Simple Health Cures

    The vast majority of adults are overweight and obese. Who would the kids learn weight management from? The Centers for Disease Control has stated that pediatric obesity has reached epidemic proportions in a mere thirty years. In 1980, five percent of kids were obese. In 2010, slightly less than twenty percent are obese.

Whatever is going on? There are certain medical conditions and medications that may contribute to weight gain. However, these are rare instances. Our kids, like adults, are overweight because they are eating too much and exercising too little.

Children obesity is diagnosed by a physician or other health care provider by using tools such as the BMI ( body mass index). This is a test to determine body fat in proportion to height, gender, and age. The health care provider may also measure skin fold thickness, waist-to-hip ratio, and water weight.

Childhood obesity must be taken seriously. We’ve been lulled into complacency by cute little phrases like ” baby fat”, ” cherubic”, “pudgy”, ” big boned”, ‘more to love”, and so on. The fact is, there is nothing cute or harmless about fat kids. Their physical and emotional well being are at peril. Let’s look at a few of the risks we’re unwillingly allowing them to take:

- Diabetes

- Heart Disease

- High Blood Pressure

- Stroke

- Asthma

- Sleep Disorders

- Fatty Liver

- GERD

- Joint Disorders

- Depression

- Low Self- Esteem

-Behavior Disorders

- Becoming Obese Adults

How do we “fix” this problem? How do we help our kids achieve a normal weight? Obese children have far different food needs than do adults. They are ” moving targets” in that they are growing and need nutrition to support that growth while at the same time losing excess fat.

The “bottom line” treatment of childhood obesity requires a change in lifestyle. Rather than “going on a diet”, our kids need to learn how to eat “rightly” the right foods at the right times and in the right amounts. What does “right” eating look like?

- More fruits and vegetables

- Reduced Fat Dairy Products

- Three “small” meals per day with healthful snacks in between\

- Whole grain breads, cereals. and pastas

- Lean cuts of meat

- Eliminate drinks that are sweetened with sugar

- Reduce portion sizes

- No eating while watching Tv or using the computer

- Help you child become more active

Childhood obesity is making our kids sick. Let’s take back control!

   The benefits of exercise are seemingly limitless. You already know that exercise is good for you physically. Health and fitness experts and professionals laud the physical benefits of regular exercise, which include improved cardiovascular health, increased energy, strength, and lean muscle mass, weight loss and loss of body fat, reduced risk for developing certain diseases, conditions, and disorders, and just generally into shape and looking good.

But exercise does so much more than simply get you into shape and help you to look good: it can make you feel good, too. Regular exercises affects you not only on a physical level but also mentally and emotionally: in other words, exercises affect mood. Working out on a regular basis has been shown, through a number of studies, to improve your overall sense of well-being, to reduce stress levels while improving your ability to deal with stress and stressful situations, to help you cope with anxiety and depression, to promote relaxation, to increase mental clarity, and even to improve your body language and attention to personal grooming.

But exactly how does exercise accomplish this? First of all, regular physical activity helps to improve mood by increasing your heart rate and then reducing muscular tension, which in turn relieves overall bodily tension, enabling you to relax and feel good. Further, many experts believe that when you exercise, hormone called endorphins ( often referred to as the “feel-good” hormones) are released from the brain into the body, which suppress pain sensations, ease feelings of stress, anxiety, and even depression, and produce a feeling of calm, pleasure, and general well-being.

Levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter within the central nervous system, are also increased during exercise-particularly through engaging in repetitious exercises and movements. Serotonin’s function is to regular mood, in addition to body temperature, sleep, appetite, sexuality, and anger. Therefore, increased levels of serotonin mean an improved mood: conversely, low levels of serotonin are often associated with depression, obsessive-compulsion, and aggression.

Maybe this all sounds a little too scientific. There are other, perhaps simpler and more basic, ways of explaining how physical activity can improve your mood. For example, some people experience getting an emotional boost or “high” directly related to the physical results they see from working out. Basically, they notice their own weight loss or fat loss, their more toned muscle, or a leaner, sleeker shape, and simpler feel better because they know they look better. Others experience an improved mood as a result of taking control of their health by incorporating daily exercise into their lives, and sticking to their fitness plans. These individuals experience a sense of accomplishment in taking charge of their health and fitness, which also increases self-esteem and the higher your self-esteem, the better your overall mood.

Exercises is good for you on so many levels. Consider incorporating it into your life so you can improve your health, look good, and feel good, too.

   Most people have no idea how much water they should be drinking, and most Americans live from day to day in a dehydrated state. They don’t drink enough water.

