Green leafy vegetables are an important part of our diets. They are high in dietary fiber, folic acid, calcium and vitamin C in addition to being low in fat. Green leafy vegetables are known for reducing the risks of heart disease and cancer but recent research has shown they can also reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Just 1.5 extra servings of green leafy vegetables a day can have a 14% reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes. Collard greens are a great addition to any stir-fry and arugula and mustard greens add a peppery bite to salads tossed with a simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing.

Sweet peppers are another tasty health food. Recently, researchers have found that capsinoids, the non-pungent compounds in sweet peppers, help us use energy more efficiently. This is good news for those of us who want to get the most out of our workouts! Sweet pepper spears and roasted garlic hummus are a delicious snack!

Celery contains dietary luteolin, a bioactive plant compound, which has recently been linked to increased performance on memory tasks. Researchers found that when given a luteolin-supplemented diet for four weeks, aged mice performed better on memory tasks than their control diet counterparts. Researchers concluded that the dietary compound luteolin reduces inflammation in the brain and decreases memory decline. Celery is delicious chopped and tossed with halved red grapes, diced grilled chicken breasts and pecan halves dressed with a dijon vinaigrette.

Watermelon is a summer staple. It is delicious and refreshing and has the power to help reduce blood pressure. Watermelon contains L-citrulline, a compound that helps widen blood vessels helping to reduce aortic blood pressure. Watermelon cubes tossed with fresh mint and a lightly sweetened balsamic vinegar reduction is a perfect summer dessert.

Tomatoes are another summer staple that should be on your grocery list. Tomatoes contain high levels of the antioxidant lycopene which has been found to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Studies found that men who ate at least two servings of tomatoes a day, including tomato-based sauces, significantly decreased their chances of developing the disease. Halved cherry tomatoes tossed with small slices of fresh low-fat mozzarella cheese, whole basil leaves and extra virgin olive oil is an excellent accompaniment to any meal.

Strawberries are a delicious addition to any summer menu and are known to be an excellent source of vitamin C, folic acid and contain high levels of antioxidants. Researchers have also found that strawberries can reduce inflammation. Strawberries are a great snack just by themselves but they are also a tasty topping for whole grain cereal or sliced and tossed with feta cheese and arugula.

Oranges contain more antioxidants than any other fruit. Eating at least one orange a day in addition to the five recommended fruits and vegetables a day can reduce the risk for cancers of the mouth, larynx and stomach as well as reduce the risk of stroke. Orange wedges are a popular snack but they are also delicious segmented and tossed in a stir-fry or with peppery greens.

Beets are great for boosting brain health. They are high in nitrates which are converted to nitrite after consumption. These nitrites help open blood vessels increasing oxygen flow to the brain. Beets are delightful tossed in a dandelion green salad or roasted with carrots, pearl onions and sweet peppers.

Oregano is a staple of Italian and Greek cuisine.  Oregano can reduce inflammation and bone degeneration thanks to its active ingredient betacaryophyllin. Oregano is most often chopped and tossed in pasta dishes or stirred into soups. It is also delicious used in marinades and ground into pesto sauces.

Rosemary is another delicious, fragrant herb and researchers have discovered its scent may boost memory. Researchers have determined that when in office spaces are infused with the fragrance of rosemary workers have better long-term memory and quicker reaction times. Rosemary is a great addition to any sauce but also delicious baked in whole grain breads.

Pack your grocery cart with these powerful health foods and reap the benefits while adding delicious flavors to your summertime menu!

If you read food labels, you may notice this allergy warning or something similar: “this product was produced in a factory that also processes nuts, soybeans, etc.” The prevalence of food allergies has grown rapidly over the last decade. According to the CDC, from 1997 to 2007, reported food allergy cases increased by 18% in children under the age of 18 years old. Food allergies affect up to 8% of children and 3%-4% of adults. Other allergic conditions such as atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma are more common in children who have food allergies.

What is a food allergy?

Food allergies are a potentially serious immune response to eating specific foods or food additives. Food allergies is an immunoglobulin (Ig)E- or non-IgE-mediated immune response to food protein. Eight types of food account for over 90% of allergic reactions in affected individuals: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.

