31 Days to Better Health - Day 26

Happy Thursday!  *woo hoo*  We are getting very close to the weekend now.  Have you noticed that I love weekends yet?  LOL  ;-)  Are you as happy about the approaching weekend as I am? 

Fortunately Thursday wasn’t overbooked like most of my week.  I am very happy to have had a reasonably low key Thursday.  The only must do on my schedule today was webinar in the evening.  *yay*  Unfortunately today was cool, grey and rainy.  However you know me, I didn’t let the weather dampen my spirit.

What did you think of yesterday’s post?  I hope that something that I wrote caused you to reflect on the negative self talk that doesn’t serve you well.  I truly believe that the words that we use make a huge difference in how we process what happens each day.  For those of you who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 25 days of January:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back
Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – Practiced Conscious Eating
Day 7 – Hara Hachi Bu
Day 8 – Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 – Acknowledgments
Day 10 – No Excuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Is it True?
Day 12 – Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 – Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 - Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 - What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 – Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 – Food as a Budget
Day 18 – Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 – Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 – Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 – Face Your Fears
Day 22 – Give Up the Diet Mentality
Day 23 – The Meaning and/or Purpose of Food
Day 24 – Trigger Foods/Situations/People
Day 25 – Words Have Meaning

What did you think of yesterday’s post about words have meaning?  Did you enjoy the exercises?  If you came up with a powerful personal slogan please share it with us. I am sure that I am not the only one who would love to read it.

Lose All-Or-Nothing Thinking:

This is a topic that is very meaningful for me because it used to describe how I approached most things in life including diet.  I would be very gung ho and follow rules to the letter, no deviation. Then when I did something “off plan” (which I considered wrong) I would throw in the towel, blow my “diet” and say I would start again the next day, next week, etc.  Needless to say this not the healthiest approach.  For years I thought I was the only one who did this. However based on the people whom I have talked with about food it is also very common which is why I wanted to address it on the blog.

Why would any of us ever think that we needed to follow a program exactly?  Where does this come from and why is it so common?  I blame diet books that demonize other diets for the dogmatic way that most people follow a new plan or program.  Life is not meant to be that rigid in my opinion.  It would be wonderful if we could all eat perfectly all the time but that isn’t real life.  Not to mention sometimes everyone needs a little splurge to make life worth living.  ;-)  To understand how we got here I am going to briefly review recent diet history in this country.

During the low-fat diet phase everyone avoided eating fats which were considered “bad”.  In response to this idea that “fats are bad” the food manufacturers developed fat-free baked good. Does anyone remember Snackwell cookies?  In the early 90’s those cookies sold like wild fire and when you read the nutrition panel they had similar calories to cookies with fat the difference was they had more sugar.  While this trend was bad there was merit to some of it. Saturated fat is not healthy and oil provides nothing but fat without any of the fiber or micronutrients which are present in whole foods.

Fast forward to the late 90’s and now we had the low-carb craze.  Suddenly fats were fine and sugar was bad.  Now we had people eating steak, bacon, and eggs and staying away from fruit and tomatoes.  The Snackwell cookies were replaced with ones that were high in fat.  These new cookies were made with copious amounts of fat, nut flours, sugar alcohols rather than wheat flour and sugar.  Like the low-fat phase this one also had valid points.  Consuming refined foods and foods which contain a lot of sugar is also bad for you.  However consuming whole fruit is not unhealthy.  As I mentioned to one of my friends who was following a low-carb diet and was worried about fruit, no one ever got fat eating a piece of fruit.

Today we have people who believe that raw food is the way to go.  Now people think they can eat anything as long as it is raw. This means that saturated fat, in the form of coconut oil, is fine as long as it is “raw”.  In this regime there is no concern about carbs in the form of produce.  Like the other two plans this one also has some merit.  Most people don’t eat enough raw produce.  Since some nutrients are heath sensitive eating part of your produce raw is important. However it is also important to remember that some nutrients are better absorbed when food has been cooked. 

What do all of these ideas have in common? They look at nutrition from a narrow perspective and set up a distinction between good and bad.  You can eat sugar but fats are bad.  No, fat is fine but sugar is bad.  Wait, raw is fine but cooked is bad.  STOP the diet merry-go-round I am getting off!  I am picturing some of you saying, “but wait a minute you have rules”.   Yes I absolutely do have rules, but mine are based on a ton of research and that research was combined using old-fashioned common sense.  Additionally I also leave room for bending (but not breaking) those rules from time to time which I will explain below.

