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Health and Wellness: Worth the Effort
What's the one change you could make in your life that would make you feel better? Have more energy? Be happier?
What's holding you back?
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Avoid Toxins!
Cleaning Products
Even if you don’t live in California (especially if you don’t live in California), check for State of California warnings, which are required on any product containing ingredients that state’s regulators believe cause cancer or reproductive or developmental harm.
If your product has warnings about how dangerous it is, consider not using it. (In future newsletters I’ll provide tips for making your own natural products. Do that, or consider Ava Anderson non toxic (www.avaandersonnontoxic.com/ wendylkuhn)
A new study has just come out about the dangers of using Round Up (more about Round Up)
Food
Check out the amount of sodium. Sodium hides in almost everything. New studies reaffirm the link between too much sodium and heart attacks. Check your processed foods for sodium amounts per serving Serving sizes on packaged foods are often small.
Check out the amount of sugar. Four grams of sugar is equivalent to one teaspoonful. Women should eat less than 6 tsps a day of sugar and men less than nine, at the most! Sugar often hides in the most unlikely places. Check out your drinks, your cereal, your protein bars, your spaghetti sauce, your salad dressings, etc.
Avoid food dyes. While the FDA tests and approves individual food dyes, they don't test combinations (for example, they test yellow and blue, but not green)
Read the label. Next month I’ll provide a list of ingredients to avoid, but consider this: if you have no idea what something is or how to pronounce it, maybe you don’t want it in your body. My eyes often start to glaze over when I'm reading ingredient lists. I think that is a sign that I should not buy the product.
The easiest answers
Eat more fruits and vegetables, drink more water, and eat fewer processed foods,
Instead of using toxic cleaning products, use baking soda, vinegar, water, lemon juice, olive oil, etc (all in the appropriate combination for the appropriate task). Or buy the fabulous Ava Anderson Non Toxic products at www.avaandersonnontoxic.com/ wendylkuhn
And, just as a reminder, here are the tips from last month:
Look up products on ewg.org/skindeep. They list many individual products and, if your product is not listed, you can enter the ingredients and it will provide you with a report.
Keep the “Dirty Dozen†and “Clean 15†list with you when you shop. Make informed produce decisions (and, yes, there’s an app for that)
Don’t automatically trust the label when it says something is “natural†or “organicâ€. If it is organic, it will have the USDA seal. Until October 2014, even organic apples can have certain antibiotics on them -- it's good that this will end, but very troubling that it is currently the case. (More about organic apples)
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Buy Organic!
The Environmental Working Group has updated their "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean 15" list for 2013. This list is in alphabetical order, not in order of clean to dirty or dirty to clean. They say it is always a good choice to buy fresh produce. It is more important to buy the "Dirty Dozen" organic than the clean 15. Organic produce labels are 5 digits and start with a 9. Conventional produce labels are 4 digits and start with a 3 or a 4.
2013 DIRTY DOZEN (plus some)
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Apples
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Celery
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Cherry Tomatoes
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Cucumbers
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Grapes
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Hot Peppers
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Nectarines (Imported)
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Peaches
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Potatoes
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Spinach
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Strawberries
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Sweet Bell Peppers
PLUS:
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Collards
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Kale
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Summer Squash
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Zucchini
2013 CLEAN FIFTEEN
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Asparagus
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Avocado
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Cabbage
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Cantaloupe
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Corn
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Eggplant
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Grapefruit
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Kiwi
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Mangoes
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Mushrooms
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Onions
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Papayas
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Pineapples
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Sweet Peas (frozen)
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Sweet Potatoes
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Eat Well!
A healthy lifestyle is the key to longevity, optimum weight, abundant energy and balance. By using fruit to satisfy our taste for sweetness, we can leave behind the use of chemical, processed and refined sweeteners. Fruits are easy to digest, are cleansing and cooling and are great for those who are overstressed and overheated from excessive mental strain or hot climates. Fruits are filled with fiber and liver stimulants, which act as natural, gentle laxatives. Whenever possible, buy fresh, locally grown fruit instead of imported fruits shipped from far-off places. This keeps you eating in season, and more in harmony with your environment and climate.
Eating raw fruit in summer months is highly cooling, while baking it in the winter months neutralizes the cooling effect. Fruit in the form of juice is a great choice for cleansing the body, but be aware that juice rapidly raises blood sugar levels, leading to an energy crash soon after. Frozen, whole, puréed or juiced fruit can make great summertime cool-down treats. Try frozen grapes, banana-coconut smoothie popsicles or lime juice ice-cubes in iced tea!
Whether you are having fresh fruit for a light early morning breakfast, a midday snack or evening treat, enjoy nature's sweetness and whenever possible buy organic. Here are a few summer fruits and their health benefits:
Apricots: Great for lung conditions and asthma; used to help treat anemia due to their high copper and cobalt content.
Bananas: Help to lubricate the intestines, treat ulcers, detoxify the body and manage sugar cravings; are rich in potassium (which helps hypertension).
Cherries: Slightly warming in nature; increase overall body energy, remedy arthritis and rheumatism and are rich in iron, which improves the blood.
Grapefruits: Treat poor digestion, increase appetite during pregnancy, alleviate intestinal gas and reduce mucus conditions of the lungs.
Papayas: Tone the stomach, act as digestive aid, moisten the lungs and alleviate coughing; contain carpaine, an anti-tumor compound.
Raspberries: Benefit the liver and kidneys, cleanse blood of toxins, regulate menstrual cycles, treat anemia and can promote labor at childbirth.
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Smoothie Recipes
Fruit Nut Smoothie
Prep time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2 servings
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1 banana
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1 cup almond milk
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1 cup berries
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1 cup diced melon or mango
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1/2 cup almonds
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2-4 ice cubes
Mix in blender for 1-2 minutes and serve.
Mango Smoothie
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1/2 cup frozen mango (the Environmental Working Group lists mangoes as one of the clean 15
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A little tahini (less than one tablespoon)
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A healthy squirt of lime juice (get some alkaline in you early in the morning)
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1/2 cup of water
Mix it all together in the blender
Enjoy!!
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Be Happy!
I'm not suggesting that being happy is easy (although sometimes it is) or that all it takes is an appreciation list (although sometimes it does), but taking 30 seconds to remember all that you appreciate in your life can reduce feelings of stress, and maybe kick off some DHEA (the happiness hormone) in your system. And, reducing stress likely leads to better health, better decision making, and more contentment.
Appreciation List*
Step 1:
Make a list of things you appreciate such as people, places, activities and pets and choose one or two each morning to hold in your heart during the day. Choose one to hold in your heart throughout the night while you rest
Step 2:
Keep your Appreciation List close by all day, perhaps in a pocket or purse, at your desk or computer. In stressful moments, choose something from your list that can quickly evoke a feeling of appreciation. It can transform a long and stressful day into one that flows – amazingly in 30 seconds or less.
*from the Institute of Heart math
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A little about me and why I am doing this.
I am passionate about working with people to help them achieve their goals through making healthier nutrition and wellness choices. My particular interest is in working with people who are seeking to make choices to help to prevent cancer or its recurrence. I believe that through healthy food choices, avoiding toxins, and taking steps to reduce stress and be happier, it is easier to achieve life goals and to stay healthier. Because of my passion, I am a holistic health coach, a distributor of Ava Anderson Non Toxic Products, and a one-on-one provider for Heart Math.
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