Foodsense

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Sugar free - WORSE for your teeth than sugar?

If you’re like many people, you’ve had at least one cavity in your life.  In fact studies suggest, that by the age of 19 at least 59% of Americans will have had their first cavity.  As you get older, your teeth get worse and the likelyhood only increases.  If you thought going sugar free was the answer, think again.  In a new study conducted at the University of Melbourne, 15 different sugar free soda and 22 different sugar free candies were tested on otherwise healthy teeth and in every case, they were found to cause far more and sometimes double the amount of damage as regular sugar products.  So what is the best thing for your teeth?  Not surprisingly, water is the best thing for teeth.  Not only does it not affect your teeth negatively, but it has actually been shown to harden enamel.  The scientists at UM suggest rinsing your mouth out with water and then waiting 1 hour after eating anything with sugar or sugar free ingredients to allow your enamel to harden before you brush.  To read more, go to:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/sugar-free-drinks-just-bad-154940739.html

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Losing weight could be as simple as taking a dump...

If you  haven’t heard about the new trend in dieting, its about time you did.  You may be exercising and cutting calories for nothing!  It turns out that all your hard work has nothing to do with how your body processes or consumes calories.  It all comes down to bacteria. Along the same lines as my post the other day about good bacteria v. bad bacteria, (see DE Diet), this post is all about how your body takes what it gets and uses it. We are the host of billions of microorganisms who all thrive on us.  What we call “good bacteria” thrive when we do and what we can “bad bacteria” thrive when we don’t.  That means everything we do should be in an effort to support the good guests living with us and to deter the bad ones from staying.  For most of us it means the difference between a bit of tummy bulge or bad allergies, but for some people it could mean the difference between hundreds of pounds.  According The New York Times, many people receiving gastric bypass surgery, could have skipped the procedure all together.  A simple “fecal transplant” is all you may need to , receive good bacteria from someone with a healthy, highly developed metabolism.  When the scales have been tipped in the favor of good bacteria, the body begins to fight the bad bacteria and win helping a person process more of the food we eat for waste and store less of it. And just like that! weight loss begins. So if you’ve wanted to lose weight for a long time, but were afraid of, didn’t qualify for surgery, find a skinny friend who always seems to be stuffing her face and head to the hospital with a sample of her fecal matter and you too could be on your way to stuffing your face without consequence!

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Has everyone forgotten what organic means?

I was driving along the listening to the radio the other day when I heard the most ridiculous announcement.  It turns out, they said, that organic food has the same amount of nutrients as non-organic.  When listeners were polled, 85% thought that it was.  The announcers went on to say that people who pay more for organic are just dumb because they are paying more for food that has no more nutritional value.  

Has everyone forgotten why we eat organic food?  It has nothing to do with nutrients and everything to do with keeping the chemicals and free radicals sprayed on the food at the farms.  This is bad for the earth, drinking water, other plants and animals nearby, but worst of all, it penetrates the fruits and veggies you eat or feed to your children and can cause lower levels of energy, a weakened immune system and even cancer. 

Yes the amount of nutrients your foods hold are valuable and certainly hormone enhanced, genetically modified foods likely have less nutrients than natural, organic foods, but people seem to be missing the bigger picture  here.  We pay more for organic food, because it doesn’t kill us!

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Free School?

Did you know that you could go to school for free?  Don’t mistake me, I’m not saying you can get a whole degree for free (unless you’re an awesome athlete and get a scholarship to some state school that desperately needs you OR you move to Oregon and become a permanent resident).  What I’m talking about is free classes from some pretty awesome schools.  Every single week schools offer new classes that you can take right from your own home (or work) computer.  In fact, this month, I’m taking 3 free classes.  The first, is called “The science of happiness” and is being offered my UC Berkley.  The second is “The science or relationships” being presented my CSU (Colorado State University) and the third is “Digital Storytelling” presented by University of Birmingham

These are the links for these free classes: Science of Happiness - https://www.edx.org/ , Digital Storytelling - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-storytelling/1, and Science of Relationships - https://www.canvas.net/browse/csuonline/courses/science-relationships.  

Each one of these websites has a whole host of other classes that may be more interesting to you, but the point is that they are out there.  If you are like me and you love learning new things, search the web and find them.  One of my favorite websites is what turned me on to them in the first place.  You may be familiar with Lifehacker.com.au, an Australian website with all sorts of tips and tricks.  I recently found their website dedicated to online-free education.  This site is appropriately titled: LHU - Lifehacker University. http://lifehacker.com/plan-your-free-online-education-at-lifehacker-u-spring-1493571968. And found that I could spend hours and hours searching for truly informative courses taught by University professors working at very legitimate colleges. 

