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Enjoy Healthy Living By Being A Label Detective!

May 12, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that we are what we eat. But what has been a well-kept secret by the food processing industry is that there are innumerable ingredients that go into processed food that are causing you to gain weight. Many of them are advertised and promoted to make you believe that they will not only help you lose weight but also that they are healthier.  NOTHING could be farther from the truth.

First Step

The first step to losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight is to buy as few packaged food items as possible. The less the food industry gets their hands on it, the better. For example:

  • Boxed Cereal – Alternative: Rolled Oats (yes…good old porridge)
  • Microwave Vegetable Dishes – Alternative: Go to the vegetable aisles and buy fresh (or frozen)
  • Dinner Entrees (Frozen or Micro) Alternative: Steam veggies and Roast Chicken

I know, I know.  The boxed, micro or frozen are much easier and way faster to prepare. But how much time are we talking here, 15 -30 mins of your time for a lifetime of vitality, energy and worry free health!
Every minute you spend preparing good wholesome food for your body, is an investment in how your body will serve you in years to come. It’s that simple

SECOND STEP

Be a label detective! When you are buying any food item, whether it’s for a meal, a snack or a treat, READ THE LABEL. If you can’t understand 50% or more of the words, your body can’t either. Unknown chemicals, preservatives, and artificial colourings are all foreign substances as far as your body is concerned. They will either raise your insulin, increase your appetite, give you cravings or generally just contribute to weight gain.

WHERE TO START…..

Here are two items to start with because learning to read labels can be complex and overwhelming when you start.

FATS

There are only a few really good fats/oils for healthy tissue and organs. Your body needs oil/fat that it recognizes. All the processed fats today are foreign substances to your body’s intelligence system. Olive oil and coconut oil are your very best sources.
Here are the ones to watch out for on labels. 100% NO!

  • Hydrogenated Oil Vegetable Oil
  • Palm Kernel Oil Shortening
  • Trans Fatty Acids Margarine
  • Soybean Oil Corn Oil
  • Cottonseed Oil

SWEETENERS

The same principal applies here as above with fats. Your body does NOT recognize foreign substances. All fructose sweeteners will increase your appetite and cravings. All artificial sweeteners will raise insulin levels and contribute to weight gain. There is NO win here.
Here are the names to watch for on labels. 100% NO!

  • Aspartame Sucrose
  • Sucralose Rice Syrup
  • Nutra Sweet High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
  • Saccarin

Healthy living begins with what you put in your mouth. Be a label detective. Take care of your own health and the health of your family and enjoy the endless benefits of your investment.

Filed Under: Diet Tagged With: , , ,

The Key Component To Fat Loss

March 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

What comes to mind when you hear that phrase? Most commonly, an alcohol binge – yes? Did you know that it also applies to weight loss? Yes I know….hard to believe.

What does sleep have to do with weight loss?

According to a small study conducted at the University of Chicago, sleep is a key component in fat loss and can undermine other efforts to lose weight. What was learned from this study is that without enough sleep the body produces more of the hormone ghrelin. This hormone stimulates hunger and promotes fat retention. Those who got 8.5 hours of sleep lost 3.1lbs of fat compared to those who only got 5.5 hours of sleep and lost 1.3lbs.

The standard, recommended amount of sleep for the average person is 7 hours of restful sleep per night for optimal recovery and repair to hormones. But good sleep isn’t just for hormones. Sleep deprivation is also associated with high insulin levels (this is addressed in the article on Diabetes Dangers).

For many individuals, the hectic pace of a Western lifestyle, lack of exercise and poor eating habits can lead to sub-optimal health. Often, these same individuals do not receive enough sleep at night. The vast majority of health care providers now recommend that individuals receive 7 hours of sleep. This lack of sleep has been shown in studies to be a major cause of elevation of stress (cortisol) and appetite (ghrelin) hormones, which is thought to lead to a further progression of poor sleep and eating habits.

These poor habits are part of the factors that determine not only weight gain but also cardiovascular fitness, mental alertness, immune health and other important indicators of optimal health and well-being (see specific articles on Heart Disease, Memory, Immunity).

