By: Dr. Mercola

About half the country takes nutritional supplements, and I suspect the percentage is considerably higher for readers of this newsletter. Supplements can compensate for some of the damage we do to ourselves. However, my experience is that many people, if not most, take supplements to justify their poor food choices. This makes as much sense as building a boat with rotten wood and using the best screws in the world to fasten them together. The boat may hold together, but it will leak everywhere. The boards in the boat are like the macronutrients in our body – the protein, carbohydrates and fats that we consume. If we make poor choices there, the screws — the vitamin supplements — we use are irrelevant.

Most vitamins serve as catalysts for reactions to occur in our body. While we need catalysts, it is more important to obtain good fuel for the reactions to properly occur. Also, a funny thing happens when you start out with good fuel (raw organic food): it has most of the vitamins and minerals you need packed right inside and at no extra charge. Amazing.

Most of the new patients I see are spending more than $100 a month on supplements, with some significantly higher than that. But supplements will not compensate for improper eating. Use the right food as your supplement and you will be much healthier.

That said, there are certain clinical conditions that do warrant the use of nutrients and supplements as drug alternatives, and I use this approach frequently. My key, though, is to minimize the long-term use of supplements. And I really don’t think healthy patients should be on more than five supplements a day.

On supplement I do advise for most new patients is probiotics, to optimize their gut flora. While most people seem to benefit from this periodically, I generally don’t believe it is necessary to remain on it indefinitely.

Another supplement that is near critical for some patients, particularly those who avoid eating animal protein, is vitamin B12. I don’t advocate avoiding all meat, but it is, nevertheless, a common approach among patients. The human body is quite forgiving and can tolerate the associated abuse – highly insufficient B12 intake — for about 7 years, as it utilized the liver reserves of B12. But after those 7 years, the B12 deficiency frequently causes irreversible brain damage.

Finally, I want to make it clear that I do not classify fish oil as a supplement. It is a food alternative to fish. Sadly, our culture has managed to pollute the world enough to eliminate this entire class of food from our diet. Fish were a very healthy food for their Omega-3 fat content, but mercury, PCBs and DDT are now present in nearly all fish to varying degrees. I had previously listed a set of fish that were less contaminated, but have seen many patients consume even these “safe” fish and then show elevated levels of mercury in their system. Most fish oil is molecularly distilled so that the mercury is extracted from the fish, leaving only the benefits.

Here is a list of supplements

1. Krill Oil

2. Probiotics

3. Anti-oxidants – Honestly, I consume a lot of orange juice and coffee, which has the anti-oxidants I need. Vitamin C pills also work.

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About this video

(source: PBS)

In the debate over energy resources, natural gas is often considered a “lesser-of-evils”. While it does release some greenhouse gases, natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil, and is in plentiful supply—parts of the U.S. sit above some of the largest natural gas reserves on Earth. But a new boom in natural gas drilling, a process called “fracking”, raises concerns about health and environmental risks.

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Image source: www.yobazzip.com

By: Kyle Simpson

If you don’t know what a bucket list is then you have apparently been living under a rock for awhile (see 2007 movie The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman).  It is basically a list of all the things that any given individual would like to accomplish before they die.  Some popular entries include such diverse activities as: fall in love, start a business, write a book, join the Peace Corp, go skydiving, visit Paris (the city, not the heiress), attend a Mardi Gras celebration, save a life, and so on and so forth.  Everyone’s bucket list is different, but they almost always involve travel, love, success, and excitement or adventure (and usually at least one thing that is truly crazy).  However, these lists rarely include health-related items.  Sadly, most people are not that concerned with becoming a truly healthy (physically, mentally, spiritually, or otherwise) individual before they die.  But here are few health-conscious items that you may want to consider when making your own list.

1. Learn yoga in India.  This fusion of mind and body is a useful tool in two ways.  It is a physical activity that keeps your body strong and flexible and it also helps to calm and focus your mind.  So go to the source to learn ages-old techniques that will keep you centered while you marvel at the strange and beautiful world we live in.
2. Survive in the wilderness.  You don’t need to go Into the Wild to commune with nature.  A simple camping trip will suffice.  Just make sure you leave the bells and whistles at home (especially electronic devices).  Forget the tent and opt for just a sleeping bag to truly appreciate the scope of the night sky.  And bring your fishing gear instead of hauling a cooler full of meat.  Fish is never as good as when you catch it fresh and fry it up immediately.  Lastly, leave your Coleman stove and flashlights at home.  Use your campfire to cook old school and read by the softly flickering firelight.  You’ll return home relaxed and ready to take on the world.
3. Go vegan.  Try out a vegan diet for awhile.  Learn to live without animal products (meat) or byproducts (dairy) and see how you feel.  Even better: go organic.  A diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts is going to make you feel alert and energized, especially if you know it lacks the chemicals and growth hormones found in many of the foods you normally consume.  Give it a few weeks and see how it changes your life.
4. Try alternative medicine.  Do you really want to be a guinea pig for a drug company that sees you as an expendable loss margin?  Homeopathic medicine has been around for thousands of years and in that time practitioners have learned a thing or two about improving and treating the human condition in a holistic and non-invasive manner.  So instead of taking pain pills for your aching back, opt instead for acupuncture and herbal cleanses to flush out impurities that are cluttering up your body and get your chi back in alignment.
5. Run a marathon.  Okay, we’re ending with a tough one.  Most of us don’t particularly like to run and even if we do, 20+ miles is a stretch.  But the idea behind it is sound.  You could scale it back to running a 5K, 10K, or half-marathon or spice it up by making it a triathlon, but the result is the same: you are setting a goal that will not only improve your strength, stamina, and overall physical health, but will also give you confidence and pride in yourself and your abilities.  That’s something everyone should attain before they kick the bucket.

