Protein? Yes, Protein

You absolutely need to pay attention to your daily protein intake. Why? Because you are losing muscle mass at an alarming rate, even while you are reading this article, unless you are doing something about it. You should aim for about 50 grams of protein per day, as a rough guideline. In addition to the protein, make sure you are doing some resistance training (that ugly word, EXERCISE) several times each week. If not, one day you may pick up your prescription bottle and not have the strength to open it. Read your food product labels and become familiar with the protein per serving, as well as the sugars and cholesterols. Did you know that two of the least expensive protein sources are peanut butter (1.8 cents per gram) and chicken (also 1.8 cents per gram)? I often start my day with peanut butter on whole wheat bread with some Smart Balance. That is a good breakfast and quick to prepare. Not much protein though, so I try to be aware of other protein meals and snacks during the day as well. As an alternative, if we have some leftover cooked chicken (43 grams of protein per cup), I might just eat a piece of that along with some fruit juice. On those days, I don't need to worry much about additional protein. Men generally require more protein than women, but lifestyle does need to be considered. For the average adult male, about 56 grams per day. Women, about 46 grams per day.

In recent years it has become common for those striving to lose weight to substitute protein drinks for meals, and if you are sensible about it, that's just fine. But don't substitute all your meals for the day, or several days of actual, chewable food for a tasty chocolate or strawberry protein shake. You may lose weight, but you may not like the other possible consequences. You can overload your system with protein and suffer the consequences of insufficient fiber and nutrients required to keep your digestive system functioning smoothly. If weight loss is your goal, be prepared to lose weight slowly and safely. That way, the weight you take off is more likely to STAY off. and please don't be fooled by all the infomercials telling you that you can just take some very expensive pill and lose all the weight you want without exercise. There is no substitute for proper diet and adequate exercise...period.

Thoughts about Vaccines and Disease

I would really like to start a discussion here concerning vaccines and the possible connection to diseases. There has been much published online regarding the connection between certain epidemics and the vaccines administered to prevent them actually CAUSING outbreaks. I believe that this preponderance of evidence, some from proven experts in epidemiology or medical research, must be considered before you submit yourself to another needle. For my part I am focusing on just what I need to do to keep my immune system in peak condition. Among those necessary things are: adequate hydration, adequate rest, proper nutrition and adequate physical activity (yes, that means exercise). Let me just point out one additional thing I'm frankly just learning about. Adequate oxygenation. One way to boost your serum oxygen levels is through aerobic exercise, but you can also do it by self-administered hydrogen peroxide in distilled water. Someone is now heavily promoting a book called The One Minute Cure (because it takes just a minute to prepare it), but I'm not involved with that, nor am I against buying it. I just think that a little diligent online research on the subject will produce enough information so that you can discuss it with your doctor. I even found a detailed chart concerning how much to use and how often, and from what I can determine, that's basically what this book wants to sell you. In any case, I've already begun to treat myself to this therapy and I will post updates here. There is documentation about treatment of many conditions with hydrogen peroxide, especially in conjunction with liquid vitamin C in an intravenous application to treat certain cancers. Laboratory testing has proven that cancer cells cannot survive in an oxygen rich environment. It is not such a great leap to the conclusion that increasing the oxygen levels available to your cells might have some beneficial effect. I'm not a doctor, I do not give medical advice, and I encourage you to discuss ANY changes you might consider in your lifestyle, including supplements, exercise, or alternative therapies, with your health care provider.

If you would like know what URL's I have on file for some of this information, e-mail me and I will share them.

The Diary

This is dedicated to every woman (or man) who ever attempted to get
into a regular workout routine. A must read!

Dear Diary...
For my fiftieth birthday this year, my husband (the dear)purchased a
week of personal training at the local health club for me. Although I
am still in great shape since playing on my high school softball team,
I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try. I
called the club and made my reservations with a personal trainer I'll
call Bruce, who identified himself as a 26 year old aerobics instructor
and model for athletic clothing and swim wear. My husband seemed
pleased with my enthusiasm to get started. The club encouraged me to
keep a diary to chart my progress.