Without water, we would be poisoned to death by our own waste products and toxins resulting from metabolism.

Water is vital to digestion and metabolism, acting as a medium for various enzymatic and chemical reactions in the body. It carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells through the blood, regulates body temperature and lubricates our joints ( which is particularly important if you’re arthritic, have chronic muscular-skeletal problems or are athetically active).

Without water, we would be poisoned to death by our own waste products and toxins resulting from metabolism.

Water is vital to digestion and metabolism, acting as a medium for various enzymatic and chemical reactions in the body. It carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells through the blood, regulates body temperature and lubricates our joints ( which is particularly important if you’re arthritic, have chronic musclar-skeletal problems or are athletically active).

We need water to breathe: we lose approximately one pint of liquid every day just by exhaling.

If you are not in “fluid balance” you can impair every aspect of your body’s physiological functioning.

Dr. Howard Flaks, Beverly Hills:

” As a result of not drinking enough water, many people encounter such problems as excess body fat, poor muscle tone and size, decreased digestive efficiency and organ function, increase toxicity in the body, joints and muscle soreness ( particularly after exercise) and water retention.”

Proper water intake is the key to weight loss, ” say Dr. Donald Robertson, Scottsdale, Arizona.” If people who are trying to lose weight don’t drink enough water, the body can’t metabolize the fat, they retain fluids, which keeps their weight up, and the whole produce we’re trying to set up falls apart.

“I’d say the minimum amount of water a healthy person should drink is 10 eight-ounce glasses a day,” he continues and you need to drink more if you are overweight, exercise a lot, or live in a hot climate. Overweight people should drink an extra eight ounces of water for each 25 pounds that exceeds their ideal weight.”

Your water intake sould be spread judiciously throughtout the day, including the evenings. Dr. Flaks cautious against drinking more than four glasses in any given hour. Always check with your physician before embarking on a water intake increase program.

You may ask, ” If I drink this much water, won’t I constantly be running to the bathroom?” Initially, yes, because of the hypersensitivety of the bladder to increased fluids. But after a few weeks, your bladder calms down, and you urinate less frquently, but in larger amounts.

There is a difference between pure water and other beverages that contain water.

Water is water. Obviously you can get it by consuming fruits juices, soft drinks, beer, coffee or tea. Unfortunately, while such drinks contains water, they also contain substances that are not healthy and actually contradict some of the positive effects of the added water.

Dr. Jerzy Meduski, Los Angles, California, ” Beer contains water, but it also contains alcohol, which is a toxic substances. Beverages that contain caffeine, such as coffee, stimulate the adrenal glands: fruit juices contain a lot of sugar and stimulates the pancreas. Such drinks may to more to the body than cleanse it.”

The way to interpret all of this, therefore, is that the recommended daily water intake means just that WATER!!!!!!!!!

    OK, So, you have heard rumors before about how the hamburgers in fast food restaurants are made, but have you ever taken the time to really research the subject? Well, I have done it for you and allow me to tell you, I have not had a fast food hamburger in years, nor have I fed them to my family.

In today’s “time crunch” society, one out of every four Americans eats at a fast food place. We reward our children by taking them to eat at a fast food place so they can get their “free” toy: but did you also know that approximately in the past 30 years the percentage of obese people has doubled?

We forget for some reason, that our children’s arteries can suffer the same damage as ours, we seem to think that because they are young they are immune to health issues. I have seen children who basically live off fried foods have an extremely high cholesterol lab result, always supported by thier parents.

One of American’s great staple, besides the hot dog, is the hamburger! The fast food places advertise being cheap and with the serious economic condition of the great majority of the population, that is the place to go: but, studies have shown that low income families that frequent fast food places are more likely to turn obese, this is due to the high fat, high sodium, high sugar contents that those hamburgers are carrying.

Are you also aware that those hamburgers are made up of byproducts or do you think that the hooves, ears, heads and what not’s of the cattle are disposed of? Think again….

Now, regarding those patties, although they come from cattle, the meat from those cattle may originate in foreign countries in South American and travel their way up gathering a mixture of meats from different countries until it reaches the US. It’s no wonder that sometimes those patties will be contaminated with e-coli or salmonella.

We know for a fact that people who become vegetarians have a lower mortality rate than those who are eating highly saturated fats, animals protein, high sodium content and processed meats.

If we learn to eat properly, we can get the nutrients our bodies need from fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and nuts. Studies keep showing us that it is not about “dieting” it is not about a fad: it is about changing our lifestyle so we can live longer, healthier and happier life’s.

