Top Tip #4

Don't eat Twinkies.

Nine Reasons to Avoid Processed Foods

1. They ruin your taste buds. Processed foods contain refined sugar, excess salt, and other flavor enhancers. These foods are not only unhealthy, they also dull our taste buds to natural flavors. So then you need to eat more processed foods to get the taste you want because you can no longer appreciate the flavor of natural foods.

2. Deadly additives. Harmful chemical additives are added to many foods to give them a longer shelf life and to enhance flavor & color. Our bodies are unable to process these additives into nutrients. Therefore the additives hang out indefinitely in our systems, delaying digestion and adding extra toxins to our blood, tissues and organs...and extra pounds to our weight.

3. Hide & seek. Processed foods contain hidden sugars, salt, and harmful fats. All three of these contribute to health problems.

4. Mystery ingredients. Many processed foods are filled with strange parts and pieces. For example, "edible offal" in hot dogs means they contain animal skin, snouts, ears, esophagi, etc.

5. No nutritional value. Processing takes most of the nutrients out of nutrient-rich foods. You'll get almost nothing of what your body needs.

6. Fortified with synthetics. To make up for the loss of the nutrients mentioned above, synthetic vitamins and minerals are added. These may appear healthy, but our bodies aren't built to process synthetic nutrients. A perfect example is "enriched flour" found in many breads and other products. Wheat is stripped of all its natural nutrients and then synthetic vitamins are added. That's considered "enriched."

7. Wrong market. When you spend money on processed foods, you encourage growth in this market. Spending money on organic and local fruits and veggies instead promotes growth in that market, thereby potentially bringing prices down for those items.

8. Money. Although fruits and vegetables often appear to be expensive, they are quite often less expensive than processed foods.

9. They are dead! Most of the goodness is cooked or processed out of those foods. Therefore, we cannot benefit from the enzymes and nutrients the foods normally contain.

(from the Dietary Guidelines of GCNM textbook module 1)

A Personal Victory

On Friday, January 8, 2010, my daughter Brynn had an annual check-up with her pediatric allergist/asthma specialist. While there, her doctor changed her "severe" asthma status to "minor" and told me he really saw no hint of asthma in her at all anymore. He took her off all asthma meds. No more nebulizer treatments. No more pulmicort. She only has an emergency inhaler, just in case. During the course of the visit, he asked what (if anything) we had changed over the last year. I told him we had taken dairy out of her diet, as well as many of the "convenient" foods that are so full of preservatives & artificial ingredients; that we don't eat out as much as we used to; and that we added supplements in the form of a multi-vitamin, probiotics, and omegas. He smiled and said his advice would be to keep doing those things.

Now she is still severly allergic to peanuts - that may never change, and we still have so much room for improvement in some of our eating habits (like the fact that we're all still sugar addicts!!) That being said, I knew she had been healthier with the few changes we've managed to stick to. Still, I had no idea how powerful one's diet can be and I certainly didn't expect the tremendous report we received at the doctor's office. (I think he was a bit surprised, too!)

So, yes, though the judges have frowned at my rice milk and rolled their eyes at my insistence on supplements every morning, I will continue on this journey because I feel it is very GOD LED. And believe me when I say that I could FEEL Him smiling down on us in that doctor's office Friday, nodding His head and saying right along with the doctor, "Keep doing those things."

Singin' the Blues

Lately, a handful of my friends have mentioned a slight case of depression/irritability/the general blues and asked if I'd read anything nutritionally related to feeling down in the dumps. So after consulting my main text, The New Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford, I thought it would be most helpful to just type verbatim what he says...

"There are many nutritionally related causes of depression, the most common being suboptimum nutrition resulting in poor mental and physical energy. Disturbed blood sugar balance can result in periods of depression. Lack of omega-3 fats can make you depressed. If you are low in serotonin, you may benefit from (the amino acid) 5-HTP. People who produce excessive amounts of histamine (allergic individuals) are also prone to depression. Adrenal exhaustion, usually brought on by stress and overuse of stimulants, can result in it. Allergies, too, can bring on depression.

Diet advice: Cut out or avoid sugar and refined foods. Cut down on stimulants -- tea, coffee, chocolate, cola drinks, cigarettes, and alcohol. Experiment for two weeks without wheat or dairy products (to rule out allergies being the cause of the depression).

Suggested supplements: multivitamin with multiminerals, vitamin C (1000 mg), 5-HTP (100 mg twice a day), and omega-3 fish oils providing EPA of 1200 mg."

So, did anyone else say, "What is 5-HTP?" or was I the only one? I looked that up, too.

"A particular amino acid called 5-hydroxytryptophan is the daughter of tryptophan and the mother of serotonin, the brain's 'happy' neurotransmitter. Many people have low levels of this essential brain chemical and feel depressed as a result. This is especially true of people on weight-loss diets, which are notoriously low in tryptophan. But that isn't all. Serotonin controls appetite. The more you have, the less you eat. This may be why people eat more in the winter. The less light you get, the less serotonin you make. If you are low in serotonin, one of the quickest ways to restore normal levels, and normal mood, is to supplement 5-HTP."

A website on 5-HTP makes the claim that it can help control appetite, calm anxiety, relieve insomnia, improve mood, and reduce sympoms of pms, fibromyalgia, and headaches. After reading this, I wondered why everyone wasn't taking 5-HTP!!! But seriously, never take anything, even a supplement, without discussing it with your health care professional. Though no drug interactions were mentioned with 5-HTP, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Foods that can help: cold water fish, such as salmon, mackerel, and herring (due to their high levels of the omega EPA, known to be a potent anti-depressant), nuts and seeds (due to their omegas, magnesium, and B-vitamins), and foods rich in tryptophan such as beef, chicken, turkey, cow's milk, and eggs.

Lastly, I did stumble upon a website called Food for the Brain (www.foodforthebrain.org) that looked promising. Hopefully, something here will help someone, even if just in a small way. And next time you're feeling down and out, always remember Jesus loves YOU. YOU matter. YOU are not junk because God doesn't make junk.

2010!!!

Happy New Year! Any resolutioners out there? I've decided mine is to be more 90/10 this year than 80/20. The healthier I eat, the better I feel, so I just need to keep that in mind. Over the holidays, I ate/drank stuff I haven't in a while, and I'm feeling it now, for sure. And I don't like it. Time to get back on track!

A few websites I've found that might help me do this (and that you may enjoy as well) are:

www.snack-girl.com ---> She focuses on good for you snacks at 100 or so calories. I like her because she does not believe a mini pack of 100 calorie Oreos is equal to a fresh, 100 calorie apple no matter what Nabisco claims!

www.fooducate.com ---> This website looks at all the popular brands of food found at the grocery store and rates them for nutritional value. I was quite shocked by Yoplait yogurt and Ritz crackers. They are not backed by/endorsed by any food company or government agency, either, so they are honest assessors! You can get to their blog from my blog ~ left side of page, bottom column, Blogs I Enjoy.

Whatever your resolutions may be, I wish you much success and great health in 2010!

~for my few faithful readers...taking a break until after the first of the year...Merry Christmas!!!