Vegan Iron Sources

Luncheoun Meats

Luncheon meats, such as tined meats and hot dogs are packaged and processed food that contain preservatives, coloring, additives, flavor enhancers and coloring that are not compatible with a healthy diet. The average person on a standard Western diet consumes over 10 pounds of chemical additives a year, which puts an untold amount of stress on the body. The liver has to detoxify

and eliminate even the smallest amount of an additive. Over time this can place an enormous strain on the body's eliminative capacities.

One of the main problems is the sodium nitrite  found in about 99% of all processed tinned meats and hot dogs. Nitrites are added to make the meat bright red and also to kill spores of Clostridium botulinum. What is less known is the link between sodium nitrite and cancer. Nitrites become nitrosamines in the stomach, when then combine with stomach acid. Nitrosamines are a known carcinogen (cancer).

By staying away from processed and packaged meats, you will be much healthier.

Reference: Weatherby, D. (2004). Signs and Symptoms Analysis from a Functional Perspective. Jacksonville, OR: Bear Mountain Publishing

When Should You Do Stretching Exercises?

The question often arise: Should I stretch before or after exercise?" The simple answer is "both" and the reason is quite different for the two.

Before:
The purpose of stretching before exercise is to help prevent injury. Stretching does this by lengthening the muscles and tendons, which in turn increases our range of movement. This insures that we are able to move freely without restriction or injury occurring.

After:
Stretching after exercise has a different role. Its purpose is primarily to aid in the repair and recovery of he muscle and tendons. By the lengthening the muscles and tendons, stretching helps to prevent tight muscles and delayed muscle soreness that usually accompanies strenuous exercise.

After exercise this stretching is part of the cool-down. The cool-down will vary depending on the duration and intensity of the exercise undertaken, but it usually consist of 5-10 minutes of very light physical activity, and followed by 5-10 minutes of static stretching exercises.



Reference: Walker, B. (2013). The Anatomy of Sports Injuries. Chichester, England. Lotus Publishing.

Neil Asher Advanced Trigger Point Techniques offers "The Anatomy of Sports Injuries" course, go here to check out what the course has to offer, along with other trigger point courses.

Top Ten Tips to Improve Your Digestive Health

Dr. Liz Lipski’s Top Ten Tips 

to Improve your Digestive Health

1. Stay Hydrated. Our digestive system and body don’t work efficiently when they’re like a dry sponge. 

How can you expect to have easy bowel movements and remove waste from your body without fluids? Making sure that you get plenty of water every day is one of the most promising routes to digestive wellness. 

2. Exercise Regularly. A fitness routine is a good idea for everyone, but for those with digestive issues it’s especially helpful.  Exercise increases circulation while massaging and toning your entire digestive system. Aim for 20-60 minutes of activity at least 3 to 4 times a week.

3. Add Good Bacteria to Your Diet. It’s the life in food that gives us life. Add probiotic and prebiotic laden foods to your diet.  Probiotic rich foods include: Add some yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchee, cultured vegetables, unpasteurized olives and pickles, amasake, black tea, raw milk cheeses, natto, raw vinegars, traditionally made sourdough breads and tempeh. Prebiotic rich foods include: asparagus, bananas, chickory, eggplant, fruit, garlic, green tea, honey, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions, peas, yogurt, cottage cheese, and kefir.  You may choose to add a probiotic supplement to your routine.

4. Get your fiber. The daily recommendation for dietary fiber is 25 grams per day.  If you are like most people, you get about half of that. Fiber helps regulate your digestive system. Try such fiber-rich foods as legumes (all beans except green beans), whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat, bulghur, millet, buckwheat, rye, barley, spelt, oats), vegetables and fruits.

5. Slow Down and CHEW! Your teeth are part of your digestive system, too. When you use them to thoroughly mush up your food—think mashed potatoes—the rest of your digestive system doesn’t have to work overtime. 

6. Cook at Home. When you prepare foods in your own kitchen, you have better control of the ingredients and cooking methods, so you can make foods that are healthy and easily digested. An added bonus: cooking is also nurturing and rejuvenating.

7. Try Fermented Foods. Fermenting or culturing makes foods more digestible by actually “pre-digesting” them for you. The most common fermented foods are cultured dairy products, like yogurt, sourdough bread, pickles and sauerkraut. 

8. Cook Foods Well. When you’re sick, you naturally turn to soups and stews and well-cooked foods—they’re so simple that your system can digest them easily. But don’t limit these foods to when you’re ill; include them as part of your regular diet. For sweet desserts, try poached pears or applesauce.

