Wisdom From Eating

"Either we restrict the foods we eat when we have a choice, or our diet will eventually be restricted by chronic diseases." (CHS, May 9, 2009)

How Can Sugar Affect You?

How Can Sugar Affect Your Health?

Sugar can suppress the immune system.
Sugar can upset the body's mineral balance.
Sugar can contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression.
Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
Sugar can reduce helpful high density cholesterol (HDLs).
Sugar can promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol (LDLs).
Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
Sugar contributes to a weakened defense against bacterial and viral infection.
Sugar can cause kidney damage.
Sugar can increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
Sugar may lead to chromium deficiency. [and chromium is essential including in keeping blood sugar under control]
Sugar can cause copper deficiency.
Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
Sugar can increase fasting levels of blood glucose.
Sugar can promote tooth decay.
Sugar can produce an acidic stomach.
Sugar can raise adrenaline levels in children.
Sugar can lead to periodontal disease.
Sugar can speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair.
Sugar can increase total cholesterol.
Sugar can contribute to weight gain and obesity.
High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Sugar can contribute to diabetes.
Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
Sugar leads to decreased glucose tolerance.
Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease.
Sugar can increase systolic blood pressure.
Sugar causes food allergies.
Sugar can cause free radical formation in the bloodstream.
Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
Sugar can overstress the pancreas, causing damage.
Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.
Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries.
Sugar can cause liver cells to divide, increasing the size of the liver.
Sugar can increase the amount of fat in the liver.
Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.
Sugar can cause depression.
Sugar can increase the body's fluid retention.
Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance.
Sugar can cause hypertension.
Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly. [nothing so common as sugar confusion; but when confused people often have no idea what state they're in or WHY]
Sugar can increase blood platelet adhesiveness which increases risk of blood clots and strokes.
Sugar can increase insulin responses in those consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets.
Sugar increases bacterial fermentation in the colon.


ASSIGNMENT: Read this list. Read it again. You know you’ve experienced something on this list. Find yourself. Now find motivation to improve your health and leave off the harmful habit of refined sugar.

How Much Do YOU Eat?

Found this blog entry when looking for a photo of measuring cups.
What an incredible amount of information all in one place.
Definitely check it out. Here's a short excerpt:


Cheryl Forberg, dietician for NBC's Biggest Loser program.
Weight Loss Secret -- It Pays to Measure

One of the first things The Biggest Loser contestants learn about is the importance of a food journal. Not only is it one of the key secrets to a successful weight loss plan, it's often a very loud wake-up call. Most of us eat (and drink) much more than we think....until we start recording it.
The more detailed your food journal entries are, the more accurate your calorie count for the day will be. The first thing you need to know is -- how big is a serving size? Weighing and measuring food is crucial in order to calculate an accurate number of your daily calories.
For this, you will need
a liquid measuring cup (2-cup capacity)
a set of dry measuring cups (1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup and 1/4 cup sizes)
a set of measuring spoons (1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon)
food scale
calculator
The food scale should measure pounds and ounces as well as grams. Most measurements will be in ounces but some foods are very concentrated sources of calories so the portion sizes will be smaller (nuts are a good example of this).

Clean up with WATER

A frequent reason for an elderly person to visit an emergency room is altered mental status. Often the cause of altered mental status is a urinary tract infection! What connection does the urinary tract have with the brain? Water. Keep yourself hydrated. Drink water first thing in the morning. Reach for a glass of water first before you choose to eat. Drink water instead of soft drinks, coffee, tea, commercial power drinks or vitamin drinks, and even fruit juice.

Water has ZERO calories and works to clean the body inside and out. Drinking plenty of water refreshes every cell in your body including the brain.

As you change your eating habits, your body will seem likes it’s rebelling. It is only beginning to function at a healthier level. Water will help in the transition by flushing out of your system any cell waste your body had stored up.

Get clean! Drink water!

Are You Insane?

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT– 4

The definition of insanity is continuing to do what you have always done while expecting different results.

Practice saying out loud, “No, thank you. None for me right now.”
In order to give you added incentive to begin the change, here’s your next assignment.

ASSIGNMENT Think about the number of pounds that you would like to lose. Go to the supermarket. Take your cart to the aisle of baking ingredients and put into it enough 10 lb. bags of flour, 5 lb. bags of sugar, and 1 lb. packages of butter to equal your weight loss number. Study it. Try carrying it all. Think of how much more comfortable you would be if you lost that many pounds.

Food Pyramid

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT – PYRAMID


For an explanation of this Healthy Eating Food Pyramid see:
www.foodpyramid.com/food-pyramids/healthy-eating-pyramid

If you haven’t really chosen a particular diet but prefer to create your own healthy eating program, this Healthy Eating Food Pyramid should be quite helpful.

