesterday's tip, there are other things you can do to help protet yourself from cold and flus. Make sure that you are taking a good multiple vitamin. Well how do you know that you are getting a good multiple vitamin?

Great question. The cheapest brand at the store or discount store is likely not going to be your best choice. I know for years as a practitioner I recommended a certain brand only because it was the only one I knew. The problem was that that particular brand was not good because it more often than not did not even breakdown in the gut, so there was no benefit from it.

I have done a great deal of research now into various brands and if you would like more information, respond to this post and I will provide some for you.

More importantly, be sure to eat foods - organic if possible - that have high levels of vitamins (antioxidants). Fruits and vegetables are the best food sources.

Build Your Immune System to Stay Healthy

Most of us would really not like to be sick during this holiday season, but how do we prevent it. The best way is to build your immune system up, because it is your line of defense against illness.

The easiest and best thing you can do for yourself to prevent getting sick with a cold or flu is to wash your hands. Hands spread cold and flu very quickly. If you area grandparent and you wonder why every time you get around your grandchildren you get sick think about it. You love these little ones and they love you, so they touch you on the face and bingo, you get the virus. The little one is likely not very sick, but you can get a nasty cold or flu. I'm not saying to not love your grandchildren, but teach them to wash their hands as well as you washing yours. Make a game of it for them and it will help protect you.

Slow Down and Enjoy You Food

For the holiday, slow down your eating. In other words take more time to eat and really enjoy what you're eating. By eating slowly, you are likely to eat less. This also gives your brain time to turn off the "hunger" button and you are less likely to feel too full or like you've eaten too much.

If you have a fast eater, you are likely to consume more food because your brain doesn't tell you you're full until after you've eaten way too much. So just take it easy and really enjoy what you are eating.

The side benefit here is that you get to eat some of those favorite foods and you may actually consume less and not gain weight through the holiday!

Some last thoughts on Yogurt

Just a couple of last thoughts on yogurt. I know I mentioned that you should buy active live culture yogurt. Be sure to read the label to see that it is "Live and Active Cultures."

If you are concerned about calories, the buy plain non-fat yogurt. You can add your own fresh fruit for flavor. This will give you better nutrition than buying the already flavored yogurts.

More On Yogurt

There are some other things that yogurt is believed to help. Again, be sure you are eating active live culture yogurt. There are a couple of studies that indicate that eating yogurt daily may decrease allergies, especially in children.

Specifically, there were fewer episodes of allergic rhinitis (hay fever). In a study of pregnant women, who ate the live culture late in the pregnancy, they had babies who were less prone to allergies.

There is controversy in the arena of cancer. Studies have indicated that live active culture yogurt may actually decrease bladder cancer risk and colon cancer risk. But there is evidence that it may increase prostate and kidney cancer.

Yogurt - should you eat it?

Yogurt has some wonderful properties which can be helpful to you. The first thing to look for when buying yogurt is to get yogurt that contains active live cultures. This means that it actually contains the type of bacteria normally found in the intestine.

These live bacteria can help in regulating the function of the bowel. Hence, if you have a problem with constipation, it can help the gut motility to move things through. On the other hand, if you have diarrhea, often times the normal bacteria in the gut has been killed off or is gone. One of the biggest causes of this is antibiotic treatment. So eating active live culture yogurt can restore the normal bacteria in the gut and stop the diarrhea. It's not a bad idea to eat yogurt if you are on antibiotics to help the gut.

Question on Reducing Inflammation

Thank you Laurie for your question about reducing inflammation and what to use. The very best thing to reduce inflammation is Omega 3 and you can find more about this from my previous blog entry in October.

I also mentioned a couple of other herbs that are helpful in reducing inflammation. These are not as commonly found in supplement form, but you can certainly incorporate them into your daily diet. One is ginger and the other one is curry

In early October I mentioned a product that I have been using for almost a year called MMS. You can learn more about this product at my site, or you can email me for more information.

Nutritional Supplements with Red Yeast Rice

You may still see supplements out there with Red Yeast Rice, however they are not the same as they were before 1999. These supplements do contain Red Yeast Rice, but the rice has been fermented and the processing is different. The difference is that the active component has been removed. This is what is believed at this point.

That means that the red yeast rice loses its potency to lower cholesterol. Remember that while statins lower cholesterol, they also have an affect on inflammation. Inflammation being the bigger issue, may not be affected by the new supplements unless they have something in them that help inflammation.

Bottom line is if you are using a supplement with red yeast rice, check to see what how the product is being processed and whether the active ingredients have been removed. If they have, then think about going after inflammation instead.

Red Yeast Rice and Cholesterol

I've had some questions about red yeast rice and cholesterol. Some of you may be aware of the controversy regarding red yeast rice and lovastatin in 1999-2000. This is when the FDA said that red yeast rice contained lovastatin (a prescription drug to reduce cholesterol). Any supplement company that had products containing red yeast rice were told they had to take them off the market because the FDA had to regulate them because they contained a pharmaceutical drug.

My take on this is that Big Pharma did not want the nutritional supplement industry to cut their profits by providing a nutritional supplement that would compete with their choleterol lowering drugs.

Beyond that fact, is the fact that cholesterol is really not the issue. The issue is inflammation. See my post on November 20, 08.

Determining Type II Diabetes

I've had several questions in the past week as to how you might know if you are diabetic. The problem with diabetes is that it has a slow insidious onset. Type II diabetics may have had the disease for as long as 5-7 years before it is diagnosed. Unfortunately a lot of damage can be done to many organs in that time frame when you think you are OK.

Who should be concerned? If you have a family member who has diabetes either type and the more you have the more concerned you should be. If you have a sedentary life style where you are not doing active physical exercise at lease 1 hour three times a week, be concerned. If you are overweight, the more overweight you are the more your concern should be. The diagnosis of diabetes has increased 300% since 1980.

How to find out. Simple, get a fasting blood sugar test. You should be fasting for at least 8 hours. Your blood sugar level should be less than 100. If it is over 100, 100-110, it is time to start doing something now before damage is done. If it is over 110, you really need to do something to get yourself back in control. My rule of thumb is that if you are at 120 or higher, you are a diabetic. This does not mean shots, insulin or even oral medications. It means you need to take control of the disease before the disease takes control of you.

More on Vitamin E

I ran across another use of Vitamin E, and while I haven't tried it personally, I believe it couldn't hurt and it may just help. This new use (to me anyway) is to apply it topically on hemorrhoids. You can just puncture the capsule and put the contents on a gloved finger and rub into the hemorrhoids. This makes sense to me because I know how it effects the blood vessels which is essentially what hemorrhoids are.

You can also use this on burns. However, the first treatment is to cool the burn with cold water and or ice. The problem most of us have is that we think 30 seconds of cold is enough. It is not. The skin continues to burn, so you need to really cool it for at least an hour. Then you can take the vitamin E and gently rub it into the burned area. This is painless and will help the burn to heal quicker with less scarring.

Vitamin E Deficiency

Anything that decreases of absorption in the gut can lead to Vitamin E deficiency. These would include diseases like alcoholism, cirrhosis of the liver, gastric or intestinal surgery, crohn's disease and pancreatic disease. Any disorder which results in decreased fat metabolism can result in Vitamin E deficiency.

Some of the symptoms of being unable to absorb fat are chronic diarrhea, greasy stools, poor transmission of nerve impulses, muscle weakness and blindness. Other more common symptoms which are not so easy to point just at Vitamin E deficiency are apathy, chest pain, lethargy, inability to concentrate, premature aging, indigestion, heart palpitations with increased blood pressure, muscle weakness, and irritability. As you can see these are not specific and may point to many other problems.

A piece of good news here is that most adults have fairly large stores of vitamin E in adipose (fat) tissue. Now if you have one of the chronic illnesses, these storage units may be empty.

Can you get too much Vitamin E

The symptoms of too much Vitamin E can be somewhat vague. But here they are: fatigue, muscle weakness, nausea, diarhhea, altered immune function, altered metabolism of specific hormones like thyroid, pituitary, and adrenal hormones and excessive bleeding. Caution should be used if you are taking warfarin or coumadin. Bleeding usually does not occur unless the dose is greater than 1000 units/day.

Some words of caution, there is some interaction with other things. Antacids decrease Vitamin E absorption. Blood thinners like coumadin may increase spontaneous bleeding. Alcoholism and smoking both decrease the absorption of Vitamin E. Some of the anti-cholesterol medications that work specifically in the gut to decrease absorption of cholesterol, also decrease the absorption of Vitamin E.

What else Vitamin E does

In addition to what I have spoken about, there are other things that Vitamin E does. It has a major effect on red blood cells and hemoglobin. Vitamin E is part of the formation process of red blood cells as well as the synthesis and maintenance of red blood cells and their constituents. They also affect the synthesis of hemoglobin a major constituent of red blood cells.

Vitamin E is essential for reproduction and fertility. It is also thought to block the formation of carcinogens formed from nitrites that we consume in our diet. Carcinogens promote cancer cell formation and growth.

