Good Things are In-Season Now.
If you haven’t been through the produce section of your local supermarket lately, now is your time to get there! Move away from the frozen fruits and vegetables and check out what’s fresh. I try to buy organic whenever possible, but realistically, this is still expensive to do. Even more important than organic on my list: buying local.
Locally grown produce is available at your neighborhood supermarket or farmers’ market. The benefits of buying local are many fold.
- Buying locally grown produce helps your local economy.
- When grown locally, transportation time is null. Your fruits and veggies get from the farm to your plate in a much shorter time than if they’re grown somewhere in South America. Travel time is huge for retaining nutrients. The lesser the time in transit, the more nutrient dense your produce will be. (Less time in transit also equals less gas used – you’re benefitting the environment!)
The most important thing when buying produce is to buy a variety of colors as every color is associated with a different type of antioxidant behavior. Again, I buy organic when possible, but ultimately, it’s the look and firmness of the fruit or vegetable that sells me. Just always make sure to wash your fresh produce thoroughly.
Springtime Fresh Fruits and Veggies You’ve Got to Try:
Have you noticed the strawberries this spring? They’ve been gorgeous this year. It’s only Tuesday and our family is on our second case this week! We cut them up and serve with dinner – a giant bowl is gone in minutes at our house. They taste great and are loaded with antioxidants. They’re a power food!
Clementine oranges are affordable by the case right now. They’re easy to peel and you can eat two or three at a pop. A plus – kids love them!
Asparagus is everywhere this month. We brush it with olive oil and a little Mrs. Dash or other salt-free seasoning and grill it on foil outside. Grill it just enough so that it’s a little soft outside and crunchy on the inside. This is another kid favorite and is high in vitamin C, and has a ton of antioxidant behavior.
Artichokes are another seasonal veggie that are often overlooked. They’ve looked great lately, too. We simply steam them, pull off the leaves and eat the bottoms. Then be sure to pull the ends of the leaves and eat the heart. At dinner, we make two artichokes and everyone shares (except the heart – there is always a fight for that at our house)!
The weather is wonderful and the sidewalks are full of folks walking, jogging and playing outdoors. If you want to feel your best and look terrific, get out there and join them!
You are only as good as what you did yesterday. When clients tell me they were track stars in college or played competitive tennis into their thirties, I say great, but what have you done for me lately?
The benefits of exercise are only 24 hours old. You must do something every day to thrive. Daily exercise will not only make you look your best, but will truly alter the way you feel and the time you spend exercising, you’ll make it back during the day. You’ll literally be able to get done in eight hours what it takes couch potatoes nine hours to do. I should know; as the mother of four, I need every extra minute I can get.
Get your exercise today and reap these benefits and more tomorrow:
You’ll burn more calories. Exercise boosts your metabolism and that boost will last for a full 24 hours, making you a calorie burning machine.
As we age, we naturally lose muscle. Exercise helps you keep that muscle and the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn.
Exercise makes your brain run more efficiently. It boosts your mood. Whenever I’m short with my family or grumpy in the evening, James will say very kindly, “Joan, did you exercise today?” He knows I’m nicer, gentler and kinder when I exercise. He knows me too well and usually, he’s right. Daily exercise is the key to my mood.
Daily exercise is the number one thing you can easily do to fight off dementia.
What kind of exercise is best? The kind you enjoy. Whether it’s walking or jumping or dancing, do something you enjoy. Just make sure you mix it up. If you do the same thing day in and day out, your body will adapt so change your routine by increasing workout time and/or intensity. Do a variety of activities in the same week. Make sure you include some light weight training (keeps your bones healthy) and stretching along with your cardiovascular routine. Try walking, jogging, bike riding, yoga stretching and light weight lifting. Your mind and body will thank you.
What you are about to read is not exact science. It’s an observation, but a scary one. It’s an area that I think we need to start researching. In my practice I have seen a lot of kidney failure recently. It’s been mainly men around 50-70 years old. The thing they all have in common though is that they come to me taking huge amounts of supplements, sometimes 35, 45, even 50 pills a day thinking that this will make them healthy. They’re taking so many things and it can be a little bit of a whole lot of different supplements or a lot of just a few kinds, but I’m seeing them in kidney failure.
This same age group is also taking a lot of prescription medications. When they add ridiculous numbers of supplements on top of their prescriptions, plus what normal aging does on its own, their kidneys are just shutting down. I’ve seen this eight different times in the last six months and it scares me. Where there is smoke there is fire. I’m not sure what the connection is between large doses of supplements (unnecessary supplements) and renal failure, but it sure looks like there is one.
One gentleman’s labs showed renal problems and it turned out he was taking 50 supplement pills a day. A lot of you are probably asking why. As you know, misinformation abounds. He had been advised at a health food store to take various things and he was self-medicating with things he’d read about online and seen on the news. He thought these were all good for him and was taking them in addition to his prescription medications. This relates to renal failure because your kidneys have to process everything you take in, the supplements, the prescriptions, everything and they just shut down.
Again, these are just observations, but they are affecting my practice. I’m now asking people for any additional supplements they’re taking in addition to what they’re naming and I’m looking at their renal function.
