Have You Checked Your Vitamin D Levels?

  Studies were conducted at the University of Manchester, England suggests that a deficiency in vitamin D may be linked to chronic pain.  The researchers used data on over 2,300 men in the European Male Aging Study.

The team followed up with the subjects on an average of 4.3 years. They found that 1 in 15 men who had no symptoms at the start of the study developed chronic widespread pain. 

The results also showed that those with vitamin D deficiency at the start of the study were more than twice as likely to experience chronic widespread pain, compared with those who had the highest levels.

According to lead researcher Paul McCabe:

"Musculoskeletal pain is a recognized symptom of severe vitamin D deficiency. “

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that vitamin D is found naturally in only a few foods, including fish-liver oils, fatty fishes, mushrooms, egg yolks and liver. Although in the U.S. , vitamin D is commonly added to food products, including milk.

However, they also note that one of the best ways to get vitamin D in the body is through sunlight, which is transported to the liver and converted to 25-hydroxyvitamin D.  The recommendations include a caution to not overexpose to sunlight which can damage skin and increase cancer risk. 

If you’re concerned with suffering from chronic pain, you might want to consider making sure that you have adequate vitamin D levels.

Enjoy your day.

War Between butter and Margarine

There's a war being waged between margarine and butter but you might be shocked when you hear which one is winning the fight.

It's hard for a lot of people to even consider eating butter. The saturated fat dogma associated with it is something that's hard to let go. On the other hand, we're also finding margarine isn't the great heart protector we've all been promised.

For example, here's a big surprise. A lot of margarines that are labeled "no" or "zero" trans fats aren't really telling the truth.

Maybe you didn't know this, but the FDA allows foods that contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving to list them as 0 (zero) on the label. So, a lot of margarines still contain 0.49 grams or less of trans fats per tablespoon. But they've taken advantage of this tricky little caveat to claim there are none. What does this mean for you?

If you use 5 or 6 tablespoons of margarine a day, you could be eating almost two and a half or three grams of them. I know some people who use that much just to flavor a potato!

Make no mistake about it. Eliminating trans fats is even more important than reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet. These fats are deadly. They create high levels of inflammation, increase bad LDL levels and cause healthy HDL to drop. They're also associated with a harmful increase in small, dense LDL particles that can slip through the lining of your blood vessels and cause plaque to build up.

And what about all those supposedly heart healthy omega-6 fatty acids?

Once again, our fear of the saturated fat in butter led us astray. Part of the concept behind the push for margarine was to replace saturated fats with healthier omega-6 vegetable fats.This sounds like a great idea on the surface. Our bodies need omega-6s. But they come with a tricky little problem.

In fact, over the years we've learned eating too many omega-6 fatty acids promotes inflammation. This, of course, is an underlying cause of heart disease. So it's no surprise that we're now discovering people who eat the most omega-6 fatty acids have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death.

Unfortunately, these days we're eating a lot more omega-6 fatty acids than our bodies need. And it's really showing up in our health. You'll know your margarine is high in omega-6 if it contains vegetable, safflower, sunflower, corn, cottonseed sesame or soybean oils. So, is butter better?

To be cont'd.

Have a great day.

Great Benefits Eating Strawberries

A study was conducted at Universita Politecnica delle Marcha in Italy and published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry found that consuming strawberries could help lower your cholesterol levels.

The study included 23 participants. The researchers added about a pound of strawberries to their daily diet. They then compared blood samples taken before the study to the blood samples taken after the study, and analyzed the subjects cholesterol levels.

The team found that the increased consumption of strawberries improved total cholesterol levels on average of 9 percent. In addition, they found a 14 percent reduction in bad cholesterol levels (LDL), and an average of 21 percent reduction in triglycerides.

According to lead author Maurizio Battino:

“This was the first study showing strawberries have protective value in tackling the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. While the specific compounds in the fruit producing these actions are not known, studies suggest the benefit is due to anthocyanins, the pigments that impart the red color.”

If you are interesting in reducing or preventing high cholesterol levels, you might want to consider adding strawberries to your daily diet if you have not yet started.

Enjoy your day.

Drink Fruit Juices?

