Eating Healthy All Day Long

We started the day with cooked rolled oats or oatmeal and, in England, porridge. The oatmeal was prepared in a batch using 4 parts water and 2 parts oatmeal. In the last minute, I added one diced gala or empire apple. As I shut off the heat, I sprinkled cinnamon over the mixture, and stirred it in very-well. Then I covered it and let it stand until all the ingredients were well absorbed. About an hour later, I placed them in a sealed glass (1 1/2 quart)container.
In the morning , I scooped-out about 1-cup of gelled oatmeal and reheated it in the microwave for approximately 2 minutes. Then I added a ½ teaspoon of Omega style margarine and mixed in 6 frozen cherries and three tablespoons of frozen blueberries, a smidgeon of 1 percent milk and a little honey. That’s it, unless you want to warm it up a little to help defrost the frozen ingredients. I like it warm and so I place the mixture back in the microwave for about 40 seconds. I stir it well and enjoy a very filling and nutritious breakfast cereal. Mom would say it would "stick to your ribs." It does hold you over quite a while. I am 6' 2" and over 200 lbs., but after my oatmeal, I'm not hungry until about 2 or 3 p.m..
For lunch, I roasted some chicken breast in a 375 degree oven for about 1 ½ hours. While that was in the oven, I prepared steamed broccoli and a left over baked potato. I mixed an organic baby lettuce salad, which contains organic baby lettuce (red and green oak leaf, lollo rosa, red and green Romaine, Tango). This is a delicious blend of gourmet greens and makes a delightful and nutritious salad. I tossed the salad with extra-virgin olive oil, one clove of crushed garlic, finely sliced red onion, and the Italian black balsamic vinegar. Then I sprinkled in some grated Pecorino Romano cheese made from pasteurized sheep’s milk, culture, enzymes, and salt. I use this 100 percent grated pecorino Romano cheese in my soups, salads, and with bow tie pasta and find it is an excellent substitute for salt and an excellent source of calcium. It is low in fat (6%) and has only 4 % sodium. We enjoyed the salad. I chose to cut up the ½ baked potato and add it to my salad. The broccoli was sprayed with a non-cholesterol margarine. The chicken breast was ready when we finished our vegetables. I had a cup of black tea with lunch. We had a small slice of roasted chicken breast and lunch was complete. My step-daughter would describe all this as "MITIN" (more information than I need). Seems everything is abbreviated these days and that’s probably why most Americans don’t cook or prepare meals anymore. Lunch was over by 3:30 p.m. and so we went out for some entertainment. That's another story.
Grazing between lunch and the nightly snack consisted of 2 small oranges-cut into crescents, a handful or two of roasted, unsalted peanuts, a few green and black olives and a few almonds.

About 8 p.m. we have tea and crumpets. They really aren’t crumpets, but, Julie being English, we call it that. Instead, we may have an English muffin made with cranberries or cinnamon and raisins.

After that it’s time to take in a TV show. We watched Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller "Vertigo," a four-star rated movie, starring Kim Novak and James Stewart- made in 1958. I was twenty then and recognized the Chevy Impala. The news was last on the schedule, but we did manage a peak at the end of a two-hour special: WNED's "As Time Goes By."
Of course, I didn’t fill in all the details, but it does fill the bill for the modern day term: "MITIN." No, I didn't count the calories. All the planning was done before we scanned the products we bought. Navel oranges, Italian greens, red onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, large flakes of oatmeal, extra-virgin olive oil and the ingredients in the English Muffins (low in sugar, no "high-fructose corn syrup) and 100-percent whole wheat were amongst the considerations we used in shopping, along with price comparison.

So as Edward R. Murrow would say, "Good Night and Good Luck."

Alzheimer's and the Complex Jobs That Keep Your Brain Fit

Organizers, doing complex work with data involving complex interaction with other people, such as teaching, managing people,and conducting negotiations has been found to ward off dimentia and keep the brain fit.
That’s the conclusion of a University of a South Florida study published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Science. According to lead author Ross Andel, PhD, the findings "suggest that greater complexity of work, and particularly complex work with people, may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease."
The researchers studied 10,079 Swedish men and women, all of them twins, who were at least age 65 by 1998; 225 had been diagnosed with dimentia. Besides looking for overall connections between complex work and later risk of dementia, the scientists were able to compare pairs of twins—one with dementia, one without.
The strongest link to lower Alzheimer’s incidence—22% reduced risk—was found among subjects who’d held jobs involving complex interactions with other people, such as teaching, managing people, conducting negotiations or dealing with customers. The association was found regardless of level of education. This group also had a slightly lower risk of all forms of dementia.
In the twins comparisons, some evidence also pointed to a protective effect from complex work with data, such as compiling, organizing or analyzing information.

