Typical sweeteners, included in processed food as well as added to food by consumers or used in cooking and baking, may be divided into four basic types:

• Sugars that have been refined from a natural plant to the point where they contain few or no nutrients. These include commercial white and brown sugars and refined, pasteurized honey, fructose, and corn syrup. These are all stripped of most nutrients. Brown sugar used to be less refined than white sugar (less of the molasses removed). In the U.K., this may still be the case, but in the U.S. most brown sugar is made by spraying completely refined white beet sugar with molasses. The one exception I know of is C&H brand brown sugar, which is still made the old way, of cane sugar with some of the molasses left in.
• Sugars that are less refined, including raw sugars (turbinado, demrarra, etc.), organic raw sugar, and evaporated cane juice.
• Natural sugars and sweeteners, close to their natural state, with minimal processing. These include:  date sugar, blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, granulated maple sugar, sugar cane juice (not evaporated), amasake (rice sugar), barley malt syrup, concentrated apple juice, apple juice, grape juice, raw honey, brown rice syrup, and agave nectar.  Stevia is actually not a sugar but a sweet herb and has a glycemic index rating of zero.  Xylitol is a sugar alcohol usually made from birch, with health benefits including the reduction of dental caries.
• Artificial or man-made sweeteners and sugar substitutes, including high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, neotame, and acesulfame potassium. Other sugar substitutes have been banned in past years by the FDA, or are pending approval now.

There is a lot of controversy about whether artificial sweeteners (which are classed as food additives by the FDA) are safe or not. You can get tangled up in the claims, research, and reasoning on both sides of this argument. One thing to consider is this question, “Is it food?” Obviously, bodies were not designed to eat tar or plastic or wood, because those are not food for humans. Bodies require nutrients – ALL the nutrients – to be healthy. However, bodies are also designed with a liver and with systems and procedures for handling toxins, so the question becomes, “how many toxins in what amounts can bodies handle?”  If your body could handle an unlimited number and amount of poisonous substances, then we all could eat arsenic straight out of a bowl, lie down for a while and get up feeling fine. Most natural health practitioners urge their patients to consume as few toxins as possible, and to get as many nutrients as possible. Makes sense, right?

There definitely are safe alternatives to refined sugars and artificial sweeteners.  Probably one of the safest sweeteners is raw honey, which contains vitamins and enzymes that contribute to wellness. It can be used as substitute for sugar, but is about twice as sweet. When substituting honey in recipes, the overall amount of liquid will need to be reduced to make up for the extra liquid in the honey.

Organic maple syrup is delicious on waffles, pancakes, and French toast.  Unlike the organic variety, most maple syrups available commercially contain artificial ingredients. There are also organic syrups made from fruit or the agave plant.

Fresh fruits and sweet vegetables may satisfy a sweet tooth, especially after one has cut down on concentrated carbohydrates. People who have reduced their sugar use have found their craving for sweetness decreasing.  I had a friend who went on a no-sugar diet, including cutting out sweet vegetables and fruits. At the end of the diet, she ate a carrot and found it to be almost unbearably sweet!   Blueberries or strawberries may be used as a topping for cereal. Fruit juices such as apple, pineapple or grape are often used as sweeteners in natural products.

There is also stevia, a natural herb sweetener that has been used in South America for 1,500 years. Recently, the United States FDA approved two new stevia-based sweeteners. It is diabetic-safe, calorie-free, non-toxic, and 50 to 400 times sweeter than white sugar. It does not adversely effect blood sugar levels, inhibits the formation of cavities and plaque, contains no artificial ingredients, and can be used in baking and cooking.

Unfortunately, sugar and white flour are cheap to buy. However, they cost us our health, which is priceless.

