There is an easy way to know whether a food has trans fats.  I’ll teach you. If you see any of the following in the ingredient list, there are trans fat in the food:

• “partially hydrogenated”
• “hydrogenated”
• “fractionated”

 Unfortunately, you can’t trust the front of the package that says “no trans fat” (manufacturers can legally put that on the box as long as there is under .5 g/serving, however, the FDA says there are no “safe” amounts of trans fats). 

Label reading can be time consuming (but the 5 extra minutes in the grocery store will amount to many more days, months or even years of good health for you and your family). 

Below is a list of foods with trans fats and alternatives. Trans fats create free radicals (among other health issues) in the body that must be neutralized with antioxidants, otherwise they can cause serious damage to cells (among other things).

 Imagine the damage of ingesting trans fats over years and years. 

Build your body back up with antioxidants in fruits and veggies and consider adding Juice Plus to your diet.  Juice Plus is a proven way to get antioxidant levels up beneficial levels to reduce cellular and DNA damage caused by free radicals.    Surprising and Common Foods with Trans Fat:

• Teddy Grahams
• Many Crackers: Ritz
• Peanut Butter (unless “natural”)
• Flavored Chips
• Pre-made Cookie Dough
• Cookies
• Flour Tortillas
• Many Trail Mixes
• Many 100 Calorie snack packs
• Many Lunchables
• Quaker Chewy Granola Bars (even though they say “Og Trans Fat”)
• Some Powdered and Liquid coffee creamers
• Nabisco Chips Ahoy!
• Fruit Roll Ups
• Click here for the Top 10 Foods containing Trans Fat http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/ohe/library/fitness/10foods.htm

 Snack Alternatives without Hydrogenated Oils (Trans Fats)

• Any Kashi Brand (granola bars, crackers)
• Triscuits
• Saltines
• Anything purchased at Trader Joe’s
• Most plain chips
• Fritos
• Tortilla Chips
• Plain Corn Nuts

At a time when no one can afford to be sick, it may be even more important for you now to keep your health a priority.

Consider this: When Which?, a non-profit consumer watchdog, asked UK residents about their dietary habits, almost 1/4 of them said that the economic crisis had made healthy eating a lower priority.³  

Over half said they would eat healthier if they could afford it. So our monetary woes have translated to poor food choices which in turn has a negative impact on our health.   

Who can afford to be sick?

Sickness is expensive.A UK cabinet office report estimated the monetary effect of illnesses caused by poor food choices was at least £6 billion every year, which more than twice the amount attributed automobile accidents and three times the amount attributed to smoking, and may be as high as £18 billion.

 So we lose money, which makes us eat poorly, and thus we cost ourselves more money in doctor and hospital bills: its a self-fulfilling cycle.

What can you do?  To drive the point home, the report says that simply:

• ·         consuming five portions of fruit and vegetables per day could prevent 42,000 premature deaths a year
• ·         reducing salt intake could save another 20,200 lives, and cutting saturated fat, other 3,500 

Skimping on nutrition isn’t a great way to cut spending - it’s a great way to cost yourself much more, in quality of life and in healthcare costs.

Consider the power of affordable nutrition.  Juice Plus (www.juiceplus.com) has reduced missed days of school due to illness by 65% and missed days of work due to illness by 50% for participants in the Children’s Health Study.A family of four can enjoy this good health at a rate of 70 cents per day per family member.

expert from: http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/03/recession-bad-for-your-health

Traditionally, exercisers perform cardiovascular exercise and strength training separately.  New research suggests that combining the two may not only be a great way to save time, but also reach your goals faster.

Here’s how it works:

After a 5 to 10 minute warm-up, do a set of strength training, followed immediately by a one-minute intense bout of cardiovascular movement.  While you are catching your breath, immediately dive into your next strength exercise.  After that set, jump back to the cardio bout.

The idea is to perform the bout of cardio to a point that keeps the heart rate elevated during the strength exercise.

Sounds intense?  It can be, depending on what how hard you need to work to meet your goals.    It’s all about what you need and want.

 SAMPLE TOTAL BODY WORKOUT 

Step 1: Warmup: 5-10 minutes until you feel like you are breathing hard

Step 2: Dive into a strength exercise (click here for  the strength exercises)

Step 3:  Perform a cardio bout of something that gets your heart rate pumping, ideas include:

-         a sprint or intense incline walk on treadmill

-         jump squats or standing squats

-         running in place

-         stepping up and down on a chair or bench

-         Click here for more ideas 

Step 4:  Repeat Step 2 and 3 until you have gone through each exercise 1-2 times.  The goal is to be exercising at least 30 minutes (45 – 55 minutes is preferred), so you may have to do 3 rounds of each exercise.

Step 5:  Cool down.  Slowly bring the heart rate and breathing back to normal by walking slowly.

 Journal your gratitudes. Those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis:

1. ·         exercised more regularly
2. ·         reported fewer physical symptoms
3. ·         felt better about their lives as a whole
4. ·         were more optimistic about the upcoming week
5. ·        were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based)

Other Gratitude Notes

1. Most people report being grateful (an average rating of nearly 6 on a 7 point scale).

2. Well-Being:  Grateful people report higher levels of:
   •  positive emotions
   • life satisfaction
   • vitality,
   • optimism
   • lower levels of depression and stress. 

