Whether you are a regular whiz in the kitchen, or are scared to death of cooking your own meals now that the cafeteria’s closed for the summer, doesn’t matter. You have the power to cook (or eat raw) the foods that will make your body thrive.

That’s why we here at the Nutritional Institute are so devoted to spreading the word about the power of good nutrition — and why we’ve devoted this entire newsletter to just that.

What follows are the six most important factors to look for when choosing what foods to eat and which to avoid. We believe so strongly in these six nutritional pillars, that these are the standards upon which every STUDENT FORMULA™ product is based.

Keep these in mind next time you’re out grocery shopping, eating out or cooking dinner with friends, and you’ll be setting the stage for a healthy future.

1. High Protein

You need to eat protein with every meal. Why? Because protein is not stored in your body, so you need to replenish your supply regularly throughout the day. Protein helps your body to:

• Synthesizes enzymes and hormones
• Maintain fluid balance
• Boost your metabolism
• Keep your immune system functioning properly
• Build muscle
• Maintain a healthy weight

2. Good Fats

A balance of the different kinds of natural fats — monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and essential fatty acids — is essential to proper nutrition. Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish, fish oils and STUDENT FORMULA’S Inside Out™, are extremely beneficial to health, for instance, as are the monounsaturated fats in olives and olive oil. Including healthy fats such as omega-3 in your diet may help prevent:

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Inflammation
• Diabetes
• Digestive disorders
• Cancer
• Autoimmune diseases

One fat that has been linked to many health problems, and which you want to avoid, is trans fat. Trans fats are found in anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients.

3. Low Sugar

Added sugars, whether they’re called corn syrup, fructose, cane sugar, brown sugar, or any other name, are “empty carbs.” These sugars, along with other highly refined products like white flour, offer zero nutritional value, but a lot of calories. Eat too much of these and the excess will be turned into body fat while wreaking havoc on your blood sugar levels. As much as possible, choose foods that are low in sugar.

4. High Fiber

Fiber offers huge benefits to your health, from helping to regulate the flow of fats and nutrients into your bloodstream and helping your digestive tract to function efficiently to aiding in the prevention of some kinds of cancer.

And, there’s good news. Bran muffins aren’t the only way to get more fiber into your diet: try fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains instead.

5. Sufficient Vitamins and Minerals

Sensible, healthy eating tends to promote the intake of necessary vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrients that your body needs to perform its daily functions.

Since, in today’s world, we’re also bombarded with pollution, stress and environmental toxins coming from all angles, it’s especially important that you pay attention to eating healthy foods.

If you’re not eating healthy, your health is not up to par or you feel you’re not getting enough nutrients for whatever reason, don’t hesitate to add vitamins and other dietary supplements if you determine you need them. Just be sure that, if you choose a brand other than STUDENT FORMULA™, the brand meets with the six standards we’re discussing here, and which you’ll find in all of STUDENT FORMULA’S™ products.

6. No Trans Fats

We mentioned this one in standard #2, but it’s so important that we’re telling you again. Study after study has confirmed that trans fats have detrimental effects on human beings. There is NO safe level to consume, so check package labels diligently. Pass up anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.

Fortunately, food makers are now required to list the amount of trans fats in their foods right on the nutrition facts label. So, always check how much tans fat any food you’re considering eating contains (it should be listed right under saturated and other fats on the label). If it’s more than 0, take a pass.

Products that commonly contain trans fats include fried foods, margarine and shortening, pastries, crackers and cookies.

No matter what your age, stretching is for you. If you are in college, it will help you sit through long lectures and increase your mental focus. If you’re already into the workday grind, stretching will help to improve your posture and clear your mind.

Stretching feels so good because it helps your muscles to relax. And when this happens, oxygen is able to flow through and nutrients are delivered optimally. Meanwhile, wastes get taken away.

Stretching also increases your flexibility, which is key to making everyday tasks in your life — from trekking across campus to class to picking up your 2-year-old — easier.

7 Reasons to Stretch Today

When most of us think of stretching, we think about it in terms of before and after a workout. You should, definitely, stretch after a workout (there is some debate as to whether it actually helps prevent injury beforehand), but here at STUDENT FORMULA™ we believe stretching should be much more a part of your day than that.

Stretching is an ideal way to start your day off, the moment you step out of bed, and to wrap your day up, just before you hop into bed for the night. Linda Slater-Dowling swears by this routine! After all, stretching costs nothing and you can do it almost anywhere, so you really have nothing to lose.

Not yet convinced? Here are seven reasons you may want to give stretching a try today (why not start right now?).

