Category: Health & Safety

Controlling Blood Sugar

Controlling Blood Sugar to Help Prevent Diabetes, Obesity, and Chronic Disease Because a bagel, bran flakes, or a Heart-Healthy bowl of instant oatmeal is free of cholesterol and fat, we might think of these as a good way to start the day. But, when viewing foods with this lens, it can be easy to lose…

Barcodes to Fight Obesity

Why not use barcodes to shift preferences away from unhealthy, processed foods toward whole food choices? We eat what is cheap. Barcodes could change this, just as we tax alcohol and cigarettes. Barcodes could be used to tax unhealthy food choices with revenues recycled to local farmers growing foods in a sustainable manner. With modern…

Soft Drinks and Children/Teens

Caffeine and soft drinks are not benign, particularly for children and teens with the brain and bones still in the growth and development stage. In recent decades, the greatest increase, some 70 percent, in caffeine use has been by children and teens. Caffeinated sodas are not just the ones that are brown in color such…

Sea Salt and the Salt “Problem”

Sea salt and table salt. All the sea salt in the world, whether found deep within mountain ranges, from salt flats, or evaporated by sun and wind in salt marshes, has its origin in the oceans and seas. Ocean water contains the complete array of earth elements, more than eighty in all. Wateroxygen and hydrogenaccounts…

Artificial Sweeteners

Today we must deal with a vast and confusing world of sweeteners and sweetener combinations. Store shelves offer a variety of natural and artificial sweeteners, as well as a wide array of packaged/processed food products that incorporate them. Sometimes these sweeteners also include sugar alcohols, an effort by food companies to take advantage of the…

Sunscreens and Vitamin D

Sunscreen Safety and The Sun for Health Summary and Conclusions Overview The Sun and Sunscreen Facts The Sun and Sunscreen Safety Sunshine, Vitamin D, and Health Hormones and Full-Spectrum Light For more about vitamin D and its co-factors vitamin A and K2, see Vitamin D in Winter and Throughout the Year. We are told to…

Is Sugar Toxic?

Supplement to May, 2011 A week ago this last Sunday, the New York Times Magazine carried an article by Gary Taubes, Is Sugar Toxic? I wanted to write a supplementary comment to my May newsletter about Taubes piece because it fits so well, Mapping Blood Sugar. Sugar is perhaps the most refined carbohydrate one can…

Dietary and Lifestyle Ways to Manage Inflammation

Dietary Ways to Manage Inflammation Cut out inflammatory foods. These include processedrefined sugars, grains, and flours; high fructose corn syrup (HFCS); products from grain-fed animals; trans fats; and refined white vegetable oilsespecially those derived from corn, soybean, and cottonseed. These and other cheap, stripped oils are often found in commercial salad dressings and processed foods…

Strategies to Lower Stress

Sleep: Sleep is the best defense against stress. Sleep is also the best strategy against weight gain since sleep lowers cortisol and insulin (the fat storage hormone) and helps prevent insulin resistance. In addition, sleep boosts growth hormone (builds muscle mass) and leptin (curbs hunger and cravings for carbohydrates). Sleep is also important for immunity,…

Cellular Health: Cell Phones

Cellular Health: Ideas for Using Cell Phones Cell phones are a truly wonderful convenience. How many times do I recall when a cell phone instantly turned confusion and worry into clarity and comforttravel delays, a change of plans, coordination with family and friends. Cell phones are the glue that connects us, as we live in…