I Feel Really Really Good!!! Really!!!

September 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I had not felt well for several months mainly being bothered by back-pain and fatigue.  This blah feeling was intensified when I decided to give Park-our training a try with my son.  I got through the introductory 4 lessons (which I enjoyed) with regular use of Motrin.  Since then I had been left with more back pain, pains in both wrist,  pain/swelling in my knees, and low levels of energy (50-60%).   All of these things had been weighing heavy on my mind as I feel that life is expecting much from me, and I want to deliver.

To avoid writing a whole book on the matter, lets just say that I was “led” to a book on nutrition.  Reading the book “Healing with Whole Foods, Asian Traditions, Modern Nutrition”, I was encouraged to give chlorophyll try (actually “another try” as I had used it before some 6 months earlier).  This time within an hour of taking the tablet I felt better and have been on a high ever since with quite a bit of energy (about 3 days now).  My body also seems to be healing itself with my back and joints feeling much better.   I did not experience this good when I took it before, so  it must be working in combination with some other things that I am doing.  So,  if you are having joint pains and some fatigue that wont seem to go away try the following formula:

1) Protein Powder: I had been using QuickMass as a meal replacement, as two scoops provides over 500 calories.  I am not suggesting this for calories or to increase protein but to make sure that one is getting all of the essential amino acids, which is harder with a vegetarian diet (which I was doing for a while).

2) Yoga:  I have these CD by ??? [I will get the name for the update] and I try to do this twice a day for a total of about 40-50 minutes per day.

3) Vitamin D: I usually take anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 IU per day.  Though I must admit sometimes I miss a day or two.  I probably take it at least 4 times per week.

4) Omega 3 Fatty Acids (fish oil):

5) Vitamin C: I try to take 250 mg three times per day.  This is a water soluble vitamin so excesses are usually loss.  So breaking up a large dose over the course of the day should allow you to absorb and utilize more. 

6) Chlorophyll:  I take 100mg two to three times per day.  This seems to have flipped a switch in me.  One major change in my diet compared to when I took it before has been an increase in whole grains and brown rice in particular. 

7) Wheat Grass Tablets: My most recent addition has been wheat grass, and I take two tablets twice per day.  I must say thought that the change in my energy and feeling of vitality came mainly when I added the chlorophyll.

For completeness I should also mention that I;  take a Centrum Silver, avoid sugar, eat very little meat, occasionally take cod liver oil tables, and consume less than an two alcoholic beverages per month. Do I think that all of the above are necessary?  Not really sure.  I will say that the, brown rice and use of whole grain bread are probably the biggest changes in my diet between now and when I used the chlorophyll before.

If there are things that you have found helpful in treating joint pains please share them with me.us : )

The best to you on your journey…

-jbetter

Filed Under: 2 Nutritional Fitness, News

Toxic Sugar??? All Sugar Not The Same!

April 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Background:

There was a recent 60 Minutes program done by Dr. Sanjay Gupta suggesting that sugar is toxic.  Leading this charge was Dr. Robert Lustig (UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology), who feels that all sugar is toxic and responsible for a host of chronic diseases to include obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer.  He has a  lecture on youtube called Sugar: The Bitter Truth (please watch this, please), which has had over 2 million hits, and over 16,000 likes (and 300 dislikes ; )

The Research:

Much of the comments on the 60 Minutes program surrounded the work of  Dr Kimber Stanhope, a molecular biologist at the University of California Davis.   In March of 2009 she published a paper where she observed outcomes in two groups of overweight subjects who only differed in the amount of fructose or glucose that they drank.  The glucose or fructose beverage made up 25% of their total calories, and total carbs were 55% of total calories.  She found  that the fructose group gained more fat around their stomach, experienced a worse lipid profile (risk factors for heart disease) and developed greater insulin insensitivity (risk factor for diabetes).  Basically, this study suggests that not all sugar is the same.  It turns out that fructose does not affect insulin levels (only insulin insensitivity), is metabolized principally by the liver, and  is easily converted to fat.  In fact, its the sugar that acts like a fat, and goes right to your stomach.  This is not the fate of glucose, which is a sugar that acts like a sugar.   This caused me to look further into the notion of sugar being toxic.

My Reflections:

I won’t bore you with all of the details of my investigation, and just highlight a couple of impressions:

1) Sucrose, which is table sugar is a combination of fructose and glucose (the good linked to the bad).  This is also the main form of sugar found in honey.  While these sugars (sucrose) can be found in whole foods, the amounts are less, and the toxic effects of the fructose are lessened by the presense of fiber.

2) We get more sugar into our diet than we should and this is not good.  For most, much of the sugar that we consume comes in the form of sweetened beverages, and most of that is fructose.   As an example a large coke at McDonald’s has 84 grams of carbohydrate vs the Big Mac sandwich which has 45 grams of carbohydrate.  And here is another important point, the carbs in the drink is all sugar, vs the sandwich where only 9 grams represent sugar.  Pay attention to the amount of  “sugar”, as this may be more important than the total carbs!?!?  Also pay attention to the amount of fiber, more being better.

3) Fructose in excess has a greater negative consequence on our bodies because of  where the fat shows up, and the effects on our lipid profiles, which changes them in a manner that increases our risk of heart disease.  There is also suggestion that fructose is bad for our joints, causing pain and impairment in a fashion similar to gout (because  it increases uric acid).

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1) Limit your consumption of sugar containing beverages (pop, juice, etc).

