It’s back to school time and nothing can ruin teens’ confidence (or adults for that matter) like acne can. We know that your diet affects your complexion. My teenage son is the perfect example. He is so sensitive to the wrong things in his diet that even a piece of bread shows up on his skin. He’s so acutely aware of this that he won’t even go near starches – and he’s a seventeen year old boy!

Believe it or not, the same dietary issues we talk about as the roots of diabetes and heart disease also cause acne in our kids (and adults). When you eat junk, aka pop tarts, soda pop, chips and cookies, sugary cereals, etc. you are eating what dietitians call easily digested carbohydrate (EDC). EDC are such small molecules that when you eat them, they go straight to the stomach and barely any digestion is needed. EDC causes an immediate blood sugar spike. And guess what? That spike feels good. You get a sugar rush and a serotonin release, but then your blood sugar crashes and when you take that turn, you get irritable and crabby and low energy and that makes you want to eat more EDC and spike that sugar again. Spiking and crashing goes on all day from morning until night. Every spike and crash causes inflammation and inflammation leads to disease. In teens and even some adults, that inflammation manifests itself as acne.

When you stop spiking and crashing your sugar, your skin clears. How do you do that? By eating a diet of fruits and vegetables and lean protein. Replace the morning pop tarts with lean protein and two colors from fruits or vegetables. In fact, two colors and a lean protein choice should be the rule morning, noon and night. This keeps your blood sugar nice and even and prevents those inflammation-causing spikes. Remember, nothing tastes that good to be worth having really bad skin. Why resort to potentially dangerous drugs like Accutane and others if you don’t have to?

Remember,
Fruits and Vegetables
+
Protein
=
Clear Skin.

Next week – My teenage daughter tests our spiking and crashing theory – and the results aren’t pretty!

Be honest. How many times have you or your children had one of these? This slide show may be enough to swear you off any of these so called “drinks” forever. Did you know that one Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water (1 bottle, 20 fl oz) has as much sugar as two Good Humor Chocolate Éclair bars? The word antioxidant in the name can easily trick people into thinking this “water” is healthy. Not so folks.

The simple truth is, your body wants nothing more than just plain water.

Think of a rain forest trying to survive without the rain. It would dry up and turn brown like the desert. And we expect our body’s to survive without the same nourishment. What would happen to your car if you decided to stop feeding it gasoline and went with something cheaper or more convenient instead? You need six to eight glasses of water every day. No exceptions. Coffee and tea are fine as long as you do not add high fat creamers, sugar, or non-nutritive sweeteners (Stevia, NutriSweet, Splenda, and aspartame). Remember no caffeine after noon.

Here are some healthy options: (reposted from my June 8 blog, “Free Soda Pop Today: At Your Child’s School.”

-Water: Learn to drink water again. Everything does not have to be flavored.
-Tea and Coffee (limit caffeine after noon and avoid sweeteners) Be careful! We mean tea bags in water when we say tea; not bottled green teas, etc. Even tea from the soda fountain can be full of sugar. Drink only unsweetened green or black tea.
-Sparkling waters (we like LaCroix, Mendota Springs and Ice Mountain)
-Have access to ice and a water cooler and provide cups – getting water needs to be as convenient as getting a can of soda pop (and providing it free of charge helps).

Let the Music Play – De-Stress and Get Moving

It’s early afternoon and I’m getting ready for a small dinner party with some dear old friends. I love to entertain, but I’m just no good at it. I get stressed out about the house being messy, worry if the bath towels are folded, is there kid “stuff” all over the house, etc. Of course, my husband, who shares none of my worries, has eaten the avocados I had hidden in the back of the refrigerator for this evening and has mysteriously disappeared. These are very good friends and deep down I know that they could care less about how my house looks or if the bath towels are folded, but I’m still really stressed.

Now, you should know that I’m also a self-professed news junkie. I have Headline News on ALL DAY when I’m home. Of course, Headline News replays the same stressful stories all day long on repeat, so by about 2:00, I’d heard the same stressful stuff over and over again. I finally realized that this is doing nothing for me but adding more stress. I turned the TV off and turned on MIX 93.3, my favorite radio station and on came Train, Katy Perry, and Pink and some really fun music. To the chagrin of my family, I’m moving, twisting, twirling and jumping. I am mortifying my kids because this is the music that THEY listen to and here’s mom with a slotted spoon for a microphone TOTALLY embarrassing my kids!

I am having fun and not only am I relieving stress, but I’m burning some serious calories. This was no planned exercise session, just an impromptu deal. Not only was all the work done by the time our company arrived at 5:30, but I was stress-free and had burned more than 300 calories per hour!

