Are Allergies Your Problem?

Do you experience any of these things after you eat? Runny nose, gas and bloating, stomach or intestinal cramping, itchy skin or eyes, flushed face, or increased pulse rate?

These are common signs of food allergies or sensitivities. The most common allergens are corn, wheat, soy, dairy, chocolate, and eggs. It's often hard to know if those items are in the foods you eat, especially if you eat at restaurants, fast food joints, other people prepare your food, or you don't read labels.

Allergies are difficult to pinpoint without extensive testing. But one way for you to do this on your own is a rotation diet. Eat a very simple, bland diet of things you KNOW are not irritants for 3-5 days. This is easier if you eat foods normally not in your diet. For each individual, this is different, of course.

Say you drink coffee, with milk, eat yogurt and cottage cheese, eggs, bread, and peanut butter on a regular basis. However, you rarely eat lamb, quinoa, Brussels sprouts, garbonzo beans, or avocados.

Try drinking tea, and substitute all the foods you rarely or never eat. Then after 3-5 days, add in 1 of the foods you usually eat. If you don't get any symptoms, such as the ones mentioned above, or headaches, achy joints, or anything else you might attribute to a food allergy or sensitivity, after 3 more days, add back something else you normally eat.

Altogether, this can take a few weeks. But for discovering hidden allergies and feeling renewed energy and vitality, this works for many people.

Comments about this, your personal stories, how you have overcome chronic food sensitivities or allergies, are all welcome.

Older IS better

Older ways of preparing and eating foods are definitely better for you. Less processed foods are more nutritious and easier on your system.

Take juice for example. With all the outrageous claims made for wolfberry, acai, mangosteen, and more, doesn't it make you wonder what's wrong with just eating the fruit?

When you extract the juice from a fruit, like, say oranges, you are drinking a concentrated form of the original food. One orange does not make a lot of juice. Bet you're not satisfied with just a 3 oz serving of juice, from 1 orange, or possibly 2 small oranges.

If you eat 1 orange, you are usually satisfied. You also get to chew, which adds digestive enzymes from your saliva into the mix. Drinking juice bypasses this important function. You are also leaving out the all important fiber, which adds nutrients to your intestinal flora.

Years ago, hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, our ancestors did not drink much juice. Maybe some wine. They also didn't eat refined foods, such as sugar, canned foods, frozen dinners, prepackaged meals, and pre-cooked bacon to name just a few. They got out and exercised more, spent more time preparing and enjoying their food, and often lived happier, healthier lives.

They ate less refined flour, and until the 1600s, there was no refined sugar. There was no high fructose corn syrup, no GMO canola oil, no Cool Whip, no GMO soy oil, and no packaged cereals. Instead there was honey - sometimes. Instead, there were fermented whole-grain loaves, fruit in season only, and possibly a rare treat of sugarcane. In the past, food was flavored with local herbs, rare and exotic spices on occasion, and food was seasonal.

You too can return to a more traditional way of eating and see the health benefits that come with such a choice. Prior to the introduction of margarine and low-fat living, there was less heart disease. Before Americans were consuming over 170 pounds of sugar per person, per year, there was no diabetes epidemic. Death from cancer was not something our grandparents and great grandparents feared. These are diseases of modern living based on modern lifestyle and modern food choices.

Try an old-fashioned way of eating for just 45 days and see what happens to your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your blood glucose levels, and your overall zest for living. You'll be amazed.

I welcome your comments. Contact me for more information.

Granny was Right!

How often have we heard that people are getting fatter? Too often and unfortunately the trend continues. Try eating like your granny did and you might be surprised at the results.

If your granny told you to always start the day with a good breakfast, listen up. When she said that skipping meals wasn't smart, right again. Want some insight into what traditional diets looked like? Check out Oldways. http://www.oldwayspt.org

Food pyramids are used to illustrate what works and has worked in traditional Asian, Latin, Mediterranean, and Vegetarian diets. Forget the 6-11 servings of grain-based foods that the American food pyramid has recommended. Fear of fat has been eliminated in these pyramids. Exercise, rather than wheat or corn-based foods has become the base of the pyramid.

Check them out and enjoy the knowledge that Granny was right.

