There are multiple benefits to exercise, which include both psychological and physical health benefits, but are there any others that we may not know about. Apart from the fact, that exercise helps in burning the excess calories that we need

There is now another benefit which you may not be aware of this happens at a cellular level within the neurons in your brain. So once you are doing it consistently as well as having better health and weight loss according to what this recent research says you are far more likely to eat less.

It’s been realised now that when you eat lots of fat within your diet this interferes with the hypothalamus within your brain, which controls your appetite. Somehow it interferes with the full signal from your stomach so as a consequence of this you tend to over eat more.

The researchers found that when they made obese rodents exercise it started to reverse the process within their brains, which had been caused excess fat intake when the rodents exercised it increased certain proteins within their brain, which help to regulate levels of leptin and insulin, which are all connected with appetite.

This interesting piece of research explains why when you eat too much fat within your diet it interferes with the proteins in your brain so naturally you tend to eat more of the wrong foods, especially if you do not exercise.

Have you noticed that when you exercise you tend to eat less food? I dare say that some people will probably say that due to the fact that they have done some exercise they will want to eat more.

Does it ring true for you that when you eat too much fatty food and don’t exercise you tend to become more hungry as a result? As always it would be nice to get some feedback because everybody is different as we all know.

By Dr. Kyle Christensen

It’s getting worse! More and more children and adults are increasingly have problems associated with their brains.  It is now estimated that 18% of the baby boomers will develop full-blown Alzheimers Disease.  In addition, many of our children suffer from inability to focus and concentrate manifesting from autism to ADHD and everything in between.  While science spends their energy debating on what is causing all of this, far too little emphasis is put on undoing the damage.  And life long pharmaceutically managed patients (furthering the profits of the legalized drug cartels) is hardly a solution in my book.

Here is my understand of health.  And I break it down into three simple components of health it constantly teach.  1) Putting the Good things in, 2) Getting the bad things out, and 3) Programming.

Let’s first talk about the bad things.  We are under attack.  Our bodies were made from the natural substances of the earth.  At least we were designed to be.  Mom eats a healthy diet of Whole Natural Foods.  These foods provide the building blocks from which baby grows and develops. Sadly, there are toxins.  Toxins come in the form of food additives, colors, preservatives, flavors, drugs, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, GMO’s (genetically modified foods – which are proving to be perhaps the most dangerous), and a myriad of other unnatural and even harmful natural substances that get introduced through the air we breath, the food we eat and what we drink.

In relation to Alzheimers, it was thought that Aluminum toxicity was a major culprit.  Research is now pointing to copper toxicity.  And the major source is the water we drink, coming through copper pipes.  Which is why we should always drink filtered water (Reverse Osmosis being the best).  Many have pointed to vaccines and the heavy metals associated with them as damaging to our children’s nervous systems.  But we are seeing that some children suffer from adverse affects while others don’t.  It seems that some children have the ability to slough off toxicity better than others.  Those that hang on to toxins, seem to have more problems.

Regardless of how or where toxicity comes, we can all agree it is a good idea to get it out.  We will talk more about what to do specifically later in this article.

Of course, eating health building foods is essential.  I will not belabor the specifics of diet other than re-emphasizing Whole Natural Foods.  I spent the weekend at a seminar and the presenter showed slide after slide of blood work and data showing how vegetarians suffer from major deficiencies that cannot be obtained with even the healthiest of their diets.  I love vegetarian food – which to me is food prepared with an emphasis on deliciousness.  After years, we re-subscribed to Vegetarian Times Magazine.  In years past, we would regularly pull amazingly tasty recipes.  To my horror, nearly every recipe in the latest issue included ingredients such as “vegan margarine”, “unhydrogenated shortening” and a plethora of chemical concoctions I would not let into my kitchen.

I advocate the diet of “A Vegetarian, that cheats”.  Eat delicious vegetarian food, but include healthy meats (beef, chicken, lamb, rabbit, deer, elk, and fish), healthy dairy (raw milk, yogurt, cheeses, kefir, butter) and eggs (home grown in our case).  We also eat lots of sprouts, fresh juices, fermented vegetables (sauerkraut and other vegetables and beverages). In essence, eat food made from scratch.

The good things that go into our bodies do not always go in through the mouth.  One of the most important nutrients comes through the skin. Most people have alarming low Vitamin D intake.  Our generation has been so warned and have become so paranoid of getting too much sun for fear of skin cancer, that we are woefully deficient in the sunshine vitamin.  This in large part accounts for the rise in breast and prostate cancer. It is estimated that by increasing the Vitamin D through sunshine exposure or supplementation, breast and prostate cancers could drop by 80%.  During winter or times of less sun exposure, most people should be taking between 5,000 and 10,000 IU’s daily.