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have determined  that because of its high sugar content, fruit juice could be just as bad for us as sugar sweetened beverages like carbonated drinks and sodas.

Over 200 study participants were asked to drink pure grape juice.  After 3 months, despite the high anti-oxidant properties grapes have, the participants had increased insulin levels and bigger waists.

“One glass of fruit juice contains substantially more sugar than one piece of fruit; in addition, much of the goodness in fruit – fibre, for example –is not found in fruit juice.Although fruit juices contain vitamins and minerals that are mostly absent in sugar sweetened drinks, the level of nutrients in fruit juices may not offset the unhealthy effect that excessive consumption has on the metabolism”, explains Professor Naveed Sattar.

Fruit juice has come under the spotlight as medical experts are looking more closely at the link between high sugar intake and the risk for heart disease.  At an American Heart Association conference researchers said “Americans higher consumption of sugary drinks has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade.”

Unlike solid fruit intake, for which high consumption appears linked to reduced or neutral risk for diabetes, high fruit juice intake is linked to raised risk for diabetes. Fruit juice has a similar energy density and sugar content to other sugary drinks for example; 250 ml of apple juice typically contains 110 calories and 26 grams of sugar while 250 ml of cola typically contains 105 calories and 26.5 grams of sugar. The researchers urge consumers to read the labels of the beverages you drink.

If you are trying to keep your sugar levels balanced, you might want to check the sugar content in your next bottle of juice before you buy or drink it.

Have a good day.

GET RID OF INSOMNIA

 Louisiana State University researchers found that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day helped increase sleep time by nearly 90 minutes among older adults with insomnia.

In a randomized crossover clinical trial, several older adults with insomnia drank tart cherry juice twice a day, in the morning and at night. The researchers found that the participants were able to sleep more than an hour longer each night.

Frank L. Greenway, MD, director of the outpatient research clinic at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University explains:

"Sleeping pills may be an option for younger insomniacs, but for older people these medications quadruple the risk of falling, which can lead to broken hips and, often, earlier death. This makes it increasingly important to find more natural sleep-aids.”

Insomnia is defined as trouble sleeping on average of more than three nights per week. This is a common health problem among 23 to 34 percent of older adults. Long-lasting sleeplessness can seriously affect your health. Insomnia is linked to a higher prevalence of chronic pain, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and a decline of cognitive function, or dementia.

The researchers believe that it's the unique combination of melatonin and tryptophan in tart cherries that is contributing to the sleep benefits.

If you are having trouble sleeping, you might find that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day may help you get the sleep you need to live a healthier life.

Enjoy your day.

Decrease Diabetes Risks

 Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that when subjects consumed high-protein breakfast, they maintained better glucose and insulin control than they did with lower protein or no protein meals.

After testing participants ages 18-55, Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the university states that,

"Eating more protein in the morning can beneficially affect glucose and insulin levels, if you eat healthy now and consume foods that help you control your glucose levels, you may be protecting yourself from developing diabetes in the future."

Therefore, since protein makes your stomach feel full and is typically digested slowly, eating a breakfast that is high in protein will jump start your metabolism after being asleep all night. 

The fact in these findings suggest that eating protein-rich breakfasts (30-39 grams) led to lower spikes in glucose and insulin after meals compared to the low-protein, high-carb breakfast.

These are some sources of protein that can be incorporated in to your breakfast. Oatmeal with almonds, egg whites (scrambled or in an omelet) and smoothies made using your favorite fruit and yogurt.

 To help protect yourself from potentially developing diabetes in the future, you may start incorporating more protein into your breakfast.

Enjoy your day.

Here's Another Benefit Of Exercise

 Studies conducted at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that exercise could prevent the flu better than vaccines.

This study included 4,800 participants. The researchers analyzed the affects exercise had on the immune system, whether or not it helps to prevent the flu.

The team found that those who exercised at least 2.5 hours each week significantly reduced their chances of getting the flu. In addition to this, the researchers noted that exercising while you are sick does not harm you, so if you feel up to it, feel free to break a sweat.

 The American College of Sports Medicine concluded that:

“Regular exercise strengthens the immune system significantly, which helps the body fight off more viruses and infections. Cardiovascular exercise also strengthens the upper respiratory system, the part of the body susceptible to cold and flu viruses.”