The moral of my story is that the next time you’re stressed or need some exercise, just put your favorite music on – I DARE YOU not to move!!!!

Osteoporosis is a condition of decreased bone mass. You may have had a bone density screening in the past to test for signs of osteoporosis. Normal bones have small holes throughout, but an osteoporotic bone has large holes or appears “porous.” These large holes or pores are caused by insufficient amounts of calcium in the bones and many factors contribute to this. Inadequate calcium intake is one factor, but other lifestyle habits can be leeching calcium from your bones as well. Even if you already have osteoporosis or are at risk for the condition, there are lifestyle changes that you can make now that will help make your bones stronger and help you prevent the bone fractures all too common with osteoporosis.

8 Simple Lifestyle Steps for Preventing Osteoporosis

1. Adequate Calcium Intake – You’ve heard it time and time again and this one is never going to change. You’ve got to get enough calcium folks! Calcium in milk has a greater bioavailability than calcium in supplements, but if you can’t do milk products, supplements will suffice. If you simply don’t prefer milk products, please at least split the difference. I recommend taking your calcium plus vitamin D supplement with milk. This is a simple way to try to fool the body into thinking that the calcium supplement is as bioavailable as the calcium in milk.

2. Vitamin D – Calcium is not absorbed as well without vitamin D available in the system. Those with low Vitamin D levels do not absorb calcium well. Make sure you get your vitamin D levels checked and keep them up. Make sure you take your calcium with vitamin D.

3. Watch Your Sodium Intake.  Sodium will leech calcium from your bones. Keep your sodium intake to less than 1500 mg per day. The salt shaker is completely off limits, folks. Strictly limit processed foods and limit eating out – both are terrific sources of sodium. Sodium does occur naturally in milk and meats; however, you need these in your diet (see #1). Meats are complete protein sources and they are necessary to build and rebuild muscle mass broken down with exercise. Try whey protein isolate (I like CardioWhey ). Whey protein is not only a complete protein with every amino acid, but is a terrific way to build muscle and contains very little to no fat and sodium.

4. Alcohol.  Limit your alcohol consumption to one drink per day at the most. Consuming more than one drink per day is a risk factor for bone loss.

5. Pump Some Iron.  Weight lifting is very important for preventing osteoporosis, but why? When you work your upper body and build a strong core, you are building a strong, stable body. The more muscle you have, the more your bones have to carry around all day – and this is a good thing! More muscles lead to stronger bones.

6. Skip the Elliptical and Stair Climbing Machine.  Instead, run walk or jump. Good “pounding” exercises like these will strengthen your bones while whittling your weight. Jumping is the most effective bone building cardiovascular exercise that we know. Jump rope, do jumping jacks, jump on the kids’ trampoline, anything will work.

7. Follow exercise with whey protein.  Use whey within one hour of your workout (before or after). Working out breaks down muscles and whey protein gives the body the tools it needs to rebuild those muscles.

8. Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables.  Fruits and veggies are incredibly important as they help to prevent the leeching of calcium from your bones. Fruits and vegetables help balance the acid: base ratio in your body. Junk foods like cookies, donuts and potato chips make your body more acidic and this promotes calcium leeching from the bones. Excess sodium, junk food, and even meats will increase the acidity of your body’s fluids, but colorful fruits and vegetables will help to balance it and in turn help keep calcium in your bones where it belongs.

For more information about osteoporosis click here.

Got your attention, didn’t I? Parents and health experts are outraged by childhood obesity, but kids aren’t the only ones suffering. I do a lot of workplace wellness talks and I keep noticing that soda pop and other high-calorie, sugary drinks are the most readily available beverages in most offices. How many of you have soda machines, sugary coffee creamers and other unhealthy beverages within 20 feet of your desk? I see many more soda machines than water coolers and this really drives me nuts.

Scientific data show that consumption of one or more sugary soft drinks during the day increases the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes by 67%. Non-caloric, diet soft drinks are no better. Artificial sweeteners not only turn on the sweet tooth for the day, thereby increasing daily calorie intake, but research shows that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners increases the likelihood of developing the metabolic syndrome by 40%.

Reality is most employees spend all day sitting at a desk. They’re not exercising and chances are they’re drinking sugar all day, whether as coffee creamer, soda pop or lemonade, causing constant spiking and crashing of the blood sugar and increasing disease risk. Business owners and managers bring me in to talk about health and wellness in an effort to improve employee health, but also to improve health insurance costs. Bottom line is employers themselves need to do a better job of getting healthy beverages (we’ll talk snacks later) into the workplace and employees need to ask for them.