The world is changing my friends and one of those changes is free!

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Diatomaceous Earth (The DE Diet)

So here’s the scoop.  DE isn’t really a diet, its just a new way to clean out your insides, but does it really work?  If you do a google search you’ll find tons of people who are singing its praises like this girl: 

but wait a minute, this stuff is what we use to kill bed bugs.  Doesn’t that mean its a poison? Well yes and no.  DE is  is a white powder that is actually ground up fossilized marine phytoplankton. That phytoplankton is what feeds sea life in the ocean.  So how can something that creatures everywhere are eating also be responsible for killing bugs?  Here’s how it works:  “on a microscopic level, the diatomaceous earth particles are very sharp looking. These particles stick to an insect and get stuck between its exoskeleton joints. As the insect moves, it gets physically cut up.” http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp. 

So now that you know how it works, the question is, why would I want to consume it? The benefits of consuming DE according to “nature’s wisdom are “ As Diatomaceous Earth moves through the stomach and digestive tract, it attracts and absorbs bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses, endotoxins, pesticide and drug residues, E-Coli, and heavy metals. These toxins are trapped and passed out of the body. In addition, any larger parasites that happen to be in the stomach of digestive tract are “cut up” and killed by the sharp edges of the DE. All of these activities result in a much healthier body with less sickness. We often hear the phrase “I just feel better” with our DE users. This better feeling comes from all the junk being removed from the body and by giving our immune system the “jump start” it needs.” 

I’ve read plenty about ridding our body of parasites that actually say its bad, and I guess this is one of those too much of anything is a bad thing. So while this website suggests starting with 1 TSP 2 X a day and then working your way up to 3 TSP twice a day over 6 months, I would suggest just trying a short duration cleanse.  

I too put this cleanse to the test and am currently on day four.  While I had no real negative side effects like some of the reviews online say you will have for the first two days here is what I (not someone being paid to tell you anything by any other company) experienced.  I ordered a 10 lb bag and figured I’d use the rest to rid of some pesky sugar ants in my kitchen if I didn’t like it.  I ordered my bag on Amazon.com for 23.00 with free shipping - not a bad price for a fast. On day one, I put 1 TSP in a cup of water and swirled it around  until it was milky.  It tasted like dirt. Or like what you might imagine ground up fossils taste like.  NOT GOOD.  But, I’ve had worse. Immediately I decided that I needed more water with my mixture and added another 6 oz of water to the mix.  I drank it slowly and had a sort of dry mouth feeling for several hours.  After that, I had a sudden burst of energy, the same feeling I get when I drink anything caffeinated (which is almost never). It was a sweaty, nervous feeling that took about 3 hours to wear off but never felt as intense as caffeine does. On day two, I repeated the process (choosing to skip the dinner time drink - seems like a bad way to go to bed doesn’t it?).  That day I felt more energized, but not as jumpy and actually had trouble going to bed that night.  I usually crash around 10 pm but was up watching TV until 1 am because I just didn’t feel tired.  I still had that dry mouth feeling.  On day 3 I felt completely exhausted after getting up at 6 am and only having 5 hours of sleep.  I had no energy all day but finally poured a glass of DE and drank about half of it.  The same dry mouth feeling occurred and my energy level did increase, but that night I fell asleep around 9pm and didn’t wake up the next morning until 730 am.  I struggled to wake up (which I usually don’t) but once up felt completely refreshed.  Today on day 4 I poured my glass just before writing this article and feel a bit gittery again.  I have not noticed any changes in my hair, nails or skin as some articles have reported and I have not lost any weight, but my overall energy seems to last longer throughout the day in general.  

If you aren’t quite ready to give this diet a try, fear not, most grain companies pack grains with DE in order to keep bugs out of their products, you are probably consuming a healthy dose already ;)

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It’s official… Water will kill you!

