The Framingham study is a study about the risk factors associated with heart disease. Their primary goal is to establish a risk score for individuals, so that the medical community can "size up" their patients against the score and give them guidelines. Most of the risk factors include blood work-ups. Cholesterol is a public enemy number one based on their findings...
There are so many reasons why the recommends in this study are counter intuitive, but I also like to find research that backs up my instincts.
The British medical journal was the first to publish the findings, but they have now been picked up by numerous medical journals. A team of scientist decided to do their own "Framingham" study in Britain...
Their study finding showed that the men in the "lowest risk" category based on the Framingham score had the highest number of Heart disease...84% higher than what was predicted. The study found that all the results and scores from the Framingham study were completely overestimated.
The British, more or less found the opposite to be true...higher cholesterol....lower the heart attack...
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Cod liver Oil
So, with all the talk about vitamin D and winter months...I have been asked what brands of cod liver oil do I reccomend. Make sure any brand you buy has been screened for mercury, has been cold processed, and has not had the original vitamin component removed. Fish oils in general are in the media right now because of Omega benefits. Many manufacturers, however, are removing the naturally occuring vit A and D for concerns of toxicity, and then adding back in lower levels of said vitamins in their synthetic form.
Some brand reccomends:]
Additional label information if you are choosing a brand not on this list. Some brands of cod liver oil contain very little vitamin D compared to vitamin A. The ration of A to D in cod liver oil should be 10 to 1 or less. (In one popular brand, the ratio of A to D is almost 100 to 1.) Vitamin A and vitamin D work synergistically and without the vitamin D, the vitamin A could be toxic. (Don't buy Barleans...it has a 1000 to 1 ratio.)
Additional Information in Article Form
Some brand reccomends:]
In Stores: Garden of Life, regular dose cod liver oil; Nordic Naturals Vitamin D Cod Liver Oil
Online/Mail Order:
- Dr. Ron's High Vitamin Old Fashioned Blue Ice Pure Cod Liver Oil, 1-877-472-8701, drrons.com
- Radiant Life, Premier High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil, (888) 593-8333, 4radiantlife.com
- Blue Ice, High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil, (402) 858-4818, greenpasture.org
- Wolf River Naturals, wolfrivernaturals.com
Additional label information if you are choosing a brand not on this list. Some brands of cod liver oil contain very little vitamin D compared to vitamin A. The ration of A to D in cod liver oil should be 10 to 1 or less. (In one popular brand, the ratio of A to D is almost 100 to 1.) Vitamin A and vitamin D work synergistically and without the vitamin D, the vitamin A could be toxic. (Don't buy Barleans...it has a 1000 to 1 ratio.)
Additional Information in Article Form
Vitamins an overview
With the winter quickly approaching, and access to fresh veggies is dwindling, many are left wondering how can I make sure my family gets enough vitamins. As American consumers we go to the grocery store and see shelves upon shelves of pharmaceutical vitamins. Some are multi some are single. Some have the whole complex of the vitamin, others are for anti-aging, men or women.
The true irony of vitamin supplements in the grocery store is so often missed or not even thought about by the average consumer. We have become accustomed to the "one-a-day" concept. We have failed to look around the grocery store for our nutrition, and tend to focus on the "one-a-day" for our nutrition. Further more, most of the items contained in the grocery store do nothing to enhance our body's vitamin storage and production, but rather necessitate something else being added after all the damage the food we bought does to our system. Gotta love the industrialization of our food.
Traditional cultures didn't have names for vitamins, they didn't know what vitamins were contained in what food and how many IU of vitamins were required everyday for optimal health. They didn't have food label, or Daily Values established for the foods they ate. They just ate the foods that energized and avoided the foods that caused lethargy or any array of other unpleasant side effects. Our problem. Our bodies operate at such a strung out mal-nourished state all the time we don't even know how to read our own bodies signals. We have been trained to think this tired, overwhelmed, stomach ache, constipation, headache, etc, etc. existence is normal. We have separated those and various other symptoms from our food and have deemed them symptoms that require a "supplement" to fix, whether it be a laxative or a vitamin...we are missing the point.
Vitamins occur in nature in their complete form in the presence of their naturally occurring counterparts, so the body can process and utilize them. When you give your body just a component of a vitamin, it is like giving a child a book, who can't read, and asking them to read it. Giving your child a book, is a good thing, but in the end it won't amount to much if you don't take the time to show them how to accomplish the task at hand...and vitamins are no different.
No pill can replace the value properly prepared foods. They wouldn't be able to manufacture a pill large enough to encompass such a task, nor would anyone want to swallow such a feat.