• Stop the flea population from growing. The backyard is one place where fleas thrive. There’s a natural way to eradicate fleas; apply nematodes to your lawn via a sprayer. A nematode is a tiny worm that preys on flea larvae. This biological type of pest control has no adverse effects. Once the entire flea population is gone, the nematodes will naturally die from lack of food. It is recommended to wet the soil prior to application to give the nematodes a good start.

• Be sure to keep your pets healthy. What they put in their mouths is important in flea control. Flaxseed oil, available in most health food stores,  is a good way to maintain your pet’s healthy skin. You can also buy whole flaxseeds, grind them, and add to food. Vitamin C and B-complex are also important to keep your pet healthy. Nutritional yeast adds B vitamins to your pet’s diet. As with all parasites, the healthier the animal, the less attractive it is to the flea. To repel fleas, very small amounts of garlic may be added to food (from one small to several large cloves of garlic daily, depending on the weight of the animal) Even easier are treats containing garlic and yeast.

• If your pet already has fleas, use a fine-toothed comb. When combing your pet, keep a bowl of soapy water nearby. Dip the comb in the water after each sweep through your pet. Once you’re done, put the water into a container and freeze it to kill the fleas.

• Food-grade diatomaceous earth is a powder you can rub onto your pet and sprinkle on bedding and carpets to kill existing fleas.  Sprinkle the powder on your pets and on your carpets. The silicon-based microskeletons of tiny dead critters rub the exoskeletons of the fleas and go into their respiratory holes, blocking and damaging them, so the fleas can’t breathe. It also works by damaging the exoskeletons so that they lose water and die of dehydration. If you also sprinkle a little on food, this also works on worms in the digestive tract.

• During flea season, vacuum the rugs and furniture often. Flea eggs are gathered by vacuuming but they will still hatch in the bag. The bag must be sealed immediately and thrown away or frozen. Also, wash your pet’s bed covers at least once a week.

• There are gentle herbal shampoos specially formulated for flea control which can be used as often as once per week. (Shampooing too often will dry out your pet’s skin.)  Anything that makes lather will drown fleas if you leave the lather on for three to five minutes. So you don’t need to use a toxic shampoo! When shampooing your pet, it is best to use warm water and start with a rich lather around the animal’s neck. That way, fleas can’t go up the face.

• Herbs that repel fleas are St. John’s Wort, rue, neem, basil. Use these externally. External applications of the essential oils of rose geranium, eucalyptus and tea tree may be sprayed on the fur and bedding of dogs, but not cats.

• If you want to give your pet herbs in their food, to help repel fleas, the result may be that their little bodies will start to eliminate parasites, such as roundworms, hookworms, heartworms, tapeworms, etc. One way the dead parasites will exit the body will be by way of the kidneys and bladder, so these must be kept in good working order with fluid flowing freely. For this purpose, Hulda Clark recommends that you feed your pet parsley water for a week before starting a parasite program. Just cook a bunch in a quart of water for three minutes and throw away the wet parsley. Pour the resulting parsley water into ice cube trays and freeze, then store in zip-lock bags in the freezer. Thaw out a few cubes each day and feed to your pet, who will probably come to love it.

• Once your pet has had his parsley water for a week, you can start feeding him (green) black walnut hulls, which repels fleas due to the tannic acid juglone. This is available in liquid tincture or capsule form. Be sure it is pale green, not black, to be sure the hulls were harvested at the right time. Be sure to give only the minimum effective dose , since too high a dose is toxic.  Cats should get 1/2 to 1 drop, twice a week, depending on size. For dogs, start with one drop each day. Work up to 2 drops a day if the dog weighs twice as much as a cat, and so forth for larger dogs. If a dog weighs ten times as much as a cat, work up to 10 drops. Your pet may vomit or have diarrhea with worms in it. If so, disinfect the mess before cleaning it up. You can pour salt and iodine on it and let stand for 5 minutes. Wash your hands carefully, preferably with food-grade alcohol, and scrub your nails.

• As part of an overall parasite-ridding program, you can add the smallest pinch possible of wormwood and clove to dry food, after your pet has had walnut for a week.

