Category Archives: anti-aging

Gut bacteria affect our eating choices – how to outwit them

Gut bacteria are able to manipulate our eating behavior to help them multiply, sometimes at the expense of our fitness.

Microbes may do this by: (i) making us crave foods that they specialize on, or foods that suppress their competitors, or (ii) inducing unease until we eat foods that enhance their fitness.

So if we crave a certain food type, be aware that it’s these bacteria that are driving this behavior. Are we going to give in to them, or can we exercise our own will?

Because these bacteria can be easily manipulated by prebiotics, probiotics, antibiotics, fecal transplants, and dietary changes, changing them can help solve difficult problems of obesity and unhealthy eating.

Not able to lose weight? Depressed? It could be the gut bacteria which need adjusting. Not pharmaceutical drugs.

It is easy to Stay Healthy.

Macular Degeneration: Fight for Your Eyes

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is characterized by a gradual loss of central vision, generally in people over age 55.  Loss of central vision can affect driving, reading, discerning fine visual detail, and other tasks that can interfere with employment, independence, and quality of life.

Experts estimate there will be about 3 million cases of AMD in the U.S. alone by 2020.

  • Studies show current smokers have a two-to-three-fold increase in risk for AMD compared to those who never smoked.
  • Another lifestyle intervention is wearing sunglasses and possibly the amber goggles designed to block blue light.
  • Nutritional strategies: increasing intake of omega-3 fats and decreasing consumption of omega-6s. Increased intake of high-glycemic carbs is associated with increased risk for AMD. An effective – and delicious – dietary step is increased intake of antioxidants and carotenoids – the ones associated with eye health, are lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Since these carotenoids are fat-soluble and are more effectively absorbed when eaten with fat, AMD is one case where great taste benefits health, eg. fresh tomatoes with olive oil, or a pat of butter on a sweet potato. The sulfur compounds in cruciferous vegetables also protect retinal tissue. Egg yolks being a good source of lutein, it seems an omelet with broccoli, kale, tomatoes, and orange peppers can be aptly thought of as “eye food.”

Be Healthy!

Toxins and what to do

Everyday our bodies are under attack because we now live in an era of  toxic exposure from plastics, pesticides, and additives.

These harmful chemicals can be found everywhere. They are in the water we drink, the foods we eat, and the air we breathe. And the lotions, creams, shampoos, deodorants, and air fresheners we use.

Even our cookware can be toxic. Byproducts from Teflon pans, plastic particles from bottles and food containers, and carcinogenic disinfectants.

Dangerous compounds like insecticides, PCB’s, heavy metals, benzene, dioxin, phthalates, pesticides, DDT metabolites, flame retardants, styrene, xylene and dichlorobenzene…are found in the stool, urine and blood of adults and even cord blood of newborns!

In 2005, the American Red Cross took samples of fetal cord blood from 10 newborns and found a shocking 287 chemicals inside the samples, which included dioxins, phthalates, pesticides, Teflon byproducts, flame retardants and many others.

These chemicals are harming your cells, causing severe inflammation, clogging up your liver, stopping your body from getting rid of unwanted belly fat – and it’s aging your body at an accelerated rate.

Fortunately, there are few simple “tweaks” you can make to your diet, starting today, that can help your body eliminate this toxic burden and get your fat loss moving again, while helping you look and feel younger.

Food #1: Turmeric (clean your fat burning filter)

Turmeric not only helps you maintain a healthy functioning liver, research indicates curcumin, a chemical found in turmeric, may help reduce joint pain caused from inflammation and lower your blood sugar to eliminate cravings…all of which will keep your body in a “fat burning environment”.

Food #2: Lemon Juice (purge toxins from your blood)

 

Almost everybody has been misled to believe lemons are acidic, but inside your body lemons are an incredibly alkaline food that can help balance your body’s pH, which means better health and higher energy levels.

Lemon juice has also been shown to improve your digestive function, acts as a mild diuretic and is loaded with healthy nutrients (citric acid, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, bioflavonoids, pectin) that helps boost your immune function.

All you need to do to get all these healthy fat fighting benefits is squeeze a medium sized lemon (use organic to avoid residual pesticides) into a small glass of water every morning on an empty stomach.

Food #3: Cruciferous Vegetables (destroy fat storing estrogen)

Cruciferous vegetables contain a naturally occurring ingredient called 3,3′-Diindolylmethane or DIM for short. DIM not only wards of off bad estrogen, it also acts as an immunostimulant, which means it can naturally “boost” your immune system and Wikipedia even touts this ingredient to have various potent anticancer properties. So including these foods in your diet could go a long way.

Obvious choices to add to your daily nutrition plan are broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and cabbage.

Since DIM is fat soluble, it’s best to consume these veggies with other healthy oils and friendly fats like grass fed butter. This will greatly enhance the absorption of these powerful fat-fighting nutrients.

Food #4: Tart Cherries
(recover FASTER and stop inflammation)

Over 111 million prescriptions are issued yearly for anti-inflammatory drugs. These meds have been shown to wreak havoc on your digestive system, while causing damage to your heart, your liver, and your kidneys.

But the anthocyanins and phenols found in tart cherries have been shown to provide STRONGER protection against muscle injury and damage than these dangerous drugs. In other words, this tiny fruit has been proven BETTER than things like Ibuprofen for reducing inflammation and muscle soreness.

But there’s MORE…tart cherries also contain a hefty dose of naturally occurring melatonin (improves sleep) and they have one of the highest anti-oxidant scores of all fruits and they score amazingly low on the glycemic index (~20). So they’re one the best fruits to eat.

So by eating a hefty dose of tart cherries you can help your body recover faster, reduce joint pain through the anti-inflammatory response, sleep better, and fight inflammation.

Eat healthy.

Stay Healthy.

Junk food dangers

Junk food is damaging to the health. We all know that.

But to what extent?

A study at the Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre (ÉPIC) of the Montreal Heart Institute shows that merely eating one junk food meal can hamper the dilation of your arteries. When researchers fed volunteers a sandwich that contained sausage, egg and cheese along with hash browns, their arteries lost 24 percent of their ability to widen.

Just one meal.

Will you let your child eat that again? Will the child be grateful that you indulged his whim, when at the age of 24 he is diabetic and has high blood pressure?

Just one single meal.

Green salad with salmon and boiled eggs

Doesn’t this look more appetising? Choose this instead. It’s full of antioxidants, which are flavorful and will help keep you alive longer, and healthier for longer.

Cancer is a Disease of Excess

Cancer is a Disease of Excess.

Excess of

– Calories

Obesity, and even overweight, is associated with higher incidence of cancers. Eat until you are just full, feeling like you could possibly eat a bit more. Don’t stuff.

– Toxins

We are exposed to various toxins, which cause lasting damage to our body. Over time, the body loses its ability to excrete these toxins and when the damage,especially to DNA, becomes irreversible, cancer can occur.

Toxins can be dietary, atmospheric, occupational or mental. All are hazardous.

– Sitting

Prolonged sitting, as in a previous post, is the cause of poor health leading to irreversible damage and ultimately cancers.

– Stress

When the body gets stressed, that changes the immune system and becomes inefficient in fighting off free radical damage. 

 

So keep moving, eat healthy and Stay Healthy!