The New Site is Ready!!

As you've read in my last post, I've moved to The Wise Alternative and am now blogging there.

After receiving a LOT of help from a fellow blogger...ahem Adrienne of Whole New Mom...(THANK YOU!!)....the RSS Feed is working and I managed to install the Google Follower widget all by myself.

I expect Microsoft's call any second with a big $$$$ job offer......

With those two crucial steps done....I invite you to sign up at my new blog at The Wise Alternative as we continue this adventure.

Thanks and we'll see you soon!!  If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

What's In Your Diet? - Safe Ways To Burn Belly Fat

What are some of the most effective ways to lose weight? Could it be diets like Atkins, South Beach or Nutrisystem?  Hardly...in my humble opinion...although some will find success with different plans. 

Although companies will continue to make millions with fad diets....the most effective way to burn fat is through diet and excercise.  When I speak of diet....I'm not referring to the latest fad on the talk shows or the best selling book of the moment.  Simply proteins, omega 3's, fruits & veggies and all of the other essentials needed for a healthier lifestyle.

Read this from Live Strong...

What Are Safe & Fast Ways to Lose Belly Fat?

measurement image by Valentin Mosichev from Fotolia.com

Safe and fast ways to lose belly fat involve discipline and the avoidance of risky supplements and crash diet plans. You still need to pay strict attention to your diet, but not while jeopardizing your health. The key point to remember is that you have to lose weight throughout your whole body to lean out your stomach.

Safe Calorie Cutting

The way to lose weight is to expend more calories than you consume. To set yourself in the right direction, restrict the number of calories you currently take in. If you cut back by 500 calories a day, you can expect to lose about 1 lb. of weight a week, according to MayoClinic.com. If you need assistance tracking your calories, refer to a free online guide, like The Daily Plate.

Calorie Burning

To boost your caloric deficit, perform cardiovascular exercise. The type is not important -- what is important is the intensity. If you work out at a slow pace, you will burn calories, but you will not lose your belly fast. By doing interval training on the other hand, you will increase your caloric expenditure and rev up your metabolism once you are finished. To lose weight, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity, five days a week. If you are new to exercise, start out with 20-minute sessions and increase your time each week. You can still do interval training either way. Even if you alternate walking speed from fast to slow, it is still effective.

Frequent Eating

Eating frequently throughout the day solves the problem of being hungry. If you continually eat small, balanced meals every two to three hours, you will constantly feel satisfied and not overeat. A balanced meal contains a portion of protein and complex carbohydrates. When creating your meals, make sure you use healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, beans, low-fat dairy and fish. Celery sticks with peanut butter spread across the middle is a healthy meal example.

Weight Training

Weight training builds muscle, which in turn raises metabolism. Your goal is to pack on as much muscle as possible. This can be done by performing compound exercises. Unlike isolation exercises, compound exercises work more than one muscle at a time, leading to fast gains in size. Include exercises like bench presses, shoulder presses, dips, back rows, lunges and stiff leg deadlifts. As an added bonus, you have to contract your abs forcefully when doing these to generate power.

Water Consumption

Sugary beverages like soda, lemonade, fruit punch and sweetened tea are all high in empty calories -- the same calories that can prevent you from losing your belly fat. Replace, these beverages, and any other beverages containing calories, with water. Not only will it help keep your calories down, but it will also hydrate your body.

Added Caloric Expenditure

Adding more movement to your daily grind will increase your daily caloric expenditure. When you are at work, stand up while fielding phone calls and mix in single foot balances. You can also tap your feet, chew gum and go for power walks at lunch. On the home front, walk in place while you prepare dinner and play catch in the yard with your neighbor or kids.

Ab Training

Abdominal training will help you tighten and tone your stomach as you are melting away the flab. Perform exercises like leg raises, windshield wipers, bicycle maneuvers, crunches and planks. These exercises target your whole abdominal area.

Many people...women especially... are put off by weight training because they don't want to "bulk up".  This is somewhat of a myth in that you are not likely to look bulky unless you are already very lean to begin with and you weight train for a very significant time.  While muscle is quick to tone and strengthen....significant size doesn't happen without a LOT of time invested.  Muscle burns calories whether you are moving, eating or sleeping....so one of the most effective fat blasters out there is weight training.  As an added benefit....a toned body is a healthier body.

What are some of your weight loss stories?  Success or failure?  Do you have a favorite excercise plan?  Tell us about it in the comments....

Whats In Your Diet Wednesday? - Is Skim Milk Adding Pounds?

What is one of the most vilified natural beverages in our society today?  Coffee? Tea? Juices?.....Nope, no way, and...are you kidding?  It is of of course...whole milk.  That rich and creamy goodness straight from your cow, or your neighbors third cousins dairy, or the corner grocery for that matter.

I'm a young man by many standards....halfway through my thirtieth decade (third decade....good grief!) and for probably about 20-25 of those years I can recall whole milks bad reputation.  Now this is not a scientific number...and I didn't Google it by any means...this is strictly off the top of my hat rack.

The question in my mind is...why?  What is so bad about whole milk and its host of calcium, fats, and other vitamins?  Is it suddenly unhealthy that we are drinking something that has been around for many thousands of years?

In the health craze of low and no fat, no carbs, Adkins and every other diet out there...milk long ago became skim, 2% and I'm not sure what other varieties are out there in the never ending quest to be skinny.

Are we  hurting or helping ourselves with the skim and 2% products?  Read this article from Yahoo.... 

Is Skim Milk Making You Fat?

by Details Magazine, on Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:11pm PDT

Paul John Scott, DETAILS

You probably spend all of one second deciding what kind of milk to put in your coffee. What's to debate? If you want to keep the pounds off and avoid heart disease, choose skim. This is gospel, after all: It's recommended by the USDA and has so permeated our thinking that you can't even find reduced-fat (2%) milk at places like Subway—and forget about whole.

But is it true? Let's start with the question of what's fattening. Whole milk contains more calories and, obviously, more fat. A cup has 146 calories and almost 8 grams of fat, reduced-fat (2%) has 122 calories and almost 5 grams of fat, low-fat (1%) has 103 calories and 2.5 grams of fat, and nonfat (skim) has 83 calories and virtually no fat.

But when it comes to losing weight, restricting calories has a poor track record. Evidence gleaned from numerous scientific studies says that if you starve yourself for lunch, you typically compensate at dinner. And according to a 2007 report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, telling overweight and obese patients to cut calories led to only "transient" weight loss—it didn't stay off. The same goes for cutting saturated fat. In 2003, the Cochrane Collaboration, a respected source for unbiased reviews of research, compared low-fat diets with low-calorie diets and found that "fat-restricted diets are no better than calorie-restricted diets in achieving long-term weight loss." As Walt Willet of the Harvard School of Public Health wrote in the American Journal of Medicine, "Diets high in fat do not appear to be the primary cause of the high prevalence of excess body fat in our society, and reductions in fat will not be a solution."

It's becoming widely accepted that fats actually curb your appetite, by triggering the release of the hormone cholecystokinin, which causes fullness. Fats also slow the release of sugar into your bloodstream, reducing the amount that can be stored as fat. In other words, the more fat in your milk, the less fat around your waist. Not only will low-fat milk fail to trim your gut, it might even make you fatter than if you were to drink whole, according to one large study. In 2005, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and other institutions studied the weight and milk consumption of 12,829 kids ages 9 to 14 from across the country. "Contrary to our hypothesis," they reported, "skim and 1% milk were associated with weight gain, but dairy fat was not."