• These are just some of the methods of non-toxic flea control. Pesticides commonly used by humans may be hazardous to pets. With these methods you can be sure that you are not adding a toxic load to your beloved dog or cat.

However, healthy eating habits are important, if you are going to maintaining proper bodily functions and live a disease-free life.

If you struggle with eating properly, than you know that breaking unhealthy habits can be the most difficult part of the process. However, if you truly want to live the best lifestyle possible, it is important to start eating a better diet.

The following are a few tips which should help you get started in the right direction.

1. To begin with, rid your home of all toxic, sugary, and unhealthy foods. Keep junk foods and beverages out of your house so that you won’t be tempted to snack during the day. Keep healthy snacks around, such as carrot sticks, yogurt, fresh fruit, seeds, and nuts.
2. If you just can’t bear to toss out the sweets, try keeping something tiny on hand, like chocolate chips. Eating a few of these won’t completely ruin your diet but also might give you that little sugary fix you crave.
3. Another step which helps quite a lot, especially when you are just starting out on the process of switching over to a better diet, is to take a few minutes to learn about what foods are the healthiest for you, the nutrients they contain, and how they work in your body. Most people understand that fruits, vegetables, and foods with proteins are good for you – but few people understand why. The key is to actually learn about nutrients. When you understand how specific nutrients work in the body, and how they benefit you, you will be more likely to make correct choices for your body. Knowledge really is powerful!
4. When preparing for a new diet, take your meal schedule into consideration. If you often eat in a rushed hurry, at odd times of the day, you are quite possibly not getting the best foods possible. Plan ahead! Instead of grabbing a fast-food lunch on the go, take a bagged lunch to work, perhaps with a nutritious wrap and some fresh vegetables. Plan ahead for evening meals as well. If you are not currently getting healthy dinners and have little time to cook when you get home every night, then cook something ahead of time which can be easily stored, and then heated up as necessary.
5. You might need to start with baby steps. Even if you only replace one soda a day with a glass of water, you are already really improving your calorie intake and eliminating the high-fructose corn syrup.  If you eat fast food every day for lunch, try replacing even half of those meals with nutritious food. If you start by taking small steps, it won’t feel like you are cutting out all of the foods you love.
6. Get a good cookbook with healthy and nutritious recipes.  You can have a lot of fun, trying out a lot of healthy and very delicious recipes.  It helps a lot to have a good cookbook and this can keep you busy for a while.  One set of cookbooks you might try (which is available for instant download so there is no waiting for it to arrive in the mail) is The Right Recipes.

You can take your time to learn about healthy foods, which, believe it or not, you may begin to love just as much.

Is organically grown food really healthier for you than conventionally grown produce? The debate has been raging on since the 1950s as to whether or not organically grown produce is actually better for you than crops from the larger, pesticide using farms. The truth is, while some may say that the jury is still out, that would only be the official one. Most of the studies done over the last few decades have been either swayed by funding or just poorly conducted, calling most of the results into question. So while the “official” results may say there is no difference in health and quality, if you go through and eliminate invalid studies, the answer you will find will be completely different. And its a matter of simple logic.

The fact is, organic food is actually safer for you and contains more nutrients than conventionally grown produce.

Organic Foods Have More Nutrients

Studies have shown that, on average, organically grown produce contains higher levels of many key nutrients, including vitamin C, trace minerals, and antioxidant phytonutrients. Data compiled by the USDA over the last 70 years shows a significant decline in the levels of minerals that can be found in conventionally grown produce, meat, and dairy.

When you take into account the fact that modern conventional methods push these foods to grow faster and produce more (using overpowered fertilizers and steroids) as well as the fact of earlier harvesting when the produce is not yet ripe, it should come as no surprise that our food contains less nutrition than it did 70 years ago.