Now for the part that I find fascinating which relates to Nobel Prize winning research of Eric Kandel (2000 Nobel Prize) on Neuroplasticity. And how we can change how our brains become programmed.

Go to Western Botanicals’ Blog for some very interesting discoveries

Blessings,

Dr. Kyle Christensen
Western Botanicals, Inc. February 2012

When it comes to fats sometimes we can tend to get a bit confused, about what we actually need to eat and the recommended daily amount of fat we need in our diets in order to stay healthy.

Some people go to extremes and hardly eat any fat at all in their diets. But this isn’t necessarily the best route to go as we do need some fat in our diets in order to remain healthy. When you’re looking at a particular food product, to see how much fat it contains it is very easy to get to confused because fat can seem like there is a lot, when in fact they may be very low saturated fat which isn’t so bad.

According to what the food standards agency has said is most of us are eating more than the required 20 grams of saturated fat for women and 30 grams for men. Do you have toast for your breakfast ? if so then you could be quite easily eating your daily requirement of saturated fat if you have three slices for your breakfast, and bear in mind that you could eat more throughout the day without even realising it.

The biggest offenders when it comes to saturated fat are things like red meat, biscuits, chocolate, full fat cheese, pies etc. Eating too many of these foods will raise your LDL cholesterol which is the bad cholesterol this is the type that tends to stick to your arteries that form plaques narrow your arteries.

The big problem with this is a lot of us don’t realise how much we are consuming, when we buy other foods that are labelled. We tend to have what is called a weekend culture in the United Kingdom which revolves around having take-aways instead of cooking a meal at home, this doesn’t mean to say that you should tree yourself every once in a while to a take-away but just make sure it doesn’t become a regular habit.

And make sure you don’t eat them throughout the week because the way we live these days, it is very easy to get into that type of food mentality. Just in case you are not aware here are the amounts of saturated fat that you need to be aware of on food labels a high amount per hundred grams of saturated fat is considered to be five grams and I really do wonder at times how money people do actually know that. And a low amount of saturated fat is considered as 1.5 grams per hundred so anything below that is perfectly ok and safe to eat.

There are quite a few myths around saturated fats so let’s take a look at those and see which are and aren’t.

Certain types of foods contain saturated fat

The types of food that we tend to eat can have two different types of fat these are known as saturates and unsaturates, the thing that you have to take into consideration is the type of fat contained within the food, there are saturates, polyunsaturates, and monounsaturates polyunsaturates and monounsaturates aren’t that bad but saturated fat is this is the most important thing to remember regarding this.

If you are eating a lot of hard cheese then you are probably eating a lot of saturated fat. It’s so easy to buy a block of cheese and cut one piece of the end and eat it whole. Eating that a may well over five grams of saturated fat without you even realising it.

Is saturated fat the worst type of fat

You probably may think so but this isn’t necessarily the case, trans are far worse than saturated fats is, these tend to be added to products like biscuits and now manufacturers are beginning to use them less.

Because of the mere fact of how much they increase the amount ofLDL cholesterol in your blood if you have too much of it. The reason trans fats tend to be used is they have a lot longer shelf life and also are cheaper than other fats.

Do some fats contain more calories than others

No they don’t is a simple answer fat as a whole contains minor calories per gram, which is why it’s so easy to put on weight when you eat a lot of it. The only difference between the different fat is how they affect your health.

Is saturated fat that bad for you

Not necessarily we do need some saturated fat in our bodies to help with the uptake of vitamins and minerals, but when you start to take in excess amounts that you don’t necessarily need that is when problems will like weight gain, but it is good to have a balance another problem with too much saturated fat is it can cause the onset of diabetes because it upsets the insulin balance within your body.

Another thing to remember is we can actually survive without saturated fat, our bodies are able to create our own essential fatty acids. Without actually eating saturated fat in our food. The important thing to remember is balance your eating habits with what you eat and eat more of the good fats and cut down on the bad fats or eat them in very small moderation.

Source http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk

Quite a few people these days, particular fitness individuals, etc. Have long held the belief that if you exercise on an empty stomach. It will help you to burn more fat. The reason for this supposedly is if your body has no food in it then it will start to use its fat stores when you start to work out.

The wisdom behind this kind of thinking is that instead of using carbohydrates for fuel. When you are working out it forces your body to use its own body fat. Or so the theory goes. So as a consequence, you tend to burn more fat.

