Why Antioxidants? What are they anyway?

The most important antioxidants are vitamens C, E, Bioflavenoids, and Betacarotene. Anitoxidents can be found in fruits, vegetable, oils(olive oil, or sesame seed is the best), seeds, and nuts. In the majority of articles read although meat has some antioxidant properties, most of those properties can be found in other foods....that's why a mostly vegetarian diet is highly recommended. More about what meat does during digestion later(its not good). Antioxidants are said to be free radical scavengers in that they go around completing those outer shell electrons and in the process they have the ability to stay stable themselves, thus reducing the amount of free floating radicals in our bodies. Tissue saved!

 Another important factor about free radicals is that free radicals are a natural part of our immune system.  Free radicals attack viruses and illnesses, its when there are too many that our tissues and organs are damaged.

Free Radicals? Can Cost us our health.

Free radicals are not exactly free, except that they are free to roam around our bodies and reek havoc. Free Radicals are caused by many things, some natural and some from environmental factors. The environmental factors are the causes we need to exert some control over because of the long term consequences. Many of us expose ourselves to too much radiation(sun), pesticides, cigarettes, alcohol and other heavy metal toxins on a daily basis.

Here is the simplified explanation without too much biology. The molecules in our cells are held together by the bonding of atoms.  Molecules are atoms that fit together like a puzzle and complete each other(see picture). When the electrons in the outer shell of an atom become weak and let go of the electron that completes its shell, it causes the atom to look for another electron to complete the circle, and to make it stable again.When the outer shell of an otherwise stable molecule is broken, it is called a free radical. Many times in order to complete the circle of electrons it breaks apart another atom's outer shell trying to snag that electron that it needs. When this happens again and again, it  causes a snowball effect, lots of broken bonds, hence more free radicals. Can you see how if free radical damage is allowed to continue the damage to our cells and tissue could be extensive and ongoing? We do have a weapon against free radicals, but that is another blog!  Tomorrow, how antioxidants can help......yay! Click here to read more.

Are all Calories Created Equal?

So, what is a calorie? Are fat calories equal to carbohydrate calories? Nope, not the same!


A calorie by definition is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius from an initial temperature(just leave it at that, it gets complicated), at 1 atmosphere pressure. Here is a link if you want more splaining! http://www.answers.com/topic/calorie


Ok so that's the science of it. Bottom line, that heat is expended in energy by our body at a certain rate ... sometimes fast...sometimes slow, but generally the faster the better.  To burn calories faster we have to move! Thats a blog for another day.

Today I just want to talk about fat calories vs. carbohydrate and protein calories. Many of todays diets are based on how many grams of fat we should have daily(about 30%) and how many grams of carbohydrate and protein we should consume daily .  For instance a gram of fat has 9 calories, whereas a gram of protein or carbohydrate only has 4 calories. In case your interested alcohol has 7 calories per gram. So, if you are reading a label on the back of a packaged food, it really helps to know how to calculate how much of that food's calorie make up comes from fat, that is if you are watching your fat grams, which I believe we all should. When you are looking at a label just multiply the number of fat grams by 9 and you will know how many calories are from fat.. On this label it comes out to 108 which is not what is stated on the label....hmmmm. Why is that you ask? Because according to the FDA they don't have to be exact on the labeling, they are allowed to "round it off." So when something  says O grams of fat, it's not necessarily so. If you want to know the exact rules you can go to the FDA website here.  Happy label reading!

Bison? Tastes just like chicken!

Ok so it doesn't take like chicken....It tastes a lot like beef,
 has more iron than beef, and less fat and cholesterol than chicken..
Those Chik-fil-A cows should be saying "EAT MORE BISON."
 Bison, by nature beats out pork and salmon as well when it comes to fat, calories,
and cholesterol. Bison is a wild animal and feeds on wild grains and grass, 
so it's  never given antibiotics or growth hormones.


Contrary to popular belief a bison is not a buffalo. The main bison population exists primarly in North America. Whereas the two main Buffalo species reside in  Africa and Asia, they are the African cape buffalo and the Asian water buffalo.
Bison are called "buffalo" casually  because they resemble one another and are from the same family, but there are distinct differences as you can see in the pictures. The National Bison Association encourages the term "bison" to differentiate between what is considered the American Buffalo(bison) and the true Buffalo. For more information about bison in America, how it is manufactured, nutrition, and how to prepare click on this link.