In addition, studies have shown that, pound for pound, over-fertilized (i.e. most) produce contains a higher percentage of water than organic produce does. This means less vitamins. It also makes sense that phytonutrients, most of which make up the plant’s immune system, are at higher levels in organic produce because the plants have to develop their own defenses against diseases which are not killed by pesticides and chemicals.

Fewer Pesticides in Your Body

No one denies that conventionally grown foods do have a certain amount of pesticides still on them, when they reach our shelves. While the FDA has set “safe” levels for these chemicals to be in your system, it should be obvious that we would be better off not eating them in the first place.

Because organic foods are grown without the use of chemicals, you can be sure you are not ingesting anything nasty! Recent studies have actually linked several symptoms such as fatigue, trembling, impaired brain function, headaches, digestive problems, and skin disorders (just to name a few) with the consumption of pesticides in your food.

Research in Belgium has actually shown that women with breast cancer are up to nine times likelier than women without breast cancer, to have hexachlorobenzene or DDT (pesticides used on food) in their bodies. Research in Hawaii has been making connections to consumption of conventionally grown (pesticide laden) fruit and fruit juice, to the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

Organic Food Does Make You Healthier

Study after study has found the same results: when you give people (particularly kids) a completely organic diet for an extended period of time, they become healthier. The people who eat organic foods as part of these studies tend to heal faster, get sick less, have more energy, and even have healthier teeth! This should actually come as no surprise when you think about it- when your body has to spend less energy processing all the toxins you put into it (through eating non-organic, chemical laden food) it has more energy to spare for doing what it is supposed to do — keeping you healthy, attractive, energetic, and alive.

• Several cups of water
• One small can of Tomato Paste
• 3 Bay Leaves
• Salt and Pepper to Taste
• Several tomatoes cut in large or small chunks, or pureed in a blender

Simmer until tomatoes are soft.  You can then continue simmering the soup for hours, adding water as you go, for best results.  Or if you are in a hurry you can eat it sooner.

Garnishes:

• I like this soup with a spoonful of liquid yogurt on top
• Or add shredded or broken-up cheese.  Use something that melts well in liquid, such as Gouda or Cheddar.
• Croutons are another option.

Variations:

• Try adding other vegetables and herbs to the soup, such as a sliced onion, garlic, oregano, basil, etc.
• You can also add some mini noodles (put them in toward the end so they don’t overcook), rice, barley, or small meatballs.

1.  You might be craving something which contains certain nutrients which your body is deficient in.  A recent example for me was incessant cravings for canned ravioli.  I eventually realized that I was also craving Tomato Soup.  I began making tomato soup, using fresh tomatoes and herbs, and found that it fully handled my ravioli cravings!

What I assumed was that the tomatoes contained some nutrient(s) that I was deficient in – perhaps Vitamin C or Iron – and that this was what was behind the craving for ravioli (with all its tomato sauce).  But instead of eating tons of unhealthy and fattening ravioli, I was able to pacify myself with fresh tomato soup – doing only good and no harm to my body.

2.  Your craving might be a side-effect of another deficiency.

My mother always told me that when I craved sugar, this was usually a sign of a lack of protein.  I have also read that when you continuously feel like you want to eat something but you don’t know what it is, that’s a need for Vitamin C.

Of course I’m no doctor.  But in my personal experience, whenever I did find the correct and healthful item to fulfill my craving, it sort of “felt right” in the end.

Keep this in mind the next time you have a funny craving and you may be able to use it as an indicator for better health, instead of an impetus to indulgence.

The survey was on food labels. To be more specific, on how many people actually still read them or used them. The survey was for the years 1995 to 2006. This report was a 33 page PDF report that I found very interesting. It went into the history of the label and how the survey was done and covered a lot of how to use it and why it is on our foods among other things about the label. It was very informative.