Monday:
Started my day at 6:00 am. Tough to get out of bed, but found it was
well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Bruce waiting
for me. He is something of a Greek God - with blond hair, dancing eyes
and a dazzling white smile. Woo Hoo!! Bruce gave me a tour and showed
me the machines. He took my pulse after five minutes on the treadmill.
He was alarmed that my pulse was so fast, but I attribute it to standing next to him in his Lycra aerobic outfit. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which he conducted his aerobics class after my workout today. Very inspiring. Bruce was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time he was around. This is going to be a FANTASTIC week!!

Tuesday:
I drank a whole pot of coffee, but I finally made it out the door.
Bruce made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air -
then he put weights on it! My legs were a little wobbly on the
treadmill, but I made the full mile. Bruce's rewarding smile made it
all worthwhile. I feel GREAT!! It's a whole new life for me.

Wednesday:
The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying on the toothbrush on the
counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a
hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot. Bruce was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members. His voice is a little too perky for early in the morning and when he scolds, he gets this nasally whine that is VERY annoying. My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Bruce put me on the stair monster. Why would anyone invent
a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators? Bruce
told me it would help me get in shape and enjoy life. He said some other STUFF too.

Thursday:
Bruce was waiting for me with his vampire-like teeth exposed as his
thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl. I couldn't help
being a half an hour late, it took me that long to tie my shoes. Bruce
took me to work out with dumbbells. When he was not looking, I ran and
hid in the men's room. He sent Lars to find me, then, as punishment,
put me on the rowing machine - which I sank.

Friday:
I hate that JERK Bruce more than any human being has ever hated any
other human being in the history of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic
little cheerleader. If there was a part of my body I could move
without unbearable pain, I would beat him with it. Bruce wanted me to
work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps! And if you don't want
dents in the floor, don't hand me the &*@*#$ barbells or anything that
weighs more than a sandwich. (Which I am sure you learned in the
sadist school you attended and graduated magna cum laude from.) The
treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher.
Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?

Saturday:
Bruce left a message on my answering machine in his grating, shrilly
voice wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing him made me
want to smash the machine with my planner. However, I lacked the
strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven
straight hours of the *$@#&& Weather Channel.

Sunday:
I'm having the Church van pick me up for services today so I can go and
thank GOD that this week is over. I will also pray that next year my
husband (the MORON) will choose a gift for me that is fun - like a root
canal or a hysterectomy.

From The Top Down

It has been said that great companies are built from the bottom up, and destroyed from the top down. Can you see how that applies to so many of the large companies currently, or recently, in the news. Thousands of employees and investors left holding the bag while a very few at the top, (CEO's, COO's, CFO's, etc,) have pocketed huge performance bonuses and salaries and stock incentives. Short term successes line their pockets even as they lead the company down the garden path. Well, I'm not planning to write about that today. I just wanted you to see the parallel between this and your personal wellness after 50. You could say you've built your body from the bottom up, from a single cell to a complex 50-something organism with years and miles of experience, also sometimes referred to as wear and tear. If you were to give your overall wellness a number from 1 to 10, with ten being nearly perfect, what would your number be? What would you like it to be ten or twenty years from now, realistically? I believe that a few points are contributed by your attitude. Your positive approach to life, to dealing with the daily events, breaking big problems down into a bunch of little solutions, has a lot to do with what number you answered with above, in addition to your actual physical health. From the bottom up, you need to keep giving your body the basic materials it needs to maintain itself, heal itself, and continue to thrive. Unfortunately what too often happens from the top down is we tell ourselves little lies. Lies like, "I'll start eating better right after the holidays", or "I'm going to start eating better" or "I'm going to start exercising more next month". From the top down, we sabotage our own future by making excuses for not doing what we should be doing right now.
I hope this doesn't really apply to you, but I will admit that it sometimes applies to me.