Bison







Buffalo









The UltraMind Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman

In the last post I mentioned a young journalist who dealt with bipolar and how he overcame it. He reccomended several books on the topic of how nutrition can effect your symptoms. One of these was "The UltraMind Solution" by Dr. Mark Hyman. The journalist mentioned how if you don't read anything else, you should read this book because it will change your life. So, I got the book, read it, and I have to agree with him. It is a true eye opener.
The book not only talks about how nutrition and certain supplements can help your body, but he gets specific. He gives case studies as examples in almost every chapter about clients who come in and are over weight, tired, and suffer from some mental health issue that often included depression, early dementia, alzheimers and even autism. He goes over their treatment plan and then discusses in the book the reasoning behind it and how it can help you. He gives you health "quizzes" so you can see what areas you are deficient in. Some of these include inflammation, zinc, magnesium, hormones, and thryroid. He makes the case for the fact that many of our physical ailments all stem from an "inflammed brain" that we have aquired through unhealthy eating and the exposure to environmental toxins. He even gives you a solid plan on how to get your body back to its balanced normal self. He also offers advice on supplements and why they are important (mainly because no matter how good we eat we are still not getting all of the vitamins we need). Another great thing about this book is that he offers a 183 page companion guide for free off his website. www.ultramindsolution.com/guide.


There are so many things I can talk about when it comes to this book and I will attempt to discuss a few of them (like how our gut is our second brain and why conventional medicine doesn't work). In the meantime, I strongly suggest that you buy this book and read it. If you are skeptical you can find the book on Amazon and read the first few chapters. Trust me, you'll be hooked!

How I overcame bipolar by Michael Ellsberg.

Before I became a contributing writer for this blog I posted a comment about a very interesting article I read. Since it was only posted as a comment I will re-type my information here. The article was from the Forbes website and was written by the journalist, Michael Ellsberg. It was about his personal struggle with bipolar depression and his attempt to live with it. Like many people struggling with depression and its debilitating symptoms Michael did everything conventional medicine told him to do. He went to therapy, saw a psychiatrist, and took his medicine like a good boy. Unfortunately this was not working for him. Again he experienced what many people with this "disease" experience, horrible side effects and meds that weren't working. So, he tried the vitamin route. Soon he was taking so many supplements and vitamins that he began to loose his libido (which we know, for men, this can be awful)! Since this wasn't working the way he wanted he decided to go see a doctor who dealt in functional medicine. It was important to him that his doctor "sweated through medical school" and could understand both conventional medicine and alternative medicine. The doctor he went to ran some tests and found out that Michael was very sensitive to sugar. When he ate it he experienced a high and eventually crashed into a deep depression. The doctor advised him to cut out coffee, proccesed sugar, and alcohol. Michael thought that the good doctor was crazy and decided that his treatment plan was not going to work. Eventually, though, Michael came very close to suicidal and it was then that he realized that maybe the doctor was on to something. So he cut out the before mentioned foods and voila! His symptoms disappered!
The great thing about this article is that it gives someone like me, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, hope. I want to share this with you in hopes that if you know someone who is not only dealing with bipolar, but depression, anxiety, or any other mental health issue that you can be encouraged that there is another way. You don't have to spend money on anti-depressants and other meds that don't work. (By the way, more and more studies are showing that anti-depressant medication does not work and the manufacturers of these meds have hidden the case studies to prove it.)
Here is his article. Warning: It is kinda long and has a few cuss words, so don't be offended.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2011/07/18/how-i-overcame-bipolar-ii/5/

Organic Wine. How Exactly is it Different?

Organic wines are made from organic grapes. No pesticides or preservatives are used in their production! Sulfites are a naturally occurring preservative in wine so all wine has some sulfites. Wine that is not organic and has added perservative, about 10-20 times the sulfites as organically produced wine.

Red wine doesn’t need sulfites, rose and white need more, and sweet wines have the most. Many people claim that red wine causes less headache and this could be the reason why.  Sulfites have a reputation for aggravating an asthma condition and many people are allergic.  You can find a few different brands of organic wine at your health food store and maybe even at the local grocer if it's a bit upscale. Organic wine is more popular in Europe but is growing in popularity here in the United States.  Of course because organic wine is expensive to produce the majority of wineries shy away. It is currently thought by wine enthusiasts that the production of organic wine will grow in popularity as a niche of its own.  So, if you’ve never tried organic wine, give it a whirl! Once you’ve tried it you may never go back……………. I looked around and found this online wine company click right here to check it out!