SLEEP...Whats so important about it?

BEcome the WHOLE healthy YOU.

 We believe as one of the three critical  elements of BEcoming Whole, sleep is a far too often overlooked facet of WHOLE HEALTH.  Our research has located a quality article done through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute,(NIH), WHY IS SLEEP IMPORTANT?
 Because  it is so well done and comprehensive we want to share highlights of the article with our readers.  We will do this in several parts and share links of the study so that you may do your own additional reading. The following are some of the topics covered.

Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency affects on health.

What systems of the body are affected by sleep deficiency?

How much sleep is enough ?

How do I know I have a sleep deficiency?

What should I do about getting better sleep?

What makes me sleep?

Who is at risk for sleep Deprivation and Deficiency?

Why do  all living creatures sleep?

Can you make up on lost sleep?

for more information go to: http//www.nihbi.nih.gov/book/export/html/4979

Eat right AND move!

Let's take a look at just one hormone in your body – insulin – and how it affects so many other things.

 

First, let's define two important words – insulin and glucose.

• Insulin is a hormone produced naturally by your pancreas. Insulin regulates carbohydrate and fat metabolism in your body.
• Glucose is produced when you eat food. Chronic, elevated blood glucose levels create a haphazard process within your body. It upsets the process that your body naturally undergoes in creating insulin.  The healthier the food you eat, the less blood glucose levels will elevate.  Eating vegetables does not raise blood glucose levels as much as processed/sugary foods will.

Insulin’s job is to allow the liver, muscle, and fat cells to use glucose from the blood. Those cells then use that glucose to make fuel for the body, and finally that fuel is stored as glycogen and tryglceride in the liver, muscle and fat tissue.

Insulin opens the gate to transport glucose. However, if you are inactive that gate cannot work properly. When this happens, glucose remains in the blood. The good news is that movement can re-open the gate to take more glucose out of the blood and allow the muscle to use glucose as energy.  Extra glucose is stored in the liver and fat cells.

When there is not enough insulin, sugar stays in the blood stream, which raises blood sugar levels, causing hyperglycemia.  Hyperglycemia damages nerves, eyesight and kidneys. You probably know this as diabetes.

When a person is diabetic, either he or she does not have enough insulin in the body to control blood sugar level, or there is more glucose in the blood than what the body’s natural production of insulin can handle.

When there is too much insulin in the body because of sudden spike in blood sugar level (poor food choice) and muscles are not being worked well (lack of movement), this is also a problem.

Chronic increase of insulin levels affect the chemicals that run the heart. Increased insulin also results in the kidneys retaining water, which in turn produces greater blood volume and higher blood pressure.

WE DO NOT WANT GLUCOSE TO STAY IN THE BLOOD.  At the risk of being redundant… when muscle cells are active glucose does not stay in the blood, it instead converts into energy.

In conclusion, to keep insulin in check – not too little or too much – you can eat healthy foods and participate in regular movement to allow your body to produce enough insulin naturally, and move glucose out of the blood, to BEcome the WHOLE healthy YOU!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...but why?

What happens when you eat an APPLE? 

We know they are good for us.

We know they have lots of vitamin C.

We know they have these things called ANTIOXIDANTS.

But what really is so great about them?

You may be surprised to learn that not only do they have one or two vitamins and antioxidants, but according to T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study and his newest book, Whole, the humble apple has over one thousand (1,000) phyto chemicals.  

 His research has supported other studies on how the genes are effected by what has been identified as ‘epigenes’.  The epigenes work on top of the gene to effect the gene either positively or negatively depending on what nutrients or toxins are acting upon the gene at any particular moment.

Therefore, when the gene at the cellular level has the many food nutrients available in these minute phytochemical* amounts the cell is in an environment to repair itself. Thousands of different metabolic activities occur at the cellular level.  

Consider this fact: 300,000,000 million cells are dying and being replaced every minute in a cellular repair or healing function.  When they do not have the nourishing foods needed for repair (phytochemicals) but instead have a deficiency of nutrients and or worse are exposed to toxins (another topic) they mutate.

If this is true of the humble apple it follows that all WHOLE foods eaten in their simplest state have the same miraculous actions in our body. We can see the various world wide variations in food types (ethnic foods) and can be assured that they all have what the body needs to be healthy.

The take away message is as Drs. Colin T Campbell, Joel Fuhrman, and Adiel Teloren advise to eat your foods in their WHOLE fresh state, locally grown if possible, and seasonally with a minimum amount  of processing.  And try not to get too hung up on 'organic'. According to Dr Fuhrman studies done connecting pesticide effects in humans were done when DDT was commonly used in agriculture and prior to 1972 and though it is no longer used on foods it is found in the environment as it is taken up by fish and shellfish and other animal flesh that we consume. It better to eat the fresh vegetables and fruits after proper washing and know you are benefiting from all the good chemicals they contain whether organic or not. By limiting the foods that may have levels of DDT you are choosing wisely. Keep in mind that it makes little sense to worry about contaminated foods and then have pesticidal sprays used abundantly around us. 

*phyto-chemical = micro-nutrients found in fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. These chemicals are much smaller than the macro-nutrients, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and all the vitamins we get in our daily vitamin pill.  Recent research has discovered at least 12,000 of these nutrients in natural unprocessed Whole plant foods. These compounds work synergistically at the cellular level in ways we are still learning about.