Pages

Showing posts with label is. Show all posts
Showing posts with label is. Show all posts

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Is your job a burden to weight gain


A study in Finland and published in the International Journal of Obesity shows a link between weight gain and fatigue related to work. After a hard day of work, they would be used less willing to cook healthy? They Evacuating stress snacking or rushing on vending machines?



When work is a burden ...
The study included 7,000 women and 1,800 men in administrative positions in Helsinki, capital of Finland.
Officials were asked to report whether they had gained weight in the year preceding the study and the number of hours they had realized. They also had to rate their level of exertion by answering positively or negatively to a number of statements:

I feel totally exhausted after a days work.
I feel tired in the morning on days when I have to get up for work.
I work too hard.
Im completely exhausted.
My job is just too stressful.
I think about my work even during vacation / during the weekend.
If they respond positively to at least four of these assertions, the degree of fatigue at work was considered very high.

At work: frustration and weight gain
Almost a quarter of women (24%) and 19% of men had gained weight in the year preceding the study.
Fatigue generated by the work was very high in 15% of women and 13% men.
As for overtime (over 40 hours / week), 20% of men and 13% of women had been abused in the year preceding the survey.
The study revealed, for men and women, a relationship between a high degree of fatigue, provision of overtime and weight gain. In addition, women who complained of poor balance between time spent at work and at home the past proved still more likely to gain weight. Similarly, men who were less restrictive position were less likely to show additional pounds.

Curb weight gain phenomenon
What the survey does not reveal, are the concrete reasons why overworked workers had gained weight. No questions were asked about the diet of the study participants nor their sport habits and daily exercise.
Several hypotheses have been advanced, however:

who later worked evenings had perhaps used to fall back on snacks or fast food, usually more calories;
workers showed a high degree of fatigue were too exhausted on the way home in the evening to cook a healthy meal and would have, too, abused snacks and fast foods;
tired workers were also too exhausted to practice regular physical exercise.
The latter is regarded as crucial by the investigators emphasize that exercise not only helps keep a stable weight or lose weight but also to better manage the stress of a demanding job. Exercise daily or regular practice of a sport would therefore be a possible solution to fight against weight gain related to the stress of the worker.

As for finding a new job, less damaging to the moral and physical health, the study does not mention ...
Read more »

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Is Your Shopping Cart Filled With Empty Calories

I stopped into a store the other day I normally dont frequent, but my Mother asked me to pick something up for her. Since I was just getting the one item, I made my way over to the "20 Items or Less, Express Lane."

I watched the woman in front of me unload her cart:
  • 2 gallons of milk
  • 2 jumbo packages of hot dogs
  • large box of frozen whitefish
  • large box of frozen hamburger patties
  • 2 bags of vinegar & salt potato chips
  • 1 head of iceberg lettuce
  • 2 cucumbers
  • large bottle of salad dressing
  • box of Velveeta cheese
  • loaf of bread
  • bag of M&Ms
  • box of Dulcolax
  • large bottle of Maalox
The irony of the box of laxatives and bottle of antacids wasnt lost on me. But when the clerk announced the grand total of said shopping cart - $103.26 - my jaw dropped. Something to the tune of Are you freaking kidding me? rang through my head. The constipated woman with indigestion didnt bat an eyelash, however, and handed over her credit card to the cashier.

Listen, I dont want to look down my nose at this woman. It wasnt all that long ago when my own vegetable consumption was coming from French fries, potato chips, and iceberg lettuce. I had such killer heartburn that I popped Tums like M&Ms. I was the reigning Queen of Processed Foods.

But since transitioning to a diet of primarily raw, living food, the question I keep hearing from people is, Ooooh, isnt it expensive to eat that way? And my answer is an emphatic, Nope. Thats a fallacy. Although I had never done a concrete comparison, I just knew that I was spending considerably less, as opposed to when I was accumulating frequent flyer miles at the local drive-thru windows.

Chances are pretty good though that if youre cash conscious and on a budget (and who isnt these days?), youre going to opt for junk food that gives you the most calorie bang for your buck (albeit, empty calories). Youre more likely to buy potato chips than carrot sticks.

What people are really buying when they purchase processed foods is convenience: longer shelf life, ease of preparation, greater availability. But, theyre also paying more for all of that processing and convenience.

