Nutrition and Wellness Information, Resources and Education

I posted this last year, but I’m finding as we’re back in Summertime again, many are doing things to improve their health either because of illness, or to prevent it. Either way, you need to have correct info on this because the food that’s sold in the US has some creative labeling methods that can be deceiving. There are many misconceptions about what constitutes good nutrition  It’s amazing the misinformation that is put out about what makes for good nutrition. The fact is, there are a lot of companies with big advertising budgets to imply that there is research showing what they are selling is what the research says you need.  Although I too represent a company that provides a nutritional resource, the research I will direct you to is top notch and indisputable. What I do is educate people from highly credible medical and nutritional resources I’ve learned from and make available to you. This research has been peer reviewed by professionals in the field that the research was done and published in the respective professional journals.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. When it comes to good nutrition it’s really not that complicated.

Rule 1, processed food is bad. Most anything that comes out of a box has little to no nutritional value except for a few exceptions. These exceptions become clear by reading the ingredients. If a good portion of the ingredients is sugar, enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils and or an artificial sweetener like aspartame or similar. It’s best to avoid. None of those ingredients have any nutrition and are harmful to eat over a long period of time.

Rule 2, the best parts of the store to shop in are the produce department, the fish department, the meat department. a few items in the cereal isle and a couple items in isles that have little processed products. In that order. The more you eat that comes closest to it’s original state from nature, the more nutrition it has. If it has a lot of ingredients you can’t easily pronounce, probably not good to eat those either.

You may notice I did not mention the dairy department. In reality, no dairy is required for human nutritional needs. For  treats? Sure on occasion. On the other hand, often healthy dairy substitutes like soy, almond or rice milk products are sometimes the dairy section. Also farm raised eggs are ok as well.

Rule 3,  Hydration, water is of course important to consume everyday. However anything other than water should not be considered for hydration. An exception is high water content produce. Especially now during the Summer, melon, especially watermelon should be consumed in large quantities during this time of year. Reason being the water content is high and the nutrients that nature provides with it enhances the utilization of it’s hydration. Unfortunately many consider the sports or performance drinks as hydration and they certainly promote and package themselves as such, they certainly are not. As I said, the closer to nature is the best. None of those products can be found in nature. In spite of their labeling there is little of anything natural about them. Natural ingredients? Yes but are similar to say orange juice from concentrate with calcium added. The orange juice is pasteurized, then concentrated and reconstituted with synthetic calcium added. Hmm, Natural? I think not. Originated from, but not what you’re actually buying and putting in your body.

Also, if you don’t have a water filter at home, I recommend getting one. Yes if your faucet delivers water from a treatment plant, you need a water filter. Bottled water is a good alternative but more expensive in the long run. Many are really not sure how much water they should consume daily. X amount of glasses a day is not reality because you wouldn’t expect someone that is 6.5′ the same requirement as someone who is 5′. So you go by weight. Take your body weight and divide by two. Some think that sounds like a lot. It is if you’re not accustomed to proper hydration.

Anyway, I’ve given some basics in this posting, but I welcome your questions and comments. Please feel free to share this with your friends and relatives since although some of what will be recommended here will sound difficult if not impossible to achieve in your busy lifestyle, I’ll provide ways to make it easier.

In talking about Fit vs. Healthy. it’s really pretty simple. You can be fit, but being healthy requires good nutrition to go with your fitness plan. Without it you’re tearing your body down leading to injuries and possible degenerative disease. Our bodies require regular physical exercise but that exercise does cause damage to cell structures if not offset by good nutrition to counteract the effects. Some feel if they exercise a lot and intensely they can eat anything they want. That is a mistake, especially within the first hour after an exercise routine. The body wants the best nutrition possible during that time for the maintenance needed, also known as recovery. Recovery drinks are not the answer. Real food like fruits and vegetables or certain well formulated nutrition products which I will share upon request..

Hope you found this helpful..

To assist with your raw produce intake. Many have heard of and possibly used Juice Plus and got away from it for different reasons. There is nothing else on the plant that compares to this, and the only product that has top notch scientific research to back up it’s ability to provide what the body needs for healing and maintenance. Please contact me for more information. rick@rickfigley.com or 954-649-5896 to learn more or visit my Juice Plus+ website www.rickshowsjuiceplus.com

I posted this last year at this time, but felt it was worth repeating.

It’s really hot out there. But what else is new for summer time. Here down in South Florida it’s not only the heat, but the humidity making it difficult to stand outside for more than 5 minutes without starting to sweat. Unless you’re in a shaded breeze, then maybe 10 minutes:)

In any case hydration is extremely important. Unfortunately hydrating is difficult for those who don’t like to drink water, which is for the most part the BEST hydration. Notice I said, “for the most part”? Research done at University of Aberdeen Medical School http://www.impactlab.com/2009/07/19/some-fruit-and-vegetables-can-hydrate-you-more-than-a-glass-of-water/ shows that some fruits and vegetables contain the ultimate mix of minerals, salts sugar and amino acids to more effectively hydrate than just water or even sports drinks. The key is fruits and vegetables are from nature, sports drinks are not.