But surely low-fat milk is better for your heart? We are often told to watch our consumption of dairy because it raises our bad cholesterol, the kind known as LDL. But LDL comes in at least four varieties, and only the smallest and densest of them are linked with heart disease. Dairy fat, it turns out, affects only the large, fluffy kind of LDL—the benign kind.
 And here's a final thought: How would you feel if you opened a carton and poured a chalky, bluish-white liquid into your coffee? That's the color many nonfat milks are before powdered milk is added to whiten them—a process that brings its own problems. Any way you look at it, there's been a lot of whitewashing of skim milk's image.

THE SKINNY ON NONFAT MILK
To turn skim milk white, "some companies fortify their product with powdered skim," says Bob Roberts, a dairy scientist at Penn State. Powdered skim (which is also added to organic low-fat milks) is produced by spraying the liquid under heat and high pressure, a process that oxidizes the cholesterol. In animal studies, oxidized cholesterol triggers a host of biological changes, leading to plaque formation in the arteries and heart disease, Spanish researchers reported in 1996. "OCs are mutagenic and carcinogenic," they wrote. In 1998, Australian researchers studied rabbits fed OC and found that the animals "had a 64% increase in total aortic cholesterol" despite having less cholesterol in their blood than rabbits fed natural sources of the substance. (A 2008 Chinese study with hamsters confirmed these findings.) Roberts says the amount of OC created by adding powdered skim is "not very much," but until the effects on humans are known, it's impossible to say what's a safe level.

Do you or have you drink skim or reduced fat milk?  What are your thoughts on this article?  Tell us in the comments.....

I've got a somewhat simple philosophy....If it's good enough for Mother Nature...it's good enough for me.  Feeding the masses through the milennia can't have been ALL bad.  No doubt mankind has made some wonderful advances in food production, health and countless other things....however it isn't always wise to fool with what God intended....genetically modified wheat anyone?

This post is shared at Pennywise Platter Thursday

What's In Your Diet Wednesday - 12 Superfoods

How many of us get stuck in a food "rut"?  Eating the same things day after day, week after week.  I certainly do and find myself making choices not to buy something because I've eaten it again and again. 

Variety is the key to a healthy diet and is no doubt the reason food blogs have taken to the stratosphere like they have...having carnivals, hops, and the like is an unlimited cookbook that you don't have to pay for...and can reference anytime you want.

I have to make myself include greens in my diet...like many people...it's not that I don't like them, I do!  I'm just a big meat and potatoes eater as many men are.

The following article is a list of 12 superfoods that can have a positive impact on your health....Many of us know about broccoli, spinach and so on....but did you know about guava, watercress, or dandelion??

Read this from Yahoo Health....

12 Foods With Super-Healing Powers

Nikki Jong, Caring.com contributing editor
Mon, Apr 11, 2011

As part of a healthy diet, whole foods play a significant role in helping our bodies function at their best. There are hundreds of extremely nutritious whole foods, but the dozen on this list do more than contribute healthy nutrients -- they help you heal. In fact, every food on this list boasts multiple healing effects, from fighting cancer to reducing cholesterol, guarding against heart disease, and more. Eat these super-healing picks and start feeling pretty super yourself.

Kiwifruit
This tiny, nutrient-dense fruit packs an amazing amount of vitamin C (double the amount found in oranges), has more fiber than apples, and beats bananas as a high-potassium food. The unique blend of phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals found in kiwifruit helps protect against heart disease, stroke, cancer, and respiratory disease. Kiwifruit's natural blood-thinning properties work without the side effects of aspirin and support vascular health by reducing the formation of spontaneous blood clots, lowering LDL cholesterol, and reducing blood pressure. Multiple studies have shown that kiwifruit not only reduces oxidative stress and damage to DNA but also prompts damaged cells to repair themselves.

Kiwifruit is often prescribed as part of a dietary regimen to battle cancer and heart disease, and in Chinese medicine it's used to accelerate the healing of wounds and sores.

How much: Aim to eat one to two kiwifruit a day while they're in season, for the best taste and nutrition. California-grown kiwifruit are in season from October through May, and New Zealand kiwifruit are available between April and November.

Tips:

• Kiwifruit contains enzymes that activate once you cut the fruit, causing the flesh to tenderize. So if you're making a fruit salad, cut the kiwifruit last.
• The riper the kiwifruit, the greater the antioxidant power, so let them ripen before you dig in.

Cherries
Cherries boast a laundry list of healing powers. For starters, they pack a powerful nutritional punch for a relatively low calorie count. They're also packed with substances that help fight inflammation and cancer. As if that weren't enough, in lab studies, quercetin and ellagic acid, two compounds contained in cherries, have been shown to inhibit the growth of tumors and even cause cancer cells to commit suicide -- without damaging healthy cells. Cherries also have antiviral and antibacterial properties.

Anthocyanin, another compound in cherries, is credited with lowering the uric acid levels in the blood, thereby reducing a common cause of gout. Researchers believe anthocyanins may also reduce your risk of colon cancer. Further, these compounds work like a natural form of ibuprofen, reducing inflammation and curbing pain. Regular consumption may help lower risk of heart attack and stroke.
In Chinese medicine, cherries are routinely used as a remedy for gout, arthritis, and rheumatism (as well as anemia, due to their high iron content). Plus they're delicious.

How much: Aim for a daily serving while they're in season locally. And keep a bag of frozen cherries in your freezer the rest of the year; frozen cherries retain 100 percent of their nutritional value and make a great addition to smoothies, yogurt, and oatmeal.

Tip:

• Buy organic or wash thoroughly, since conventionally grown cherries can be high in pesticides.

Guavas
Guavas are a small tropical fruit that can be round, oval, or pear-shaped. They're not all that common, so they might be hard to find, depending on where you live. But if you can track them down, it's more than worth it. Guavas contain more of the cancer-fighting antioxidant lycopene than any other fruit or vegetable, and nearly 20 percent more than tomatoes. Our bodies can't process much of the lycopene in tomatoes until they're cooked; the processing helps break down tough cell walls. However, guavas' cell structure allows the antioxidant to be absorbed whether the fruit is raw or cooked, and the whole fruit offers the nutrition without the added sodium of processed tomato products.

Lycopene protects our healthy cells from free radicals that can cause all kinds of damage, including blocked arteries, joint degeneration, nervous system problems, and even cancer. Lycopene consumption is associated with significantly lower rates of prostate cancer; in addition, men with prostate tumors who consumed lycopene supplements showed significant improvements, such as smaller tumors and decreased malignancy. Lycopene has also been found to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells, and research suggests that this antioxidant may also help protect against coronary heart disease.

This strange-looking little fruit is also packed with vitamin C and other antioxidants. Serving for serving, guava offers more than 60 percent more potassium than a banana, which can help protect against heart disease and stroke. In fact, the nutrients found in guavas have been shown to lower LDL and boost HDL cholesterol, reduce triglycerides, and lower blood pressure.

How much: Aim to eat fresh guavas as often as you can when you can find them in stores. They're not commonly available in the freezer section; and most guava juices are processed and sweetened, so they don't provide the same superior nutrition that the whole, fresh fruit does. One to two guavas a day is a good goal.

Tip:

• Opt for the red-fleshed variety if you can; both are loaded with antioxidants, but the red type has more than the white-fleshed apple guava.

Beans
Beans are a miracle food. They lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar and insulin production, promote digestive health, and protect against cancer. If you think of fiber, protein, and antioxidants and immediately think whole grains, meat, and fruit, think again -- beans offer all three in a single package.

An assortment of phytochemicals found in beans has been shown to protect cells from cancerous activity by inhibiting cancer cells from reproducing, slowing tumor growth. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reported that women who consumed beans at least twice a week were 24 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, and multiple studies have tied beans to a reduced risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and breast and colon cancers.