When we changed our diet and lifestyle the reason was to improve our health.  Losing weight for us was a side effect of improved health but it wasn’t the reason we changed how we ate.  When I followed the science it because clear to me what we should concentrate on consuming more:  vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds, nuts and whole grains.  Things that were detrimental for our health:  meat, dairy, oil, sugar and salt were moved out of our food.  Then we had the grey area which included processed foods like flour (yes even whole wheat).  When we are eating at home it is easy to avoid those things which are detrimental (and by that I mean they are generally inflammatory) and include only healthy (anti-inflammatory) foods.  However when you are eating out this becomes nearly impossible even when you have a chef friend.  We recognize that when we eat out we are getting a little oil, some salt and sugar and that is okay as long as it is an occasional indulgence.  I now believe that your overall dietary pattern is what matters not any one specific meal.   

Since I am sure some of you are wondering I will explain the things that I try to remember when I making food decisions, these are:

·         Produce is always good, and I try to eat at least half of it raw (or lightly cooked) and half of it cooked.  Some nutrients are more easily absorbed in cooked food, and some are destroyed by heat.  By having some produce cooked and some raw you are covering your bases.  If you don’t like raw produce cook part of it very lightly to minimize nutrition loss.

·         Beans are a fantastic source of plant protein. They fill you up, contain a lot of fiber which binds to cholesterol in your GI system, and they are versatile. I try to include beans in our food every day.  This won’t work for everyone since some people have trouble digesting beans. If this is you one approach is to cook them very well (think super soft) and add them to your diet a little at a time.  Your digestive system may do fine with them after a little “bean training”.

·         Mushrooms are another food that we try to eat each day.  They help boost the immune system and have been studied for their ability to fight cancer.  Not to mention I love the taste and texture of mushrooms which is a bonus.  Mushrooms are a great whole food way to mimic meat which is nice.

·         All foods in the alium family (onions, garlic, shallots, and leeks) have also been shown to fight cancer.  They add a lot of flavor to food and work in every savory dish that I can think of.  We also eat these each day.  When you are going to cook them be certain to chop them and allow them to sit for 10 minutes before cooking so that the chemical reaction has time to take place.  If you are going to eat them they might as well be as nutritious as possible. I always cut my alliums set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes and come back when it beeps.  This has become a habit and I don’t even think about it now.

·         Add leafy green vegetables anywhere that you can.  I add raw kale to my savory oatmeal, shredded kale goes into salad, straight raw kales goes into the Vitamix to be included in our morning smoothies.  Basically if I can get a raw leafy green in I do.  Cooked kale is also good, but some of the nutrition is destroyed by heat so I try to eat this raw or lightly cooked whenever possible.

·         Quinoa is a wonderful substitute for pasta or rice.  I love that is cooks quickly.  Additionally it is a complete plant protein (contains all 8 of the essential amino acids).  Quinoa is something that I always keep in the house.  If you of a friend belong to Costco they sell 3 pound bags of organic quinoa for $9.99 and I always pick one up when I am there.

·         I know that I need to add nuts and seeds to my veggie meals to increase the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins and this something that I am working on. We are all a work in process when it comes to nutrition.  ;-)

I hope that helps to give you some ideas of what I try to include in our meals.  Our diet is essentially a whole food diet.  You won’t see us eating things like soy hot dogs, commercial faux meat, and commercial faux dairy because these items almost always contain soy protein isolates which we do not consume.  Additionally we stay away from high fructose corn syrup and agave since fructose is hard to digest.  As I think of other things that I think you should know I will include it in future posts but this gives you a good idea of how I make food decisions.

Today’s exercise is:

1.       Go back to your food journal that you started a few days ago and review what you have been eating. Does anything stand out as something that needs to be changed?  If it does make a note of it and put a plan into place to change what you are doing.

When I looked at my food journal I can easily see that I am eating too many grains and I am still not getting enough seeds and nuts. Additionally I know that I need to be eating more leafy greens and raw fruit. This is why it helps to have what you are doing on paper.  I am going to make it a point to have a salad for either lunch or dinner and to include seeds and nuts on that.  Also since it is citrus season I plan to have a piece of citrus every day.  These two changes should crowd out the grains.  If will reexamine my eating habits in a week and if I am still having too many grains I will make another change then.

Progress on my goals:

1.       Newsletters - Wednesday was also hectic and the newsletters didn’t get any time.  L

2.       Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and I have gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it.  Go me!  J

3.       Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for a walk each night after dinner. We are using this time to get away and talk as well as to add some movement and fresh air to our day.  One of our neighbors was out late this evening and mentioned that we were making a habit of walking.  J

4.        Measuring calorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need to focus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat soluble vitamins.

