Best Buddies Australia

Hi Everyone,

Imagine being intellectually challenged…how hard is it to find somebody who really understands you? To find a best buddy who you can relate to? To be respected by all people and being able to interact in a social environment?

Best Buddies is an international organisation that assigns a match close to perfection according to the needs the individual. Well, the mission of Best Buddies Australia is to reduce the psychological strain and challenges faced with finding a buddy. How does BBA do that? By delegating one person of the same gender, similar age group, geographical locus, and likes and interests to be a BEST BUDDY for that one person.

It only takes a phone call a week and going out every alternate week under a 12 month commitment to your assigned buddy to know you are making a significant change to that one person’s life, and him to yours. Will you be the one to extend a warm welcoming hand to someone in need? Best Buddies Australia needs you.

To find out more, visit http://www.bestbuddies.org.au/News/BBA_gets_support.html

Best Buddies Australia is just a phone call away. Make that call today and put a smile on someone’s dial.

Phone: (02) 9616 7393 (Horatio)

Yours in Health,

Jane Le

Ingredients List

Heya!

How are we all? Tonight I will explain to you how we understand the ingredients list.

Ingredients are written in order of their proportion to each other. The greatest proportion of ingredient is always listed first. Having said that, even though salt may be one of the last ingredients, the product is still pregnant with salt (Yes, pregnant is my word)

My rule is that if you are unsure of what the ingredients are, or don’t know how to pronounce it, it is best to stay away from it. The more complex the ingredients list is, the more refined and processed it is.

Additives and preservatives often have codes, sometimes with an E in front, sometimes not. Additives may be artificial colours, flavours, etc. Preservatives allow the product to last longer, and are usually in their sodium form.

Sometimes when you see added vitamins and minerals, you must know that it’s all fake. What’s real? Real vitamins and minerals will always have their full scientific names instead of vitamin X,Y,Z, yada yada yada!

So, that’s all from me, have a productive and safe week ahead!

Until next time, Remember: Health is gold, so are you!

Yours in Health,

Jane!

yakult, butter vs. margarine, & hydrogenated vegetable oil

Heya!

Sorry haven’t blogged, fell very ill, every part of me was just aching and had throbbing headache! Anyway, I hope you’re all feeling better than I have, horrible feeling being sick.

Now, last Sunday I was meant to talk about these three topics. I’ll talk about them now. From what I have observed, parents are giving children Yakult, thinking that it’s good for them. What’s the difference between Biofeel and Yakult? Nothing! (Except for the price of course). As we can see, the first three ingredients (from what I can remember) is Sugar, Glucose, and skim milk powder. Others are the so-called “live” strains of good bacteria.

What’s ironic about this is that the “live” bacteria will pretty much be dead before they even reach the gut! Why? Because sugar destroys good bacteria. So you’re pretty much drinking it for nothing. Why not just eat 2 tablespoons of sugar with your toast? By the way, skim milk powder has absolutely no nutritional value at all. You think it’s good, but really, it’s just centrally targeted at “health conscious” parents.

In terms of butter vs. margarine (not that they’re any good),  there are a few differences. Firstly, the making of butter uses less processes (4 or 5 processes from memory?), while making margarine takes 12 steps. Another difference is that butter is hard at room temperature, while margarine is soft.

Butter contains vitamin D which helps absorb calcium from food. I personally use organic butter, but really, it’s just all fat! