Healthy Skin Workshop at Harbor Point

What is a Health Coach?

So, imagine that you own 100% of the stock in a company,Your Health Organization. You want to be the CEO of that company but you can’t -- you already have too many other jobs that you are trying to be amazing at -- such as mother, father, sister, brother, employee, friend, provider, etc. If you had nothing else to do in your life, you would be the owner and CEO of Your Health Organization. But you just don’t have the time so you make me, your Healthy Lifestyle Coach, your CEO.

The mission of Your Health Organization is to keep you fine-tuned and vibrant so you can succeed in all your important jobs and achieve your greatest potential in life. We want the stock value of your overall quality of life and health to rise over time.

Your company has many different departments. I oversee all of them and I also act as the department head and expert in some of them. Your corporate structure may look like this although it varies from person to person:

It is my responsibility to make sure you have the latest information in each of these fields and coach you to overall health success.

All of these specific areas of your overall health are interconnected and are continually being addressed with the latest studies and science.  We will work together to assess your areas of need and customize a program. For example, breast cancer or prostate cancer may run in your family or it may just be a concern of yours. Together we will make sure that you take general cancer prevention measures, including athletic training, sleep and meditation, eliminating cancer-causing household items and replacing them with non-toxic items. And then we will get very specific with your area of concern or need, and focus your nutrition and supplements to target preventing those diseases.  Naturally, over time your needs and areas of concern will change and we will adjust to meet those new requirements, always with your original goal in mind:  keeping you fine-tuned and vibrant so you can achieve your greatest potential in life.

Trader Joe's Cares! Sigh!

This is a letter my friend Kay received from Trader Joe's about their BPA policy.  I was so impressed I had to share it with you:


Dear Kay,

Thank you for contacting us.  Here is the deal with BPA.  First, regarding Tetra, all Tetra Pak is BPA-free.

Second, every glass jar item has a metal lid. All metal lids do have a layer of BPA coating. However, there is another coating put on after that. There is no direct contact of BPA to food. We have multiple supplier testing results showing there is no BPA detected from metal lids.

All our canned fish (and our canned chicken and beef too) are now in BPA-free cans EXCEPT: Sardines, Crab, Cherrystone Clams & Oysters (our suppliers are working for a solution next year).

All our canned fruits, beans and vegetables (including tomatoes, and the Organic Canned Pumpkin) are in BPA-free cans EXCEPT: Mandarins, Hatch Chilies, Artichokes, Organic Baked Beans (expecting transition this Fall).

All of our canned Soups and Stews (and including Joe's Os) are in cans that DO have BPA. Some of our suppliers are expecting they will be able to make transition next year.

Lastly, Coconut Milk and Coconut Cream is in a BPA-free can.

I hope this helps!

Regards,
Nikki
Customer Relations  

For more info on BPA and how to reduce it in your life:  http://www.insideprevention.org/2011/03/how-to-reduce-bpa-levels-by-60-percent-in-3-days.html

Turmeric, the Super Spice

My friend and colleague Kathy was kind enough to write this blog for me on fantastic turmeric:

Nourish yourself to health with Turmeric, the super spice.

By: Kathy FitzHenry founder julietmae.com

It’s bright yellow, a wee bit knobby and spends a considerable amount of time in the dark, but don’t let appearances fool you. Turmeric is one of nature’s greatest healers. Even better: it is easy to use, it is well tolerated by most, and it’s relatively inexpensive! All things considered, you might call it the shy hero of the spice world.

According to the US National Institute of Health-National Library of Medicine there are over 6,000 peer reviewed studies on the effects of curcumin, the active ingredient in Turmeric. It continues to fascinate the scientific community and has been found to be as effective as 14 drugs (*3) including:

Lipitor/Atorvastatin(cholesterol medication)
Antiosteroids (steroid medications)

Prozac/Fluoxetine & Imipramine  (antidepressants)

Aspirin (blood thinner)
Anti-inflammatory Drugs: aspirin, ibuprofen to celecoxib, and tamoxifen

Oxaliplatin (chemotherapy drug)

So what gives? How can one plant be so effective on some many levels?
A recent study by the American Chemical Society (*2) states that scientists

“Have discovered that curcumin molecules act like a biochemical disciplinarian.
They insert themselves into cell membranes and make the membranes more stable and orderly in a way that increase the cell’s resistance to infection by disease-causing microbes.”

In short, Turmeric has been proved in countless studies to:

Reduce Brain inflammation (Alzheimer fighter)

Reduce Heart inflammation (cardiovascular disease)

Reduce  Liver Inflammation (present serious liver disease)

Control Weight by inhibiting the production of blood vessels that support fat cells
Inhibit the growth of tumors
Fight Obesity related diseases by regulating insulin resistance
Regulate type 2 diabetes by modulating several cellular transducer pathways that contribute to the process.

Fight fat tissue formation by suppressing blood vessel needed to form fat cells.

(*Please see footnote 1 for sources of above info)

Now you know why Turmeric is called The Holy Powder in India.

So without further ado, let’s look at some ways to get Turmeric into your diet.

How to use it:  

1. Turmeric is fat soluble.

Yes, it will dissolve in water but it won’t get past the stomach. By dissolving Turmeric in dishes that contain fat like a vegetable sauté or yogurt, the fat will move the Turmeric from stomach to small intestine to the blood where it will offer you the most benefit.