Some recent research though has come to light, which suggests otherwise, which was published in Strength and Conditioning Journal, they found that you burn the same amount of fat. Regardless of whether you eat a meal or not. So there are no real gains to having nothing to eat before you start to do some kind of exercise. If you do decide to exercise like this, then you are far more likely to lose muscle, which is the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

It would seem that without sufficient fuel your exercise session, won’t be as beneficial compared to if you eat something beforehand from what they say your exercise won’t be as efficient. And neither will be the amount of calories that you burn.

In one of the studies, which was looked at in the report cyclists were monitored whom had nothing to eat before a ride. They were found to be using up calories from protein as well as lost muscle. In another similar study which was put together in 2002 some women who ate 45 grams of carbohydrates before their workout, didn’t eat as much food throughout their whole day. Is this is something that you can relate to yourself? I am always interested in feedback from other people and their experiences, so please leave a comment and your thoughts in the relevant section please.

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Some studies have shown that calorie labels at fast-food restaurants have little effect on consumption, so scientists at Duke University tried something different: They offered customers at a local Chinese restaurant the option of a smaller portion.

In a first experiment, with 283 people, only 1 percent asked for a smaller portion of a starchy side dish when none was explicitly offered. But when servers told customers they could choose a portion containing 200 fewer calories, 33 percent accepted.

In a second test, with 992 participants, the researchers labeled the dishes on the menu with the number of calories. This did not increase the number of diners who accepted smaller portions.

In a final trial, the researchers tracked the orders and weighed the leftovers of 263 customers and found that those who chose smaller side dishes did not compensate by ordering higher-calorie entrées. Those who opted for larger side dishes did not leave significantly more food on their plates than the downsizers.

The senior author of the study, Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology at Duke, compared this dietary strategy to Odysseus having sailors tie him to the mast so he could resist the call of the Sirens.

“People are willing to perform an act that limits their freedom but basically improves their long-term well-being,” he said. “We should think about more places where we could offer these choices.”

Enzymes are a type of protein and act as catalysts that promote chemical actions at the cellular level. There are two major actions in the body in which things are made and another in which things are broken down. These too systems are called the catabolic (tears down) and the anabolic system (builds). Enzymes are a major part of these two systems.

Digestion requires enzymes that tear down foods to their smallest molecular state for absorption and utilization in our bodies.  In our metabolic system enzymes prompt actions that convert things from one form to another. This is extremely important and we could not live without enzymes. Our bodies make several quarts of enzymatic fluid everyday.

Most enzymes do other things than digest foods. In fact, the body is designed to provide only a small amount of enzymes for food digestion. Our body has limited enzyme resources and is only going to produce so many.  If the enzyme resources are constantly being used to digest foods, others systems and organs can’t do their job as well and suffer the consequences. Our heart, lungs, kidneys, thyroid, liver, muscles and other organs also need enzymes to do their jobs.

So where should our food digesting enzymes come from? The answer is living plant foods. Raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds have live enzymes that will do the majority of digestion of the foods once they have been sufficiently chewed to release the enzymes. When we eat these living foods in raw form (not cooked) we get enzymes that support our body. The enzymes raw foods provide keep your pancreas from being overworked and can add years to your life

Enzymes also carry nutrients and can’t function without certain nutrients.  Some enzymes carry specific vitamins and minerals and without the presence of the vitamins and minerals the enzyme can’t do its job. It’s sort of like going to the prom without a date. You are there and are available but with no partner to dance with. Enzymes need vitamins and minerals to dance! This is just one reason getting lots of vitamins and minerals in your body is so important.

If your enzymes can’t do their task due to a lack of nutrients that means you can’t build hormones, make and repair tissues, make adequate energy, blood cells or immune compounds.

Once the temperature of a raw food goes beyond 117 degrees enzymes die and in addition some vitamins are damaged.  Eating raw veggies and fruits insures you get maximum nutrient content. Living foods contain enzymes.

In a nut shell, eating raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds will give your body the enzymes it needs allowing the body to produce enzymes for other very important life support functions. The body is only going to make so many enzymes and when it reaches that point, well death is at the door.

Please make raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds a part of your daily diet routine. Your pancreas will love you for it.

Found this interesting experiment (with video) today which shows how your body digests processed and whole foods.

The article was written by Max Eddy for http://www.geekosystem.com.

The experiment was conducted by a new art-science crossover project called Mouth to Anus (M2A). The brain child of artist Stefani Bardin, working with gastroenterologist Dr. Braden Kuo of Harvard University, the project centers around data from a pill cam that shows you what processed food looks like during digestion. In case you’re wondering, the answer is “distressing.”

