GretaBfit

Vitamin D Prevents Cancer: Is It TRUE?

This is an important video.  Nearly 1/2 the adults in the United States are deficient in Vitamin D and this deficiency has been linked to cancer and other diseases.  I want you all to get educated about this, get your vitamin D levels tested, and take a Vitamin D supplement, particularly during the Winter months. Dr. Joseph Mercola, by the way, recommends adults take 5,000 units of vitamin D daily.

White Tea the New Skin Lover!

Guest column by Sandy Alcide:

First there was green tea, touted for its ability to help lose weight and destroy free radical damage (free radical damage is generated from environmental factors like sun exposure and pollution, that causes premature aging of skin.)

 

But, credible research discoveries prefer "white tea" as being three times more effective for the skin than green tea!

 

 For those of you who dislike wearing sunscreen but love your outdoor activity: white tea protects the skin and helps to reverse some of the damage from staying out in the sun too long. And for those who are trying to keep their weight down for better racing times or fitness competition and are lacking enough proper nutrition; white tea is also known to help skin from poor dieting which in time can damage the skin.

 

Drinking white tea promotes healthy and radiant skin and helps to give a boost to those who may tend to neglect their skin from free radical damage.

 

White tea strengthens skin's cells that can lead to immune system damage increasing chances of pre-mature aging, such as wrinkling or discolored pigmentation. Drinking this tea also helps to build your skin's resistance against stresses that cause skin to age.

 

So how much white tea do we need to get these benefits? Not as much as you think. Depending on your lifestyle, about one to two cups a day should help.

 

Next time you shop for your green tea, pick up a box of white tea. Your skin will love you for it.

Note from Greta: Sandy Alcide writes for Motion Media in Nesconset, NY

I'm Rethinking SOY--and So Should You!

My friend, Kelly Herring, Editor-in-Chief at Healing Gourmet sent out an email today warning mothers not to feed their babies infant formulas or baby food that includes soy. 

After reading this, I'm wondering, "Should we adults stop eating this stuff."  And to think I thought soy was a "health food."

I'm definitely cutting back on soy and maybe I'll just avoid it all together.  Meanwhile, here's Kelly's list of reasons.  You can judge for yourself.

1. Caustic Chemicals: Soy protein isolate is the primary ingredient in soy formulas. Unless it is listed as organic, this ingredient is treated with caustic hexane.
2. Exposure to GMOs: Almost all soy is genetically modified. But even if you choose organic soy formula (like Earth's Best), the issues below still remain as health concerns.
3. Estrogen Exposure: It is estimated that infants fed exclusively soy-based formula receive an estrogen dose equivalent to five birth control pills, daily.
4. Proper Growth & Development: Soy is high anti-nutrients, known as phytates. These molecules actually block the uptake of essential minerals. For this reason, soy formulas have been known to cause a zinc deficiency in infants. Zinc is essential for normal growth and development.
5. Lower IQ: Soy formulas do not have lactose, which is broken down into glucose and galactose. Galactose is valuable for brain development. Anthropologists have demonstrated that the more intelligent species of mammals have greater amounts of lactose in their milk, and human milk contains one of the highest concentrations of lactose. Soy-based formulas contain table sugar and corn syrup instead.
6. Brain Function: Soy formulas lack cholesterol. This is a required ingredient for making myelin - the fatty sheath surrounding nerve fibers. Myelin makes it possible for nerves to carry information from one part of the brain or body to another.
7. Thyroid Function: Soy contains goitrogens. These are chemicals that can impair thyroid function. The thyroid affects weight, metabolism, mood and the functioning of other endocrine organs.
8. Exposure to Heavy Metals: The aluminum content of soy formula is 10 times greater than milk-based formula and 100 times greater than unprocessed milk. The toxic effects of aluminum range from kidney failure in infants to Alzheimer's in adults.

Whatever your decision, I say "let's stay healthy and fit."

GretaBfit

follow me on twitter: twitter.com/gretablackburn

How Can YOU Eat Less--10 TIPS that Work for Me

Losing weight is a simple matter, so how come it is so hard to do? 

On a daily basis, if you burn off more calories through exercise and just being active than you consume through eating, you'll lose weight. 

Being active and exercising is easy for me, but I love good food so keeping the calories down is the biggest problem. The trick is to eat less.

How do I do this?  Here's 10 tips that work for me:

      1. Learn that you are full before you stop eating. Left over from more primitive days, we all have a human survival gene called the "thrifty gene" which encourages us to keep on eating even when we are full. Stop eating before those last few bites of mash potatoes, wait and the desire to eat will go away. 

      2. Cut back on fat. Fat has 9 calories per gram as compared to 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates and protein. You can eat the same amount of food while automatically cutting back on calories.

      4. When you eat out, order two appetizers instead of one appetizer and a main dish, or simply order the main dish and no appetizers or share an appetizer. Skip the desert or if you must, share it. If you aren't too embarrassed, ask for a "doggy bag" before you start eating, and put a portion of your meal into the bag ahead of time. Don't eat the roll or bread and butter before the meal begins. 