 The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feeling states more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions.  Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.  

3. Prosociality: People with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathic and to take the perspective of others, as well as be more generous.

4. Spirituality:  Those who regularly attend religious services and engage in religious activities such as prayer reading religious material score are more likely to be grateful.

 5.  Materialism:  Grateful individuals:

• ·          place less importance on material goods
• ·         are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated
• ·         are less envious of  others
• ·         are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons.   

• Using ultrasound imaging, doctors have found that the carotid arteries in the necks of obese teens and children as young as 10 had fatty buildup like that of a typical 45-year-old and other signs they’re at risk to develop heart disease.
• That’s especially troubling since “the state of your arteries is more important than your actual age in the evolution of heart disease and stroke,”
• The researchers found that obese children who had abnormal fat buildup in their arteries also had too much LDL, or “bad cholesterol,” in their blood.
• Children with high levels of triglycerides, another type of fat, in their blood were especially prone to having arteries that looked much older than they were.
• “The combination of obesity and high triglycerides should be a red flag to the doctor that a child is at high risk of heart disease,” Raghuveer said.

View the entire article

“More children are harmed by poor nutrition than drugs, alchols, and tobacco combined”  Dr. Katz, Yale Univesity.

This research reflects that. 

Caring for our children involves attention to their nourishment, which is difficult given our society, but not impossible.

An easy solution for your family can be the addition of Juice Plus to your and your children’s diet.

• 1.  Don’t be fooled by the BIG letters on the front of the package.  It’s the itty bitty letters on the back that count. For example, “No Trans Fat” means there is under ½ gram of trans fat per serving.  That certainly isn’t “No Trans Fat” given that even 1 gram of trans fat in the diet daily increases cardiovascular disease by 20%. 

• 2.  The first ingredient is always the biggest.    This is especially relevant for many “fruit” drinks, where sugar is the first ingredient. 

• 3.  Avoid “partially hydrogenated oils” and “high fructose corn syrup” These 2 ingredients tend to be hidden in the midst of long ingredient list.  You don’t have to read every ingredient.  Simply scan the ingredients and if you see one of these, leave it on the shelf. 

• 4.  Avoid lists with long ingredient lists. Chances are that a food with a long list of ingredients is mostly chemicals rather than real food. 

• 5.  Fiber is your friend.  Choose breads, cereals, granola bars, crackers & pasta with at least 2 grams fiber per 100 calories. 

 This information is provided by nutritiondetectives.com (created by Yale’s Dr. Katz), a free, simple, 30-minute, interactive program that can be implemented in schools.  For more information, visit www.nutritiondetectives.com.

Do you eat:

• mindlessly?
• when you’re tired or bored?
• in response to stress?

If so, you are eating for reasons other than hunger, which is called emotional eating.  Take this simple quiz to find out

Frequently, I encounter people who are struggling with emotional eating.

I had recognized this problem in myself many years ago, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I decided to be healed from emotional eating.  That is when I found Dr. Wilbert and his book “Fattitudes”.

From his book (and the phone counseling that I requested), I learned several tools that I can implement at anytime I slip and struggle with emotional eating.  It is a lifelong process, but can be managed and overcome.

I have given this book to so many people.  It’s such a fabulous resource.

Learn the 4 corner stones of Empowered Eating. 

No one has requested that I give this testimony or will be compensating me.   It’s just on my heart to share this with you.

NOTE: to purchase Dr. Wilbert’s Book, Fattitudes, visit amazon.com.

http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialJuicePlus

How are you and your family measuring up? 

Children and Adolescents (aged 6–17)

• At least 60 minutes of mostly moderate- or vigorous-intensity physical activity every day.
• Muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days per week.

Adults (aged 18–64)

• Adults should do 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate-intensity

OR

·        75 Minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity

OR

·       an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.

Aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, preferably spread throughout the week.

 

Additional health benefits are provided by increasing:

·        to 5 hours (300 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity

OR

·        2 hours and 30 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both.

• muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups performed on 2 or more days per week.

Older Adults (aged 65 and older)

• Older adults should follow the adult guidelines. If this is not possible due to limiting chronic conditions, older adults should be as physically active as their abilities allow. They should avoid inactivity. Older adults should do exercises that maintain or improve balance if they are at risk of falling.

In fact, some social workers will not take on cases of children with ADHD/ADD/Anxiety/Autism if parents are unwilling to remove food additives from the child’s diet.  That is just one example of how diet can greatly affect a child’s life. 

For what are food additives used? To:

• ·         change food’s color
• ·         preserve food
• ·         prevent rancidity
• ·         keep fats emulsified and foods stable  

Most of the chemicals are synthetic compounds, some with known negative health effects.  Mostly, the long term affect of consuming large amounts of additives are unknown.  

Check out this list of the top 12 to avoid.

Although eliminating these may be impossible for some people, begin to notice how you feel (or how your children act) after consuming these.  You may find more sensitivity to one more than another.