Compare the healthy pyramid to the one you use to use:

Let's Get Started

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT– 3

A favorite routine or habit of mine is stopping at Crown Bakery on my way home from a doctor’s appointment. I always buy a medium coffee with cream and sugar and a coffee ring (a rich, sweet, raised dough with raisins, almonds, and coarsely granulated sugar on top - yum). This is not a single roll but a whole ring. I can finish it off in two days all by myself.

Getting mentally ready to change a habit takes some serious thought. A year and a half ago I blogged the following:

"Hi, my name is Wildblues. I'm a foodaholic.

In the course of our spiritual journey we discovered the spirit-mind-body connection. When one of the links is weak, the whole chain is weak. The health of the body lends to the health of mind and spirit. With over 59 years of habitual do-what-you-want-to attitude as far as what and when to eat, making an improvement is not so easy.With the help of ChileChews Discretionary Eating Challenge we made a decision to change our eating behavior. Well... That's like sending a soldier into battle without boot camp. So we've put ourselves into Food Rehab. This boot camp for healthy living is a concentrated effort to weed out intemperate habits and learn to just say "no". "

2010 arrived with no significant change in my eating habits. No wait, I changed to coffee with milk and no sugar. Feeling pretty pathetic here.

OK, so yesterday I went to a doctor’s appointment…the question came up. Should I go into the bakery and find a healthy choice of comfort food or just skip the stop? I decided to stop, or rather I didn’t say “no” to a habit. Thankfully they were closed for vacation!

Today is a new day. A new beginning. A new decision to change a habit. Have you ever driven on a dirt road after the mud has dried? The road becomes two cemented tire ruts and it’s very difficult to not drive in the ruts. Time to create a new road! Time to get out of the rut!!

GOALS

1. Admit you need help controlling your eating habits
2. Admit that help is available
3. Seek out that help
4. Surrender your current eating habits
5. Follow a designated plan (use the buddy system if necessary)
6. Practice the plan until "no" is as loud as "yes"
7. Graduate to independent eating choices

ASSIGNMENT: OK, it’s time to put up that photo, write the date in your notebook, and weigh in. If you still don’t have a plan in mind, a list of possibilities is coming via email. A couple of you have chosen a pseudonym and are willing to share numbers. That’s fabulous and serious business. Others are still getting ready to begin. That’s fine. Keep at it.

What Motivates You?

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT – 2

What motivates you? A healthier life style brings with it positive results – some more attractive to you than others – for instance…

Lower blood pressure
Lower cholesterol or triglyceride level
Lower fasting glucose
Less or no joint pain
Smaller clothing size
Smaller hip measurement
More natural energy
More restful sleep
Easier movement
More strength and coordination
Better circulation of oxygen to brain and muscles
A more attractive you

Besides weighing in once a week, choose other goals that will motivate you.
It’s about time for our first weigh in. Select a day, time of day and an outfit (or lack of outfit) so each week your weigh in will be consistent. Get yourself a little notebook to record your progress. Along with date and weight, I think change in hip measurement will also go in my notebook.
Remember this is a gradual process.

Slow and steady equals success.

ASSIGNMENT: Think about what most motivates you and set goals. Get a small notebook to record progress.

Study Yourself

FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT - 1
There will be announcements, updates, informational material, just general encouragement and presents!

Welcome.
The group consists of thick and thin, older and younger, active and sedentary, alone or with family, female and male, single and married, with medical issues and without, vegetarian and not, with religious affiliation or not, Republican, Democrat and Undeclared.
No matter where you fit in, we all have one thing in common –
We each desire to make a change to a healthier life style.

Some of you checked out this height/weight chart with photos.
www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.shtml .
It’s kind of fun.

Let’s take a good close look at ourselves:
Get dressed in clothes that make you look your best. Dress for a photo.
Yup. The “before” photo. The photo for your refrigerator door or somewhere in sight. Have someone take a photo of you, maybe several different angles or do it yourself if you are that skilled with a camera.
This is how everyone sees you.

Of course, there are certain aspects of ourselves that we cannot change – eye color, height, bone structure, shoe size, age, ancestry. But…
we can choose to change our habits.

This will not be a how to lose weight program but encouragement to make a change, to find a healthy life style that works for each of us, and to stay with it until our habits change.

ASSIGNMENT: Make a print of your before photo. Study it. Think about your current habits. Which of them would you like to change? Choose a diet/health program that you would like to try. If you don’t know of a program, we will put together a list of possibilities. (And get rid of those left over holiday treats! Trash them, freeze them, or eat them, but make them disappear.)

