Your Body Needs Salt

That's right. Your body needs salt, but not the table salt most of us consume. Table salt no longer has anything in common with natural crystal salt from rocks or the sea. Table salt has been "chemically cleaned" and thus changed to, for the most part, the "pure" chemical sodium chloride.

Major producing companies dry their salt in huge kilns with temperatures reaching 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. This changes the salt's chemical structure. By doing this, the salt now adversely affects our body. The table salt we use for flavoring foods has only two or three chemical elements left in it at best. Seawater, in contrast, has 84 natural chemical elements - minerals. To be healthy we need all those minerals to grow stronger, be in balance, and fight disease.

Use unrefined natural salt - sea salt or rock salt - always. These are generally rich in minerals and nutrients and are much healthier for you.

Learn more about natural ways to improve your health!

Deficiency

Vitamins and minerals are a necessary ingredient in the recipe for overall radiant health. Many health and nutrition professionals believe that a well-balanced, whole foods diet can provide all of your body's requirements. Eating a variety of whole foods can provide the essential elements that you need, as they have these elements naturally occurring in their make-up. A diet heavy in processed foods is where people begin to run into issues of deficiency.

What are the signs of deficiency? Here are some examples, along with the nutrient that is lacking in the diet:

Night blindness Vitamin A
Bone diseases, rickets Vitamin D, Calcium
Excessive bleeding,
liver damage Vitamin K
Anxiety, nausea Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)
Sores around nose,
mouth; visual problems Riboflavin
Weakness, irritability Vitamin B5
Skin diseases Niacin
Depression, confusion Vitamin B6
Weakness, fatigue,
headache, anemia Iron
Muscle weakness,
cardia arrhythmias Potassium

Not exactly a fun list, is it? All of these nutrients are found naturally in whole foods. Generally, foods that are heavily processed between the time they start from their natural state and arrive on your table are missing these key ingredients, having been processed completely out! Is a diet dependent on processed foods worth any of those symptoms above? Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds, and whole grains are the nutritional package that will provide you the most variety and the most nutrients.

When cooked properly, which means a minimum of cooking and boiling, over 90% of the nutrients found in vegetables can be retained. Cover vegetables while cooking to help retain those nutrients, leave them unpeeled when practical, and wash in cold water. Scrub root vegetables lightly to protect the vitamins which lie close to the skin.

Fruits are loaded with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and they can satisfy that craving for sweets. They are easily digested and most act as cleansing and balancing agents.

Beans, peas and lentils are legumes. They have a high protein content, helping to regulate sugar, water, and other metabolic functions. Providing fats, carbohydrates, potassium, calcium, iron, and several B vitamins, they are nutritional winners.

Nuts and seeds provide Vitamin E and essential fatty acids, which is an element that our bodies cannot provide. There are three essential fatty acids: linoleic, alpha-linoleic, and arachidonic acid. These serve to provide healthy skin and hair, promote healthy blood, nerves and arteries, and assist in the transport and breakdown of cholesterol.

Whole grains are filling, providing energy and endurance. They help to calm nerves, provide deep sleep, aid in elimination, quick reflexes, memory, and clear thinking. They are best complemented with other unrefined food plants.

Eating a variety of these nutritionial powerhouses will go a long way in promoting the healthiest levels of vitamins and minerals that your body requires to function. It can seem daunting to figure out how to get all of these foods represented in your diet! Add to your repertoire over a period of time, trying new recipes. When going to the store, be mindful of what you grab for - choose as close to natural state as possible to provide your body with quality!

Article by Eat-Well-to-Be-Well.com

Food Industry Claims All Foods are Healthy

The food industry and the tobacco industry have more things in common than you might think. The tobacco industry denied claims that smoking was addictive, or even unhealthy, for years and years. Well, the food industry is doing the same thing only with government support!

The food industry's stand is that no food is unhealthy. That all foods, regardless of ingredients, are all part of a healthy diet.

It's time for us to wake up and see the incredible body of misinformation about our food for what it really is... lies!

Any food with high fructose corn syrup, bleached white flour, saccharin, aspartame, nitrites, refined carbohydrates, hydrogenated oils, MSG, artificial colorings or any number of thousands of other chemicals and additives, is bad for you. Period. Regardless of what nutrients have been added. It's not possible to combat the bad ingredients with token nutrients and have the food item turn out to be healthy for you. It's like willingly taking poison and then taking a few vitamins to counteract it.