5.       Working on my business – My schedule got in the way of this too.  However, knowing that I will be sharing it with you on February 10^th has definitely moved it up on my priority list.  I will be working on this over the weekend.  Accountability works for all of us, including me.  ;-)

How are you feeling about your progress so far?  I hope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month.  J

Random Thoughts:

The information continues to come out about the resveratrol research fraud.   I wonder if everyone who claims to be drinking red wine for their health will now stop consuming it?  Somehow I doubt that will happen. Worse yet it appears the problem goes beyond the first group.  I still don’t understand why the researchers felt the need to commit fraud.  The only thing that I can think of is the research funding but it still doesn’t make any sense to me.  I guess I am just not wired that way.  *shakes head*

Dan and I are continuing to go for out evening walk and talk through the neighborhood. We also stopped at the grocery store this evening and picked up kale, bananas, frozen cherries and arugula.  The people at the grocery store only ever see us buy produce and tofu. They still must be trying to figure out why we are “so granola” as Ian puts it.  It is good to keep people guessing isn’t it?  LOL  ;-)

While we were out walking I couldn’t help but notice our neighbors recycling which included Whole Foods bags and organic packaging.  I always find that odd since she also gets Chem Lawn every few weeks from Spring thru Fall because I close up my house on that side the days when they come to spray.  Why doesn’t she make the connection that chemicals on your lawn is not a good idea since you kids and dog roll in the grass. Some people really aren’t good at connecting the dots.  *rolls eyes*

Acknowledgements:

Have you made any progress writing acknowledgements?  I hope you are working on this exercise and enjoying it. I find that it helps me stay positive and recognize the things that I do every day.  Here are my acknowledgements:

·         I spent a few hours listening to RMT lectures and taking notes. I am definitely a little out of my element but in a challenging way.  At this time there is no thought of asking for my money back during the 30-day guarantee window. I love a good challenge in case you hadn’t noticed.  ;-)

·         Dan is enjoying having tofu lasagna in his lunch this week.  It is so nice to see him so happy about lunch.  I need to make tofu lasagna for his lunch more often since he loves it so much.

·         I have been getting a little better at adding seeds and nuts to veggie meals. I am still not perfect but I am improving.  J

Wednesday:

My food on Wednesday was stuff that I could make quickly since I didn’t have much time.  Everything that I ate you have seen before. Given my time constraints I recycled pictures to save myself some time.

Breakfast for me was Italian savory oatmeal which is quick and nutritious.  Love that!

 Lunch was pizza veggies which is another favorite of mine. This is another super fast meal.  I use frozen veggies, top with red sauce, Italian seasonings, nutritional yeast and hulled hempseeds (or you could use pine nuts).  You can use any frozen veggies that you have on hand.

Dinner soba noodles with veggies in black bean sauce.  I cooked the soba noodles in a broth that consisted of dried mushrooms, thinly sliced red onion, sliced garlic, minced fresh ginger and a little fermented black bean sauce.  When the soba noodles were cooked I added shredded kale and thinly sliced celery for about 30 seconds. I used tongs and a spider to remove the noodles and veggies to a bowl and topped the dish with sesame seeds.  If you aren’t a fan of black bean sauce you could also use miso, vegetarian oyster sauce or a little chili oil instead.  This is one of those use what you have on hand meals.

Happy thoughts:

Have you gotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts?  I find it helpful to remind myself how often things go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted.   As always there are so many things to be thankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happy thoughts:

·         I am really enjoying RMT (Robbins-Madanes Training) so far.  It has definitely pulled me out of my comfort zone but in a very good way. I can’t wait to share some of the things I am learning with you.  I love to share.  J

·         Both last night and this evening I may quick and healthy dinners which Dan really enjoyed.  It makes me smile just to think that Dan and I both have embraced healthy food.  I still am amazed by how far we have come in our transition.  If we can do this anyone can.

·         We are both still going for our evening after dinner walks together and we use that time to talk, reconnect after being apart all day and get our heart rate up.  It is great to spend some time outside after dinner.  This evening it was still 49 degrees at almost 10pm.  We are enjoying the nicest weather; it doesn’t feel like winter at all.

·         Yesterday we had a beautiful day with blue skies and I even saw some spring flowers blooming.  It was one of those gorgeous days where it just great to be alive.  J

Signing Out:

Thursday was another busy day but it was also productive. I had appointments and quite a bit of study time.  I love staying busy so it was a good day. 

