Monthly Archives: July 2017

How to maintain and optimize our Digestive Health

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The purpose of this article is to give you some practical guidelines regarding whether or not you should take digestive enzymes and probiotics in order to maintain and optimize our digestive health.
In order to be able to make a decision whether or not digestive
enzymes and/or probiotics are suitable for you, I like to introduce
you to some basic health concepts about digestion and what I refer
to as “The Garden “Within”.
Digestive Enzymes
Enzymes are protein molecules that are produced in our bodies and are catalysts for all kind of chemical reactions. In other words, they allow these necessary chemical reactions to occur more easily and more quickly.
The main task of enzymes is to break down our food. Many of our whole,raw foods contain digestive enzymes and are sometimes referred to as “live food”, but because most of our food is now processed, many of the
enzymes found in whole foods are destroyed.

Most of our enzymes are made by the body in the pancreas, liver, stomach,
and salivary glands. They are designed to promote the breakdown of
carbohydrates, proteins and fats into usable fuel.

Normal Digestive Process

Digestion begins in the mouth as soon as you begin to smell food or even
think about food. This stimulate the release of saliva within your mouth
in the anticipation of eating. Saliva primarily contains amylase (ptyalin),
which hydrolyzes our carbohydrates into simple sugars.
The act of chewing actually breaks up your food into particles and the
saliva works to moisten your food and begin to breakdown the sugars
so that your food is more easily digested.

Therefore, when your mother told you to chew your food well, she was
correct in assuming that this is good for your digestive health.
Since you can only taste food when it is in your mouth, I would encourage
you to enjoy the experience and at the same time begin to digest your food
more effectively. What good does it do when you quickly chew and swallow
your food so that it will be dumped into your stomach prematurely?
You can’t enjoy the pleasure of eating as long as the entire process of
digestion is hindered.

Your food enters a very acidic environment in your stomach, due to the
hydrochloric acid your stomach produces. The Ph of the stomach is normally
around 2.5. This acidic environment is critic in beginning the breakdown
of your food, destroying micro-organisms, and converting pepsinogen,
the stomach also makes to pepsin. Pepsin is the key active enzyme in the
stomach and its role is to breakdown proteins into peptides or smaller
protein fragments. The stomach is continually chewing up your food,
which also allows your food to literally starts to dissolve.

Many things can increase your stomach acid or irritate the lining of your
stomach. For example: aspirin, NSAIDS, alcohol, stress, and spicy foods.
You may a have a tendency to just take additional antacids or acid
suppressing drugs to give ourselves symptomatic relief.
However, I would suggest to avoid those medications, foods and stress
as best as we can to eliminate the cause of your problem.
Neutralizing or decreasing the amount of acid you make will significantly
decrease your ability to digest food. This in itself can lead to indigestion,
irritable bowel syndrome, and even reflux.
If you are not effectively digesting your food, it becomes stuck in your
stomach and can slow down the entire digestive process.

After your food passes out of your stomach, it enters into the first portion
of the small bowel called the duodenum. When people develop ulcers,
It is here where they primarily occur . In your duodenum begins most
of the digestion and absorption of your food. Here the digestive enzymes
from the liver and the pancreas pour into the small bowel and begin the
final phases of digestion.

The pancreas is the primary digestive organ in the body. It secretes
several different enzymes that are needed to digest your food.
Pancreatic juice contains sodium bicarbonate, which neutralizes the
the acidic material from the stomach. Pancreatic juice also contains
amylase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, and lipase.
Pancreatic amylase then further breaks down the carbohydrates into
simple sugar, completing the digestive process of the carbohydrates
that began in your mouth.
Trypsin and chymoprysin  digest proteins that are now mainly peptides
because of the action of pepsin in the stomach.
This allows the proteins to be better absorbed and in a form (amino acids)
that the body can use and utilize. Pancreatic lipase breaks down fat
into fatty acids and glycerol.

Your liver is also an important organ for digestive health. The liver produces bile,
which is stored in the gallbladder   and transported to the duodenum
via your bile ducts.
Fat within any meal or snack stimulates the contraction of the gallbladder
to secrete and increased amount of bile into the duodenum during the
digesting process. Bile emulsifies fats (separates it into small droplets)
so they can mix with water and be acted upon by enzymes.