Because of it's antioxidant properties, Vitamin E is thought to also protect against cancer formation because of how it enhances the immune system.

Other Uses of Vitamin E

I already mentioned the fact that Vitamin E can be helpful to prevent a heart attack or a stroke. There are other things that Vitamin E is thought to help as well.

Vitamin E is believed to help with pain, particularly menstrual pain and post menstrual pain. It can also be helpful with muscle and joint pain. There is some evidence that it may be helpful in dementia. My advice would be to take it and hopefully prevent the dementia, but there is no evidence to support that at this time. It would stand to reason however, if Vitamin E is an antioxidant, it may prevent damage from free radicals in the brain which may be the cause of dementia.

Because it is an antioxidant, you should be taking it especially if you have the flu to hlep the immne system combat the flu virus. Vitamin E is thought to enhance antibody production in the immune system.

In addition, Vitamin E is thought to help individuals with eczema and asthma. Both of which have an immune component.

You may have seen hand creams over the counter which are fortified with Vitamin E. It is believed that Vitamin E on the skin assists with healing and deceasing scar tissue formation.

Vitamin E is also essential to protect Vitamin A and C.

Sources of Vitamin E

Vitamin E is found in varying amounts in multiple foods. Some of these foods are soy beans, nuts, seeds, egg yolk, avocado, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oils, and whole grains. Wheat germ is one of the foods that has the highest amount of Vitamin E.

The most active form of Vitamin E is in the foods mentioned above. The synthetic or Vitamin E supplements is less potent than what we get in our food. So eating the right foods will help you get this all important vitamin.

Tomorrow I will get into more of the details about what Vitamin E does.

Vitamin E

Many of you may be taking Vitamin E because you know it is supposed to be good for your heart. Vitamin E is an antioxidant which intercepts free radicals and prevents them from creating inflammation in the blood vessels where lipids have formed plagues. Free radicals will cause inflammation around these plaques which causes them to begin to go into a chain reaction which will end up in small pieces of the plaque breaking off and begin floating free in the blood stream.

The danger here is that piece of free floating plaque may become lodged in a small blood vessel in the heart or in the brain. If it is the heart, you end up with a hear attack. If it is the brain, you end up with a stroke.

So Vitamin E is good for your heart but also for your brain.

I'll talk more tomorrow on sources.

Why is Vitamin D so Important?

Some of you may know about the disease called rickets. This is a disease we see in children and it is a result of not enough Vitamin D. In adults what occurs is osteoporosis.

Our bodies breakdown and build bone every day of our lives. If we don't have the right things present for this process like Vitamin D which assists with calcium which helps makes our bones strong, the bones become soft as in rickets, or spongy with a weak bone matrix as in osteoporosis. For adults, osteoporosis is a huge concern as it predisposes us to injuries such as hip fractures. While tend to think this is not as horrible as a heart attack, the fact of the matter is that a hip fracture in someone over 65 leads to complications in about 75% of cases. Of these 75% with complications, 50% will actually die of the complication. So hip fractures in someone over 65 are really not benign.

Sources of Vitamin D

So where do you get supplemental vitamin D. Most dairy products in the US, like milk, chesse, butter and cream are fortified with vitamin D, so that you can get it there. But it is naturally found in fish and oysters.

It can also be found in most vitamin supplements, just be sure that you have a good supplement and not just the cheapest thing at the store.

So how much sun light do you need? About 10-15 minutes 3 times a week. Keep in mind though, it depends upon where you live and the color of your skin.

Vitamin D and Sunshine

As I mentioned yesterday, there are times when we can't get vitamin D from sunshine. Of course, the most obvious is if there is cloud cover. While there is light, it is not at the wave length that it will produce Vitamin D in the skin. So if you live in a mostly cloudy area, you will need to supplement with Vitamin D.

Along those same lines, the use of sunscreen with SPF of 8 or higher will block the UV rays that produce vitamin D. I am not advocating that you not use sunscreen. What I am saying is that you may want to give yourself 10 minutes of sun before you apply the sunscreen. Just know that the sunscreen does block the production of vitamin D.

Also if you have darker skin, you will need more sun light to produce the right amount of vitamin D. Darker skin still requires sunscreen because sun burn is still an issue.

Also keep in mind that during the winter months, the only part of us that is usually exposed is our face. I use a sunscreen on my face year around, so I have to consciously get some sun exposure on the warm days to my arms, but I know it is not enough, so I supplement my vitamin D.

Sunshine Vitamin

Someone was asking how much sun exposure do they need to produce vitamin D in the skin. Usually it takes about 30 minutes. However, there are some exceptions to this rule and most people will need to supplement with vitamin D or eat foods enriched with Vitamin D.

Here are some of the exceptions. Depending upon where you live, the availability of the proper UV light exposure may not be there. In latitudes above 42 degrees north between November and February is insufficient to produce cutaneous vitamin D. The line is approximately from northern California to Boston in the US. Anywhere north of this line does not have the capacity to produce cutaneous vitamin D. The further north you go, the time of decreased capacity may extend up to 6 months of the year. So supplementation with foods and supplements to get vitamin D is essential.

I'll talk more about exceptions tomorrow.

Vitamin A Continued

In addition to vision, Vitamin A has other effects on our bodies. The role of this vitamin in tissue repair and growth is very important. This is particularly true of the skin and we are all aware of the use of Vitamin A on the skin in the form of retinol which is used to resurface and rejuvenate the skin. It is often referred to as anti-aging in skin care products.

Vitamin A also assists in the formation of strong bones and teeth.

A word of caution, the retinal form of Vitamin A can become toxic if you get too much. The animal form is the one to be concerned with as it can lead to osteoporosis and bone degeneration when taken in excessive amounts. The Beta carotene form is not so harmful, but when taken in excessive amounts leads to the skin turning an orange-yellow color.

Vitamin A

Did you ever wonder why milk is fortified with Vitamin A? The reason is to control vitamin A deficiency. In third world countries, vitamin A deficiency is still very prevalent. The reason is that many children and adults in these countries do not consume adequate amounts of Vitamin A in their diets. Secondarily, individuals may become Vitamin A deficient by not absorbing Vitamin A.

Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in dark green and yellow vegetables, orange and yellow fruits, egg yolks, and liver. Some of the better sources are yams, sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, cantaloupe and dried apricots.

So why is vitamin A important. Vitamin A is retinol or retinal, this form is found in animal sources such as liver. The plant form of Vitamin A is Beta carotene. You might guess from the animal form that this particular vitamin is important for the retina or vision. Deficiency can lead to blindness, specifically night blindness. So remember when you were told or you heard that carrots were good for you because they helped you see better. Well they don't necessarily help you see better, but they do help prevent night blindness.

More tomorrow on Vitamin A

Pluot

A new fruit out there. Over the past couple of months I have received Pluots with my fruit and vegetables that get delivered to my home. I wasn't sure what a Pluot was. What it is, is a hybrid cross between a plum and an apricot.

There isn't much information about the nutritional value of these fruits. Because apricots and plum have Vitamins C and A in them, one would think these fruits would be a good source of these vitamins. They should also be a good source of fiber.

They are actually quite tasty.

Acai Berries

You've probably gotten a lot of emails about acai berries. Be cautious. The research has shown that yes these berries provide antioxidants, but they are not the "super antioxidant" that ssome would have you believe.

Studies have demonstrated that the antioxidant value of acai berries is less than red wine. Now there are folks out there who will tell you they have a higher value. But, the berry itself or the powder made from the berry does not. The product that they are selling likely has been fortified with other antioxidants. Here is a good test. Look at the ingredients before you buy. If the ingredient says that there is any amount of Vitamin C, then the product has been fortified with Vitamin C.

What these berries do contain is anthocyanins. See my posts on anthocyanins by clicking on the word. There is also another post on November 23, 2008.

If the product is indicating that it is a weight loss product, use extreme caution. There is no evidence that acai berries have any effect on weight.

Three Rules to Help You Decrease Calories

If you really don't want to gain weight during the holidays, read yesterday's post and here are three other pieces of advice to help.

One, be sure to eat 3 meals a day with protein at each meal.

Two, if you're going to a party, eat something before you go like a couple of whole grain crackers and cheese - be sure you have a little protein. Then drink 20-24 ounces of water.

Three, when you get to the party, avoid the foods that are dippable (or at least avoid the dip) - eat the raw veges. Avoid the foods that "you can't eat just one."

This will make you holiday party fun without you overeating! Enjoy!

Did you over eat yesterday?

I should have written this before Thanksgiving. Did some of you feel like you over ate yesterday? There is a trick you should know about. Some of you belong to the clean your plate club. If you are one of these individuals, get a smaller plate.

Secondly, so that you don't feel like you over ate, eat very slow. Talk between bites and really savor every bite. This is important, because your brain takes about 20-30 minutes to tell you that you are full. So if you throw as much in your mouth as possible in the first 20 minutes, you will definitely over eat and feel uncomfortable. Eating slowly is a gift you can give yourself.

Eat only 3/4 of what is on your plate. Remember the adage that our eyes are bigger than our stomach. Kind of true. You will feel mush better. If you can't get a smaller plate, try spreading things out instead of stacking them up. You'll end up eating less and feeling better.

Also, consider not eating dessert right away. Wait a couple of hours to eat dessert. You will enjoy it more and are less likely to feel stuffed if you do. If you are the host or hostess, consider waiting to serve dessert until later. Your guests will really appreciate you and your dessert more.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have an awesome day, enjoy your family and friends. Thank you for being a part of my community!

Nutmeg

As I prepare for Thanksgiving, I began to wonder about the spices we tend to use at this time of the year. Nutmeg is often used in Pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes and yams. What it does for us from a health stand is to assist in digestion, often helping with nausea, vomiting and gas.

Some of you may already know that nutmeg is the center seed. Around that center seed is a shell and around the shell is red covering which is collected and is sold as mace. Mace has similar properties to nutmeg in that it assists with digestion. Mace is more powerful flavor than nutmeg.

When I mention mace, you may be thinking of pepper spray. This is not the same as the spice mace.

Pumpkin

Since Thanksgiving is upon us, I thought I would talk a little about pumpkin. Of course, we're all looking forward to pumpkin pie in a few days. But there are benefits to pumpkin that you may not be aware of.

If you have grown a pumpkin or buy a fresh whole pumpkin, when you take out the seeds, save them. These are an excellent treat just dry roasted in the oven on low heat. Pumpkin seeds are a great source of protein, phytosterols, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus. The protein source in pumpkin seeds contains more tryptophan than milk. For more on tryptophan, see my posts starting on October 23. Just the seeds alone are great to boost the immune system and can also benefit the liver.

The pumpkin itself is rich in antioxidants. This will also boost the immune system. So that pumpkin pie you have on Thanksgiving is not bad. It has lots of great nutritional value!

Sage

With Thanksgiving coming upon us this week, I was thinking about the herbs that we traditionally use. Sage is probably the most common one used in dressing. Have you ever thought about the benefits of sage or did you think there might not be any? Well there are medicinal benefits of sage as with most of our herbs.

Sage is probably best known for it's estrogenic effect. What this means is that if you are perimenopausal having hot flashes, sage will help to diminish that effect. Now I am not advocating that you go out and load up on sage. A little goes a long way. But the nice thing is that if you use sage in your dressing on Thanksgiving and you have been having hot flashes you may have a "cooler" Thanksgiving!

Grapes

John's Hopkins has also looked at the effect of grapes on health. Grapes have been shown to have high antioxidant value. Red grapes contain polyphenolics and green grapes contain catechins, both of which have strong antioxidant effects. The polyphenolics in red grapes is contributed to the anthocyanins in the skin. For more info on anthocyanins, see my earlier posts here.

Green grapes contain catechins. Catechins are polyphenolics which are specifically flavon-3-ols. These are very potent antioxidant that decrease plaques in the blood vessels, thereby decreasing heart disease. They also decrease cancer.

A friend asked me if this is true, then is wine good for you. The answer is yes, but in moderation. To get beneficial effects from wine, red wine is better than white. Red wine can also assist in lowering angiotensin, which in turn decreases blood pressure. It can also assist in dilating blood vessels which assists cells in getting oxygenated blood and sustaining less damage from oxidation.

Inflammation Reducers

I was speaking a few days ago about inflammation in our bodies. I just ran across some research from John Hopkins where the researchers were looking at curry. Curry has been known for a long time as a strong antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties. The ingredient in curry that is active is turmeric from which curcuma is dervived. The curcume is really the ingredient that has an effect.

Because of it's anti-inflammatory properties, turmeric helps in any inflammatory diesease such as arthritis, heart disease, cancer and many other inflammatory diseases processes. In addition, it has been demonstrated to assist with protection of the brain where there is oxidative stress like Parkinson's Disease.

If you're looking at a turmeric product, you may see that Bromelain is also in the product. Bromelain works synergistically with turmeric to enhance the anti-inflammatory effects.

Health Insurance

I was reading an article today that gave me a great deal of concern. There is movement in Washington to change the health care system in the US. This has been going on for many years. What raised my concern was that the health insurance industry is going to back the new plan if it is made manditory for everyone to purchase insurance. I have a real problem with this, because at this point there is nothing to say there will be any help with the cost. I know for many middle class people with the economy being what it is right now, this would not be a possibility.

I know and agree that we should all have coverage. But I also know that the cost of health insurance is steadily going up and that many more will not be able to afford it. Being self employed, I also know that employers cannot absorb this and still maintain there business.

We all need to be aware and watching what is happening. Like Big Pharma who wants us to be on their most expensive medications, the insurance industry can have a similar effect if they back the manditory insurance piece. I know that our country needs to revise it's health care system, but I have real fears about this one.

C-Reactive Protein

As I mentioned yesterday, today I want to talk about C-Reactive Protein. This is a blood test and was actually the test used in the JUPITER study mentioned yesterday. Many physicians shy away from utilizing this test, but it is an excellent marker of inflammation in the body. So why is this so important.

In the cholesterol study I spoke about yesterday, all of the participants had C-Reactive Protein (CRP) levels done. If you have an elevated C-Reactive Protein in your body, you have higher levels of inflammation in your body. Inflammation is the key here.

Inflammation has been established as the prime contributor to heart disease and stroke. Oxidation occurs with inflammation and this is when the plaque in a blood vessel can be set free to move along and block a smaller vessel in the heart or in the brain.

By the way, a side effect of the statin drugs is that they decrease inflammation. So is it really the cholesterol we need to worry about, or is it the amount of inflammation? I say inflammation. So do we need statins to decrease inflammation? I don't believe that is our first or best choice.

There are lots of natural ways to decrease inflammation. Omega 3 is one of the best ways to decrease inflammation. See more on this in my earlier posts on omega 3.

Back to Cholesterol

I'm sure you all heard the big news about how lowering the cholesterol in healthy individuals decreased the risk of heart disease by 44%. As a researcher, I have to look at the numbers. What does this really mean and is it really significant. This data comes from the JUPITER study (Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin{Crestor})

The drug companies would have you believe that in fact this is highly significant. Why? Because there is more money in it for them. Look at the name of the study, it was a justification study. You may remember a few months ago when the news was to give statin drugs to children. Why? A new market for the pharmaceutical companies to make money.

Now with this new research, the push will be to lower cholesterol levels even more which means that everyone should be taking statin drugs. These are not safe drugs to be taking and there are other ways to accomplish the desired effect. More on this later.

Let's talk about what the numbers mean. Many of you have heard that you can make statistics say anything. So here is what the numbers actually were. There were a total of 17,000 participants in the study. In the non-treatment group, 14 in 1000 developed heart disease. This is .014 percent of the group. In the treatment group 8 in 1000 developed heart disease. this is .008 percent of the group. From 14 to 8 is a 44% reduction, but think of what the numbers are telling you. Going from 2 in a million to 1 in a million is a 50% reduction, but is it really significant?

This is not mention what may be the more significant information here. Tune in tomorrow for more and why C-Reactive protein numbers may be the real significance in this study.

Your Relationship with You

I just got back from a seminar on relationships. The one take home from every speaker was that all of your relationships are a reflection of your relationship with yourself. Your relationship with you can be healthy and you will be healthy, or your relationship with you can be not so healthy in which case, you will not be so healthy.

Getting in touch with your relationship to yourself is not always something we like to do. Especially since it usually is attached to pain in our past. Did you know that most of your relationships are based on beliefs you were given by your parents and others who were in your life when you were very young. In fact, most of your beliefs are formed in the first 3-4 years of your life. Most of us barely remember those years, and yet they have the biggest influence on your beliefs.

So why this is important to your health is, that for you to continue with some of the beliefs you have, the body must do things to help you manifest those beliefs. In many cases, the body manifests disease. Reread my post from November 14. There is an example there of exactly what I'm talking about here.

Creating Illness

Have you ever heard someone say that they didn't ask to get cancer or to have a heart attack? Most of us have had the thought that we didn't need to get his cold right now. So do we really create our illnesses?

I believe that we do. We have a lot to do with getting sick. We don't necessarily go around thinking that we will get cancer or have a heart attack, but we sabotage ourselves by getting into situations that the only thing our subconscious mind knows to do is to make us sick.

I was once in a job that was extremely stressful. I took a stand for my staff and myself between upper level management and the staff. I was in a position that I would not back down and I knew there was no way that I would quit. My subconscious mind heard the underlying message that it would take something drastic to remove me from this position. What developed was an illness that forced me to resign my position. At the time I did not believe that I had created the problem, but when I look back at it now. I know my subconscious created a way for me to get out.