Beans deliver a whopping amount of antioxidants, which help prevent and fight oxidative damage. In fact, the USDA's ranking of foods by antioxidant capacity places three varieties of beans (red beans, red kidney beans, and pinto beans) in the top four -- and that's among all food groups. Beans are a great source of dietary fiber, protein, and iron. They also contain the amino acid tryptophan; foods with high amounts of tryptophan can help regulate your appetite, aid in sleep, and improve your mood. Many are also rich in folate, which plays a significant role in heart health. And depending on the type of bean you choose, you'll also get decent amounts of potassium, magnesium, vitamin B1 and B2, and vitamin K. Soybeans are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids.

In Chinese medicine, various types of beans have been used to treat alcoholism, food poisoning, edema (particularly in the legs), high blood pressure, diarrhea, laryngitis, kidney stones, rheumatism, and dozens of other conditions.
How much: Aim for a minimum of two servings of beans per week.

Tip:

• Adzuki and mung beans are among the most easily digested; pinto, kidney, navy, garbanzo, lima, and black beans are more difficult to digest.

Watercress
Not only is watercress extremely nutritious, it's about as close as you can get to a calorie-free food. Calorie for calorie, it provides four times the calcium of 2 percent milk. Ounce for ounce, it offers as much vitamin C as an orange and more iron than spinach. It's packed with vitamin A and has lots of vitamin K, along with multiple antioxidant carotenoids and protective phytochemicals.

The nutrients in watercress protect against cancer and macular degeneration, help build the immune system, and support bone health. The iron helps red blood cells carry oxygen to your body's tissues for energy. The phytochemicals in watercress battle cancer in three ways: killing cancer cells, blocking carcinogens, and protecting healthy cells from carcinogens. They've also been shown to help prevent lung and esophageal cancer and can help lower your risk for other cancers.

In Chinese medicine, watercress is thought to help reduce tumors, improve night vision, and stimulate bile production (improving digestion and settling intestinal gas). It's used as a remedy for jaundice, urinary difficulty, sore throat, mumps, and bad breath.

How much: Eat watercress daily if you can. In some regions, it's more widely available during the spring and summer, when it's cultivated outdoors. But since it can also be grown hydroponically in greenhouses, you can find it year-round in many grocery stores and at your local farmer's market.

Tip:

• You can cook it, but watercress is better for you when you eat it raw. Tuck it into a sandwich in place of lettuce.
• Toss it with your favorite vegetables and eat it in a salad.
• Watercress is great in pesto -- just replace the basil with watercress -- and soups.
• Use watercress as a wonderfully detoxifying ingredient in a juice or smoothie.

Spinach
You already knew spinach was good for you, but did you know just how good? Spinach protects against eye disease and vision loss; it's good for brain function; it guards against colon, prostate, and breast cancers; it protects against heart disease, stroke, and dementia; it lowers blood pressure; it's anti-inflammatory; and it's great for bone health. Spinach has an amazing array of nutrients, including high amounts of vitamin K, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and iron.

A carotenoid found in spinach not only kills prostate cancer cells, it also prevents them from multiplying. Folate promotes vascular health by lowering homocysteine, an amino acid that, at high levels, raises the risk of dementia and cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke. Folate has also been shown to reduce the risk of developing colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers and to help stop uncontrolled cell growth, one of the primary characteristics of all cancers. The vitamin C and beta-carotene in spinach protect against colon cancer in addition to fighting inflammation, making them key components of brain health, particularly in older adults.

Spinach is loaded with vitamin K (one cup of cooked spinach provides 1,111 percent of the recommended daily amount!), which builds strong bones by helping calcium adhere to the bone. Spinach is also rich in lutein, which protects against age-related macular degeneration, and it may help prevent heart attacks by keeping artery walls clear of cholesterol buildup.

How much: Fresh spinach should be a daily staple in your diet. It's available in practically every grocery store, no matter where you live, it's easy to find year-round, and you'd be hard pressed to find a more nutritionally sound, versatile green. So do yourself a healthy favor and aim for a few ounces -- raw, sauteed, or lightly steamed, every day.

Tips:

• Add a handful of fresh spinach to your next fruit smoothie. It'll change the color but not the taste.
• Conventionally grown spinach is susceptible to pesticide residue; stick to organic.

Onions
Onions get a bad rap for their effect on breath, but that's not the only part of the body where they pack a wallop. Onions contain potent cancer-fighting enzymes; onion consumption has been shown to help lower the risk of prostate and esophageal cancers and has also been linked to reduced mortality from coronary heart disease. Research suggests that they may help protect against stomach cancer. Onions contain sulfides that help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as a peptide that may help prevent bone loss by inhibiting the loss of calcium and other bone minerals.

Onions have super antioxidant power. They contain quercetin, a natural antihistamine that reduces airway inflammation and helps relieve symptoms of allergies and hay fever. Onions also boast high levels of vitamin C, which, along with the quercetin, battles cold and flu symptoms. Onions' anti-inflammatory properties help fight the pain and swelling associated with osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis. Onions are also extremely rich in sulfur and they have antibiotic and antiviral properties, making them excellent for people who consume a diet high in protein, fat, or sugar, as they help cleanse the arteries and impede the growth of viruses, yeasts, and other disease-causing agents, which can build up in an imbalanced diet.

How much: For all the health benefits onions provide, it would be ideal to eat one a day. However, if that's not doable for you, add a few onions to your weekly grocery list and try to eat a little bit every day. All varieties are extremely good for you, but shallots and yellow onions lead the pack in antioxidant activity. Raw onions provide the best nutrition, but they're still great for you when they're lightly cooked. And cooking meat at high temperatures (such as on a grill) with onions can help reduce or counteract carcinogens produced by the meat.

Tip:

• Onions should be stored at room temperature, but if they bother your eyes when you cut them, try refrigerating them for an hour beforehand.

Carrots
Carrots are a great source of the potent antioxidants known as carotenoids. Diets high in carotenoids have been tied to a decreased risk in postmenopausal breast cancer as well as cancers of the bladder, cervix, prostate, colon, larynx, and esophagus. Conversely, diets low in carotenoids have been associated with chronic disease, including heart disease and various cancers. Research suggests that just one carrot per day could reduce your risk of lung cancer by half. Carrots may also reduce your risk of kidney and ovarian cancers. In addition to fighting cancer, the nutrients in carrots inhibit cardiovascular disease, stimulate the immune system, promote colon health, and support ear and eye health.

Carrots contain calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, fiber, vitamin C, and an incredible amount of vitamin A. The alpha-carotene in carrots has shown promise in inhibiting tumor growth. Carrots also contain the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which work together to promote eye health and prevent macular degeneration and cataracts. In Chinese medicine, carrots are used to treat rheumatism, kidney stones, tumors, indigestion, diarrhea, night blindness, ear infections, earaches, deafness, skin lesions, urinary tract infections, coughs, and constipation.

How much: Eat a serving of carrots each day if you can, and enjoy them year-round. Carrots are good for you whether they're raw or lightly cooked; cooking helps break down the tough fiber, making some of the nutrients more easily absorbed. For the best nutrition, go for whole carrots that are firm and fresh-looking. Precut baby carrots are made from whole carrots and, although they're convenient, they tend to lose important nutrients during processing.

Tips:

• Remove carrot tops before storing them in the fridge, as the tops drain moisture from the roots and will cause the carrots to wilt.
• Buy organic; conventionally grown carrots frequently show high pesticide residues.

Cabbage
Cabbage is a powerhouse source of vitamins K and C. Just one cup supplies 91 percent of the recommended daily amount for vitamin K, 50 percent of vitamin C, good amounts of fiber, and decent scores of manganese, vitamin B6, folate, and more -- and it'll only cost you about 33 calories. Calorie for calorie, cabbage offers 11 percent more vitamin C than oranges.