So what are you to do? Start by spending time researching your food supply. Many foods, vary greatly in vitamin content based on the soil they were grown in. For example, because of the excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers conventionally grown oranges contain 0% vitamin C. The USDA did nutrition profiles of crops from the 50's-70's. Additional research and label updates have not been done since then. It is your job to know what happens to your food before it hits your plate.
Get a basic overview about vitamins, where they are found, and what ones are worth the money!
Try to eliminate the synthetic forms of vitamins from your diet as much as possible.
Increase your grocery budget and decrease your supplement budget...
The true irony of vitamin supplements in the grocery store is so often missed or not even thought about by the average consumer. We have become accustomed to the "one-a-day" concept. We have failed to look around the grocery store for our nutrition, and tend to focus on the "one-a-day" for our nutrition. Further more, most of the items contained in the grocery store do nothing to enhance our body's vitamin storage and production, but rather necessitate something else being added after all the damage the food we bought does to our system. Gotta love the industrialization of our food.
Traditional cultures didn't have names for vitamins, they didn't know what vitamins were contained in what food and how many IU of vitamins were required everyday for optimal health. They didn't have food label, or Daily Values established for the foods they ate. They just ate the foods that energized and avoided the foods that caused lethargy or any array of other unpleasant side effects. Our problem. Our bodies operate at such a strung out mal-nourished state all the time we don't even know how to read our own bodies signals. We have been trained to think this tired, overwhelmed, stomach ache, constipation, headache, etc, etc. existence is normal. We have separated those and various other symptoms from our food and have deemed them symptoms that require a "supplement" to fix, whether it be a laxative or a vitamin...we are missing the point.
Vitamins occur in nature in their complete form in the presence of their naturally occurring counterparts, so the body can process and utilize them. When you give your body just a component of a vitamin, it is like giving a child a book, who can't read, and asking them to read it. Giving your child a book, is a good thing, but in the end it won't amount to much if you don't take the time to show them how to accomplish the task at hand...and vitamins are no different.
No pill can replace the value properly prepared foods. They wouldn't be able to manufacture a pill large enough to encompass such a task, nor would anyone want to swallow such a feat.
So what are you to do? Start by spending time researching your food supply. Many foods, vary greatly in vitamin content based on the soil they were grown in. For example, because of the excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers conventionally grown oranges contain 0% vitamin C. The USDA did nutrition profiles of crops from the 50's-70's. Additional research and label updates have not been done since then. It is your job to know what happens to your food before it hits your plate.
Get a basic overview about vitamins, where they are found, and what ones are worth the money!
Try to eliminate the synthetic forms of vitamins from your diet as much as possible.
Increase your grocery budget and decrease your supplement budget...
Thursday, November 6, 2008
A Great "Con" fusion.
Scenario: Enter into kitchen, slice your chicken for pan frying, heat the stove, place your pan to heat and then you place ____________________ oil in the pan.
Question: What do you put in your pan?
For many of you, you simply follow the American Heart Assoc (AHA) recommendations: A low saturated fat oil which equals a vegetable oil (canola, soybean, cottonseed, etc.) You complete your pan fried chicken feeling good that you have feed your family a "healthier" dinner using your canola oil.
Why am a dedicating a post to this? Well, it is simple really...okay, not so simple, but we need to start somewhere. We will begin with the trans-fats misconception. So the AHA recommends a low saturated fat oil for consumption. The AHA also tells us that Trans-fatty acids are bad for us and increase the risks of cancers, heart attacks, blocked arteries, and inflammation. I'm sure you are thinking where is the problem?
A little piece of the puzzle is missing. Canola oil and its other vegetable oil counterparts contain trans-fatty acids. I know you are thinking that the nutrition label very clearly states that it is trans-fats free. In fact they base entire marketing campaigns on the fact that they are. The FDA requires foods that have a greater than .5g of trans-fats per serving to be labeled (page 17 section 5, first paragraph). Foods that contain .49 grams of trans fats a consumer doesn't have the right to know about them. Canola oil, according to the Canola Association in Canada states that Canola oil contains less than .2% per serving. Independent studies one in particular done at the university of Florida indicated that the levels of liquid oil were closer to 4.5% per serving (at the bottom of risks), and in solid vegetable oils as high at 40% due to the full hydrogenation of the oil.
Bottom line: it is best to avoid all trans-fats. They are not naturally occurring, and your body cannot process them. Pass on the canola oil and go for the butter or coconut oil for cooking.
Question: What do you put in your pan?
