Health News
10 Foods (and fixes) To Improve Your Mood
Men Married to Smart Women Live Longer
Are Men Really That Helpless?
Women have known throughout the ages that men are lousy at taking care of themselves. Now a study by the experts at Stockholm University has proven so.
The Facts:
Data from a 1990 Swedish Census showed that the factor that was best predictor of a long life for a man was the level his wife’s education and NOT the man’s education.
This study seems to prove that a wife’s well intentioned nagging DOES have a positive benefit….IF the woman knows what she is talking about.
The revealing truth is a man will live longer with any woman at his side.
This has been found before in many past research but it was hard to figure out from these studies just which came first – the chicken or the egg. Researchers could always question – do married men live longer than their single counterparts because marriage helps them in some way or is there something about men who live longer that predisposes them to marry? (Perhaps being smarter!) Now we know for sure it is the woman’s touch.
This is probably why, a US health expert suggest a nagging wife can help a man to live to a ripe old age.
Dr. Robert Butler, director of the National Institute on Aging, suggest that women ‘could nag then a little more on certain things.” “To be moderate in smoking and drinking, for instance and keeping them physically more active”
The Implications: (musings from a man)
The trouble with men is that they don’t seem to KNOW how bad they are at taking care of themselves. We think we are pretty good at…well, just about everything.
Personally I think the real problem is our male ego. Perhaps we have always known on some level how hopeless we are at so many things but we don’t want to admit it.
Maybe the smart women in the study don’t know a lot more about health and nutrition than the less educated ones but they are smarter at getting the men to follow their advice, or even better – at getting to men to think the advice was the husband’s idea.
For some reason, I can write about how helpless (dumb) men are – and it doesn’t bother me. Perhaps by writing about it – I put a some distance between me and all those ‘other ‘ guys.
If you look at this closely, this is just male one-up-man-ship all over again. And the distance is very small. I had to learn about nutrition and various health strategies because I got myself in trouble.
The fact is, late into my life I am constantly being reminded of how hopeless I am at the most simple of household events. I thought it would be fun to list a few of my KNOWN gaps plus stories I have come across on the net. Please share you own comments and stories below.
5 Plus Ways Men are Helpless (Dumb)
1. After decades of trying I still haven’t learned how to wash clothes properly. My 20 years old daughter will not allow me to even touch her clothes. This sounds reasonable with a 20 year old but this started over 10 years ago.
2. Most women are somewhat horrified by my level of cleanliness. I just don’t get what all the fuss is about. When we have business meetings in my home, one of the business associates, (Diana) comes over an hour early to organize and clean what I think is an immaculate home.
3. I have friends who think that the way to balance off a meal of pizza and fries or burgers and fries is with equal amounts of coke or beer. The coke is considered the smart choice because the acid in coke somehow helps digestion.
4. As Shane Watson of the UK times writes, “Men will only do exercise that results in a calf injury, and only in binges, so they are grey with exhaustion every day for a week, then laid up for the rest of the month” (rather than yoga.) There’s also the “struggle to prevent men walking to work in winter with sopping wet hair, wearing only a shirt; or reminding them not to shut the tea towel in the oven door, because that’s what causes all the black smoke and flames.”
5. Reasons Why Men are Like Computers: (jokes are usually funny because they are TRUE)
- They have a lot of data but are still clueles.
- They look nice and shiny, until you get them home.
- Even the best are unreliable and insecure.
- To get their attention, you have to turn them on.
- Despite years of evolution, they still can’t think for themselves.
- They”ll do whatever you say if you push the right buttons.
One Last Joke:
“Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to die.” Johnny Carson.
We hope that the health information in Real Food For Life.com will be a help not only to those dumb men but also to the many women who are trying to take care of those dumb men.
Hint: Diana’s ebook Eating Green Clean and Lean was made with the beginner in mind. It’s very easy and simple.
Advise:
The average woman will live longer than a man. To any guy who is bothered by this – the solution is simple – get married. If you are already married – start LISTENING your wife!
Got any more stories or ideas? List them below and we will pick a few of our favorites to acknowledge.
Did Coke Make America Fat?
5 Reasons Why You should Cut down on Pop….and 6 Easy Delicious Replacements
The day I wrote this I was in the grocery store and saw this person checking out with the biggest load of pop I have ever seen in my life. What you see was just part of his load. His shopping cart was literally overflowing JUST with pop. I couldn't stop myself and had to take a quick picture.