Anyways, I decided to do a little comparison shopping for myself. Ive been averaging roughly $40 a week, shopping at local farmers markets all summer, but I decided to go into a grocery store and see what $103.26 could buy me.

Have a peak inside my cart:
  • 2 heads of red leaf lettuce
  • 1 head of bok choy
  • 1 head of purple cabbage
  • 2 heads of kale
  • 2 heads of rainbow chard
  • 2 lb mesclun mix
  • 2 pints cherry tomatoes
  • 2 lb green beans
  • 2 lb bell peppers
  • 2 bunches parsley
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 12 English cucumbers
  • 3 avocados
  • 2 lb onions
  • 2 heads of garlic
  • large ginger root
  • 12 lemons
  • 5 lb apples
  • 5 lb bananas
  • 2 large cantaloupe
  • jar of raw tahini
  • jar of raw honey
  • 8 oz raw almonds
  • bag of dried cranberries
Grand total: $102.07, so I even saved $1.19 as compared to my friend with the indigestion.

I have to admit, I was a bit taken aback by the cost of fresh produce in the grocery store, compared to what Ive been paying at the farm stands all summer. The quality of the stuff thats picked green and shipped cross country cant be compared to fresh, vine-ripened produce either. Sadly, the growing season is coming to an abrupt end here and with it the farm stands, so I suspect my $40 a week produce bill is soon to double.

Nonetheless, since taking up residence in the Land of Raw Foods and relinquishing my title as the Queen of Processed Food, the state of my health has increased, and contrary to popular belief, my food budget has decreased.

Take the sage advice of Michael Pollan to heart: Eat food, Not too much. Mostly plants.

Whats in your shopping cart this week?

Read more »

Friday, March 20, 2015

Is Isopropyl Alcohol Rubbing Alcohol Its Uses in daily Life

Is Isopropyl Alcohol Rubbing Alcohol ?


Isopropyl alcohol, generally known as rubbing alcohol, is a dissolvable that is frequently utilized for cleaning or as a disinfectant. It is vital to note that this is not the same as ethanol which is the sort you can drink. Isopropyl alcohol is toxic and ought to never be ingested.

Rubbing alcohol, USP/ Surgical soul, B.P. is a fluid arranged and utilized principally for topical application. It is readied from an unique denatured alcohol arrangement and contains more or less 70 percent by volume of concentrated ethanol (ethyl alcohol) or isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol).

Uses of Rubbing Alcohol



As an Antiseptic

Isopropyl alcohol is often used as an antiseptic, and most of the doctors use it to disinfect your skin before injections to kill surface bacteria.

As an Astringent

It can shrink or tighten your body tissues, like the pores in your skin, when they are applied topically. It helps to give your skin a smoother look and make pores less visible. Astringents also help to stop bleeding in minor cuts and scrapes by tightening up the capillaries that are losing blood.

As Pain Killer for Muscle Aches

It can be rubbed over the surface of aching muscles or painful joints to help reduce pain and swelling. Alcohol is an effective Pain Killer because it acts as a minor irritant to the skin increasing circulation and blood flow to the area. This increased circulation helps to ease pain and inflammation.

Expel hair splash from mirrors 

When you are spritzing your head with hair splash, some of it inescapably winds up on the mirror. A fast wipe with rubbing alcohol will whisk away that sticky buildup and leave your mirror shimmering clean.

Clean venetian blinds 

Rubbing alcohol makes a marvelous showing of cleaning the supports of venetian blinds. To make brisk work of the occupation, wrap a level device — a spatula or perhaps a 6-inch (15-centimeter) drywall blade — in fabric and secure with an elastic band. Plunge in alcohol and go to work.

Keep windows shining and frost free 

Do your windows ice up in the wintertime? Wash them with a mixture of 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol and1 liter water to stop ice freezing on the glass. Clean the windows with daily paper after you wash them to make them sparkle.

Anticipate ring around the neckline 

To keep your neck from recoloring your shirt neckline, wipe your neck with rubbing alcohol every morning before you dress. Feels great as well.

Clean your telephone 

Is your telephone getting a bit dingy? Wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. Itll uproot the grime and sterilize the telephone in the meantime.