We absolutely know that there are some foods that promote obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, artheriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and many other chronic diseases. We also know that there are other foods that prevent those diseases - whole foods, whole grains, whole nutrients.

The food industry denies this. They extoll that no food or beverage has any effect on our health. The food industry is giant business. It's big money. It's big power. And it is controlling our health by refusing to tell the truth in their research and on their labels.

"You are what you eat" is an old addage because it has stood the test of time. Diabetes, cancer, obesity, and 65% of all diseases today are directly attributable to what we eat (and drink).

The real truth is that what we consume has a direct effect on our health. And, it's been proven time and again. Good health comes from good foods, bad health- diseases - come from bad - refined and processed - foods.

Did you know that the food industry hires researchers to disprove that fundamental truth. And they add nutrients to their foods and can legally make wild claims about positive health effects. However, consider that many truly healthy products, such as herbs and superfoods, can not legally make those claims!

Many ingredients in our refined and processed foods are literally poisons and are slowly, cummulatively, poisoning us to disease and death. Not to mention that so many natural ingredients are stripped from the foods that consuming them is starving our cells to death!

Every cell in our bodies is built by the foods we eat. Every organ in our bodies is supported by the foods we eat. Healthy foods lead to healthy lives. Unhealthy foods lead to unhealthy lives.

Most of the health claims on our food labels are nothing more than misinformation. It's so hard for me to believe that all of these untrue claims are allowed by the FDA - but they are. You can't put calcium or lutein or some other nutrient into an unhealthy food and claim that it's good for you!

How can you tell, personally, that your diet is an enemy of your health? Start here.

Prefer Nutrition to Prescriptions

Our society's high incidence of depression can largely be attributed to malnutrition and sunlight deficiency. Most of us simply aren't consuming enough B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and essential minerals -- all of which are required for healthy brain functioning. Then, to make matters worse, our diets are high in sugary foods, soft drinks and white flour, which actually deplete our bodies of these crucial nutrients. Another characteristic and consequence of modern society is that many of us spend the majority of time indoors in poor lighting. As a result, we're not absorbing enough vitamin D-rich sunlight, and this lack of vitamin D is another root of mental illness.

Today we bring you a feature article exposing the horrors of psychiatry and the prescription drugging of our children. If you have children, or you know someone who does, this is a must-read article that dares to question the sanity of treating childrens' behaviors with mind-altering chemicals. (Feel free to forward it to friends who might have children.)

It discusses why, in a nutshell, TMAP (Texas Medication Algorithm Project) embodies everything that is wrong with mainstream medicine and the government's relationship with Big Pharma, and, in the opinion of many, it proves that our government is corrupt at its highest levels.

The problems discussed concerning mental health problems (ADD, hyperactive disorder, depression, schizophrenia, and worse) can be economically relieved by providing better nutrition in our nation's schools, free nutritional supplements to people living in or near poverty and more opportunities for working adults and schoolchildren to spend time outdoors.

Read it at:
http://www.newstarget.com/018715.html

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Facts about out the state of our health

* Chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, obesity, cancer and respiratory diseases, now account for 59% of the 57 million deaths annually and 46% of the global burden of disease.
* Risk factors – high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and alcohol – cause the majority of the chronic disease burden.
* A change in dietary habits, physical activity and tobacco control, have a major impact in reducing the rates of these chronic diseases, often in a relatively short time.
* Heart attacks and strokes kill about 12 million people every year; another 3.9 million die from hypertensive and other heart conditions.
* More than one billion adults worldwide are overweight; at least 300 million of them are clinically obese.
* About 75% of Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) can be attributed to the majority risks: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, low fruit and vegetable intake, inactive lifestyle and tobacco.
* Sustained behavioural interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing population risk factors.

Many of the chronic disease risks, and the diseases themselves, overlap.

* Heart attacks and strokes kill about 12 million people every year (7.2 million due to ischaemic heart disease and 5.5 million to cerebrovascular disease). In addition, 3.9 million people die annually from hypertensive and other heart conditions.
* An estimated 177 million people are affected by diabetes, the majority by type 2 diabetes. Two-thirds live in the developing world.
* More than one billion adults worldwide are overweight, and at least 300 million of these are clinically obese.
* Up to 80% of cases of coronary heart disease, 90% of type 2 diabetes cases, and one-third of cancers can be avoided by changing to a healthier diet, increasing physical activity and stopping smoking.

What can be done?

