Please know, I am not trying to freak people out by posting this stuff. Only make you aware of what you are putting on your skin. This is a good article that will help people not be so afraid of the sun, but maybe more afraid of what you are putting on your skin. But there are sunscreens out there that are safe for you!!
Read this article.
http://www.naturalnews.com/032815_sunscreen_chemicals.html
and you can look here for good sunscreens.
http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/best-sunscreens/best-beach-sport-sunscreens/
: ) Get out an enjoy the sunshine!!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Antioxidants
In my last post I talked about free radicals and how they damage your body. Today I'll tell you how antioxidants can help. :)
Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our foods which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body. When our body cells use oxygen, they naturally produce free radicals (by-products) which can cause damage. Antioxidants act as "free radical scavengers" and hence prevent and repair damage done by these free radicals. Antioxidants may also enhance immune defense and therefore lower the risk of cancer and infection.
Antioxidants are nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as enzymes (proteins in your body that assist in chemical reactions). They are believed to play a role in preventing the development of chronic diseases.
We can get antioxidants from our food, some good examples would be ~
Carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots (bright-colored fruits and vegetables!)
Citrus fruits like oranges and lime etc, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries and tomatoes
Nuts & seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil and liver oil
Flavonoids / polyphenols
red wine
purple grape
pomegranate
pomegranate
cranberries
Tomato and tomato products
pink grapefruit
watermelon
dark green vegetables such as kale, broccoli, kiwi, brussels sprout and spinach.
The problem is, most of us don't eat enough of these to fight the frree radicals. Even if we do eat a ton of fruit and veggies, the quality is just not the same as it used to be with our food.
When I was at training, our trainer gave a great example of this.
In 1950 there was 150mg of Vit C in 100gm of Spinach.
In 1963 it went down to 100mg of Vit C
In 1982 down even farther to 63mg of Vit C
and in 1994 down to 13mg of Vit C in 100 gm of spinach.
If you needed 5 fruits and veggies in 1950, you would need 27 to 43 servings a DAY now!
Here's an interesting article on soil depletion.
Another interesting fact is that when you cook your veggies, they lose some of their nutrients,and if you microwave them, you may as well forget about getting vitamins from them.
Here's another article on that subject~
Don't microwave your vegetables: new research shows that microwaving destroys up to 97% of important nutrients like antioxidants. It is, in fact, the healing phytochemicals that are the most important reason to be easing vegetables like broccoli in the first place. These phytochemicals are powerful anti-cancer nutrients, but blasting them with a microwave defeats the whole purpose.
If you microwave your food, you're killing it. You might as well be eating canned soup or other forms of "dead food." To be healthy,you've got to eat food that still has its nutritional value intact. So what should you do instead? Steam your vegetables. Or eat them raw.
Remember: the less you cook them, and the less they're processed, the healthier all foods really are. Ideally, you want to go straight from the garden to your mouth.
The bottom line is, we need antioxidants to fight free radicals, and your not getting the antioxidants you need from your food. So you need supplementation!
These are a few that I currently take, OPC-3, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3. If you'd like more info on these follow the link.
Be good to your body and it will be good to you!!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Don't take supplements??
Don’t take supplements? You’re in the minority, according to new study
Author: 
According to new statistics released this month, more than half of U.S. adults are using supplements. The statistics show that 53 percent of American adults are using some form of supplementation.
Lead researcher Jaime Gahche and her counterparts called the use of supplements “widespread” in their assessment, and that supplements are “contributing substantially to total nutrient intake” in the United States.
The report looked at supplement use among adults from 2003 to 2006, and compared it to use in 1988 to 1994. Among the findings:
“There’s no substitute for a healthy lifestyle,” Dr. Avitzur told CNN.
That’s why it’s important to talk with your Health Professional about the types of supplements available on the market, and how each can help you achieve your own optimal health. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening as often as it should.
According to a recent survey conducted by the American Association of Retired People and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, just 58% of people who take supplements discussed products with a health professional.
One of the most important reasons to discuss supplement use with your Health Professional is because not all supplements are created equal. There are great differences between products on the market today.
Some supplements work faster and more effectively than others, providing rapid absorption and higher nutrition value than others. This can be for a number of reasons: the method which the product is delivered through the body, the elimination of fillers and binders that provide little nutritional value to the products, and the quality of ingredients used to create the product.