Earlier this year New York State Governor David Paterson proposed an 18% so-called ‘fat tax’ on non-diet soft drinks. The government hoped that the tax would reduce the enormous consumption of these sugar-laden liquids, and the income from the tax would assist in helping a growing population of obese individuals.
My first reaction to reading this was “Great – I wonder when they will start taxing the diet sodas too. They can be just as bad. And while they are at it – they could tax the whole junk food industry.”
The state didn’t ask my opinion though and it turns out this tax met too much industry opposition to get passed. To me though, this is a good sign when governments are even thinking of this. These people are not necessarily health advocates but do study the research and see the growing health awareness. The tax parallels cigarette and liquor taxes in its thinking – that these products are consumed by individuals but the whole society ends up paying for the negative influences and therefore deserves to be compensated.
In this case the annual cost of health care for obesity-related diseases is estimated at $79 Billion in the US. You can usually estimate that Canada will be about 10% of that figure. Half of this is met by Medicare in the US, 100% in Canada. – All taxpayers, whether or not they choose to eat a healthy diet, are paying for this.
Are people really being affected by coke and soft drinks? Well…..yes.
Here are Five ways they Rob you of Your Health:
- Americans drink such LARGE quantities of soft drinks that they represent a significant % of our daily calorie intake. By large I mean the average person drinks 150 quarts per year, or about three quarts per week. A significant part of our diet therefore contains no needed nutrients (such as vitamins, minerals, fibre, protein, or essential fatty acids). Pop is just water, chemical flavours, additives plus usually sugar.
- The sugar makes you fat and contributes to diabetes and other degenerative diseases. This was the government’s position)
- Even diet colas have been shown in studies to cause weight gain.You would think that taking in all these liquids would reduce your consumption of other junk foods but studies have shown to actually INCREASE it
- Cola intake has also been associated with increased risk of bone fracture in children, and bone demineralisation in adolescent girls
- Colas have been shown to reduce calcification and increase osteoperosis in adults.
You can read more about these effects by following this link Soft Drinks Hard Facts or this link Just one pop a day .
If these negative are not enough maybe it has to be spelled out in the context of cancer. Both the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research looked at huge amounts of research and advises clearly: “Limit the Consumption of Energy-Dense Foods and Avoid Sugary Drinks.”
The basic problem with these products are that they are NOT REAL FOOD. They are not live food and they are not whole food. The body was never designed to ingest these kinds of products and only gets unbalanced and depleted in the long run.
The solution to this situation couldn’t be simpler because there are so many alternatives. The most obvious drink is WATER which happens to be the most thirst quenching. If you are wanted something with something extra these are all great replacements which happen to be good for you.
Six Easy Replacements for Pop:
- Sparkling mineral water with fresh juice added to it which will have the zing of pop.
- Sparkling mineral water with slices of lemon or lime and a few drops of Stevia.
- Lemon or Lime or Orange Water: Put three slices in a pitcher full of water and leave for an hour and it will be gently flavoured water. One of the benefits is that it will ALKALIZE the water
- Water flavoured with pure fruit juice.
- Lemonade made with fresh lemon juice and Stevia to taste.
- Herbal teas sweetened with stevia. My favorite is Fortune Delight tea from Sunrider. It tastes great and lemon, raspberry, peach, plain and cinnamon.
Feel free to share your comments below and to pass this information onto others.
Nice Cow – Baaad Cow Effects
It's hard to believe. I would have thought it was just an exaggerated interpretation within the heath food industry if it hadn't been published in Scientific American. What their February issue reveals is the tremendous environmental costs of meat production.
I was reminded of this because I have just returned from a health convention in Los Angeles. The convention was great but to get around you have to drive on a seemingly endless horizon of freeways and concrete – one freeway merging into the next – sometimes stacking two or three levels. When you think of all those vehicles – constantly pounding the earth and belching exhaust into the atmosphere throughout the world – its easy to see how this could be ruining our environment and contributing to global warming. Oddly enough though, all the scientific evidence to date shows that the hamburger in your kitchen right now (the beef industry) is actually having a greater impact.