1. Increase Flexibility. This will enhance your physical performance, relieve muscle tension, and increase the range of motion of your joints. Although flexibility will try to diminish as you age — don’t let it! Keep stretching and you’ll stay flexible.
2. Improve Your Posture. Tight muscles can make you slump, slouch and sit in strange positions. Looser muscles, which you get from stretching, will allow you to maintain good posture while keeping aches and pains to a minimum.
3. Relieve Stress. You know the feeling; you’re worrying like crazy about your 20-page research paper or how you’re going to find that perfect gift for your aunt’s wedding, and your muscles are as hard as a rock. Stretching will relax your muscles and your mind.
4. Get Better Circulation. When you stretch, blood flows to your muscles, bringing in nourishment and getting rid of waste. This improved circulation can also help your muscles to recover faster from injury.
5. Stay Coordinated. Because stretching keeps you flexible and able to use a full range of motion, it also helps keep you balanced. This is especially important to maintain as you get older.
6. Clear Your Mind and Stay Focused. Stretching increases circulation and blood flow to all areas of your body, including your brain.
7. Reduce Back Pain. By increasing the range of motion in your muscles and helping them to relax, you will find that back pain, soreness and stiffness are relieved.

Wait! Before You Stretch, Read This

It’s quite possible to injure yourself if you stretch incorrectly. Keep these tips from the Mayo Clinic in mind to ensure that your stretching gives you the benefits it should.

• First, warm up. Pump your arms or jog in place for a few minutes to reduce your risk of pulling a muscle.
• Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds, and don’t bounce!
• Stretch (slowly) as far as you can, but back off if you feel any pain.
• Remember to keep breathing.
• After you’ve stretched one side, be sure to stretch the other. This will ensure you have a full, and balanced, range of motion.
• Stretch lightly before you exercise and again afterward.

I think the answers are pretty simple.

Most of us were never taught HOW to create and live a great life! We don’t study this in school. We admire people who have done great things, but no one coaches us, no one shows us the way. And so we stumble. We struggle. We ARE educated, ambitious, educated people and we do the best we can, but without the basic recipe, too often we get only average results.

So, I want to share with you two of the most important “recipes” I know I teach these formulas to my coaching clients and I want to share them with you. My price? Only this: If you find them helpful, I ask that you pass them on to at least two other people. Forward this email, or print it out and mail it to two friends. I hope you’re willing to do that.

Ok, here we go.

The first recipe is what I call the recipe for chaos. It goes like this:

Impulse + Opportunity = Chaos

Every day, we all have impulses to study or to spend, to do our work or to watch television. Impulses are merely ideas that pop into our brains and momentarily catch our attention. The problem is that they are relatively random and too many are based on casual appetites or unhealthy temptations. There’s nothing inherently bad or wrong with our impulses, but there is nothing inherently good or trustworthy about them, either.

And, too often our impulses get matched with opportunity for instant gratification. Here’s how it works.

Consider the impulse to spend, combined with a credit card in your wallet. Too often, the result is casual debt, and that can be a problem Or how about the impulse to watch television (just one show), combined with a beautiful new TV in the family room? Too often, the result is wasted time. You see the pattern?

Impulses happen. When we surround ourselves with opportunities for instant gratification, the result can be a life lurching out of control .

Now, consider another recipe, the one for achievement. Here it is:

Desire + Discipline = Achievement

“Desire” comes from Latin words that mean “of the father.” Our deepest desires represent our true longings, our mission or purpose or values in life. When we are clear about our real DESIRES and combine them with a disciplined life, the results can be astonishing!

Jonas Salk had the DESIRE to prevent polio and the DISCIPLINE to do the research, study his notes and make the discoveries. The results changed the world. Mary Kay Ash (of Mary Kay Cosmetics) had the DESIRE to help single moms like herself, and the DISCIPLINE to find a way. She had no money (she started with $500) and no business experience, but she pressed forward. She changed an industry and helped millions of women in the process.

Random impulses in a world of undisciplined opportunity can lead to chaos, debt, and disaster. Knowing your deepest DESIRES and matching them with even minimal DISCIPLINE, however, is the recipe for achievement. When Stephen Covey talks about “starting with the end in mind,” he’s talking about being clear about your desires. When we talk about written goals, we’re talking about strong desires. When you know what you truly want, and go after it with discipline and determination, the results are astounding.

That’s the recipe for achievement!

