ATTENTION: Diet Soda Drinkers

Drinking diet soda could increase the risk of stroke and heart attacks, according to the American Stroke Association. They followed 2,500 people over 9 years. They found that 61 percent of diet soda drinkers were at higher risk for stroke and heart attack, compared with non diet soda drinkers.
The more diet soda intake the higher the risk becomes, due to high sodium intake. We should be consuming only 1,500 milligrams a day, however, the average is about 3,400 milligrams daily.
The moral of the story: If you are drinking more then 1 diet soda a day, your risk of heart attack and stroke goes up significantly. My opinion (I'm going to tell you) cut back your soda intake or stop drinking it all together! While you're at it, consume more water!

Personally, I stopped drinking soda when I started running. I don't like the way it makes me feel, especially when I'm running! I go in and out of stages, but I really do try to avoid it at all costs. If I do have a soda, it's maybe one time a month (and that is still a lot more then I would like). In this study, they only looked at one factor. Sodium. There is more to soda then sodium and we really don't know all the effects they have on us. Be cautious and be aware. Know what you are putting in your body!


Click here to read the full article. Image taken from here.

Obama Administration Fails to Protect Consumer and Farmer Choice

On January 27, the Obama Administration made the damaging decision to approve the unrestricted cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa. This means GE alfalfa can be planted without any federal requirements to prevent contamination of organic and non-GE crops. It also means that GE alfalfa does not have to be labeled, making it difficult for consumers to identify and avoid. This decision, to support big business at the expense of individual choice, sets a precedent for future deregulation of GE crops although genetic engineering has not been conclusively proven safe. Don't stand by while well-funded and well-connected biotechnology interests are given the power to eliminate marketplace choice. Use the talking points below as a guide to customize your message to the White House. Make it personal and demand that President Obama protect your right to choose products free of genetic engineering!

If you would like to make a difference, click here and submit a letter to President Obama. It's really easy, they basically do it for you!

Did you know: 93% of soy, 86% of corn, 93% of cotton and 93% of canola seed planted were genetically engineered in the U.S. in 2010 – I didn't until I read this article. You may be saying to yourself, well, why does it matter? Why do I care? Or it has no barring on me!

People, when 93% of soy and 83% of corn are GE (genetically engineered). That is Corn Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), Hydrogenated Vegetable (which is soy bean), Canola oils. Etc. Etc... If you think this doesn't effect you, check your labels. Read how many things you eat have HFCS, Hydrogenated oils, Corn Starch's, etc.

If you are wondering why GMO's my be a problem. Check this article out. Or, just Google it. Check it out for yourself. If it bother's you at all. I would click here and send something to Obama. Allowing GE/GM/GMO's only opens the door to many more situations like this. The very people that should be protecting us are not. We must become educated and protect ourselves.

References:

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2011/01/no-regulations-ge-alfalfa/

http://ota.capwiz.com/ota/issues/alert/?alertid=24747501

http://www.saynotogmos.org/ud2006/usept06.php#confused

Why I Stopped Drinking Coffee

For the last couple years, I have gone back and forth about drinking coffee. You also here claims that it's "good for you", that it's "bad for you"... Drink it... don't drink it.
Personally, I could feel the effects on my body, and I was more addicted to coffee then I thought I was. To stop drinking was a lot easier said then done. Even one of the personal trainers at my gym said to stop drinking it. He didn't know exactly why, but he found that women who drank coffee held on to their last few pounds of weight and as soon as they stopped, they dropped the weight. I wondered why, until now.

In Jillian Michaels book, "Master Your Metabolism", she talks about the effects of caffeine-coffee.
Here's the information. Read it, and decide for yourself.

They have found the pure caffeine in moderation can elevate your metabolism by 6 percent, inhibit insulin resistance and even improve cognitive function.
The catch is... Non organic coffee (or cokes and diet cokes) doesn't give you the fat burning effect you are looking for.
Studies done with pure caffeine were done with an isolated caffeine supplement, paired with other specific substances in controlled lab settings.
The worse part is, caffeine is abused. It not only damages your metabolism, but your hormonal balance as well.
Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system, which makes your endocrine system, which makes your endocrine system think that you have threatened in some way. With the third cup of coffee at your desk each day, you kick your body into fight-or-flight mode while you're checking e-mail. Your adrenals pump out epinephrin and norepinephrine. These two stress hormones set into motion a cascade of fattening hormonal actoins: Your liver releases blood sugar for quick energy, your pancreas spits out insulin to counter the sugar, your body dips because of the insulin's actions. Also, your blood vessels constrict, making you feel like your blood sugar is dipping even further, so you head for the vending machine. Ever notice how you crave something sweet somewhere between the first and second cup of coffee? That's your body reacting to this sudden feeling of blood sugar shortage.
The Acids in one cup of coffee will elevate your cortisol for up to fourteen hours. Now, if you sip caffeinated drinks all day, you switch on your stress reaction over and over- your short term energy burns out, you grab another cup, repeat the hormonal cycle again, and effectively turn yourself into an addict.
Caffeine abuse overstimulates and eventually wears down your adrenals; it also inflicts the long term effects of real stress in your body: Oxygen flow to your brain slows, your immune system is suppressed, the excess cortisol increase your appetite and encourages fat to pack on your belly, and last, your continued insulin spikes help to crate insulin resistance.
To make matters worse, when it's time to restore yourself with rest, the caffeine you drank during the daytime may prevent you from getting adequate sleep that night- and you now know that lack of sleep itself crates insulin resistance.
The Phosphoric acid in colas and coffee interferes with your calcium absorption. In addition to being brutal on your bones, this calcium deficiency- and the caffeine itself- can make the symptoms of PMS much worse, including increased breast tenderness, irritability, and nervousness.
The National Academy of Sciences released a report claiming that caffeinated beverages can be calculated in your daily water intake- but if you ask me, that's bogus. Caffeine is a diuretic, draining precious water from your body at the very moment you're trying to flush out the toxins. When you're dehydrated, your blood volume decreases, reducing the amount of oxygen that can get to your muscles, making them less effective at burning fat. There's no debate here: Get your water from water. **