Bardin used two different pill probes in the project. One of them carried pressure, temperature, and pH sensors to monitor the conditions inside the gastrointestinal tract. The other, more dramatically, recorded video footage while inside the body of participants. Both pill devices transmitted the information in a manner similar to Bluetooth, and were limited only by the eight hour battery life of the pill cam.

In Bardin’s experiment, she fed two subjects similar but fundamentally different meals. The first subject received gatorade, instant ramen, and gummi bears; the second subject ate handmade noodles, hibiscus tea, and pomegranate-cherry juice gummies. The digestion of these meals was recorded with the pill cams, demonstrating quite viscerally how differently the human body handles these foods.

The project, which may be culminating in an immersive installation experience, aims to reveal the hidden world of eating. Firstly, by showing viewers how difficult it is for the body to digest processed foods — after two hours, ramen still looks like ramen. Secondly, and this is touched on briefly in the video below, the project also seems intent on revealing some of the surprising and disconcerting ingredients which are often hidden or somehow obfuscated on the food’s nutritional information. Did you know that ramen has a chemical similar to lighter fluid in it? Unsettling!

Bardin certainly has an axe to grind in this project, and while some may find that off-putting it’s a nonetheless revealing look at what goes on inside of you.

View the video at http://youtu.be/zi_DaJKsCLo

People who practice yoga regularly become mindful with their choices of food and what they eat, and because of this are far less likely to become obese.

These are the findings of a study, put together at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer research Centre, in the United States .

The reason the study came about was findings that became known almost four years ago. The initial findings were for people whom were overweight; they were far more likely to lose weight. If doing yoga, this would prevent the normal middle age spread that people tend to get as they get older.

These were the benefits for people whom regularly practiced yoga. Although the researchers did not quite know why the yoga was helping the participants, they came to the conclusion it was more to do with the actual doing of yoga, but not the exercise that you get from it.

The researchers concluded that it was more to do with actual body awareness more than anything else was, which was creating the effect. A follow-up study confirmed their suspicions, which published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, in August.

They say that the research that they did found that people, whom practiced yoga for a period of 10 years, did in fact gain less weight. Than those whom did no yoga at all.

This confirmed everything they thought, they didn’t add any other factors to the research either such as physical activity and what they ate. They concluded that yoga makes you more mindful about food choices, and once you have eaten enough and feel full then you will stop eating. Whereas if you are a non-mindful, eater then you just eat whatever you want and don’t consciously think about it.

This could be because you either have some anxiety related issues or may be depressed. It is very easy to eat more food when you. Could be either stressed or depressed because you are eating with your emotions.

One of the researchers involved in this particular research, who has been interested in Yoga for a number of years now, says that because of the way that you have to, stretch your body into various different positions and keep relaxed at the same time is one of the reasons why it brings about the mindfulness.

It is this actual inner calmness that makes us more focused when it comes to eating, so instead of making choices of foods with our emotions we make choices with rational thinking. In turn we make better choices, here is something to think about? Have you ever noticed that when you may be having a bad day you can tend to turn towards food for comfort?

To finish this off they, did a questionnaire, and some of the factors that were in it are a small summary below so you can see it. This questionnaire, distributed to 300 people in order to find out whether or not as a conclusion, that yoga does affect mindfulness with regard to eating.

• Being distracted, doing other things whilst eating food
• Overall awareness of food seeing how it looks, tastes smells, and overall texture
• External influences, such as advertising, eating in unison when it’s being displayed
• Emotional eating, you tend to eat when you’re either stressed or depressed
• Being full, you still tend to eat even though you are full

When the results came back 40 percent of the people whom filled the questionnaire in practiced yoga for approximately one hour per week, 46 percent of them walked for 90 minutes a week as exercise, and 50 percent of them or more did some sort of physical activity for 90 minutes which was either vigorous or moderate in nature.

Of the ones that had a higher mindfulness score as they called it were the people that had a lesser BMI and the overall conclusion was that. The people whom did the yoga had a better overall BMI than those who did not.

So yoga it would seem has the thumbs up and it doesn’t look as if you have to practice it a awful lot to become mindful yourself. So this is something that you could incorporate into your weight loss plan in order to double the effectiveness of it.

Source and references http://www.sciencedaily.com, http://www.losethattyre.co.uk

The current guidelines, so we are told have been for a long time that we are supposed to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. However, now it would seem that we need to eat more than five a day in order to maintain our heart health.

In some recent news, it has come to light that we now need to eat eight portions of fruit and vegetables in order to maintain our health.  There has been some skepticism as to whether or not eating more than five portions of healthy foods had any actual benefits.