Everyone knows we should drink water. This may seem obvious. But could you actually be chronically dehydrated? water through urination, rather than retaining it.. The one is plump, full, and juicy, containing all its natural water. The other is small, dry, and shriveled – its water gone. Although a grape in dehydrated condition is still a valuable and nutritious fruit, the human body when dehydrated does not function at its best and may be at risk for many ailments.many of its essential functions. Water is utilized as a solvent and also provides the means to transport nutrients, hormones and other vital supplies. It’s used to produce hydroelectric energy, especially in the brain. It’s essential for maintaining cell structure. Water is also necessary to enable proteins and enzymes to function more efficiently. Chronic dehydration can lead to a loss or decease in all these functions and may ultimately result in disease or can worsen an existing condition.lungs, liver, kidneys, and glands, and then come the muscles, bones, and skin. During periods of dehydration, histamine insures that these vital organs have enough water to function properly. If enough water is not supplied, it must be taken from within the body. Chronic dehydration can cause histamine to become excessively active. This may result in symptoms that may be mistaken for other disorders such as allergies, asthma, dyspepsia, colitis, constipation, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic pains in various parts of the body, such as migraine headaches. Here are some details of why increasing one’s water intake can help:angina – is a sign of water shortage in the heart-lung axis. It should be treated with increased water intake until the patient is free of pain and independent of medications. Medical supervision is prudent; however, increased water intake is angina’s cure.joint pain. The cartilage in your body, including your joints, is composed mainly of water. As cartilage surfaces glide over one another, some exposed cells become worn and peel away. New cartilage is normally produced to replace the damaged cells. But due to the lack of blood vessels in cartilage, water is needed to transport the nutrients required for maintenance and repair. Dehydration may increase the abrasive damage and delay its repair, resulting in joint pain.every year, is a complication of dehydration in the body. It is caused by the body’s drought management programs. A large amount of water is normally lost from the lungs as water vapor through expired air. Histamine, which also controls bronchial muscle contractions, may attempt to restrict water loss through expiration by constricting the bronchial muscles. Increased water intake will prevent asthma attacks. Asthmatics need also to take more salt to break the mucus plugs in the lungs that obstruct the free flow of air in and out of the air sacs.circulation. This can result in harder stools that are not only more difficult to pass, but may also irritate and weaken the walls of the colon, resulting in small pockets known as diverticuli. Since the water that the colon reabsorbs back into circulation is not filtered water, but wastewater that was originally due to be excreted, the liver and the kidneys must then filter it. This may place additional strain on these overworked organs.diabetes is brought on by severe dehydration of the human body. In order to have adequate water in circulation and to meet the brain’s priority water needs, the release of insulin is inhibited to prevent insulin from pushing water into all the body cells. In diabetes, only some cells get survival rations of water. Water and salt will reverse adult-onset diabetes in its early stages before it becomes an autoimmune disease with a destruction of insulin-producing cells. Not recognizing adult-onset diabetes as a complication of dehydration will, in time, cause massive damage to the blood vessels all over the body. It can cause eye damage and even blindness. It’s capable of causing loss of the toes, feet and legs from gangrene. And the diabetes industry is a multi-billion dollar industry of sickness treatment and prescription drugs. Why would that industry want to tell people that all they need to do is drink more water, avoid soft drinks and cut down on caffeine in order to greatly improve their health?hydration because it runs counter to their profitable paradigms of disease treatment. In other words, an executive working at a pharmaceutical company, making millions of dollars a year from pharmaceutical sales, is unlikely to accept, psychologically, the idea that diseases could be prevented or reversed by drinking something freely available to the public. The thought will not penetrate that person’s belief system.chronic dehydration. The amino acid tryptophan is required by the brain to produce the neurotransmitter serotonin, which in turn is needed to make melatonin. An adequate amount of water is required for tryptophan to be transported into the brain. Dehydration may limit the amount of tryptophan available to the brain – and to worsen things, high histamine levels (also triggered by dehydration) may actually stimulate tryptophan’s breakdown in the liver.Dyspepsia

Dyspeptic pain, which can range from simple heartburn to gastro-esophageal reflux disorder (GERD), may be one of the early signs of dehydration. During the early digestive process when food enters the stomach, hydrochloric acid (HCl) is secreted to activate the enzymes to breakdown the proteins found in meat and dairy. The acidic contents of the stomach, called chyme, are then pumped into the small intestine by passing through a valve, called the pyloric sphincter. This acidic chyme must be neutralized before it damages the intestinal lining. The pancreas is responsible for secreting the bicarbonate ions, which neutralize the acid. A large amount of water is required to produce this bicarbonate solution. If sufficient water is not available, the digestive process may be delayed and food may remain in the stomach longer than necessary. Over a period of time, the stomach acid may rise and if allowed to enter the esophagus, will produce the sensation known as heartburn. Ideally, water should be drunk half an hour before meals, during meals and again a couple of hours afterwards.High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a state of adaptation of the body to a generalized drought – when there’s just not enough water to fill all the blood vessels that diffuse water into vital cells. As part of the mechanism of reverse osmosis, when water from the blood serum is filtered and injected into important cells through minute holes in their membranes, extra pressure is needed for the “injection process.” Just as we inject intravenous “water” in hospitals, so the body injects water into tens of trillions of cells all at the same time. Water, with balanced, unrefined salt intake, will often bring high blood pressure back to normal. Not recognizing hypertension as one of the major indicators of dehydration in the human body, and treating it with diuretics that further dehydrate the body, will in time cause blockage by cholesterol of the heart arteries and the arteries that go to the brain. It will cause heart attacks and small or massive strokes that paralyze. It will eventually cause kidney disease. It will cause brain damage and may give rise to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.Migraine headache is a sign of water need by the brain and the eyes. It will totally clear up if dehydration is prevented from becoming established in the body. The type of dehydration that brings on migraines might eventually cause inflammation of the back of the eye and possibly loss of eyesight.weight loss that’s worth mentioning here: Many people who are attempting to lose weight end up in a state of chronic dehydration because they don’t want to drink water for fear that it will add “water weight” to their bodies. Consequently, they actually impair their body’s ability to metabolize fat because they’re afraid to drink enough water on a regular basis. In reality, being fully hydrated is a prerequisite to weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you have to give your body enough water so that it’s no longer in a state of emergency. When the body is in a state of chronic dehydration, it will not let go of fat supplies easily: It wants to hold on to everything it can eat or drink. The only way to convince your body to let go of and start metabolizing body fat is to drink a lot of water – enough water so that your body feels safe in letting go of unneeded calories. Remember: Water has zero calories, is low-carb and has zero grams of fat, so drink up!

