This fall here in North Carolina has been one of the best I can remember. It has really been an amazing and rejuvenating time for me watching all of the brilliant colors both here and in our mountains.

I think that is why I was so saddened to see this video of this spectacular rainforest spanning the coast of Canada’s British Columbia, one of our continent’s last and greatest wild places and home to wolves, bears (including the rare Spirit Bear) and abundant marine mammal populations, about to have Enbridge’s Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline, carrying the world’s dirtiest oil, installed that would endanger the entire Spirit Bear Coast.

My posts have always focused on prevention, primarily dealing with our health and how we can all have healthier lives.  This issue too is about prevention ~ Enbridge’s pipelines have produced more than 700 spills in the last ten years alone.  When the Enbridge pipeline in Michigan ruptured last year it contaminated the Kalamazoo River and the nearby community of Battle Creek with nearly one million gallons of tar sands oil.

Regarding this newest project, under current federal regulations, Enbridge would not be responsible if a tanker spill were to happen and would not be legally obliged to pay damages or help with cleanup efforts.  The pipeline has been heavily criticized by native groups, as the pipeline traverses much of their traditional lands and threatens habitat for wild salmon, which they have relied upon for sustenance for thousands of years

We all need to tell Enbridge to prevent this disaster-in-the-making by withdrawing its application for the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline .    Go to this link and sign the petition to save some of the world’s very last Spirit Bears and prevent the Spirit Bear Coast from being despoiled forever.

We all face it every day……we are aging.  And it all starts in our cells.  Stress, poor diet, and environmental toxins all wreak havoc on our cells daily.

Each day every cell in our body is bombarded by up to a million DNA-damaging assaults, damaging the cell’s natural defenses, lowering cell energy, damaging cellular DNA, and decreasing cell performance….all of which can contribute to cellular aging.    What can we do?

Recently I published a post on just this same subject with quite a bit of credible research on resveratrol.  As I mentioned then, both my husband and I take a teaspoon of this (which not only includes resveratrol but a full spectrum of concentrated polyphenols making the ingredients 10X more powerful than resveratrol in showing a key mechanism of aging ~ AGE protein formation).

Now a new clinical study on resveratrol and just recently published in Cell Metabolism, 14:612-622,2011, has emerged.  The study in question assigned 11 obese but otherwise healthy men to 30 days of placebo and 30 days of 150 mg of resveratrol daily in random order.    The study was double-blinded, meaning neither the participants nor the researchers knew who was taking what when.

The fundamental study hypothesis, based on prior work in animals, was that resveratrol supplementation would mimic the effects of calorie restriction, which has been shown to extend the lifespan in every species studied.

According to Dr. Stephen Chaney, mouse studies have shown that both caloric restriction and resveratrol decrease inflammation (which is thought to be a root cause of many diseases) and production of the free radicals (reactive oxygen species) that damage DNA and lead to aging at a cellular level.   Even the lowering of blood pressure and triglycerides, thus reducing the risk of heart disease as well as the lowering of blood glucose levels, and improving insulin sensitivity (which of course then can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes) has been linked to mouse studies with resveratrol.  Studies also show that resveratrol in mouse studies increases the number and activity of mitochrondria (the power packs of the cells) which improve exercise endurance.

Dr. David Katz, M.D., and Director at Yale Prevention Research Center states”  The take-away message [of this newest clinical study with humans, not mice] was clear enough. Daily dosing of resveratrol for a month mimicked most effects of calorie restriction, improving energy metabolism in muscle, improving insulin sensitivity, lowering blood pressure, and apparently enhancing fitness. There were no adverse effects of resveratrol.  Resveratrol has made the leap from mice to men… it’s the best contender for a profound medical advance in a pill I have seen in a long time.”

Sounds pretty convincing…..perhaps we really can extend our live by eliminating stress, eating a healthy diet,  removing as many toxins as we can from our environment AND taking a teaspoon of this stuff! 

Have you had your daily dose of resveratrol today?

When I went trick or treating as a child I remember my favorite house to go to was not giving chocolates away ~ actually they were giving pomegranates!  And that was one of my very favorite things to eat.  I did not think of it as a “healthy” choice ~ just a tasty one!  As a parent I always wished I had that pomegranate tree in the backyard to share with the trick or treaters at Halloween.

Today with the average amount of sugar per child per day at about 60-100 grams, it is no wonder we are dealing with an increase in childhood diabetes as well as childhood obesity.  And Halloween happens to be one of those days when candy is king.  Of course no one wants to spoil Halloween for any child.  The fun of dressing up and knocking on neighbor’s doors was always one of my very favorite things to do, as well as my own children and my grandchildren.  Picking out that favorite costume begins almost before summer comes to an end.