Here are some healthy options for workplace beverages:

• Water: Learn to drink water again. Everything does not have to be flavored.
• Tea and Coffee (limit caffeine after noon and avoid sweeteners)
• Sparkling waters (we like LaCroix, Mendota Springs and Ice Mountain)
• Have access to ice and a water cooler and provide cups – getting water needs to be as convenient as getting a can of soda pop (and providing it free of charge helps).

Whole Foods discontinues krill, citing ’sustainability issues’.

Read about the sustainability of CardioTabs Ocean Safe Omega-3.  http://www1.cardiotabs.com/oceansafefaq.asp

You can get a free sample of Ocean Safe Omega-3 from CardioTabs.  Simply send an email requesting yours to info@cardiotabs.com.

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)!

More doctors focus on vitamin D deficiencies – KansasCity.com.

Every once in a while a reader will ask us our opinions about whole body, colon cleanses, or detox cleanses. This is a great question and one that I’d like to share the answer with everyone.

Do I recommend cleanses? NO! Absolutely not.

First, know that cleansing is an ongoing process. It’s not something that should happen once or twice a year. The body does a very good job of cleansing itself when given the right tools. If you are following an anti-inflammatory diet like Forever Young, your body is cleansing itself regularly. A good diet will help your body cleanse daily. An anti-inflammatory diet full of colorful fruits and vegetables will sweep any toxins from your body and also sweep your colon. Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants, which help reduce inflammation-causing free radicals, thereby reducing toxins in the body that cause disease.

Should you consider a cleanse prior to starting your new anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle? No! Consider your diet your cleanse. Following a good anti-inflammatory diet is not only perfectly safe (unlike some cleansing systems), but will cost you no extra money. A once yearly cleanse is not going to reduce your chance of disease, but following a good diet (your body’s natural daily cleanse) certainly will.

Many people are also under the assumption that so-called detox cleanses will undo all the damage caused by a poor diet and lifestyle. Not so. Only a healthy diet and lifestyle followed every day will keep your body running clean and efficiently.

By: Dr. James O’Keefe

A recent New York Times article profiled a group of New Yorkers who consider themselves “modern cavemen.” The hunter-gatherer lifestyle really can be ideal. Here is a link to a Mayo Clinic Proceedings article I co-authored with Dr. Loren Cordain, one of the leaders of the hunter-gatherer movement. The article, Cardiovascular Disease Resulting From a Diet and Lifestyle at Odds With Our Paleolithic Genome: How to Become a 21st-Century Hunter-Gatherer, can be found here.  When you eat the Forever Young way, you are essentially eating a hunter-gatherer style diet. Straight from our book, The Forever Young Diet and Lifestyle, here are the basics you need to know to live a hunter-gatherer’s lifestyle and eat the hunter-gatherer diet.

Nine Steps Toward a Hunter-Gatherer’s Diet

If you want to be in sync with your genetic heritage, here are the steps you should follow to become a hunter-gatherer.
1. Thrive on the earth’s natural bounty. Eat whole, natural, fresh foods; avoid highly processed foods.

2. Consume a diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and berries, and low in refined grains and sugars.

3. Increase consumption of omega-3 fatty acids from fish, fish oil, and plant sources like walnuts, canola oil, greens, soybeans, and flaxseed.

4. Avoid trans fats entirely. Eliminate fried foods, hard margarine commercial baked goods, and most packaged and processed snack foods. Also eliminate consumption of fatty meats and high-fat dairy.

5. Increase consumption of lean protein such as skinless poultry, fish, game meats, and whey protein. Eat only lean, fresh cuts of red meat and limit consumption of saturated fats, including fatty, salty processed meats like bacon, sausage and deli meats.

6. Incorporate olive oil or canola oil into your diet, Avoid corn, safflower, sunflower, and vegetable oils.

7. Choose purified water, tea, nonfat unsweetened dairy or soy milk, and red wine. Avoid soft drinks, fruit juices, high-fat dairy, and sports drinks. Even 100 percent fruit juices are still loaded with too much sugar and should be considered off-limits. However, low sodium vegetable juices are very nutritious.

8. Use your body as it was designed and programmed over the millennia and engage in daily exercise from a variety of activities that incorporate aerobic and strength training as well as stretching exercises. Outdoor activities are ideal.

9. Develop and maintain relationships that provide social support (e.g., spouse, family, friends, neighbors, community, etc.) Try to also include some activities that involve altruism and nurturing.