Minding Your Mind to Health

Have you ever noticed that people who seem to be sick most of the time also tend to be very negative people. Yesterday I mentioned how important it is to be aware of what we're saying. If you want to see how this works, just sit and tell yourself for 5 minutes how bad you feel. You may not have any particular problem, just tell yourself you feel bad. At the end of 5 minutes ask yourself how you feel. You will not feel well. You can be more precise with this and pick a particular problem, like my stomach does not feel well, I'm getting a cold or focus on an ache. Whatever you focus on will become intensified and you will experience whatever you are thinking about.

Now turn it around. Think, I feel great! Put a smile on your face and think to yourself how great you look and how good you feel. Even if you didn't feel well a minute ago, you will feel better just by thinking positive thoughts and putting a smile on your face.

Try and see how you do.

Mind Matters

I'm traveling and I realize how much our mind matters in terms of our health and well being. You can convince yourself of anything, your subconscious mind will listen and do exactly as you tell it. For example if you tell yourself that something is going to make you sick, your subconscious mind will listen and when you eat that thing, you will get sick. If you tell yourself that you can't than you can't.

It isn't just mind over matter, it's that our subconscious mind does not know good from bad or right from wrong. It only knows what you tell it. If you constantly say to yourself or others that you just can't lose weight, then no matter what you do, you will not lose weight. Your subconscious mind will make sure that what you tell it is right. That is it's job.

Why I'm bringing this up is the importance the mind plays in our health. If we continually tell ourselves that we are sick or fat or whatever the voice in your head is telling you, then you will surely manifest whatever it is you're telling yourself. So be careful what you say to yourself.

Breathing

Yes we should be breathing! Besides sustaining our life, breathing in slow rhythmic patterns can do other things for us. For one thing, if you are doing slow controlled rhythmic breathing, it will shift the mind's attention to breathing and away from pain. Hence it is a great pain reliever. But it also means that you are getting more oxygen into your lungs, into your blood stream and out to the cells. Hyper-oxygenating cells provides a healing environment. This is why we use hyperbaric chambers to heal wounds that are not healing.

Now your breathing in a slow rhythmic pattern will not provide the same kind of oxygenation as the hyperbaric chamber, but it will increase the amount of oxygen available to cells. The thing to remember is to do this several times a day. You can do this when you're sitting at a stop sign, or when you sit down to eat, take a couple of minutes to do some slow rhythmic breathing.

Those of you who take pilates, yoga or tai chi have been taught if not the importance, at least how to do slow rhythmic breathing. If you are someone with arthritic pain, consider getting into a yoga or tai chi class to learn the rhythmic breathing and you will find some relief for that arthritic pain.

Tofu

Some of you may be wondering now about Tofu since I've been talking about soy. Tofu is soy milk which has been curdled with a curdling agent. This forms the soft cheesy texture of Tufu. One thing to be aware of with Tofu, many sources claim that it is rich in calcium. This is only true if the curdling agent is a calcium salt. Check this when you buy your Tofu and read that label.

Tofu is a great source of protein and works well especially in the vegan diet.

Be aware that 50% of the calories in Tofu come from fat. Don't be fooled by the "Does not contain cholesterol" on the label. It does not contain cholesterol, but fat gets converted into cholesterol. You can go back and review my thoughts on cholesterol starting in September with this post.

Soy Beans and Phytic Acid

You may be asking what is phytic acid and why should I even be concerned about it. Phytic acid is present in the hulls and bran of all seeds and beans. Phytic acid is also referred to as phytates. Phytates block the body's ability to absorb esstentials minerals like zinc, calcium, magnesium and iron. Unfortunately, soy contains the highest amounts of phytates and are pretty resistant to the ways that we have to remove phystates such as long slow cooking.

What does decrease the phytates is a long fermentation process. This is what occurs in the production of miso and tempeh. If you have eaten in a Japanese restaurant you may be familiar with miso soup. Miso is a paste made from fermented soy beans. Koji which is a yeast mold is added to soy beans and other ingredients which then are allowed to ferment.

Tempeh is made by cooking soy beans and dehulling them. The beans them have a culturing agent like rhizopus oligosporus added and they are left to ferment. This agent is a fungus which helps to break down some of the less desirable components in soy beans.

Soy Continued

Soy is sometimes called a "super food" because cultures with high soy content in their diets tend to be healthier. Reviewing the literature on this, there is little effect on bone health, cancer, and kidney disease. While cultures that have high intake of soy based foods have less reproductive cancers, they have much higher incidents of thyroid and digestive cancers.

The Swiss did a study on 1992 which estimated that 100 grams of soy is equivalent to the estrogenic equivalent of the birth control pill. So while this may protect the reproductive track, it may increase cancer formation in the thyroid and digestive tract. Another thought here, if you have an infant who is allergic to milk and you put them on soy based formula what is the estrogenic effect on them?? I don't know, but I would certainly want to look at alternatives.

Soy - Good or Bad

Many of us have heard about how good soy is for us, but is it really? There is a lot of controversy over how healthy soy really is for us. Yes, it does contain essential amino acids in it's raw form, which by the way, we cannot eat and digest. For us to eat it, soy must be processed. That in and of itself should raise some red flags. While there is still a good amount of amino acid present in the processed soy, there are other things present as well that may not be as good for us. More on this tomorrow.

Another thing to consider when thinking about soy is that the beans have been genetically altered and some sources suggest that you cannot even trace back to the wild growing soy bean. That always gives me a bit of concern that we are ingesting something that has been genetically programed, usually to increase the yield and not necessarily the quality of the bean.

More tomorrow.

Eat Your Vegetables

Do you remember your Mother or Grandmother telling you to eat your vegetables? They may not have understood exactly why, but they are definitely right. Vegetables contain antioxidants which help our immune system keep us well during cold and flu season. While you may think you are healthy, if your immune system is not fortified with antioxidants, it may not be able to fight off diseases like colds and flu.

Eating 1-2 servings of vegetables is not enough to fortify your immune system. You need to be eating 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day to get enough antioxidant to really make a difference with your immune system. You may have noticed that I threw in fruits, so between the fruits and vegetables you need 8-10 servings. Unfortunately, our American diet usually does not include more than 2-4 servings. So look at what you're eating.

Truth or Wives Tale

Bundle up it's cold outside. Has your mother or grandmother ever said this to you? Usually the next line is "You'll catch your death of cold." Bottom line, she was right. In a recent study done with college students, those who were chilled with ice water were more likely to develop colds than those who were kept toasty warm.

You may ask why is that. You immune system is responsible for fending off cold viruses. If you have been exposed and have the virus in you when you are chilled, the virus gets the upper hand because your body is using it's energy to get warm and you get sick. On the other hand, if you have the virus in you and you stay warm, your immune system is able to do it's job and kill the virus, preventing you from getting sick.

Simple but true. Wear your coat when it is cold. Or as grandma used to say, "bundle up, it's cold outside."

What Grandmother Told You Was Right.

Wives tales or truth. Many of the things that your grandmother told you were right. Let's talk a little about colds and flu. The number one most important thing that you can do to prevent colds and flu is to wash your hands. We don't seem to take this seriously. We know in hospitals that the biggest source of contamination comes from hands. That's why when you go to a hospital now, you will see antibacterial foam canisters outside the rooms. This is so that nurses can not only protect their patient's but also themselves.

I'm not advocating the we need antibacterial foam canisters all over our homes. What I am advocating is that we take the time to wash our hands. If this doesn't concern you, the next time you are in a public restroom, watch how many people don't wash their hands.

Also consider carrying some antibacterial gel that you can use when you are away from home. Like at the restaurant before you eat. This is just a great habit to get into.

Refuse to Diet: Was Halloween a Trick or Treat?

Refuse to Diet: Was Halloween a Trick or Treat?

Trick or Treat - The Day After

I was pleased to see that one of my weight loss coaching clients has had a huge success and I wanted to share it with you. I have her permission to share. Remember yesterday I talked about that Halloween candy and the fact that if you are trying to lose weight, plan not to have much around.

Well Laurie is doing well and I believe she will not eat the candy. Read about her success at www.refusetodiet.com.

Trick or Treat

Since it is Halloween, I feel the need to say something about candy and our children. If you have not gone out and bought candy for the trick or treaters, consider doing this. Instead of buying candy, buy pencils or small boxes of crayons. If you buy some Halloween pencils with special Halloween erasers, these are great things for the children. Something they can actually use and something that will not be detrimental to their health.

We have given pencils since the second year we were married. I learned in that first year that guess who ate the left over candy. Something I did not need to be doing. Kids love the fact that you are giving them something different and the parents usually have a smile for me when the kids ask what it is and they learn they're getting pencils.

Happy Halloween!!

Other Ways to Increase Serotonin

Research has shown that simple exercise can increase Serotonin and a sense of feeling good. I know you don't necessarily want to go to the gym, but you can do some very simple exercises at home which will assist you in creating more serotonin in your brain. If you are interested in more information about this, please respond to this post and I will give you more information.