Sorry this post went up so late. I had a webinar from 8-9pm, then dinner, followed by a long walk and a trip to the grocery store. After all that I had to finish this post.  I definitely waited until the last minute to finalize this post.  I hope to have tomorrow’s post up much earlier in the evening.

Tomorrow is Friday!  *happy dance*  I am so happy that the weekend is almost here.  We don’t have any particular plans but I am just looking forward to 48 hours of time with my hubby.  I hope you are also looking forward to your weekend. Talk with you again tomorrow.  J

Fast Food My Way

Recently I have been swamped at home as I recently told you.  When this happens cooking takes a back seat. However, even when I don’t have much time to cook that doesn’t mean that we will be eating unhealthy food.  I thought you  might want to know what sort of things we have been eating for ideas.  Here are some of the things I have been making at home:

Lots of this: hummus topped with paprika (sometimes with pine nuts sometimes without) and raw veggie dippers.

This hummus and veggie platter also has my roasted red pepper and onion salad with smoked paprika on top of arugula. There was also balsamic and lemon dressed roasted mushrooms.

Dan enjoyed this quinoa salad. I cooked the quinoa with orange zest and cinnamon. I dressed the cooked quinoa with pieces of fresh onion, dried cranberries and raw sunflower seeds.

There was also roasted miso and mirin glazed acorn squash.

I made a green bean dish inspired by things we have had a Jaleo. This one included green beans, apples, Brussels sprouts, almonds grapes, lemon juice and smoked paprika.

Curried split pea soup is good for cold nights.

Roasted yellow cauliflower and white bean soup topped with lemon dressed arugula and almonds.

One of Dan’s favorite meals, my spinach lasagna.

Black bean soup topped with lemon dressed arugula and sliced almonds.

Soba noodle soup with a mushroom broth topped with chopped baby tatsoi.

Okara pate I made with okara (leftovers from making soy milk that I keep in the freezer), tahini, garlic, lemon juice and hot pickled peppers). We like to eat things like this with veggies.

Broccoli with a pesto made from basil (also from the freezer), raw garlic, nutritional yeast and whole pine nuts for texture.

Mexican spiced bean and barley soup.

Marinated kale salad which I made with julienned kale. I marinated the kale in lemon juice and add the lemon zest. To this I added shredded carrot and sliced grapes. Even Dan commented that this was really good. As you can see it was also very simple. Love that!

As you can see fast food doesn’t have to be unhealthy or boring. Most of these came together quickly because either: I used the pressure cooker, or they did most of the cooking unattended. I hope these pictures inspire you to make more quick healthy food.

What Does it Take to Change Our Collective Health?

This question is what drives me to read, research and continue to write about nutrition and health. My husband and I started eating a vegan diet as a way to regain health. This early dietary change led to a healthy whole food plant-based diet, then to a vegan lifestyle not just diet. I sincerely hope that reading about what two not so young Americans do in their daily life will lead others to think about their lifestyle and changes that they can also make to improve their health as well.

As I have mentioned before all of our friends are omnivores. Dan and I are the lone vegans in our circle of friends which is probably because we have known most of our friends long before the cancer caused us to wake up and make some changes. When I think back now to the warning signs that we ignored I am sad that we didn’t make serious changes sooner. The warning signs were things like: elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, being easily winded doing little activity, difficulty waking up in the morning (requiring espresso to get moving in the morning), seasonal allergies requiring medication for months at a time, sinus infections, frequently catching colds, and just generally feeling lousy. Something tells me there are at least a few of you who can relate to this. ;-) Here is the crazy part of this journey. We changed our diet and lifestyle because of the cancer but all the other problems disappeared. If anyone had told me in my twenties that I would feel better when I was approaching 50 than I did then I would have thought they were insane. However I can honestly say that I feel better now than I have in at least 20 years and probably longer.

Now the only problem is how can I share this with other people in a way that will inspire them to try to make some changes too? This is the $64,000 question that I struggle with as I think about what to write. I very much want others to realize what a huge difference a healthy diet and exercise make in terms of overall health. About 8 years ago I read the book “How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine”. At the time I thought the authors were crazy to suggest that we should be eating minimum of 10 produce servings per day to prevent caner. Now we eat closer to 20 servings with no difficulty. When you compare this to the average American diet which contains 3 servings and half of those are potatoes you can easily imagine why our collective health is so lousy in this country.

Now I have a question for you. What type of information do you think would get people’s attention? What can we share with them that may have them consider making some serious dietary and lifestyle changes? Was there one thing that caused you to make changes? Please share so that we can all learn from each other.

