Most persons with a sense of quality, contemporary health, nutrition and fitness have a reasonable understanding of good dietary and exercise practices. Moreover, the battle is generally that of taking action versus accepting the fallback mantra of “be satisfied with who you are.” The latter is acceptable only if you have acknowledged that where you are is not where you want/need to be, and the satisfaction is based upon your efforts in transition. If you need a new strategy, you may wish follow these seven free steps to guaranteed weight loss.

If you are not yet convinced, consider the following. The media is still promoting H1N1 vaccination (we have to get rid of the overstock), but the real epidemic in the U.S. is obesity. Affecting more than sixty percent of the population, it will cause far more morbidity and mortality than the flu. It affects all age groups. Moreover, its high prevalence is a measure of our self-deception. If you don’t believe that you are deceiving yourself, then be your own fitness spy.

Get a small notebook and record the following:

1. The time of day you eat and drink anything with calories.

2. Your hunger level (1-10 scale) at the time of your intake.

3. What and how much did you eat and/or drink?

4. Did you apply gravies, toppings, dressings, etc., and what volume?

5. Your mood when you eat and/or drink.

6. Your reason for eating and/or drinking.

7. Describe your exercise for the day.

After recording your consumption activity for approximately three weeks, review it against what you know to be good practices. Make some decisions and develop some strategies to address your findings (mistakes) and start again. Enjoy being a “fitness spy”, and the next thing you’ll be recording is your successful steps to weight loss, guaranteed.

Some of us have the misperception that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is there to protect us (the people) and the environments in which we live. However, governmental organizations such as this are constantly compromising in favor of economic forces. The Swiss herbicide, Atrazine, is applied to an estimated seventy-five percent of cornfields in the US.

In spite of mounting data suggesting adverse affects on male wildlife, the EPA has defended its application for the past five years. Potomac River male fish and frogs have been demonstrated to become feminized, that latter even functioning sexually as females. Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated development of female characteristics in birds, rats, fish and frogs.

The EPA is finally starting to acknowledge work by researchers in the US, most recently from a team led by Dr. Tyrone Hayes at UC Berkeley, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, to protect your developing male children and your adult virility, consider the risk associated with consuming non-organic corn. The EPA sure isn’t watching out for you.

Everyone is looking for the natural fountains of youth. Antioxidants are the free radical fighters that help get the job done for you. The following are your top five antioxidant sources.

1. Popcorn (just take it easy on the butter and salt)
2. Red beans
3. Blueberries
4. Pinto beans
5. Cranberries

Live long and prosper.

1. Flavanoids. Add a ¼ of dark chocolate bar per week or 1 cup of green tea per day.
2. Carbohydrates. Limit intake of low quality carbohydrates such as white rice and bread, regular sodas, refined sugar based cookies and candies, replacing them with fruits/vegetables, grains and increasing amounts of protein (legumes, chicken, turkey, and fish).
3. Lipoic acid. Vegetables such as peas, spinach, broccoli are full of this antioxidant that supports memory. You may also stop by the drugstore and pick a supplement, 600 mg per day.
4. Gluten. Consider paring back on this dietary element.
5. Tumeric powder. In Indian spice, this has been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory properties (works synergistically, even more effectively, combined with ground black pepper) and interferes with development of “amyloid plaques” that are a hallmark of cerebral neurodegeneration. Consider adding it to a variety of foods.
6. Testosterone. Older men and sometimes women should check.
7. Do you snore or have sleep apnea? Poor breathing habits at night may cause poor brain oxygenation and increased fatigue with poor cognitive function during waking hours. See your doctor.

Sushi rolls and Sashimi can bring zesty flavors to your diet and contribute healthy omega-3 oils to your consumption habits. Its all tasty, but be careful.

1. Freezing may retard bacterial growth, but may not kill the bacteria. As such, raw, contaminated, frozen or fresh product can all be problematic. As always, visit only very clean appearing restaurants and order only as much as you can consume in a single sitting.
2. Raw fish sometimes contains parasites such as tapeworms or nematodes. Freezing fish essentially eliminates such risk. The FDA requires restaurants to freeze fish before preparation in these dishes, but enforcement is challenging. So, at always ask if the fish was frozen prior to its use when you order these products.
3. To limit mercury consumption avoid products made from larger fish. The higher on the food chain, the greater the bioaccumulation.

You are what you eat, drink, breath and absorb into your system in any manner via consumption, work or ambient atmosphere in which you live. Unfortunately, whether by choice (e.g., smoking) or environmental contamination, our bodies are subject to exposure to numerous chemicals that are not healthy for us.

We can rid ourselves of some of the offending agents acutely via coughing, sneezing, the body’s excretory systems, phagocytosis (white blood cell work) and liver/bile detoxification. In the event of acute excessive exposures, there may be some medical interventions that we mey use to trap or flush a portion of the toxicants. However,  the clinical objective (and expectation) is to move these patients from toxic (and critical) to exposed, but minimally symptomatic. In most cases, only symptoms are being treated. The majority of “poisoning” by industrial toxins is not treatable and we simply attempt to avoid and minimize net exposure effects.  The effets of exposure may be completely reversibe if the body has the ability to manage the toxin and heal itself. Permanent damage follows exposure to deleterious materials in excess of our bodies’ abilities to defend themselves.

What happens if our bodies cannot effectively capture, process and discharge the offending agents? If the agent is voluminous and poisonous, you die. If the exposure is less voluminous and poisonous, with treatment you may be able to limit systemic damage. Given a minor exposure or time limited cumulative trauma, you may be able to fend off acute effects and there may be very limited organ dysfunction or change in tissues.