Another thing that can increase Serotonin is bright light. The world had less depression in it when most eveyone worked outside for a good portion of the day in the sun light. Why? Because the sun light blocks the production of melatonin by the pineal gland - you may remember that this is the hormone which tends to put us to sleep. It also uses tryptophan which we need to produce Serotonin. If the pineal gland is not using tryptophan to produce melatonin, then there is more tryptophan available to make Serotonin.

Creating Serotonin - What Should I Eat?

Since we know that tryptophan is the building block for serotonin, that would be the first thing we need to produce serotonin. Most of us are familiar with one source of tryptophan - turkey! We all get very relaxed and sleepy after that big Thanksgiving turkey dinner. This is related to the tryptophan in the turkey. In this case however, the tryptophan goes to the pineal gland and melatonin is produced which makes us sleepy. Not the serotonin we were hoping to produce.

This is a complex issue, because the amino acids in proteins can get in the way of the tryptophan and keep it from converting to Serotonin. To help you understand this, if you are depressed and your Serotonin levels are low, you will crave and eat simple carbohydrates like sugar and sweets. This gives you a short burst of Serotonin but it is not sustained and requires more within an hour or two at most. We all know what eating sugar or sweets every 1-2 hours will do to your waist line. Complex carbohydrates will raise Serotonin levels to a lesser extent because they contain protein amino acids which get in the way.

To clear the protein amino acids, you need to have foods which stimulate the production of insulin which will clear the proteins out of the way. Best foods for this are whole grain breads or raw fruits.

Feeling Good with Serotonin

More on Serotonin here. You may be aware of serotonin by the initials that are sometime used to refer to it's chemical structure. Serotonin is 5-HT. Many weight loss programs refer to having 5-HT in their product. One of the things that Serotonin does is to help regulate appetite. It's really not clear if this is a direct action or if by alleviating some depressive symptoms the individual actually eats less. Many individuals with depression eat more than usual and gain weight.

If you think about it, feeling good about yourself does not make you want to eat more. Not feeling good, can definitely make you want to eat more in the hopes that food will make you feel better.

So what can we eat to help promote serotonin production? More on this tomorrow.

Serotonin - Feel Good Hormone

Serotonin is what I refer to as our "feel good hormone." When we do not have enough serotonin, we tend toward depression. There are multiple research studies which link serotonin with depression and many of the newer drugs out for depression actually work directly on serotonin.

Serotonin is a hormone which is produced in our brains via a biochemical process which uses tryptophan. The actual process is not as important as understanding that if the process does not occur, there will not be enough serotonin in our brain to transmit information from one cell to the next. There are other problems that can occur regarding the receptor sites not being able to accept the serotonin to transmit information. In other words, you may produce enough but the receptor sites are not working. It's like connecting to the internet, if the phone line you want to use is not working(the receptor site), your computer (the serotonin) will not be able to connect to the internet to transmit information.

More tomorrow on Sserotonin

Benefits of Chocolate

Some of the benefits of raw chocolate or cacao are the high levels of antioxidant and magnesium content. Raw cacao is the highest food source of antioxidant. It is higher than green tea or red wine. How great is that. You can protect your cells by eating raw cacao!! So chocolate in it's raw form is good for you!

The high levels of magnesium contained in raw cacao supports heart health, relaxes muscles and eases menstrual cramping, increases flexibility, and improves brain function.

The greatest benefit here is cacao's effect on the brain. It actually assists the body in the production of brain chemicals like serotonin, phenylethylamine, theobromine, and tryptophan. These brain chemicals are responsible for making us feel less depressed, less stressed, and less anxious. Bottom line, these chemicals help increase our pleasure and I sometimes referred to these as the feel good chemcals.

Chocolate

We all love to hear about and eat chocolate. So I thought I would revisit this topic. There has been a controversy around chocolate and whether it is good for you. There is a form of chocolate which is very good for you. The form is raw chocolate or cacao. This is not the sweetened processed milk chocolate that you get in a candy bar.

Raw cacao usually comes in the form of bits of the dried cacao bean. The bits are hard and you definitely don't want to bite them. If you're going to eat raw chocolate, put a few bits in your mount and suck on them until they are soft. Then you can chew them up. If you bite into the hard bits, they taste like dirt or something worse! You can also take the bits and grind them up into a fine powder - like cocoa powder that you buy in the store. Except this will not be sweet and it will not have any hydrogenated fats in it. You can use it to make things like cocoa. Use Stevia to sweeten it.

More on the benefits tomorrow.

Exercise and Arthritis

If you are having arthritis pain, that is not the time to stop exercise. You should continue to do simple exercises to keep joints working correctly. If you stop exercising, the joints will become stiffer and you will have more difficulty moving.

Some simple things that you can start with are just some simple stretching exercising. This will help keep the joint functional. If you have pain in knees or hips, begin walking each day. Start out slow and work your way up to 20-30 minutes per day. This will prevent further deterioration of the joint. Swimming or water exercises are also great to keep joints active.

The worst thing you can do is to stop moving or be sedentary, moving as little as possible. If you want more information of some simple exercises to help keep your joints functioning, just hit the email button below this post and I will respond to you.

Ginger and Inflammation

Ginger has been around for a long time and has been used for multiple medical problems. Most people are familiar with using ginger to alleviate nausea and gastrointestinal upsets. It definitely helps with gas, diarrhea and stomach cramping.

What you may not know is that ginger has also been used to decrease inflammation especially in arthritis. Fresh ginger is best, but you can use ground ginger. Use some caution in not taking too much ginger. A little goes a long way.

More on Reducing Inflammation

So how do we reduce inflammation? What foods are good for us to do this? Foods that are high in Omega-3 fatty acids are the foods you shuld be focusing on. Not only will they help decrease the inflammation, but they will also help you to be healthier in general.

I spoke about this before and you can read more on omega-3 by clicking on omega-3. I also suggested some foods that were high in omega 3 in another post, just click on post. Some foods that I did not list in that post were the brightly colored fruits and dark green leafy vegetables.

For those of you with teens or who are teens. Look at the diet. Why teens? because one of their greatest concerns is acne or having their face break out. Acne is basically an inflammatory process and by eating a diet that decreases inflammation, there will be less break out.

Reducing Inflammation

I've had a lot of questions about arthritis and treatment options. I want to take a few minutes to address this as it seems to be a big issue for many people.

First and foremost if you are having arthritic pain, look at your diet. Certain foods will tend to increase inflammation and hence you experience more pain. Foods that are high in Omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. These are foods that have high-fructose corn syrup, red meats, and foods with processed sugars and saturated fats. You may want to go back and review the entries on fats. If you click on fats you will go to the first posting on this topic.

If you think about the foods high in Omega-6 fatty acids, these are the same foods which contribute greatly to being overweight or obese. Extra weight adds stress to joints and further exacerbates inflammation. More tomorrow

Is it Fresh?

We often see the label "fresh" on foods. What does that imply to you? For many of us, we think that if it is labeled "fresh," it just arrived from the grower or the baker right? Not so true. Be eary of this label on foods.

Here's an example. Chicken can be labeled fresh if it is kept at 26 degrees or lower. To me that says frozen chicken and does not necessarily mean that it was "just forzen." This is just one of those things you need to be aware of when shopping. Don't put too much value on fresh as it may not be as fresh as you think.

Whole Grains - what does this mean?

If you haven't figured it out, I'm kind of doing the label thing for the past few days, so you know what to be looking for on labels and what they mean.

Today I'm going to talk about whole grain. When you go into the store to buy bread, you want to buy bread that is labeled "100% whole wheat or whole grain." The breads to avoid are those that are labeled "made with whole grain." If you look at the label, you may see something like wheat flour - this product is not made with whole grain. It is processed grain, and actually lacks the wheat germ which is one of the most beneficial components of Whole Wheat.

There is also a difference in fiber between wheat flour and Whole wheat flour. Reading the labels can be very beneficial to your health.

Trans Fat Free

If the label says "Trans Fat Free" do you still need to read the label? In a word, Yes! The reason is that the product can contain partially hydrogenated oil. You can label the product as Trans Fat Free as long as a serving size has less than a half a gram of trans fat. Now if you routinely eat 2 servings of the product ( this may be as little as 2 teaspoons), you are getting more than half a gram.

I can't emphasize enough how very important it is to read the labels. You want products with no partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils in them.

Hormone Free or Antibiotic Free

When looking at labels, do you look for hormone free or antibiotic free? If you're looking for hormone free, you can stop when it comes to chicken or pork. A law was enacted in 1959 that chicken and pork had to be hormone free. Beef is and entirely different matter. You still need to read the labels for hormone free beef. Antibiotics are still used in all animals to stimulate growth. So you want to be looking at labels for "antibiotic free."

We tend to think of hormones and antibiotics just in terms of the meat. However, you should also be aware that milk can be coming from cows which have been injected with growth hormone to increase their milk production.

From a medical standpoint, we have no clear idea of the potential issues around eating foods that have have artificial hormones and antibiotics in them. One thing to ponder is that we have far more disease today than when these things were not available to enhance growth.

Is Natural the same as Organic?