Happy Thoughts:

What a busy week I have had yet again. I never seem to get as much accomplished as I expect. However I have made progress and that is good thing. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• We had a wonderful dinner on Wednesday for our architect friend Phil (he is the one from Missouri), Walid and his wife Jackie. Life is too short not to spend time with friends. Ian had a nice fall vegetable ragout for us over haricot vert which we both enjoyed. I even joined Phil in an adult beverage while he and I waited for Dan, Walid and Jackie to arrive. See I do sometimes indulge, it just isn’t often. ;-)

• My girl Jackie came through for me on the glasses. That was a huge relief to have glasses again. While I was there she showed me some super cute frames that she liked and I had to agree with her they were fantastic. She was kind enough to bring the frames with her to the restaurant and fitted them for me after dinner. I can’t wait for them to come in next week. I am such a big kid. LOL

• While I was out shopping this week I found a bracelet that matches a pendant and earrings Dan bought me last year for Christmas. Score! This made me very happy. I love anything Italian and this is Venetian glass wrapped in silver. *happy dance* ;-)  Anything from Venice makes me happy since that is where we started our honeymoon.  Are you starting to notice how often Italy finds it way into my life?  It really is a magical place. 

• Studying has been going well and I feel good about being ready for my final nutrition exam. It will be very nice to have that behind me. I am looking forward to relaxing over the holidays.

• Today I had lunch with Dan and Tamera from his office. It is always nice to meet the people who he works with. Tamera and I are a similar age I believe. It was great that she is interested in healthy eating so it gave us something to talk about right away. You know where we went right? Dan had black bean soup and we shared the roasted hummus and veggie wrap that Ian makes for us. Yes we are spoiled, I know that. I wish all you had an Ian of your own. He is a life saver for us and we love him for it.

• Tomorrow we are spending the afternoon with Ian, his wife Carmen and kids. It will be nice to have time to chat with Ian while he isn’t distracted by what is happening around him at the restaurant. Ian is quite the perfectionist which means that he is always watching what is going on. That perfectionist streak is what makes him so good at what he does.

Signing out:

It is time for me to get back to studying and to get dinner started. I hope you have some fun things planned for your weekend. In addition to hanging out with Ian we will be sailing and working on the boat (to get her prepared for the winter), going to the farmers’ market, and just generally relaxing.  Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to.  :-)

Talk with you again soon. Happy weekend everyone!

Sometimes Life Gets Completely Out of Control

My life has been a whirlwind lately. Every time I sit down to write a post something else comes up that requires immediate attention. With the holidays approaching I can only imagine what will come up next. *rolls eyes* Does your life ever spin out of control? Mine seems to be doing it a lot lately. However there has been some “fun stuff” in my life lately.

There have been as many days and evenings on the boat as we could manage. Here a few pictures from those times to give you a better feeling of the marina.

It is so relaxing at the boat I am sure you are starting to see why we go as often as we can.

Sunday we started the day the usual way at our local farmers’ market. Like always we can home with a small mountain of produce. Today’s haul included: Brussels sprouts, tatsoi, arugula, lacinato kale, delicata squash, mushrooms, bok choy, green onions, celery, and hummus (buffalo wing, mango curry, cinnamon raisin, and pizza). Like always we stopped to chat with our favorite farmers and catch up on what is going on with them. Feel better soon Pam, we missed you! Six reusable grocery bags full and it was time for us to head for home.

We were in a hurry to rush to the boat so we had a little reduced-fat peanut butter on whole grain toast and a salad. Odd I know but I really felt like I needed greens. The salad included: arugula, tomato, bell peppers and avocado. I added a little wine vinegar and no-salt seasoning for flavor.

After some work on the boat we had a simple meal of whole wheat pasta dressed with tomato sauce that was seasoned with dried criminis, fennel seeds, hot pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic, red onion and no-salt seasoning. The pasta was finished with raw arugula (because arugula is in the cruciferous family meaning it is more nutritious raw or lightly cooked) and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Dinner came from Jesse Wong’s in Hunt Valley because both Dan and I were missing the faux duck dish. We started with veggie sushi (asparagus, avocado and sweet potato).

Then we shared the green beans and shitake mushrooms in spicy sauce.

We also order the faux duck to nibble on expecting most of it to end up in Dan’s lunch on Monday since I haven’t been home to cook. With a few cups of broccoli added to the faux duck leftovers Dan had lunch today.