      5. Have a light soup before your main meal, or better yet, have soup as the main meal. Soup makes you feel full on fewer calories.

      6. Drink a large glass of water before you eat. You'll be less hungry.

      7. For heaven's sake, slow down. Enjoy every single bite, chew it, and savor it. To slow things down even more, set your fork down between bites. Twenty minutes after your first bite of food there will be sugar in your blood stream; you'll feel full regardless of how much you've eaten.

      8. Don't ever let yourself get extremely hungry. Another primitive instinct is to overeat when we are really hungry. Don't skip meals and learn to eat healthy, low calories snacks between meals. 

      9. Eat by Yourself! After 30 years of overeating and obesity research, psychologists at the University of Toronto have concluded that regardless of how hungry, social clues can dictate how much you eat--usually too much. In groups as small as two people, you will tend to eat 30% to 50% more than if you were alone. So eat alone or be more aware of how much you are eating when you are with others. 

      10. Notice when the flavor is gone and stop eating. You'll be amazed that after a bite or two of ice cream you really can't taste it anymore. Your taste buds are numb but your stomach is on autopilot. Stop eating for a moment, your desire will go numb as well.  

Why Yogurt is Part of My World

Did you know that your body contains approximately 400 types of bacteria weighting approximately 3½ pounds? 

Sounds nasty, I know, but most of these bacteria live in your gastrointestinal system where they play the vital role of metabolizing the food you eat.  Less than one percent are pathogenic or toxic. 

My good health, and yours too, depends upon maintaining a proper balance between various groups of bacteria, what scientists call "intestinal flora." 

Stress, the onset of a cold or flu, taking antibiotics, alcohol, bad food and even lack of sleep can throw off this balance.  Even harmful things in the environment, such as mercury or lead, can do the same thing.

For me, eating yogurt is the best way to maintain this crucial balance.  The reason, of course, and I know you all probably know this, is because yogurt contains "friendly bacteria" called "probiotics." 

What a lot of people don't realize, however, is that much of the yogurt you find in the grocery store is pasteurized, and thus, the bacteria has been killed.  Eating this type of yogurt won't do much for you except make you FAT if it full of added fruit and sugar. 

I only eat unpasteurized, low-fat yogurt that contains no added fruit or sugar.  But I admit occasionally I add a few berries and half a teaspoon of raw honey.  Occasionally, mind you!

When you eat yogurt on a regular basis the first thing you'll notice is just how "regular" you are.  It's amazing really, but I won't bore you with the details.

For me though, it's much much more.  The probiotics in yogurt boost my immune system which I think is the reason I hardly ever get a cold. 

Scientists tell me there are even more benefits including increased lactose tolerance, better resistance to infections, improved HDL/LDL cholesterol ratio, anti-carcinogenic properties, inhibition of food pathogens, aid to liver function, and a hedge against osteoporosis.

But, for me, here's the clincher.  Yogurt prevents bad breath!

Enjoy,

Greta B

Why Women Snack More than Men and What to DO About It

I want to hit you with an amazing fact.

We laugh at those funny “male enhancement” commercials on TV yet that industry generates 9 billion dollars a year preying on male insecurities.

More amazing is the fact that there is a 50 billion dollar a year industry surrounding weight loss that is based mostly on female insecurity.

It’s another one of those women are from Venus men are from Mars scenarios as is clearly demonstrated by snacking behavior and over all concern for weight and body image between men and women.

Simply put we as women obsess far more about our weight, body image and yet we fail to succeed at weight and fat loss as often as we should for the amount of energy we put into worrying about it.

Why?

Well one big factor is our snacking habits.

A recent study at the University of Pennsylvania showed that women snack more than men and eat differently.

A deeper look at our behavior shows we not only snack more but we gravitate towards the quick hitting fat promoting carbs more than men do.  We like chewy salty tasty carb snacks like chips and pretzels the most according to the study.

While science is good the bigger question is what are we going to do with this information?

First, you need to realize that your snacking habits could easily be sabotaging your weight loss goals big time, and fixing them may be a simple way to lead to success.  Success that may have eluded you up to this point.

Next, you need to need to understand that we eat for different reasons than men.  Men eat because they are hungry or because they are on “social situations” often involving sports.

We eat because we are lonely stressed anxious or for rewards we may not be getting from our life situations.  This is why chewy salty quick hitting carbs are the “good girls” drug of choice.  They may temporarily raise “feel good “chemicals in the brain like serotonin.  But then you have to face the equivalent of buyer’s remorse after you snacked.

But what if you could have a tasty chewy salty snack that was not carb laden and was actually low fat and a far healthy choice for you and your diet?

Well the study actually found what could be the prefect snack. A 100 calories stick of Jack Links Beef Jerky hit the mark for taste and nutrition.  Jack Links is virtually all protein no fat and no carbs.  And because of the reasonable portion size the salt load was not a big issue. In addition you could not get a more convenient easy to eat on the run snack.

Now I have a confession to make.  I have known this for years and have used this trick on the road for a long time.  It works perfectly to quell your appetite and doesn’t blow your diet.  It just may well be the perfect snack we’ve been looking for.

Till next time,

Here’s to health!

Greta  B

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