Chocoholic Special

Women, listen up!

If you want to eat your chocolate, please do it in this manner.  For starters, when you get a bar of chocolate take one square set it on your now salivating tongue and allow the piece of chocolate to marinate in your mouth until it is fully dissolved.  At no time should the chocolate touch your teeth.  Allowing the chocolate to slowly dissolve in your mouth gives you the physical and emotional bang without the calorie bang that occurs with chewing chocolate like it is a piece of meat.  In short, you can get your daily chocolate and continue to wear the same size jeans.

As a caveat, let me preface the above and below comments on chocolate by saying that I am referring to chocolate that is dark (72% or greater).

While you are allowing the cube of dark chocolate to tantalize you taste buds, you can remind yourself of all the goodness that is dark chocolate.   Dark chocolate when consumed with antibiotics can potentate their effect and actually decrease bacterial resistance. This is just plain outstanding considering one of the major problems with current antibiotic overuse and misuse is that we are growing super bugs that the average antibiotic can’t touch.  This super-bug craziness will be spoken of in future blogs.

Now, let’s really get that chocolate smile going.   Cocoa is loaded with flavonols which prevent fat-like substances in the bloodstream from oxidizing and clogging up the arteries.   Oxidation within the blood vessels is what makes high cholesterol problematic.  Chocolate also can act like low-dose aspirin in that it promotes healthy blood flow by decreasing platelet adhesion, which can reduce a persons risk of stroke and heart attack.

Wow, you ladies are getting really excited!  Let us continue, a specific amino acid in chocolate called tryptophan decreases anxiety by producing the neurotransmitter serotonin.  Then of course there are the endorphins which chocolate causes the body to release, which give you that “ahhhh” feeling and decrease pain in people with chronic pain syndromes.

Now to make sure you get the best chocolate.  You need to look for dark chocolate that is at least 72% cocoa or greater and it must be ORGANIC.  Chocolate like coffee must be organic otherwise it is fully contaminated with all manner of pesticide.  To make this organic recommendation more convincing, think about the following.  Non-organic chocolate is laced with methyl bromide, pyrethrins, hydrogen cyanide, naled and glyphosate.  I mean, who really wants to put that stuff in their body.  These substances are related to cancer, kidney and liver damage, reproductive abnormalities, genetic damage and neurolgical impairment.

Yep, I think I will stick with one cube of organic, 72%+ dark chocolate marinated slowly on the tongue.

Cell Phones and You

It has been proposed for some time that cell phones may not exactly be the best thing for human beings. Perhaps the greatest problem facing researchers is the fact that cell phone use has only been rampant for about 15 years, so the long term effects are mostly unknown. Before reading further, let me inform you that this is not a fear post but is meant to educate you and enable you to create habits and daily practices that will bring the most benefit to your health.

For starters, at no point should your cell phone be worn on you like another piece of clothing. Unfortunately, technology gurus have not been able to develop a cell phone made purely of cotton. Wearing a cell phone on your body, can drain your energy, adversely effect your glands and decrease bone density. A study just published, conclusively demonstrated the effect of cell phone radiation on bone density. One Hundred and Fifty men who regularly carried their cell phone on their belt showed a decrease in bone mineral density on the side that they wore their cell phone. This was done over a six year period. What is really alarming is that the average age of the participants in the study was 32, when a man’s bone mineral density should be at its best.

I could finish this blog post by just saying, use the speaker phone on your cell phone, don’t let your children use a cell phone and don’t wear a cell phone like you wear your underwear. However, if I don’t actually tell you the consequences, most everyone who reads this will continue in their natural pattern of cell phone use. So, I must inform you.

What we currently know about chronic cell phone use.

• There is a 300% increase in the incidence of genetic damage when human blood cells are exposed to cellular radiation.
• Cell phone use is very much associated with a significant increase in the risk of brain tumors on the side the phone is held the most.
• Using a cell phone regularly for greater than six years increases ones risk by 60% of acoustic neuroma, a tumor effecting the nerves that control hearing.
• The radiation from cell phones also has a significant undesirable effect for men’s sperm count, quality of sperm and their motility.  So, recycling your cell phone may be the first step in becoming more productive.

The breadth of the damage caused by cell phones will take many years to truly grasp. This is exactly why I am telling you NOW! This way you can be on the good side of the statistics. I mean who really wants to hear that they have a 60% increased chance of any disease.

If you take nothing else away from this cellular note, please take the following. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILDREN TO USE CELL PHONES, EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF EMERGENCY!

This is why: Children have thinner skull bones, which enables deeper penetration of cellular radiation. A child’s cells reproduce at a much higher rate than yours do, making them more susceptible to aggressive tumor growth. Finally, their immune systems are not fully developed making them much more prone to autoimmune disease induced by the cellular radiation.