This just in.  Too much water is a bad thing.  How did that old phrase go? No such thing as too much water. Well that’s wrong.  If you’ve been feeling like there is no such thing as an easy diet, you are right.  All those articles about drinking water before you eat and drinking water to feel full have been officially disproved.  Drinking excessive amounts of water will not help you lose weight.  Going to the gym might, if you actually burn some calories but chugging water like you get paid for it will not.  If fact, it might even kill you.  According to Dr McCartney, drinking too much water removes valuable salt from your body and can cause brain swelling, which leads to death.  I know I led with the scary info, but there are many other negative and much more common side effects.  She “also points out that research shows drinking when not thirsty can impair concentration, rather than boost it, and separate evidence suggests that chemicals used for disinfection found in bottled water could be bad for your health.”  You can read more from that article at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2014112/Drinking-water-bad-health-Benefits-myth.html.  

 In addition to worrying about water intoxication, there are other risks.  Your heart and kidneys are actually at risk when you drink too much water on a daily basis.  According to Dr. Ben Kim (drbenkim.com) regularly drinking too much water creates subtle health issues that most people are not even aware of.  

He states: [ You actually put unnecessary strain on your body in two major ways:

Ingesting     more water than you need can increase your total blood volume. And since     your blood volume exists within a closed system (your circulatory system),     needlessly increasing your blood volume on a regular basis puts     unnecessary burden on your heart and blood vessels.

Your     kidneys must work overtime to filter excess water out of your circulatory     system. Your kidneys are not the equivalent of a pair of     plumbing pipes whereby the more water you flush through your kidneys, the     cleaner they become; rather, the filtration system that exists in your     kidneys is composed in part by a series of specialized capillary beds called     glomeruli. Your glomeruli can get damaged by unnecessary     wear and tear over time, and drowning your system with large amounts of     water is one of many potential causes of said damage.]

He goes on to tell us that these effects can take years to develop into serious enough side effects that can be noticed by you and your doctor.  For that reason, he cautions never to drink when you are not feeling thirsty.  Also, the classic pee test is not effective because of all the food additives that we ingest daily.  Bottom line. If you are thirsty, grab a glass of water.  If you’re not, maybe you should chew some gum…

    r�E6�e�9

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You might as well eat burgers...

You may not have known this, but eating salad doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not going to get fat.  All those times you’ve dutifully ordered your salad at lunch while everyone else at the table got a burger with fries, you may have consuming more calories than they did!  According to fatsecret.com, one large hamburger has 426 calories.   Here’s the breakdown:  Nutrition summary:Calories426 Fat22.92g Carbs31.73g Protein22.62g There are 426 calories in 1 Large Hamburger. Calorie breakdown: 48% fat, 29% carbs, 23% protein.  While the fat content may be higher in most cases, and certainly something to consider, lets look at the breakdown for the some of the salads you may regularly enjoy (provided byhttp://www.americanhealthandbeauty.com/articles/3525/7-high-calorie-salads-that-are-diet-disasters)  :

Applebee's Grilled Shrimp and Spinach Salad - 1050 calories, 11g saturated fat.Instead, order off of their Under 550 calorie menu, or even have the Sizzling Asian Shrimp which measures in with 710 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat, including sides.

 California Pizza Kitchen's Field Greens Salad with Gorgonzola Cheese - 1,098 calories, 18g saturated fat. Rather than load up on calories with this salad, you could eat an entire Kid's Pepperoni Pizza for 478 calories and 10g sat. fat.

Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad - 1,310 calories, 15 g fat. Yes, a full half of the salads on Applebee's menu pack over 1000 calories, so stick to the under 550 calorie menu, or if you really want a salad, they offer a Weight Watchers Paradise Chicken Salad with 340 calories and 1 gram of saturated fat.

T.G.I.Friday's Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad - 1,360 calories What is perhaps most bothersome about this is the company's website doesn't have a nutrition information chart to guide patrons to a good choice - at least not one located where we can find it. They do have a Right Portion, Right Price section of their menu, but there are only three items and the only info online is that they are either low carb or low fat.

Chevy's Fresh Mex Tostada Salad with Chicken - 1,547 calories, 94 g fat (37 g saturated) Instead of this salad served in a fried tortilla bowl, you can eat 2 Grilled Chicken Tacos for 590 calories and 6 grams of saturated fat. 

T.G.I.Friday's Santa Fe Chopped Salad - 1,800 calories Fried tortilla strips, both mixed in the salad and on top, as well as a chipotle ranch dressing make this salad the number 1 worst on our list. You could have nearly 3 Whoppers for the amount of calories in this one salad.

These salads may not be on your list, but believe me when I tell you that there are plenty more I could have added to the list.  So the next time you’re out to lunch and drooling over your co-worker’s juicy steak, ask for a bite.  It will probably be the better option.

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