Uproot ink stains 

Did you get ink on your most loved shirt or dress? Soak the spot in rubbing alcohol for a couple of minutes before putting the piece of clothing in the clothes washer.

Erase permanent markers

Rubbing Alcohol can remove the marks the permanent marker very easily. Just put some rubbing alcohol on the mark for a few seconds and then wipe it. Do it twice or thrice will completely remove it from most of the surfaces like plastic laminates and tiles.

Uproot puppy ticks 

Ticks detest the taste of rubbing alcohol as much as they cherish the taste of your puppy. Before you pull a tick off Fido, touch the critter with rubbing alcohol to make it slacken its grasp. At that point get the tick as near to the puppys skin as you can and haul it straight out. Spot again with alcohol to sanitize the injury. This chips away at individuals as well.

Get rid of fruit flies

Fruit flies dont like the smell of rubbing alcohol. If you spray the rubbing alcohol using an empty perfume bottle, then it will do the work. However its less effective compared to some insecticide but its safer, as rubbing alcohol is not as poisonous as insecticide.

Make a shapeable ice pack 

The issue with ice packs is they wont adjust to the state of the harmed body part. Make a slushy, comparable pack by blending 1 section rubbing alcohol with 3 sections water in a closing toward oneself plastic sack. Whenever that sore knee misbehaves, wrap the sack of slush in a fabric and apply it to the zone.

Clean washroom installations 

Simply venture into the prescription bureau whenever you have to clean chrome lavatory installations. Pour some rubbing alcohol straight from the container onto a delicate, spongy fabric and the apparatuses. No compelling reason to wash — the alcohol simply vanishes. It makes an awesome showing of making chrome shimmer, in addition to it will murder any germs in it.
Read more »

Monday, March 16, 2015

Medical Advice Is Just Wrong

Medical advise says to avoid sun, fats and red meat, but to drink lots of water, eat polyunsaturated vegetable oils and focus on the grain-rich bottom of the food pyramid. The medical advice is simply wrong and is not supported by the biomedical literature. A recent article in a major medical journal claims that about 90% of medical advice is not based on clinical research studies, but rather represents the opinions of experts who are supported by the health industry. Most research is conducted to support products. Unfortunately the advice that comes from medical societies is not healthy.

Here I will provide a few examples to illustrate that medical advice is frequently, if not usually, wrong about diet, nutrition, cause of disease, appropriate drug use and whether to spend a few unprotected moments basking in sunshine.

The Sun Is Not the Enemy, but Sun Blockers Can Increase Skin Cancer

Medicine is supposed to provide instructions on how to handle dangerous chemicals and procedures safely and to enhance health. Solar radiation is dangerous and will cause skin cancer if used inappropriately, but solar radiation is also needed to produce vitamin D in skin. The public response to the medical mandate to limit solar exposure to reduce radiation-based skin cancer resulted in increased use of solar-blocking lotions. Unfortunately, the result was that some people spent more time in the sun, assuming that avoiding sun burns meant that they were avoiding skin cancer. Unknowingly they had shifted their skin exposure down from doses sufficient to kill cells and cause inflammation, to levels sufficient to just cause solar mutagenesis -- the lower exposures were optimal for skin cancer production.

Spare the Sun and Spoil the Child

Babies and children are the most sensitive to solar radiation induced skin cancer and need protection from over exposure, but the public response to medical advice has been to avoid prudent exposure to the sun. Now kids in the U.S. are showing symptoms of rickets, a vitamin D deficiency disease common during early industrialization, in which air pollution, urban poverty and factory work limited solar exposure. Babies in strollers are completely covered. One frightening consequence of this over-reaction could be a resurgence of poor bone growth that in the 1920’s resulted in the development of the now-trendy Cesarean section procedure to accommodate women with malformed pelvises due to rickets.

Rickets Is Rampant

Ubiquitous vitamin D deficiencies due to inadequate sun exposure is compounded by inadequate sources of dietary vitamin D and inappropriate medical interventions. Most vitamin D deficiencies go unnoticed, because the typical symptoms of deficiency mimic other forms of inflammation. When serum levels of vitamin D are actually measured and found to be inadequate, supplements of 600-1000 iu/day of vitamin D3 are prescribed. Unfortunately, there is seldom followup testing and a recent study indicates that most treatment for vitamin D deficiencies is inadequate -- much higher doses, ca. 2-5000 iu/day are required to reach optimum levels. Most people are and remain vitamin D deficient.