I was confused at first with the labeling natural. What does that mean and is it the same as organic. The answer is, it is not the same as something labeled organic. A company who wants to use the natural food label does not have to go through the rigorous verification that a farmer who is growing organic food must go through.

Be sure to read the label thoroughly. You may be surprised to see partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients. If you don't remember the problems with these ingredients got back and read my post on October 13, 08. You also might want to review my posting on September 6, 08 about hydrogenated oil.

Remember that high fructose corn syrup is a chemically processed dextrose from corn. It isn't just pressed out of the corn.

My words are to use care and read the label of foods marked as "Natural."

Organic Foods - Should You or Shouldn't You

I have had many people ask me about organic foods and whether they should buy organic or not. How do they know that they are actually getting organically grown foods and what does organically grown actually mean.

Let's start with what is organic food. Foods that have an Organic label are foods that are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilizers, or any form of biotechnology (like irradiation which is used to kill bacteria). Organic meats come from animals which are fed only organic feed, and the animals are allowed free range in pastures and not confined in pens 100% of the time. The animals are also not given antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones.

Farmers who raise crops which are labeled as organic must go through a rigorous verification to be able to use the organic label.

One of the things that I do not is have organic fruits and vegetables delivered to my door by a company called Door to Door Organics. I've had a very positive experience with them and my husband and I love the fruits and vegetables that we get. If you are interested in learning more and if they are available in your city, just go to Door to Door Organics.

More on Corn

Yesterday should have put a little fear into you or at least made you think about eating corn and corn based products. How many of you cook with corn oil? Think about it.

There are some other diseases which are increased when a person is eating a mostly corn based diet. Some of these are osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, tooth decay, and anemia. If you look at the health of Native Americans prior to the arrival of Europeans in this country, they had far less disease when their food supply was gathering what was growing naturally on the land and hunting for food in the form of meat from animals. They developed much more disease once they changed their diet to a corn base diet.

Yesterday I mentioned that the high fructose corn syrup caused a high sugar spike. If that sugar is not used by the muscle fairly quickly through some form of exercise, then it is stored as fat.

What do you know about corn?

Have you seen the ad on TV on how High Fructose Corn Syrup is supposed to be good for you? Did you believe it?

If you did here are some things to think about. Corn is actually a grain. Like all grains, when eaten it converts to sugar very rapidly in the body, causing a high blood sugar spike. Diabetics might want to think before they eat corn or any corn based product. In a diabetic, corn can actually not only spike the blood sugar, but also make it stay up for a long period of time.

High blood sugar levels can actually cause damage in the blood vessel walls. The body's normal mechanism to fix these cell walls is to utilize cholesterol. While cholesterol is part of this healing process, it also causes a narrowing of the blood vessel because it actually builds up plaque. Then we end up with heart attacks and strokes.

That's enough for you to think about today. More on this tomorrow.

Travel and MMS

While I'm on my Miracle Mineral Solution kick, I'll tell you about one other person that MMS has helped. She is a nursing friend of mine and her daughter lives in South Africa. She was going over to visit and she was concerned because their water is not the best over there and it is difficult to get bottled water. In addition, the long flight always leaves her sick for several days after she gets there and then again for a week when she gets home.

I started her on the MMS about 6 weeks before her trip. She arrived in South Africa feeling great and felt well the entire time that she was there. This meant she really enjoyed her new grandbaby! Coming home she missed a flight in London and ended up with a very long layover and being delayed almost 24 hours getting home. The MMS came through for her and kept her well so that she was able to return to work after only being home for 2 days. Something that had never happened for her before.

Colds, Flu and MMS

As I mentioned yesterday, the wife of the guy with shingles had spoken with me at length about the Miracle Mineral Solution. We discussed some of the other uses and how it was discovered. Dr. John Gray actually introduced me to it at the time that the news media was raving about how bad the bird flu was going to be. John told me to have some on hand and if I started to get symptoms to immediately start the MMS.

I told this to the physical therapist and one night her kids were sniffling and stuffy and both coming down with colds. So she decided to test it out, giving each of them 2 drops of MMS before they went to bed. When they got up in the morning, all of their symptoms were gone. She is definitely a believer now!

Shinges and MMS

My husband works next to a physical therapy area and the physical therapist was telling him that her husband had been diagnosed with shinges and the doctor had just sent him home with nothing and that he was having a great deal of pain. My husband referred her to me. I wasn't sure that Miracle Mineral Solution would do anything for his shingles, but I knew that it would not hurt. So we started him right away.

His pain decreased right away and the rash instead of continuing to break out stopped and started to dry up. He is definitely a believer and feels that the MMS kept him from having a long drawn out illness.

More tomorrow about how his wife used the MMS.

Peripheral Neuropathy

I have a very good friend that I diagnosed peripheral neuropathy in a number of years ago. She has a lot of pain in her feet and has been put on some pretty hefty medications to help her with this. She also has some arthritis in her hands and when she saw how well I was doing this spring, she asked what I was doing. I told her about MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution).

She got some and I saw her after she had been on just one drop a day for a week. She told me her arthritis was not better. However, the pain in her feet was about 90% gone and she asked me what should I tell my doctor. I told her he would likely not understand and the best thing was to have him contact me and I would talk with him from a scientific basis. Not surprising, he never called. My friend is still doing very well, using less of the prescription medicine and her pain is continuing to be controlled.

Miracle Mineral Solution

Yesterday I mentioned Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS). This is a very inexpensive product that has many uses. As I said yesterday, I use it for arthritis pain. I ring hand bells - in case you don't know what these are, there is a picture to the left.

Miracle Mineral Solution has been an incredible discovery for me personally. Prior to finding this, I used to have to wear braces on my wrists and by the end of concert season in December and May, I could hardly pick up a bell at all. Not true any more!! In fact I don't always wear my braces now and last summer I had the opportunity to play at the International Hand Bell Festival in Orlando. We rang some days for 7-8 hours. That is a lot of ringing. I did have the MMS with me there and took it every day. Still no pain and I never had to wear my braces. This is truly an amazing product.

The great news is that it is not just for pain. I will tell you that acute pain - something that is fairly new resolves much more quickly than chronic pain. It took about a month or so to get resolution with my arthritis pain. If you have questions about MMS, please email me. I will be happy to help you and give you more information.

Acute Finger Injury

While I was away last week, I injured my ring and middle fingers. They were both very swollen and sore. Because of where I was, I did not have something with me that would quickly assist with the healing. So by Friday, when I did get home, they were both still very swollen, stiff and sore. So I immediately got back on my Miracle Mineral Solution. I routinely use this for arthritis pain in my wrists, hands and feet, but did not have it for the 5 days I was gone.

I restarted it on Friday evening and today, my fingers are almost completely back to normal with no more pain and the swelling is minimal. I had forgotten how well the Miracle Mineral Solution works!! More about this great product tomorrow.

Ear Infections and Flying

I got a phone call yesterday from someone asking about her son flying with an ear infection. Here's my advice on that one. If you have an ear infection you should be taking a decongestant for at least 24 hours before you fly. This will help take the congestion out of the eustachian tube so that when you take off your ear doesn't plug up. You can use any of the over the counter decongestants, just follow the instructions on the label.

If you have an infection, this should be diagnosed by a physician, who is treating you with antibiotics. Ear pain does not necessarily mean you have an infection. Get it looked at.

When you fly, ask the stewardess for 2 cups with a hot wet paper towel in each. As the plane takes off, hold these up to your ears. This will alleviate some of the discomfort of the take off. Do the same for the landing. You make look a little silly and feel a little funny holding the cups to your ears, but it is way better than the pain associated with the assent and descent. Cabin pressures are set to about 5,000 feet, so if you're landing in Denver, it will be less painful because your ears are used to that pressure. However if you're landing in Houston or somewhere that is sea level, the pressure will be intensified.

It would be best if you didn't have to fly, but sometimes that is not an option. Things that can occur are what we call barotrauma to the ear drums from the pressures outside versus the inside pressure behind the drum. This may lead to scarring and decreased hearing later in life. You can also suffer a rupture of the drum, in which case the pain will be instantly relieved. the bad news is that you will lose your hearing for awhile in that ear depending upon the size of the rupture. Ruptures heal, again leaving some scar tissue which can impair the hearing in the affected ear.

Swelling and Airline Travel

I just got back from a trip to California where I was doing way more physical activity than I usually do. The plane ride back was not a direct flight, so had a short layover and a connecting flight. I was also excessively tired, running on about 3 hours of sleep. As a consequence, I slept on the flights. This was not a bad thing, except that I did not move much for the 4 hours while I was flying. This means no exercising or moving of my legs. The result when I landed in Denver was excessive swelling of my feet, ankles, and lower legs.

This is a perfect set up for a blood clot to form. How I could have prevented this was every 20 minutes or so pulling my toes upward toward my shin and then pointing my toes about 10 times in each direction. When you are awake on the plane you may not be doing these exercises, but you may be moving your legs. You will find that when you do these simple exercises you can prevent the excessive swelling in the lower extremities and help prevent a blood clot from forming.