   Great Health With A Plant Based Diet:

What if one simple change could put you on a path to better health? And what if that change could even save you from obesity, heart disease and cancer?  You have the power to transform your life by maintaining a plant based diet no ifs about it.

While many omnivores feel that a meal without meal just doesn’t feel like a meal, the vegan and vegetarian plant based lifestyle is growing in popularity just the same and with good reason. A plant based diet moves away from animal based foods like meat, eggs and milk, and incorporates more fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains. The less meat and dairy you eat the less fat you take in. This goes a long way when it comes to maintaining healthy weight and cholesterol levels.

If you’re wondering whether you should try out a plant based diet, consider the top five benefits listed below. Keep in mind that you don’t have to jump into a full-on vegan diet or vegetarian diet. Just limiting your intake of meat, poultry and dairy, and increasing vegetables, fruit and grains can do wonders for your health.

Top Five Benefits Of A Plant Based Diet:

1. Lower Cholesterol: Going green can dramatically lower the amount of LDL cholesterol in your blood the bad kind that ca lead to heart disease and stroke. Avoid butter, cut out fatty meats and opt for plant based foods.  Dairy and animal products are loaded with fat and have no fiber. Plant based foods contain no cholesterol whatsoever. That means vegan nutrition is much better for your heart and your health. It’s even been proven by a recent study out of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, which found that a low-fat plant based diet can lower LDL cholesterol by 28 percent.

2. Lower Blood Pressure:  When you eat fatty meats and dairy products,the viscosity of your blood increases, placing more pressure on the blood vessels. A plant based diet fills you up with veggies and fruit, which are high in potassium. Higher intake of potassium modulates blood viscosity. This is why vegetarians and vegans tends to have lower rates of hypertension, ” the silent killer,” according to observational studies published in the Nutrition Review.

3. Prevent Cancer: High fat diets have been linked to higher rates of cancer. In fact the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Cancer Project showed vegetarians to be 40 percent less likely to develop cancer than meat-eaters. Meat tends to be high in saturated fat and low in fiber. Fiber plays a key role in  keeping your digestive system clean and healthy, removing cancer-causing compounds before they can create harm. A vegetarian diet and vegan diet are high in fiber, low in saturated and trans fats and typically include more fruit, vegetables and other cancer preventing phytochemicals.

4. Avoid Heart Disease: The American Heart Association says 83 millions Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease, and many of the risk factors, such as obesity, are at all time highs. But you reduce your risk. Research has found that a balanced, low-fat plant based diet can help reduce cholesterol, contribute to weight loss and lower blood pressure. All of which lead to heart problems.

5. Maintain Healthy Weight & Fitness: Those who follow a plant based, vegan or vegetarians diet generally consume fewer calories and have lower body weights than those who don’t, according to the Mayo Clinic. Still a plant based diet doesn’t guarantee weight loss. You’ll want to keep your intake of sweets and fatty foods low, choose whole grains, eat a variety of fruit and vegetables, and choose fat-free and low-fat dairy products. Also remember that cooking method counts. Steam, boil, grill or roast instead of frying. Your new diet will even give you renewed energy for physical exercise.

How To Transition To A Plant Based Diet:

Aside from simply avoiding meat, there are ways to ease the transition to a primarily plant based diet. Increase the amount of grains, fruits and vegetables on your plate gradually until the meat is the smallest portion of your meal.

   We’ve all heard that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is bad for us, but a lot of us still don’t understand why. Or, if it’s even true!

To add to the confusion, we’ve also seen the Corn Refiners Association’s $30 million campaign that features commercials in which actors make light of consumer’s concerns. Commercials that try to persuade us that nothing is wrong with HFCS.

That it’s natural and our bodies process it exactly the same as table sugar.

The corn industry even changed the term “high-fructose corn syrup” to “corn sugar”, in hopes that people who are concerned with eating products that contain HFCS will keep buying them.

So What’ Is HFCS Anyway?

HFCS is an extremely cheap & highly- processed, concentrated form of fructose. It’s in just about every processed food you can find in your supermarket, including salad dressings. If it’s in a can, jar or package, HFCS is probably it.

It’s also in fast food. it’s just about everywhere.

That’s a big part of the problem, Because HFCS is so concentrated and so prevalent, the typical American ( especially our children) are eating and drinking it in massive doses.

Is It Really Dangerous?

Yes. It’s definitely a sweetner that you and your family want to avoid whenever possible.

