Foods That Suppress Appetite

There has been a lot of controversy in the news over natural appetite suppressants. Hoodia has been in the news. It has been painted with an evil brush, but what most people do not understand is that it has been eaten as a part of people’s diet for centuries. It is part of a naturally growing cactus that just happens to have the ability to suppress the appetite.

This made me wonder whether other foods have any appetite suppressant qualities. The first thing I learned was that most people are not hungry when they ‘feel’ hungry – they are thirsty.

Today’s diet has cross wired our brains messages. Most people feel the same whether they are hungry or thirsty. Next time you want to reach for a snack, pick up a bottle of water first.

If water doesn’t do the trick, then drink vegetable broth. The broth is better than juice. The juice may have starches added to make the drink thicker, smoother, or improve the color. Broth is primarily water and does are not ad calories.

Green foods will suppress the appetite. Any green or leafy vegetable will work. The simplest ‘food’ is apples. It works for people who are feeding their emotions, and it also curbs the appetite. Eat about 30 minutes before dinner and you’ll eat less food.

Another appetite suppressant food is a pickle. Trader Joe’s pickles have the benefit of having no added food coloring. But, read the ingredients. Some pickles are more ‘candied vegies’ than pickles. They have no dietary benefits.

If you must pop pills, then take fiber pills. Drink plenty of water with them. Without water they can cause digestive problems. Not only will they prime the digestive system so weight loss is easier, but the right ones will make the stomach feel full.

How I Learned to Like Myself

The day I over-heard my mother and aunt talking about my grandmother’s failing health became the most dramatic turning point in my life. According to my grandmother’s doctor, her failing physical health was partly due to un-forgiveness. It shocked me that a trained doctor would make such a radical statement. I first believed that my mother heard wrong, but over the years, I have seen many people overcome emotional and physical problems by learning to forgive. Doctors do not deny that some problems are stress related or caused by the bitterness and resentment we feel against people who hurt us.

Beth (not her real name) was always ill. She had heart problems at a young age, and spent several weeks at home in bed. This made it impossible for her to establish a career or even meet the bills. She did not imagine these illnesses. They included serious sinus and ear infections, which required antibiotics, headaches, and an ever-increasing list of allergies. After suffering for ten years, she was introduced to emotional healing. She learned to control her anger, stop procrastinating, confront problems, and forgive. Beth took charge of her life, and two years later a dynamic, energetic, happy Beth replaced the pale, struggling, old Beth.

The difference? Beth learned to make good choices.

When we think of making good choices, we think of money management, a career choice, entering or leaving a relationship, or changing the course of our lives. While these are dramatic turning points, these choices do not have the greatest effect on our lives.

Our most important choices are:
To love
To respect
To be kind
To forgive
To forget
To take control of today’s problems, and handle them today

These choices make the difference between happiness and some types of depression, peace and bitterness, anger and patience, high/low self-esteem, or contentment and turmoil.

Love

Love without action is dead. Many people complain that there is no fire left in their relationships, but when they list the things they do to build that fire, the list is pathetically short. We need to love the people in our lives. We do not love others with acts of kindness, compassion, affection, and friendship for their benefit, we do it because humans need to feel love.

There is a secret to feeling loved. It grows from the inside. You can pour years of love into a person with low self-esteem, and it will just drain out like water through a sieve. This is because love grows inside of us and reaches out, only then will we ‘feel’ the love others give us.

Respect and Kindness

These go hand in hand. People who do not respect others have a low self-esteem and emotional intelligence level. This is not because they are bad people, but they do not rejuvenate their inner person.

When I was little my mom asked, “Is your loving cup full?” She was referring to my self-esteem. How I felt about myself. When I grew up, I learned that life drains this ‘measuring cup’ on a daily basis. We refill it by doing something positive. One example is making cookies when you are depressed. Another example is being nice to people, especially when they do not deserve it.

By changing the things we do toward ourselves and others, we change the way we see ourselves and the way others see us.

I Write For SocialSpark

I’ve had a few questions about paid posts on my blogs. The paid post advertising is often confused with a paid review, or an endorsement for a product. Instead, they should be viewed in the same light as an advertisement in a newspaper. You would never throw away a newspaper because there was an ad beside the article.

