The Health Blog: Free Health & Nutrition Information

Do you remember Ryan White? In the 1980’s he fought to raise AIDS awareness after he was expelled from school for “being a risk to the health of fellow students.” I remember Ryan very well. I remember being in awe of this boy as he stared in the face of authority (and possible death) without a hint of fear. I doubted that I would have his courage if I were faced with the same adversity. Throughout the 1980’s other kids with HIV were being denied access to public school, but their stories had less impact on me as a child. For instance, the three Ray brothers won a federal court battle to attend public school but were effectively driven out of town when their house was set ablaze.

Why didn’t their story break my heart as much as, if not more, than Ryan’s story did? Proximity. It is human nature to be affected most greatly by local glory and local tragedy. We tend to feel disconnected from events that happen in distant lands. Although Ryan lived over 300 miles away, I was under the impression that he was just next door or just over in the next town. (I went to school in Illinois, Ryan in Indiana.) The Ray brothers were all the way down in Flordia. Being young, I didn’t have any idea that people in Africa and Asia were suffering from the same condition and even worse dicrimination. As an adult, I now realize that problems are universal. We must do all that we can to help our fellow human beings. Borders and oceans are more traversable now than ever.

As you probably know, tomorrow, December 1st, 2006, will be the nineteenth annual World AIDS Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) established World AIDS Day in 1988 to heighten HIV/AIDS awareness and to encourage governments, charities, communities, and individuals worldwide to tackle the growing HIV/AIDS crisis.

Magic Johnson made an appearance on the Oprah show last month to spread the word about the importance of AIDS education and affordable medication. He also expressed his strong belief that he is alive today because of his vigorous daily exercise regime coupled with an ultra-healthy diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables. Seeing how hard he works, how well he eats, and how healthy he looks made quite an impression. He is living with HIV, showing that it doesn’t have to be a death sentence.

In that same vein, UNICEF is currently running public service announcements featuring other professional athletes like David Beckham, Yao Ming and LeBron James. These PSAs are broadcast in English, Spanish, German, Chinese and Russian in the hopes that these athletes will be able to capture the attention of young viewers throughout the world who idolize them. One goal of the ad campaign is to increase the availability of pediatric AIDS treatment. Today less than 5% of the children who need treatment have access to it. Because HIV infection is faster and more aggressive in children, it is imperative that children be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.

Over 20 million people throughout the world have died as a result of AIDS since it was first given a name in 1984. (Some sources say that an additional 5 million more have died from AIDS-related illnesses but may not have been properly diagnosed.) There are currently at least 39 million people infected with HIV/AIDS (plus another possible million who remain undiagnosed), and 90% of them reside in developing countries.

Retroviral medication is unavailable to 90% of those who are currently infected. Clean water, fresh food, and adequate sanitation are out of reach for over 1.3 billion people worldwide, lending to a wider spread of illnesses like malaria, dysentary, and hepatitis.

In many developing nations, AIDS is not discussed – not ever – no matter what. Meanwhile others simply refer to it as “A.” It is shameful. People infected with the virus are often labeled as immoral or dirty people, sometimes by their very own families and friends. Women are often doomed to become infected because their domineering husbands refuse to wear protection, refuse to remain faithful and refuse to be tested for HIV. This epidemic will continue to spread as long as world leaders reject the power of preventative measures such as HIV/AIDS education, condom distribution and the need for healthy food and water for everyone.

Despite being one of the richest nations on the planet, the United States lags far behind in the distribution of foreign aid. We contribute, as a nation, less than 0.16% of our gross nation income to less fortunate people. However, you and I as individual citizens don’t have to follow our government’s example. We can contribute a larger portion of our incomes (1% or 5% or 10%), tax-deductible and without government red tape. If you can’t afford a financial contribution, you can contribute your time instead; write to your government leaders and encourage them to support AIDS- related relief programs and foreign aid legislation.