Stay Younger Longer

By now you may have given up on finding the fountain of youth. You may have even resigned yourself to the idea that each year you should look and feel and act a year older. Well, a lot of us aren't buying that one. Just look around you. So long as we continue to inhabit these imperfect bodies in this corrupt old world we will continue to age. But WELLNESS AFTER 50 is one place that you won't find such complacent people, just sitting around listening to their own exhalations while waiting for the other shoe to drop. Much research as well as anecdotal evidence indicates that we can be a lot happier with our lives if we remain "engaged", and take steps to keep ourselves healthier and more fit, both mentally and physically, and even emotionally. So here are just a few more things you might want to consider. For most of them you don't even have to talk to your doctor.

1. Eat a small handful of nuts every day. If you have allergy issues, of course DON"t do this. Otherwise, keep it to a small handful, about the size of your palm, and be sure to have a variety including hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, etc. In fact, you can go look up my article about nuts in the "other" blog, thenew50@blogspot.com

2. Tell them to cut it out. If you live in the same house with a smoker, their habit is carving years from your life expectancy. Smoking is such a foolish way to die. It's not just their habit, it's your life.

3. Get off the couch. Couch potatoes eventually all tend to look like their namesakes, potatoes! You may have also noticed that potatoes, while not terribly fragile, do have a limited shelf life, and often you don't know they've gone bad until they really begin to stink. Get up and go do something...anything!

4. Just write it down. Seems that we adults tend to lose our ability to remember things in the short term long before we forget how to read. Simple? Just write it down. If you are going to the store to pick up a few things for the wife, don't be too proud to make a list. That way you won't have to be embarrassed when you come home without the main thing she sent you out for in the first place. Doing this will help keep you calm while still sailing smoothly.

5. Keep track of who you are, what day it is, where you are, and once in awhile, even give a thought to WHY you are where you are. Couch potatoes, on the other hand, don't have a clue about any of this. Some folks seem to think acting all befuddled is somehow cute as they get older. It isn't. Trust me. Some think it is their right to be helpless and confused. NOPE. So long as you have the ability to be aware and engaged, make the effort. People will actually want to spend some time with you, talking with you, being with you, instead of working around you and pretending you aren't there at all.

6. Speak up! By this I mean don't sit there in pain and fear if something isn't working quite the way it usually does. It might be important! An amazing percentage of the time it is something that can be coaxed back into normal operation, or patched up well enough to be mostly good enough to suffice. The point is, in this life pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. If you can't take yourself to get some medical attention, speak up to someone who can, and should, and probably will. In fact, they are more likely to get a bit peeved if you DON'T speak up. No matter how much we might WISH for someone to read our minds, it just isn't going to happen.

7. Drink up!!! Drink a lot, and drink pretty often. Now I'm talking about water and tea mostly, but slip in a nice glass of some red wine once in awhile as well. If you don't drink now, don't start. But if you do have a drink once in awhile, then a single daily glass of the red stuff can probably do you a lot more good than harm. If you have some condition that rules that out, then don't drink and know that you have my deepest sympathies. Otherwise, start your morning with a glass of water. Have a cup of coffee later or maybe a cup of tea. Any kind will do, but green tea is a winner. Then have another glass of water. Just dont drink anything, especially cold things just before, with, or right after a meal. Want to clog up all your pipes? Pour grease in your drain then run some cold water. Same thing with your body. When you are eating, don't drink. When you are drinking, don't eat. Simple.

8. Well, maybe that's enough to think about for now. If you just do these things every day until you don't even have to think about it, then you might be ready to add a few more. By then you might also see that it is making a difference in the way you feel, and the way you sleep. And maybe a few other things as well. I hope you'll find your way back here to tell us about it. Let's make that number 8. Share an encouraging word or experience. Lots better than whining and complaining.

