The Health Blog: Free Health & Nutrition Information

I still find what Robert O. Young and Shelley Redford Young wrote in The pH Miracle to be the most compelling literature on how to eat healthy that I know of.

And I read that book over a year ago.

I still try to eat according to their recommendations of 80% alkaline foods and 20% acidic foods.

If you are interested in following the Young’s recommendations, you must remember that an alkaline food is one that causes the body to become more alkaline.

For instance, a lemon is considered an alkaline food because it causes the cells in your body to become more alkaline… even though a lemon is acidic.

It’s always good to keep a mental file on what foods are alkaline-forming and what foods are acid-forming. That’s why I really appreciate the acid/alkaline food chart I found here.

At the top of the page, you’ll see an article about the benefits of alkalinity. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see the chart.

And if you are curious about following a pH diet, The pH Miracle gets my highest recommendation.

There’s a new player in the fitness club market called 1-2-3 Fit.

Believe it or not, the new franchise was founded by two Quiznos executives, one of whom is still working for the company.

1-2-3 Fit is going after a perceived gap in the fitness market. That is, the co-ed market.

The new fitness club aims to get couples in for fast, hard-hitting, circuit training.

Because they’re setting themselves apart from larger clubs like 24-Hour Fitness and Bally’s, there are no mirrors on the walls, charts use renderings of more realistic body types… and they’ve even worked with Life Fitness to design proprietary fitness machines to increase the speed of the circuit.

According to a January 22, 2006 Denver Post article by Kristi Arellano, “1-2-3 Fit uses an express, or circuit, workout model in which members rotate through machines in a system meant to provide a full workout in 30 minutes.”

The owners Rick Schaden and Brooksy Smith have already opened 13 locations and are modeling their expansion on the rapid growth model that’s propelled Quiznos to such high-profile success in recent years.

One of the things in the article that caught my attention most was from a current Quiznos franchise owner, Clinton Rivard, who just opened his first 1-2-3 Fit location.

“Being in the sandwich business—in the food business itself—it became obvious to me that people needed to work out more. It really hit a target for me.”

Depending on where you live, don’t be surprised if you start seeing new 1-2-3 Fit locations popping up all over the place.

In the January 16, 2006 issue of Newsweek, Marion Nestle makes a controversial statement: “I don’t think there’s much evidence that Americans are vitamin-deficient, except for those who eat a peculiar diet or those who are sick.”

Do you agree with this?

At first glance, I did not. Then, Marion explained herself.

There’s so much vitamin fortification of foods now that it is pretty hard to be missing major vitamins. [...] The irony is that, in fortifying so many foods so that people with anemia would have their problems alleviated, food makers increased the risk for people with iron-overload syndrome.

In this, I agree with Marion.

I’ve often noticed that numerous foods have added calcium or iron or something. I’ve literally complained at the grocery store, “Can’t I buy orange juice without added calcium? Can’t I just have regular, organic orange juice?”

If you do eat lots of fortified foods (a nice way of referring to foods that are nutritionally bereft), then the risk is real. It’s quite easy to get too much of a single vitamin.

Marion’s conclusion is similar to mine: that is, get your nutrients from fresh whole foods. It’s safer and it’s better for your body.

A friend asked me a few weeks ago if I had seen the Grapples at our local grocery store. Actually I hadn’t. She explained it briefly to me and I was appalled enough to go look it up on the internet. In a nutshell, they take Washington Extra Fancy Fuji Apples and inject them (!!) with natural and artificial flavoring. Concord grape flavoring, to be exact.

Grapple’s site says,
In making Grāpple® brand apples, we add no sugars or additional calories. You get all the nutritional value of a premium Washington apple, and the delightful taste of Concord grapes. This new taste sensation is a great way to get your kids to enjoy eating a healthy snack!

I’ll leave you to decide for yourself if you want to try a Grapple. Personally, we’ll just plan on skipping the natural and artificial flavoring, and enjoying our plain apples and grapes just the way God made them, thank you very much.

Here’s a new article on Seasonal Affective Disorder. The article is written by Dr. David Edelberg, the co-author of the new book, The Triple Whammy Cure. Since we’re in the heart of winter, I thought it might be of some interest to you.