After dinner we stopped at Wegman’s for some staples (organic dried beans, organic raw nuts and organic whole wheat pasta). While we were there I picked up some organic cat food for the fur children to mix into their existing stash. My little ones like it when we mix a number of different cat foods together. No spoiled cats here. ;-)

While we were in the organic bulk section Dan spotted this bag of cashews flavored with pomegranate. Darn are these things good and only 6 grams of sugar. You know I will be figuring out how to make this myself right? They include a couple of ingredients that I would prefer him not to eat so I will make my own version.

A Women’s Journey – Baltimore:

This past weekend I attended the annual women’s health conference put on by Johns Hopkins called “A Women’s Journey”. There were many sessions to choose from but I ended up selecting: Probiotics, Inflammation and Antioxidants, 10 Ways to Reduce Your Cancer Risk, and Staying Healthy in a Toxic Environment. I learned a few things so I wanted to share those with you now before too much time passed.

In the Probiotic session I learned that there are over 1,000 species and 7,000 strains of bacteria in our guts. Wow! I knew there were a lot of them but that was far more than I expected. Additionally many of these cannot be cultured so that when they are killed by antibiotics you aren’t going to add them back to your gut with a supplement. When we are born our GI systems are sterile but the gut is quickly populated with good bacteria by mother’s milk. Your gut bacteria are affected by: your diet, when you take antibiotics, intestinal infections and colonoscopy preparations. The gut bacteria help your immune system develop. They also prevent harmful organism from adhering to your intestine.

In most cases probiotics are not necessary. However if you are taking an antibiotic the doctor recommended that you use a probiotic concurrently and take it for 30 days than stop. She also explained that she would only use probiotics that have been tested in clinical trials because they are the only ones that have been “tested”. The brands she recommended were: Align and Culturelle.

For those of you that are thinking just eat yogurt or kefir the doctor addressed that as well. Studies have shown that eating fermented milk products everyday for a week did not substantially change the gut flora. This is probably due to the fact that they contain one or two strains typically. The doctor started the lecture pointing out $35 million dollar class action lawsuit that Dannon settled due to false advertising. Can you tell she wasn’t pushing the consumption of yogurt?

Her take away message was that it was more important to eat a healthy diet (whole grains, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and little meat). These healthy foods are the prebiotics which feed the probiotics. Inulin and fructo-oligosaccahrides are prebiotics and are found in things like: wheat, onion, artichokes, bananas, garlic and onions.

The Inflammation and Antioxidant session was also an interesting session. The MD that taught this session specialized in geriatric medicine so his focus was on inflammation and aging. He explained that chronic disease, altered body composition (less muscle more fat) and free radicals typically go in the wrong direction when we age. When we are younger estrogen, testosterone and DHEA protect us. However as we age and those substances decline we develop more inflammation. The doctor also mentioned the shortening telomeres as one of the triggers for inflammation. I have mentioned this previously but it is worth repeating that as little as 10 minutes of moderate exercise stops your telomeres from shortening. The doctor further explained that things like CRP, IL-6, IGF-1, DHEA-8 and Cortisol all activate inflammation. Did you notice the IGF-1? You remember that I have mentioned that many times before right?  Here is a link so you can refresh your memory.

The doctor also mentioned a study that showed that people with the lowest levels of selenium had the greatest risk of death. Are you eating one or two Brazil nuts every day? I hope so!

About half of the lecture was spent talking about supplements and that at best case many of them do nothing and at the worst they are linked to earlier death from all causes! Yes I said death. This was shown for beta-carotene, vitamin A and E in 2007 study published in JAMA. In another study taking vitamin C and D taken after a breast cancer diagnosis was associated with less mortality (i.e. more death). In another study taking vitamin E was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. This wasn’t news to me but if it is to you please do a little research on your own to confirm it.

The doctor pointed out that we all need vitamins and phytochemicals but that we should get them from food. Where do they come from? Guess where….whole unprocessed plant food of course.

In terms of reducing your overall inflammation you may be wondering what you can do to impact that. The doctor recommended routine exercise every other day. Exercise itself causes inflammation which is necessary to build muscle. However on your rest day the inflammation turns off. This “planned” inflammation (exercise) will lower the chronic low level of inflammation that is damaging. Additionally the doctor also recommended a healthy diet (lots of whole plant based food) and regular use of baby aspirin once you have had that cleared by your doctor.

The third session was on the 10 ways to reduce your cancer risk. The doctor started by discussing the statistics regarding cancer. For those of you who don’t know it is now accepted half of all men and one third of all women will develop cancer during their lifetime. No that is not a misprint the statistics are actually that bad. The good news is the only 10-20% of cancer is genetic. We can control many of the other things that are associated with an increase in cancer.