What's Past Is Prolog

With each passing year, we can look back at what we have done to shape our future. We will become whatever we have set ourselves up to become, whether that is active and healthy, or sedentary and unhealthy. Please don't tell yourself the lie that you are too busy to do the things that will keep you active and healthy well into your "golden years". If you are too sedentary now, those years may not be so golden. They may have you functioning like a rusty hinge: not too smoothly, and not without loud groans of protest. So what will you make time for today?

In order to just maintain our present level of mobility, we MUST do what we CAN do. If you can climb a flight of stairs, then by all means you would be well advised to skip the elevator and climb that flight of stairs. If you can walk for 30 or 45 minutes at a fairly brisk pace, then you better make time to walk. You do not need to train for Olympic events, or try to set some age group distance record. Just discipline yourself to stay active now, so that five or ten, or twenty years from now you can still be active.

I have taken time to talk with many people in the course of the last ten years who are now disabled in one way or another. Some are no longer able to work and live on a disability income. Others work part time, or even full time with constant pain because they need the income. It is sad just how many of those people were very inactive for twenty or thirty years before they became disabled, and not a few of them now believe that at least some of their present health issues directly relate to that sedentary lifestyle. Those who were sedentary by choice for most of their adult life are now forced to be sedentary by declining health. It is because of those people that I began this blog and it is because of them that I made a firm commitment to myself to stay as active as possible right now.

Some of the folks I was referring to in the last paragraph became disabled thru some sudden accident or illness over which they had no control at all. But those who were active before then, often were the same ones who worked hardest at achieving whatever recovery was possible, and have again found ways to be active within their current limits. So even they have benefitted from staying in motion. I know this is a misuse of this law of physics, but I think you will agree that it seems to apply: bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. Humans who are active tend to remain active. So, what will you do today in order to have a better tomorrow?

Low fat? High protein? Whats the deal?

There is a surprising shift in the health care community concerning just how we should go about achieving, and maintaining, our healthiest natural weight. We've been told for decades that in order to lose weight, we had to cut way back on the fat in our diet, right? And to gain weight, load up on the complex carbs and protein, right? Well, maybe that just doesn't work for most people.
You see, our body must have sufficient fat in order to metabolize vitamins and minerals from our food intake. It must have fat in order to function. So what happens when we cut way back on our fat intake? the body say "Uh oh, hard times are coming! we're not getting enough fat. I better start storing up as much as I can, just in case." So we reduce our fat intake and GAIN weight. Now, I'm not advocating that anyone should eat a bunch of fat. Moderation is always a safe rule to follow. And we certainly don't want any trans fats in our diet at all. But don't sabotage your weight loss efforts by cutting too much fat from your diet. Monitor your results closely in two or three week intervals. If you've cut back on fat, modified the rest of your diet, and are exercising regularly, at least three times a week of vigorous exercise, and you are GAINING instead of LOSING, maybe you need a bit more fat. (This could be in one of several forms, including things like fatty fish, rich with Omega3 oils) At the same time, make sure you are taking in more protein than usual. I sometimes drink a protein shake in the morning, or eat a bit of leftover chicken or fish instead of a more typical breakfast. My normal routine though is to eat some peanut butter on whole wheat bread using Smart Balance spread in lieu of butter (absolutely NEVER eat margarine! See my article on trans fats - visit http://thenew50.blogspot.com/ and look in the 2007 archive for DIABETES TYPE II.)

In summary, a lot of what we've been told turns out to be bad advice when it comes to weight loss. Keep yourself informed, and don't count on your doctor to know any more than you do when it comes to weight loss. Do your own research before you discuss it with your doctor. Get his opinion first, then see how it fits with what you have learned. Might make for a really worthwhile discussion.