After reading this information, and then reading the ingredients of my coffee creamer. I knew I needed to stop. So I have. In 3 weeks, I have only had coffee on four of those days.
It all started with eating breakfast in the morning (it is the MOST important meal of the day). I get up and eat right away. Even if I wasn't hungry. I would force myself to eat. I still made my coffee, but I only drank it in the beginning. Then I stopped drinking it, and eventually just quit making it.
The only day's I've had a cup of coffee are the day's my husband is home (because he still drinks it). Even on these days, I have a much smaller cup and I do Organic whole milk and pure can sugar. Instead of my Partially hydrogenated oil, non dairy, sugar loaded and is in no way good for you, creamer.
I had some pretty bad headaches at first, but they have really gotten better and I don't crave the coffee anymore.

Not only do I feel better know, but coffee generally upset my stomach. Why I would continue to drink something the CONTINUALLY upset my stomach is beyond me. I wasn't listening to my body. Are you listening to your body?

I think there are better options, ie. Food! If you do drink it, I believer you should buy organic. Or you could try Green Tea. I've got to figure out some sort of warm beverage, I might go to tea, but I know it won't be caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.



**(information taken from Master your Metabolism, by Jillian Michaels)
Image taken from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://fournisseursinde.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/coffee_beans_india1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fournisseursinde.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/buy-coffee-beans-from-india/&h=286&w=284&sz=51&tbnid=bxhtz3iSkZ_q2M:&tbnh=225&tbnw=224&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bof%2Bcoffee%2Bbeans&zoom=1&q=images+of+coffee+beans&usg=__KU3F1pQdovncdADpeD0pRARcbuU=&sa=X&ei=tgpCTeeEOYL3gAfUj8SWAg&ved=0CB8Q9QEwAg

Where to Start?? My First order of business.

The question is... Where to start? Jillian Michaels tells you to go through your cupboards and throw EVERYTHING unnatural out. If I did that, honestly, I really would not have any food left. Sad, huh?!

So, I figured we would start with the things we eat most in our house.

Items being removed from my home:
Milk- Personally, I don't drink Milk anymore. I stopped about 8 months ago, but my kids and husband are still Milk drinkers! (I get my calcium from other sources and take a supplement)

Bread- I was buying Grandma's Honey whole Wheat

Peanut Butter- Jiff or Skippy- depending on what they have bulk at Costco

I will/have replaced these items with:
Milk- Almond (for myself, my oldest son might drink it was well) Organic- for my youngest and husband.

Bread- Prairie Grain Bread Co. -Honey Whole Wheat Bread (they are a local company) Or anything else I can find that is as healthy as this. I'm actually looking at getting my own grain, grinding and making my own %100 whole wheat bread. (I'll keep you posted on that one). This bread was a HUGE hit! (Picked it up at Smith's)

Peanut Butter- Recently Costco had an Almond Butter- It is so creamy and delicious. We've already switched over to this for daily lunches.

I would like to share with you the ingredient changes:
Jiff Peanut Butter:
Roasted Peanuts and Sugar, contains 2% or less of: Molasses, FULLY hydrogenated vegetable oils (repressed and soybean), mono- and diglycerides, salt
Almond Butter:
Dry Roasted Almonds


Grandmas Honey Whole Wheat:
Whole Wheat Flour, Water, wheat gluten, honey, yeast, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, soybean oil. Contains 2% or less of each of the following: Cultured wheat flour, salt, distilled vinegar, yeast nutrients (monocalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate and/or calcium carbonate), corn starch, dough conditioners (ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, enzymes), soy lecithin, milk, soy flour.
Contains wheat, milk and soy
Prairie Grain Bread Co. - Honey Whole Wheat Bread:
100% Stone Ground whole wheat, water, honey, raisin juice concentrate, salt, yeast.