Tomorrow, December 1st, is the perfect day to make a contribution to a charity that works on the front lines against AIDS. Even if you don’t know someone who has died of HIV/AIDS or someone who is infected, I would like to encourage you to please open up you heart and your wallet. Any donation –no matter how small- will help someone somewhere.

Here are links to some of the most active organizations fighting HIV/AIDS:
FightGlobalAIDS.org
UNICEF.org
TheGlobalFund.org
CARE.org
DoctorsWithoutBorders.org
ONE.org
Data.org
WorldVision.org

Remember that your donation will be tax-deductible. If you haven’t donated your share to charity this year, don’t wait until the last minute!

[During the 1990’s, I read that Ryan White and two of the Ray brothers, Ricky and Robert, lost their battles with AIDS. And around that same time I learned that my co-worker , Roy, was suffering from AIDS. Tomorrow I will dedicate my money and my thoughts to Randy Ray, the surviving Ray brother; Roy, who didn’t survive; and all other HIV sufferers worldwide. May you all have access to all the resources you need.]

Several years ago, when I first started becoming interested in health and nutrition, I stumbled across a little booklet in the natural foods section of my local grocery store. It was called, “Apple Cider Vinegar, the Miracle Health System” by Paul and Patricia Bragg. I was intrigued and took it home with me that night and read all 106 pages in one sitting.

Here are just a few of the many claims this book makes about Apple Cider Vinegar:

• It’s “Nature’s Healing Miracle.”
• It apparently cures everything from sore throats to arthritis.
• It helps remove artery plaque.
• It slows down aging and helps maintain a youthful vibrant body – a veritable fountain of youth.
• It even helps control weight!

Much of what the book said made sense to me. Besides just drinking 1-2 teaspoons of ACV in a cup of warm water each day, the Braggs also encouraged a healthy lifestyle with a diet of raw fruits and vegetables, which I found to make sense but was not ready to explore at the time. But adding Apple Cider Vinegar to my diet? That was easy! I could do that! So the next time I was at the store I bought a couple of bottles of Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar.

And for almost two years (!) I drank the stuff regularly. Not daily, but fairly often. I used it whenever I thought I was coming down with something. I made my kids drink it (oh, they hated the stuff – even diluted and sweetened, it tasted nasty!), thinking I was helping their vitality.

I can’t say that I really noticed it making a huge difference in my health. What I did notice was that it was difficult to want to drink it because it smelled and tasted so bad. It also seemed to burn my throat going down. Over time, I got used to it and tolerated it fairly well. If anything, it seemed to stimulate my senses – much like when you take caffeine or some really strong sweet juice.

Eventually, I moved from a mostly cooked, grain based vegan diet to one that was increasingly filled with raw foods. And one day, as I perused the FAQs on one of my favorite raw websites, I found this little paragraph about vinegar which almost stopped my heart:

Vinegar is diluted acetic acid, commonly known to be a poison in its pure form. Acetic acid stimulates the thyroid gland to pull phosphorous from the adrenal glands to negate the effects of acetic acid in the system. Depleted phosphorous results in impaired function of the adrenal glands and thus the entire endocrine system. The outcome of all this can include body odor, pains in the heart, rapid pulse, increased mucous production, and headaches. Repetitive use will also result in hardening of the liver.

Well! That explained a) my revulsion to its taste/smell and b) the internal stimulation I felt when drinking it.

I went on to do a little research and from everything I can tell, have found this to be true. Apparently if you go to any high school chemistry lab, chances are you will find a bottle or two of acetic acid on the shelves, labeled “poison”.

Now the problem was, what on earth was I going to put on my salads? Just about every salad dressing out there has vinegar in it and I wasn’t about to give up my greens. I have solved this problem for myself by squeezing or mixing combinations of fresh citrus onto my salads – orange, lemon, pineapple, mango, etc. Freshly diced pineapple is divine on a bed of lettuce, I’ve found out!