So what’s a parent to do?  Perhaps choosing to hand out fun stickers, temporary tattoos, cute plastic jewelry, dried fruit (such as little boxes of raisins), little boxes of crayons and little packages of pretzels could be an alternative for some of the candy.  One idea my daughter has used each year is to let each of the children pick out 10 of their very favorite pieces of candy from their “loot” and then leave the rest on the porch for the “Halloween Candy Witch” to take it and leave them a very special surprise.  That actually has been quite successful.

I just learned of a site where you can donate your Halloween candy and it actually goes to our troops serving overseas.  That was pretty impressive!  They even ask the children to send pictures and notes along with the candy they send.    Donations can also be given for toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Dentists participate as well:

It has been a whole year since this Non GMO Project was launched. Officially October 10th is the anniversary date.  Last year my post about this launch focused on what exactly genetically modified foods were and why would we care.

Did you know that there is not any U.S. law requiring genetically engineered foods to be labeled?   This is definitely a pet peeve with me since I check the labels on everything I buy.  According to the USDA, 80% of packaged processed foods found in our grocery stores now contain Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s)  Fortunately I rarely purchase those processed foods (without those GMO’s on the label).

Since it is Non-GMO Month, citizens are being asked to sign a petition requiring the FDA to label our food.   Go to this site if this concerns you.

According to USA Today, teens who drink soda, energy drinks and other sugary beverages are guzzling about 327 calories a day from them, which is equal to about 2 1/2 cans of cola, new government data show.  These results came from more than 17,000 interviews conducted from 2005 to 2008.  It included sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, and sweetened bottled waters.

Rachel Johnson, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and a nutrition professor at the University of Vermont stated, “Sugar-sweetened beverages are the No.1 single source of calories in the American diet and account for about half of all added sugars that people consume.”

Of course these dietary habits are associated with obesity and type-2 diabetes.  Barry Popkin, Nutrition Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, says consumption of super-caffeinated energy drinks, especially among teens and young adults, is skyrocketing.  “These are empty calories with no health benefits.”

Unfortunately products like Red Bull, Coca Cola or fruit drinks not only provide extra calories but can cause dehydration as well.  Better to reach for a glass of water.  One of the drinks I recommend has no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or preservatives.  It actually minimizes fluid loss for enhanced hydration, maintains blood-glucose levels, and even increases endurance for better athletic performance.  Many of my family members use this as a natural energy drink without the added sugars of normal  sports drinks.  In place of Red Bull, I often recommend a product that delivers a scientific blend of caffeine from natural green tea extract, plus L-tyroisine, L-theanine, B vitamins and vitamin D, again with no artificial flavors, sweetners, or preservatives.

The Heart Association advises people to consume no more than 36 ounces or about 450 calories from sugary beverages a week.  Again, water seems to be a great solution to this issue!  How about you?  Can you keep those sugary drinks to just 36 ounces a week?

The NY Times published yesterday the story of a visionary….. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist  who began a movement to reforest her country by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and who went on to become the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died in Nairobi, Kenya,  on Sunday. She was 71.

I was privileged to attend the Chicago Shaklee convention mentioned in the above video and was so inspired by her wonderful outlook on life, her sacrifices and her dedication to the environment as well as to women.  She was amazing and left us all wanting to do just a little of what she had already accomplished ~ making a difference.

“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations’ environmental program. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”

She will truly be missed; however, she has left such a legacy that her vision will go on, empowering women and helping our planet, one person at a time, one tree at a time.  Thank you Wangari for all that you have done and left for us to continue with what you started.

 The food pyramid on the far left is now obsolete and replaced by the USDA MyPlate.    We all seem to agree that this definitely looked better; at least fruits, vegetables and grains were given prominence over protein.  And it did seem a lot less confusing ~ 4 compartments labeled with the foods we should consume every day.

On September 14th, however,  a group from Harvard Health Publications, working with nutrition experts at Harvard School of Public Health, launched a revised version of the USDA’s MyPlate.  Why?  The first reason involves the glass of milk on the MyPlate icon.  Milk does not fall into the category of a food group (it is a specific food) and therefore consider it not a necessity for a healthy, balanced diet.  (Is that perhaps the dairy lobby connection?)  The second complaint concerned the absence of specific foods (although milk was mentioned!).  Fruits and veggies are pretty much explanatory but what about protein?  Does that mean red meat?  Will legumes and yogurt be eligible?