The results of the survey are what surprised me though. Less people are taking the time to read them or look at them. What they found was that it decreased for most label components. It declined approximately 3 percentage points for the Nutrition Facts panel, 11 percentage points for the ingredient list, and 10 percentage points for the panel’s information about calories, fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Only the information about fiber and sugars did not decline over the 10 year period. The use of fiber information increased by 2 percentage points and for sugar stayed the same.

It went on you break down the study by age and race. They believe the fiber increase was due to the people over 30. They said the increase in use may be the result of the increasing popularity of low-carb diets, the interest in identifying whole grain foods, or an aging population that is more aware of dietary fiber’s health benefits.

My thinking was that more people would be reading the labels. I thought people cared about their health more now. I guess I am wrong.

I find it funny, I guess it isn’t really funny, but if someone lights up a cigarette people get all upset about how that person is killing themselves and the second hand smoke will kill them too while they are eating a bacon cheese burger with fries and a coke. Which one is more deadly? You have tons of saturated fat in processed white bread. I think that the hamburger meal is more deadly.

I read another article the other day about a study on the kids meals served. 93 percent of the meals failed. The most calories a child 4 through 8 is supposed to have are 430 per meal. These meals were loaded with fat and sodium and some of them exceeded 1000 calories. This was done in 13 popular restaurants. I think people should start caring more about their kids. They are slowly killing them with the foods they feed them.

I am starting to think that most people don’t care about their health as much as they should. Sure, right now that processed food and those fast meals taste great, and are fine to eat every now and then, but it is killing us slowly. Sooner or later that is going to catch up with a lot of people, just like smoking cigarettes does. I am not saying that people can not sit and eat some pizza every now and then, I do, but not very often because it is not a good healthy food. I try to eat 90 percent good healthy food, and treat myself with the other 10 percent. I am not a saint and I don’t expect everyone else to be.

Our body needs a well balanced diet to work properly. It needs some fats, not the kind we get from the fast food chains, it needs protein, not the fatty kind, but the lean kind, and it needs carbohydrates. A lot of this information is right on the food products that we buy, on the nutritional label that less people are reading. People should be keeping up with the food news too. There are new studies they are doing all the time, and some of it is good news, and some of it is not so good news, but people need to know, and should be aware of the health risks and benefits of what we are eating.

For more information on this article and information on weight loss and good health including, news, tips, tools, guides and much more visit http://www.truellybetter.com

Tags:

survey, food labels, calories

What is amazing to me is that the rest of the world is starting to realize this. Not that nobody knew before. But you know what I mean.

Cars. Everybody uses them. GMC, Subaru, Honda, Ford. Everyday people use them to get to work and school, dates and dinners, parties and proms. They have to be constantly given fuel to keep them going, but gas prices are rising along with the demand for it. But gas prices are rising at a faster rate than what people think. As of today, the current national average for regular is $4.10; compare that to exactly a year ago when gas prices were $2.95. Exactly a month ago they were $3.98. Gas prices are rising at an average of half a cent a day. So what do we do about this ever increasing need/problem? Well…one thing among several things to do is switch fuel sources.

Many people think they can’t switch from their regular habits because it would be expensive or inconvenient. But little do they know; most things that are better for the environment are also better for their wallet, including alternative fuel sources. Some of the developing alternative fuel sources are electricity, fuel cell, and non-fossil natural gas. Hybrid is another option but not quite as good. I would not consider converting your car until more is known about the subjects of alternative fuels. The links provided would be a good thing to do research in, but as I said, don’t convert yet. Not enough is known.

GM understands the issues at hand with gas prices and the environment, so they are going to introduce a new electric sports car to compel people to buy it. Electric?! Sports car?! What?! Yes…it sounds bizarre but it is predicted to be a hit! The car is called the Volt. It comes out in 2010 so you will have a little bit of a wait. While you are waiting for the volt to come out you should do a little research on it, so here is a link. Another electric sports car that is already on the market it the Tesla Roadster. You may buy this for $109,000. It is a “SWEET” car by some peoples standards, and “The best car in existence because it costs less than 2 cents a mile!” by others’. The only downside about the Tesla Roadster is the fact that if you don’t live in Chicago, Seattle, New York, or Miami, you probably will have to pay a pretty penny to get it serviced.