You don’t have to agree with me of course – but if you are a heavy vinegar user, I would encourage you to do a little research into where vinegar comes from, how it is made and how it came to be used in our food. (Wikipedia was enlightening). One may of course argue that the vinegar that is used for food purposes is very diluted and by the time it actually goes in to your body there is very little pure acetic acid. But I would argue right back that poison is poison and I would rather not put even diluted doses of it in my body personally, thank you very much. :)

And the moral of my story is – if someone claims that there is one magical supplement that can pretty much cure every ailment, it might behoove you to have a healthy dose of suspicion.

Last week I read on Hungry-Girl.com that:

“the average Thanksgiving meal contains around 3,000 calories and 229 grams of fat.”

Those figures sounded extremely high to me, so I did some calculations of my own and included absolutely everything served at my own Thanksgiving meal. My figures even included the Cabernet Sauvignon red table wine, sesame crackers and cheddar cheese log served to our guests before the meal to tide them over until the turkey was ready. Besides the bird and aforementioned appetizer, we served cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green and wax beans with cranberries, candied yams, corn cobbettes, dinner rolls with Smart Balance spread, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. The total:

Wow! Keep in mind these totals include one full serving of EVERYTHING on the table. Thankfully, none of my family members came close to eating a full serving of absolutely every offering. For instance, we were all too full to eat any dessert, and so we can remove the pumpkin pie with whipped cream from the calculation, saving 388 calories, 20 grams of fat, and 46 grams carbohydrate, but also cutting our vitamin A intake by half. (That’s OK. Yams are loaded with vitamin A, too.)

A few people, including myself, skipped on the canned cranberry sauce. So I’ll remove an additional 110 calories and a whooping 21 grams of sugar from some of our meals. I’ve never been a fan of the canned stuff, and I’m even less so now that I discovered that the stuff doesn’t have a lick of nutritional value. Cranberries are a great source of vitamin C, and yet somehow Ocean Spray managed to make a “cranberry” sauce with not even 1 mg of vitamin C in it! Apparently their version consists mostly high fructose corn syrup and water. Does this surprise/outrage anyone else?

I also estimated that about half of our guests downed a can of Coca-Cola Classic with their meal and half preferred dark meat to white. So, taking all of these factors into consideration (and erring on the heavy side), the average Thanksgiving meal eaten by the adults in my family was, at the very most:

Average Thanksgiving Meal for my Family (estimated)
Calories 1435 Fat 45g (69%)   Saturated Fat 16g (80%)   Trans Fat 2g Cholesterol 108mg (89%) Sodium 2142mg (89%) Carbohydrate 193g (64%)   Fiber 9g (36%)   Sugar 98g Protein 9g Vitamin A (265%) Vitamin C (27%) Calcium (33%) Iron (26%)

Still frighteningly bad, but calorie-wise our meal was less than half of the Hungry-Girl estimate. (Hey, Mom, now you have proof that our family is below average, just like you always joked – only this time, it’s in a good way!) I wonder if other families are simply eating far more than mine does. Or is the HG estimate the total for an entire family?

Sadly, our huge meal was lousy with cholesterol, sodium, and sugar while horribly lacking in dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. Thank goodness we only go nuts like this once a year! Next Thanksgiving, I am going to plan a much more balanced meal. For starters, only homemade cranberry sauce will be allowed at the table and, hopefully, we can all get off of the couch afterward and take a nice long walk together!

One way to “jump-start” your journey to total health is to go to a cleansing and body detoxification retreat. They have been growing in popularity because of the great results people experience during and after their attendance.

In fact, I recently wrote a letter for a cleansing center in Canada called Abundant Life Wellness Centre. It was a lot of fun, not only because it’s an area of interest for me, but also because I got to learn some interesting facts and statistics along the way.

At some point, I plan to head up to the Centre and participate in a retreat. Right now, we have young kids, which makes it more difficult. Maybe in a year or two our parents will feel prepared to watch our kids for 10 days while we go to Canada for the retreat.

Anyway, whether you ever plan to go to a cleansing retreat or not, you may want to take a few moments to read this letter. It is intended to get you to go to Abundant Life Wellness Centre, but it is also educational. Here’s the link:

==> Cleansing Retreat in Canada