There is nothing that hampers productivity more than constant hunger pangs. When you’re hungry, it is easy to become distracted, lethargic, and irritable. Not to mention that the midafternoon slump usually hits around the busiest part of the day and in your haste, its easy to grab an unhealthy, sugary snack or fast food. These type of indulgent treats such as fancy coffee drinks, chips, and french fries give your body the illusion of being full and can increase your hunger, leading to a vicious snacking cycle. You will receive a momentary sugar and carb-induced spike in energy levels and then experience a dangerous blood sugar crash.
Sun Gazing: What is it and Should You do it?
You may have heard mention of sungazing and been shocked that people willingly stare into the sun for up to 44 minutes each day. Throughout your life, you’ve likely been told time and time again that staring directly into the sun can lead to blindness as the insense UV rays can cause irreparable damage to your retina. This can happen rather quickly, and you may not even realize it since the eyes to not contain pain receptors to let you know that they are being damaged. So why exactly do people stare into the sun on purpose? Read on to find out about the dubious practice of sungazing.
Can Spirulina Help With Weight Loss?
The ocean holds many secrets, and one of them can be found right on the shelves of your local health food store. This superfood known as spirulina is a sea vegetable, like chlorella and kelp, and you’ve probably seen it listed in various natural supplements, or perhaps as an ingredient in a green smoothie.
A form of algae, spirulina has a brilliant blue-green hue that results from a pigment known as phycocyanin, the compound primarily responsible for its multitude of health benefits. It contains an exceptionally high antioxidant count that’s beneficial to the body in numerous ways, including fighting off free radical damage that can lead to premature aging and a host of illnesses and disease.
Spirulina’s incredibly powerful nutritional profile means that it’s one of the best things you can consume for better health. It’s no passing fad – in fact, to date, there are some 1,200 peer-reviewed, scientific articles that have shown it just might be the key to turning back the clock and reducing the risk of all sorts of health disorders. Here’s how –
Arsenic and Other Heavy Metal Detoxification
A December 2014 study out of George Washington University found that heavy metals like cadmium may prematurely age cells, and potentially trigger a number of diseases as we age. The researchers noted that high exposure to cadmium was associated with shorter telomeres, something that is known to help stabilize genes. They act as “caps,” and if they’re shortened too much, the cells are weakened which leads to disease, suggesting that exposure to heavy metals can play a role in chronic illnesses like kidney and heart disease.
Chronic arsenic toxicity is a worldwide problem, as the World Health Organization has reported, and the U.S. is one of the nations that are most severely affected. But the issue is more serious in places like Bangladesh, India, and Taiwan where residents consume a high level of arsenic in their drinking water. Research in Bangladesh found that as many as 3% of the population exhibited signs of arsenic poisoning, but after giving affected patients a spirulina extract that was combined with zinc, they experienced a 47% decrease of arsenic in their bodies.
This research points to the fact that spirulina may be ideal for heavy metal detoxification, which can help prevent premature aging and lower the risk of disease. As Spirulina is also jam-packed with chlorophyll, it’s well-known to help remove toxins from the blood while boosting the immune system at the same time.
Supporting Weight Loss
As we age, it seems to get harder and harder to maintain an ideal weight, but nutrient-dense, protein-rich spirulina can help with this too as it helps to decrease fat stores in a number of different ways.
Spirulina is high in fiber, which is essential for staying fuller longer as well as curbing hunger pangs that can lead to junk food binges. Its high protein content means that consuming it will help maintain lean tissue while also contributing to fat burning. That doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want and lounge around on the couch all day, however. You’ll still need to consume a healthy, balanced diet and get regular exercise, but taking a spoonful or so of spirulina each day it will make losing weight or maintaining an ideal weight that much easier.
More Energy
Is there anyone who can’t use an energy boost? These days so many of us are lacking energy with all of the day-to-day demands placed on us. But when you consider the chemical composition of spirulina, it’s no surprise that this superfood can come to the rescue. Popular TV doc, Dr. Oz, recommends combining spirulina with lime juice to enhance energy. This combination is said to unlock sugar from the body’s cells to boost metabolic energy. He advises stirring in a teaspoon of spirulina powder to 12 ounces of fresh, organic lime juice and then freezing that mixture in ice cube trays for a healthy kick of energy.
Younger Looking Skin
As spirulina contains a high level of vitamin A, vitamin B-12, vitamin E, calcium, iron, and phosphorus, all of which are vital for your skin’s health, consuming it regularly can work wonders for aging skin. It fights those free radicals that can make your skin look tired and even flabby as well as helping to eliminate toxins, which can result in more toned and youthful skin.
Healthy Vision
Research has found that spirulina is incredibly beneficial for vision as well. In fact, it’s been proven to be effective for treating eye diseases like macular degeneration, diabetic retinal damage, geriatric cataracts and nephritic retinal damage, thanks to a powerful antioxidant called zeaxanthin. A number of studies have revealed that a diet rich in this antioxidant can help prevent the loss of vision, and a report published in The British Journal of Nutrition notes that spirulina is a rich source of zeaxanthin with high bioavailability, which means that it’s highly absorbable in the blood.
Improving Brain Health and Protecting Against Degenerative Diseases
Spirulina has also been shown to help protect cognitive functioning as we age. Taking it regularly can reduce the risk of developing diseases that can severely impact the quality of life as well as shorten it, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Taking a spoonful of spirulina a day is believed to help protect the brain from degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Researchers from Madrid, Spain compared it to foods known to be especially high in antioxidants such as spinach and blueberries in a 2008 study, which are well-known to provide neuroprotective effects due to their ability to lower inflammation and fight off free radical damage. These powerful antioxidants not only protect the brain from degeneration, but they help keep the mind sharp and focused. Some experts believe that a daily dose of spirulina may also help improve productivity and reduce ADHD symptoms too.