The liver is also your primary detoxifying organ.
The liver detoxifies the blood from the intestines via the hepatic portal
vein. For example, the ammonia produced by the digestion of proteins
in the small bowel is converted to a less toxic compound (urea) by the liver.
It is also a storage area for or those quick glucose stores when your
body needs some additional glucose quickly.

Your food now begins to traverse the long small intestine, where the digestive
enzymes are able to continue breaking down or digesting, as well as absorbing,
your food. Almost all absorption of your food occurs in the small intestine.

The colon or large bowel is primary responsible for reabsorbing water from
your food  and creating a more solid waste or stool.
However, the large intestine is also the area where most of the bacteria, fungi,
and other micro-organisms live and is what is also called:”The Garden Within.”
You can read about “The Garden Within” in my next article.
 

 

Benefits of Exercise

Health & Nutrition, , ,
Physical benefits of exercise has been recognized even in sickness.
Physicians are not permitting patients with organic ailments to stay in bed as long as before. According to “The American Practitioner”,’The levels of bed rest include the development of negative nitrogen balance and calcium loss through the kidneys, with the possibility of developing kidney stones.’
The article also says:’nervous tension can be released at times by exercise, either in the form of specific muscular exercise or through some form of athletics.’
Exercise is important to maintain our health.
Even a moderate walk as exercise starts a chain-reaction,
and as a start it causes the skeleton muscles to become more active.

As the muscles warms up, more heat is given off.
Body temperature remains almost the same, because the body’s automatic
air conditioning system starts to disperse the extra heat through the skin.

As more blood sugar is turned into energy, more carbon dioxide gas will
be expelled in the air we breath out, and blood will flow more rapidly
through the muscles. The breathing will become deeper, and the heart beat
and blood pressure will be changed.

In more strenuous exercises, these processes will be stepped up.
More heat will be generated, the heart beat will be faster, blood-pressure
higher, breather deeper and faster, and the circulation more rapid.

The limiting factor in strenuous exercises is the oxygen supply,
and when this limit is reached, oxygen fatigue is experienced and
the exercise has to stop.

Physio and occupational therapy are now standard procedures in medicine, to restore the use of muscles and nerves that have been injured by disease or by accident.

Those who’s occupation involves standing a long time, like dentists, teachers,
shop assistants, etc., are likely to develop phlebitis, i.e. the formation
of a blood clot – usually in the calf of the leg.
These people are advised to walk more and in addition. to take vitamin E
and lecethin capsules to improve the circulation, dissolve the clot and
prevent the formation of further clots.

Sufferers from rheumatism and arthritis, also those who are overweight,
are prone to take too little exercise. When people are troubled with
rheumatic twinges it is usually a sign that more exercise is needed and
that their diet contains too many acid-forming foods.

It is well known to vets that pampered pet dogs, which receive little
exercise, are troubled by ailments of degeneration which never affect
hard working sheep and cattle dogs.

Forms of exercise
Forms of exercise is a matter of personal preference.
Skipping is an effective form of exercise, and one of the best exercises
for keeping fit and is very suitable for wet days, as it can be done indores.
The skipping rope should be just long enough to clear the head, when standing
erect. Five minutes skipping every day is adequate for the first week,
increasing gradually to ten, fifteen and finally twenty minutes.
During bad weather it is best to skip at an open window, or better still,
under a veranda.

Generally speaking, when we grow older we should take less strenuous exercise
than when we were younger. Walking and gardening are safe exercises for almost all ages.Tennis could perhaps better be left to younger people, although
here and there one finds elderly people playing tennis with all the vim and
gusto of youth. These people have usually ‘grown up’ with the game and
accustomed themselves to what is normally a strenuous form of sport.

Swimming, like walking, is very suitable for older people, although they are
advised to keep to the and slower back and breast strokes, rather than the
more tiring modern strokes. Swimming has the advantage that the body’s weight
is partly supported by the water, which makes it possible to exercise without
risking any bodily harm.
We do not recommend exercise as a method of reducing weight, for this is
most disappointing. Exercise will reduce weight temporarily, but the appetite
thus acquired will rapidly put weight back again.

To lose 2 lb the average person would have to walk 15 miles per day for 7 days,
or play golf for 4 hours a day for the same period, without increasing his
food intake. By an athlete running for one hour per day at a speed of 7 miles
per hour, it could be accomplished in one week, again, if food consumption
is not increased.’