When I got home, I immediately elevated my feet above the level of my heart to help get the swelling down.

Sources of Potassium

Here is a short list of foods that actually contain more potassium than bananas.
Sweet potato, potatoes, plain yogurt, prune juice, yellow fin tuna, clams, winter squash and cod. My favorite though is black strap molasses which actually contains quite a bit more potassium than bananas. If you are a calorie counter, this will help you see. 1 Tablespoon of black strap molasses is 47 calories and contains 498mg of Potassium. 1 medium banana is 105 calories and 419mg of Potassium. A sweet potato is 131 calories and contains 694mg of Potassium.

So there are other sources of potassium and most vegetables contain potassium. So eat your vegetables and be a little wary about eating bananas.

Bananas

I was speaking with a diabetic recently who was telling me that the only fruit she eats is bananas. Of course her next comment was because they are high in potassium. What most people don't realize is that there are better sources of potassium than bananas.

The thing to understand about bananas is that they are a starch. Starch gets converted in your body directly to glucose (sugar). The process in the body is one that the sugar is not easily broken down and causes the blood sugar to stay elevated in diabetics for several hours. So I usually advise my diabetics to pick other fruits than bananas.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Milk

A bit more on conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in milk and beef and it's properties. I talked yesterday about building muscle and decrease abdominal fat. CLA also boosts the immune system to help us fight off disease. CLA is a polyunsaturated Omega 6 fatty acid.

In addition, CLA tends to lower food allergies. This can be very beneficial especially since we are seeing more and more food allergies these days.

Sources of CLA

I've mentioned that beef is one of the main sources of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). The problem being that in order for cows to produce CLA they need to be grass fed. Hay and silage fed cows do not produce as much CLA. Other grass fed ruminants such as sheep, goats, deer, antelope and buffalo also produce higher levels of CLA.

Another source of CLA is eggs, but they should be coming from free range chickens.

Because most of food supply is not free range animals these days, supplementation is often necessary for us to get good amounts of CLA. I've found a great source for the supplement CLA, just click here.

Hydrogenated Fat and Heart Disease

I found an interesting fact when reading up on hydrongenated fat. I've mentioned before that you should avoid foods with hydrongenated oils or fats. This is not an easy feat, as most of our foods today contain these. Why? Because they increase the shelf life of the food.

Here's the interesting fact, before 1911 when crisco was developed - hydrogenated cottonseed oil - very few people died of heart disease. One has to know that we have been the cause of our own demise. Read labels when you go to the store. It is difficult to find anything that does not have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in it.

Goat's Milk

Laurie asked about Goat's milk and CLA. Yes, Goat's milk does contain CLA as long as the goats like cows are fed grass. The chemistry is that part of the grass is transformed in the ruminants stomach (for those who may not remember, ruminants have several stomachs.) So the key ingredients for CLA and ruminant's digestion fo grass.

This is one reason it is important to eat free range beef, lamb or mutton. We as humans are able to eat the meat of these animals and obtain the CLA we require.

If you think about this, wild game is obviously the best. Makes me feel a whole lot better remembering that I was raised on wild game. But then, when I was young, the cattle were all free range.

Milk and CLA

CLA is conjugated linoleic acid. Raw milk contains this if the cows have been feeding on grass. So why is it important?

One of the things that CLA does for us is to help us build muscle. Most of the beef and milk that you buy these days comes from beef that are raised in pens and fed specific feed. If you look at the pens, there is not a blade of grass to be found. So the beef that we buy does not contain CLA or very little, and we are becoming CLA deficient.

In addition to helping us build strong muscle, CLA helps remove abdominal fat. You will sometimes see it advertised as a weight loss supplement. While it does help decrease abdominal fat, you won't see huge drops in weight by taking it. What you will see is loss of inches. CLA also helps increase the metabolic rate which will assist in weight loss also. These two assests in turn help the body utilize insulin more efficiently and you will see a decrease in insulin resistance.

Milk and Vitamin D

Vitamin D is essential for you to actually absorb calcium and assimilate it into bone. That is why you see milk fortified with Vitamin D. I won't get into all of the physiologic components here, but there are several components to vitamin D which are required to process calcium into our bones.

The natural source of vitamin D are fish, egg yolks and liver. These are usually not in everyone's diet on a regular basis. Supplementation is helpful to ensure that you get vitamin D to help with the processing of calcium in the body.

You may recall from your health class that Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin. This occurs naturally through the skin. It only takes about 20 minutes of sun exposure to produce enough Vitamin D. Remember, if you live in a cold climate and you are bundled up in the winter time, you may not get the 20 minutes of exposure. Also if you have darker skin ( more melanin pigment in the skin), you will need more than 20 minutes.

Raw Milk and Lactase

Thank you for the question about raw milk and lactase. Raw milk - that is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized - does contain bacteria and enzymes, lactase being one of them. More importantly, the bacteria in raw milk produces lactase which breaks down the lactose. This is why lactose intolerant individuals can drink raw milk. It is also why raw milk is better for our body in that it contains enzymes which help the body digest it and get the nutrients the body needs.

Why Milk?

Here is another thought on milk for you to ponder. Why do we drink milk as adults? Yes it is a good thing, but the main reason that most of us give for drinking milk is that it is a great source of calcium. Actually this is not true. There are better sources of calcium such as black strap molasses which contains other important minerals as well. Two Tablespoons of molasses gives you more absorbable calcium than 1 cup of milk. Also, remember form yesterday, what pasteurization does to calcium.

The best source of calcium is Tofu.

If you think about the animal world, once an animal is weaned, they don't drink milk. Of course they will if we give it to them, but the rest of the animal world gets along just fine without it after weaning. One thing to consider is that drinking milk is far better than drinking a carbonated soft drink!

Raw Milk - Raw Deal?

I just read an article about raw milk and the FDA saying that there are "dangerous pathogens" in raw milk. I grew up on raw milk from the farm. Although I wasn't raised on the farm, we used to drive out to the country and get milk from the farm twice a week. Sometimes it was so fresh it was still warm when we got it.

So why do we "have to have pasteurized milk?" If you look at what pasteurization does, it actually makes milk more difficult to digest. Specifically we usually hear about drinking milk so we can "get our calcium" so we don't develop osteoporosis. The pasteurization process renders calcium more difficult for the body to absorb. That's helpful don't you think?

Another thought here is, those who are lactose intolerant can actually drink raw milk. Pasteurization breaks down lactase. Lactase is an enzyme that helps digest the milk sugar lactose. So if lactase is broken down it is not there to help with the digestion and lactose intolerant individuals will have difficulty with the milk. Raw milk still contains lactase and assists in the digestion of the lactose, thereby allowing lactose intolerant individuals to drink it.

Ciliac and Gluten

Most of us are familiar with the fact that those who have ciliac disease have an allergy to gluten. Once gluten is removed from the diet these individuals do quite well. What many people do not know is that you can actually have a gluten sensitivity without having ciliac disease.

Many of the symptoms are the same and you can feel much better if you avoid gluten.

Most of us know that gluten is found in wheat. Rye and barley are two of the other big gluten grains to avoid. There is controversy over oats and it may be that oats are actually gluten free, but become contaminated in processing.

Lupus and Soy

In extensive studies actually looking at some of the components of alfalfa, there is a chemical found in alfalfa that is also found in soy beans. So soy products can exacerabate Lupus symptoms. Here is where reading labels can be vital to helping the person with lupus avoid symptoms.

I really didn't talk about what Lupus was yesterday. Lupus is often labeled as a collagen disease. The underlying factor is that it is also an autoimmune disease in which the immune system begins to attack one's own body tissues.

The disease tends to have dire consequences when the heart and/or kidneys come under attack.

Lupus and Diet

I've had several questions over the past couple weeks about Lupus and diet, so thought I would take a few moments to address some of these.

There are studies that show a link between gluten containing grains, like wheat, rye, barley and oats, being a factor in lupus. People who were diagnosed and treated for lupus got much better when gluten was removed from their diet. While they may not have a full gluten allergy, there seems to be a gluten sensitivity.

More on this tomorrow.

Water

I'm on the road to northern Wisconsin to see my 93 year old mother. Obviously she has done some things right to still be with us. She is a cancer survivor but she never saw the disease as being a big part of her life - she just went on.

So how does this relate to water. She spent most of her later years from 65 - 85 living at a cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin. The cabin is basically 2 rooms and has it's own well. No chlorine or fluoride in that water. My husband asked about taking water along on the trip and I said yes to get us to the cabin and then we can drink that totally untreated water!

I'll be missing tomorrow as we will be traveling some more and it will be our arrival day, but I will be back with you on Thursday.

Water and Chlorine

Yesterday I mentioned Fluoride and it's affect. Today I'm going to mention a little about Chlorine. There is controversy as to it's affect on the thyroid, but chemically, it is similar to Fluoride and so may also compete and block thyroid function.