Can you say “land line?”

Coffee is Two Faced

Coffee will smile at you now and slam you later if you do not control it. Coffee is one of those ingest-able items that must be taken with moderation.

Coffee acts as a double edged sword. It is loaded with antioxidants and gives focus when you have none. At 1/2 to 1 cup daily I think it is completely fine and will actually give you some modest health benefits. However, that is straight black coffee without all the pleasant to the taste buds but not so pleasant to the rest of the body additions. Seriously, I think the additions may be the real culprit in giving coffee its bad name amongst many health enthusiasts. Coffee by itself already can cause wide swings in blood sugar. Now add in the sweeteners and you have a recipe for disaster and the reason most people need another pick me up later on. If your blood sugar readings aren’t consistently between 80-90, then I would cut the additions IMMEDIATELY and think hard about decreasing your coffee intake until your numbers are back in line.

This raises another question, which is, why do you drink coffee? Do you actually feel like you need coffee for energy and wakefulness or are you drinking it because you heard of the health benefits and wanted to optimize your health? If you feel like you need coffee to wake up in the morning or to stay energized in the afternoon then we have a problem. Coffee revs up your sympathetic nervous system which increases your alertness and gives you the awake feeling. This is great for studying every once in a while. But, if you are currently in a place of fatigue then coffee is only going to push you deeper into it. Yes, it feels like it is helping but the coffee is only a very tiny band-aid. If this process continues in which, you drink coffee to prop yourself up for the day, eventually you will get to a place where you are diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia and your body will be completely deplete of growth factors. This is not a happy place! It also takes a long time to work out of it. Not to mention, the coffee stops working for you to.c

Caffeinated tea is a great option for those trying to decrease coffee consumption but still want a hot drink with the added benefit of wakefulness. Green Tea and Black Tea are loaded with caffeine. However, the way caffeine is naturally packaged in green tea leads to a much slower physical reaction. This is because the caffeine is released over a much longer period than with coffee. Think of green tea as taking in drips of caffeine over a 4 hour period and coffee as putting a fire hose in your mouth. Green tea is also loaded with benefits ranging from anti-cancer to aiding in weight loss.

“Put down the fire hose. I repeat, put down the fire hose.” And slowly pick up that cup of green tea.

Homicide free Produce

Some things to think about as you read.

• A homicide is the act of killing another human being.
• Pesticides are used to kill pests.
• Herbicides are used to kill plants.
• Fungicides are used to kill fungus.
• Antibiotics are used to kill bacteria.

Now the question I would like you to ponder. If life produces more life, at what point would you want to ingest things that are created specifically to kill other living things. As far as I can tell farmers are not spraying their fields with “homicides” just yet, however, most of us are consuming them three to five meals a day.

The fact is organic fruits and vegetables taste better and fresher. So, if the average person were given the choice between an organic and non-organic piece of produce they would probably choose the organic one. I can’t say this would occur 100% of the time because there are always the outliers who will on purpose do the opposite of what wisdom would recommend. It is also a fact that organic produce costs on average 20% more than non-organic. This seems to be the number one reason people stick with “homicides.” Guess what, I have a remedy for this difference in price.

Instead of buying your family or yourself boxed highly processed cereal for breakfast, buy bulk organic steel cut oats or rolled oats. An average box of cereal costs $4.50 a pound. Organic steel cut oats cost less than a $1.30 a pound. Consider the not enough money excuse eliminated!

Below are the 12 most pesticide laden Fruits and Vegetables on the market. It is highly recommended that you buy these organic or grow them yourself. Number one is the worst.

1) Peaches
2) Apples
3) Sweet Bell Peppers
4) Celery
5) Nectarines
6) Strawberries
7) Cherries
Kale
9) Lettuce
10) Grapes – Imported from outside U.S.
11) Carrots
12) Pears

Look for the USDA certified Organic seal because the word organic can be used to promote food products that are only 70% organic.

You can check out the Environmental Working Group for more information.

Weight loss- Get a Jump on the New Year

In about a month all across this fine country people are going to start making special plans to lose weight and get fit. Unfortunately, 99.9% of those who have these thoughts will fail to reach their goals. Does it have to be this way? I guess the real question is, do you have to eat that pastry? Do you have to have two helpings? Is it really that painful to go for a walk? Do you want to live out the full number of your days or die out early? I know this sounds pretty confronting and may even hurt some peoples feelings but why? You walk around in the finest suit on the planet. Your body is so magnificent. The intricacies of your body are light years beyond today’s science.

Use it, see what you can get it to do. Did you know your body can run, jump rope, skip, squat, twist, swim, dance, ride a bike, walk on its hands and do flips?

Love your body!!!! You only get one and though some people do get organ transplants, trust me on this one you would rather not have to do that.