Scourge of Scurvy

Vitamin C deficiencies are also a problem. Most people get enough vitamin C to avoid losing their teeth (vitamin C is needed for collagen production), but subclinical deficiencies still produce chronic inflammation. The major cellular anti-oxidant is glutathione, but vitamin C is another major defense against reactive oxygen species (ROS). An increase in ROS triggers oxygen stress and inflammation. Deficiency of vitamin C indicates that more vitamin C is being used up than is being replenished in the diet. Numerous metabolic disturbances associated with other deficiencies or infections can result in vitamin C depletion and chronic inflammation. Most people are vitamin C deficient.

Vegetable Oils Are the Problem, Not the Cure

Medical advice to avoid saturated fats in meats and shift to omega-6-rich vegetable oils is a major contributor to chronic inflammation and modern degenerative diseases. The original claimed association between saturated fat consumption and cardiovascular disease was tenuous, but produced a glacial shift in diet toward consumption of omega-6 fatty acids, e.g. corn and soy oils. The medical dependence on measurements and treatments of LDL, has outweighed the actual data in the biomedical literature -- LDL levels are not important in cardiovascular disease. Drugs that lower LDL, serum cholesterol, are only effective in reducing heart disease, if they lower LDL by lowering inflammation. The risk factor is the inflammation, not the LDL level. Agricultural practices that use grain over grass further reduce the omega-3 fatty acid content of meat and increase the inflammatory omega-6 fatty acid level.

Statins Are a Problem, Not the Cure

Statins are broad spectrum disrupters of the function of many different enzymes and proteins. They were originally isolated from fungi based on their ability to poison bacteria, i.e. they are antibiotics. They disrupt fat metabolism and thereby lower LDL levels, but they also cause many undesirable and potentially dangerous side-effects. One of these actions is to block inflammation triggered by activation of the inflammation transcription factor, NFkB. By blocking NFkB activation, some statins lower inflammation and thereby decrease cardiovascular disease. This activity is similar to aspirin, which acts on COX-2 as well as directly on NFkB. Both statins and aspirin (NSAIDs) have multiple activities on numerous areas of cellular metabolism. The activities of both include reduction in inflammation, but they also produce other undesirable side effects. Chronic inflammation is better treated by diet, exercise and traditional herbs and spices, rather than more dangerous statins.

Water Is Miraculous, but just Satisfy Your Thirst

If you are thirsty drink tap water. There is no improvement in health by drinking some extra amount of water each day. Drinking water in plastic bottles from magical sources provides no improvement in health. Much of the “spring water” with designer labels is only locally bottled tap water. The plastic bottles are an ecological disaster and the “purified” water in the bottles is contaminated with compounds leaching from the bottles. If you want a constant source of water, bottle your own tap water. If you want to avoid the minor contaminants added to avoid bacterial contamination of municipal water supplies, use a simple point-of-use filter.

Starch Is the Problem

Starch is rapidly converted into blood glucose and that spike in blood sugar causes major problems. The foundation of the old food pyramid, grains, is no different than table sugar in being hyperglycemic, i.e. rapidly raising blood sugar. A large muscle mass and high physical activity can minimize the rise in blood sugar, by using up the sugar for muscle energy as it enters the blood. Unfortunately, most people do not have enough muscle and are not physically active enough to be protected from the starch and sugars in their diets. The result is chronic inflammation in the form of metabolic syndrome and degenerative diseases, e.g. diabetes, allergies, depression, acne, infertility, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases and cancers.

One slice of white bread with a meal may be too much starch for some people. The maximum for most people is: one half of a ripe banana or one half cup of a starchy entree such as pasta, potato, rice, or one of the two buns on a burger. The starch needs to be spread over several meals. Eating too much starch with a meal produces intense hunger, as the blood sugar rapidly rises, triggers insulin release and a subsequent crash in blood sugar. Don’t believe any of the diets that recommend starches to replace fats. Many “lite” diet foods are more unhealthy than the higher fat originals that they replace. Replacing saturated fats with saturated starch is dangerous. The temporary high blood sugar level produces the increased health risks routinely associated with diabetes.