Cabbage contains high levels of antioxidant sulforaphanes that not only fight free radicals before they damage DNA but also stimulate enzymes that detoxify carcinogens in the body. Researchers believe this one-two approach may contribute to the apparent ability of cruciferous vegetables to reduce the risk of cancer more effectively than any other plant food group. Numerous studies point to a strong association between diets high in cruciferous vegetables and a low incidence of lung, colon, breast, ovarian, and bladder cancers.
Cabbage builds strong bones, dampens allergic reactions, reduces inflammation, and promotes gastrointestinal health. Cabbage is routinely juiced as a natural remedy for healing peptic ulcers due to its high glutamine content. It also provides significant cardiovascular benefit by preventing plaque formation in the blood vessels. In Chinese medicine, cabbage is used to treat constipation, the common cold, whooping cough, depression and irritability, and stomach ulcers. When eaten and used as a poultice, as a dual treatment, cabbage is helpful for healing bedsores, varicose veins, and arthritis.

How much: The more cabbage you can include in your diet, the better. A study of Polish women found that those who ate at least four servings of cabbage per week as adolescents were 72 percent less likely to develop breast cancer later in life than their peers who consumed only one weekly serving or less.

Tips:

• Try raw sauerkraut. It has all the health properties of cabbage, plus some potent probiotics, which are excellent for digestive health.
• Use the whole cabbage; the outer leaves contain a third more calcium than the inner leaves.
• Both are nutritional stars, but red cabbages are far superior to the white variety, with about seven times more vitamin C and more than four times the polyphenols, which protect cells from oxidative stress and cancer.

Broccoli
You'll find it difficult to locate another single food source with as much naturally occurring health-promoting properties as broccoli. A single cup of steamed broccoli provides more than 200 percent of the RDA for vitamin C (more than oranges), nearly as much of vitamin K, and about half of the daily allowance for vitamin A, along with plentiful folate, fiber, sulfur, iron, B vitamins, and a whole host of other important nutrients. Calorie for calorie, broccoli contains about twice the amount of protein as steak -- and a lot more protective phytonutrients.

Broccoli's phytochemicals fight cancer by neutralizing carcinogens and accelerating their elimination from the body, in addition to inhibiting tumors caused by chemical carcinogens. Studies show evidence that these substances help prevent lung and esophageal cancers and may play a role in lowering the risk of other cancers, including gastrointestinal cancer.

Phytonutrients called indoles found in broccoli help protect against prostate, gastric, skin, breast, and cervical cancers. Some research suggests that indoles also protect the structure of DNA and may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Extensive studies have linked broccoli to a 20 percent reduction in heart disease risk. In Chinese medicine, broccoli is used to treat eye inflammation.

How much: If you can eat a little broccoli every day, your body will thank you for it. If you can't swing it, aim for eating it as regularly as possible. Like many other vegetables, broccoli provides fantastic nutrition both in its raw form and when it's properly cooked. Cooking reduces some of broccoli's anticancer components, but lightly steaming it will preserve most of the nutrients. Broccoli is available fresh year-round in most areas, but if you can't find it where you live, frozen broccoli is a good substitute.

Tip:

• Steaming or cooking broccoli lightly releases the maximum amount of the antioxidant sulforaphane.

Kale
Kale is highly nutritious, has powerful antioxidant properties, and is anti-inflammatory. One cup of cooked kale contains an astounding 1,328 percent of the RDA for vitamin K, 192 percent of the RDA for vitamin A, and 89 percent of the RDA for vitamin C. It's also a good source of calcium and iron.

Kale is in the same plant family as broccoli and cabbage, and, like its cruciferous cousins, it contains high levels of the cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane, which guards against prostate, gastric, skin, and breast cancers by boosting the body's detoxification enzymes and fighting free radicals in the body. The indoles in kale have been shown to protect against breast, cervical, and colon cancers. The vitamin K in kale promotes blood clotting, protects the heart, and helps build strong bones by anchoring calcium to the bone. It also has more antioxidant power than spinach, protecting against free-radical damage. Kale is extra rich in beta-carotene (containing seven times as much as does broccoli), lutein, and zeaxanthin (ten times the amount in broccoli). In Chinese medicine, kale is used to help ease lung congestion.

How much: Like cabbage, the more kale you can eat, the better. A daily serving is ideal. Eat it as much as you can, as long as you can find it fresh at your local grocery or farmer's market. In some areas, it's available all year; in others, it only makes an appearance during summer and fall.

Tips:

• Kale's growing season extends nearly year-round; the only time it's out of season is summer, when plenty of other leafy greens are abundant.
• Steam or sauté kale on its own, or add it to soups and stews. Cooking helps tenderize the leaves.
• Kale is also a great addition when it's blended in fruit smoothies or juiced with other vegetables.

Dandelion
The same pesky weed known for ruining lawns has a long history of being used as a healing herb in cultures around the globe. One cup of raw dandelion greens provides 535 percent of the RDA of vitamin K and 112 percent of the RDA for vitamin A. Dandelion greens are also a good source of vitamin C, calcium, iron, fiber, and potassium. Among all foods, it's one of the richest sources of vitamin A; among all green vegetables, it's one of the best sources of beta-carotene.

Dandelion has been used for centuries to treat hepatitis, kidney, and liver disorders such as kidney stones, jaundice, and cirrhosis. It's routinely prescribed as a natural treatment for hepatitis C, anemia, and liver detoxification (poor liver function has been linked to numerous conditions, from indigestion and hepatitis to irritability and depression). As a natural diuretic, dandelion supports the entire digestive system and increases urine output, helping flush toxins and excess salt from the kidneys. The naturally occurring potassium in dandelions helps prevent the loss of potassium that can occur with pharmaceutical diuretics.

Dandelion promotes digestive health by stimulating bile production, resulting in a gentle laxative effect. Inulin, a naturally occurring soluble fiber in dandelion, further aids digestion by feeding the healthy probiotic bacteria in the intestines; it also increases calcium absorption and has a beneficial effect on blood sugar levels, therefore being useful in treating diabetes. Both the dandelion leaves and root are used to treat heartburn and indigestion. The pectin in dandelion relieves constipation and, in combination with vitamin C, reduces cholesterol. Dandelion is excellent for reducing edema, bloating, and water retention; it can also help reduce high blood pressure. On top of all that, dandelion contains multiple antidiarrheal and antibacterial properties.
In Chinese medicine, dandelion is used in combination with other herbs to treat hepatitis and upper respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. The sap from the stem and root is a topical remedy for warts. Imagine -- all this from a lowly weed!

How much: How much dandelion to incorporate into your diet boils down to two factors: availability and personal preference. Dandelion greens are considered a specialty item in some areas and therefore can be difficult to find. They also have a pungent taste, and people tend to love or hate the flavor. If you can find fresh dandelion greens and you enjoy the taste, make them a regular part of your diet.

Tip:

• Use the root in soups or sauté it on its own.
• If the raw leaves are too bitter for you, try them lightly steamed or sautéed.

I regularly eat 7 of the foods on this list....and I have tried Dandelion...both in it's natural form and as an herbal supplement.

How many do you eat on a regualar basis?  Are any of these superfoods new to you?

This post is linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop 47.

What Diet Personality Are You?

We all have our quirks, habits, loveable and not so....  These things define our lives and what many people don't consider is their food personality.

I often get into a food rut...we all do...in that I tend to eat the same things over and over again until I begin to crave something else.  Some of you may have a spaghetti night, someone else stir fry, and so on...and I'm no different.  I have to make myself think outside the box and I often browse the grocery isles looking for something that grabs my attention.