However, there are paid post companies that expect their bloggers to write posts on any client, without any regard to the blogger or their readers. I do not sign with these agencies. I write only for companies that let me pick and chose the posts I want to write about. The newest, and already the best is Social Spark.

You will always know if I post for SocialSpark. There will be a bar at the bottom of the post. This lets me write a post for a client that I believe in, but lets you know that the advertiser sponsored the post. It also lets you know that I’ve handpicked the sponsors for this blog.

SocialSpark was built by IZEA to meet the needs of bloggers and their readers. You need good content, and I work hard to find information that will improve your life. Sponsors do not intrude on our blog, instead, they support the blogs so that the good ones do not go ‘off line’ because the blogger needs to spend more time at their job.

Enjoy the blog. I write it for you. Enjoy the sponsored posts – those companies believe in this blog and offered to sponsor it so it would stay online.

Foods That Help Dieting

I Am Hungry!

How do you diet when you feel hungry all the time? This can be one of the most difficult aspects of losing weight. I’ve resorted to some ‘no-no’ habits. I’ll pop some fiber pills if I am hungry. That works if I can force down a couple bottles of water afterward.

I’ve taken to having small fruit around. Sometimes I cannot down a full apple. But I’ll eat a few strawberries. I doubt I am really hungry, I just want to snack. My main problem is that I am a grazer. I like to eat a little at a time, all day. My problem is that I like crunchy foods. There is no natural substitute for crunchy and starchy foods.

Negative Calorie Foods
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cucumber
Fennel
Leek
Lettuce
Peppers
Tomato

Negative Calorie Fruit
Blackberry
Blackcurrant
Mandarin orange
Melon Cantaloupe
Peaches
Plums
Raspberry
Rhubarb
Strawberry
Grapefruit
Honeydew Melon
Tangerine

Understanding Your Need for Sleep

A Canadian study, published today in the medical journal Sleep, tested 276 adults between 21 and 64 years of age. They tested short and long duration sleepers. They found that 35 per cent and 25 per cent are more likely to gain 5kg (11lb) compared with average duration sleepers who maintained 7 hours sleep.

Short sleepers gained 1.98kg (4.3lb) while long sleepers gained 1.58kg (3.4lb).

The risk of developing obesity increases more than 27 percent for over sleepers.

Previous research suggested that sleep loss could disturb the production of hormones that control the desire for calorie rich foods. The level of ghrelin, the hormone released by the stomach to signal hunger, was 15 per cent higher in people who sleep five hours compared to those getting eight hours.

Lack of sleep leads to tiredness during the day, which reduces the level of physical activity.

The alarming statistics are for those who lack sleep. People who sleep five or fewer face a 70 per cent risk of dying from all causes - and twice the risk of death from a cardiovascular disease.

Professor Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, said those whose sleeping habits exceed seven hours, or who regularly get less, should not despair. They are not at risk.

"There is a great deal of evidence now that sleeping less than five hours a night is linked with putting on weight," he said, "but it's a very slow weight gain over a number of years."

So, enjoy a full night’s sleep.

Happy Earth Day

Most years April is wet and cool. This year, the temperature is a balmy 20C. The windows are open. The sky is blue. The air is warm. I love spring. I've already been to the garden centers. Their racks are still bare. The skids stacked in patient repose. Only the greenhouses are a hive of activity, their thousands of plants yearning for the summer's light.



Work at Home Freelance
Pro Aging
Living With Food Related Diseases

Open Windows

I opened the windows today. It was so nice to work with the soft spring air floating in the window. I am so looking forward to getting my Dalphinums and cala lillies into the garden. I have some huge ones so I can create a huge red wall across the back of the yard. They look so beautiful under the pear trees.

I'll take a picture of them this year so you can see. I'll be working more on the left of the yard this year. It is a hard area to work with becuase we have a church which covers 1/3 of my hard in shade ALL day - no sun at all. This is hard even for shade plants.

I feel so land locked. I just can't wait to get outside.

How Do You Ruin Your Life?

Answering these questions will tell you what type of work at home business you will succeed at, and whether you are predestined to run your own business, or work with an organization. Everyone will have some of these to a greater or lesser extent. The ability to succeed is based in our ability to take an honest look at ourselves and prevent our weak personality traits from sabotaging our success.