There are far more effective ways to reduce belly fat and weight.
You can find some excellent examples by visiting: www.thebestweightlossdiets.com

Broccoli and Your Abdominal Fat

Health & Nutrition, , ,

3 Unique Veggies That Fight Abdominal Fat?

A surprising way that a few specific vegetables can actually stimulate the burning of abdominal fat…

by Mike Geary, aka ‘The Nutrition Watchdog’
Certified Nutrition Specialist, best-selling author: The Fat-Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

I bet you didn’t know that there is a specific class of vegetables that contain very unique phytonutrients that actually help to fight against stubborn belly fat.
Let me explain what these unique vegetables are and why they help to burn stomach fat…

Chemicals that force your body to hold onto belly fat

Something you may have never heard about is that certain chemicals in our food supply and our environment, such as pesticides, herbicides, and certain petrochemicals from air and water pollution, household cleaners, plastics, cosmetics, etc can react with your hormones and make your body store excess abdominal fat.

These harmful chemicals are known as xenoestrogens.

Xenoestrogens are chemicals that you are exposed to (and are hard to avoid in the modern world) that have an estrogenic effect in your body. Excess exposure to these can cause hormone balance disruptions for both men and women. So if you thought this article was just for the guys, these chemicals can wreak havoc in the body for both guys and gals.

These estrogenic chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis can stimulate your body to store belly fat, along with many other problems (including cancer risks in the long term).

So here’s where this specific class of vegetables comes in handy…

One of those cool tricks that I teach my clients that hire me for nutritional counseling is the use of cruciferous vegetables to help fight against stomach fat.

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy, cabbage, etc. contain very specific and unique phytonutrients such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that help to fight against these estrogenic compounds…

And by fighting against these belly fat stimulating estrogenic chemicals, this is just 1 more step in helping you to win the battle against abdominal fat!

So there you go… just another excuse to do what mom always told you and eat more broccoli and cauliflower!

I’ve really learned to like brussells sprouts in the last year too… Melt a little grass-fed cheese on them and some garlic and they’re great!

But BEWARE…

Although this class of vegetables may be a super-healthy choice for achieving your lean, strong, and energetic body… I’ve discovered that there are at least 23 popular foods that most people falsely think are “healthy”, but they actually HARM your metabolism and pack on abdominal fat, including the WORST type of MILK you should never drink…

Discover what these metabolism-harming foods are on the next page:http://nutrobalance.net/abdominal-fat.php

Nutrition: The Key to Fitness

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The key to fitness is nutrition and everyone of us has previously ‘lain in his own platter’.
We are mainly what we eat and, in the words of Cervantes, ‘the stomach carries the heart and not the heart the stomach.’

It is true that exercise, restful sleep, peace of mind, regular habits of elimination, bathing, etc., are all factors in keeping fit, but these will avail us nothing if our nutrition is at fault.

Modern research scientists no longer regard germs as the primary cause of disease, and their study of the body’s chemistry and the part played by nutrition in health and disease, is opening up important new vistas of research.

It is now recognized that most common illnesses are closely associated with nutrition and arise from lack of vitamins and minerals, just as some more serious ailments, which where dominant in the old days, such as scurvy, rackets, anaemia, beri-beri, pellagra, and nerve trouble are equally deficiency ailments, and respond to appropriate vitamin therapy.

Periodically, new and successful uses of vitaminss in diseased conditions are reported in the world’s medical journals and more and more physicians are prescribing vitamins instead of drugs.

Many people wonder why the terrible epidemics which formerly ravaged the earth – typhus, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, malaria, etc. -have largely brought under control, yet the degenerative diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, stomach ulcers, nervous breakdown, colitis, cataract, and kidney and liver ailments are all on the increase.

The reason is that the plague or ‘dirt’ diseases, spread by vermin, mosquitoes and human contact, are disappearing owing to improved methods of hygiene and sanitation.

The degenerative diseases arise primarily from man’s continual tampering with natural foods, thereby depriving them of vital nutrients that Nature, in her wisdom, incorporates in our foodstuffs to ensure good health.

It is a tragic commentary on these times that most people only begin to take an intelligent interest in their health, after they have lost it. Nature requires that we co-operate with her, and we cannot escape the consequences of our refusal to do so. Postponement merely increases the severity of such consequences.

You can read more about nutrition by visiting my blog post: Phytonutrients, compounds
from the garden.  Also: Facts about Healthy Foods