Are You Chronically Dehydrated?

Many people are and never realize it. Contrary to popular belief, a dry mouth – or feeling thirsty – is by no means the first sign of dehydration. Our bodies require at least eight glasses of water per day – more during exercise, illness, and hot weather. People often think that even if they don’t actually drink water, they’re getting enough by drinking coffee, tea, soft drinks, juice, or beer. The truth is that many of these drinks have a diuretic effect, encouraging the body to excrete

Your Body, a Grape or a Raisin?

Think about a grape versus a raisin

Bodies are 70% Water

The body is composed of about 70 percent water, and water is required for

Most of the body’s water is found within the cells, and the next largest amount is in the fluid surrounding the cells. If water is not replaced frequently, this surrounding fluid may continue to accumulate waste material and other contaminants. The pumps in your cell membranes may not work as efficiently because allowing dirty water into the cell can cause cellular damage or cell death. You wouldn’t bathe in the same bath water without first cleaning the tub and adding fresh water. Why would you allow your cells to be surrounded by an accumulation of waste material?

Begin the Begun – Water!

Life on this planet began in water; even the developing fetus is surrounded by water. When the body is deprived of water, a water rationing system takes effect. Histamine, a neurotransmitter, becomes active and redistributes water throughout the body. The order of circulatory priority is the brain,

Angina

Heart pain –

Arthritis

Another possible complication of dehydration is

Asthma and Allergies

Asthma and allergies can be other indications that the body has increased its production of histamine. Asthma, which affects tens of millions of children in the Western world and kills several thousand of them

Not recognizing asthma as an indicator of dehydration in the body of a growing child not only will sentence many thousands of children to die every year, but also will permit irreversible genetic damage to establish in the remaining millions of asthmatic children.

Cholesterol

High cholesterol levels are an early indicator of drought management by the body. Cholesterol is a clay-like material that’s poured in the gaps of some cell membranes to safeguard them against losing their vital water content to the osmotically more powerful blood circulating in their vicinity. Cholesterol, apart from being used to manufacture nerve cell membranes and hormones, is also used as a “shield” against water depletion of other vital cells that would normally exchange water through their cell membranes.

Colitis

Colitis pain is a sign of water shortage in the large intestine. It’s associated with constipation because the large intestine constricts to try to squeeze the last drop of water from the excrements – thus the lack of water lubrication.

Not recognizing colitis pain as a sign of dehydration will cause persistent constipation. Later in life, it will cause fecal impacting. It also can cause diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, and polyps and appreciably increases the possibility of developing cancer of the colon and rectum.

Constipation

Dehydration causes constipation. When water is in short supply in the body, the colon will act to restrict unnecessary water loss through the stools. Colon muscles will contract to squeeze out and subsequently reabsorb water back into

Diabetes

Diabetes is also another disease that’s strongly influenced by water consumption. Adult-onset

The answer is that there’s no motivation whatsoever for any medical industry or group or drug company to educate people with the truth about water and human health. They’re not only unwilling to tell the truth, they’re also intellectually unwilling to accept the truth about the importance of adequate

Depression

Depression can be another symptom of

Migraines

Weight Gain and Loss

There’s another fascinating point about chronic dehydration and

It’s also interesting to note that many people who go on short term diets and who think they’re losing five or 10 pounds over a couple of days are really only losing water weight. They haven’t lost any body fat at all but they’ve managed to put themselves in a state of chronic dehydration that will inevitably lead to weight gain once they return to normal habits of eating and drinking.

In a comprehensive review of obesity research published in the August edition of the journal Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism, Robert Lustig, MD, professor of clinical pediatrics at UCSF Children’s Hospital, says that food manufacturing practices have created a “toxic environment ” that dooms children to being overweight.