Insufficient Food Is the Problem -- Insufficient Minerals

It takes only 2-3000 Calories per day to energize most people. That means that most people can eat their day’s worth of calories with the sandwich plate at a fast food restaurant. That meal will provide an overdose of starch and sugar, but will be deficient in vitamins and minerals. A major dilemma is that it takes so little food to provide adequate energy for a low activity lifestyle, that the choice must be made between obesity and vitamin/mineral deficiencies. Eating just enough to satisfy energy needs results in deficiencies, but eating more to avoid vitamin/mineral deficiencies, results in obesity. The only solutions are to eat supplements to supply needed vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. or increase physical activity and body muscle mass, so that more can be eaten without producing obesity. For most people the solution is a combination of increased physical activity and supplements. That combination is also found to reduce inflammation and the associated risk of degenerative diseases.

It’s the Stupid Diet

The obsession of medicine with drugs and invasive procedures provides additional health risks for patients. Many researchers complain in the biomedical literature that there is insufficient focus on the cause of disease and too much emphasis on the study of the impact of specific drugs on disease symptoms. The result is that in most cases the symptoms are treated and the disease becomes chronic. Of course this also means that the patient is a permanent consumer of health care.

The foundation of all healthcare should be to improve the lifestyle of the patient. Diseases don’t just happen. The biggest contributions of immediate family to disease of an individual are not defective genes, but rather defective diet and lifestyle habits. Our healthcare system is too no fault. People are sick because there is something wrong with how they live. They eat too much or they eat the wrong foods. They don’t get enough exercise to develop a healthy muscle system to support their joints. Most importantly, bad diet and lifestyle choices produce chronic inflammation. Drugs can reduce chronic inflammation, but will also produce additional side effects that will also require interventions. It makes more sense to attack the original causes of inflammation.

Every treatment program should address the pervasive contribution of chronic inflammation by including a diet and lifestyle inventory and an assessment of the cause of the disease that is being treated. An appropriate anti-inflammatory diet and a path toward a more active lifestyle should be the foundation of every treatment plan.
Read more »

Saturday, March 14, 2015

What Is The Best Price For How Can U Lose Weight Fast Sale

Where Can I Buy How Can U Lose Weight Fast Economy Size



You probably don’t would like to overlook this chance. The quality weight-loss of the information based in the publication is usually effectively above what you can get now available.


How Can U Lose Weight Fast


<<< Visit : Product Official Website >>>


Respecting How Can U Lose Weight Fast



How Can U Lose Weight Fast Using these types of innovative actions taking place , extra weight doesnt only stop improving but will also start off forthcoming off of. With no depriving through ingesting healthful eating with few, if virtually any, refined food its not necessary to connected with holding pounds. Excess fat cellular material will probably shrink as well as disappear. You will not only feel good but you will look really good as well.


How Can U Lose Weight Fast Fat burning diet plans plus diets has been in existence for quite a while. This may not be a new sort of diet, not necessarily to lose weight anyway. Fat burning is amongst the causes that a great many people today use a weight reduction eating plan from the start, in an effort to drop the excess fat the persons body is transporting. There are numerous fat loss diet plans throughout the world like a lot of famous people together with less well known models. The objective of your weight reduction weight loss program is burning of your cholesterol whilst shedding pounds. This could likewise incorporate abdominal muscles the body as excess fat is lost.


How Can U Lose Weight Fast


How Can U Lose Weight Fast ... More Review


If you haven’t noticed the results inside the first 7 days, I want you to send it back right away for just a full refund.
Read more »

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

You Can Quote Me Planning Is Key

I started smoking when I was 12 years old. Smoking and Dexatrim™ became my diet of choice for many years. A dozen years ago, I had a desire to change my relationship to tobacco. I was a Sacred Pipe carrier and smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes a day. It seemed conflicted to me that I would use tobacco in prayer and ceremony, and then mindlessly abuse it throughout the day. I set a goal: July 4, 1997 would be my Day of Independence, freedom from smoking. Then, I came up with a plan to work toward my goal.

Success! Eleven years and counting, smoke free!

Of course, I put on 100 pounds in the meantime. Transferring one addiction for another is not freedom.