The causes of cancer, in order of magnitude are:

1. Tobacco
2. Being overweight
3. Infections
4. Diet
5. Physical Inactivity (Exercise)
6. Medication
7. Family History
8. Reproductive factors
9. Alcohol consumption
10. Environment
11. Sun and radiation

The oncologist did point out that even losing a little weight makes a difference no matter when you do it. Also in terms of diet she mentioned reducing/avoiding charred meat due to the HCA (heterocyclic amines), reducing saturated fat, and eating more fruits and veg and less meat overall. There is definitely a pattern developing here.

She (the oncologist) also pointed out that while genetics may put you at a higher risk for cancer they don’t mean that you will get it. They only mean that you have a predisposition for it. However you can make healthy lifestyle choices and reduce to your risk.

One statistic that she pointed out (from the NCI) was that 50-75% of cancer deaths are related to personal behaviors and/or habits. That is a shockingly high number to me. While it is scary it should also give us all hope. If that make cancers are caused by our choices they can also be prevented by making different choices.

The take away from this lecture is that the following activities will reduce our cancer risk:

1. Stop using tobacco
2. Maintain a reasonable weight (all weight loss is good unless you are underweight)
3. Increase physical activity (even moderate exercise if beneficial)
4. Eat 5-9 fruits and vegetable per day (err on the high side)
5. Increase your intake of fiber and reduce your consumption of saturated fat
6. Limit your alcohol consumption
7. Limit your exposure to the sun
8. Get immunized (HPV and Hepatitis B)
9. Avoid risky behaviors (unprotected sex and intravenous drug use)
10. Treat precursor lesions (example Tamoxifen)

Once again the take home message was to make healthy lifestyle changes. You are starting to see the pattern right? ;-)

The final session was on staying healthy in an unhealthy environment. As I expected there was a lot of talk about chemical and the impact they have on our health. However I didn’t realize there would be such a focus on CAFO’s and commercially produced animal products. The PhD in Pharmacology who taught this session was part of the Pew Commission that studied the impact of industrial food production which he said is available on the web.

As someone who reads and watches everything about health and nutrition I was not surprised by much of the lecture. However there were a few statistics that I wanted to share with you because I thought they were so telling. First, 97% of all animal food comes from commercial mass produced operations. Yes that does mean only 3% of animal foods are probably fit for human consumption if someone in your family is eating meat. Also, 80% of all antibiotics used in the US go for livestock and 90%of those are not used to treat infections. I have read before that antibiotics are used in animal feeding operations to get them to grow faster. The problem with this is that these practices result in a dramatic increase in MRSA (serious antibiotic resistance). You may want to know that 325,000 people are hospitalized annually due to food borne illness and that on average 5,000 of them will die. Additionally food pathogens cause an average $14 billion in medical costs and lost wages per year. Poultry tainted with campylobacter caused 600,000 illness/year and 7,000 hospitalizations. Did you know that US farmers can’t sell farmed fish from the US in Europe because we don’t meet their standards? I gave up eating tilapia years ago after interviewing for the CFO position at an aquaculture farm and this was long before I went vegan in case you wondering. The take home message is that conventionally raised animal foods are not healthy for humans. According the doctor, “eat locally when possible and if you chose to eat animal protein make it pastured and sustainably raised.”

Did you happen to pick up the overall thread from the day? Every single session came back to lifestyle choices. All the doctors felt that the best thing you could do for yourself was to be aware of your habits so that you could make informed choices.

Overall the conference was good and it was nice to see so many women getting together to improve their health and the health of their families. Mary and I chatted during lunch and she came down for the second time from New Jersey for this conference. Many people were there for CEUs I am sure. However there were a lot of people there like me (and Mary) for their edification only. If you are local or close to local you should consider attending next year. If nothing else is a nice gathering of people (99% women) who are concerned about their health. I find the energy at this conference very uplifting.

Other Stuff:

Recently I attended a day and half conference put on by the Institute of Medicine on the topic of Cancer, Obesity and Physical Activity. It was a good conference but there was a lot of information that came out. I have 30 pages of notes to go through and summarize for you soon. There were some very interesting “tid-bits” that I picked up that even impressed the MD I was discussing it with last week. The conference was for medical doctors but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know… I am not right. ;-) However as my friend Louis says often but I am harmless to others. Thanks for the good line Louis. Hugs!