I'm not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination....my battle is often with portion control....as many other guys do as well.

I have tried to change my food habits first in a small way...and then in larger steps...in conjunction with a new excercise program I've started.  Less fatty foods, more fruits, veggies and the like and it hasn't been easy.  It has really made me evaluate what goes past my lips....and how those foods make me feel.

This has become more of an issue as I've hit middle age...think mid-thirties...when I can no longer eat anything I wish and go back for seconds and thirds.

As far as this article goes I'd say that I'm a type 2...with a bit of 4...and a large portion of 5 mixed in...

Read this article from WebMD.....

For Savvy Weight Loss: Know Thyself

What kind of dieter are you? Knowing your diet personality can help you lose weight.

By Jenny Stamos Kovacs
WebMD Feature

A weight loss plan only works if you stay with it. And as any successful dieter can tell you, it's much easier to lose weight and firm up when the diet plan you choose fits your lifestyle and personality. Hate to cook? You won't last long on a diet plan better suited to budding gourmets. Living in a house full of kids and big eaters so you're constantly surrounded by food? A weight loss plan for you will have to face the problem of snacking head on.

With any endeavor to lose weight, most women think they need to go on a diet, says Lisa Sanders, MD, a clinician-educator in primary care at Yale University and author of The Perfect Fit Diet. But that's not exactly true. A diet is simply what you eat, which means you're already on one. That diet either works for you so you achieve and maintain the weight you want, or it doesn't.

The first step to weight loss satisfaction? Find your fit among these five diet personalities, and weight loss might just be easier for you.

Weight loss type 1: The support seeker

You're the one who turns to friends and pros for answers. (If it worked for Oprah, it can work for you, right?) In college you had study buddies, shopping partners, and best friends who consoled you after miserable dates and psyched you up to try your hand at love again. You'd never have made it down the aisle without the help of a few older, wiser friends, and you couldn't handle colic and postpartum blues without those 1 a.m. phone calls to your sister-in-law.

Your ideal diet plan. Your perfect weight loss plan involves plenty of support from women who've been there - sharing your battles with chocolate fudge and meeting you for late-night walks around the block. Check out weight loss programs that meet weekly for fun, camaraderie, and tips on nutrition, or go the fitness route and join an aerobics or Pilates class with a core group of members. Sessions with a personal trainer can give you regular, one-on-one help with your unique weight loss demons.

If you're a stellar follower, but not so good at coming up with methods yourself, choose a diet plan that offers sample meals and grocery lists, says Suzanne Farrell, MS, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and owner of Cherry Creek Nutrition in Denver. Or start your own diet support group, choosing dependable friends who actually have time to offer weight loss help and won't let you get away with making excuses. A group of three or four friends can keep you firmly on the fitness wagon even when one member can't show up. Designate a leader, set a plan of attack and be sure to let your supporters know exactly what you need most from them, whether it's gentle encouragement or the toughest of love.

Weight loss type 2: The serial snacker

You're a stay-at-home mom, an account manager on the road or part of an office team of estrogen-charged women. You're in need of a little weight loss help because of your snacking style. Perhaps you don't like to cook, and with the kids, the husband, and the deadlines, who has time for three squares a day anyway? Your typical snacks consist of toast, peanut butter, chocolate, cookies, cereal, and when you're feeling extra virtuous, yogurt, bananas, or baby carrots. When you do find yourself cooking a true meal, you're usually too full from taste testing to enjoy regular-sized portions and the balance of healthy proteins, complex carbohydrates, and fats that they provide ― until snack time comes around, of course, when it seems easier to unwrap a granola bar than heat up a plate of leftover veggies.

Your ideal diet plan. Serial snackers tend to eat out of habit, not hunger, says Brian Wansink, PhD, author of Mindless Eating and director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, New York. And they choose whatever is most accessible. Their weight loss solution? Put healthy foods like fruit, vegetables, and whole grains in prominent positions, and hide cinnamon rolls and brownies in opaque containers in the deepest dungeons of your cupboards. Try chewing gum or long-lasting mints as a distraction from eating snacks.

Keep extra bottles or tumblers of water handy to replace some of those habitual snacks and to stay well-hydrated. And never bring an entire package of food to the couch or desk with you. You'll completely lose track of how much you've eaten, and before you know it, you'll have polished off the whole thing. Wansink tells WebMD it's better to take a portion that's smaller than what you think you'll need and serve it on a pretty plate.

Weight loss type 3: The free spirit

You refuse to eat anything "lite" just because someone tells you it's lower in calories. You have better things to do than count calories, carbs or grams of fat, and you're too rebellious to follow a step-by-step chart outlining what to eat at each meal. You take your work, social life, and family seriously, but have no desire to devote mounds of effort to something as mundane as food. Weight loss for you will have to be simple and natural, with few rules - and always open to change.

Your ideal diet plan.The free spirit doesn't want to work hard on a weight loss plan and isn't interested in a complete overhaul of the way she eats, says Seth Roberts, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. She won't say "no" to so-called sinful foods, and would rather make simple, small changes to her weight loss plan than take away entire food groups.

One risk: This type of dieter can find herself gorging on huge servings of chocolate cake instead of savoring one small piece, Roberts tells WebMD. The free spirit's approach to dieting is essentially a non-diet, agrees Farrell. If this sounds like you, focus on eating slowly and mindfully. Rate your hunger before and during each meal, so you won't allow yourself to become too hungry or too full.

Weight loss type 4: The sweet tooth

You've got a sweet tooth, and everyone from your husband, to your daughter, to your aunt who bakes your favorite Mississippi mud pie every Easter knows it. Some days the label gets old, but the truth is, if you're a sweet tooth dieter, you'd never turn down brownies for banana chips, and you've seldom met a piece of chocolate you didn't like. Combine a sweet tooth dieter with a serial snacker, and you've got double trouble on your hands.

Your ideal diet plan. You need to plan your indulgences carefully, says Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN, a certified dietitian and nutritionist in private practice in New York and co-author of Feed Your Family Right!. Instead of wasting calories on whatever's lying around your home or office (your kids' Halloween stash or those tasteless holiday cookies), identify the sweet treats you love the most and plan how much of each one you're going to enjoy when, she says. Triple chocolate chunk brownies taste so much better when you buy them - one at a time - from the local bakery and savor them bite by bite. Then, the only way to eat more is to make another trip to the store (the walk could do you good).

Eat a few high-quality sweets, and soon those mounds of imitation goodies you used to call delicious will be a calorie-laden thing of the past. If there's a food you simply must eat if it's around, Zeid says, resist the urge to buy it. And add plenty of fresh fruit into your diet plan. Peaches, strawberries, and bananas can appease your sweet tooth while providing you with fiber and key nutrients, she says. For extra sweetness, try dipping fruit in low-fat pudding or yogurt.

Weight loss type 5: The distracted diner

Multitasking may be a busy woman's best time-saver, but it sure isn't good for your health or your waistline. If you tend to do at least two or three things at once - and one of them is often snacking - you're likely a distracted diner with little clue about how much you're really eating. Whether it's the dashboard or the desktop that keeps you from paying full attention while you eat, you'll find your best weight loss help can come from simply slowing down.

Your ideal diet plan. Prepare your snacks and meals mindfully, Wansink says. Think mini-meals, such as half a sandwich and a handful of baby carrots, and avoid snack foods like chips and cookies. It's too easy to down the entire bag while you're distracted. Choose foods that are easy to eat and difficult to spill on the run, like pre-sliced apples and grapes with the stems already removed. For grains, try whole-wheat pretzel sticks, whole-grain crackers, or dry cereals like Mini-Wheats.

Weight loss type 5: The distracted diner continued...