Weight Loss Project

Weight loss - DAY 1
First thing this morning I drank a 16 ounce glass of cold water. No food, no coffee, just water. I then waited at least 45 minutes before my next intake. That was a delicious drink called Green Goodness that is produced by Bolthouse Farms. I am not promoting any particular products on this blog, but I will tell you what I like and why... (To read the entire article, please go to http://thenew50.blogspot.com All weight loss articles from this project will be posted there as they are submitted. Thanks!)
Weight loss - with Juice!
I have been asked several times now about safe but lasting weight loss. This seems to be a very common thread that runs through many of the e-mails I receive. The problem for so many of us is that we have become an "instant" society. We want results, and we want them NOW!!! But weight loss generally can only be accomplished in much the same way that weight gain happens - gradually, over time. If you want to risk your long-term health using risky and often totally unproven over the counter weight loss miracle pills, this blog will not be of interest to you. I am interested in staying healthy, and helping others to do the same, not putting our health at risk. But if you are interested in really losing weight at a steady rate, and keeping it off, I will devote articles over the next three to four weeks on proven methods of doing just that. Since I have recently added a few pounds myself, I have decided to make some serious changes including losing a minimum of 25 pounds. I will keep you posted on what I am doing to accomplish this and provide updates at least once each week on how I'm doing. I hope it will inspire others to do the same. Here's a hint on just how I intend to start: juice. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetable juices. So if you have a juicer, get it out from under all the pots and pans and clean it up and let's get started. My first weight loss article will be published on 1/4/08 and I hope you will join us.If you are willing to provide just a first name and your weight loss goal in pounds in the comment area, we'll try to all keep each other motivated and on target to reach our goals. So, until tomorrow...
Posted by Jack at 4:08 PM 0 comments
Labels: goals, Health, juice, weight loss, wellness.
Thursday, January 3, 2008

EXERCISES FOR SENIORS

Let’s face it. Very few people of any age get enough exercise. That’s why we have such an obesity epidemic in this country and many other parts of the world. As we get into our 50’s and 60’s we are pretty much set in our ways and our bodies are a reflection of that. Some stay fairly fit and trim their entire lives, and others just let it go. I believe that there is very little empirical evidence that those who stay fit and trim live a lot longer. But I’m convinced that they stay more active and enjoy more of their later years than those who haven’t made any effort to stay in shape. Well, round IS a shape. Anyway, if you have not done much in the way of exercise for many years and you have a sedentary job, you might be afraid to start now. It would be wise to first talk to your doctor about it, and if there are no medical reasons why you should not get started, then start slowly. The idea is not to cause health problems but to prevent them. Being sedentary can lead to all sorts of problems that regular motion might help you avoid. High blood pressure, lack of appetite, poor sleep habits, low energy, and a whole cascade of other things you would do well to avoid. Since this blog is focused on STAYING well rather than getting well, I want to encourage you to take some action. We’re not training for the Olympics, but we are in training to stay fit and active for as long as we can.

Lets start by just walking. Not far, not too fast, and not for too long at first. You want to get your muscles and ligaments and tendons and lungs used to idea first, so just take a little stroll for five or ten minutes, longer if you are up to it. If you live in an area where it is safe to walk outdoors, that’s best. Distracted by things going on around you, the time goes by more quickly. Walking in a shopping mall serves the same purpose. Just don’t stop to look in every store window. Gradually, you want to increase your pace and total duration of your walks to thirty minutes or more at least three times a week. Vary your route from time to time so you don’t get bored, and if possible, walk with someone else.
In our neighborhood the streets are not all flat so I can get a little more strenuous walk from time to time by going up and down some gentle hills. I have a treadmill, and I always start out at a 3% incline.