Lowering Cholesterol
Lower blood cholesterol means a reduced risk of heart disease, which is a major cause of death in adults who are middle-aged or older. Spirulina lowers cholesterol levels naturally while boosting the absorption of essential minerals to improve one’s total cholesterol ratio. Research published in The Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology in 2010 found that rabbits fed a high cholesterol diet for four weeks followed by the same diet, but with spirulina added, for the next eight weeks, experienced a reduction in cholesterol by 26% in the those who consumed a diet of 1% spirulina, and 41% in the group that consumed 5% spirulina.
Anyone up for some algae?
-Susan
5 Ways to Love the Environment and Your Health Too
Taking care of the environment helps to ensure that nature will be around for us to enjoy all of its many benefits. When we take care of the world around us, it does a better job taking care of us. Here are five simple ways you can love the environment and your health too!
Kill energy vampires
One easy but significantly positive step is to get rid of all of those energy vampires. You’ve probably left lots of things plugged in that you aren’t using without even thinking about it, like your cell phone charger. But the average charger consumes .26 watts of energy, and that’s when it isn’t being used. If a fully charged device is plugged into it, it uses 2.24 watts.That unused, but constantly drawn power is considered to be vampire energy – it increases your utility bill as well as wasting lots of energy. Think about all of those appliances and electronics you keep plugged in all the time but aren’t always powered on, like the TV, coffee maker, and stereo. If they’re turned off, but a light it still on, that means they’re in “standby” mode and drawing energy. You can easily avoid this by plugging those items into power strips. Then, when you’re finished using them, just switch the power strips off.
Eat less meat
Eating less meat is not only good for your health, but it’s important for a healthy planet too. One of the reasons is that raising livestock like chickens, pig, and cows, generates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all cars, trucks and other vehicles combined. Cattle ranchers have clear cut millions of square miles of forests for grazing pastures, which decimates natural “carbon sinks,” which is anything that absorbs more carbon than it releases. By limiting meat consumption and shifting to more plant-based foods, you’ll be contributing to essential factors necessary to combat climate change, air, water and soil pollution, ocean dead zones and the host of other problems caused by industrial livestock production. Recent research has revealed that giving up red meat in particular would reduce an individual’s carbon footprint more than giving up driving cars. You don’t even have to give up meat entirely, consider the Meatless Monday movement, which aims to get people to give up meat just once a week, on Mondays, to reduce carbon footprints, along with reducing the risk of preventable chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Drink less milk
You’re probably well-aware that you should limit your personal water use, by not leaving the water running while you’re brushing your teeth or taking a long shower, for example, but those are actually not the most effective ways to reduce your water footprint. What is especially effective, is cutting dairy consumption. Surprising by true, you could actually save the same amount of water by not showering for an entire month as you could by just skipping one gallon of milk. That’s because the average dairy farm uses 3.4 million gallons of water, every day. Global water footprint of animal agriculture is 2,422 billion cubic meters of water, 19 percent of which is related to dairy cattle. All that water is needed to hydrate the cows as well as clean floors, walls and milking equipment. Milk is approximately 87 percent water, which means a cow that is constantly producing milk must stay sufficiently hydrated and can drink 23 gallons of water every day. Just imagine a facility that has 700 cows! It would need 16,100 gallons of water just for the cows to drink – that doesn’t include water needed for cleaning the facility, or to produce the feed the cows eat. Just by giving up cheese, you could keep over 400 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year
Milk is approximately 87 percent water, which means a cow that is constantly producing milk must stay sufficiently hydrated and can drink 23 gallons of water every day. Just imagine a facility that has 700 cows! It would need 16,100 gallons of water just for the cows to drink – that doesn’t include water needed for cleaning the facility or to produce the feed the cows eat. Just by giving up cheese, you could keep over 400 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year.
Ban yourself from plastic bags and only use recyclable, reusable plastic.
Many communities throughout the U.S. have banned the use of plastic bags and for good reason. They harm the environment in many ways, getting into the soil and slowly releasing toxic chemicals. The bags have also caused many animals to die, as they eat them and choke to death. Frighteningly, the sheer number of plastic bags used around the world is estimated to be between 500 million and one billion. These bags are also causing serious damage to our oceans and the creatures that live in them. Plastic debris in the water degrades marine habitats and contributes to the death of many marine animals. As the floating plastic often looks like food to the sea turtles, marine birds, and marine animals, they often choke or starve because their digestive systems become blocked when they eat it. Paper bags aren’t the best option either – the only real option is a reusable cloth grocery bag.
Start a compost pile
Composting is one of the greenest things you can do. It’s nature’s way of recycling, and it gets for the land as everything you compost becomes a thriving habitat for entire populations of worms, bugs, fungi, bacteria and the like – and, what they leave behind becomes nourishment for your plants. There is zero methane emitted through a well-managed compost heap too. Traditional waste methods leave that waste lying stagnant in landfills, where vital oxygen is necessary to facilitate the decaying process and cannot reach it. Landfill material also releases greenhouse gases that further contribute to climate change; Methane gas escapes during the building process, and incineration leaves toxic ash waste as well as releasing an astounding amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Composting requires very little work and resources while providing a massive positive impact on our environment. If you aren’t sure how to begin, Rodale’s Organic Life offers simple steps for getting started in its article, The Easiest Way to Compost.
-Susan Patterson