When choosing a supplement – as a majority of Americans are doing based on the latest research – it’s important to note these differences. That way, you can be sure that the supplement you are using is best for you and your specific needs.
http://www.marketamerica.com/
Lead researcher Jaime Gahche and her counterparts called the use of supplements “widespread” in their assessment, and that supplements are “contributing substantially to total nutrient intake” in the United States.
The report looked at supplement use among adults from 2003 to 2006, and compared it to use in 1988 to 1994. Among the findings:
- Nearly 40 percent of all Americans use at least one multivitamin/multimineral product, with use more common among women than men. That is up from 30 percent in the previous findings.
- The newest statistics show that more than 60 percent of all women over the age of 60 use a calcium supplement, compared to less than 30 percent in previous reports.
- Supplemental vitamin D use has increased dramatically in both men and women since the first study, especially in adults over the age of 40.
Dietary supplement use has increased in adults over age 20 since 1994, and we have over one-half of Americans taking one or more supplements a day. This information is important because such a high prevalence of people take dietary supplements. So we need to make sure we capture this information when assessing nutritional status. If we only include food and beverages, we are missing out on a big proportion.While supplements can help offset nutritional deficiencies, many experts agree that taking supplements is not a way to make up for a poor diet. This thinking, according to Dr. Orly Avitzur, medical adviser for Consumer Reports, has led to an explosion in the supplement market, which accounted for approximately $27 billion in spending in 2009.
“There’s no substitute for a healthy lifestyle,” Dr. Avitzur told CNN.
That’s why it’s important to talk with your Health Professional about the types of supplements available on the market, and how each can help you achieve your own optimal health. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening as often as it should.
According to a recent survey conducted by the American Association of Retired People and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, just 58% of people who take supplements discussed products with a health professional.
One of the most important reasons to discuss supplement use with your Health Professional is because not all supplements are created equal. There are great differences between products on the market today.
Some supplements work faster and more effectively than others, providing rapid absorption and higher nutrition value than others. This can be for a number of reasons: the method which the product is delivered through the body, the elimination of fillers and binders that provide little nutritional value to the products, and the quality of ingredients used to create the product.
When choosing a supplement – as a majority of Americans are doing based on the latest research – it’s important to note these differences. That way, you can be sure that the supplement you are using is best for you and your specific needs.
http://www.marketamerica.com/
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Free radicals.
Wow, I have a plethora of information that I can't wait to share but I don't want to over load any one's brain with too much at once. lol.
I went to a training and learned SO much I just have to share, but I'll try to do it in bite size pieces.
Today I'll share what I learned about free radicals.
Every day, our bodies are exposed to toxins that are detrimental to our health. Some of these toxins are free radicals.
Free radicals are unpaired oxygen molecules that can cause damage to the membranes of the cells in our bodies, and this may lead to the development of different types of diseases.
The activity of free radicals in our bodies can cause our cell membranes to deteriorate to the extent that they will fail to function effectively.
Free radicals can cause a lot of problems to our health. When there is an abundance of free radicals in our bodies, the genetic code material of cells can be changed, and this will result in mutations that can lead to serious conditions such as leukemia and other forms of cancer, as well as many other diseases.
In fact, free radicals are said to be linked to most of the chronic degenerative diseases that are known in the world today.
Free radicals in your body is just the same as the oxidation of an apple, if you leave it sit out, it turns brown.
If you have too many free radicals in your body, it deteriorates your body.
Some examples of what causes free radicals are smoking, drinking, eating sugar, eating food with toxins in it, the air we breathe outside that is polluted, water we drink that is dirty.
Our bodies are always having to fight off free radicals. If your body can't handle it, it deteriorates.
Some of the disease from free radical damage are as follows-
Asthma
Chronic bronchitis
Arthritis
Rheumatism
Alzheimer's
Parkinson's
memory loss
Depression
Anxiety
Stroke
Chronic renal fatigue
Cancer
Aging
Diabetes
Inflammation
Infection
Cataract
Hypertension
Heart failure
preeclampsia
That is not an exhaustive list!
Free radicals are bad.
What can we do about it?
We can help by quitting smoking, stay away from smokers, drink less alcohol, try to eat food that is not processed and from a box, don't put toxins on your skin, because your skin absorbs whatever you put on it just like you are eating it! Would you eat your lotion? Or Shampoo? Or make up? :)
and to counter act all the damage, we need to take antioxidants. That can be my next blog.
What are Antioxidants and what do they do for you.
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