“Unfortunately, like the earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture Pyramids, MyPlate mixes science with the influence of powerful agricultural interests, which is not the recipe for healthy eating,” said Walter Willett,  Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and chair of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.  “The Healthy Eating Plate is based on the best available scientific evidence and provides consumers with the information they need to make choices that can profoundly affect our health and well being.”  Let’s take a look at this new icon:

According to the nutrition experts at Harvard,  MyPlate does not tell consumers that whole grains are better for health than refined grains; its protein section offers no indication that some high-protein foods—fish, poultry, beans, nuts—are healthier than red meats and processed meats; it is silent on beneficial fats; it does not distinguish between potatoes and other vegetables; it recommends dairy at every meal, even though there is little evidence that high dairy intake protects against osteoporosis but substantial evidence that high intake can be harmful; and it says nothing about sugary drinks. Finally, the Healthy Eating Plate reminds people to stay active, an important factor in weight control, while MyPlate does not mention the importance of activity.

This “new plate” sounds like a great alternative!  I especially like the “water” glass which replaced the “glass of milk,” particularly because I do not even drink milk.  With one in 3 children and 2 in 3 adults suffering from obesity in this country, perhaps helping America make wiser food choices through a “healthier” plate is wise.

The Harvard plate  describes “grains” as being WHOLE grains, not just white bread and white rice, but whole wheat and brown rice.  They recommend an abundance of  vegetable choices but also mention that potatoes create surges in blood sugar, adding to the diabetic problem so to limit them.  Choosing a rainbow of fruits is recommended.  Fish, poultry, beans or nuts are recommended for protein sources, and limiting  red meat and processed meats because of the connection to colon cancer, heart disease, weight gain and diabetes 2.   Choosing healthy plant oils and avoiding all trans fats and limiting butter is also mentioned.  And lastly drinking water, occasionally coffee or tea (with little or no sugar), only an occasional fruit juice and limiting milk and dairy to 1 to 2 servings per day.

Perhaps the best way to describe this is not in words but in a picture.  Enjoy! (And for that multi-vitamin that is recommended I suggest this one) ~ Love the exercise part too!

According to Reuter’s the number of people living with diabetes has now soared to over 366 million,  killing one person every 7 seconds resulting in 4.6 million deaths worldwide every year. This disease is posing a “massive challenge” to healthcare systems worldwide.

Poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise are all linked with those with Type 2 diabetes.   As people in the developing world adopt more Western lifestyles, diabetes is growing.   According to T. Colin Campbell, PhD, author of The China Study, a diet typically ‘Western’ in character, was high in calories, animal protein, [total] fat and animal fat.  Countries with a low rates of diabetes used a diet that was relatively lower in protein (particularly animal protein), fat and animal fat.    These researchers found the strongest association with diabetes was excess weight.  Populations eating the most ‘Western’ type of diet also had the highest cholesterol levels, which in turn was strongly associated with the rate of diabetes.

With $465 billion dollars now being spent on diabetic healthcare alone, perhaps it is time to get the word out about the dangers of our Western lifestyle.  Giving up meat and high-fat foods is a challenge; however, having a lifelong condition that cannot be cured by drugs or surgery; a condition that often leads to heart disease, stroke, blindness or amputation; a condition that might require one to inject insulin into their body every day for the rest of their life ~ I think that’s pretty challenging!

One of the biggest food challenges (I cannot really call it food) is soft drinks.  According to US News Health, Diabetes Care found that people with a daily habit of just one or two sugar-sweetened beverages—anything from sodas and energy drinks to sweetened teas and vitamin water—were more than 25 percent likelier to develop type 2 diabetes than were similar individuals who had no more than one sugary drink per month.  One-a-day guzzlers in the study also had a 20 percent higher rate of metabolic syndrome,  a collection of indicators such as high triglyceride levels suggesting that diabetes is not far off.

Governments meet next week at the United Nations in New York to consider what should be done to counter the growing problem of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes.   Providing funds to help educate the public about this health issue is a problem simply because governments are so strapped.  Global sales of diabetes medicines totaled $35 billion last year and could rise to as much as $48 billion by 2015.  Somehow, practicing preventative care rather than the drug approach, needs to be addressed.