I understand, the taste buds are very convincing, the couch is comfortable and the TV is enticing. But lets be serious can you genuinely tell me, you would rather spend the first quarter of your life listening to your couch, watching TV or surfing the internet and eating without a thought of what it is doing to you internally, while spending the last three quarters seeing doctors, being diagnosed with diseases, and looking forward to your next blood test.

I want to inform you of one thing, this year could be totally different. News FLASH, you don’t have to wait until January 1, 2010. You can actually start this very second! You don’t need to read a book, talk to your doctor or devise an elaborate plan (not that these are bad).

Are you ready? This is all you need. When you go to the grocery store, walk straight to the produce area and refuse to go down the middle aisles. Yes, I said refuse! If you don’t go down the aisle it makes it very difficult to buy it. If you don’t buy it, it won’t be sitting in your cupboard and if it’s not in your cupboard, it makes it very difficult to get it into your tummy. When it comes to activity, all you need to do is do more today then you did yesterday and do this everyday. So if you walked from the fridge to the couch 10 times yesterday, then today you need to either walk 11 times or better yet you could take a lap around your house instead of to the fridge.

I dare you to go 1 week without walking down the middle aisles of the grocery store and simply stay on the exterior. If you take the dare please inform me how it went for you. Step out of your comfort zone today, so you can live in comfort tomorrow.

To Coffee or not to Coffee

Everybody always asks, “What about COFFEE?”  So here it is.  I am not stating any specific opinions on coffee, just putting the facts that are backed by research out there.

If you want to know all that is amazing about coffee, only read the top set of points.  However, if you are a whole story kind of person then you must carry on through to the second set of points.  Okay, deep breath and here we go.

Possible benefits of a Cup of Joe

• Stimulates your central nervous system, so you are more alert.
• Stimulates acid secretion in the stomach.  This can be help increase your digestive capabilities.
• Relaxes blood vessels in your brain, which allow for greater flow of nutrients to that special bit of nervous tissue sitting at the top of you.
• Relaxes the bronchial muscles in your lungs.
• Stimulates catecholamine release (this is why you feel like you could all of a sudden run for a mile post caffeinated beverage).
• Decreases clotting in your blood vessels and actually break  up clots.
• May improve insulin sensitivity and seems to overall decrease the risk of diabetes.  This is only true in those with already normal blood glucose and who are not overweight.  Otherwise you get the opposite effect, sorry.
• Decreases your risk of gout.
• Decreases symptoms of Parkinson’s disease once a person has symptoms.
• Seems to lower gallstone risk, due to coffees ability to stimulate the gallbladder.
• Coffee enemas are used to detoxify the liver and in many cancer protocols with impressive results.

Possible detractors of a Cup of Joe

• Increases your heart rate
• Increases your blood pressure, this can be a problem if you  currently have high blood pressure or a family history of high blood pressure.
• Unfiltered coffee such as comes to you via espresso can raise your triglycerides and cholesterol
• Chlorogenic acid another substance found in coffee can also raise homocysteine levels, which is a major inflammatory marker found
• Increases acidity of body
• Drinking 5 cups or more daily, increases ones risk of a heart attack
• Increases intraocular (with the eye) pressure with 30 minutes of digestion
• Increases risk for pancreatic cancer in those who already have risk factors
• Coffee is associated with fibrocystic breast conditions and endometriosis.  However, there are a lot of conflicting reports and it is by no mean the number one suspect.
• Drinking 3 or more cups daily increases your risk of H. pylori infection.  H. pylori is the most common cause of peptic ulcers.
• Drinking 2 cups of coffee significantly increases the risk of miscarriage.
• Coffee increases urinary excretion of calcium and increases the risk of osteoporosis if you are not doing something to replete the calcium being lost.

So, how does all this apply to you the individual person?  I will tell all very shortly.

A quickie on when to use oils

How to use oils

For baking: Coconut, palm, canola and high oleic safflower and sunflower oil work best.
For frying: Because they stand up well to the heat, avocado, peanut, palm and sesame oil are ideal for frying.
For sautéing: Many oils are great for sautéing, including avocado, canola, coconut, grapeseed, olive, sesame and high oleic safflower and sunflower oils.
For dipping, dressings and marinades: When it comes to making dressings and marinades, or finding oil that’s perfect to serve alongside crusty bread for dipping, you’re looking for terrific flavor. For this purpose look to flax, olive, peanut, toasted sesame or walnut oil.

Artificial Sweeteners

Yes, I said ARTIFICIAL sweeteners! Any time you see artificial in front of something you are about to put into your non artificial body, my recommendation would be to run screaming from the table. Whether it is margarine, diet coke or sugar-free gum, if it is created in a lab to induce an artificial physical or mental response you don’t want it.
Some common artificial sweeteners that now overwhelm our diet are aspartame, sucralose and saccharin.