“It will take acknowledgement of the concepts of biological susceptibility and societal accountability and de-emphasis of the concept of personal responsibility to make a difference in the lives of children,” Lustig says.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of children who are overweight in the United States has doubled during the past three decades. Currently one child in five is overweight. The increase is true for children and adolescents of all age groups and races and for boys and girls.

Diseases that once were only seen in adults, like type 2 diabetes, now are occurring in increasing numbers in children, according to Lustig. Overweight children tend to become overweight adults, which also puts them at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Children who are obese also are socially ostracized and teased, putting them at risk for depression and other psychiatric conditions, he adds.

“Our current Western food environment has become highly ‘insulinogenic,’” Lustig says, “as demonstrated by its increased energy density, high-fat content, high glycemic index, increased fructose composition, decreased fiber, and decreased dairy content.”

“In particular, fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin,” he adds.

Lustig says that it has long been known that the hormone insulin acts on the brain to encourage eating through two separate mechanisms. First, it blocks the signals that travel from the body’s fat stores to the brain by suppressing the effectiveness of the hormone leptin, resulting in increased food intake and decreased activity. Second, insulin promotes the signal that seeks the reward of eating carried by the chemical dopamine, which makes a person want to eat to get the pleasurable dopamine “rush.”

Calorie intake and expenditure normally are regulated by leptin, Lustig says. When leptin is functioning properly it “increases physical activity, decreases appetite, and increases feelings of well-being.” Conversely, when leptin is suppressed, feelings of well-being and activity decrease and appetite increases — a state called “leptin resistance.”

Changes in food processing during the past 30 years, particularly the addition of sugar to a wide variety of foods that once never included sugar and the removal of fiber, both of which promote insulin production, have created an environment in which our foods are essentially addictive, he adds.

Lustig also notes that children cannot be blamed or expected to take personal responsibility for their dietary behavior in an environment when the foods they are offered — especially cheaply prepared “fast foods” that are full of sugar and devoid of fiber — are toxic.

“The concept of personal responsibility is not tenable in children. No child chooses to be obese,” he says. “Furthermore, young children are not responsible for food choices at home or at school, and it can hardly be said that preschool children, in whom obesity is rampant, are in a position to accept personal responsibility.”

“If we don’t fix this, our children will continue to lose,” he emphasizes.

One of the nation’s top children’s hospitals, UCSF Children’s Hospital creates a healing environment where children and their families find compassionate care at the edge of scientific discovery, with more than 150 experts in 50 medical specialties serving patients throughout Northern California and beyond.

UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in the life sciences, and providing complex patient care.

There are treatment options that can relieve depression without swallowing pills. Many of the symptoms of depression can be directly linked to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the standard American diet, which is largely comprised of empty carbs, caffeine and sugar. Depression, mood swings and fatigue often have a common cause: poor nutrition. Avoiding depression or recovering from a depressive episode is often as easy as changing your diet and boosting your consumption of key foods that deliver brain-boosting nutrients and help regulate brain chemistry.

The Five Foods

Fish oils: Contain  omega-3 fatty acids. Research has shown that depressed people often lack a fatty acid known as EPA. Participants in a 2002 study featured in the Archives of General Psychiatry took just a gram of fish oil each day and noticed a 50-percent decrease in symptoms such as anxiety, sleep disorders, unexplained feelings of sadness, suicidal thoughts, and decreased sex drive. Omega-3 fatty acids can also lower cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health. Get omega-3s through walnuts, flaxseed and oily fish like salmon or tuna.

Another top food for delivering imega-3 fatty acids is chia, and we currently recommend two sources for chia seeds:

• Good Cause Wellness
• IntegratedHealth.com

Brown Rice: Contains vitamins B1 and B3, and folic acid. Brown rice is also a low-glycemic food, which means it releases glucose into the bloodstream gradually, preventing sugar lows and mood swings. Brown rice also provides many of the trace minerals we need to function properly, as well as being a high-fiber food that can keep the digestive system healthy and lower cholesterol. Instant varieties of rice do not offer these benefits. Any time you see “instant” on a food label, avoid it.

Brewer’s Yeast: Contains vitamins B1, B2 and B3. Brewer’s yeast should be avoided if you do not tolerate yeast well, but if you do, mix a thimbleful into any smoothie for your daily dose. This superfood packs a wide assortment of vitamins and minerals in a small package, including 16 amino acids and 14 minerals. Amino acids are vital for the nervous system, which makes brewer’s yeast a no-brainer for treating depression.

Whole-grain oats: Contain folic acid, pantothenic acid and vitamins B6 and B1. Oats help lower cholesterol, are soothing to the digestive tract and help avoid the blood sugar crash-and-burn that can lead to crabbiness and mood swings. Other whole grains such as kamut, spelt and quinoa are also excellent choices for delivering brain-boosting nutrients and avoiding the pitfalls of refined grains such as white flour.

