Want Optimal Health? Time for a Gut Check

by | Mar 17, 2014 | Digestive system, General Health | 0 comments

Weight Loss I have a little secret to share with you. It’s not normal to constantly have gas, bloating, burning, or stomach pain. Yet Americans pour billions and billions of their hard earned dollars down their gullets in the form of over-the-counter and prescription drugs aimed at easing digestive distress. Although the unruly actions of the digestive tract are not topics of cocktail party or dinnertime conversation, there are droves of people who suffer from these types of issues. Hippocrates, ancient philosopher and physician credited as being the father of medicine, cautioned that all disease begins in the gut. There is much to be said for improving general health as you take steps to reduce your digestive distress.

Why would Hippocrates say such a thing? His wisdom intuited what modern research has teased out. The digestive system interacts with every single system, organ and cell in the body, acting like Central Station. It has direct links to the immune, the central nervous and endocrine (hormonal) systems, and is the avenue through which nutrition is taken in, broken down, absorbed, assimilated and incorporated into our bodies. Without the digestive system working in top notch condition, reaching optimal health is difficult.

While the drugs that we so readily consume to ease our gastrointestinal tracts may quell symptoms in the short-term, they fall short at getting to the actual root of the problem. In some cases, may actually exacerbate the underlying issues as well as be detrimental to overall health.

In order to kick gut problems to the curb for good, I invite you to do an experiment — with yourself as the subject — to find the root cause and get rid of your symptoms once and for all. These steps, done in conjunction, will put you on the path to both digestive nirvana and better overall health: Click here

The Paleo diet – 7 reasons why you should eat like a caveman

by | Mar 13, 2014 | Low carb, Natural food, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

Healthy Humans have come a long way in terms of most things – be it medical science, language, space exploration or even food options. However, believers of the Paleo diet think that all the progress made in terms of food isn’t desirable, and we should go back to eating like our ancestors did thousands of years ago. Commonly referred to as the ‘caveman diet’ – paleo diet consists of food products that were available back in the days when cavemen used to live. Followers give up all forms of processed food that is usually unhealthy along with all forms of legumes and grains. Though the diet has come under some criticism from dieticians and fitness experts, one cannot deny that it has several health benefits.

1.  It is healthy for your heart

Most cases of heart disease is caused due to unhealthy lifestyle and bad eating habits. Followers of the paleo diet stay away from most unhealthy foods and consume fruits and vegetables that cut risk of heart disease.

2. Good for gluten-intolerant people

Nowadays, more and more people are gluten intolerant including Novak Djokovic who was the No. 1 tennis player in the world until some time ago. In simple words, gluten is a protein composite found in wheat, barley and rye products. People following the Paleo diet keep away from such grains, which is why it is good for gluten-intolerant people.

3. Helps in weight loss

People following the Paleo diet do not keep a count of their calories. However, some experts say that it can help people lose weight without trying. The fruits which are high in fibre combined with lean meats high in protein makes it good for those looking to lose weight. If you are following this diet for losing weight, make sure you don’t ignore your carbohydrate intake as it can leave you feeling low and lacking energy  through the day. People looking to lose weight can also follow this sample weight loss diet plan.

4.  Healthy for diabetics

Since the paleo diet contains foods with a low glycemic index, and eliminates foods like refined sugar and grains, it is great for diabetics. Diabetics really need to keep their blood-sugar levels in check since their body cannot process or produce insulin which helps in the absorption of glucose. Find out more about glycaemic index and how it is helping people.

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Is There A Difference Between A Happy Life And Meaningful Life?

by | Mar 12, 2014 | General Health | 0 comments

Older Women Philosophers, researchers, spiritual leaders — they’ve all debated what makes life worth living. Is it a life filled with happiness or a life filled with purpose and meaning? Is there even a difference between the two?

Think of the human rights activist who fights oppression but ends up in prison — is she happy? Or the social animal who spends his nights (and some days) jumping from party to party — is that the good life?

These aren’t just academic questions. They can help us determine where we should invest our energy to lead the life we want.

Recently some researchers have explored these questions in depth, trying to tease apart the differences between a meaningful life and a happy one. Their research suggests there’s more to life than happiness — and even calls into question some previous findings from the field of positive psychology, earning it both a fair amount of press coverage and criticism.