As for fast food, if you're always on the road, make yourself a deal. Tell yourself there's a cost involved, says Wansink, and you can eat fast food, but not while you drive. Instead, pull over and eat it in a parking lot. A distracted diner, usually too distracted while eating to notice, may never realize how much she actually dislikes the taste of fast food until she adds this trick to her weight loss plan.

If you want to transition from harried dining and tend to eat alone, try replacing mealtime distractions such as work, television or household chores with a light book or magazine. You may find you eat more slowly when your mind is focused on less anxious, time-pressured tasks.

Your personality, your diet plan

The real goal isn't to find a diet that works for you, Sanders tells WebMD. It's to find a way of eating that you enjoy, and which allows you to lose excess weight and keep it off. You may need to reassess your diet plan over time as your age and lifestyle change. But the only way to get that perfect fit is to find the diet plan that works with you and your personality right now. Bon appetit!

What diet type are you??  Tell us in the comments...

What's In Your Diet Wednesday? - Top 10 Superfoods

I...like many others....know that I should eat this food or that food for optimal health and long life...  My problem is that I sometimes don't practice what I preach. :-)  Whether I get into a food "rut" eating the same things again and again or perhaps it is the cost of a particular item out of season....I'm guilty! 

Mostly I just need to pay attention to what my body is telling me....Right now it's saying "Jason, your energy levels are lower than they should be...Where are you on your fruit and vegetable servings?"  Ok....so it's exactly like that...but you should pay attention to how you feel.  If you aren't feeling like a million bucks lately...take a look at how your diet has changed in the past weeks or months and figure out if that is a contributing factor.

Read this article on 10 superfoods by Dr. Axe.....

Top 10 Superfoods: What’s in Your Diet?

Eating healthy is one of the very best things you can do for your body and mind. The foods you choose to eat everyday determine on a daily basis how you’ll feel that day. If you put a lot of junk food in, don’t be surprised if you lack energy or get sick easily.

If you eat a variety of fresh, organic, raw foods you’ll notice you feel more energetic and even optimistic than when you ate poorly. When you eat a kaleidoscope of different whole, raw foods you’re giving your body the nutrients it needs to function and thrive.  This is key for feeling good not just daily but in the long run too.

Eating healthy foods regularly, engaging in regular exercise, and decreasing stress will keep your joints fluid and mobile, your blood pressure regulated, and your weight at a healthy level. While eating healthy can be considered by many to be a ‘no brainer’ there are certain foods bursting with loads of nutrition that the Western eaters are going without.

Discover the following ten superfoods and make them part of your weekly eating plan.

1. Almonds
These oval shaped little nuts just may hold the key, for many to get more calcium in their diets. In fact, this nut is the richest source of calcium out of all the nuts coming in at 23 milligrams (mg) of calcium in just one serving. What makes the almond even more desirable is its high level of vitamin E, with one serving providing fifteen percent of the RDA for vitamin E. But the goodness of almonds doesn’t stop there. This little nut is a valuable source of protein. So if you don’t eat meat, be sure to stock up on almonds and snack away.

2. Broccoli Rabe
This green leafy vegetable is a great example of a food that can have a huge impact on your nutrition and overall health. It is packed with potassium, iron and calcium, dietary fiber and as well as Vitamins A, C and K.  Broccoli rabe also contains lutein, which is an antioxidant that protects the retinas of your eyes from damage caused by free radicals. Broccoli Rabe is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. The health benefits are numerous and include:

• Slows aging
• Stronger bones
• Decreased risk of hypertension
• Lessens inflamation
• Cancer Protection
• Alzheimer’s protection
• Stroke prevention
• Protects against birth defects

3. Avocados
This delicious fruit native to South America and Mexico is loaded with the healthy fats essential for life. These healthy fats are the ones many Westerners’ bodies are seriously deprived of due to the low-fat, no-fat craze. Eating fresh avocados gives the body a healthy dose of these monounsaturated fats.

4. Raw Milk
While at first you may think that milk is a beverage it’s actually considered a food. Raw milk provides the body not only with a rich source of vitamins A, D, C, and B. It’s also loaded with calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, essential fatty acids, and trace minerals.

5. Wheatgrass
Wheatgrass is a must have in your daily diet. This is a young grass of the common wheat plant, triticum aestivum. It is loaded with the following nutrients:

• Iron
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Amino Acids
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E

But what adds to wheatgrass’s value is the high amount of chlorophyll it contains. Chlorophyll is a much needed nutrient that the Westerner’s body often goes without.

6. Salmon
You probably already know all about Omega-3’s. The bottom line is that they are essential to your diet, meaning your body cannot produce them so they must be obtained from foods you eat. The other vital point to remember is that most Westerner’s diets are off with the essential Omega-3 and Omega-6 ratios in favor of being higher in Omega-6’s. This is just one more reason wild salmon is one of the best foods around.

7. Flax seeds
Flax is the seed of a flowering plant native to the “fertile crescent” of the eastern Mediterranean. It is often prepared as an oil (cold pressed), a meal (ground) or just plain seeds. Flaxseed oil has gained popularity recently for its ability to manage cholesterol levels, but that’s not all it can do.

Flaxseed’s high levels of Omega-3 fats are known to help manage diabetes, cancer, heart disease and inflammation. A diet that is high in Omega-3′s has been found to fight depression and promote proper brain function. Additionally it has the following nutrients:

• Vitamin B6
• Copper
• Phosphorus
• Folate
• Magnesium
• Dietary fiber
• Manganese

8. Blueberries
According to experts at the Mayo Clinic, recent research suggests that blueberries are rich in nutrients that help to fight chronic diseases. They are rich in the following:

• Phytonutrients
• Vitamin C
• Fiber

9. Cinnamon
You should consider ways to get cinnamon into your daily diet for its life enhancing properties. Cinnamon was once the most valuable spice and was often traded at a more valuable rate than gold in days gone by. Today cinnamon is valued for the health benefits it brings. Recent research shows that cinnamon is good for the following:

• Suppressing and fighting urinary tract infections
• Soothing for the stomach
• Improving brain function
• Lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol
• Promote healthy glucose metabolism

10. Sweet potatoes
This tasty potato is loaded with the following nutrients:

• Beta Carotene
• Vitamin B-6
• Vitamin C
• Fiber
• Potassium

Beta carotene is converted to crucial vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A is said to help with slowing the aging process as well as fighting the risk of certain cancers, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The key to feeling and looking good today while protecting your health into tomorrow is eating a variety of fresh, raw, organic foods. Choosing on a regular basis from this list of ten superfoods and making them part of your weekly diet will improve your health and vitality beyond your dreams.

Do you eat the superfoods in this list?  I like broccoli but haven't ventured into broccoli rabe yet...  Tell me your own superfoods that you love in the comments.

This post is linked with the following carnivals....Go check out these great sites!

Pennywise Platter Thursday

What's In Your Diet Wednesday? - Raw Food You Say??

I'm a lover of all foods....with a caveat....I don't love many of the more what I would call "exotic" foods that are readily eaten in other countries.  Lips, eyes, intestines etc. while I'm not saying never....I'd have to be really hungry starving first.....

I love meats of all description...and have certainly eaten more varieties than most people...as well as fruits of every color and flavor that I know of...

Never was a big vegetable eater...other than the standard fare...corn, peas, grean beans, etc.  I do love vegetable of all kinds, just not the cooked variety.  Broccoli, carrots, celery, cabbage and countless others I could eat all day long...as long as they are not cooked.  I don't know if it is a texture thing with me but it's been that way as long as I can remember.

I've heard of the raw diets for years and never paid much attention...but they seem to have attracted quite a following....and I can see why.