1. I don’t read self help books, or I read self help books but they don’t help.

If your marriage is on the rocks, then you try to fix what is wrong with your spouse. If you are not being promoted at work, then it is because people are against you. You have lofty goals, but something always gets into the way.

There is no right answer to the above. It is the attitude that is pulling you down. Your boss may be against you, but your unwillingness to admit that you have faults and work ‘hard’ to fix them (no matter how hard it hurts) is what is ruining your chances of success.

2. You let your emotions make decisions for you.

You are going to buy a car. You walk into a lot and walk out with a car. You never sit down and calculate the true, long-term, cost of the car. You drive it and then buy – trusting your 10 minute drive to tell you everything you need to know about the make, model, manufacturer, and resell value of the car.

You stay in an unsatisfactory job for years because you are afraid that you’ll not measure up when you go to interviews. You would rather not try than have your feelings hurt.

These people find it easy to start a project , but they rarely finish them. They may write a book, but they won’t edit it. They will set up a web-business, but won’t do the internet marketing.

3. You are afraid of making choices.

You date for years, always wondering if this is the right one, will something better come along, what happens if they change after marriage.

You won’t leave a bad situation – marriage – job – house – because it is a decision. This is especially dangerous when combined with a person who lets their emotions make decisions for them.

3. You are motivated by an emotional need.

You can be motivated by guilt
Your house is perfect because it makes you feel better than others
You write a book because authors are special
You fix things to keep others from being angry
You do without to keep others from being angry – you don’t like to rock the boat.
You can easily be emotionally blackmailed. You hate saying ‘no’ to anyone.

These emotional needs always pit us against others. We are always striving to be better than others. We may even have a victim complex, where we feel needed even thought we are being victimized.

4. Low Self Esteem

I am never doing enough
I let everyone down
I am always saying sorry

Ancient Beauty Tips

The practice of covering the body with perfumes is as old as the oldest civilization. In India, herbs - Saffron - were rubbed on the body as an antiseptic. This helped them stay healthy.

In ancient Egypt women did not use soap to wash their bodies. They used soda. When finished they rubbed their bodies in fragrant oils. Cleopatra bathed in milk and honey.

Concubines of ancient Persia and Assyeria ate herbs and flowers until the perfum oozed from their pores. Other women might have used the same beauty treatment, but only if their husbands were wealthy.

Clay has been used in Morocco for thousands of years. It is an exfoliant and may even have tore the top layers of skin off. Their main beauty product was olive oil. It cleaned the skin and kept it smooth and suptle.

Indonesian princesses bathed in sheep or cows milk. Do not rinse after.

Fresh Vs Canned Fruit

We are starting to learn that fruits and vegetables can prevent disease and in some cases can even reverse the damage done by years of neglect. Statistics and research has ample information on the vitamins and minerals available in fruits and vegetables.

What most people don’t realize is that produce starts to lose its health benefits shortly after being picked. Today’s method of picking vegetables green and spraying them with a chemical (actually, a poison) that preserves them and ripens the produce in transport means that most vegetables in the produce isles do not have a chance to reach their peak.

This is done to oranges. They are picked green and then a hose is stuck in the trucks. A chemical is sprayed in that turns them orange. They are not ‘really’ ripe – just orange.

Some produce is grown hydroponically. The process grows the vegetables in a chemical solution that ‘forces’ them to grow faster and larger. You can often taste the difference.

Foreign grown produce can take weeks to reach the store shelves.

Canned and Frozen produce is often processed shortly after picking. They do lose value. But, they are closest to fresh fruits. Canned fruit is picked when ripe. Fresh produce is picked far too early.