Triglycerides and heart health

When you eat too many carbs for your body to use as fuel, the excess is converted to triglycerides. These float through your blood until they can be deposited as fat in your adipose tissue. Sometimes they clog your arteries.
Excess triglycerides have become a focus for heart-health monitoring. If your triglycerides are above 150, try cutting out sugar, starches, fake fats, trans fats, and hydrogenated fats for better heart health.

Sweets. Not so sweet for your health.

We are trained from our earliest moments to reward ourselves with sweets. We're called honey and sweetie pie, given candy when we're good, cake and ice cream when it's a special day, and yet we wonder why we have such a hard time giving them up sugar.

Our brain's primary food is glucose, provided when our body breaks down carbohydrates. When we eat high glycemic foods, our brain gets glucose super fast, giving us an almost instant high.

Of course, we crash almost just as quickly, so then we need to repeat the process so we stay "up" and energized. When that doesn't happen, we quickly fade. This happens to many people so often that eventually they are feeling out of sorts all the time unless they have sugar, soda, fruit juice, or starchy carbs virtually all the time.

This is a vicious cycle that can lead to pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome. It can also lead to full blown diabetes, and heart disease. How does high sugar consumption lead to heart disease?

When you take in more carbohydrate energy than you need, the body stores it in a more concentrated form. That form is fat. Specifically it is transformed into triglycerides for transportation through the blood to storage sites throughout the body.

Want to do something nice for your heart on Valentine's Day and beyond? Eat less starch and sugar. Instead, eat more greens, brightly colored vegetables, and pasture raised poultry, beef, and lamb. All organically grown, locally raised, or biodynamically farmed, of course.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Why exercise?

We've had a deep, dark February so far in Eugene. It's hard to motivate myself sometimes to get outdoors, or to exercise indoors even.

Here are some reasons to exercise that keep me motivated, in spite of the weather.
- Gives me more energy. Yep, I start out sluggish and end up energized.
- Keeps my joints in good condition. Along with drinking plenty of water, exercise is a great way to keep my joints pain free.
- Improves my balance. This is a good thing when I'm trying to do the Tree-pose in yoga. I wouldn't want to fall over and cause the domino effect with the rest of the class.
- May slow bone loss. We've all heard the one about the woman who fell down and broke her hip and was never the same again. I don't want that to happen to me. Weight bearing exercise can help prevent this from occurring.
- Builds my stamina. Being self-employed requires a lot of stamina. There are just soooo many things to do, so exercise helps me stick to it - well, most days.
- Tones and strengthens my muscles. This is a plus because it's never a good thing when my short sleeves reveal saggy, flabby upper arms. My arms are not much on display right now, in the dead of winter, but, hey! summer's coming, right?
- Boosts my confidence. This might be the best benefit of all. Along with helping me to cope better with stress, exercising helps me feel good about myself and my abilities.

There's no need to join a gym, exercise an hour a day, feel sore, guilty, or overwhelmed. Start slowly if you don't exercise currently. Four 5-minute walks a day adds up to 20-minutes of exercise. Doing a few stretches at your desk every hour is a great way to energize yourself at work throughout the day. Parking farther away at the grocery store (I know it's raining), taking the stairs, even mopping the kitchen floor, are all ways to increase your level of exercise.

Before you know it, you'll look forward to moving around regularly.

Making nutritious bone broths

Bone broths have been a staple in all traditional cultures for countless millennia. They are easy to make, tasty, and they provide minerals in healthy doses.

To make your own nutritious broth, save up bones from chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, etc. and freeze them until you have a large stash. You can buy chicken feet at some butcher stores and natural food stores. These provide additional flavor and nutrition.

When using beef or lamb bones, roast them first at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Into a large stockpot, add your frozen or roasted bones, cover with distilled water, which draws out more minerals than regular water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, skim the foam and other debris from the surface, and add a bay leaf or two. I like to add thyme, cayenne, and natural salt, such as Real Salt from Utah. Add a few garlic cloves, if you like. Carrots, celery, and onions are also good.

Cook for at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours to extract all the nutrients. Pour broth into containers and refrigerate. Use within 3-5 days or freeze. The broth will be very dense, almost like gelatin. It is delicious plain and it makes great soup and stew base.

Healthy food is delicious, easy and only requires a little pre-planning.