Fruits And Vegetables Each Day

Almost four years ago the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee formally issued their recommendation that Americans need to consume five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables each day, in order to build and maintain health. This constitutes a bit of a jump as compared to the past recommendation of eating five to nine.

There’s good reason for the increase when we realize that our produce has a decreased amount of nutrition today due to having been grown in depleted soils, being harvested while it’s still green, etc., not to mention the amount of time that passes between harvesting and our actually eating it!

Add to that the growing amount of research that clearly indicates the link between diet and disease; a link that was not always as clear as it is today.

While there may be a certain amount of debate about some of the Dietary Guidelines for America, one thing that science has taught us and today’s experts strongly agree upon, is that a diet rich in a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains helps reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease to mention just two.

When I talk to clients about their diets I usually discover that they are sadly deficient in meeting the old guidelines, much less the new ones. I empathize with them as I know how difficult it can be to do that, with so many factors playing a role, i.e. cost, time, effort (most are too tired at the end of their day to prepare whole food, healthy meals for their families after having already put in a full days work). This is even more difficult when, after picking up their little ones from day care, they pass by a McDonalds and hear from the back seat, “Mommy, can we stop at Mackie Dees….PLEEEZE?” The media is training our children, conditioning them to want more and more overly refined foods…foods that are saturated in the bad fats, full of sugar, a myriad of chemicals, and are over processed as well.

This scenario is played out over and over again in the lives of American’s across the U.S. on an average of two to three times a week. But what about the days when we don’t just “pick up” something on our way home? Well, how about having a pizza delivered? Or we could do just do macaroni & cheese and cut up some good ole’ hotdogs in it….what’s wrong with that?
I wish I had understood what was wrong with it many years ago when I was raising my children!
I did it then and I’m fairly certain many of you are doing it today…with far greater reason than I had all those years ago.

I didn’t understand back then, as you may not understand today, that living bodies NEED living food in order to thrive, and there’s a world of difference between surviving and thriving! Stop and think about the kinds of foods you put into your own body and into your children’s….how much of it is comprised of fresh, raw produce? And conversely, how much of it comes out of a bag, box, or can, or from fast food or other “convenience” food places?

In order to safe-guard our health, we must become our own health advocates…no one else is going to do it for us, in most cases, not even our own doctors. Traditional health care professionals of today have become a group of disease management specialists…leaving the job of learning how to build health, and maintain it over the long haul, primarily up to us. When they went to medical school the two hour course on nutrition was an elective that many “elected” not to take!

Discover all you can about what it means to build health, and then put it into practice. Take one small step today and when that has become a habit, add one more piece, until you are practicing a lifestyle of “Dietary Excellence & Optimal Habits”. Future columns will go into just what that might look like, but for now continue reading your labels before you buy a food…before you eat it… rinse your produce, and eat more of it in a variety of colors!
Have a wonderful Holiday Season everyone and think about “gifting” yourself with the “gift of Health”!
I’ll be back next year!
Joi

Ways in which to improve your diet

If you are reading this Blog, you are more than likely interested in discovering ways in which to improve your diet, and lifestyle, which would help you to realize better health. That being said, we will talk about ways to help you, the consumer, do that through making better choices in the foods you eat, as well as ways to make what you eat even healthier for you to consume.

Let’s talk about produce first: We all know by now that buying organic is the best possible scenario, as by doing so, we avoid ingesting harmful chemicals that are on the foods themselves and/or have become systemic due to the thin skin of the produce, etc. However, even organic produce must be treated at times with some type of pesticide, so we encourage always washing produce no matter its origin.

The following chart will help you to clean your produce in a safe and economical way, leaving all the pesticides, herbicides, grit and otherwise distasteful residues behind in the water.

Atlantic Sea Salt is effective for thoroughly cleaning all produce. Dissolve 1 Tablespoon in a sink full of filtered water, (when possible), as the chlorine in tap water is absorbed through the skin of the fruits and vegetables, much the same way it is absorbed into the skin of humans, and soak foods according to the following schedule: Note: If using filtered water is not possible using tap water is better than nothing at all!

PRODUCE CLEANING CHART

Leafy vegetables Thin-skinned fruits
5 minutes 5 – 10 minutes
Root vegetables Thick-skinned fruits
10 – 15 minutes 10 – 15 minutes

Rinse the foods in filtered water, (when possible), and dry carefully.

Here’s a good rule of thumb to use to help you recognize which produce is conventionally grown, genetically modified, or organically grown.
The produce will have a sticker on it, if missing look at the sign above or behind the produce.

If the number has:
Four digits, it is conventionally grown (this generally means that they use non organic pesticides and herbicides, and are grown in depleted soil, using chemical fertilizers.
Five digits starting with the number 8, it’s genetically modified.Five digits starting with the number 9, it’s organically grown.

Become a Label Detective

You may or may not know that American’s are in the midst of a Health Crisis of major proportions, with so many of the populace becoming more ill as the years pass by. In my mind the worst part of this scenario is that our children are now getting the degenerative diseases that in the past were seen primarily in older adults.