Salt - Shaking The Habit

According to the new Dietary Guidelines, most people should eat less than 1 teaspoon of sodium (about 2,300 mg) a day. Anyone who has been diagnosed with hypertension, African Americans, and people 50 and over should reduce their sodium intake to no more than 2/3 of a teaspoon (about 1,500 mg) a day. Potassium-rich produce and grains, and calcium-rich dairy products help bring the blood pressure down. "Both minerals help blunt the effects of sodium on blood pressure," says Cindy Moore, M.S., R. D., director of nutrition therapy at The Cleveland Clinic. But most people must get the minerals from food and not supplements. "We aren’t certain whether it’s the potassium and calcium that affects blood pressure, or other ingredients in these foods," she adds. Medication does not allow you to consume a high sodium intake. Blood pressure medicine is an adjunct to blood pressure control. If you still do all the wrong things, you defeat the purpose of the medicine.
Salt is an acquired taste that can be unlearned within a few weeks. It’s a matter of replacing convenience foods with fresh produce, grains, low-fat dairy products, and lean meat poultry and fish, and instead flavoring foods with herbs and spices.
If food tastes bland, a salt substitute may help. However, because many salt substitutes contain potassium chloride, use them under a doctor’s supervision. When taken in tandem with ACE inhibitor, angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), or certain diuretics—all prescribed to lower blood pressure—salt substitutes can raise potassium to harmful levels in people with diabetes or kidney disease, says Dr. Campbell. (It’s rare that the potassium in food would pose a risk since most people don’t eat enough.)
Research has found that people who limited sodium reduced their need for medication by 31 percent; those who cut back on salt and lost weight slashed it by 53 percent.
One caveat: If your blood pressure is in a low normal range, you don’t need to avoid salt—as lowering blood pressure further may cause you to feel faint and light headed.
Watch for sodium content in canned foods. Some vegetables contain as much as 960 mg of sodium. Draining the fluids before using may help reduce that amount.
A typical can of Pork & Beans contains 490 mg of sodium representing 20% of the RDA. Yet the Pork & Beans are low in fat 2% and 120 calories with only 10 of those calories derived from fat. That is based on a ½ cup serving. You would think that Pork and Beans would be high in saturated fat, but the nutrition facts list 0g and 0% and the total fat 1g is 2% of the RDA. Lower your sodium intake by asking that the foods prepared at restaurants be broiled, baked or steamed, and flavored with herbs or lemon.
Remember that many Chinese dishes contain monosodium glutamate (MSG). Like most Americans, you probably down about three to five teaspoonfuls of salt a day. Only about 10 percent of dietary sodium comes from table salt. The rest lurks in packaged, convenience, restaurant, and fast foods.
All that salt takes a toll. Sodium is a leading contributor to hypertension, which affects one in three Americans. Hypertension can result in heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, kidney disease, and blindness. Millions of men have blood pressure between normal (less than 120/80 mmHg) and high (140/90 mmHg). Unless they lower it, many of these men may develop high blood pressure.
Being African-American, overweight or sedentary, drinking too much alcohol, having diabetes or a family history of hypertension, or being 50 or older are also risks for hypertension. "Salt makes your body hold onto more fluid," explains John Campbell, M.D., a specialist in preventive medicine and a consultant in preventive cardiology at The Cleveland Clinic.