How is this possible? Hint – it's NOT because of their farts – as has been joked at in the media! This great effect is possible mostly because cattle displace useful plants. Trees, grasses and other year round plants are what absorb C02 and capture carbon on this planet but they are displaced for specific crops to house and feed cattle. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
click to see large picture
I was shocked when I saw this two page advertisement in the National Geographic. I’ve taught the regenerative approach to health for over 25 years and this is what I find in a very popular magazine. Although they use the same words I have used (like natural) they come up with very different conclusions. The shocking part was in the explanation on the next page….
It reads…….. Greg Pfaff, Deli Owner, Taking Insulin since 2003.
“I tried to mange my type 2 diabetes with diet, exercise, and pills, so when my doctor said I should add insulin to my therapy, I felt like I’d failed. But he said adding insulin is just replacing what your body should make naturally, and it unlocks your cells so sugar can get into make energy. Millions of people with diabetes take insulin every day to help reach their blood sugar goals. That’s not failure – it’s success. Now when I look at my blood sugar numbers, I have only one regret: that I didn’t add insulin sooner.” RETHINK INSULIN (my bold)
From what I can tell, a one page add in the US costs $185,480.00 US. This was a two page add with a pull out coupon.
What’s do YOU think about this add? I’m really interested in your opinion. You can leave your comments below. I’ll add mine later but I wanted to give you a chance to express also.
Swine Flu… What Should You Do?
On April 29, the World Health Organization raised the pandemic alert level to five; the second-highest level. Millions of people around the world are scared. What should you do? Well first, you should NOT BE FEARFUL,… for a number of reasons. I listed 5 big ones below. I've also explained 7 practical measures that you can implement to deal with this and many more situations.
5 reasons you should NOT be Afraid:
1. Fear just doesn't work. It is unhealthy and unproductive. There is a LOT of false evidence and unsubstantiated rumours which the media has inflamed. The fear and stress about this situation can have more effect than the flu. Please don't participate in that.
2. If you are reading this post you are already probably someone who has been working to bring balance into your body and life for some time. This is the best possible defence against this kind of problem and you have already achieved that. Relax.
3. This is not the first outbreak of swine flu and it won't be the last. Better to have a long term plan for keeping yourself healthy rather than reacting to each small problem… because they are guaranteed to keep coming. The last outbreak of swine flu in 1976 actually killed LESS people than the massive swine flu vaccine campaign which the government implemented to stop it!
4. The only fatalities have been in Mexico and from Mexico which has a totally different climate, culture and economic situation from the rest of the world. Real statistics about who actually has the flu and what kind of lifestyle and food intake these people had been living with is just not available yet. All organisms thrive best only in unique certain environments.
5. There were 91 fatalities (the day before this was written) and the warning medical reports coming out about this situation seem to know a lot about this particular kind of flu virus – BUT lets keep this in perspective. This is the same medical system in which 195,000 people died every year (2000, 2001, 2002) due to preventable in-hospital errors. In the US, 32,000 die from adverse reaction to prescription drugs every year and 20,000 people die each year from the common flu. There are a LOT more important issues that you could be addressing. For example, the second leading cause of death in the US in 2000 (after tobacco) was POOR DIET and PHYSICAL INACTIVITY which claimed 4000,000 deaths. Why is not the media clamoring over these statistics? Mostly because it is not NEW and therefore not news.
7 Actions You should be doing Anyway:
1. Eat a wide variety of WHOLE LIVE FOODS. Add whole food supplements if these are available.
2. Reduce stress in any way you know how. Whatever it takes it's worth it!
3. Get enough rest.
4. Get daily exercise – best outside in the fresh air, sun, and nature.
5. Decrease non foods such as sugar and alcohol which inhibit the immune system.
6. Avoid quick fix solutions for your health. Echinacea, for example, stimulates your immune system but doesn't necessarily strengthen it long term. It also happens to increase a certain immune response that researchers have found interacts with the swine flu virus in a negative way.
7. Avoid eating foods that have been produced in large commercial enclosed animal farms. It's NOT that you can contract the virus directly from these foods but many health professionals suspect that this virus (and many more) were incubated in the unnatural living conditions of these businesses. I don't want to support these kind of conditions and I know that eating a lot of food from these unnatural situations doesn't help to regenerate my body.
If you are doing even some of these seven actions you are way ahead of the crowd. Relax, enjoy and focus on productive things in your life. Copyright © Randy Fritz You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com or the direct link to the post Swine Flu
A Revolutionary Simple Approach To Healthy Eating