Obesity, leading to Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer, Hardening of the Arteries, followed by Heart Disease, and Arthritis are among the many diseases that now plague our children. As an example, 70% of all twelve year old children already have the beginning stages of Hardening of the Arteries! These children will be presenting at ER’s all over our country in their late teens and early twenties with full blown Heart Disease! Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale Research Center says, “Children are more harmed by poor diet than by exposure to alcohol, drugs, and tobacco combined.” He goes on to say, “Today’s children may well be headed for a shorter lifespan than their parents.” This has never happened in the history of our country! The general rule has always been that our children live longer than we do; now it seems we’re going in the other direction. It doesn’t have to be like that!!!

What can we do about it? How do we protect ourselves and our children? First and foremost we need to become our own Health Advocates…if we don’t protect ourselves and our families, who will? So we need to educate ourselves on what it means to live a Healthy Lifestyle, and then begin by taking whatever measures we need to.

One of the best areas to begin would be to educate ourselves on what comprises the food we put into our bodies. Begin to read labels, specifically the ingredients list. Quite often manufacturers will state that a product is Trans Fat Free, when in truth, as you look at the ingredients list, you will clearly see that there are Trans Fats, (hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated oils) in the product.

Taking an inventory of the foods you have in your pantry, discovering which ones are full of these oils, and making a personal commitment to never buy or eat them again is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your family. When we take in Trans Fats they stay in the arteries for 100 days. Now that wouldn’t be so bad if we only ate them every hundred days, but in fact, as you will see, when reading your labels, these fats are in many of the foods we eat everyday.

Where are they? You’ll find them in candy, cakes, cookies, crackers, pastries, peanut butters; all kinds of convenience and packaged foods, and of course it’s part of almost all fast food. Case in point: I have a McDonald’s Happy Meal I bought over two years ago (many people don’t believe me when I tell them that), as it has no mold, no break-down, bugs won’t eat. It looks virtually the same as it did the day I bought it! I know someone who set theirs on the kitchen floor where there dog could smell and eat it…he never even went near it….even he knew it wasn’t fit to eat!

So, become label detectives and help your children learn to recognize the words Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated!

JoiLin Johnson
Wellness Consultant
www.JoiLin4Health.com

What are Phytochemicals: Where do we find them, Why do we want them?

What are Phytochemicals, where do we find them, and why do we want them?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines phyto-chemicals as "natural plant compounds that may provide a variety of health benefits, (and) many of the bright colors in fruits and vegetables come from phytochemicals."

If calcium is a mineral and niacin is a vitamin, something like lycopene -- found in tomatoes -- is a phytochemical.

Some of the diseases & conditions scientists now believe may be prevented by a large enough intake of living “Phytos” are: cancer, coronary heart disease, macular degeneration, cardiovascular disease, as well as helping to control blood pressure, to name a few.

As we begin to take a more proactive interest in our own health, we will pay greater attention to such things as: are we eating enough fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, as well as, are we getting a great enough variety of color? Remember all the different colors represent different antioxidants, so we need a “rainbow” of colors in the vegetables and the fruits we eat!
Food for thought: An apple has over 12,000 phytos in it, all working synergistically with one another….science today has knowledge of only a small number of these phytos in regard to what they do, and how they help us stay healthy; they know the rest of them are there, but they don’t know specifically, what they do for us. My guess is that they ALL have a hand in our on-going health, so I’ll put my money on fruits and vegetables…lots of them! How about you?

JoiLin Johnson, Wellness Consultant
For more information go to www.JoiLin4Health.com

Eight Reasons We Ought To Be Eating More Fruits And Vegetables

1. In make-up, the largest component of fruit, is water. Our bodies are the same. If we think about it, it makes sense to eat foods that contain the same balance of water.

2. Fruit is free of the BAD Cholesterol, whereas, foods like animal products and dairy contain a lot.

3. Fruit Stimulates our memories, in fact it is second only to water in being the ultimate brain fuel, helping us to recall information easier and faster.


4. Eating fruit makes us Feel Better, and may help banish depression when eaten in large quantities on a daily basis.

5. Eating fruit, and vegetables on a regular basis helps the body to heal, in fact, we’ve probably all read stories about the incredible healing effects of fruits and vegetables on major diseases.

6. Fruits and vegetables are really economical, when compared to the cost of the other foods we buy. This is especially true if we take a good hard look at the effect the “other” foods have on our bodies.

7. Fruits and vegetables contain both soluble and insoluble fibers, both are needed on a daily basis for good health. Eating a diet rich in plenty of plant fibers helps to maintain healthy weight, contributes to regulating blood pressure, as well as contributing to many other factors in the body that help maintain cardiovascular health, build a strong immune system, etc.

8. Fruits and vegetables are a Natural Food, being designed for consumption by humans, and other animals, it contributes on so many levels to our on-going health, allowing for systems to run at optimal levels, helps us ward off disease, and even has the possibility of turning a disease around that may have begun to present itself.

Note: the old standard used to be that we needed to eat between 5 and 7 raw fruits and vegetables each day, now with depleted soils, and produce being picked green, we need between 9 and 13 each day! How many do you eat? Give yourself the gift of health and promise to do better!

To Your Health!
JoiLin Johnson, Wellness Consultant
For more information go to www.JoiLin4Health.com