The Family Biggest Loser

Whether you want to lose 2 or 20, 5 or 50, or just want to be part of an email group that encourages each other to stay healthy,

YOU ARE INVITED to participate in the 2010…

ROSENWALD FAMILY BIGGEST LOSER EVENT

There will be announcements, updates, informational material, just general encouragement and presents!

To become a participant: you must be a Rosenwald, be married to a Rosenwald, be an offspring of a Rosenwald, be an ancestor of a Rosenwald, be a friend of a Rosenwald, be a neighbor of a Rosenwald, be a co-worker of a Rosenwald, need a weight loss buddy and think a Rosenwald would do, or have a desire to be healthy and encourage others to healthier living.

To join and become eligible for email announcements, updates, informational material, just general encouragement and presents…

Email me (Susan Jeane Margaret Mary Rosenwald Peavey Bruso)
at wildbluesbysus@comcast.net
or comment on my blog
at http://www.wildbluesbysus.blogspot.com/
Just say “I want to join. Here’s my name and email address.”

For starters check out the height/weight chart at www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.shtml .
Select a photo of someone with the same height and weight as you are now. This should give you a rough idea of what you look like. Then select a photo of a height and weight that you would like to weigh and check it out.
Get in mind a reasonable goal for yourself.

We will begin soon so let me know if you want to participate.
There is no cost to join. Just fun to share and pounds to lose.

Facing Pandemic - Definition

Following the progress of H1N1 swine flu. 

"President Obama declared the swine flu a national emergency", Yahoo.com news reports,  "The goal is to remove bureaucratic roadblocks and make it easier for sick people to seek treatment and medical providers to provide it immediately. That could mean fewer hurdles involving Medicare, Medicaid or health privacy regulations."

Over 400 photos on Yahoo.com published along with this report show people receiving or lined up to receive the flu vaccine, not people who are sick.

What is the definition of a pandemic?  A new virus that spreads around the world.  H1N1 swine flu has spread to many different countries but the large numbers of cases are estimated, not confirmed. 

LESSON:  Pandemics are inevitable.  Learn now the best practices to keep you and your family healthy.

Facing Pandemic - Know the Symptoms

Want to know if you have the H1N1 flu?  Check out this website for a symptom check list.

FYI:  Today a co-worker whose off-spring has a position of responsibility in a very large, vaccine-producing pharmaceutical company, announced that her grandchildren, ages 7 and 5, will not be vaccinated.  This is the parents decision.

FYI:  Last week we mailed in our income tax check.  When we received the return postcard notification of receipt, it was signed "Bank of America, Windsor, CT, Agent for the Internal Revenue Service"!!!
See, I was right!  We do own our home now.

Facing Pandemic - The Possibility

Megan, writer and editor of Simple Kids, posted a blog article entitled, Five Things Parents Should Know About the H1N1 Vaccination.  It is valuable information simply written.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestseller entitled The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, uses a flu outbreak to illustrate how a seasonal illness can become an epidemic.

"The best way to understand the Tipping Point is to imagine a hypothetical outbreak of the flu.  Suppose, for example, that one summer 1,000 tourists come to Manhattan from Canada carrying an untreatable strain of twenty-four-hour virus.  This strain of flu has a 2 percent infection rate, which is to say that one out of every 50 people who come into close contact with someone carrying it catches the bug himself.  Let's say that 50 is also exactly the number of people the average Manhattanite - in the course of riding the subways and mingling with colleagues at work - comes into contact with every day.  What we have, then, is a disease in equilibrium.  Those 1,000 Canadian tourists pass on the virus to 1,000 new people on the day they arrive.  And the next day those 1,000 newly infected people pass on the virus to another 1,000 people, just as the original 1,000 tourists who started the epidemic are returning to health.  With those getting sick and those getting well so perfectly in balance, the flu chugs along at a steady but unspectacular clip though the rest of the summer and the fall.

But then comes the Christmas season.  The subways and buses get more crowded with tourists and shoppers, and instead of running into an even 50 people a day, the average Manhattanite now has close contact with, say, 55 people a day.  All of a sudden, the equilibrium is disrupted.  The 1,000 flu carriers now run into 55,000 people a day, and at a 2 percent infection rate, that translates into 1,100 cases the following day.  Those 1,100, in turn, are now passing on their virus ... as well, so that by day three there are 1,210 Manhattanites with the flu and by day four 1,331 and by the end of the week there are nearly 2,000, and so on up, in an exponential spiral, until Manhattan has a full-blown flu epidemic on its hands by Christmas Day.  That moment when the average flu carrier went from running into 50 people a day to running into 55 people was the Tipping Point.  It was the point at which an ordinary and stable phenomenon - a low-level flu outbreak - turned into a public health crisis."

What can I do in the face of possible pandemic?  More to follow.