Which product would you choose?

Again, I should probably go through my cupboards and throw ALL the "crap" (and it is crap) out! I think if it was just me... I could do it, but it is going to be an adjustment for the family. Regardless, it is an opportunity to educate.

Some of the items I am becoming fully aware of, and taking an extra look at in my food include, but not limited too:
(The following information is pulled from Jillian Michaels book. Master Your Metabolism. I highly recommend you get this book and read it. There is a lot of information on each subject, and there are MORE subjects then included today, but I'm just pulling bits and pieces. If you want all the nitty, gritty... you will have to purchase/rent this book yourself, but I will share as much as I can!)

Hydrogenated Fats, AKA- Trans fats- This includes anything partially or fully hydrogenated. Created for the convenience of processed foods allowing chips, cookies, crackers, (Twinkies) pies, breads, etc. to sit on the shelf FOREVER and NEVER go bad. Hydrogenated starts out as regular fat and is then blasted with hydrogen to change the liquid into a solid at room temperature.
Hydrogenated increases your "bad" LDL and triglycerides and decreases your "good" HDL. (raising your risk of heart attack, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, inflammation, high blood pressure, hardened arteries, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's)
You only need 20 to 60 calories from artificial trans fats a day to start damaging your health. So, you know how they claim "No Trans Fats" on the packaging?? Manufacturers are permitted to use that claim as long as one portion contains less then 500 milligrams of trans fats. It only takes a couple items like Margarine, cookies, chips etc. to meet that quota. ** Interesting, huh?!

Refined grains- Refining grains help extend their shelf life removing bran and germ from the grain, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, B vitamins, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid and iron. These include white pasta, flour, tortillas, white rice and white bread (raising insulin resistance, diabetes, fat, high blood sugar, chronic low-level inflammation, heart attack and stroke) **

High Fructose Corn Syrup- HFCS (this one makes me really mad!) Did you know we went from producing 3,000 tons of HFCS, in 1967 to 9,227,000 tons in 2005. (UNREAL!!!!) HFCS helps companies boost their profits for pennies. (Giving us ALL the unhealthy benefits.. Yaaa! right?!? I don't think so...) University of Pennsylvania, found that fructose doesn't suppress hunger hormones ghrelin levels the way glucose (table sugar) does. Women who ate fructose instead of glucose had higher ghrelin levels throughout the day, overnight, and into the next day.
(Why, you ask?) Glucose is metabolized by all your cells; fructose must be metabolized by the liver. HFCS somehow tricks the body into not releasing insulin and leptin, two hormones your body releases when you're done eating. And unlike regular sugar, HFCS does nothing to dampen ghrelin, whose rising levels demand that your body eat MORE! So, if you eat or drink HFCS, you'll actually continue to consume more calories, even twenty four hours later, then you would had you just eaten plain table sugar. HFCS also increases triglycerides, and high triglycerides prevent leptin from working in the brain, so it can't tell you to stop eating. (This makes me sick, and mad!)
(My favorite part) You've probably seen ads from the Corn Refiners Association, trying to make it seem like people who avoid HFCS are paranoid. Don't buy (into) their crap- and certainly don't eat it! (parentheses are my comments :D) **

Artificial Sweeteners: Researchers at Purdue University found that when animals were fed yogurt with saccharin they later consumed more calories, gained more weight, and put on more body fat than animals that were fed yogurt sweetened with glucose, a natural sugar with the same number of calories.
The theory goes that just as we can have mental and emotional associations with certain tastes, our bodies have caloric associations with sweet tastes.
Normally, when we eat sugar, our body register sweetness and comes to understand that very sweet things means lots of calories. However, when we repeatedly drink diet soda (or anything else with artificial sweeteners), this understanding breaks down- your appetite says, "Okay, here's the sweetness, but there aren't many calories- that must mean I have to eat a lot of sweet things to get my needed calories." The next time your body is given something sweet to eat, your body doesn't recognize how many calories they hold, so you overeat them... (scariest part) As the animals continued to eat the artificial sweeteners, their metabolism started to "forget" that most sweet things do have a lot of calories. Scary!... One more plausible explanation why artificial sweeteners make us fat might be the fact that aspartame, aka NutraSweet, is an excitotoxin, a chemical that may cause permanent damage to our brains appetite center. And the earlier these neural changes begin (giving diet coke to kids) the worse it is. (parentheses my comments) **


People... Start reading labels. Get informed. Just because it's produced and available, doesn't mean we SHOULD or HAVE to eat it!
I am not a Doctor, nutritionist, trainer, or any of the above. Just a loving and concerned mother, who wants the best for her self, children and family! They are the opinions of me. Take them as you will. Research and do what is best for you personally or you and your family.

Good luck on your journey.

Natalie

**Information taken from Master Your Metabolism-by Jillian Michaels