Filed under: nutrition
Food, food, food. Feeling good, or feeling less than good? Or, just plain feeling like crap?
No, do not click away from this post. Please. Stay right where you are, and at least read me out. It’s been a long time since I’ve ranted. I have been on best behavior, so humor me.
Oh, how I have been struggling as to whether I should write this post, or not. I receive e-mails with questions, and comments quite often. For those that do not know of my consulting practice, I do have one. Do questions irritate me? Of course not. It is my job to answer them, and many are hungry for truthful information. What can irk me a little are the comments comparing nutrition to hocus-pocus or alternative therapies, with the side-comments of, “Oh, you are THAT type of practitioner”. Excuse me, but which type do people mean? I don’t know. Perhaps I should start a question/answer column on this blog.
I do like to refer people back to biology, chemistry, and physiology, for those of you that have studied that particular subject. What do people really believe their bodies run on? Where do they think their energy to move about comes from? What keeps their immune system fighting internal terrorism, and products that come from ordinary metabolism, as a result of eating?
I sometimes wonder how people think, yet I do know that the public is daily bombarded with incorrect information. So, in regards to that, I do empathize with the confusion. If the media yells out a correlation between a single chemical toxin and cancer, people are on it like a hot potato, and even though it does not quite work like that. Yes, and despite the fact that people tend to be skeptical to whatever else the media yells at them.
Am I a health nut? No. Actually, I am not particularly fond of nuts, even though I know that they are good for me. Am I fanatical about nutrition? No. If I were a fanatic, then the mainstream public would never listen to me. Do I have goodies in my cupboard? Yes. Is there wine in my buffet? Yes. Is shooting for immortality the goal of my nutritional advice? No. I’ll leave that to the fanatics.
I do not believe that people should get all wound up, and worried about their occasional goodies. What we eat between Christmas and New Years is not the problem. The little extras in the weekends, are not the problem. The base-diet is important to consider. Making the base-diet a little more quality-based is the clue. As long as we spend hard-earned cash on eatables, why not get something in return for that money?
On a side note, I also see people killing themselves on single-nutrient fad diets, and for the sake of losing those extra pounds. High-protein diets were once “in”. Women died from this diet. The latest fad over here in the US is the South Beach Diet. Oh, don’t even get me started on that one. With a little correct information people would learn that just by trading out some of their current fats for more quality fat, this actually reduces those extra pounds around the midriff. You can read my post entitled, Love Your Fat!
So, what do I promote? Balance, and wellness. Aches, pain, mood-swings, irritability, exhaustion, lethargy, depression, etc. are not “feel-goods” folks! Why would we want to be experiencing this as the daily general rule of thumb? Go figure. We may as well feel good as long as we are here on this planet. Actually being able to enjoy one’s retirement years is also a good reason. It is never too late to feel better.
However, and it is a whopping, “however”. I will be brutally honest. Do I care and chase after those that show themselves little regard? No. There is no purpose in doing so. Adults willingly decide how they choose to treat themselves. For the most part, anyhow. Newfound knowledge will sometimes change their decisions. Knowledge is good. I do care very much about the children out there. Even if adults run themselves into a ditch, they should reconsider dragging their children down with them in the process. Children should be a motivating factor to seek additional knowledge.
I have been asked to recommend ONE book. Which book do I feel correctly reveals the myths and facts about your body, nutrition, and consequently your health? Which one would I choose? Simple. I would choose, The China Study. This one book, in my opinion, provides a foundation of knowledge that empowers and enables the ability to weed out faulty and incomplete information being served on a silver platter, each and every single day. I would go as far as to claim that you need not ever read another book about these subjects upon finishing, The China Study.
An impeccably designed study by a scientific researcher with decades of experience, ethically funded, and detailed down to the last “t” being crossed, The China Study, is known as the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. Now retired, Dr. T. Colin Campbell has been a truth-seeker for over forty years. This is far from a boring read. It is engaging, comprehensible, fascinating, and startling.
I will now step down from my soapbox. I have placed this book in my Amazon widget to the right, so that you can all read the reviews, and take a look at it. I have the foundation of knowledge, and more than just a tad bit experience under the belt, which enables me to recognize rotten apples when I find them. It’s my job to use this foundation in helping others to discover truth, which again helps them to achieve greater independence.