HFCS has been associated with:

- Overeating ( leptin, the hormone which usually tells your body that it’s full, is impaired when HFCS is in your system).

- Weight Gain ( probably because you’re overeating).

- Obesity ( definitely because you’re overeating).

- Premature Aging

- Metabolic Stndrome

- Insulin Resistance

- Depletion of Vitamins and Minerals

- Elevated Blood Pressure

- Elevated Triglycerides Disease

- Cardiovascular Disease

- Liver Disease

- Cancer

- Arthritis

3 Ways To Avoid HFCS

The good news is that HFCS can be avoided.

Here are three tips that will go a long way in helping you reduce your consumption of HFCS:

1. Avoid the inner aisles of your supermarket. Most of these foods are highly processed and offer very little nutrition. Instead, structure your family’s menus to consist mainly of nutritious plant foods and if you eat meat a variety of organic, lean meats.

2. Prepare more food at home. I know this isn’t convenient, but with a little practice and a few tips & tricks, it doesn’t have to be very time-consuming. When you prepare foods from scratch you control what goes into them and your ingredients are usually much fresher.

3. When buying Pre-packaged foods, read your labels carefully. If it says high-fructose corn syrup or corn sugar, DON”T BUY IT.

   Vegans are those who have chosen not to eat meat or any animal byproduct! If you are a vegan or thinking of becoming a vegan, it is important to use the vegan food pyramid to make sure you are eating enough protein and other nutrients to stay healthy and keep your energy levels up.

When you first look at the vegan food pyramid, it is sort of similar to the one that you might be familiar with. Breads and grains form the base of the vegan pyramid, followed by fruits and veggies one level up. However, if you look at it closely, you see that milk, and dairy have been replaced with other calcium-rich foods like fortified soy milk. Meats have been replaced by legumes, which include beans, nuts, peas and lentils and tofu. On some versions of the pyramid, legumes and calcium fortified foods are grouped together, on others they are placed side by side the way meat and dairy appear on the regular food pyramid. In any case, they are important to the vegan diet because these foods contain most of the protein that vegans consume.

At the top of the food pyramid is the Omega 3 fatty acid group. Fatty acid might sound like a scary term to those who are used to hearing that Americans need to cut down on the fat that they consume, but these fats are an important part of the vegan diet. These fatty acids, found in nuts, seeds and other sources within the vegan diet, provide nourishment to hair and fingernails. They also help to support the immune system as well as help a person maintain a healthy weight.

In addition to the foods that are in the vegan food pyramid, vegans are also advised to use supplements to get Vitamin B12 as well as Vitamin D, Vitamin B12 is important because a lack of the vitamin can lead to problems like anemia, fatigue, nerve damage and other conditions.

Vitamin D is usually formed by the body during exposure to sunlight. However, for vegans who do not get a lot of direct sunlight or who use sunscreen, it is important to supplement this nutrient as well. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, which is essential for strong bones. Those who do not get enough Vitamin D may find themselves more prone to rickets and other brittle bone conditions.

If you feel intimidated when you first look at the vegan food pyramid, you are not alone. Many people wonder how they can possibly eat all of the recommended servings of food every day. However, there are foods in the pyramids that can fall into more than one group. For example, green leafy vegetables definitely fit in with the vegetables, but many people do not know that they are rich in calcium as well. Therefore, they can be grouped with “fortified soy milk and alternative,” which are the calcium foods in the pyramid.

   Are you doing everything you can to stay healthy and live the best quality of life possible? Well, unfortunately most people are not proactive about their own health these days. Most people are misinformed about preventatives, proper diet and exercise and just go about their lives doing as they please: eating unhealthy, not exercising and not thinking about how this will impact their future! And so what do they do when they have a problem? Well of course they turn to the doctors who prescribe them expensive, unnatural pharmaceuticals.

I am sure you have heard the saying, ” An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!” Well, it’s true! But, it’s not just preventing! It’s knowing what to prevent and how to prevent it: and naturally if at all possible!

We are a nation that is blasted and inundated with messages that pharmaceuticals can fix anything and everything. The truth is though, they don’t really fix anything: for the most part they simple treat the symptoms…forever! After all,, that’s where the money is right? If a person only needed one pill to cure their depression, how would the pharmaceutical companies make money? Or better yet, if doctors were prescribing cardiovascular exercise to combat depression, still,. how would the big pharmaceutical companies make any money? So the current approach for most Americans is to just go about thier business: sit on the couch every night, eat steak and potatoes every night, and when something goes wrong, the docs will just write a script to “treat” the condition. By the way, have you ever seen a commerical advertising the benefits of cardiovascular exercise and mental health? No, me either!