Regarding abnormal tissue changes, only a limited number of histopathology data types demonstrate that body tissues actually incorporate toxins into their matrices (e.g., lungs and fiber/silica/coal disease, or liver and metals). Otherwise, there is no medical evidence that the liver, brain, nerves, lungs or other tissues store the chemicals to which they are exposed, so as to make the chemicals available to be released via  appropriate agents. There is some literature support for the slow release of circulating toxins from dental amalgams.  As such, replacing old filling has resulted in neuropsychological benefits in numerous patients. However, there is no evidence that microscopic amounts of material or chemicals are bound in otherwise inactive cell vacuoles or entrapped in tissue pockets accessible by blood flow that may extract the offending agents if treated with some attractant or binding agent or if we are induced into excessive sweating or diuresis (excessive urination).

Flush yourself regularly to regulate your bowels for a healthy feeling. However, you cannot fully “detoxify” yourself via products that you consume, in which you soak or apply to your feet, or by induction of excessive perspiration or urination with or without complementary agents (e.g., niacin).

So, watch what you eat, drink, breath and absorb into your system in any manner via consumption, work and via the ambient atmosphere related to where you have chosen to live.

The brain is a dense tangle of interconnections. This thicket (bush) can grow or lose new branches daily. Mental activity builds synapses in a manner similar to physical activity building muscles. However, as muscular fitness is a multifaceted process including nutrition, resistance exercise, stretching, oxygenation, and adequate rest, care for your brain is very similar.

Brain care includes regular engagement in mentally challenging activities, physical exercise to encourage circulation, avoidance of recreational, medicinal and environmental toxicants, as you are able, consumption of foods high in B complex vitamins and antioxidants, and low in fats to lessen cerebral atherosclerosis.

Here are some healthy diet quick facts for you.

1. Yogurt offers the calcium nutrition of milk plus bacteria that improves digestion and nutrient absorption.
2. Sesame butter is much richer in calcium and omega-3 fatty acids than peanut butter.
3. Drop the iceberg lettuce from your diet. It offers few nutrients.
4. Replace up to 1/3 of flour in recipes with ground flaxseed for increased nutrition and fiber content.
5. Bok Choy, spinach, and other non-iceberg lettuces provide increased vitamins, minerals and improve digestion; use in salads and soups.
6. Parsley is not just a garnish; it is rich in vitamin C.
7. Black beans have high levels of cancer-fighting phytic acid and saponins.
8. Legumes are very high in protein and fiber, decrease your need for red meat consumption and improve bowel motility (colon cleansing).
9. Blueberries, rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, are also full of anthocyanidins that counter carcinogen’s ability to damage cellular DNA.
10. Broccoli is rich in isothiocyanates, a family of chemicals linked to decreasing the risk of cancer of the colon, prostate, lung and pre-menopausal lung cancer.
11. If your favorite omega-3 fatty acid containing fish is highly contaminated with mercury, try munching on handful of walnuts instead.

Diets low in vitamins A and C are associated with significantly increased risk for asthma-like symptoms and wheezing. Review of numerous studies was performed at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, United Kingdom. They found the apparent deficiency correlations, but noted that they found no conclusive studies demonstrating that vitamin supplementation in identified cases of asthma reduced symptoms.

In view of this apparent inconsistency between the observations and experimental data, the reviewers searched multiple databases back through 2007. Forty studies were identified the corporately pointed to the fact that people with severe asthma had significantly lower dietary vitamin A intake versus those with mild asthma. The odds of asthma were also increased in patients from the groups of lower dietary intake of both vitamins A and C. Vitamin E intake was generally more poorly correlated with asthma status compared to vitamins A and C, however researchers identified significantly lower intake of vitamin E in patients with severe asthma compared to those with mild asthma.

Limitations of this study included the differing methods of determining use and serum (blood) concentrations of the vitamins given the manner in which the data was combined. Additionally, and more importantly, there is no evidence suggesting how environmental exposure was considered. It is widely recognized that urban populations are exposed to substantially more airborne pulmonary irritants than their suburban and rural counterparts. Moreover, many of the urban population are those with fewer economic resources. As such, the study does not address the issues of environment or financial resources in relation to the patients’ asthma status.

Those issues aside, for those with the means, consider well rounded consumption of fruits and vegetables and vitamins A, C, and E supplementation as a possible preventive manner in which to limit occurrence of significant asthma-type symptoms.

For additional details see the journal Thorax, published online on April 16, 2009.

Superfoods are items that provide an extra something beyond nutrition.

Ten of these superfoods are listed below.

Vegetables, fruits meats and sweets

1. broccoli - phytonutrient rich, it may decrease risk for heart disease and some cancers (bladder, prostate, and ovary).
2. broccoli sprouts - high levels of sulforaphaneglucoslinolate, stimulates production of many body enzymes that induce antioxidant formation. It has 20 - 100 times the anticancer agent concentrations as the mature plant.
3. blueberries -rich in polyphenol antioxidants, these reduce inflammation and may diminish the “turning on” on some cancer inducing genes.
4. purple grapes -similar action to that of blueberries.
5. wheat bran - minerals, vitamins, high fiber conent, appears to help control blood sugar and pressure.
6. flaxseed-  similar action to bran.
7. turkey - provides protein, selenium and zinc. It is antiinflammatory and avery low fat protein source. Organic products also decrease your exposure to antibiotics and growth hormones.
8. dark chocolate - contains antioxidant flavinoids that have a positive effect on blood pressure.
9. buckwheat honey - a natural sweetener that has positive effect on blood pressure.
10. numerous spices -many herbs have medicinal function.

Many of the world’s healthiest foods have specifically identifiable health effects.