2) Try to limit the amount of foods that are high in fructose.  I did find one website that list foods by the amount of fructose that they contain.  The website is called SelfNutritionData. It helps that you can filter the foods by category.  Try to migrate your diet toward foods that are lower in fructose.

3) If you find that this strategy helps to take inches off of your belly, and your joints no longer bother you,  LET Me.US KNOW!!! (you can also let me know if you think this is a lot of nonsense : )

Filed Under: 1 BMI, 2 Health - Index Finger, 2 Nutritional Fitness, News

Automaticity, Behavior Change Made Easy?

March 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

There is a concept in behavioral research known as automaticity.  The general concept is that there are behaviors that can occur without actual conscious choice, without thinking.  There is also some suggestion that we can influence selected behaviors to become automatic.  Wouldn’t it be nice if simple behaviors such as getting enough rest, eating right, and getting regular exercise could be programmed through the process of automaticity?

I have seen some research that automaticity could be induced by exposure to words.  The first experiment that I became aware of involved students who were asked to unscramble sentences, picking four of five given words.  As an example a student was given  “she, him, at, worried, always”, which could become “she worried him always”.  The students thought this was the experiment, but the real interest was observing what happened next.

They were asked to go down the hall to ask another professor for instruction.  When they got to the professor, the professor was to be talking to another student, and they were never going to stop talking to each other.  The question was how long did it take for the student who just unscrambled the sentence to interrupt.  Unknown to the students, there were two groups of sentences that were being unscrambled.  One group was given all positive words, like kind, tolerant, patient etc.  The second group was given all negative words to work with like,  impatient, unkind, angry etc.  The act of unscrambling the words was called priming.  What the researchers found was that those students who were “primed” with the negative words interrupted sooner than those students who were primed with the positive words.  This suggest that words that we are exposed to consciously can have an effect on our behavior subconsciously automatically.  Hmmm???

So this got me thinking; in a digital age that require passwords all day (like our phones) that we can set ourselves…  Why not use words that would set positive intentions.  That way as we use passwords they would be bathing our consciousness with words that would encourage positive or desired behaviors.  Repeating words such as diligent, courage, health, success, order, can’t hurt and there could be a big payoff.  In fact we should be paying closer attention to our “word diet” over the course of the day.  We may find that we are often planting words that are not helping us.  Just some food for thought : )  Time to change my passwords…

Filed Under: 1 Mental Fitness, 2 Nutritional Fitness, 3 Physical Fitness, 4 Social Fitness, SMARTsteps

An Apple a Day?

March 7, 2012 by 4 Comments

Yesterday morning during work I decided to take a break and eat an apple.  There was nothing unusual about the apple or the taste.  Shortly after eating it I felt very flushed, warm, unusual.  It caught my attention and I wondered if it has something to do with eating the apple.  I was feeling like my parasympathetic system was over exited possibly due to a pesticide.  I decided to do an Internet search to see which foods likely had the greatest pesticide residues.  I was led to several sights that discussed this topic.  Most reference the “the dirty dozen”, a list of the foods that have been found to have the greatest amount of pesticides, and the “clean 15”, foods with the least.  Much of this information seems to come from the Environmental Working Group.  At the top of the dirty list?  Apples.

I don’t know if the apple was responsible for my symptoms, but I will pay greater attention to these list and try to buy organic when its a food on the dirty list.   The other alternative is to use a fruit/vegetable wash like “Fit”.

cleanWhat are the “clean 15″ : Onion , Avocado, Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Mango, Asparagus, Sweet Peas, Kiwi, Cabbage, Eggplant, Papaya, Watermelon, Broccoli, Tomato, Sweet Potato

 

 

peachThe “dirty dozen” fruits and vegetables: Peaches, Apples, Bell peppers, Celery, Cherries, Nectarines, Strawberries, Kale, Lettuce, Imported grapes, Carrots, Pears.  I would not say that these fruits should not be eaten as there are clearly health benefits, but it may be best to go organic or make sure that you use a fruit/veg wash like “Fit”.

 

EWGs Methodology:

Methodology

The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides ranks pesticide contamination for 53 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 51,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2009 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the federal Food and Drug Administration. Nearly all the studies on which the guide is based tested produce after it had been rinsed or peeled.

Contamination was measured in 6 different ways:

  • Percent of samples tested with detectable pesticides
  • Percent of samples with two or more pesticides
  • Average number of pesticides found on a single sample
  • Average amount (level in parts per million) of all pesticides found
  • Maximum number of pesticides found on a single sample
  • Total number of pesticides found on the commodity

For each metric, we ranked all of the foods based on their individual USDA test results, then normalized the scores on a 1-100 scale (with 100 being the highest). To get a commodity’s final score, we added up the six normalized scores from each metric. The full Shopper’s Guide list shows the fruits and vegetables in order of these final scores.

The goal is to include a range of different measures of pesticide contamination to account for uncertainties in the science. All categories were treated equally; for example, a pesticide linked to cancer is counted the same as a pesticide linked to brain and nervous system toxicity, and the likelihood of eating multiple pesticides on a single food is given the same weight as the amounts of the pesticide detected or the percent of the crop on which pesticides were found.

The EWG’s Shopper’s Guide is not built on a complex assessment of pesticide risks but instead reflects the overall pesticide loads of common fruits and vegetables. This approach best captures the uncertainties of the risks of pesticide exposure and gives shoppers confidence that when they follow the guide they are buying foods with consistently lower overall levels of pesticide contamination.

 

Filed Under: 1 BMI, 2 Nutritional Fitness