Nutrition | Mark Moxom

Depression, Diabetes, & Diet: Drop One, Add One, Jump Start Your Mood

by Jan Michael | Apr 1, 2013 | Diabetes, Diet, Nutrition | 0 comments

Here’s an interesting article by a British psychiatrist and researcher Malcolm Peet. He’s been investigating the link between mental illnesses and diet for a quarter of a century. Dr. Peet has found that there is more schizophrenia in countries that consume a lot of sugar.

One of the other interesting conclusions from the study he has made is that people with diabetes and other blood sugar issues seem to be at greater risk of depression in other words that diabetes and depression can co-occur and of course many people who are depressed will often turn to food for comfort which merely reinforces the problem causing it to spiral further downwards eventually to be seemingly out of control.

It’s a short but worthwhile article and there are lots of other links from it that may prove interesting to people who have diabetes and or depression.

Link to the article

The Sweet Side Of Health – The Benefits of Natural Sweeteners

by Jan Michael | Apr 1, 2013 | Artificial Sweeteners, Diabetes, Diet, Food Choices, Natural food, Nutrition, Obesity, Sugars | 0 comments

Here’s a short but informative article by Chris Haro found on the Kwik Med site where he talks about artificial sweeteners and how that they are simply yellow, blue and pink packets of chemicals.

There’s a link to the full article at the bottom of this page and I have left in just the natural sweeteners that he has tried for himself to great effect. Do take the time and read his article.

Natural Sweeteners to Consider

Local Honey

Honey is simply one of the best natural sweeteners you can use. Not only does it not raise your blood sugars like other sugars do, it is a whole food that comes from plant nectar. Honey contains many health benefits. It has vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, B2, Vitamin C, Biotin (Vitamin H) and rutine. It also has calcium, magnesium potassium, iron iodine, copper and zinc.

Honey is also a natural “healing” food. Honey has been used as an antiseptic, antimicrobial, and antibiotic. Many will also use local honey to help with allergies.

Agave Nectar

Agave Nectar is another plant-based natural sweetener derived from the plant used to make tequila! It is very sweet and can be used in both your drinks and food. Native Americans have been using agave for many years as both a sweetener and healing agent. In terms of the glycemic index, Agave nectar is extremely lower than other sugars. Sucrose for instance will come in on the GI as an 83, high fructose corn syrup comes in at 89, while the agave nectar comes in at 27! Agave is also known to have health benefits such as having inulin, which can be beneficial in weight loss, decrease appetite and keep blood sugars at bay. Agave nectar also has immune system health benefits, and the Aztecs used the agave as an antibacterial agent.

Other great natural sweeteners to consider are raw maple syrup, date sugar, coconut palm sugar and Stevia, which is becoming a more and more popular in the natural health community.

If you are wanting to keep the bad sugars away, yet not throw down chemicals in your body, give these natural sweeteners a try. They can all be added in many recipes, and are wonderfully useful not just for your taste buds, but also for health.

Link to the article

Probiotics Not Just for Digestion

by Jan Michael | Mar 29, 2013 | Digestive system, Nutrition | 0 comments

I’m a big fan of probiotics, the friendly bacteria, those beneficial microorganisms that naturally inhabit our digestive system.

We all have billions of bacteria living in our stomachs most of them are beneficial but just a few of them being harmful. Now obviously it’s important to make sure that we keep a balance between the good and the bad as that’s crucial to maintaining good health.

Probiotics such as one of those things that we can use to maintain that balance the way it should be and you know there are a huge amount of benefits that probiotics give us, many of which many people are unaware of; things like helping our liver with its hundreds of functions right the way through to enhancing our blood lipid profile.

One thing a lot of people don’t realize though is that many of the artificial sugars particularly the sugar alcohols can actually harm the good bacteria in our stomach which is a shame because they do such a fantastic job for us, some I’ve already mentioned but also things like producing natural antibiotic-like substances, fighting yeast and fungal infections and improving our immune function.

The article I’ve linked to below goes into this in more detail and it’s well worth looking at.

Link to the article

Fruit flies fed organic diets live longer, study finds

by Jan Michael | Mar 29, 2013 | Diabetes, Diet, Digestive system, Food Choices, General Health, Natural food, Nutrition, Research, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

It seems everywhere we turn we’re encouraged to eat organic yet many people who I have spoken to wonder if eating organic is actually any good, whether it makes any difference to our overall general health.

Here is an interesting study from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas where biologist Johannes H. Bauer ran a study on fruit flies and he found that the fruit flies that were raised on organic diets performed better on several tests for general health than those that were raised on non-organic diets.

The study itself is quite interesting and if you are a little bit technical, well worth viewing.

Simply follow the link below.

[jwplayer mediaid=”1554″]

Link to the article

World Bank Links Obesity to high Food Prices

by Jan Michael | Mar 28, 2013 | Nutrition, Obesity | 0 comments

According to the world bank-

Food prices have dropped since peaking six months ago but remain near record levels, pushing the world’s poorest people toward “undernutrition” and obesity.

“Unhealthy food tends to be cheaper than healthy ones, like junk food in developed countries,” Said their spokes man. Can you guess which countries have the highest proportion of overweight and obese in there population? Here’s the answer… Link to the article