The controversy surrounding it raises big questions about what happiness actually means: While there may be more to life than happiness, there may also be more to “happiness” than pleasure alone.

Five Differences Between A Happy Life And A Meaningful One

“A happy life and a meaningful life have some differences,” says Roy Baumeister, a Francis Eppes Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He bases that claim on a paper he published last year in the Journal of Positive Psychology, co-authored with researchers at the University of Minnesota and Stanford.

Baumeister and his colleagues surveyed 397 adults, looking for correlations between their levels of happiness, meaning and various other aspects of their lives: their behavior, moods, relationships, health, stress levels, work lives, creative pursuits and more.

They found that a meaningful life and a happy life often go hand-in-hand — but not always. And they were curious to learn more about the differences between the two. Their statistical analysis tried to separate out what brought meaning to one’s life but not happiness, and what brought happiness but not meaning.

Their findings suggest that meaning (separate from happiness) is not connected with whether one is healthy, has enough money, or feels comfortable in life, while happiness (separate from meaning) is. More specifically, the researchers identified five major differences between a happy life and a meaningful one.

  • Happy people satisfy their wants and needs, but that seems largely irrelevant to a meaningful life. Therefore, health, wealth and ease in life were all related to happiness, but not meaning. 
  • Happiness involves being focused on the present, whereas meaningfulness involves thinking more about the past, present and future — and the relationship between them. In addition, happiness was seen as fleeting, while meaningfulness seemed to last longer. 
  • Meaningfulness is derived from giving to other people; happiness comes from what they give to you. Although social connections were linked to both happiness and meaning, happiness was connected more to the benefits one receives from social relationships, especially friendships, while meaningfulness was related to what one gives to others — for example, taking care of children. Along these lines, self-described “takers” were happier than self-described “givers,” and spending time with friends was linked to happiness more than meaning, whereas spending more time with loved ones was linked to meaning but not happiness. 
  • Meaningful lives involve stress and challenges. Higher levels of worry, stress and anxiety were linked to higher meaningfulness but lower happiness, which suggests that engaging in challenging or difficult situations that are beyond oneself or one’s pleasures promotes meaningfulness but not happiness. 
  • Self-expression is important to meaning but not happiness. Doing things to express oneself and caring about personal and cultural identity were linked to a meaningful life but not a happy one. For example, considering oneself to be wise or creative was associated with meaning but not happiness. 

One of the more surprising findings from the study was that giving to others was associated with meaning, rather than happiness, while taking from others was related to happiness and not meaning.

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5 Tips to Help You Succeed

by | Mar 11, 2014 | General Health | 0 comments

Happy 1. Forget Luck, Live by Intent

A few things may happen by chance. But if you wait for chance, good things will happen to you only when you are in your grave because things may take their time. Even quantum theory says that if you try, you can actually walk through a wall once in a “zillion” times because there is a pulsation of particles happening and you may walk through. It is just that before you reach that one zillionth time, you’ll have a cracked skull. When you live by chance, you also live in fear and anxiety. When you live by intent and capability, it does not matter what is happening or not happening, at least you are in control of what is happening to you. It is a more stable life.

2. Stop Fixating on Failure

For a committed person, there is no such thing as failure. If you fall down 100 times a day, it is 100 lessons learned. If you commit yourself like this to creating what you really care for, your mind gets organized. Once your mind gets organized, your emotions will get organized because the way you think is the way you feel. Once your thought and emotion are organized, your energies and your very body will get organized. Once all these four are organized in one direction, your ability to create and manifest what you want is phenomenal. You are the creator in many ways.

3. Work With Clarity
What a human being needs is clarity, not confidence. If you want to walk through a crowd of people, if your vision is clear and you can see where everybody is, you can just walk through the whole crowd without touching anyone. If your vision is not clear but you have confidence, you will walk over everybody. Because there is no clarity, people think that confidence is a good substitute. It just cannot be. Let’s say you make all the major decisions in your life like this: get yourself a coin, flip it. If it is heads, it is one way, tails the other. It works 50 percent of the time. If you are right only 50 percent of the time, there are only two professions that you can keep — either a weather man or an astrologer. You cannot keep any other job on this planet.

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Low Carb Mag March Edition

by | Mar 10, 2014 | Exercise, General Health, Low carb diet, Nutrition | 0 comments

2014-03-10_1215Hello and welcome to our march edition.