After you have made walking a regular part of your week, it’s time to add a little weight training or some sort of resistance. Muscle tone is important if you want to be able to fend for yourself in the years ahead. You don’t have to become a body builder, but you have to counteract the natural aging process. After about the age of 25, you will begin to lose muscle mass at the rate of 3% to 5% every decade. That could mean a loss of 20% by the time you hit 65. Weight training can offset that to some extent. You can’t stop it entirely because your body is changing whether you like it or not. You’re giving up nitrogen, an essential factor in muscle protein, faster than you can take it in. You’re also losing bone calcium. Your body is becoming more acidic. Decrease the acidity in your system by increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat. And counteract the muscle loss with some regular resistance training. You can get some 2 to 5 pound hand weights and do mostly upper body exercise while seated or standing. These include biceps curls, French curls for the triceps, and butterflies. E-mail me if you want more complete descriptions of any of these. For resistance training of the legs and hips, I suggest moves adapted from T’ai Chi Chuan. We call it T’ai Chi, but that’s like saying “foot” instead of “football”. Without getting into the Taoist philosophy, we can benefit from the exercises. These moves will not only strengthen your legs and hips, they will help to improve your balance and ability to recover from an imbalanced move that might lead to a fall. Falls resulting in broken bones are harder to recover from as we get older, so let’s try to prevent them by making ourselves stronger and more stable. But we not only lose muscle mass, we lose flexibility, balance and endurance as well. So here’s a very simple series of moves to help improve all four, along with the upper body resistance training. You don’t need to buy any equipment, but I do suggest that you use the back of a sturdy chair for balance until you feel strong enough to do them without it.

· First, stand behind a chair holding lightly to the back, feet a comfortable width apart (shoulder width). Now, slowly shift your weight to the left until 95% of your body weight is on your left foot. Now bend your knees slightly. Inhale deeply. Slowly lift your right foot and move it beside your left foot. With both feet on the floor and close together, stand erect as you exhale completely. Now reverse the move, inhale and exhale slowly and completely as you go, until the right foot is back in the starting position. Now, very slowly shift your weight to the right foot and repeat to the right side. Once you have returned to the starting position, count as one repetition. Build up to ten complete reps over a period of a few weeks. Take your time. What is important here is not how fast you can do this, but how s l o w l y. And always in total control. If this is too easy, you are going too fast!
· The next series of moves is only slightly more complicated. By now, after several weeks perhaps, you have strengthened your legs with the first series, so adding this should not be too hard. As you shift your weight to the left foot and slowly bend your knees to a half-squat, lift the toes of your right foot from the floor, keeping your right heel firmly planted. Now slowly pivot your whole body to the right, keeping your left foot firmly in place pointing forward. If you are doing this correctly, you will turn 90 degrees to the right, your left leg will be bent at the knee and your upper body will be erect, facing to the right, your right heel will be on the floor, right leg fairly straight, toes pointing up. Now pivot back to the front, both feet back on the floor and slowly exhale as you stand very tall. Repeat to the opposite side.

These simple moves look and sound easy and perhaps pointless until you actually do them through ten complete repetitions very slowly. Then you will see just how powerful they can be. Don’t forget to observe your breathing. Holding your breath is never good.

I know people who have practiced t’ai chi for decades who remain strong, flexible and agile into their 70’s and 80’s. Using these simple t’ai chi moves can help you in the same way. At the age of 60 I can stand on one foot at a time and put my socks on.

I will write soon about this whole problem of acidity vs. alkalinity and aging and how you can combat it with your diet. Here’s a sample: One of my favorite things to add to spaghetti and certain casseroles is parmesan cheese. It is one of the most acidic common foods you can put in your body. Not so good. Spinach is one of the most alkaline vegetables. Look for this article in the next few weeks.

TYPE II DIABETES

What’s behind this epidemic? How can you prevent it?

Type II diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and around the globe. What has led to this? There’s really no mystery. There have been a number of trends in our society, especially in the US, that have led inevitably toward this situation.
Consider that news headlines almost weekly have something to report concerning obesity, especially among children. When the number of super-sized fast food meals exceeds the number of minimally processed home-cooked meals week after week, the result is to be expected. Add to this the trend toward more and more time spent on the phone, in front of the television or playing video games, and less time spent outdoors playing, riding bikes, shooting hoops or exploring, what else could we expect? Now we see a nation of middle age adults and baby boomers who get even less exercise than their children, sitting in front of the television every night with a remote glued to their hand, and we wonder what has gone wrong. We eat over processed food that provides less than adequate nutrition, we walk the equivalent of about 100 yards a day, we park as close to the store as possible, ride elevators and avoid stairs, and use every possible excuse to avoid physical activity of any sort. There seems to be general agreement that obesity and inactivity may both contribute to the onset of type II diabetes for many. But even with all these factors at work against us, there is something else we might have missed…another factor that is far less obvious, but perhaps far more deadly.