In addition to the conferences I have been attending I have almost finished up my most recent nutrition certification. I am sure most of you are going, “huh, what is she talking about?” No you didn’t miss anything I hadn’t mentioned it until today. However I will be finished by early December and once I am I will tell you all about it. This is what prompted me to start thinking about a part-time career in nutrition/health. I have been busy working to finish up school and start a business. There will be a lot of fun stuff coming. I hope to have my website finished and my first newsletter out next month. Additionally I am also working on my first teleseminar which will be free. My goal is to be a resource for anyone that wants to improve their health of the health of their family. As I do here I am going to focus on providing a lot information for anyone who wants it.

I am also taking a 6-week “online seminar” led by Dr. Joel Fuhrman covering his book “Super Immunity”. For those of you who keep asking me to write a book I highly recommend this one. It is very similar to the book I would write. This post is getting long so I will review the book later in a separate post. However what I love about this book is that it focuses on what you can do to be healthier independent of weight loss. Great book!

Finally we have been busy preparing for an upcoming surgery at the end of the month. There has been a lot of preoperative appointments and testing to get ready for the big event. Even though I worked in hospitals for nearly 2 decades the idea of surgery is still scary. However the surgery will take place at Johns Hopkins and the surgeon is one of the best, if not the best, in the world at what he does. We couldn’t ask for more capable hands to be in. As you may have guessed this will keep me off line for a while but it is my intention to let you know before the surgery and ask you to send positive thoughts our way. Additionally I plan to let you know once everything is good. Please don’t expect a long post for either of those. I may end up putting on this Facebook only but I will try to get it up on the blog too.

Happy thoughts:

I know it has been a while so I will try to keep this short. However it is a wonderful problem to have that there is too much to mention. :-)

• While life has been crazy busy it has also been wonderful. Everything has been going very well and for that I am extremely grateful.

• I loved the conference at IOM and learned more about the impact of lifestyle and cancer. It is wonderful to have the time in my life to learn these things so that I can pass them on to all of you. If I can help just one person avoid cancer I will feel like a made a difference in the world.

• I am very grateful to live near one of the best hospitals in the country. Since Johns Hopkins is a few miles away I think most of the locals take it for granted. However when you have an uncommon problem to deal with you can’t ask for a better resource. Here is one very exciting piece of news. The surgeon actually commended us on our diet. Yes you read that right, the surgeon was onboard with our vegan diet and had no problem allowing food from home to be brought into the hospital. Love that! It makes me feel like the medical profession is beginning to move in a more holistic direction. Better late than never I say. :-)

• Both Dan and I are thankful to have our friend Louis. He has taken the day off and will be here for the big day. Louis you are best! Thank you so much for always being there. I hope you know how much you mean to both of us.

• We are also thankful for a great group of friends. Thank you to all of you that have offered to help out during this hectic time. We are very lucky to have you all be a part of our lives.

• I am also very thankful for all of you who have sent me email, texts or called to make sure that I am okay. I didn’t mean to worry anyone by not blogging. However it was wonderful hear from so many of you. You guys are the best! In all seriousness you really know how to make a girl feel appreciated. Thank you for your concern. I was very touched by the outpouring of concern.

• The boat is really starting to shape up. It definitely feels more like ours now. I have been busy personalizing it. Meanwhile Dan has been tracing waterlines and wires to get a better feel for the details. I am very fortunate to have such a brilliant, hard working and mechanical husband. I love you baby!

• It is fantastic to have school be coming to an end for now. It has been a long year. It didn’t help to have the new boat and now the surgery and school. However I have managed fine most of the time. Sorry that the blog suffered. But on the bright side that is mostly behind us now. Once school and surgery are over I will be back and soon in more than one place.

Signing Out:

Monday is another crazy day for me. I broke my glasses on Friday while we were at Hopkins. Thankfully I have prescription sunglasses but those will look a little silly inside so I need to get the ball rolling on a new pair today so I have them before surgery. It is always something isn’t it? On the bright side we get our glasses from Walid’s wife Jackie so I know she will do everything possible to them to me quickly.

In addition for studying for my final I also need to seriously clean the house in preparation for Thanksgiving. For those of you who haven’t been reading long I go overboard with Christmas decorations and it is a family tradition to turn on Christmas music after Thanksgiving dinner has been cleaned up. We begin decorating for Christmas late Thanksgiving night. This year it is more important that I pick up the pace so that everything is done before surgery.

As you can see the next two weeks are busy for me but I will do my best to talk with you again soon. For those you who are waiting for email responses I am very sorry about that. I hope to clean up my email in the next few weeks. Also I will get back to the fat series and book club blog as soon as I can. Life has gotten away from me lately as you can probably tell.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and a great week. Happy Monday everyone!