The Metabolism Buster

What if you were to learn that every day, 25 percent of your calories came from a poison, disguised as a food?

What would you think if this poison actually is encouraged and allowed by the agencies set up to protect you and I? (American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the USDA and the FDA)

And what if you discovered that this chemical impostor was responsible for your insulin resistance and weight gain?

And elevated blood pressure ... And elevated triglycerides and LDL ... And depletion of vitamins and minerals ... And even gout, heart disease and liver damage?

Would you be angry?

We now know without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on the health of this nation.

(Thank you to Dr. Mercola for stating these ideas! I have to admit, I took them directly from his blog post... It was too good to change.)

The fact is, a vast majority of Americans and many up and coming nations in the world are eating huge amounts of processed sugar. It is currently estimated that 90% of money spent on food is spent on processed unnatural foods and 25% of all the calories you consume are from fake sugar.

Below I am including some of the amazing stats from the article. If you would like to really know what is happening regarding this topic so you can make better choices, have more personal power, and add quality to your life and life to your years read the entire article here.

Okay, here are some of the stats from the article:

On average, men are consuming 187 more calories per day, and women 335 more calories. People who were never heavy before are becoming overweight, and the obese are becoming more so. We are now a “supersized” population.

Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calorie in America is soda, in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In fact, the average American drinks 60 gallons of soda every year.

Corn syrup is now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged food you can think of. In fact, the use of HFCS in the U.S. diet increased by a whopping 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to a report by the USDA.

The current annual consumption of sugar is 141 pounds per person, and 63 pounds of that is HFCS.

There is much more information but it would make this a very long post, so reserve some time, read this entire article, and empower yourself by adding knowledge!

Do You Need More Celery?

You may be thinking.. Celery?.. I don't wanna eat more of that! ... Unless you have some onion ranch dip to go along.

When it comes to this vegetable, sometimes taste is left to be desired. But there is more than meets the taste buds.

An article on Natural News by Brett Brown, researched some of the proposed benefits of this healing food, in fact it has been used for centuries to treat colds, flu, water retention, poor digestion, arthritis, liver, and spleen ailments.

Here's some of the opening lines from the article:

Celery has a long history of use and is truly an ancient healing food. At first glance celery may seem rather unimpressive, but the more you look into its background and medicinal uses the more you realize that we must have been misinformed on the usefulness of this plant...

We have been led to believe that celery does not have much to it when in fact celery truly contains a wealth of health improving nutrients that we can obtain from it. Celery has a profile that is much more than water and fiber!

Read the entire article here, it's very brief and informative.

If your wondering how to incorporate more celery into your diet here's a piece from the New York Times provides five healthy recipes that seem very simple to put together. I'll be sure to give some of these a try!

Keeping making positive strides in adding good things to your daily routine and your body will thank you!

Chiropractic: The Law of Cause and Effect

For every action there must be a reaction. For every cause there is an effect.

These universal laws apply everywhere to everyone, all of the time. Here's a great article describing these Laws

In chiropractic terms the cause is subluxation and the effect is sickness and disease. Simple put, when a subluxation occurs in your spine, it interrupts the normal flow of signals from the brain to the body, which in turn, leads to a symptom.

Shown below, I stumbled across this Youtube video with a great way to explain how a subluxation of the spine can interfere with the function of the human body.

In this video a series of news clips are provided showing the positive benefits in human function including: eyesight, infantile colic, ADHD, brain function, pain, arthritis, and headaches through the use of chiropractic.

In its purest application, chiropractic is not concerned with treating single medical conditions, when the nervous system is functioning at 100% it is inevitable that symptoms disappear.

How's Your Brain Fitness

Have you heard the phrase "Use it or lose it"? This statement holds true for many facets of life, but most importantly applies to your brain! We all share concerns of mental decline, especially among an aging population.

The common assumption is after our early 20's the human brain stops developing. This may be true for brain size, but for learning, developing, and creating, this assumption doesn't hold true.

Not long ago, most scientists believed the brain became “hard-wired” during childhood, and that there was little you could do to improve its function once you entered adulthood. Not anymore.

Brain plasticity

It's a funny sounding concept, but refers to the brain’s ability to change—for better or worse—throughout life. It’s an incredibly important and personal process: by defining our brain development, it shapes each of our distinct personalities. You can read more about brain plasticity here.

This information comes from the Brain Fitness Channel, it is a dedicated website to informing you about the most important part of yourself.

I first found about this website through this great article from the New York Times. Here's a couple paragraphs that I found made the point:

Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta,go answer the doorbell and — whoosh — all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what’s called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.

Given all this, the question arises, can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be in school?

As it happens, yes. While it’s tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they've become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age.

The Brain Fitness Channel is a great website, I spent some time reading and doing the interactive tests. It includes games, puzzles, recipes, and a ton of great information. Give your brain something that it will enjoy!