On his first show of the year, Dr. Oz said when it comes to health, what people don’t care enough about is SLEEP. We are all so focused on what we do in our waking hours, we brag about how little sleep we get. According to Dr. Oz on not getting enough sleep “It’s correlated with illness; leads to hypertension, early death, accidents, lots of problems if you’re not sleeping well. The inability to sleep is also a reflection that your inner harmony is not there.”

So you are beginning to understand why a good “beauty sleep” is essential to healthy lives.

Cutting back on sleep may sometimes seem like the only answer to our busy lives. How else are you going to get through your never ending to-do list or make time for a little fun? Seven hours sounds great, but who can afford to spend that much time sleeping? The truth is you can’t afford not to. What you will find, is that with enough sleep, your energy and efficiency level will go up and you will actually get more done!

Filed Under: Sleep Tagged With: ,

Only Minutes A Day For A Healthy Body

February 4, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Contrary to popular belief, improving your health is possible with just a few basic habits that take only minutes a day. Here are 7 simple, fast and effective tips to improve your total wellness.

Dose up on vitamin D3

If you had to pick just one nutrient to take daily it would definitely be vitamin D3 . This powerhouse vitamin can reduce your risk of the flu (especially H1N1), weight gain, bone disease (osteoporosis), diabetes, cancer, heart disease, pain and inflammation, depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder and autoimmune disease. The Canadian Cancer Society recently recommended vitamin D supplementation as a protection against cancer. The recommended daily dose depending on weight is 2,000 to 5,000 IU per day.

Cut the Sugar

Obvious sources of sugar are cookies, candies, pop, cakes, pies, muffins, baked goods, brown sugar and molasses. But my guess is that you will be surprised to realize all of the places that sugar seeps into your diet. Do you think of granola bars, energy drinks, juice, jam, most cereals, flavoured yogurt, ketchup and many other prepared condiments, white pasta, white rice or certain fruit as sources of sugar? You should. All of these foods trigger the release of high amounts of insulin, the only hormone that always instructs the body to store energy as fat. Read labels and limit your intake of these sugary foods to only once or twice a week.

Go to Bed

The body does its most important repair work between the house of 11pm – 2am. So get to bed by 11pm. We have become a society of sleep-deprived individuals at greater risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer and depression. Sleep is extremely important! Plan your evening so you can go to bed in time to achieve the recommended 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night .

Protein is Best at Breakfast

Skip toast, muffins, bagels, cereals, scones, oatmeal or danishes at your first meal of the day. The old adage to eat your carbs earlier in the day has set us many of us up for failure when it comes to reducing our overall sugar or carbohydrate intake. Studies show eating these foods not only increases our desire for them later in the day, they also increase appetite overall. Enjoy eggs or a whey protein isolate smoothie for breakfast and you will increase your metabolism and energy and free yourself from your chronic 3pm cookie or muffin habit.

Healthy Oil is a Must

The most commonly consumed polyunsaturated fatty acids in the average North American diet are omega-6 fatty acids. But these fatty acids are directly related to excess insulin and play a significant role in obesity. Sources of omega-6 include meat, eggs, poultry, cereals, breads, baked goods, vegetable oils and margarine. Natural sources of health-promoting omega-3 include oily fish, olive oil and flaxseed oils, soybeans and nuts. Have some every day.

Fish and Exercise – the Perfect Couple

When Professor Peter Howe and his colleagues at the University of South Australia studied the effects of diet and exercise on the body, they found that fish oil supplements and exercise made a powerful fat-loss combination. During the study, overweight to obese adults with metabolic syndrome and a greater risk of heart disease took omega-3 fish oil daily in combination with moderate exercise three times a week for 12 weeks. Body fat stores, particularly ab fat, were significantly reduced in the fish-oil-plus-exercise group, but not in those who used fish oil or exercise alone.

NO AND NEVER

Always say no to and never consume any of these three health robbers: hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners and high-fructose corn syrup.

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