With the extra pounds, came a host of chronic physical symptoms – heartburn, headaches, edema, aches, pains, fatigue, depression, shortness of breath – and quite frankly, I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, all the time.

On the last summer solstice, I set an intention to change my relationship to food and regain my health and vitality. The goal, for me, wasnt so much about the number on the scale. I wanted to find freedom from mindless, compulsive eating. I wanted to begin living a healthier lifestyle that was more in alignment with my core beliefs. And I knew that having a PLAN was the key.

And so began my transition from highly refined and processed foods to a diet of primarily fresh, organic, plant-based foods.

First things first: planning my meals. This actually involves forethought and grocery shopping. Imagine that. And, it means ensuring that I have plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, sprouts, seeds and nuts on hand. I also like to stock an assortment of fruit in the freezer, cut and ready to throw into the blender for delicious green smoothies.

Have mason jar, will travel

Ive learned from experience that when Im away from home and hunger strikes, its just too easy for me to make poor food choices. For years, my car was set to auto-pilot to the nearest drive-thru window. So now, if I know Im going to be out running around for more than several hours, Ill plan on taking a mason jar of green smoothie with me. Little bags of organic baby carrots,
crunchy sprouts, dried fruits, and nuts are great take-alongs too.

Heres what raw food chef and author Kristen Suzanne says about having things planned and ready to eat:
Living the Raw Vegan lifestyle is really easy, there is no doubt about that. Whether youre eating a simple apple for breakfast or making a pate-stuffed tomato for lunch, it can take very little time out of your day. The key when starting out is to be focused and organized, which also makes it easy to stay on your Raw diet. I have found that half the battle for most people trying to stick to a diet is simply having things planned and ready to eat. Once you have that figured out, there is no guess work, making it less likely for you to fall off your chosen path to optimal health. (Continue reading)
Fail to Plan. Plan to Fail. Simple. And, you can quote me on that.

What are some things you do to PLAN for success on your diet?

Read more »

Friday, March 6, 2015

Is It Healthy to Drink Wine

My son Vaughn and I enjoying a special bottle of wine for my birthday (we are NOT drinking the entire bottle!)


Day 28 of Our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse”
During my one month raw food cleanse, I have enjoyed some wine. Wine is raw, although not all wine is vegan—we’ll talk about that later. In moderation, wine has some significant health benefits. The key word is moderation which may mean different things to different people. A person who polishes off a bottle of wine with dinner each night after he’s had a few cocktails before dinner would have a different definition than someone who drinks only on occasion. As they say, the definition of an alcoholic is someone who drinks more than you do. The definition of “moderate drinking” would also depend on your sex, age, body weight and underlying physical condition. So it’s tough to say a woman should have one glass of wine a night and a man two. That should certainly be the upper limit but for some, that may still seem like too much. So you should listen to your body and use judgment – something that gets more difficult to do after you start drinking wine. After a wonderful glass of wine, it’s pretty tough to say, “Oh, one is my limit to achieve optimum health benefits”. It would be more like, “hey, that’s pretty good. I’ll have another and pass over that big block of cheese”.

So yes, if you have will power, and alcohol doesn’t completely cloud your judgment, a “moderate” amount of wine can potentially have significant health benefits.

Health Benefits of Moderate Wine Consumption
• Delay dementia. David Teplow, a neurologist from UCLA, found that polyphenols in red wine can block the formation of the amyloid-beta proteins that are the plaques that form in the brain contributing to Alzheimer’s. Studies have also shown that wine may actually improve memory function by causing the release of acetylcholine. Too much alcohol can have the opposite effect.

• Good for the heart and could prevent strokes. The flavonoids in wine have antioxidant qualities and can prevent the formation of plaque in the arteries and blood clots. Resveratrol, found in the skin and seeds of the grapes used to make red wine, can increase HDL (the good cholesterol), reduce LDL (the bad cholesterol) and prevent blood clotting. Preventing the formation of plaque in arteries and blood clots would also prevent a person from having a stroke.

• Protects against throat cancer. A Kaiser Permanente study (see March issue of Gastroenterology) showed that moderate wine consumption could offer protection from the onset of Barrett’s Esophagus which leads to esophageal cancer. Although drinking beer had no effect and drinking spirits could actually raise the risk, drinking one or two glasses of wine a day lowered the chance of developing Barrett’s Esophagus by 56 percent.