Symptoms of food allergies may include the following:

• Hives
• Flushed skin or rash
• Tingling or itchy sensation in the mouth
• Face, tongue, or lip swelling
• Vomiting and/or diarrhea
• Abdominal cramps
• Coughing or wheezing
• Dizziness and/or lightheadedness
• Swelling of the throat and vocal cords
• Difficulty breathing
• Loss of consciousness

Severe food allergies can be life-threatening and may lead to a reaction called anaphylaxis. According to the FDA, each year in the U.S., it is estimated that anaphylaxis to food results in: 30,000 emergency room visits, 2,000 hospitalizations and 150 deaths.

Adverse reactions to foods are sometimes confused with food allergies, but are really food intolerances.  These non-immunologic food reactions can be metabolic (lactose intolerance), pharmacologic (chemical migraine triggers such as tyramine, aspartame, monosodium glutamate, nitrates/nitrites, alcohol, coffee, and chocolate), or toxic (scombroid poisoning or food poisoning) in origin.

Food sensitivities can have varied symptoms including gas, bloating, asthma symptoms, fatigue, headaches, weight gain (and difficulty losing weight), obesity, joint pain, depression and food cravings.

To get tested for food allergies, call Dr. Ross’s office 303-993-5468

You may have heard of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), but what do you know about Leaky Gut Syndrome? Leaky Gut Syndrome is a common health disorder in which the intestinal tract is more permeable or more porous than normal.  Toxins which should naturally be repelled and eliminated leak through small openings in the lining of the intestines into the bloodstream. Leaky Gut syndrome can cause food allergies because of the release of toxins from the gut which promotes inflammation and is associated with poor absorption of nutrients leading to some nutritional deficiencies.

If you have some of the following symptoms you could be experiencing Leaky Gut Syndrome:

• Abdominal pain
• Asthma
• Chronic joint and muscle pain
• Confusion or foggy thinking
• Mood swings & nervousness
• Recurrent vaginal infections and bladder infections
• Skin rashes such as eczema
• Bloating and gas, alternating constipation with diarrhea (usually referred to as IBS)

Some causes of Leaky Gut Syndrome are:

• Prescription antibiotics use
• Alcohol and caffeine consumption

• Chemicals in fermented and processed foods (dyes, preservatives, peroxidized fats)
• Enzyme deficiencies (e.g. celiac disease, lactase deficiency causing lactose intolerance)
• NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen
• Prescription corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone)
• High refined carbohydrate diet (sugary foods, soft drinks and white bread)
• Prescription hormones

There is help. Leaky Gut Syndrome can be reversed by a change in diet. Eliminating sugar, white flour products, gluten, dairy products, fatty foods, caffeine products, alcohol and increasing fiber intake can combat the effects of Leaky Gut Syndrome. Treatment might also include the use of natural antibiotics (Echinacea, colloidal silver, and garlic), antiparasitics (cloves, wormwood, black walnut) and antifungals (taheebo, caprylic acid, grapefruit seed extract). Some supplements to use are natural digestive enzymes derived from plants, essential fatty acids such as flaxseed oil and antioxidants like Vitamin C & Vitamin E.

Leaky gut syndrome patients should chew their food more thoroughly, eat frequent small meals and take their time while eating. A juice fast and taking probiotics like lactobacillus acidophilus and bifidus can also help.

When left undiagnosed or untreated Leaky Gut Syndrome is associated with autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Sjogren’s syndrome, thyroiditis, vasculitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, urticaria (hives), diabetes and Raynaud’s disease.

The saturation of weight loss programs and diets in our society has reached unprecedented proportions.  In the US, the private weight loss industry is a $58.6 billion a year industry. You can hardly turn on the TV, listen to the radio or read a popular magazine without seeing commercials announcing the latest and greatest weight loss techniques and methods. Coupled with the media focus on the “thin ideal,” it can be hard for one to get a handle on what a healthy body should look like.  But more importantly,  we’ve lost sight of what a healthy body should feel like.

Fortunately, health professionals and the medical community, as well as private organizations have taken notice and are working towards shifting our focus from weight loss to improving overall health.  Eating disorder organizations are also urging a paradigm shift in thinking from a focus on appearance and weight loss to focusing on maintaining overall health.

Weight is just one indicator of one’s overall health status.   Society’s focus on appearance and the thin ideal has been linked to the development of low self-esteem and depression, and an unhealthy body image, all of which may increase risk for the development of an eating disorder.