I’ve been catching up on some studying, so in the meantime I threw in a little music to entertain anyone dropping by. Gotta love Howlin’ Wolf’s weekend special. It was my “Ode to Bloggers” waiting for the abundance of goodies to fall from Adsense Penny-Heaven. Thus, the blues.
Studying has a bit of a negative creative effect on me. Those flowing ideas flow right on by. So, I’ve been wondering what to write about. See, I could go on and on about free radicals, and environmental toxins. I could write about the effects of mercury at the cellular level, and the half-life of neurological toxicity, but it is so depressing that I’d rather not go there. To cut to the chase, we’re all doomed. If I wrote about the correlation between brain levels of mercury and the number of amalgam fillings in your mouth, you’d be running for dentures. Yet, even that can worsen the situation. We’re all trapped, I tell ya! The short version is, fill up on whole fruits, veggies, and antioxidants, and hope for decent chelation support at best.
I could actually write about a few things that happened this week that really got me p-o’ed (note: refrained from the use of other preferred words for these situations), but on second thought you really would have had to have been there. On third thought, you probably would not have wanted to have been there, but golly gee jeepers you would have agreed with me, had you been.
Well. Then there was that eerie experience down on the landing at midnight, a couple of nights ago. Darndest thing I’ve seen in a long time. When I say eerie, I do mean eerie. The whole setting was exactly that. However, while watching this creature attempt to find secure land, I told it off. You bet your boots I did. I made it very clear that despite all expectations of me, I would NOT be jumping in to save it, if it should happen to cross an alligator out there. I mean, really! I, too, have my boundaries, and despite my “Emptynester’s Syndrome”. The buck had to stop there. Such audacious nature, that taunts the soft-hearted sucker.
Heck. I think I’ll head on over and listen to some blues at You-Tube. Anyone game? I’m outta here.
See ya later, alligator!
Filed under: nutrition
I know the title makes a lot of people cringe. Love your fat? Absolutely! Understand fat, embrace fat, accept fat, and love it. You need it. Fat, fat, fat. Fat has received a bum rap the past couple of decades, and most of us belonging to dieting generations have learned that fat is the enemy. On the one hand, we want it. Why? Well, in food preparation it is fat that delights our senses of taste and smell. On the other hand, we don’t want it. Why? The only reason is because we’ve been taught to NOT want it. Ah, the dilemma of being swayed hither and dither.
Along with all of the fad-diets and calorie counting, came the non-fat food selections in our grocery stores. Learned was the lesson that in our modern society, we do not exert the same type of physical manual labor as did the generations before us. This means that if we continue to eat the same amount without it being utilized, we store it. Fact. Yes, this is true. Yet, something alarming and peculiar began to evolve. In the low-fat diet eras of the the 1980’s and 90’s, many people befriended carbohydrates and cut out almost all fat. The result was, “people with brittle, aged-looking skin, hair, and nails, more infections, moodiness, and weight gain!” (Light, 2006, p. 40) . New problems began to arise with the manufacturing of refined food products. One of them being trans fats. One example of many that people have heard about. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I compare myself to my grandparents, I’d have to admit that my biochemical foundation is no different from theirs. Don’t roll your eyes at me in a sigh of, “Duh”. My point here being that our physiology has not evolved as quickly as our technology has. Our biochemistry functions just the same, and we forget that simple fact. Our bodies do not exclaim, “Hey, there are new processed foods coming out on the shelves, so let’s evolve new enzymes to break them all down and new methods to utilize these new ingredients!”. Me thinks not. It’s more like our biochemical processes are scratching their heads wondering what in the heck they are going to do with what they’re given to work with in order to help us survive in good health. Really try to conjure up the comical image of your cells and biochemistry as little workers, your employees if you will. They are over-worked, under-paid, and sitting around the lunch table reminiscing about the good ‘ole days when natural whole foods were “in”, and they knew what was expected of them in terms of performance. Ah, they don’t make food like they did in the good ‘ole days. When symptoms start to show up, that means that your employees have gone on strike, folks! There will be no working until their demands are met. All funnies put aside, our bodies are Paleolithic.
No one blog can cover all aspects of fat, so I’m sure that more will come in the future. My intention with this blog is to let you all know that it is OK to love your fat. Try not to think only about the calorie counting. Be more concerned with providing your body with what it needs to function optimally, and work for you! Putting your focus on this intention and following up with small baby-step implemented changes is a fantastic start! With a little time and little effort this approach will lead to stabilizing effects, one of them being your metabolism, and therefore your weight. Low on energy? Food for thought.