Established scientific evidence suggests there are major health benefits in:

* Eating more fruit and vegetables, as well as nuts and whole grains;
* Daily physical activity;
* Moving from saturated animal fats to unsaturated vegetable oil-based fats;
* Cutting the amount of fatty, salty and sugary foods in the diet;
* Maintaining a normal body weight (Body Mass Index (BMI) range of 18.5 to 24.9.);
* Stopping smoking

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The importance of Vitamin D and why you are probably deficient in it.

For years, most of us assumed we'd be fine if we drank milk and took a multivitamin pill to get an adequate amount of Vitamin D. But in fact, that's a very wrong assumption. If you avoid the sun (and thus the resulting 20,000 units of Vitamin D we can absorb from 20 minutes of exposure to summer sun) you can't get enough vitamin D from milk unless you drink 40 glasses a day or from a multivitamin unless you take about 10 tablets a day, neither of which is recommended.

Studies report that most of us are vitamin D deficient and those deficiencies may well be causing numerous illnesses, especially cancer.

Recent medical research indicates humans may need up to ten times more vitamin D than is currently recommended. Study after study shows many of us are vitamin D deficient and may be paying a terrible price for it.

Benefits of proper vitamin D supplementation seem to include most major illnesses, not just cancer. Heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, chronic pain, depression, hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, premenstrual syndrome, muscle weakness, fibromyalgia, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, and various other autoimmune are also implicated by recent research.

This web site is dedicated to vitamin D and cancer.

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More Reasons to Avoid Food Dyes

In a study published in August, 2002, researchers tested 39 food additives including some colorings and preservatives. They were tested for "genotoxicity", which means the scientists wanted to see if the additives could change or damage the DNA in the cells of the animals. When DNA or genes are damaged, cancer can result.

All 7 of the food dyes tested caused DNA damage in the intestinal organs (stomach, colon, etc.) even though only small amounts were used. BHA and BHT, as well as four artificial sweeteners, also caused DNA damage.

The researchers concluded that we should take another look at whether these additives should be used.

Learn more about food additives here.

What is body mass index?

Determining how much you should weigh is not a simple matter of looking at an insurance height-weight chart, but includes considering the amount of bone, muscle, and fat in your body's composition. The amount of fat is the critical measurement.

A good indicator of how much fat you carry is the Body Mass Index (BMI). Although it is not a perfect measure, it gives a fairly accurate assessment of how much of your body is composed of fat.

Here is a BMI calculator.

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Sharp Minds over 65 through Nutrition

Researchers in a recent study of about 2,200 people age 65 and older discovered that both elevated blood folate levels and decreased blood homocysteine levels were associated with better memory function. Protect against memory loss by eating plenty of folate-rich foods because increasing your blood levels of folate can help keep your homocysteine levels in check.

Adequate dietary intake of folate can help reduce blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and mental decline when found in excess in the bloodstream. Genes and diet affect homocysteine levels.

One rich source is asparagus, which has 190 micrograms of brain-boosting folate per one-half cup serving. Other good sources of folate include artichokes, black-eyed peas, and fortified orange juice and cereals.

For a wonderful healthy recipe with asparagus, go to http://www.healthyrecipeoftheweek.com

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Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines from all of us at Eat-Well-To-Be-Well.com!

Remember... Dark Chocolate is the one that's good for you... within reason!

Enjoy!

One Billion Overweight, One Billion Malnourished!

Obesity is as great a threat to global health as malnutrition, says Derek Yach, the Representative of the Director-General of the WHO. One billion people -or one out of six --are overweight worldwide - the same number as are malnourished - and some 300 million of those are clinically obese, leading to a global rise in chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes.

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Soup and Weight Loss...

In a yearlong study of overweight people on a reduced-calorie diet, snacking on soup each day led to more weight loss than noshing on a calorie-equivalent amount of energy-dense snack foods. The key difference: even though the soup and the high-energy snack had the same number of calories, the soup took up more space in people's bellies. Thus, the soup eaters felt less hungry later and ate less over the course of the day.

Snacking on foods that have a low ratio of calories to mass -- such as air-popped popcorn, vegetable broth-based soups, and fresh produce -- may help you eat fewer calories overall and aid weight loss efforts. When incorporating soup into your weight-reduction plan, steer clear of cream-based varieties, which are high in fat and calories. Instead, choose soups with a base of chicken broth or vegetable broth and those loaded with vegetables, kidney beans, lentils, or brown rice to keep you satisfied and help you trim down. In a study of overweight and obese people, those who ate two servings of low-energy dense soup per day as part of a reduced-calorie diet lost an average of almost 16 pounds over the yearlong study period. The people who ate two servings of high-energy dense snack foods per day lost an average of just over 10.5 pounds -- 35 percent less than the soup-snacking group.

