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Written by Linell Harvey
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Friday, 02 July 2010 15:19 |
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Years ago, the circus would come to town. One of the attractions was the guy who tried to guess your weight. He’d look you over, head to foot, and then tell you how much you weighed. If he was right, you’d lose your quarter. If he was wrong, you’d get a teddy bear.
It’s not so easy when we try to figure out our health risks. There’s no way from just looking at a person that we can say they have high blood pressure, heart disease risks or blood sugar issues. We have to test.
This is usually done with blood testing. Most insurance companies will pay for your lab work, and some will actually pay YOU for just getting yearly blood tests done. It is one of the most effective ways to see what is out of balance with your body, and to pinpoint the areas you need to address to reach optimal health.
Many of my patients ask what they should have tested. The usual blood test that is ordered is CBC/Chemistry Profile. This measures 45 different blood components, including cholesterol, glucose, iron, liver-kidney function and much more. It’s a great place to start.
But I suggest you have other tests done too. Homocysteine is a marker that predicts Alzheimer’s and heart disease risk. C-Reactive Protein is perhaps the most important marker for heart disease. Recent research has shown that it’s important to test for Thyroid imbalance. And now Vitamin D levels can and should be tested.
We are so fortunate that we live at a time that we can look beyond what is skin deep, and see how our body is functioning at a microscopic level. By having annual blood testing done, you’ll have a better picture of what your risks and imbalances are. The prize you will get will not be the teddy bear that the circus guy gives, but a much more valuable tool for attaining optimal health.
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Written by Linell Harvey
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Friday, 07 May 2010 15:21 |
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Jews have a prayer they say every time they go to the bathroom. Especially when they ... well ... you know. It sounds comical at first. But when you think about it, it’s a very appropriate time to be grateful for the healthy functioning of our body.
The alternatives are uncomfortable and sometime scary. Constipation can go on for days or weeks, with pain and internal damage. Diarrhea can go on for years, with malnutrition and weakness. Either one indicates that there is a serious imbalance in the body, starting with the gut, and extending throughout the body.
There are many other symptoms which point to a malfunctioning gut. We nutritionists learn early on that when a person is “sick,” the first place to start in regaining health is with the gut. This is where the food that you eat gets converted into nutrients which your body needs to repair and replace the worn out parts of your system. This is the source of healing. It’s also the place where our eating and lifestyle habits can do some real damage.
If the gut isn’t working right, your body is out of balance. This can result in such varied symptoms as high cholesterol, allergies, joint pain, diabetes, obesity and headaches, just to mention a few. If you don’t know what’s wrong with you, start with the gut. You may be surprised at the changes.
And if your gut is working right, you might think about following the lead of the Jews and expressing gratitude for the fine functioning of your body.
The Jewish prayer noted above is named Asher Yatzar.
Here is a modern translation of "Asher Yatzar":
"Blessed are You, Eternal our God, who formed the human body with wisdom and placed within it a miraculous combination of openings and organs. It is evident and known before Your honored throne, that if only one of them should be opened or blocked at the wrong time, it would be impossible to exist and stand before You. Blessed are You, Eternal One, the healer of all flesh and worker of wonders."
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6 ways to eat on a shoestring |
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Written by Linell Harvey
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Friday, 02 April 2010 12:34 |
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One of the objections I hear about eating a healthy diet is that it’s too expensive. Not necessarily true! If you buy produce in season, purchase only “real food” and buy local when possible, you can be money ahead while eating like a king or queen.
Here are some suggestions which will go a long way for your food budget:
1. Don’t buy cold breakfast cereals, even those made of whole grains. They are very expensive, poor in nutrients and difficult to digest. A serving of the best quality organic oatmeal costs half the amount of the average boxed breakfast cereal and is more nutritious. 2. Make your own salad dressing. You can make your own dressing (see recipe this page) using the finest ingredients for about the same cost as the average bottled dressings, most of which contain rancid vegetable oils, trans-fatty acids and numerous additives. 3. The least expensive vegetables include some of the most nourishing—cabbage, carrots, zucchini, onions, broccoli, chard, beets and kale—and they are easy to prepare. Always prepare or serve cooked veggies with butter for best assimilation of the minerals they contain. 4. Don’t forget eggs as a nourishing, low-cost alternative to meat. It pays to buy the best quality---free range has much higher Omega 3 fatty acids (a good thing), and fewer, if any, antibiotics or hormones. Look for farm fresh eggs, sold locally. 5. Leftovers save time, money and are full of more flavor than the night before. Cook double the amount your family needs for dinner and you’ll save time spent in the kitchen. 6. Try not to over-economize on food. Instead cut out all the junk food—prepared cookies and cakes, soft drinks, frozen foods, fast foods, etc. and use the savings to buy good quality whole foods. Above all use good quality fats---they keep you healthy and satisfied. |
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Written by Linell Harvey
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Monday, 08 March 2010 12:13 |
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Q: What is the best bar code found on food?
A: None
We talk about all kinds of diets, and debate which is the best. Low fat? High protein? Vegan?
But we’re asking the wrong question. It’s not about which fad diet we should try next. On the contrary, it’s about what foods our bodies thrive on. And most modern “food products” just don’t make the grade.
For the millenniums that the human genus has been on the planet, we’ve eaten foods that have allowed “us” to survive. History has seen famines and diseases and scourges. Some lineages of humans died out. But YOUR ancestors did not. They made it through by eating foods that I call the Four Food Groups. These are foods that you could have hunted, fished, gathered or plucked.
They had no ingredient list. There were no grocery stores to find them in. The real foods were all found in nature. In fact, for most of humans’ existence, food wasn’t even cultivated. (N.B.: Cultivation started about 13,000 year ago---the blink of an eye in the realm of humanity).
So without cultivation, our lineage certainly didn’t have a grain-based society, and we certainly didn’t have processed carbs. Not even sugar, white flour or pasta.
Forget the fad diet. Instead, think “old fashioned.” And I don’t mean the 1950’s, I mean the diet that cavemen and women thrived on. Eat fresh food, preferably from a local source. Lean, clean protein. Lots of fresh veggies and a little fruit. A few grains. The bottom line is we should eat real food.
Food without a bar code.
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Your Health