For many of you, you simply follow the American Heart Assoc (AHA) recommendations: A low saturated fat oil which equals a vegetable oil (canola, soybean, cottonseed, etc.) You complete your pan fried chicken feeling good that you have feed your family a "healthier" dinner using your canola oil.
Why am a dedicating a post to this? Well, it is simple really...okay, not so simple, but we need to start somewhere. We will begin with the trans-fats misconception. So the AHA recommends a low saturated fat oil for consumption. The AHA also tells us that Trans-fatty acids are bad for us and increase the risks of cancers, heart attacks, blocked arteries, and inflammation. I'm sure you are thinking where is the problem?
A little piece of the puzzle is missing. Canola oil and its other vegetable oil counterparts contain trans-fatty acids. I know you are thinking that the nutrition label very clearly states that it is trans-fats free. In fact they base entire marketing campaigns on the fact that they are. The FDA requires foods that have a greater than .5g of trans-fats per serving to be labeled (page 17 section 5, first paragraph). Foods that contain .49 grams of trans fats a consumer doesn't have the right to know about them. Canola oil, according to the Canola Association in Canada states that Canola oil contains less than .2% per serving. Independent studies one in particular done at the university of Florida indicated that the levels of liquid oil were closer to 4.5% per serving (at the bottom of risks), and in solid vegetable oils as high at 40% due to the full hydrogenation of the oil.
Bottom line: it is best to avoid all trans-fats. They are not naturally occurring, and your body cannot process them. Pass on the canola oil and go for the butter or coconut oil for cooking.
Flu Season
With the brink of flu season quickly approaching, the start of flu shots has begun. It seems I can't walk into a store or read a newspaper, that doesn't have some sort of promotion of this vaccine. I am not going to go into all the reasons and research that suggests that they are ineffective, if you want more about that, leave a comment and I will dedicate a post to it, but rather what you can do to prevent, shorten or lessen the symptoms of the flu naturally.
We will talk about 4 things in the post:
The new wonder vitamin. Vitamin D wins the vitamin spotlight this flu season. New research suggests that our vitamin D requirement, from the FDA, is guesstimated to be aprox. ten times lower than what our bodies really need. This new research also shows the important role that vitamin D plays in helping our immune systems fight off viruses (including the flu.)
We have known for a while now that Vitamin C is a wonderful immune booster too! The important thing to note about Vitamin C is that it is not a heat stable vitamin. By that I mean, once heated the activating power in the vitamin is killed. What does that mean for you? Put down the pasteurized OJ, and eat an organic orange straight up!
Garlic is a wonderful natural anti-fungal and bacterial agent as well. Garlic, just like vitamin C, needs to be consumed in its raw unheated state. Once it is heated, the antimicrobial agent is killed. So, hold your nose and chew some cloves. :)
Coconut oil. Natures miracle oil, Why? Coconut oil as well, has antimicrobial agents in it. Lauric acid is most commonly noted in the oil. This helps the brain and the immune system all at one time! Just think you are getting smarter and avoiding the flu all at one time! A recent study showed the patients who had pneumonia who were supplemented with Coconut oil recovered faster than those who just had antibiotic treatment.
We will talk about 4 things in the post:
The new wonder vitamin. Vitamin D wins the vitamin spotlight this flu season. New research suggests that our vitamin D requirement, from the FDA, is guesstimated to be aprox. ten times lower than what our bodies really need. This new research also shows the important role that vitamin D plays in helping our immune systems fight off viruses (including the flu.)
We have known for a while now that Vitamin C is a wonderful immune booster too! The important thing to note about Vitamin C is that it is not a heat stable vitamin. By that I mean, once heated the activating power in the vitamin is killed. What does that mean for you? Put down the pasteurized OJ, and eat an organic orange straight up!
Garlic is a wonderful natural anti-fungal and bacterial agent as well. Garlic, just like vitamin C, needs to be consumed in its raw unheated state. Once it is heated, the antimicrobial agent is killed. So, hold your nose and chew some cloves. :)
Coconut oil. Natures miracle oil, Why? Coconut oil as well, has antimicrobial agents in it. Lauric acid is most commonly noted in the oil. This helps the brain and the immune system all at one time! Just think you are getting smarter and avoiding the flu all at one time! A recent study showed the patients who had pneumonia who were supplemented with Coconut oil recovered faster than those who just had antibiotic treatment.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Noah Man
So, I know so of you want to see more photos of Noah, so here goes. This is the photo update from August to September. This covers our trip to see Rachel, Rob, and Hannah, Noah's broken arm, the labor day parade, and the purchase of Noah's new bike helmet. Which he seems to be absolutely attached to. While I know it is now November, and I am only covering till September, I promise I will get the others up this week! Happy viewing.
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