9. Eat Smaller Meals. Skipping meals or waiting to eat until you’re famished can lead to overeating. You’ll find that eating smaller meals with healthy snacks in between aids your digestive system. 

10. Know Your Food Sensitivities. It’s estimated that 10-20% of us have food sensitivities, which can cause far reaching symptoms including: bloating, cramping, heartburn, indigestion, gas, stomach pain, chronic headaches, depression, inability to concentrate, aching muscles and joints and low energy levels. The most common food sensitivities include:  wheat, uncultured dairy products (like milk), eggs, citrus, pork and beef. 

Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN, CHN, is the Director of Doctoral Studies, and Education Director at Hawthorn University. She’s the author of Digestive Wellness and offers professional mentoring groups. www.innovativehealing.com  www.digestivewellnessbook.com and  www.accesstohealthexperts.com 

Upper Trapezius

Learn how to restore tone and strengthen this muscle in the Muscle Energy Technique

from Niel Asher Advanced Trigger Point

Check out this web site located here for more information.

Roll with It

Health Benefits of Grapes

What are Gallstones?

While there’s a ton of information on treatment and prevention of gallstones, today we’re going to focus on exactly what causes gallstones.

What’s the gallbladder?

To understand gallstones you first have to understand your gallbladder and the reason that you have one. Your gallbladder is an organ which plays an integral part in the digestive process, as it stores bile created by your liver. This is the remnant of the food that your liver can’t digest and absorb into your bloodstream, so your gallbladder is a pretty important organ when it comes to helping you stay healthy.

When a gallstone forms, it does so inside your gallbladder. They’re usually composed of cholesterol, salt, or discarded red blood cells. They also range wildly in size, from as small as a grain of sand to as large as an apricot. This means that many people can have gallstones and not know, because they’re not large enough to cause problems.

What causes gallstones?

Gallstones occur for a variety of reasons, usually based on the type of stone that you have. We’ll cover the three types of gallstones to show you what causes each.

Cholesterol stones are by far the most common, making up roughly 80 percent of all gallstones that occur, according to research from Harvard. Now, the bile in your gallbladder usually breaks down cholesterol, but a gallstone will occur when your liver is producing more cholesterol than the bile in your gallbladder can process.

Obviously, foods high in cholesterol aren’t good for your overall health, but they can create the potential of gallstones as well.

Bilirubin gallstones (the medical term for a gallstone made from discarded red blood cells) occur when you have other conditions that force your liver to produce more red blood cells than normal. Cirrhosis of the liver is a common cause of bilirubin gallstones, though other blood disorders cause these stones as well since all the materials in your body go through your liver at one point or another.

Just like with cholesterol stones, bilirubin stones form due to the inability of your gallbladder to process the excess red blood cells produced by your liver.

The last type of stone is formed entirely of concentrated bile. Your gallbladder can’t function as it should unless it’s constantly creating and discarding bile; essentially, getting rid of the old bile and creating new bile to break down more waste. If your gallbladder doesn’t destroy and create bile on a regular basis, the old bile will crystallize and form gallstones.

Gallstones aren’t a health problem you want to deal with, but knowing what causes them should help you avoid the situations in which they arise. Knowing how your gallbladder works, and what makes it cause stones, can and should influence your dietary and lifestyle choices

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15 High-Fiber Foods

15 Healthy High-Fiber Foods That Make You Feel Full and Satisfied

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Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which contributes to keeping cholesterol levels in check, and insoluble fiber, which helps you feel satisfied.

Just ¼ cup of almonds has 4.5 grams of fiber.

Store-bought hummus has about 2.7 grams of fiber in a three-tablespoon serving.

One cup of raspberries is great and has 8 grams of fiber.

About 7 large carrots have 3 grams of fiber.

Each medium-sized apple has 4.4 grams of fiber.

With 5.5 grams of fiber in just one medium-sized pear, this fruit is always a solid choice.

Barley has the highest fiber content of all whole grains.

One avocado has about 13.5 grams of fiber.

2 cups of raw kale contains 4.8 grams of fiber.

Brussels sprouts have about 4.1 grams of fiber in one cup (cooked).

One cup of boiled broccoli has 5.1 grams of fiber.

One medium-sized cooked artichoke has about 10.3 grams of fiber.

Reference: Reposted from Nature's Sunshine Products Blog. Go here to see more blog post.

7 Sources of Protein for Vegetarians

One of the biggest concerns many people have when going on a vegetarian diet is finding reliable, tasty, and affordable sources of protein. While those making the switch to vegetarianism, there’s no denying that beef and other red meat is a cheap, effective way to get the protein your body needs.