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(source: TED)

Co-creator of the philanthropic FEED bags, Ellen Gustafson says hunger and obesity are two sides of the same coin. At TEDxEast, she launches The 30 Project — a way to change how we farm and eat in the next 30 years, and solve the global food inequalities behind both epidemics.

About Ellen Gustafson

(source: TED)

Ellen Gustafson co-founded FEED Projects in 2007, creating an immensely popular bag whose profits are donated to the UN World Food Program (WFP). As a former employee of the WFP, she supported their mission to provide school lunches in developing countries so that children could receive both the nutrition and education they need. FEED has also created special bags and a new fund to address the crisis in Haiti, helping the children they once fed at school to rebuild their schools. 

At TEDxEast in May 2010, Gustafson launched The 30 Project — an effort to address the world’s hunger and obesity problems as a holistic global food issue. In her new venture, she hopes to stimulate a movement that will change our food and agricultural systems over the next 30 years so that healthy, balanced meals are available to all. Before her efforts to fix the world’s food issues, Gustafson’s primary concern was international security. She wrote and edited pieces on international terrorism for ABC and was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Comic source: www.tuberose.com

There are an endless number of research conducted which focuses on understanding how the today’s youth make dietary decisions. I have interpreted a consistent theme in most of these studies: That simply educating students about proper nutrition and partaking in some form of physical activity is not enough. Take for example a studied conducted by Yeung et al (2010) that  sampled 836 students (age 11-18; 41% male & 59% female) and looked at perceptions of body weight and image, their eating attitudes and behaviors, eating habits, food knowledge, and perceptions and mastery of cooking skills. The study concluded that despite a majority (94%) having studied food and nutrition in their curriculum, felt competent in making healthful food choices (67%), learned to cook (86%), had “food label-reading skills” (75%), and the majority (92%) knew  the benefits of exercising, less than half ate breakfast every day and fruit and vegetable consumption was below recommended daily intakes (RDI).

I strongly believe that there needs to be a radical change in how we implement dietary education. Our youth need to develop long-term focus in their dietary habits, i.e. life-long work on the process to improve their nutrition and physical activity…not a focus on instant results and diet-trends.  How can this be achieved? I can share my personal experiences in what has allowed me to improve (and continue to improve) my overall dietary habits.

Stock up well: The easiest way to influence your child as a parent is to stock your pantry and fridge with healthy foods. It’s surprising how quickly kids will adapt their diet based on what is provided at home. Yes, you might be indirectly forcing you’re kid to choose an apple over processed apple sauce, but someone needs to crack the wipe to get them on the right track.

“The Sauce is the Boss”: Cooking is still an important process in teaching proper nutrition. A study (HERE) by the University of Minnesota found a direct influence of family meals have on influencing adolescents to eat a healthy diet. The most enjoyable process of cooking, I believe, is preparing the sauce. Using a different sauce creates a different experience even for the same meal. Getting your child to start cooking is one thing…but to get them hooked, then teaching them a handful of simple sauces is the way. HERE is a list of simple sauces that can be taught.  Also, what about giving your child the responsibility to preparing a complete meal for the family every now and then…the parent should help, of course. Another benefit for making sauces…you can easily incorporate several veggies in a batch of your favorite sauce (e.g., tomato sauce for a pasta meal).

Pack on the health: It’s difficult to change an entire school system to provide healthier choices at school cafeterias. If you don’t believe me, check out Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. So, take health into your own hands. Similar to cooking, I’ve developed an appreciation for what I consume when preparing a healthy sandwich for lunch during my high school years. Ever since then, I’ve been preparing my lunches during most of the week.

Advertising literacy: I doubt that I ever was concerned with the amount of sugar in a bowl of Coco Puffs when watching an ad after my favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Junk food commercials are sensationalized to provoke excitement and good feelings in our youth. The power of food advertising (whether it be on T.V., magazines, radio, etc) needs to be incorporated in any youth-focused nutrition intervention. HERE is a study that supports this statement.

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