If you are one of those unfortunate people who was sold on the idea that you can induce a pleasure response by ingesting sugar-free soda, without any of the consequences associated with having too much sugar, I am sorry. I know a lot of people who have switched to diet soda as a way to lose weight. The ugly truth is artificial really is artificial. Research has conclusively demonstrated that people who drink diet or sugar-free soda are at a 30-50% great risk of becoming obese. FYI: Saccharin is implicated in bladder cancer.

Think about this, Aspartame, also known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think food is sweet. This actually leads to increased cravings and bingeing on simple carbohydrates, as well as appetites that are out of control. The brain upon receiving the sweet signal sends information to the rest of the body that glucose is coming to the tissues. However, no REAL sugar has been ingested. The tissues then send signals back to the brain saying, “we never received any glucose.” So what does the brain do? It sends out a hormonal response to stimulate appetite and fat storage because it now thinks the tissues are starving. It seems that we humans are always looking for a new way to destroy our bodies.

So what happens when you ingest Artificial sweeteners (some quick biochemistry):
Methanol, from aspartame, is released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounters the enzyme chymotrypsin Free methanol begins to form in liquid aspartame-containing products at temperatures above 86 degrees F, the stomach likes to maintain a temperature of about 98 degrees F.

The methanol is then converted to formaldehyde. The formaldehyde converts to formic acid, found in ant sting poison and bee venom. Toxic formic acid is used as an activator to strip epoxy and urethane coatings. I am sure your body tissues just love swimming in this stuff.

The other two major breakdown products of aspartame are phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which make up about 90% of aspartame. Phenylalanine is an important amino acid found in such food as eggs. However, when taken as an isolated amino acid as occurs in aspartame, it acts as neurotoxin. Basically, it excites neurons to death.

The list of symptoms and disease processes associated with artificial sweetener ingestion is endless. If you enjoy headaches, seizures, mental confusion, dementia, gastrointestinal and pancreatic dysfunction, by all means pick up a diet soda or a stick of sugar-free gum on the way home.

One more note, if you want cancer pour another packet of Equal in that cup of coffee. Please stop the artificial madness!

Are you eating for two?

A Wendy’s Classic double with cheese and a large fry occupies about two cups of volume in your stomach and contributes about 1,300 calories to your diet. Whereas two cups of chopped apples contain 120 calories. You would have to eat 22 cups of chopped apples to consume the same number of calories as one burger and a side order of fries. Is it any wonder why our waists are hanging over our pants.

The average American as of 2003 was eating 523 more calories than were individuals in 1970 according to the USDA. The problem seems to be with our mouth and eyes, both are simply to big.

A huge key to teach yourself how to eat smaller portion sizes is to eat high fiber and high water content foods first. Then eat smaller portions of the higher calorie elements of your meal.

High fiber and water foods include: fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains.

Exercise: Enough Excuses

I don’t want to get sweaty.
- You must learn to love the glow. The skin is the bodies largest detoxification organ, you need a good sweat a couple times a week. Without the sweat flush, your body just stores toxins in the tissues. Sweat carries toxins out of the body and pushes them through the pores. Exercise increases blood flow to the surface of the skin which will make you appear darker and healthier. The best tanning bed in the winter months is a good jog.

I don’t have time.
- Then you need to make time because every day you sit, your life expectancy shortens. The average American spends 4 hours a day watching TV. If you say, I don’t watch TV, perhaps that same time is being spent surfing the internet, checking your facebook, myspace, twitter, instant messenger, e-mail etc. Time yourself for a couple days and see how much time you spend in the virtual world. You may surprise yourself!
All you need is to find two 20 minute periods during the day, four 10 minute periods or one 40 minute period in which you can perform physical activity.

I hate exercising.
- Exercise doesn’t mean going to the gym and spending an hour everyday going through a monotonous routine that provides no enjoyment. If you really do dislike exercising then I would recommend beginning a new ritual. Start saying out loud, “I love exercising. I can’t wait to exercise.” It basically comes down to how greatly you desire health and longevity. Don’t think of exercise as a big gym with tons of weights and hamster-mobiles all lined up. Make it a social event. Instead of going out to eat, go out for a walk with friends. While you are helping yourself, you will be helping others.

I don’t have a gym membership.
- Then walk/run around your house, around your neighborhood, around your office, up and down the mall or at a nearby track. You can also do push-ups and squats in your bedroom along with a host of other exercises, anytime you please. People make opportunity for their priorities.

Don’t excuse yourself from exercising. It’s not healthy. I guarantee you will be glad tomorrow that you exercised today and this time next year you will be glad you started exercising this year.