Living Young Forever

Recession proof your health.

When the economy goes into the dumper usually our buying power goes with it. This can mean all too often having to resort to opting for less expensive nutrient deficient food choices in order to make ends meet.  Combine that with the stress of perhaps longer work hours a second job or no job at all and it is a recipe for a health disaster.

One great option is to supplement your daily nutritional needs with a basic high quality whole food multivitamin to fill in the missing nutritional gaps. With ever increasing demand for supplements over the past several decades there is plenty of excellent options to too choose from at very affordable prices.  For an average of 5 cents per day you can get the much needed daily vitamins and minerals to help keep you healthy when an optimal diet is not possible.

Research has validated time after time that vitamins such as b12 and antioxidants can help the body coop with stress along with other nutrients that can balance the immune system when under duress. Today’s whole food multivitamins offer a full spectrum of nutrients and herbal formulas that help the body and mind keep pace with the demands of the modern day world.

So be sure to take your daily multivitamins, after all where else can you get an all you can eat produce buffet for just 5 cents a day.

Balance-

Nutritional synergy is one of the most important reasons to supplement your diet with vitamins and one that is often over looked. There are volumes of note worth studies on how through a delicate balance vitamins, minerals enzymes, proteins and other vital nutrient components work together and rely on each other for proper absorption and utilization.

One example of this is Vitamin D and its relation to calcium absorption a major concern for, proper bone growth, prevention of osteoporosis and many other roles in human health.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in very few foods and is essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen.

Finding the proper balance and adequate amounts of vital nutrients in our daily diet can be nearly impossible at times. That is why a full spectrum multivitamin supplement can help fill in the gaps for missing nutrients optimizing our normal food intake during the day.

Always remember taking any supplement should not take the place of good eating habits and a well balanced meals.

You just might live longer and live healthier.

In a 2009 a study conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 586 women between the ages of 35 and 74 concluded that the length of the telomeres, a marker for aging, was 5.1 % longer in the vitamin takers, than in those that did not take vitamins.

Similar studies on the impact of health and healthy aging continue to point to the positive benefits of taking vitamin supplements, starting with a full spectrum multivitamin. And further studies have suggest  that adding additional specific vitamins and minerals to offset factors such as genetic predisposition for health problems, environmental factors, age, and lifestyle can be very beneficial.

So live longer live healthier supplement your daily nutritional needs with a daily multivitamin.

Let’s start off with a little reality check. The Recommended Daily Intake is 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables to satisfy our minimum vitamin and mineral needs. How many people can honestly say that they eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day? What is a serving?

Based on the national food pyramid guidelines a serving of:

Vegetables and fruits is

• 1 medium piece of fruit

• 1 cup raw leafy greens

• ¾ cup fruit or vegetable juice

• ½ cup raw or cooked non-starchy vegetables, such as asparagus or squash

Multiply this by 5 or 10

How many people can say they eat 3-5 cups of fresh raw leafy vegetables a day? How about 1-2 cups?  The reality is that most Americans do not get nearly enough fruits and vegetables in their daily diet. That’s why taking a nutrient dense vitamin such as a whole food multi-vitamin is so important. Remember taking a multi vitamin is not a reason to stop striving to eat right and live a healthy life style it just helps keep you up with the daily nutritional demands for your body.

Going Green is the new buzz word and mantra of the politicians and environmentalist, and we think it is great. We love the idea of taking care of our little home floating around in the universe. After all it is the only one we have for now.  From the perspective of a health and wellness professional we have been chanting this mantra  for decades, GO GREEN, in fact we say GO SUPER GREEN, super green food that is.

The health benefits of super green foods have been well documented through the years. Studies have shown that green foods such as wheatgrass, barley grass, alfalfa, chlorella, spirulina, blue-green algae (AFA), and green tea can have a remarkable impact on improving and maintaining health. Some of the well know documented health benefits of consuming Super Green foods are more energy, neutralizing and removing toxins from the body, alleviating or control asthma, obesity, skin, anemia, arthritis, digestive problems, diabetes, heart disease, and hepatitis.  The list goes on but I think you get the point it’s SUPER.

We hope you continue taking steps to keep the planet healthy and green and use the same philosophy for your health as well.

As most of us go through the day it is not always practical let alone easy to eat right. Getting all the daily recommended intake of vital nutrients to keep us on top of our game can certainly be a challenge in today’s fast paced nearly nonstop world. But without vibrant health it is nearly impossible to keep up with the modern day demands and the break neck pace of life. Plagued by the temptation of easily available fast food, the option for Americans is usually to opt-out for high calorie low nutritional foods.