For a shift to occur, we must create realistic images of what that portray health first, then weight and focus on the following:

• Realization that weight is personalized and unique to an individual. There is not a perfect number on the scale for every person to attain.
• Discussions should be centered on gradual and moderate weight loss over time and not on one-size fits all diets or extreme diets that promise unrealistic results.  According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a modest weight loss of 5-10 percent can significantly improve health and reduce risks for heart disease, cancer, stroke and high blood pressure.
• Understand that the amount a person weighs does not determine how healthy they are.  Overweight individuals who are active and have healthy diets are at lower risks for health problems such as those listed above than are thin, inactive individuals.
• Since our earliest models for how we should feel about our bodies begin at home, it’s important for parents to be good role models for their children.  They can do this by focusing on other assets or qualities their children exhibit other than just their appearance.  They can also do this by avoiding negative conversations about their own bodies.

Evidence shows that when healthy choices such as eating more healthily and being more active are in place health risks are minimized.  If we can shift our focus to health first, then weight we are more likely to reach our own individual healthy weight and to feel better as well!

I doubt that there’s another country in the world so addicted – not to food but to dieting.  So much so, that even children as young as 5 years old feel they should be dieting too.  Most people who start on the diet treadmill learn about dieting not from the media, but from their own families.  Famous people and celebrities are dieting.  Even 70 year olds are expressing dissatisfaction with their weight.

While we have lost the war on obesity, we have certainly won the war on brainwashing the public that they need to buy into the need to spend billions of dollars every year on diet products.

See the recent piece in the NY Times is written by a man who has spent a lifetime dieting and is beginning again to try and lose weight to understand the misery dieting can cause.  See the article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/an-endless-cycle-of-failed-diets/?ref=health

There are few hopeful signs in this extreme desire to be thin in our culture.  So my question above stands – Is a lifetime of dieting really a life?

What is high blood pressure?  A blood pressure reading of greater than 140/90 is considered abnormal although even lower levels (130-139/85-89)can be associated with higher risk for cardiovascular disease.  Hypertension (high blood pressure) affects one in four Americans and is called the “silent killer,” because you can have an high blood pressure without having any symptoms.

What causes high blood pressure (HBP)?

• stress
• risk is higher in African Americans
• blood pressure naturally increases as we age which puts the elderly at higher risk of HBP
• being overweight or obese can increase blood pressure
• dietary deficiencies of calcium, magnesium and potassium are associated with HBP
• there are some medications that can cause HBP including steroids, birth control pills, and over the country diet pills with stimulants (guarana, caffeine, cola nut, yerba mate) can increase BP
• high sodium diets
• drinking alcohol

What are some integrative therapies you should consider?

1. Get enough calcium in your diet with low fat dairy products
2. Increase intake of fruits and vegetables
3. Limit sodium by decreasing intake of processed and convenience foods as well as fast foods as they are high in salt.
4. LImit intake of alcohol
5. Lose weight if you are overweight
6. Exercise is effective at lowering blood pressure even if you don’t lose weight
7. Consider the amino acid – L-arginine which when taken orally helps to dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure
8. Eat according to the anti-inflammatory diet pyramid.  See http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/PAG00361/anti-inflammatory-food-pyramid.html
9. If you don’t get enough calcium, magnesium and potassium in your diet, take supplements.

Most of us don’t think of our bodies as our home but in fact they are.  We get one body at birth. We live in that body-home until we die.  The food we eat, whether or not we are active, how we nourish our bodies in general will have consequences.  If we smoke, we damage our hearts and lungs.  When we eat foods that are highly processed, we send out inflammatory cells to all parts of the body which over time cause wear and tear on the body organs.

As we look at the disaster being played out on our TVs in the news, I wonder what headline news it would take to get all of us to take our body health as seriously.  While the media is churning out more and more studies about how “bad” obesity is, we forget that scare tactics never work.  We must all refocus what has been called the war on obesity into a partnership to put health first, then weight. If we saw ourselves in the same light that we see the poor creatures of the sea; if our hearts would open to our own need for caring, then perhaps changing how we treat ourselves, our bodies would make sense. Because, to me, it doesn’t make the most sense that we try to get everyone to “just be thin.”  There are many thin people who are unhealthy.  So thin is definitely NOT the answer.

But anyone who takes care of themselves, who views their bodies as their friend, not adversary, who is a good steward of this home will be as healthy as humanly possible.  Perhaps BP’s oil spill and the crisis in the gulf can serve as a wake up call for us all to take care of all the homes under our guardianship – from our bodies to the earth itself.