Did you know that just ten to twenty minutes of light exercise after each meal helps to reduce the amount of insulin necessary to keep blood sugar levels under control.?  A brisk walk gets the body’s metabolism working a little bit faster so that the absorption of food is more easily distributed.  That prevents blood sugar from rising too high.  The best diet consists of organic vegetarian foods, eaten raw, sprouted, steamed, baked, or stir-fried with little or no oil.  Complex carbohydrates, not simple carbohydrates (such as bagels, chips, desserts, white rice, etc.) actually stabilize and improve improve health by not contributing to the high blood sugar levels.  Are we ready to make these drastic food choices?

Alternative approaches including, of course,  daily exercise and dietary modification is a great start.    One of the ways I work at maintaining a healthy weight is taking a delicious shake each morning, containing 6 grams of dietary fiber, 24 grams of protein with a low glycemic index.  It really gives me a lot of energy without the fat and sugar of a normal “western” breakfast.   Another product I use keeps my blood-sugar levels steady, which helps to control cravings.   The exercise is understandably a healthy choice.

Truly taking charge of our health and not becoming a statistic is achievable.  Our bodies will thank us every day for the rest of our lives.  With more than half of all Americans with a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, it is time to make a change.  What about you?  Do you or a family member fall into this diabetes statistic?

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my bout with food poisoning. Little did I know when I was writing that post that it was much more serious than that. Unfortunately, even though I had the symptoms of food poisoning it became much worse and I became very sick, so much so that I had to go to the doctor.

Blood work was taken and much to my surprise it was found that I had a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes most ulcers and is the most common cause of acute gastritis. Well, at least my misery had a name to it! And it did not seem to be going away. I was immediately given a course of antibiotics along with ulcer medication to last for 7 days.

According to Gary Null, one of America’s leading health and fitness advocates, the irritation in my stomach was very much like an “internal sunburn”. This bacteria is unique in its ability to live in the acid environment of the stomach, where it is able to create a protective coating. Often people with gastritis have problems with absorption of vitamin B12 and may develop macrocytic anemia as a result. Also, up to 80% of those with gastric ulcers (of the stomach) have heliocobacter pylori in their systems. 80% of those with Duodenal ulcers, severe irritations of the small intestine, also have heliocobacter pylori present.

After 7 days of these medicines  I am back to my old self. But not really. I no longer crave coffee (which is very good since coffee is something I should be avoiding). I have never been fond of spicy foods and since that too is a no-no, that is an easy one to avoid. Animal foods require more gastric involvement and should be avoided if possible. (Since I have chosen to eat only vegetables and occasional fish since March of this year, this was not a problem). I love broccoli but I should not have it in the raw state. Vegetables become less acidic when steamed. I have not tried this but apparently raw cabbage juice has been found to be quite beneficial. Even raw fruit (except bananas) can exacerbate the condition. Carbohydrate foods have their own protective buffer in the natural state (brown rice and whole grain and vegetables) but once they are refined (white flour and white rice, cakes and pastries) the buffer is stripped away, so they too should be avoided.

My real fear of taking antibiotics is because of the microflora imbalance it causes. Antibiotics kill both the beneficial and harmful bacteria in our bodies. Following a course of antibiotic therapy, women often experience yeast or urinary tract infections, children suffer from diarrhea and infants suffer from oral thrush and diarrhea. These health problems result from the destruction of the beneficial microflora and the accompanying overgrowth of yeast (Candida). Most of the people in the U.S. ingest far too many antibiotics because they are over-prescribed and are now present in our food. Farmers feed antibiotics to cattle and poultry on a daily basis; these antibiotics are then passed on to us in the food we eat and the milk we drink. The only way to restore the balance is to feed our bodies the beneficial microflora on a daily basis, especially, when on a course of antibiotic therapy.

Fortunately I do not drink milk (I only drink Almond Milk) and have not eaten meat in over 6 months. I was very diligent during the 7 days of taking this medicine to be sure and include daily  a Probiotic that provided guaranteed delivery of live, beneficial microflora to the intestine. It includes Bifodobacterium longum (commonly known as bifidus) and Lactobacillus acidophilus (commonly known as acidophilus). It is the only acidophilus-bifidus supplement available that also includes the unique, compex carbohydrate Prebiotic, which helps the beneficial microflora to thrive, therefore, contributing to LONG-TERM colon health.

I definitely felt my health was compromised during this time; however, with the help of the antibiotics as well as my Probiotic, (which kept all of those scary microflora imbalance issues away),  I was able to heal quickly. I feel also that stress can be involved in all of this and I am presently working on minimizing this as much as possible.  I am very grateful that I was able to get this bacterium out of my system.  It really has made me appreciate my prescription-free life and that my health is truly my most valuable asset.

Loved this video (even though it is an advertisement ~ great message!)

Have a wonderful Labor Day holiday!