So, what do our bodies need? Our bodies need both saturated and unsaturated fat, and all chain-lengths for those of you that know your fat-chemistry. Something that is not talked enough about, is the subject of fat quality. This is because we are often singly focused on amount, and calorie counting. Do we still need to remain cautious and conscious of our intake? Of course we do. The point of “liking your fat” is not to encourage people to stop thinking, “amount”. In 2002, The National Academy of Science proposed a recommended 20-30% dietary intake of fat. This is still a little on the high end of intake, yet it is possibly acceptable if people also concentrate on fat quality, and individual needs (Haas, 2006, p.75). The majority of Americans are still eating a higher percentage than that which is recommended. There is room for improvement at least in this society, and along with reduction we need to rethink the issue of quality. It is really about providing your body with what it needs, and those needs are the fundamentals of healthy eating and living. We, therefore, need to address healthy quality fats.
Fats are components of your cell membranes, and they are essential in your cells communication with each other. They protect the brain and nervous system, and they transport nutrients, such as fat-soluble vitamins. Fat is a component of your internal tissues that protect your vital organs. This protects you not only from trauma, but also from temperature change. Fat is also your best source of energy, as it packs double the energy than do protein and carbohydrates. Yet, I find that it doesn’t always help to remind people of this high energy, and that is because people tend to tie that thought to stored fat and weight gain.
The following are three extremely simplified, yet necessary tips for those just starting out in their understanding of a complex subject. Everyone has to start somewhere, right? You have to simplify, or else it becomes so overwhelming that you won’t even want to attempt to begin.
The first tip is to buy unsalted butter. Go for the gusto, and buy organic as you will actually understand the words written on the ingredient label. Oh, I can almost hear the gasps out there. So, go on ahead to your refrigerator, and pull out your container of margarine. You will most likely find some sort of hydrogenated fat in the ingredients, and these are the result of the manufacturing process. They are unstable. So, don’t knock our old friend butter, as it is a better choice compared to your average margarine. Butter is a stable monosaturated fat, and these fats are essential as they provide structure to your cell-membranes. They stabilize them, and this type of fat is resilient to damage. You build the structure of your home with the right materials, don’t you? You wouldn’t want your walls falling in on you. In addition, butter contains butyric acid, which is a short fatty acid. Butyric has the properties associated with reduced cancer risk and tumor advancement reduction. As with all fat, you still need to watch the amounts you consume, yet this is a healthy choice.
The second tip is something that most people have already understood and implemented. In most homes you now find olive oil. Just make sure that it is extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil. Olive oil is the choice for cooking, because it is a monounsaturated fat, and not as prone to damage from light, heat, and oxygen, although all unsaturated fats are more susceptible than saturated fatty acids. As stated, olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, which allow our cell membranes to remain flexible and in communication with their surrounding environment. Yes, our cells do dynamically communicate.
The third tip is also quite well known, and this tip is about polyunsaturated omega-3’s. Omega-3 and omega-6 are two essential fats that we must consume in food. However, the average diet provides more than enough omega-6 fatty-acids, so an important intake focus should be on the consumption of the omega-3’s. People have generally become increasingly informed about these fatty acids, however, there are still a couple of facts that people aren’t aware of, and of which I will cover in a future blog. Your nerves, blood vessels, tissues, and growth are dependent on them. Not everyone is fond of what we call fatty-fish, or would want to consume it a couple of times a week. If for some reason you are concerned about getting enough of essential omega-3 fatty acids, purchase a bottle of organic flax-seed oil, and follow the instructions on the label regarding dosage. Don’t be surprised if your moods balance, and your hair starts shining!
These three tips are not difficult. They are pretty easy to implement, and for many people this simple beginning is much better than what is currently hiding in their cupboards. Make your daily quantity an issue of quality. And, what should you do about all of the other refined products in your kitchen concealing unhealthy fat? Start replacing them one by one with natural whole foods that give you better control over fat amount, and the type of quality that you are consuming. Yes, whole foods. Just like the good ‘ole days!
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Pentad. Simplifying Life and Love
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Haas, E.M. (2006). Staying healthy with nutrition. The complete guide to diet and nutritional medicine. Berkeley, Ca: Celestial Arts.
Light, Luise (2006). What to eat. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