More importantly for women is the fact that women who drink chlorinated water tend to have higher serum cholesterol levels. While men have also have a rise in serum cholesterol when drinking chlorinated water, it is less than in women.

Yet another reason for us to be drinking purified water!

Water Fluoridation and Thyroid

I mentioned recently that the best thing to drink is purified water. I realized that I really didn't tell you why purified water is so important. The problem with regular tap water is that it contains fluoride and chlorine. Fluoride competes with thyroid hormones and blocks the function of the thyroid gland.

The studies done regarding fluoridation of water were conducted in the 1940s and are very questionable as to the scientific information purported in these studies. Supposedly, fluoridation was to help decrease tooth decay in children, but that has not been shown to be effective from just drinking fluoridated water. What we have seen in the last 50 years in a dramatic increase in thyroid disease which can be directly linked to the fluoridation in water.

Another word of caution about fluorides, they are also found in toothpastes and mouth washes, so use these with caution that you may be affecting you thyroid gland.

Disease and Omega 3

More and more research is being done on the effect of omega 3 and many diseases. Most of us are aware of omega 3 and coronary artery disease. The thing that intrigues me the most is the link between omega 3 and brain and psychiatric disorders, especially ADHD and autism.

When I was in training, it was rare to see a child with autism and there was no such thing as ADHD. So what's happened in the last 40 years? We are eating more processed food which means less omega 3 and more omega 6. There are new studies out now that indicate that children with these disorders who are given more omega 3 show less symptoms of ADHD and autism.

The old adage that we are what we eat may well becoming true in yet another arena.

Getting Omega 3 in Your Diet

So how do we get more omega 3 in our diet? One of the best sources is fish, like salmon (wild salmon is best), herring, mackerel, and sardines. Tuna also contains omega 3, but less than the other fish mentioned. Another excellent source of omega 3 is flax. You can add fresh ground flax to your smoothie to increase your omega 3.

Word of caution about flax. To be it's best, you should not buy ground flax as it needs to be refrigerated once it is ground. If not it will spoil quickly. Flax seed that you grind and add to a smoothie or shake type drink will help to counteract the bad effects of processed foods which give us way too much omega 6.

Omega Three

One can't talk about fats without talking about the omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. The American public gets way more than they need of the omega 6 fatty acids and usually way less of the omega 3. So what's the difference?

Omega 3 includes linolenic acid which I mentioned the other day. The ones that you may be most familiar with are EPA and DHA. I won't confuse you with the scientific name, because many of you have probably heard of EPA and DHA. There are other fatty acids included in the group, but these are the main ones.

Omega 6 are fatty acids that are found in most of what we eat today. In fact the ratios are that we get 10 times more Omega 6 than Omega 3 and that the Omega 6 may block the good effects of Omega 3.

Essential Fatty Acids

There are 2 essential fatty acids that you may be aware of, linoleic and linolenic. Your body requires 2% of your caloric intake to be linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated fat, so you might think it's a good idea to load up on the polyunsaturated fats. Not true. Eating more than 10% of your calories in polyunsaturated fats can result in the suppression the production of good cholesterol.

Linoleic acid is the most important fatty acid and your body cannot produce it on it's own. The body requires you to get it from foods that you eat. Best foods to eat for linoleic acid are nuts, seeds and some vegetable oils. Watch the vegetable oils for hydrogenation.

Linoleic acid is important for growth and development as well as producing hormones that can help the body maintain a good blood pressure.

More on Good Fat and Bad Fat

Let's talk a little about good fats. Best fat is coconut oil. Get unrefined, virgin, organic coconut oil. Yes, it is a saturated fat, but it is easy for the liver to break down into usable cholesterol for the cell membrane. It will spoil if you leave it for a period of time after you have opened it.

Another good fat/oil is olive oil. Similar to coconut oil, you want the extra virgin olive oil. The reason is that virgin or extra virgin oils may not contain any processed oils. Extra virgin means that the olives were cold processed, so the oils extracted have not been exposed to heat.

Smart Balance is one of the buttery type spreads that does not contain hydrogenated oils. There are some others out there, but you will need to read the label. If they contain hydrogenated oils, find something else.

Good Fat, Bad Fat continued

Yesterday I was talking about hydrogenation of fat. What forms when a fat is hydrogenated in trans fatty acids, which are chemically altered or processed fats. These trans fatty acids are the ones that increase are cholesterol to higher levels of the bad cholesterol while lowering our good cholesterol.

So why do manufacturers do this? Because it extends the shelf life of the product. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to find any foods today on the grocery shelf that do not have hydrogenated fat in them. I know there are labels on foods out there that say "No trans fatty acids." Well they may not contain trans fatty acids, just like margarine doesn't contain cholesterol, but we also know they were made with fats that have been hydrogenated to preserve the food. It is almost impossible today, in fact I would say it is impossible today to buy a loaf of bread at the store that does not contain hydrogenated oil. Makes you want to get a bread machine and make your own.

Before you go out for the bread machine, look in your cupboard. What kind of oil do you have there? Do you have margarine or butter in your refrigerator?

Good Fat Bad Fat

I think we're all aware of the fact that there are good fats and bad fats out there. I always laugh when I go by the butter and margarine dairy case at the store. All of the margarine containers say in big letters "No Cholesterol." Of course if you look at the fat content, well there you have it. Fat converts into cholesterol which is in every cell membrane. In fact it is an essential part of the member and required in order for the cell membrane to function properly.

Yes we do need some fat in our diet. Women require more than men. There are a few things about fat that you should be aware of when you're reading labels at the grocery store. First is to avoid any product that has hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in it.

Hydrogenation is the process where a normally unsaturated fat such as corn oil is heated to a high temperature and pressure processed. What this does is make the fat in a more solid form at room temperature. Or as the margarine ads say, it's a soft spread.

More on this tomorrow.

Cholesterol continued

I'm still digging to find the original research, but I did find one of the statistics on the issue of increased cancer risk when taking Vytorin. The report gives the statistic of 106 cases of new cancer in the drug treatment group and 67 cases of new cancer in the group who did not receive any active drug.

There is argument out there that this drug could not be responsible in such a short period as three years. But I ask, what if it is responsible? I would not want my loved ones taking this drug.

More on the cholesterol story

After yesterday's post, I just received some information about Vytorin and it's relationship to an increase in cancer risk. I have not seen any hard data here, but I will look for it to see what is out there and let you know what I find.

Today's words of caution are, if you are on Vytorin and are not feeling well, get to your doctor and possibly stop taking the medication. It's not OK for you to feel ill, have muscle aches and pains while on these types of medications. These are potentially serious side effects that may affect your future health.

This is just more proof that children should not be put on these medications. Let's find out what they really do before we start giving them to our children.

Cholesterol

More on the cholesterol scene. The slick ads on the TV are to get you to purchase a product. Or as the pharmaceutical ads say, "ask your Doctor if this drug may be right for you." I have seen many patients since these ads started who come to the office purely to see if they need to be on the drug. Some patients actually get angry when I have told them no. As a scientist, I look at the research on the drugs to see what the actually numbers are. You and I both know that you can make statistics say whatever you want. The statistics may say that there is a significant difference, but when you actually look at the numbers, it may not be the picture that you think.

The example is Vytorin, a cholesterol drug. Looking at the numbers, I wouldn't say that this drug is any better than some other cholesterol drugs that are out there. If fact, it may not work as well. So why do the drug companies put these ads on TV? They are looking to you the public to ask the doctors to switch you to the latest and greatest drug, which, oh by the way, is going to cost you more and make more money for the drug company.

Be cautious of the TV ads for any drug. My premise has always been that the less medicine you are on the better for you. Yes, sometimes you do need medicines, but not always.

Cholesterol and Children

Recently there was an item in the news about how children were developing high cholesterol and should be treated with statin drugs. This is basically a push from the drug companies to sell more drugs. Drugs that have not been tested in children and are not recommended for children.

Look at the underlying problem here. It is not the high cholesterol. The problem is the increasing obesity in this country. Children are not the only ones, but the drug manufacturers already have the drugs for adults. Now they need a new place to market, so they have chosen the children.

For more on this topic, click here.

One more thing on sodas

Since school is starting, I wanted to give you some thoughts about what alternatives you can offer your children. If your kids are just starting school, you are in the prime educating and modeling phase. If your kids are older and have already developed the soda habit you may face bigger challenges. Remember that teenagers feel invincible, so they may not relate to the medical issues that will face them in the future if they continue drinking sodas. The first step with teens is to get them to cut back on the amount. Have them try some of the things I mentioned in the last entry.

One thing to remember is that kids are looking for energy, perhaps not consciously, but their bodies are craving energy that they are using to grow. One basic food to help them get some of the nutrients they need to grow is fruit. Fruit serves a couple of purposes, one being giving them some good nutrition, but also the natural sweetness in fruit gives them the sweet fix. You too may want to try this to meet your sugar craving.

There is a site specifically for healthy snacks for teens. Check it out for some great suggestions.