It is very unfortunately that physicians do not focus on prevention and lifestyle as much as they should: that they don’t teach the benefits of exercising, not just for your heart, but as a natural way of treating depression and other conditions. And that is just one natural form of prevention and treatment.

There are many others! Personally I prefer natural supplements and methods of preventing and treating sickness and disease. How about just boosting your immune system for example: by now I am sure you definitely know about Vitamin C and how much it can help you fight off illness. And what about saline rinse for your nose when you are having allergies or fighting a cold? Omega-3? Ginger Root? Milk Thistle? Water?

    So, you’re ready to make the commitment to raising fit kids, being a fit kid or being the fit parent. Then you must understand that the most direct route to success is to make small changes in your current lifestyle. Too many programs are designed with a lot of change and restrictions that only make you very unhappy, setting you up for failure because you won’t be able to maintain that lifestyle.

   Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on which way you look at it, habits only take a few weeks to form. I am a very habitual person so it is even quicker for me… that means it takes no time at all for me to firmly entrench a bad habit into my lifestyle. I concentrate on replacing old less healthy lifestyle habits with new, healthy choices so I do specific things in order to avoid failure.

    I’m very human, and if there are treats in the house, I will find them. So I don’t have it in the house. If I bought a bag of chocolate chip cookies I would eat them by the row, so I don’t buy them. I make a healthier version of my own, but if I didn’t like to bake I wouldn’t have them.

   Many parents and caregivers put a lot of effort into their kid’s healthy eating but not for themselves. What are you telling them…that you aren’t important, or the different rules apply for adults? Think about it, children learn what they live, and hear, and see and eat!

   So my suggestion to you, if you are ready to make some changes in order to avoid the current childhood obesity epidemic, or just raise a fit family, is to make the first changes incremental. That way nobody goes into shock. It will take longer to see a difference in your bodies on the outside but you are moving from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle, and we want it to stick. If you are an unfit parent you likely got that way slowly, one day at a time. Reversing the trend slowly will allow you to replace old habits with healthy new habits and each one is going to take a couple of weeks to get firmly set. Here are some suggestions for you and your family. Pick one or two to start with and then add more as you feel confident and comfortable.

    1. Swap sodas and access caffeinated drink with water. That goes for any juices you may drink outside of your meals or snacks. Even 100% juice can be naturally sugar laden and high in calories.

   2. If you must drive your kids to school, park a couple of blocks away and walk in with them if they are young, drop them a couple of blocks away if they don’t want to be seen with you. Unbelievable but it happens!

   3. If you watch TV in the evening, make the commercials time when everyone must move.

   4. Substitute sweet desserts with a small yogurt cup. I choose to miss the dessert at dinnertime, because I’m not actually hungry after dinner, and have the yogurt and part of a piece of fruit part way through the evening.

   Eating a diet high in fresh fruits, vegetables along with some nuts and seeds is a great way to lose weight without going on a fast or other restrictive eating programs. I’ve seen the raw vegan diet help 100s of people, including my own mother, to achieve a healthy weight. Knowing how to do it well is the key.

Step One: Figure out where you are going. That’s right, decide how much you want to lose by the end of the month, by the end of the year and by the end of two years. Write your goals down and keep them with you so you can measure yourself.

Step Two: Once  you know where you are going, it’s time to see how to get there. Starting where you are, find out exactly how much raw food you are eating today, tomorrow and the next day. Write down everything you eat cooked in one column and raw in the other and then tally it up.

Step Three: Let’s say you’re eating 50% raw on those three days. Here’s what to do: for this week eat 60% raw. Then next week eat 70 or 75% raw. The next week go on up to 80-85%. It may take you are likely to experience some uncomfortable detox symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and irritable bowels.

This step is important because if you switch to a 90 or 100% raw diet right away you are likely to experience some uncomfortable detox symptoms such as headache, nausea, and irritable bowels.

Step Four: Once you’re reached 90% to 100% fresh raw foods in your diet, continue this for at least one month. Start measuring your weight loss from the day you begin this diet.

Step Five: A big failure of people on the raw food weight loss diet is to not learn how to make some tasty dishes with raw foods. You don’t have to be a gourmet, but you should learn at least how to create some simple meals that taste really good. Another alternative is to look and see if there is some kind of raw food delivery service in your area. More and more of them are sprouting up.

Feel totally free to stay on this program for as long as you can imagine. There is no time limit or expiration, Your most likely will drop 1-3 pounds a week as you go!!!!