Mediterranean Diet May Help Prevent Depression
MONDAY, Oct. 5, 2009 (HealthDay News) — People who followed the Mediterranean diet, an eating regimen that is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and nuts, were less likely to develop depression in a Spanish study.
“We are speaking of a relative reduction in risk of 42 percent to 51 percent,” said study co-author Dr. Miguel A. Martinez-Gonzalez, chair of preventive medicine at the University of Navarra. “This is a strong association.”
The Mediterranean diet usually is recommended to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems. This study, reported in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, is one of only a few to assess its effect on mental function.
Did you know??
- In 1901, cancer was rare: 1 out of 8,000. Since the Industrial Revolution, the cancer rate today has risen to 1 in 3 and by the year 2020, it will be 1 in 2. [Source: The American Cancer Society]
The top 6 cancer-causing products (called the “Dirty Dozen”) in the average home include the following:
- Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder w/Talc
- Crest Tartar Control Toothpaste
- VO5 Hair Conditioner
- Clairol Nice-n-Easy Hair Color
- Ajax Cleanser
- Lysol Disinfectant
[Source: The National Cancer Prevention Coalition]
- Liquid dish soap is the leading cause of poisonings in the home for children under the age of six (over 2.1 million accidental poisonings per year). Most brands of liquid dish soap contain formaldehyde and ammonia.
Of the chemicals found in personal care products:
- 884 are toxic
- 146 cause tumors
- 218 cause reproductive complications
- 778 cause acute toxicity
- 314 cause biological mutations
- 376 cause skin and eye irritations
[Source: United States House of Representatives Report, 1989]
This is WHY we choose to buy our products from a responsible manufacturer that does not use harsh chemicals of any kind.
Think before you buy any product on store shelves just because it’s on sale or because you like the commercial you see on TV. There are NO government regulations on any of these types of products… that is just wrong. We are given a false sense of security by creative marketing. Buyer beware!
Daily Checklist for getting healthy from Dr Oz!
- Walk 30 minutes: Working out has benefits for your heart, weight, even your sex life. It may also help stave off Alzheimer’s, new research finds.
- Brush and floss: Brushing removes only about 60 percent of the germs from between your teeth.
- Drink two cups of green tea: Green tea may lessen the risk of some cancers, plus it lowers cholesterol levels.
- Take 400mg of DHA omega-3s, 1,000 IU vitamin D, and 1,000mg calcium: Omega-3s diminish cognitive decline; calcium and vitamin D boost bone density.
- Sleep 7 to 8 hours a night: Our bodies use downtime to repair cells, process information, and raise growth hormone levels, which can up bone density and decrease body fat.
- Meditate for 5 minutes: Yoga, prayer, meditation—they’re all key to reducing stress and finding purpose
- Read the whole article at http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/oz/getting-started.html
Cravings have nothing to do with willpower!
An enormous percentage of women crave sugar, carbohydrates, or alcohol. In most cases, these food cravings are not true eating disorders, but instead are signs of hormonal imbalance caused by a lack of healthy nutrition.
Your personal issue may be the afternoon snack (often chocolate or candy or a food that’s also heavy in carbohydrates), too many potato chips, the extra glass of wine at night, or a hundred other variations. But the underlying mechanism, and the way to curb cravings, is the same. And it has nothing to do with willpower, or your lack thereof!
Food cravings mean that the body has its signals mixed up. When we are exhausted or blue, we have low blood sugar and/or low serotonin, and the body signals the brain that it needs a pick-me-up. This signal causes a sugar craving or carbohydrate craving.
Serotonin is our basic feel-good hormone. If serotonin is low, we feel sad or depressed. And hormonal imbalance or weak digestion can lead to low serotonin. Unfortunately, sugars and simple carbohydrates release a short burst of serotonin — we feel good for a moment, but soon return to our low-serotonin state — then crave more sugar and simple carbohydrates. It’s a downward spiral.
If you eat a low-fat diet in the hope of losing weight, you unintentionally make the problem worse. If, like millions of women, you have eaten a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet for many years, or followed fad diets, the odds are good that you have become at least partially insulin resistant.
Insulin is responsible for maintaining stable blood sugar levels by telling the body’s cells when to absorb glucose from the bloodstream. Being insulin resistant means your body stops responding to insulin, and instead grabs every calorie it can and deposits it as fat. So no matter how little you eat, you will gradually gain weight.