Lots has happened over the last 12 months and they seem to have buzzed by so fast – I really have a hard time believing that a year has passed since we published our first issue.

So what’s new for this edition?

Actually a lot is happening.

Firstly, You might have noticed our cover mentions a Free Lunch.

Well, that’s on account of the fact that the magazine is now going to be free for those of you who want to get it every month. I go into the whys and wherefores of that in the ‘Why Free’ article so I won’t repeat them here.

The second thing is that the magazine is now available for all platforms…

As usual from ITunes Newsstand for the iPad and iPhone, but now for also for every other platform – Android tablets, desktops and in fact
anywhere you can access the internet. You’ll see the link for it on the masthead of the website within the next few days.

So that’s the big news.

On top of that we have got a great interview with chef and author Alain Braux who takes us into his world and tells us why he got involved in paleo and what it has done for him and of course what it can do for you.

You’ll be seeing more of Chef Alain over the next few months – so watch this space…

You have asked – so we’ve answered – literally in this case as our experts answer more of your most burning questions about low carb and paleo in
the Q & A article.

You might have noticed that travel season is starting for some – especially those in the northern hemisphere wanting a bit of winter sunshine. It’s those travels that have been the inspiration for our article on unusual meats. OK, so you might have tried wild boar; but what about ostrich or crocodile or even live food that bites back?

See unusual meats for more on that

On top of that we look at the lighter side and revisit some of the old diet and weight-loss adverts of yesteryear.

Plus all the regulars such as our great step by step recipes and this month’s exercises too.

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10 Toxic Beauty Ingredients to Avoid

by | Mar 7, 2014 | General Health | 0 comments

Make Up If you thought the FDA does a subpar job in regulating what goes into our food supply, you’ll be equally appalled, if not more, on its regulation of cosmetic and personal-care products. The same way you look at food labels, you should do the same for your beauty products.

There are thousands of chemicals in your products, many of which are being absorbed into your body. These companies have cart blanche to use any ingredient or raw material without government review or approval.

This industry is highly unregulated. There is no pre-product approval before a product hits the market and enters your home. A minuscule approval process exists, but only for color additives and ingredients classified as over-the-counter drugs.

Many of these synthetic chemicals are skin irritants, skin penetrators, endocrine disrupters and are carcinogenic. I can’t go through all of these harmful chemicals, but here are 10 you should highly avoid.

Parabens. Parabens are widely used preservatives that prevent the growth of bacteria, mold and yeast in cosmetic products. Sounds good, right? Not so fast, they do more than that. Parabens possess estrogen-mimicking properties that are associated with increased risk of breast cancer. These chemicals are absorbed through the skin and have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors. They can be found in makeup, body washes, deodorants, shampoos and facial cleansers. You can also find them in food and pharmaceutical products.

Synthetic colors. If you take a look at your product label and notice FD&C or D&C, they represent artificial colors. F — representing food and D&C representing drug and cosmetics. These letters precede a color and number (e.g., D&C Red 27 or FD&C blue 1). These synthetic colors are derived from petroleum or coal tar sources. Synthetic colors are suspected to be a human carcinogen, a skin irritant and are linked to ADHD in children. The European Classification and Labeling considers it a human carcinogen and the European Union has banned it.

Fragrance. This particular category is pretty scary, because what does “fragrance” mean anyway? This term was created to protect a company’s “secret formula.” But as the consumer you could be putting on a concoction that contains tons of chemicals that are hazardous to your health. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Skin Deep Database, fragrance mixes have been associated with allergies, dermatitis, respiratory distress and potential effects on the reproductive system. It can be found in many products such as perfume, cologne, conditioner, shampoo, body wash and moisturizers.

Phthalates. A group of chemicals used in hundreds of products to increase the flexibility and softness of plastics. The main phthalates in cosmetics and personal care products are dibutyl phthalate in nail polish, diethyl phthalate in perfumes and lotions, and dimethyl phthalate in hair spray. They are known to be endocrine disruptors and have been linked to increased risk of breast cancer, early breast development in girls, and reproductive birth defects in males and females. Unfortunately, it is not disclosed on every product as it’s added to fragrances (remember the “secret formula” not listed), a major loophole in the law. They can be found in deodorants, perfumes/colognes, hair sprays and moisturizers.

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