As for water it is often said that say 8 of 8 oz glasses of water each day is what you need. The problem with that is you need a certain amount depending on your body size. So the rule of thumb is take your body weight and divide it by 2.  That is the number of ounces of “water” you should consume everyday. I specify water because no other beverage should be considered for strictly hydration. I’ve had some ask me about milk. Absolutely not. In fact even though you drink milk like a beverage, chemically it’s a food and should not be thought of as hydration. Of course coffee can not since that will actually dehydrate you, as will sodas. I often hear or read about how good a cold one. Too bad they mean beer instead of water.

Something that a lot of people also do not realize with regard to hydration is certain health issues being caused or at least related to insufficient daily hydration. Since our body is mostly water, lack of sufficient hydration can cause a multitude of health issues. So with more adequate hydration, you may be able to greatly reduce some health issues you’re dealing with and not just some obvious ones like constipation.

Would love to hear your comments.

Neglected to post this before posting links from my Facebook page to here.
In any case, doing so now. But for the many of you who are follow this, you’ll be interested in checking out my new page and blog focusing on Karate, and fitness. www.namastekarate.com There may be times that I’ll overlap posts between the two or just link to them. In any case if you like what you’ve been seeing here, you’ll probably like as well. At my Namaste Karate blog I speak of fitness for children and adults alike. Having trained in Karate for several years and taught children and adults alike in 4.5 of those years I’ve come to realize this approach to be unique as I combine diciplines that I could not teach where I was so decided to start this. As always, I want your feedback. Also if your on Facebook  join my page at Namaste Karate Page .

Thank you.

Been a long time, actaully way too long since I’ve posted last. Will be doing so more frequently. Have an announcement though, I’ve started another blog at www.namastekarate.com . It’s a blog but also my new website to inform and promote an endeavor I’ve been planning for some months now. Been teaching karate for over 4.5 years at the school I trained at since a white belt and realized what I could teach there was limited, in that I have other important aspects of martial arts to teach, some apply directly to martial arts, some do not, but all applies to making one’s life better. Go to that site for more info. I’ve also created a FB fan page http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Pembroke-Pines-FL/Namaste-om-Karate/118400424873219?ref=sgm&__a=11&ajaxpipe=1
. Will give more on that here later.

On to the subject. I recently learned of a couple of friends planning, or considering surgery for one thing or another.  Most people realize that is a last resort for ANY condition and that is a good thing. Some however if they have a lot of faith in their doctor and the doctor recommends surgery, they don’t give it a socond thought, but they should. First, nothing against the doctor, they’re doing what they’ve been trained to do and often don’t have time to actaully keep up with what is going on and available that would be more beneficial to their patients. This is a shame because it unfortuantly makes them quite ignorant. Often times the patient will do the research and learn things they actually point out to their doctor. If your doctor is good and you do this, he or she will be grateful for your advising them. Some doctors have an issue with a patient doing this and personally I’d have an issue with a doctor who does.

In any case, one of the important considerations with surgery is, is anything being cut out, either entirely or partially? The problem with any part of the human body being “Cut out” reduces not only that part’s ability to do what it’s supposed to for your body, but may reduce it’s ability to heal naturally. Many organs in the past, such as tonsils and appendixes were considered to not have a function. That was mostly because scientists could not figure out what they did. They assumed we had evolved past the need for them, kind of silly, if that was so, why did we still have them?  However both do have important functions. Sometimes though the surgery is on joints where possibly some cleaning of calcium deposits or other “Adjustments” are done. This although seemingly harmless can cause problems in that it’s done intrusively instead of giving what the body needs to repair itself. Believe it or not, most health problems, other than lack of proper nutrition, come from dehydration. Even joint problems. Joints need lubrication and the body needs to provide for that much of that coming from water. We should all be getting half our body weight in ounces in water everyday. Other good sources of hydration other than water, especially during the summer are melon, and cucumbers. These not only have a high water content but contain nutrients that provide better utilization of the hydration they provide.

The only time that is really the most appropriate to get surgery is if you’re in a life threatening accident. And then you’d want the least invasive sergeion you can get, but most all surgery for correcting illness can be avoided with a healthy lifestyle.

I recently added a new resource to my resource links on this nutrition and wellness blog.  I’ve actually known of him for a long time. I first learned of him and the nutrition he teaches about almost 30 years ago when I heard him him talk of his book, “The McDougall Plan”. He spoke of a starch/plant based diet that he referred to as a “Health Supporting Diet”. When I say diet, I mean daily nutrition intake, not a diet to loose weight.  He spoke of seeing patients in his office located in Hawaii from many different cultures and their daily food intake. He discovered that as a whole, those who ate the least amount of food from animals sources, the healthier they were in general. They had much less, if any occurrence of the degenerative diseases many Americans get like heart disease, cancer, hypertension…you know what I mean. Hearing this information and reading his book essentially turned me into a vegan. At least for  number of years, which gave me a good perspective of understanding my body and it’s dietary needs.

Take a look at his website and his information. One thing he advocates against and always has is taking vitamins. Though I went along with that for a while I felt that eating the food we eat, even lots of produce, was lacking in nutrients, which it is, but vitamins I learned later to not correct for that. In the last decade I became more aware of the need for whole food nutrition thta vitamins do not assist with. That’s when I began to understand about Juice Plus+ and in fact that DOES, fill the nutrition gap. That’s when I started using it and recommending it to others.

Anyway as I said. Take a look at Dr. McDougall’s website http://www.drmcdougall.com here or from the right column of this page.