However, if you’re ready to make the switch and become a vegetarian, there are some legitimately viable options for protein for vegetarians. Let’s take a look at just a few of them, to give you an idea of the breadth of options available that can suit any dietary need and want.

Supplements
Using dietary supplements requires research on your part to ensure that you’re getting a supplement that actually delivers on its promises – and doesn’t contain any extra, unnecessary – and potentially unhealthy – ingredients. One of those great supplements is the Love and Peas protein powder we offer here at Nature’s Sunshine. It’s one of the most popular protein replacements for vegetarians, as it contains 20 grams of vegetable protein per serving, 75% of your required daily dose of vitamins and minerals, a powerful antioxidant blend, and is friendly to anyone who is lactose or gluten intolerant.

The wide range of applications for this product just underscore the fact that finding great, effective, and healthy ways to replace protein in a vegetarian diet isn’t as difficult as you might have originally thought.

                                                                     Quinoa

If you’re a fan of couscous, you’ll likely enjoy quinoa. It looks very similar to couscous, but it’s far more nutritious. It’s so packed full of important proteins, NASA hopes to grow it on space flights between planets, should we ever advance that far in our space travels.

It’s used in a ton of different foods, too. From muffins to cookies and even a hearty breakfast casserole, quinoa is yet another great source of protein.

Buckwheat
In 1 cup of cooked buckwheat, you’ll get 6 grams of protein – not a bad haul at all considering that this isn’t actually wheat, but a cousin to rhubarb. It’s most often used, though, as a gluten-free wheat substitute. The seeds of buckwheat are ground into a flour, which is great for pancakes, chili, and even making pasta noodles. Buckwheat’s even been proven to help balance out your blood sugar and improve circulation. Most importantly, it packs the protein punch you’ll miss out on if you cut meat entirely from your diet without any viable replacement options with which you can work.

Beans and rice
Eventually we had to arrive here, right? The best thing about beans and rice is the fact that they’re cheap, easy to make, and packed full of other nutrients in addition to the protein your body needs to properly function. In fact, beans and rice, when served and eaten together, contain a protein content just about equal to that of a similar serving of meat.

Sound impossible? While a healthy dose of skepticism is good to have, especially in matters where diet are concerned, this fact is true. In addition rice is full of carbs, so when you get finished with a big workout, or you need to carb-load for a big run in a week, you can pack it on with rice and beans and know you’re getting the right type of carbs, in addition to the protein that makes this a go-to meal for vegetarians.

The ol’ PB&J
The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a staple at nearly every school in America, and many others across the world. It’s tasty, quick, and best of all? There’s 15

grams of protein per sandwich, when that sandwich is made with two slices of bread and at least two tablespoons of peanut butter.

If you want to make things a bit more interesting, you can toast some wheat bread and slather all-natural peanut butter on it for a higher-calorie meal. While high calories may or may not be your favorite thing, the combination of wheat bread and peanut butter deliver your essential amino acids – which are coincidentally building blocks to help your body process and digest proteins – and those healthy fats as well. Peanut butter isn’t quite in the “superfood” category like kale, but it’s pretty close, and for good reason.

Eggs
For the traditionalist who loves a hearty breakfast, eggs are another solid protein option. With roughly 6 grams of protein per egg, you know that combining them with a bit of soy milk to make scrambled eggs and wheat toast with peanut butter is one protein-packed meal. They’re also high in the right kinds of fats, keep your hunger urges under control so you can actually eat less and still feel full, and they contain a nutrient that plays a role in both the burning of fat and the health of your brain.

While going vegetarian may sound daunting at first, there are a lot of different ways to get the same nutrition you would if you continued to eat meat. No matter your reason for becoming a vegetarian, you can rest assured that with a bit of work and the desire to get creative, you’ll have tasty, healthy, sustainable options for protein on your dinner table each night.

Soy
This is another staple on the vegetarian food circuit. While some people have to use soy-based products due to a problem with lactose, its been a go-to for protein for a long time. You can make just about anything from soybeans, so the products are wide-ranging which is good if you like a really diverse diet or are a bit picky in what you eat.

From dry roasted soybeans, which pack a whopping 18 grams of protein, to soy milk or the traditional Indonesian dish consisting of fermented soy – called tempeh, which is a great substitute for lunch meat on sandwiches, surprisingly enough – the only limits to what you can do with soy are what you think you can do.

Reference: Reprinted from Nature's Sunshine Blog post.