If you live in a sunny place like Florida then you probably won’t know what I’m talking about. The wintertime blues, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), usually begin when the days start getting shorter and the sky clouds over into perpetual gray. People with SAD dread October because the clocks move back an hour and, in a single day, autumn twilight becomes dark night.

Symptoms of SAD include depression, brain fog, easy sleepiness, carb craving, and weight gain.

At the very heart of the wintertime blues is a lack of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin. When the gray winter days in the Northern Hemisphere arrive, the serotonin you stored up in the sunny summer months starts declining. At the same time, your brain’s stores of sleep-inducing melatonin increase, making you feel like a hibernating bear.

Women are the major victims of wintertime blues because all women start life with less serotonin in their brains than men. But if you’re someone trapped in a SAD life, with no immediate prospects of wintering on the Costa del Sol, you can beat the wintertime blues and get your life back. Basically, you’ll need to pull out the stops and do everything you can to stimulate your brain to make more serotonin. This includes lighting up your life, exercising, taking a couple common supplements, and timing your intake of good carbohydrates throughout the day.

Here are 10 low-cost steps you can take right now to banish the wintertime blues:

1. Go outside and walk briskly with your face in the light—even if it’s gray outside—for 20 minutes every day. Both the light and the exercise will kick up your feel-good serotonin. Of course, if the wind-chill outside will deep-freeze your face, find a health club with windows, locate a treadmill or a stationary bike in the brightest light, and hop on.

2. Keep your curtains or blinds pulled open all the way so sunlight (or daylight, even on cloudy days) can pour into your living/work space.

3. Paint your walls light colors—they’ll reflect the light.

4. If your car has a sunroof, let in the light while you drive (singing along to your favorite songs is optional, but I recommend that too).

5. Increase the wattage of your light bulbs to between 5,000 and 10,000 lux (units of light). Choose subcompact fluorescent bulbs, a bit more expensive but mine have lasted 7+ years. The newer bulbs don’t have the annoying flicker and strange light the old fluorescent tubes once had, use 25% less energy than a standard bulb, and fit in most fixtures. If you have any sort of a desk job, buy a full spectrum light box (available online) and aim it at your languishing self for an hour a day.

6. Add the raw materials your body needs to make more serotonin by taking these supplements every day: 2 grams of fish oil and one B complex 100.

7. Eat a small amount of high-quality carbohydrates with every meal and as snacks throughout your day. Fruits, nuts, veggies, and whole grains are among the best choices, as are beans, soups, and oatmeal. You need a little carbohydrate at every meal for your brain to produce serotonin. In fact, craving comfort foods in the winter is your body’s cry for more carbs to boost serotonin—but, please, if you want to keep your weight stable, make good food choices most of the time.

8. Premenstrual aggravation of wintertime blues is very common. If you notice a worsening in the week or so before your period, understand that your hormones are taking your serotonin levels on a roller-coaster ride: when your estrogen drops, as it does in the week before your period, your feel-good serotonin goes right along with it. Get your PMS under control by following the healing path in The Triple Whammy Cure.

9. Try alternative therapies: acupuncture and Chinese herbal remedies—together called traditional Chinese medicine—have a seasonal component that make them effective for mild wintertime blues. Flower essence therapies like honeysuckle, mustard, and sweet chestnut all have antidepressant and energizing qualities. And bodywork therapies such as massage and Reiki allow your chi to flow freely thought your body, reducing symptoms of wintertime blues.

10. If after trying the ideas in items 1-9 your symptoms haven’t budged, consider taking St. John’s wort or 5HTP, both of which increase serotonin levels.

Copyright © 2006 David Edelberg, M.D.

Author:
David Edelberg, M.D., the author of The Triple Whammy Cure, is a practicing physician for more than 30 years and was chief medical adviser of WholehealthMD.com. In 1993, he founded American Wholehealth (AWH), a network of health care centers that combines conventional and alternative medicine. He teaches alternative and integrative medicine to medical students and residents from the University of Chicago. For more information about The Triple Whammy Cure, visit www.triplewhammycure.com.