• Prevents type 2 diabetes. According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, women over 25 who had one or two glasses of wine daily were 58% less likely of developing diabetes than those who did not drink. Red wine may help regulate blood glucose levels and insulin sensitivity.

• May induce overwhelming joy. There are other benefits that you don’t normally see in medical journals. Like the absolute joy of sharing your favorite bottle of wine with a close family member or a good friend. Or the excitement of opening that special bottle of champagne you’ve been saving for your anniversary. And the joyous ritual of a sommelier opening a fine wine to go with a special meal. No one will dispute that joy improves health and extends life.

There are also some risks associated with wine consumption which you should be aware of.

Risks of wine consumption:
• Increases the risk of breast cancer. The National Cancer Institute found that women who consume one to three drinks a day have a 24 percent increased risk of getting breast cancer.

• Increase in triglycerides. Wine consumption can elevate triglyceride levels which can lead to health problems like diabetes.

• Can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Pregnant women should avoid alcohol as it has been associated with developmental disorders in their babies.

Conclusion: So should I drink wine?
If you can drink in moderation (that’s usually defined as 5 ounces of wine per day for a woman and twice that for a man) you can reap the benefits and joy of drinking wine while minimizing the risks. But if you don’t drink wine or you don’t particularly enjoy it, don’t start. You can still get many of the benefits listed above through proper nutrition and excercise.

Full disclosure:
In the spirit of full disclosure, one: My family is Italian so a little wine was mixed with water and put in my bottle when I was a child and two: my husband and I live in Sonoma county (some of California’s most beautiful wine country) and are about to plant 3,000 vines of Pinot Noir which will make us wine growers.

Is wine vegan?
Although wine is raw, it is not always vegan. Some winemakers use animal products to clear the wine which prevents it from turning cloudy. The most commonly used agents to accomplish this are casein (milk protein), gelatin (from bones), egg whites, egg albumin, and isinglass (from fish). Vegan wine makers use bentonite clay, carbon, diatomaceous earth and kaolin (a clay mineral). For a vegan wine guide, go to http://vegans.frommars.org/wine/ .

Menu for Day 28
Breakfast is a big fruit salad with fresh strawberries, cantaloupe, mango and dessert helper. I’m meeting friends for lunch so I’m not sure what I’ll find. Dinner will be raw pizza (see May 18, 2009 posting) since I just pulled a big batch of sprouted lentil crusts out of the dehydrator. Dessert is chia pudding (see April 11, 2009 posting).
Read more »

Thursday, March 5, 2015

True or False Washing Your Fruit and Veggies is Useless You Cant Wash Away the Pesticides Anyway!

Its a good idea to wash your veggies, but this is not the most effective method. Bath them in warm water, dont wash them under the faucet.
Despite the fact that I had my reasons to end the SuppVersity "True or False" Series back in the day. The popularity of the corresponding articles that appear from time to time as SuppVersity Classics on Facebook does yet tell me that you wont be mad at me, if I revive it and try to tackle a statement Ive overheard in one of those infamous gym conversations between two ladies on the cross-trainer: "I always wash those pepper extra thoroughly, you know... tomatoes are among the veggies with the highest amounts of pesticides on them." Answer lady two: "Ha, you dont really believe the pesticides are on the outside of the tomatoes only, do you? They are in the tomato. Washing them will at best remove some of the dirt on their skin!"

True or False: "Its useless to wash your peppers."