Read this short article on raw diets from Freedomyou....

Raw Diet

Time set aside for healing, detoxification, weight loss and breaking addiction

Let me start by way of a disclaimer: Freedomyou does not advocate permanently restricting your diet to raw foods. The nutrients in some foods cannot be assimilated properly unless cooked.  Also, food has importance beyond its nutritional worth. Rawtarians may argue the virtues of their restrictive diet, but how does one quantify the value of a delicious well-prepared meal? The mélange of color, fragrance and taste says it all. 

Much like fasting, a raw diet is a set period of time for cleansing and healing and can also be extremely effective in weight loss and overcoming food addictions. In some ways it is more effective than fasting. Due to the bulking nature of all raw foods and the fact that your digestive system is still active, you can actually experience greater weight loss during a raw diet than when juice fasting, ingesting less calories while metabolism remains normal. Juice fasting allows a break from hunger whereas a raw diet forces you to face both hunger and craving together.

There is a learning curve when trying to change from a diet containing a lot of toxic food to a healthy diet. Eating only raw food simplifies it all. Think about it, restricting intake to raw foods does away with the unhealthy elements found in our common diet, establishing a new eating mindset. This is important because most of the battle is in the mind.

Raw fruits and vegetables are fabulous mucus-cleansers. They facilitate the removal of excess mucus and toxins, supplying vital nutrients in correct balance for rejuvenation and healing. Protective compounds and phytochemicals support the immune system and ward off aging. Studies have shown people who eat a generous amount of fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis have the least amount of all types of cancers. 

Raw fruit and vegetables are filled with enzymes. A high source of these enzymes is in the green leaves of plants which help protect the body from many cancers.

Tailoring your Raw diet

Craft a raw diet according to the goals you have set. Looking for a safe, fast way to lose weight? Then reduce heavy foods like raw nuts and manna bread and increase low-calorie, bulking veggies. If detoxifying is your goal, then incorporate more fresh juice, and eat lots of greens and color-rich fruits like melons. Wanting to break food addictions? Then I suggest not limiting the richer foods, especially on the front end. After ten days, you can start to cut back and see how you feel. Some may naturally transition into juice fasting. Be sensitive to your body, but more importantly, stay in tune with where the Holy Spirit is leading with this open door you have given Him.

As I have said before, this will not be easy, so be prepared to face some painful emotions. You can do this one day at a time. When discouraged, focus on the amazing good you are doing your body and how liberating it will feel to be back in control of your eating.

As mentioned in the beginning of this article...a permanent raw food diet should NOT be attempted... but rather as a temporary addition to your dietary needs.  Most importantly, listen to your body and do what feels right to YOU...

Have you ever tried the raw food diet?  I have a friend who swears by juice cleanses....Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

What's In Your Diet Wednesday? - Home Remedies That Work!

How many of you heard your grandparents tell stories of how they treated a common ailment years ago when they were kids?  Back before the Walgreens or big box stores were on every corner....or even heard of for that matter?

Of the following list of home rememdies...I am familiar with all but one.  The teaspoon of sugar to cure hiccups was always my favorite growing up but that could have been just the sweet tooth talking.

I think my grandma cut me off after a while when I complained of hiccups multiple times a day.....

Read this list of home remedies from Yahoo Health.....

Olives for motion sickness.

Nobody is naysaying the wonders of modern medicine—what would we do without a medication like penicillin to treat infections? But, as it turns out, everyday items have secret curing powers, too. Already popped two aspirin but can’t get rid of the headache? A pencil could do the trick. Below, get medical explanations behind a few bizarre—albeit brilliant—MacGyver-esque home remedies.
According to the National Library of Medicine, there are a number of symptoms that present themselves as a result of motion sickness, including increased salivation, which is the body’s way of protecting the teeth from the high doses of acid accompanied by vomit. Enter olives, which contain tannins that, when released in the mouth, work to dry saliva—first eliminating the symptom and then the body’s instinct to follow suit. However, the treatment is only effective during the early stages of nausea, when the salivation changes first appear. Photo: Thinkstock

Vapor Rub to Cure Toenail Fungus

While there are no studies to prove coating infected toenails with vapor rub once or twice a day is an effective treatment for nail fungus, a basic Internet search results in a number of personal testaments to the medicinal ointment's fungus-killing powers. “I’ve heard many patients say that vapor rub does help, but I’m not exactly sure why,” Dr. Blum admits. While some argue it's the menthol in the balm that kills the fungus and others say it’s the smothering effect of the thick gel, if used consistently, vapor rub has been shown to get rid of not just the fungus, but the infected toenail, too, which will turn black and eventually fall off. When the new nail grows in, it should be fungus-free. Photo: Thinkstock

Oatmeal to Soothe Eczema

“This is absolutely true, as oats have anti-inflammatory properties,” Dr. Blum says. Whether it’s used as a paste or poured into a bath, most experts recommend choosing colloidal (finely ground) oatmeal and soaking the affected area for at least 15 minutes. In addition to reducing inflammation, oats are thought to have an antihistamine effect, Dr. Blum says. By lowering levels of histamine, which triggers inflammation as part of the immune system’s recovery response, she explains, oats prevent or reduce the redness. Photo: Thinkstock

Yogurt to Cure Bad Breath

Bad breath comes from a number of places, the two most common being the mouth and the stomach. The neutralizing powers of yogurt and other probiotics treat the latter cause. “Yogurt shouldn’t have any effect at all on the bacteria that live on the tongue because it’s not there long enough,” says Robert Meltzer, MD, a New York City–based gastroenterologist and attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital. However, it likely has a neutralizing effect on the acid that resides anywhere between the mouth and the stomach, including the back of the throat and the esophagus, he explains. “I think almost any milk product or food that contains live cultures would have the same effect." While yogurt can get rid of bad breath that results from gastrological conditions, like acid reflux, it won't have any real effect on bad breath that is the product of gum, liver or lung disease, says Ohio-based dentist Matthew Messina, DDS. Photo: Thinkstock

A Spoonful of Sugar to Cure Hiccups

In 1971, Edgar Engelman, MD, conducted a study to find out if a spoonful of sugar really is an effective cure for hiccups. He assembled a group of 20 patients who had been experiencing intractable hiccups for more than six hours, eight of whom had had them anywhere from a full day to six weeks. Each of the test subjects was given one teaspoon of white granulated sugar to swallow dry, and for 19 of the 20 hiccup patients, the cure was immediate. André Dubois, MD, a gastroenterologist in Bethesda, Maryland, noted in The Doctors Book of Home Remedies that “the sugar is probably acting in the mouth to modify the nervous impulses that would otherwise tell the muscles in the diaphragm to contract spasmodically." Photo: iStockphoto

Bite a Pencil to Cure a Headache

While doctors aren’t sure why we do it, clenching our teeth is a common side effect of stress. According to Fred Sheftell, MD, director of the New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Connecticut, when we clench up, we strain the muscle that connects the jaw to the temples, which can trigger a tension headache. By placing a pencil between our teeth—but not biting down—we relax our jaw muscles, which eradicates tension and reduces pain. Just remember, the remedy really only applies to tension headaches—not migraines or headaches caused by sinus pressure, etc. Photo: Thinkstock

Gargle Salt Water for a Sore Throat

When you were a kid and had a sore throat, your mom likely made you gargle warm water with salt in it...and she was definitely on to something. According to Douglas Hoffman MD, PhD, author of the website The Medical Consumer's Advocate, a sore throat is an inflammatory response of the infected tissues, and the salt helps draw out the excess fluid to temporarily decrease swelling and the pain it causes. Most remedies call for a ratio of 1 tablespoon salt to 8 ounces of water, but it's always better to opt for more salt rather than less. Just keep in mind that you are treating the symptoms—not the illness. As Dr. Hoffman notes on his website: “The relief is very real, but also tends to be short-lived, since the gargle has done nothing to remove the cause of the sore throat.”