Nevertheless, in a recent study they found that it is beneficial to eat the additional portions if you want the extra health benefits. In the study, the participants whom ate the extra food were the ones who gained. They protected their mortality rate of dying from a heart attack by a factor of 22 percent. These results came from data that came from 300,000 people in Europe .

This may be something that a lot of people may not want to hear. Even so, the reality of is that eating three more portions of fruit and vegetables a day may, in fact, save your life in years to come.

You may have already followed a detox diet because you wanted to feel better, have more energy, get better health but have you stopped to think about mind detox? Mind detox is taking charge of your thoughts and turning your negative and self-defeating beliefs and attitudes into positive thoughts and actions. The best detox should be holistic. The New Year is the perfect time to review your life to see what works and what doesn’t.

People often find that they release emotions as well as physical toxins while they are on a detox diet. This often comes as a surprise and can be frightening if you are not prepared for it. If you regularly detox than you may have already discovered that the detox process can have very positive effects on the mind, spirit and emotions. But your detox will not allow to you to feel as
good as you can if you hang on to anger, fear, jealousy or other negative emotions.

It’s widely accepted that suppressed emotions, particularly anger, are a major underlying cause of stress, depression and even high blood pressure. Both Louise Hay and Brandon Bays have shown that underlying emotions are a major factor in cancer. Releasing emotions have resulted in some almost miraculous remissions from cancer.

Food, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs are often used unknowingly to suppress emotions. A lot of energy is used up suppressing them and releasing them during a detox can make you feel incredibly light and full of energy. Mind detox gives you a chance to take a long hard look at yourself.

Information overload

When you want to detoxify your mind, your first step is to reduce the level of information overload that nearly all of us in the modern world experience on a daily basis. This means giving yourself at least one day a week in which you do not read the newspaper or get online or watch television or listen to the radio. While it is great to be informed, there is also such a thing as being overwhelmed by too much information, and a need to get away from all of it every so often.

Me time

Having some “me time” to get away from it all is important. Do something for yourself. Take a long relaxing bath with some uplifting essential oils. Listen to some relaxing music. Put on a face pack. Go for a walk. Do some yoga. Indulge in a relaxing massage. Arrange to meet up with a friend for a cup of green tea.

Importance of Relaxation

If you want to be successful at mind detox you have to be relaxed. Before you can change your consciousness you must come to a point of physical and emotional relaxation. Try to fully relax your mind and body for 15 minutes each day. Relaxation and breathing exercises play a big part in the mind detox. A relaxed mind is an open mind. Correct breathing oxygenates the blood, increases the circulation and de-stresses the body.

A special technique of breathing and muscle flexing is one easy and virtually effortless way. Sit upright in a chair and with your eyes closed start to breathe in and out in a slow, easy rhythm. You should soon start to feel yourself relaxing. Now start to flex your muscles and then letting them go. Start with your hands, arms, shoulders and back, working your way to your abdomen, thighs, calves and feet. There are many similar methods of relaxation so choose one that works for you.

When you are relaxed take some time to think about how you really feel about yourself, what you want to feel, what’s good about your life and what is not.  Write it down if you like. Knowing exactly what you want in life means you can clear your head of all the questions about what you are doing and where you are going. Once you know what you want make a plan of how you are going to achieve those goals.

Positive thinking

Positive thinking is an important part of mind detox. It cleanses the mind. We have all experienced negative mental chatter at some time in our lives. Turning negative thoughts into positive ones makes all the difference between a good life and a bad life. Negative thoughts will make you depressed, disappointed  and gloomy. Positive ones will completely change your frame of mind make your life much easier.

Positive thinking can be hard if you tend to think negatively but it can be done. Every time you have a negative thought add something nice to the thought. Put a positive spin on it. For example if you find yourself saying “I’m not going to get any better at this” say instead “I can do this, I’ll give it another try”.

Get away from thinking about what you don’t want because the more you focus on what you don’t want, the more you will get what you don’t want. An example of this is saying I don’t have any pain in my knees today. Pain is negative so say something like I can walk easily and freely today. Do
you get the idea? If you believe you can’t do something like eat a healthy diet, you may not even try. Say something like  “I can change my diet any time I want to but I may need help to do it”.

Self help

There are many self help books and CD’s that help you think positively if you want to dive deeper into the subject. You can use meditation or yoga or both to bring a better balance of mind, body & spirit.

Scientists have long known that your brainwave state determines your state of being. The new Brain Evolution System clears your mind of its mental clutter, releases stress and help you solve your problems quickly.

Even if your New Year resolutions have already faltered there is no better time than the present to go back to the drawing board and address all the health related issues that you have been meaning to get to for so long.  You will get a much better result from your detox if you also concentrate on some Mind Detox.