2. How much to use? 
¼ -½ teaspoon per dish
Or as little as 1.5 grams to 8 grams a day.

The amount of Turmeric I use is dependent on the item I am cooking.

For a vegetable sauté, started with extra-virgin olive oil or sunflower oil, I will probably use
 ½ teaspoon along with other spices. 

3. Usage Tip: Combine with Black Pepper.
Pepperine the active agent in Black Pepper increases the bio-availabilty of
turmeric by 1000%. Plus it’s a delicious combo that is full of flavor as well as
additional health benefits, like pain relief.

4. Recipe Suggestions:
Breakfast: Sprinkle onto yogurt, serve with Brazil Nuts

Lunch: Sprinkle over half an avocado and add to your salad

Snack: Mix into coconut oil and add to your smoothie
Dinner: Make a curry and add just a little extra Turmeric, ( ¼-½ teaspoon)
Or try one of Juliet Mae’s Middle Eastern Rubs, like Spice Marrakesh
(http://www.julietmae.com/no-salt/spice-marrakech) Swiss Chard and Apples,

The blend is loaded with Turmeric and finished with Black Pepper.

Tea: Here are two ways to make Turmeric tea

Golden Tea: Make a paste of turmeric and warm water. Stir, then add
the paste to simmering milk and coconut oil. Heat and stir until well blended.

The Healthy Toddy: This is a variation of my mom’s old hot toddy recipe. Make a paste of about 1 tablespoon of honey, ½ - ¼ of powdered Turmeric, 1/8 teaspoon of powdered Ginger. Add almost boiled water to the paste and finish with a big squeeze of lemon and a few rasps of black pepper. Drink while hot. It’s soothing and super healthy!

 

As you can see, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to add a pinch of Turmeric to your cooking, but over time, it can be a wonderful contributor to your good health! 

*Footnotes:

1. http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/turmeric
2. http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2009/acs-presspac-april-15-2009.html#P69_5923

3. http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/05/15/science-confirms-turmeric-as-effective-as-14-drugs/

Eating on the Wild Side

Eating on the Wild Side - continued-

Think eating garlic makes us healthy?

Think fresh berries are better for us than than canned?

Think raw tomatoes are more nutritious than cooked or canned tomatoes?


I, a health enthusiast and admitted food freak and farmer's markets fan, confidently answered yes to every one of these questions.

Jo Robinson, in her fascinating, well-researched book Eating on the Wild Side, the Missing Link to Optimum Health has opened my eyes about ways to choose, store, and prepare fruits and vegetables that make them even more delicious nutritional powerhouses.

So, about garlic: Allicin is the major biologically active component of garlic. First reported by Cavallito and Bailey in 1944, allicin is the key ingredient responsible for the broad-spectrum of anti-bacterial activity in garlic. Garlic is antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, anticlotting and anticancer (wow!) But here is one key piece of info:  you will reap all these benefits only if you chop, mince, slice or mash the garlic, then keep it away from heat for ten minutes.  This creates the maximum amount of allicin, the true medicine in our beloved garlic.

And berries: According to Ms. Robinson's research, cooked blueberries have greater antioxidant levels than fresh berries, and canned (unsweetened) berries are best of all, provided you drink the canning liquid as well.  Heating the berries rearranges the structure of the phytonutrients and also makes them more bioavailable, 

Here's some news about tomatoes: The juice, seeds and pulp are high in an amino acid called glutamate, which enhances the flavors of foods its combined with, so don't toss those out.  But here's the real surprise:  the longer you cook them, the more health benefits you get.  The cooking process makes the lycopene much more bio-available.  Just thirty minutes of cooking can more than double their lycopene content.  Canned (get BPA-free cans or tetrapaks)  tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste are the richest sources of lycopene.......a cancer fighter and powerful antioxidant, among other things.

Who knew?

For info on other fruits, veggies and legumes we love and what brings out their life-giving qualities, I urge you to get the book.  It really upped my nutritional game, improved my skin and made my farmers' markets trips feel like a treasure hunt. 


http://www.eatwild.com/

Enjoy!

Gina

Eating on the Wild Side

This book knocked me out! Totally unexpected and fascinating. I'll be blogging more on this later....

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/allyoucaneat/2013/06/26/six-tips-for-choosing-healthier-foods-2/

Is My Brain Inflamed???

Help! Here I am again pissed off in the car.  I’m feeling impatient with the person in front of me and I’m quite sure I’d never drive the way they do.  (lol) I want to go so much faster than most of the people I’m on the road with and I’m pretty sure that makes me a better person.  Ha!  At the same time I’m mad at myself for feeling this way.  I’m sure I’m not contributing to world peace and the happiness of all mankind.  I’m supposed to be nicer than this……blah blah blah, so go my thoughts.  By the time I get anywhere I’m not a happy camper. 

I recently read an article that had an entirely new slant on road rage, aka “intermittent explosive disorder.”  Don’t you love that name?  Click on the link to read this great article: http://www.health24.com/Mental-Health/Brain/News/Road-rage-may-have-a-physical-cause-20131219
 

How do you find your center when you’re driving around in our crazy world?  Music?  Deep breathing?  Books on tape?  Some attitude that makes it all more palatable, or even pleasant?   Good ideas, anyone??