I keep saying to be better to the environment but have not told you what is so bad that we are doing. Driving cars is part of what is causing global warming. Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy that something as simple as driving is causing a huge crisis. But it is. It is one of the many things that are causing it. You see cars burn gas to create energy to power the car. And we all know that fire burns oxygen as well, so the car emits carbon dioxide. This therefore rises into our atmosphere and stays there. Infrared beams travel from the sun and then hit our earth and the earth absorbs them. This heats the earth just enough to sustain life. The beams will eventually come off the earth again in the form of radiation. There are greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that let enough radiation escape, and capture enough radiation and send it back down to earth to make the earth’s atmosphere like a blanket. This keeps the earth at a constant average global temperature of 60° F. We have more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than we need, so instead of acting like a blanket the carbon dioxide is acting like a winter coat in the Bahamas. And we are adding warm layers all the time.

There are more things you can do than wait to convert to be green and save money. Click here for tips on being greener and saving money in the process of helping the earth.

To sum all this up: being good to the environment hardly ever means being bad to your budget. It is quite the contrary actually. The best way to help stop global warming is to change fuel sources and do a few other things that you can learn about on my site. So here is an even briefer summary: if you are fed up with high gas prices, be clean, be green, save, and rejoice!

Thank You for letting me do this guest post,

Rubikubism

References I used in this post are my website, of course, and my own knowledge, of course again.

Water is the most simple element, and at the same time one of the more important elements, that we consume into our body. It is vital to everything our body does, it is fundamental to every function, and it is the most relevant element to life. One simple example of this is the fact that you can go without eating for some time, but you don’t last more than two or three days without water.

Water is fundamental to keeping your metabolism working well.  It’s an important medicine, and so simple. Water has the power to cure some infections and inflammations, such as those in our kidneys, and in our urinary tract. It helps to keep blood pressure regulated, and it lowers the blood pressure if it’s too high. When you drink a lot of water, your body will be in “flush mode” and excess sodium will be expelled from your body.  This gives your blood pressure low-to-normal values.

Water helps to stimulate your immune system, and it’s very important for increasing your body’s circulation. It gives your skin a good health and good looks.

Water is one of the most powerful and natural ways to detox the body.  It helps to remove very dangerous toxins – which we get from the environment, from food, from chemical products we use (especially in our hygiene products).  Our metabolism also produces toxic wastes due to biochemical functions and even breathing.  Those wastes stay in our body unless you drink enough water to expel those toxins from the body.  The toxins are expelled in sweat and in urine, and in both of these cases, water is fundamental.

Water has also healing properties.  The use of thermal waters, and other types of hydrotherapy, are very common and get very good results for many different problems; from breathing problems, to muscle injuries, and so many others. A good example is use of sea water.  If you have sinusitis problems, when you bathe yourself in the ocean, you feel very relieved.  That “junk” you got just goes out, you start breathing better, headaches go away, and you spend a summer with no problems if you go to the beach often.

As you can see, water is not only fundamental to life, but it is also very important in giving us good health and a good quality of life in almost every way. Water expels toxins, makes everything in our body function better, heals many different problems, and is also very pleasant.

I love to drink water, I love to relax on water, taking a nice bath. I Love the ocean in every way. The simple fact of looking at the ocean and smelling it makes me feel relaxed and energized.

Water is a fantastic thing.

Drink at least two to three litres of water every day. Just make sure the water is of good quality, and that you check often the test results of the water in your city. Don’t drink water from places that you’re not sure are safe and good quality. When in doubt, it’s best to drink bottled water from brands you can trust.

Be healthy.  Drink water!

Visit Helder’s website at Fitness Fat Burning