How many of these remedies are you familiar with?........What others have you used in your home?

Speaking of natural remedies.....Watch our video with J.E. Block MD, FACP on Celiac disease.

What's In Your Diet Wednesday? - The Heart Benefits of Moderate Drinking

Many of us...myself included....enjoy the occasional adult beverage with a meal.  Personally I don't know one wine from another....and couldn't extol the virtues of red versus white if my life depended on it.

 But I do believe in broadening my horizons and will try this wine or that wine at least once when I'm out with friends and the situation calls for it.

I'm more of a beer guy myself.....I know...I know....I'm the epitome of the American guy....born and raised smack dab in the middle of the USA.  I enjoy the dark beers in the winter and am especially grateful for the micro-breweries that have cropped up around the country to satisfy ever-expanding needs.  As far as the fruit of the vine....help me out here ladies.....it's white wine with fish and red with beef....correct?

With my wine ignorance on full display....I've long heard about the benefits of moderate alcohol on the most important muscle of the body....the heart.  So no matter your drink preference...don't be afraid to raise a glass of your favorite with your next meal...and read this article from Yahoo Health....

More Evidence Ties Moderate Drinking to Hearth Health

TUESDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Moderate alcohol consumption may help protect against heart disease, according to two new papers by Canadian researchers.

One team at the University of Calgary reviewed 84 studies that examined alcohol consumption and heart disease, and concluded that people who drink alcohol in moderation (one drink or less per day) are 14 percent to 25 percent less likely to develop heart disease as those who don't drink alcohol.

Another team reviewed 63 studies and found that moderate consumption of alcohol (which the researchers defined as up to one drink a day for women, and one to two drinks a day for men) significantly increases levels of "good" cholesterol, which has a protective effect against heart disease.

The findings, published online Feb. 22 in the BMJ, add to evidence from prior studies that found moderate alcohol consumption may be associated with a decreased risk of heart disease.

One expert said the research does seem to support the intake of a little alcohol to help the heart.
"In addressing lifestyle issues, alcohol consumption, in moderation, could be recommended as part of a heart-healthy lifestyle," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

The authors of the second paper, also from the University of Calgary, conclude that it is the alcohol content that provides the health benefits, not the type of alcoholic beverage (wine, beer or spirits).
Steinbaum agreed with that assessment. "One of the mechanisms of decreasing heart disease is by increasing the HDL ['good' cholesterol], which is independent of the type of alcohol, whether it be wine, beer or spirits," she said.

But the researchers on the first paper noted that although moderate drinking appears to boost heart health, that message needs to be balanced with the caveat that drinking too much is bad for your health.
Discussions about the impact of alcohol on heart disease should now focus on "how to integrate this evidence into clinical practice and public health messages," William Ghali, of the University of Calgary, noted in a news release from the journal's publisher.

What are your thoughts on the subject?  Do you have a favorite drink or perhaps you make your own??  My grandpa made his own beer and wine for many years and it was verrrry good!  I'd love to hear from you.....

What's In Your Diet Wednesday? - The Healing Benefits of Spices

It's only been in the last few years that I have come to appreciate the power of food.  I was always aware of what tasted good to me but paid NO attention to what those foods did to my body....for better or worse. 

There are several spices listed below that are beneficial to the body and while this is an excellent list, it is extremely abbreviated.  There are literally thousands of natural ingredients that help you to heal and also maintain good health.  I use lime juice to get over upper respiratory infections when I have them.  Ask me how in the comments and I'll tell my secret....  You can also use Black Elderberry to treat the flu virus with amazing results.  There has been some very promising research with Turmeric in the treatment of Alzheimers.  It is literally up to you....do your research!.....be an informed consumer....and eat what tastes good!

Read this article from Yahoo Health....

Chances are you sprinkle cinnamon into your morning oatmeal or add a dash of oregano to pizza without giving the spices much thought. But did you know your favorite flavors can actually do your body good? According to Christina Suarez, master herbalist and owner of TheGoodHerbCo.com, while spices are only effective when eaten at least daily, each has its own specific health benefits. Read on to find out which additives can burn fat, ease a sore throat or help you get to sleep, and how you can incorporate them into your daily diet.


Cardamom
Fruit of the Elettaria cardamomum plant in the ginger family.
Health Powers: Eases belching, flatulence and indigestion; treats respiratory conditions like coughing, asthma and loss of voice; aids in the elimination of toxins through your skin.
Daily Dose: Stir a few freshly ground pinches of cardamom pods into a shot of OJ or your morning fruit salad, or mix it with white or brown rice before you boil it.
Photo by Shutterstock.



Cayenne
Fruit of the Capsicum annuum plant in the Solanaceae family, along with chile pepper.
Health Powers: Eliminates gas from the stomach and intestines; soothes sore throat, cold and flu symptoms; increases metabolism for weight control.
Daily Dose: Stir into a cup of hot chocolate or any sweet juice drink for a contrasting flavor kick.
Photo by Shutterstock.



Cinnamon
Bark of a small evergreen tree.
Health Powers: Tames nausea and stomach ulcers; functions as a mild anti-inflammatory; increases insulin sensitivity to help focus fat burn.
Daily Dose: Stir into coffee/tea, yogurt, oatmeal or any boxed cereal.
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Cloves
Flower bud found at the base of an evergreen tree.
Health Powers: Soothes digestive tract muscles and is a potent antihistamine.
Daily Dose: Mix into your nightly ice cream treat or sneak into mustard spread.
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Nutmeg
Fruit of Myristica fragrans,an evergreen tree.
Health Powers: Improves digestion; eases the symptoms of menstruation; induces calm and sleep.
Daily Dose: Grate a small amount into applesauce or plain yogurt. (Note: It’s safe to grate the entire nut, which you can usually buy whole at the supermarket, but you never want to consume more than one nutmeg per day because too much of this potent spice can cause stomach pain, double vision and other uncomfortable reactions.)
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Celery Seed
Seed of the Apium graveolens plant in the parsley family.
Health Powers: Flushes the liver of toxins; lowers blood pressure; combats water retention.
Daily Dose: Think salads—tuna, potato and egg all work—which can be tossed onto a bed of lettuce, eaten alone or spread onto bread.
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Coriander
Also known as cilantro; the leaves and seeds of the Coriandrum plant in the aromatic Apiaceae family.
Health Powers: Acts as a diuretic; eases seasonal allergies.
Daily Dose: Cook into couscous and quinoa, which you can store and eat with leftovers.
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Fennel
Seed of the Foeniculum plant in the aromatic Apiaceae family.
Health Powers: Calms bowel distress; supports milk production in nursing mothers; combats water retention.
Daily Dose: Add to canned minestrones and vegetable soups.
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Oregano
Leaf of the Origanum plant in the mint family.
Health Powers: Loosens mucus; helps treat respiratory illnesses; and calms indigestion.
Daily Dose: Use in any tomato-based foods, like marinara sauces, pizza and soups.
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Thyme
Leaf of the Thymus plant in the mint family.
Health Powers: Relaxes the muscle tissue of the gastrointestinal tract; stimulates immune system.
Daily Dose: Toss into any meat-based dishes.
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Turmeric
Root of the Circuma plant in the ginger family.
Health Powers: Reduces inflammation (joints, airways); detoxifies the liver.
Daily Dose: Mix in with oil-and-vinegar-based salad dressings.
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Do you use any of these spices in your kitchen adventures??  Perhaps you have others that you enjoy? 

Tell us in the comments.........

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