Cabbage: Contains vitamin C and folic acid. Cabbage protects against stress, infection and heart disease, as well as many types of cancers, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. There are numerous ways to get cabbage into your diet; toss it in a salad instead of lettuce, use cabbage in place of lettuce wraps, stir fry it in your favorite Asian dish, make some classic cabbage soup or juice it. To avoid gas after eating cabbage, add a few fennel, caraway or cumin seeds before cooking. Cabbage is also a good source of blood-sugar-stabilizing fiber, and the raw juice of cabbage is a known cure for stomach ulcers.

Also worth mentioning: Foods like raw cacao, dark molasses and brazil nuts (high in selenium) are also excellent for boosting brain function and eliminating depression. Two good sources for raw cacao and brazil nuts are:

• Nature’s First Law
• Navitas Naturals

If you feel you are depressed or at risk for depression, you also need to avoid certain foods and substances. Some commonly prescribed drugs – such as antibiotics, barbiturates, amphetamines, pain killers, ulcer drugs, anticonvulsants, beta-blockers, anti-Parkinson’s drugs, birth control pills, high blood pressure drugs, heart medications and psychotropic drugs – contribute to depression. If you are taking any of these, don’t quit them without talking to your doctor; but be aware that they may be contributing to your condition by depleting your body of depression-fighting vitamins and minerals.

You should also avoid caffeine, smoking and foods high in fat and sugar. Keeping your blood sugar stable and getting B vitamins is important for stabilizing your mood. Cacao can be good for mood because it releases endorphins in the brain, but watch out for milk chocolate and candy varieties high in sugar.

Other Non-Food Things To Do

• Get plenty of sunshine. Natural sunlight is a proven cure for depression.
• Engage in regular exercise at least three times per week. Exercise lifts and mood and alters brain chemistry in a positive way.
• Take a quality superfood supplement to get even more natural medicine from the world of plants.

• Experience laughter. It’s good medicine.

By Erin Bates

After years of back pain and spending thousands of dollars on body work and chiropractic adjustments I started doing a simple yoga practice at home several days a week and going to classes once or twice a week. What a difference it made on my levels of pain and overall well-being. I’ve always wanted to take care of my own health problems and not to have to rely on outside practitioners for treatment. Integrating yoga into your life will help substantially with lowering the amount and during of chronic pain.

There are many types of yoga and each has it’s benefits. Recently I came across a wonderful Hatha yoga teacher in the River Forest named Marianne Steenvoorden. Her studio is called Heaven on Earth Yoga (

The resource I’ve used for many years is a magnificent book called Pain Free, by Pete Egoscue. Therapeutic exercises customized for different parts of the body which are in pain are Egoscue’s expertise. I strongly recommend having this book on hand if you have chronic back pain.

Another excellent yoga series can be found in the book, “Ancient Secrets of The Fountain of Youth”, by Peter Kelder. This book will teach you the amazingly simple and powerful yoga program of Tibetan monks called The Tibetan Five Rites. The advantage of this program is that it only takes no more than 10-15 minutes per day and there is no need for an instructor once you learn the five exercises.

Advertisers cashing in on a newly germ-phobic nation may be doing more harm than good, say public health officials.

“We don’t live in a sterile world and nor should we endeavour to do so,” said Greg Simmons, Ministry of Health chief adviser for population health.

At the height of swine flu panic, up to 10% of primetime television advertising featured disinfectants and sanitisers. According to the ads, everything from telephone receivers to children were potentially seething masses of germs.

But products promising to rid homes of “99.9% of bacteria” could actually be exposing us to nastier bugs, said Simmons.

“Humans are absolutely covered in bacteria – millions and millions of them. The gut is full of them, the skin is covered in them, and they are a cocktail of what we would call benevolent microbes.”

Simmons said the “vast majority” were harmless.

“And many do good by occupying an ecological niche that stops pathogens – the ones that can cause illness – from moving in to infect the gut or skin. They have a barrier effect.

“The bottom line is that a little bit of dirt didn’t really hurt anyone,” said Simmons. “Routinely reducing the number of germs or microbes in the general environment makes little sense.”

Research showed children who were exposed to “rough and tumble and a lot of germs and daycare settings” had a reduced risk of developing asthma and some allergies.

“It’s as if the immune system needs some stimulation early on.”

He did, however, sound a warning about hand-washing, saying the significance of hand transmission of viruses had been under- estimated by the public. In homes where people were ill with any form of influenza (including swine flu), or had symptoms like vomiting or diarrhoea, good hygiene was crucial – patients should also be isolated from other people and kept well away from food preparation areas. High traffic areas, such as bathrooms, should be disinfected.

Ordinary household bleach, said Simmons, was just as effective as some more expensive products. “And we’re not recommending that on a daily basis, only for these high-risk times and in high-risk settings.”

He said recent television advertising reflected international trends. “There’s a move to this type of advertising in the developed world. I wouldn’t say we’re overboard; New Zealanders are fairly level-headed.”