Ethnicity-Relationship to Eating Healthy

When I first decided to attack my health problems, it was to start at my roots. The questions requiring answers were there in the history of my ancestors. Today’s research involves discovering why it is that the French can eat so much food we recognize as harmful, and still have better results in the statistics relating to their health. Many claim it has to do with the "grape seed extract" found in wine.
It is my contention that ethnicity plays an important role in how our bodies metabolize foods and in the process, maximize the benefits of the nutrition we need to live long, healthy lives. Mediterraneans did well in their homeland, but many of them developed health problems with serious consequences when they came to the U.S. In my own family, I found common threads of colon cancer, kidney problems that led to dialysis, and eventually to death. Uric acid was high and many developed polyps in their 40s and 50s. Some became anemic and developed dark circles under their eyes, which is often associated with anemia. Their eating habits changed dramatically, as they found little access to the fish so abundant in the Mediterranean as well as fruits, vegetables and wine. Being poor happened to have had a positive result on their eating habits. They did not go to restaurants and they made every effort to raise all that they needed on their own land. Goats could climb the hilly terrain and provide milk which could also be used in the production of cheese. Chickens provided eggs, multiplied and provided access to fresh poultry without additives or antibiotics. They went to bed when the sun went down and would rise from bed at the crack of dawn. They exercised naturally in accomplishing the tasks necessary to survive. Milking the goat, feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, hunting and fishing, making their own bread was their lifestyle. They also were the benefactors of large and loving families –providing the support system they needed for good mental health.
On the other hand, the Polish side of the family needed fats to protect them during hard-times as the "feast or famine" feature of their genes became a factor in survival of the fittest. Cabbage stuffed with ground meat and herbs, pirogis stuffed with sauerkraut and duck soup were foods they ate. Broth could be made from the bones of the animals they killed for food as well. Chickens were also very plentiful in their environment. Being fat was considered healthy and "skinny" was considered indicative of poor health and a short life. Overall, those who mastered the art of eating for survival were the ones who passed on their genes to the immigrants who were strong and determined enough to find a better place for their heirs. Unfortunately, that proved to be problematic to the health of many of them. As they arrived on the shores of the "promised land," they found that adapting to the new environment was difficult at best and deadly, at worst. The jobs available to these poorly educated immigrants, who could not even speak the language, were few and backbreaking. Many became coal-miners and others worked in steel mills. Some were able to find a piece of land to farm and others became cooks, housekeepers and held other service-related jobs. With little time to enjoy the good life, they were vulnerable to smoking, drinking alcohol and breathing in the mold and coal dust found in the small-cramped tunnels of Pennsylvania and West Virginia – primarily in the Appalachian Mountains. So you see, there were factors beyond our control that played such an important role in our health.
More and more research appears to attempt to identify the answers to better health by analyzing the health of our ancestors and finding some connection to what they ate and how they lived.
In recent times, we find that certain countries were more successful in maintaining health and living longer, more productive lives. As I started my research, I found immediate references to ethnicity as a source for learning to eat healthy. Remember that there were few pharmacies available to such poor people and doctors were few and far between — more a luxury of the rich and affluent.
And so it isn’t at all surprising that some of the oldest cultures were some of the most successful in this quest for maintaining a healthy existence. The Japanese learned to make the most of a very lean source of food. Oil was expensive and heat needed to be used very efficiently and so it is easy to understand the need for "stir frying," using a very small amount of both heat and oil. Seafood was abundant and provided a healthy source of food that was like "manna from heaven." We now know just how healthy the Omega 3 oil is to bodies.
When it comes to healthy living, the people of Japan set a great example for the rest of the world to follow. The Japanese have the longest average life span of any people on earth. Few places on earth can boast a population as healthy as Okinawa, which has gained fame as "the island of longevity" thanks to the remarkable average lifespan of its citizens. The percentage of people in Okinawa who live to be at least 100 years old is four times the national average in Japan, and the Japanese have the longest average lifespan of any people on earth.
It was in the finding of "Graviola" as the killer of cancer cells that first peaked my interest in Japan. The University of Medicine in Japan was first to identify this natural substance found in the wetlands of Brazil. Dr. Isamu Tengan, a graduate of the Osaka City University Medical School, currently serves as Hospital Director at the Tougou Medical Center in Ginowan, Okinawa. His studies have begun to reveal the sources of such widely recognized accomplishments in longevity.
Among the most prominent and intriguing factors contributing to the overall good health in the Okinawan population is the tremendous popularity of Awamori Moromi Black Vinegar.
Fatty acids, proteins and carbohydrates are metabolized in the liver. Moromi Black Vinegar aids the process of ATP synthesis in energy production after this metabolism. In order for the mitochondria to produce energy (ATP) in cells, catalytic enzymes are needed. Miromi Black Vinegar provides the enzymes necessary for energy production.
Awamori Moromi Black Vinegar is the fermented rice mash used to make Awamon, a distilled rice drink made exclusively in Okinawa. It has been a centuries-long tradition among Awamori distillers to consume this mash as a tonic to promote health and longevity. Rich in B vitamins and essential minerals, Awamori Moromi Black Vinegar (which is actually light in color, unlike regular Japanese black vinegar) contains high concentrations of citric acid and amino acids, with 43 times the amino acid found in apple cider vinegar. Great for healthy skin, strong muscles and mental nourishment, these amino acids also promote efficient fat metabolism, helping to supply the mind and body with energy. Citric acid is an outstanding anti-stress nutrient that helps the body burn fat efficiently to maintain a healthy body weight. Its impressive nutritional profile makes Awamori Moromi Black Vinegar an excellent tonic for optimal mental and physical wellness.
This is just one more piece in the vast puzzle we need to put together to lead healthier and longer lives. We cannot limit ourselves to patented products made from chemicals, but we do need to have access to the research that validates the natural sources of vitamins, herbs and minerals — that help the body to ward off disease.