That is why it is so important to take a daily multivitamin supplement to insure getting optimal daily nutrient intake. Whole Food nutrient dense vitamins are always the best choice whenever possible as they supply not only a full spectrum of daily nutrients it is also “real food”. Taking an organic formulated daily vitamin is even better when available.

In an ever present world of rising  health care costs people are realizing that a pound of prevention is worth a ton of cure. It use to be an ounce and a pound but inflation is rampant in the medical business forcing basic services out of the reach of many. Between the cost of medical services and medical insurance (if you can get it) more and more people just can’t afford to get sick, literally.

The bad news is there is no end in sight soon, but the great news is prevention awareness is on the rise. People are making healthier food choices and using alternative therapies such as massage and acupuncture to stay healthier.

Many people are going back to the basics and are taking there own health into there own hands by finding ways to “stay” healthy. Staying  healthy is truly the best way to avoid rising health care costs. We are not of course suggesting you should not seek out medical help when necessary or you should self diagnose. However we do believe that you can do some simple things to be pro active in prevention and to avoid the high cost of medical services. Prevention is allot less expensive.

With just a few simple basic time tested steps you not only can help minimize having  to go to the doctor you might just find that you fell better, are fully energized and getting more living out of life.

Here are our top six steps to a healthier you “Health Basics 101″.

1. Eat Whole Foods – Organic Whenever Possible
2. Drink  Plenty of Pure Fresh Water
3. Get Lots Fresh Clean Air
4. Get Proper Rest
5. Take Appropriate Nutritional Supplements for Nutrition Insurance
6. Exercise,- Get Your Body in Motion.

Watch for future blogs as we take an in depth look at these six simple ways to staying healthy.

Part II of the protein puzzle-

Whats a gram of protein? So using our model from the last blog  if we need 62 grams of protein per day and we buy our meat lets say in ounces and pounds we need to do a little math again. So now its time to cut to the chase or in this case the Steak.

3 oz of Top Sirloin has ruffly 26 grams of protein a lean beef burger 22 grams so this means that if you ate 3 -1/4  lb lean burger patties in a day you would “meat” your minimum daily protein requirements. So you can fire up the Barbecue or you can ditch some of the saturated fat by using a protein supplement such as a protein smoothie for breakfast or a protein bar for a healthy snack. Either way it is easy to get your daily protein intake.

Part I of the protein puzzle-

As we discussed in our Blog metric conversion confusion the use of the metric system can make things a little challenging for those of us on the standard system of measurement and this is especially true when it comes to figuring out how much daily protein you need in your diet for optimal health.

The ongoing discussion among health professionals on how much protein you actually need each day is still a hot debate with no definitive answer in sight. The most widely excepted model for the minimum daily intake is 1 gram of protein for every kilogram of lean body mass ether by whole food or a protein supplement.  Here we go with the metric system again. Not to mention getting an accurate reading on lean mass. And do not rely on a personal trainer using the body fat caliber method to be even close to accurate, but that’s for another day.

Lets first get this metric thing sorted out. A 180 lb person converts to 81.647 Kilograms and lets say our average person has a 25% body fat, that leaves 61.235 kilograms of lean mass. Using the current theories this person needs a minimum 61 to 62 grams of protein per day to sustain there health. Derived either through whole foods our protein supplements. This of course is not taking into consideration any other factors such as lifestyle, health and genetics.

Next up how do I meet the required amount I need.

How much protein can be absorbed at each meal has been an ongoing topic of conversation among athletes especially body builders for sometime now.  The most definitive answer so far has come from several resources in the scientific community one of which is D. M. Matthews Department of Chemical Pathology, Westminster Medical School, London.

Their research supports similar studies that the body absorbs 90 to 95% of the intake.  In other words if you ate a serving of  chicken containing 20g of protein, on average the body would uptake approximately 18g, 30g=27g, 40g=36g and so on. The source of the protein such as a lean cut of beef vs. say a protein shake does not make a significant difference in absorption.

An important note about this is that just because the body extracts it from the digestion process does not mean it uses all of it. Some of the protein may be excreted if not needed. Just how much your body needs per day or meal is another topic and deserves further discussion.

So regardless of your preference in food chocies you might say when it comes to protein you get what you pay for, well ok all but about 5 to 10% but that is still a bargin in todays economy.