Go right now to your food pantry or your refrigerator and look at a few food labels. Look for the words, “partially hydrogenated…….”. If you don’t see that, then look for “shortening”. After you’ve done this tiny bit of personal research, come back and read the rest of this. I’ll wait. . . . . . . . . .

What did you find? If you have cookies or crackers or just about any other baked goods on your shelf, you’ve got this stuff in your house. These are TRANS FATTY ACIDS. We’ll refer to them as TFA’s here. The reason we find them in so many processed foods is because they help keep the food product “fresh”. Instead of going bad in a week to ten days, it might still appear to be edible in ten MONTHS! Great, right? Well, if you are a food manufacturer, yes. You can now make your product in Maine in January and ship it to California and know that when it finally gets on the shelf at the local convenience store it will still look great in April.

Do you have a can of shortening (no brand names here) on your shelf. THAT is a can of trans fatty acids. Partially hydrogenated oil. You can keep this stuff for five years and it won’t go “bad”. But YOU will go bad. Here’s the scoop on TFA’s. Your body has no good use for TFA’s. It cannot digest TFA’s. In fact the safe adult daily intake of trans fatty acids is ZERO milligrams. The TFA’s actually harden the cell walls, making it harder for your cells to absorb nutrients or excrete waste. They also make it harder for your cells to communicate with each other. That’s right! So if you get a little infection over here, and you need a little help from over there, the message doesn’t get through. Like the cavalry in the fort under attack by a band of Indians, you send out a rider to get help from another fort. But he can’t get out the gate, so you’re on your own. Infection gets worse, spreads, and soon you have a serious medical problem. TFA’s seem to be directly linked to heart disease too. Back in the 50’s we were told to stop eating butter. Switch to margarine!!! Hmm. What is margarine? Partially hydrogenated oil, with a little sodium and coloring and a few other tidbits, so it looks and tastes a little like butter. As the use of margarine and shortening in the home and in food manufacturing increased, along with the spread of our interstate highway system, the incidence of heart disease went…UP, not down. We took the advice of the medical community and made ourselves more vulnerable to illness.

What’s the solution? YOU are. If you buy food, read the label. If it says “partially hydrogenated”….anything, don’t buy it. Is it really that simple? No. You will find
it quite difficult to find ANY label in the cookie and cracker aisle that doesn’t have those words on it. But you can get some really great cookie recipes that use applesauce that you can make at home, with no TFA’s. (here are just a couple of URL’s to get you started)
www.baking911.com/healthy/baking_101.htm
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/low-fat-baking3.htm

Oh, I know, we just don’t have time to bake cookies any more. But we are killing ourselves, so baking seems like a good alternative, doesn’t it? The more we avoid consuming highly processed foods, the healthier we can be. And it’s not just cookies and crackers that we need to watch out for. It is prepared foods of all sorts. Buy a prepared meatloaf, or some of that delicious lasagna in the frozen food case. Or maybe read the label and then go home and make your own.

Will this alone help you avoid type II diabetes? Perhaps not. But if you are willing to do this much, perhaps you will also be willing to take a little walk, 30 or 40 minutes, a few times a week. Maybe you will also learn something about portion control. And maybe by exercising some self-control we can turn this epidemic around. For an excellent group of article to help you better understand trans fatty acids, the history of their use in food products, and the threat they really are to your health, be sure to visit http://www.zimbio.com/Trans+fats Arm yourself with knowledge, then have the wisdom to apply that knowledge. Good health to you.