If you are interesting in preventing the flu or reducing your chance of getting sick, you might want to consider exercising each day.

Have a great day.

Free Range Poultry

Many people have eliminated eating chicken from their diet because of fear of the industry using by-products and various kinds of hormone in chicken feed etc. which of course is very bio unfriendly to human's health. Hence, wanting to be on the safe side, many have completely eliminated poultry as part of their diet.

But keep in mind not all poultry are hormone injected which is believed to be unhealthy for consumers to eat. You can also purchase 'free range' poultry. This kind of poultry can be easily found in some grocery stores. You might just need to read the label carefully before making your choice. For example, see below:





Enjoy this beauty.

Eliminate Excess Inflammation

Low levels of chronic inflammation are like the plague these days. Inflammation is the underlying cause of almost all of today's biggest health threats – heart disease, arthritis diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer and more.

And it's not always unhealthy lifestyle choices that cause this problem. Sometimes my patients make seemingly healthy decisions that lead them astray.

One of these common mistakes may be waging an unhealthy battle inside your body right now. Let me explain...

Most of us don't get nearly enough omega-3 fatty acids in our diet. And we get far too many omega-6 fatty acids. These two forms of fatty acids fight against each other for space in your body. So, when you eat too many omega-6s, it displaces the healthy omega-3 fats.

Now, there's a very big difference between these two fatty acids that most people would never suspect.

Omega-6s promote inflammation while omega-3s are anti-inflammatory.

In other words, eating too many omega-6s and not enough omega-3s places you in a constant state of low-level inflammation. This, of course, increases your risk of all sorts of chronic disease – from heart disease and cancer to arthritis and osteoporosis.

Back in the days of our ancestors, this wasn't a problem. Early man ate these foods in proportion – approximately one for one.

By the 1930s, the ratio was about eight to one.

And today, we're eating about 20 times more omega-6s than omega-3s.

Let me say however, this imbalance isn't consumer's fault. Much of the blame lies on our food sources and the food industry. Omega-6 oils account for the majority of polyunsaturated fatty acids in our food supply. They're found in vegetable oils, salad dressings, fried foods, margarines and many other foods. So we tend to really load up on them without even knowing it.

These inflammatory fatty acids have even invaded our meat supply. Historically meat, poultry and eggs have been great sources of omega-3s. But today, they've been altered considerably because of their grain-based diet. This reduces the omega-3 content of the meat and increases the omega-6.

Given our food supply, it probably won't surprise you to learn some analysts say the average American has an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 20:1. Your ideal ratio should be just 2:1. With the right ratio, you can gain the upper hand on inflammation. That means you'll also be protecting your heart, brain, eyes, joints and a whole lot more.

The question you may be asking is What can you do to get closer to that ratio? 

If you're interested to begin balancing out your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, check out these tips to help get you started...

1. Watch out for vegetable oils. Most vegetable oils are full of omega-6 fatty acids. Some of the worst include corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil and sesame oil. I personally prefer using extra virgin olive oil… and, yes, it's fine to cook with, too. 
   
2. Buy grass-fed meats. Remember, most of today's commercial livestock is grain-fed, which means you're getting more and more omega-6 fatty acids from the meat you're eating. Meat from grass-fed livestock has a more favorable omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio than grain-fed animals.
   
3. Take a tip from the Mediterranean. When it comes to eating, people who live in the Mediterranean region have the right idea. Their diet emphasizes foods like fish, vegetables and certain meats that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids but low in omega-6s. You can find out more about my recommended Mediterranean diet here.
4. Cut back on processed foods. Foods like cookies, breads, cakes, chips, crackers and pastries are loaded with omega-6 oils. In fact, you'll find them in almost all snack foods. 
   
5. Supplement with omega-3-rich fish oil. There are certain supplements I recommend for everyone, and fish oil is one of them. But don't buy just any fish oil supplement. They aren't all created equal. Look for one that contains oil from fresh, wild-caught, deep sea fish. And make sure it's been molecularly distilled and tested for purity. It should include at least 300 mg. of EPA and 200 mg. of DHA.

Armed with these five tips you can fight the inflammatory battle going on inside your body…and win!

Good health to you.