Anecdotally, the Sunday Star- Times has been told of people avoiding public toilets – or opening doors with their feet or elbows – and using sterile wipes before touching supermarket trolleys. One Dunedin store has been forced to put up a sign in the women’s toilets telling customers not to “insulate” seats with excessive paper, as it was blocking plumbing.

Otago University senior lecturer in social anthropology Ruth Fitzgerald said it wasn’t just swine-flu fear that had turned Kiwis germ- phobic. Social reforms and the breakdown of wider communities had encouraged individuals to become more self-reliant.

“It’s up to us to control this hostile world . . . Bacterial wipes and other technologies for making our homes clean give you a sense of control . . . We can attain the moral high ground and reassure ourselves in an increasingly alienated and slightly dangerous world.”

She said we were selective about how we applied that philosophy: “We know we’re teeming with colonies of bacteria and we seem to do some things – like kissing – where we don’t mind exchanging bacteria, but we’re really worried about touching supermarket trolleys.”

HAND HYGIENE

* Wash with soap and water for 20 seconds – the average Kiwi washes for only nine seconds.

* Dry for 20 seconds, preferably with two disposable paper towels – wet hands are more likely to pick up microbes than unwashed hands.

* A 2006 survey found one in five Kiwi men, and one in 10 women, didn’t wash their hands after going to the toilet.

By ELIZABETH SOUDER / The Dallas Morning News
esouder@dallasnews.com

In July of last year, Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens began a $60 million advertising campaign and speaking tour designed to persuade Americans to stop using foreign oil.

The oilman-turned-environmentalist proposed a seemingly simple plan: Convert cars, especially big fleets operated by companies and municipalities, from gasoline to domestic natural gas. And start generating more electricity from wind.

By the end of this year, Pickens predicts, Congress will finish passing laws to implement his plan. And within two years, oil imports will drop.

“We have gotten everything we went after,” he said. “I have people say it didn’t go very fast. Go back and compare it to other things. I think we’ve moved very fast.”

But oil import data don’t yet show much direct impact from Pickens’ campaign, and a key new natural gas law hasn’t made it out of legislative committee. He’s persuaded some companies and municipalities to buy natural gas-powered fleets, but the numbers remain tiny.

Still, Pickens’ $60 million bought remarkable influence. Because of Pickens, the term “foreign oil” entered the presidential campaigns, executive speeches and everyday discussions.

And he brought many of his conservative followers into the discussion about clean energy through his warning about energy security, allowing them to discuss alternative energy without stepping into the thorny debate about whether humans cause climate change.

“When you have a successful investor from Texas, someone from a state that, some people say, doesn’t care about clean energy, to have him come out as the champion, caught a lot of people by surprise and brought a lot of attention to the incumbent [energy companies] in Texas being part of the solution,” said Paul Dickerson, a former executive with the U.S. Department of Energy and head of Haynes and Boone’s clean technology practice.

Pickens would probably also benefit from his plan. Pickens invests in companies that produce natural gas and sell natural gas vehicle fuel, and a company that builds wind farms.

His retort: “If I’d wanted to make money, I would have kept my $60 million.”

On a mission

Instead, Pickens said, he felt he was on a mission that only he could accomplish.

“I felt like it was a mission that you had to tell the American people, you now knew something that affected their lives, their future, their children and grandchildren and everybody else, generations to come. And you had properly analyzed it, you knew what the problem was, and you had a solution for the problem,” he said.

Pickens has presented his plan to Republicans and Democrats, to top executives and blue collar workers, to President Barack Obama and Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, a longtime supporter of more domestic drilling, credits Pickens with persuading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to support natural gas vehicles.

“Apparently natural gas is not a fossil fuel,” Barton said, tongue in cheek. (Of course, natural gas is a fossil fuel.)

The Sierra Club doesn’t oppose Pickens, a longtime Republican supporter who decorates his office with Ronald Reagan memorabilia.

“We haven’t given out a wholesale endorsement of the plan, but at the same time, we think that natural gas is a good bridge fuel as we transition to a full clean-energy economy,” said Josh Dorner, a spokesman for the Sierra Club.

Natural gas burns more cleanly than oil or coal. Used in a vehicle, natural gas emits 70 percent less carbon monoxide, 87 percent less nitrogen oxide and 20 percent less carbon dioxide than gasoline vehicles, according to lobby group NGV America.

Electric cars might be cleaner than natural gas, but only if the power is generated with cleaner technology, such as wind or solar. Most power in Texas comes from natural gas-fired plants.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, appointed by Obama, said Pickens “points out some really important policy issues.”

For example, Pickens rightly talks about the importance of building transmission lines to carry wind-generated power from rural areas to population centers, she said.

Drop in imports

U.S. oil imports dropped 14 percent in June from the year before, according to the government’s Energy Information Administration. But that probably is due to the ailing economy rather than a shift to alternative fuels.