More...

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and Eat-Well-To-Be-Well.com

Cancer deaths decrease

For the first time since 1930 annual cancer deaths in the United States have fallen according to the National Center for Health Statistics in a recently completed review of U.S. death certificates.

Smoking, earlier diagnosis, and improvement in treatment is the reason according to Dr. Michael Thun, director of epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society. He surmizes that the most credit goes to the reduction in smoking over the last 4 to 5 decades.

Scientific research, screening campaigns, radiation and chemotherapy cancer treatments are harsh and resulted in the fact that total deaths continued to rise, until now. The actual number of cancer deaths still rose each year due to the growth in total population outpacing the falling death rates.

However, now the declining rates of cancer deaths have surpassed the increasing size of the population according to Rebecca Siegel, a Cancer Society epidemiologist.

Lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer are the four most common cancers, which together account for 51 percent of all U.S. cancer deaths.

More...

In Canada a downward trend in mortality rates from cancer in recent years has also been reached.

If nutrition goals are also reached, it is my opinion that even further reductions in cancer deaths, as well as 65% of diseases today, would also be achieved. Learn and apply more healthy habits!

Low-Fat Study is Flawed...

In the news today, you may have heard that a $415 million federal study found that a "low fat diet" for women over 50 did not result in reduced risk for colorectal cancer, heart disease and stroke. 50,000 post menopausal women reportedly fared no better than the control group. The risk of breast cancer was 9 percent lower among the dieters, however the study results discounted that finding.

In reality, the study wasn't what it should have been. Dr. Dean Ornish, a UCSF professor and author of numerous books (advocating an extremely low-fat diet to protect against cancer and heart disease), said that the study was "deeply flawed" from the beginning because the fat-content reduction was too low. "It didn't ask participants to do much to begin with,'' said Ornish.

The dietary differences between the low-fat group and those that could continue to eat whatever they wanted were not great enough to produce the desired result of demonstrably lower cancer and heart disease rates. Ornish said that the small difference in levels of so-called bad cholesterol -- only 2.6 percent lower for the low-fat group -- is a medical indicator that the diets pursued by the two groups were too similar.

In other words, don't give up on lowering your fat intake! If you're over 50, just do a better job of it and eat more fruits and vegetables!

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Food Labels

Greg O'Neill points out:

On the Apple and Eve Tropical Mango Passion juice label it says "100% juice," in big, bold letters.

However, if you look on the upper right corner of the label in really small skinny letters it says "Flavored blend of 4 juices from concentrate and other added ingredients."

This "food label" is broken!

Interesting debate going on about this.

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) refers to a wide spectrum of liver diseases ranging from the most common, fatty liver (accumulation of fat in the liver, also known as steatosis), to non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, fat in the liver causing liver inflammation), to cirrhosis (irreversible, advanced scarring of the liver as a result of chronic inflammation of the liver). All of the stages of non alcoholic fatty liver disease are now believed to be due to insulin resistance, a condition closely associated with obesity. In fact, the BMI correlates with the degree of liver damage, that is, the greater the BMI the greater the liver damage.

As expected, non alcoholic fatty liver disease is observed principally in developed countries. In these societies, a sedentary lifestyle and high calorie, sugar, and fat intake lead to a high prevalence of obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes.

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease is currently the most common liver disease in the US and worldwide, affecting estimated 10-24% of the world’s population. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control reports that currently, approximately one half of the U.S. adult population is overweight (BMI>25) and one quarter of the U.S. adult population is obese (BMI>30). That means upwards of 29 million Americans have non alcoholic fatty liver disease, while 6.4 million of these persons have non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Even more alarming than these statistics, non alcoholic fatty liver disease is occurring among children in the US.

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The Benefits of Fresh Yogurt

Fresh yogurt contains an abundance of the friendly bacteria your body needs to produce lactic acid, which balances the production of acid in your stomach, protecting it and your intestinal lining, making it easier for you to digest your food. And because lactic acid makes your digestive tract slightly more acidic, it also helps promote flora balance, which supports proper bowel habits, eliminates gas, and prevents diarrhea.

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Note about nutrients...

It is critical that you consistently eat a well-balanced diet for the nutrients your body needs even though you are taking nutrient supplements. Do not let the supplements give you a false sense of "nutrient security." Nutrients present in whole foods work together for health benefits not found when you take individual supplements.

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