False - I was surprised, when I realized that the answer to this True or False item was much easier to find than I had thought. It took me a while, though, before I found a study that analyzed data from more than just one vegetable variety, but the basic answer,  i.e. "No, its not useless to wash your peppers - quite the contrary!" popped up right in my first cursory database search.
Figure 1: Amount of ethylenebisdithiocarbamates and chlorpyrifos on selected vegetable (µg/kg) before and after washing; the figure above the bars indicate %-change from pre to post washing (Chavarri. 2004; Randhawa. 2007)
If you look at the data of two studies I selected more or less randomly (see Figure 1) you will yet see that the effectiveness of the "wash away the pesticide approach" depends on both, the type of vegetable and the type of pesticide. With a mean total endusulfan reduction of >20% it should however be absolutely obvious that not washing your veggies would be wreckless.
Table 1: Current European Union Maximum Residue Levels in mg/kg (Council Directives 76/895/EEC and 90/642/EEC, last revised in June 2004)
Artificially contamination ➫ standardization: The baseline pesticide level of the vegetables in the Chavarri study was achieved by spraying fresh produce from controlled plots with no previous pesticide applications with those pesticides farmers usually use in the EU. The reason should be obvious: standardization. Thus, the pesticide levels were within the contemporary EU limits (s. Table 1) - something you cannot necessarily expect from every product you buy in the supermarket.
I mean, I shouldnt have to tell you to that its unquestionably healthy not to be exposed to the full load of 24µ/kg chlorpyrifos and 1,626µg/kg ethylenebisdithiocarbamates (both have carcinogenic effects in humans; cf. Houeto. 1995, Josephson. 2005), from the tomatoes - specifically in view of the fact that 5.% of the tomatoes that are sold in the EU exceed the contemporary pesticide limits (Nasreddine. 2002) and would thus contain way more of these hazardous substances to begin with.

Aprospos washing! How do you do that?

You dont know how to wash veggies? Well, I obviously cant tell you what the absolute optimal way is, but what I can tell you is how scientists washed the specimen that were used in the studies the data in Figure 1 is based on: They placed the veggies in a dish or a clean lavatory with warm tap water and cleaned them with "gentle rotations of the hand" (Randhawa. 2007), before they grapped a conventional paper towel and blotted them dry.
Figure 2:  Illustration of the processing steps in Chavarri et al. (2007).
Thats similar to what you do? Great, and you know what, I would bet thats not the only similarity between yourself and the average scientist. Just like you, scientists dont eat all their veggies raw. Consequently, both Chavarri et al. as well as Randhawa et al. conducted additional analyses of the pesticide content of their veggies after the produce had been blanched (the peppers were roasted, not blanched), peeled, pureed (Chavarri. 2004; see Figure 1) and cooked or peeled and cooked (Randhawa. 2007), respectively.
Figure 3: Relative ethylenebisdithiocarbamates and total endosulfan levels (in % of baseline) after washing, peeling, blanching / cooking & co. (Chavarri. 2004; Randhawa. 2007)
As you can see in Figure 3, each of these processing steps lead to a further reduction of pesticides. For the initially highly intoxicated asparagus, for example, even the last traces of pesticides ended up in the cooking water. If you would now decide to recycle the water for a soup or whatever, all your efforts to rid yourself of the pesticide would have been in vein.

"Conventional vs. Organic is not about getting more, but about getting  less for your money" | more
Bottom line: Wash your damn veggies you lazy *****! If you still dont believe that its well worth spending this inconvenient extra-minute it takes to prepare warm water (28-32 °C), put your foods in, scrub a little with your hand and then continue processing them, Id suggest you take a look at a recent meta-analysis from Ghent University in which the authors dealt with the exact same question and conclude:

"Reduction of residue levels was indicated by blanching, boiling, canning, frying, juicing, peeling and washing of fruits and vegetables with an average response ratio ranging from 0.10 to 0.82." (Keikotlhaile. 2010)

References:
  • Chavarri, M. J., Herrera, A., & Arino, A. (2005). The decrease in pesticides in fruit and vegetables during commercial processing. International journal of food science & technology, 40(2), 205-211. 
  • Houeto, P., Bindoula, G., & Hoffman, J. R. (1995). Ethylenebisdithiocarbamates and ethylenethiourea: possible human health hazards. Environmental health perspectives, 103(6), 568.
  • Keikotlhaile, B. M., Spanoghe, P., & Steurbaut, W. (2010). Effects of food processing on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables: a meta-analysis approach. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 48(1), 1-6.
  • Nasreddine, L., & Parent-Massin, D. (2002). Food contamination by metals and pesticides in the European Union. Should we worry?. Toxicology letters, 127(1), 29-41.
  • Randhawa, M. A., Anjum, F. M., Asi, M. R., Butt, M. S., Ahmed, A., & Randhawa, M. S. (2007). Removal of endosulfan residues from vegetables by household processing. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, 66(10), 849.
Read more »