The number of natural gas vehicles on U.S. roads has risen in the past two years by only about 8 percent to around 120,000, according to Rich Kolodziej, president of NGV America, a natural gas vehicle lobby group. That’s hardly enough vehicles to account for the oil import drop.

However, Kolodziej said, demand for natural gas vehicle fuel rose about 25 percent last year as older models, which could use either natural gas or petroleum fuels, are replaced with new, natural gas-only vehicles.

Natural gas costs less than gasoline or diesel. How much less changes constantly. But the vehicle technology can be costly, and stations to fill up aren’t always convenient. With few refueling stations outside of major cities, natural gas vehicles aren’t as attractive to regular drivers who expect to use their cars for road trips.

But the nation’s supply of natural gas is growing rapidly.

A study released last month from the Potential Gas Committee, associated with the Colorado School of Mines, estimates that the U.S. has 2,074 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, 35 percent more than in 2006. The committee said the amount grew partly because of new technology, like that developed for the Barnett Shale.

Pickens said once all of the planks of his energy policy become law, it will only take a couple of years for oil imports to decline for good.

That’s only if the tax incentives are sweet enough to offset the extra costs and, in some cases, the inconvenience of using the technology.

Congress has passed the wind portion of the Pickens Plan, and wind power capacity has already risen 50 percent during the past year. The stimulus bill includes money to upgrade the power grid, and Congress has passed incentives for wind and solar energy. In Texas, new transmission lines to accommodate more wind power will cost electricity consumers around $5 billion.

Still, Pickens is missing incentives for natural gas vehicles themselves.

In April, two representatives from Pickens’ home state of Oklahoma, Dan Boren and John Sullivan, introduced legislation to extend and create tax incentives for natural gas vehicles and fuel. The bill hasn’t been voted out of House committee.

The bill would extend natural gas fuel, vehicle and infrastructure tax credits for 18 years. The credits are scheduled to expire this year and next. It would also provide incentives for auto manufacturers to produce natural gas vehicles, and require half of all new, federal government vehicles to be capable of operating on natural gas by 2014.

Pickens Army

While Pickens hasn’t accomplished everything he wants in the halls of Congress, he has amassed a following of 1.6 million people, known as the Pickens Army, through his Web site. Members write letters to their legislators, encouraging them to adopt the Pickens Plan.

He is also meeting with executives, including those at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to stump for his favorite fuel.

Last week, AT&T Inc. said it would spend $350 million converting 8,000 of its vehicles to run on natural gas, the largest such fleet in the country. AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson chose to include natural gas in his alternative fuel fleet after an hourlong meeting with Pickens.

Pickens is indirectly connected to the company that will carry out the conversions, BAF Technologies. Pickens sits on the board of natural gas fuel supplier Clean Energy, which loaned BAF money, according to Clean Energy spokesman Bruce Russell. The loan is convertible into a 49 percent stake in BAF.

PRESERVATIVES added to cured meats, bacon and ground beef have been linked to dementia diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Scientists say sodium nitrite, which is added to meat and fish to destroy toxins, reacts with proteins in the meat, damaging human DNA cells similar to aging.

US researchers, whose work was edited by the director of the WA Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease Prof Ralph Martins and published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, say the problem is compounded by an increase in human exposure to nitrogen-containing fertilisers from soil run-off and water contamination.

More than 20,000 people in WA suffer from dementia – this number increases 10-fold nationally.
Prof Martins says Alzheimer’s is reaching epidemic proportions in this country.

“Until this point there has been a lot of focus on defective genes but now it is becoming clear that really represents a small proportion of the total community who are at risk of getting Alzheimer’s,” he said.

“This study is important because it points to the environmental factors that can play a role in Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.

Study author and professor of pathology and lab medicine at Rhode Island Hospital in the US, Suzanne de la Monte, found that a massive rise in fertiliser and processed food sales coincided with an increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s’ and type 2 diabetes in the US.

“We have become a ‘nitrosamine generation,” she said.

“The relatively short time interval for such dramatic increases in death rates associated with these diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and type 2 diabetes) is more consistent with exposure-related causes rather than genetic changes.”

Fertiliser in WA contains nitrogen.

But the Department of Agriculture was unable to provide information on whether consumption has increased here.

WA researchers are studying the link between Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes, Prof Martins said.

Nitrites and nitrates are found in many food products including fried bacon, cured meats, cheese products and beer.

“In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production. Nitrites and nitrates belong to a class of chemical compounds that have been found to be harmful to humans and animals,” Ms De la Monte says.

Prof Martins says this environmental link needs to be studied further in Australia.

At the moment high-fat diet and low-exercise lifestyles are key factors thought to play a role in the onset of dementia, he says.

Heavy metals such as copper and zinc are also being blamed.

“Fish in the diet and omega 3 fatty acids in particular are protective of the brain but in terms of environmental toxins very little work has been done,” Prof Martins said.