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.