“Other plant vitamins can also be affected by premature picking. Researchers in Spain conducted an in-depth investigation of cherries ripening and found 14 different stages, during which the fruit turned from green to red.9 They concluded that for maximum nutrition, cherries should be picked at stage 12, way beyond the stage at which they’re harvested green by commercial growers. To illustrate how important the ripening process is, if cherries are picked at stage 8, their vitamin C content is half the amount it is if they’re picked at stage 14.9 Similarly, researchers at Oregon State University who studied blackberries discovered that green ones contain 74 mg of anthocyanins, compared to 317 mg in ripe ones (per 100 grams fresh weight).3 The same phenomenon occurs in other fruits as well. http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/sep2005_report_veggies_01.htm

Drying fruit destroys most vitamin C in the fruit. Commercially dried fruit hast sulfur dioxide added to preserve color and nutritional value. However, foreign fruits have toxins and pesticides sprayed that can actually be poisons.

“Type of container: In cans, which are not used very much today, it was found that enamel-lined cans had higher losses of vitamin C than plain tin cans. This was due to residual oxygen and vitamin C reacting with the tin. Glass packed orange juice provides poor retention of vitamin C, losing 10% after 4 months of storage. Older cardboard cartons lost up to 20%. (Today, most cartons have specially designed multi-layered oxygen and light barriers to protect both loss of vitamin C, flavor, and to enhance shelf-life.) FCOJ packed in foil-lined cardboard cans retained greater than 90% of their vitamin C after 12 months at -20°C.

“Handling and storage: Oxygen is the most destructive ingredient in juice causing degradation of vitamin C. However, one of the major sugars found in orange juice, fructose, can also cause vitamin C breakdown. The higher the fructose content, the greater the loss of vitamin C. Conversely, higher acid levels of citric and malic acids stabilize vitamin C. Orange juice must be stored at proper cool temperatures with oxygen barriers for best retention of vitamin C levels. When fresh citrus is stored at 38°F for 12 weeks, there was no loss of vitamin C, but when stored at high temperatures, the loss was great.” http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/vitaminc.html

http://www.weightwatchers.ca/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=11441

Why Health Food Stores Can Be Bad

I went into a health food store a few years ago with the objective of testing the ‘specially trained technitain.’ I asked what medical ingredients were in willow bark. I was assured that their willow bard was 100% organic and there was no medical chemicals added.

I took another step and asked if there were any medical ‘properties’ and was again assured that there are not. I finally asked why willow was good for my allergies. They assured me it was because natural things interact naturally with other natural things to help them work better – I left feeling uneasy.

The fact is that most of our medicines contain these ‘natural’ elements that are a part of our herbs and natural plants. Each of the properties that heal are – indeed – medical in definition. They are medicinal ingredients.

When a health store misrepresents this, they down play the importance of making sure there is no reaction between the medical properties in natural products and the pills that you are currently taking. It amazes me that herbalists in stores can do the same job as a pharmacist, but do not need any training.

I am sorry, but I can walk into my garden and make a tea that will help heal. I can also walk out there and make one that will kill. There is no way to measure the number of people who have died because of an interaction between medicines and holistic medicine.

Herbs and nutritional supplements can cause health difficulties. I remember one of the most shocking instances I’ve ever seen. It was in a published book. The book said to take comphry internally which we all know causes liver disease and other internal problems.

If you want to take herbs and natural supplements then you need to contact a National Institute of Medical Herbalists (www.nimh.org.uk).
But, try a good diet first. Foods should always be the first line of defense. They can help symptoms, and even reverse the damage caused by disease.

Top Detox Foods: Watercress

Watercress is high in beta-carotene, Vitamins A, B1 and B6, C, E and K. It also contains abundant Iodine, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc and Quercetin. It can be eaten in salads, soups, and sandwiches. The peppery little green leaves have a diuretic (elevated the body urine rates) effect that helps move things through your system. And cress is rich in minerals too. Watercress is easy to eat, and one of the healthiest foods around.

Quercetin is a flavonoid which is shown to reduce inflammation and is natural anti-histamine. Watercress is good for people with breathing and lung problems including allergies and asthma. It is also reported to be good for cancer, heart conditions, eczema, weight loss, parasites, circulation, kidney problems and lack of energy.

The British Journal of Cancer reports "when treated with a combination of Quercetin and ultrasound at 20 KHz for 1 minute duration, skin and prostate cancers show a 90% mortality within 48 hours with no visible mortality of normal cells".

The Watercress Alliance conducted a study from the University of Ulster. They found that watercress contains compounds that help prevent damage to the DNA in white blood cells, an important trigger in the development of cancer.