At the same time, your cells cannot absorb the glucose they need, so they signal your brain that you need more carbohydrates or sugars. The result is persistent food cravings.
Even worse, insulin resistance leads directly to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Many experts believe it is the root cause of the epidemic of those diseases in America today. And a low-fat diet makes it far more likely you will suffer from this condition.
Millions of American women are now trying the Atkins Diet or the South Beach Diet. While these diets are an improvement over the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, they can worsen your metabolic problems, because dieting itself is stressful to the body. So many women need to heal their metabolism first before even considering weight loss.
Another cause of food cravings is adrenal fatigue. If you are under a great deal of stress, or suffer from insomnia or sleep deprivation, you are probably exhausted much of the time. This leads to adrenal fatigue or outright adrenal exhaustion, which in turn signals the body it needs a pick-me-up. You may resort to sugar or carbohydrate snacks or coffee during the day and carbohydrates or alcohol at night, all of which exacerbate the problem.
How to curb cravings
Women who blame themselves for their food cravings only worsen their mood and increase their need for serotonin. That’s when a pattern of emotional eating can develop. Remember, there are biological causes of sugar cravings, and your carbohydrate craving is rarely just a behavioral problem. The root problem is more likely inadequate nutrition.
How to break this vicious cycle? To reduce food cravings, the body needs real support — and lots of it. We have seen over and over that eating healthy foods, adding pharmaceutical–grade nutritional supplements and moderate exercise can almost miraculously curb cravings. Your metabolism will heal itself when provided with the necessary nutritional support. If it has been damaged, the process can take some time, but it will happen. The good news is — you don’t have to give up chocolate!
article found on www.womentowomen.com
Documentary on how toxic chemicals in your home are unregulated and may be harming your health.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-0lDN2C7bo
Contact me to for a safer alternative.
Depleted soils – why the fruit and vegetables we eat may be doing more harm than good!
We’ve all heard and read it countless times – “the best way to maintain health is to eat a balanced diet including lots of fruit and vegetables”. Of course, this is absolutely correct, so long as those fruits and vegetables are not grown on the mineral-depleted soils that necessitate todays ever-increasing range of chemical “fertilizers”.
Why is the soil depleted?
As long ago as the 1920s, the British and US Governments were warned by nutritional experts that the soils on which most crops were grown were so deficient in mineral content that the foods grown on them contained less than 10% of the vitamins and minerals they should have. The intention of these reports was to highlight the problem so that remedial action could be taken to remineralise the soils, leading, once again, to naturally healthy fruits and vegetables.
Unfortunately, neither Government took any action to correct this problem, and as a result, which has been intensified by modern intensive farming methods, the fruits and vegetables not only have little or no vitamin and mineral content, but they are routinely sprayed with such a broad selection of chemicals that they are actually poisonous.
How can plants grow without vitamins and minerals?
Good question.
Most plants require only three nutrients to grow, namely nitrogen, phosphorus and water. In the presence of these nutrients, virtually all plants will grow into what appear to be healthy, nutritious adult specimens. However, if the minerals found in their natural habitat are not present, such plants and their relevant fruits and vegetables will be nutritionally “empty”.
As a result of this, these plants are less able to defend themselves against natural predators and are susceptible to insect attack and damage from viruses / bacteria. In order to control this, insecticides, antifungals, antibiotics, pesticides and dozens of other categories of chemicals have been designed to limit the damage done to plants by their natural enemies.
Unfortunately, many of these chemicals have not been properly tested to assess their effects on either plant or human health, and virtually none have been tested in combination to assess their combined effects. The result is that most fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods are so contaminated with a huge variety of chemicals, and so deficient in nutrient content that they actually do more harm than good.
How do we address the problem of depleted soils?
The simplest (and cheapest) way to address the depleted soils problem is to do what was suggested in the 1920s – “repair” the soils our fruits and vegetables are grown on by remineralising them and using organic waste products to put back those nutrients necessary to plant, and therefore human (and farmed animal) health.
Until this is done on a massive scale (and that is unlikely – US farmers in particular are relying on genetically modified (GM) versions of plants to overcome increasing growth and yield problems due to depleted soils) we have little alternative than to avoid the worst of the chemicals and to replace the missing vitamins and minerals through the use of nutritional supplements.
Taken from – http://www.natural-health-information-centre.com/depleted-soils.html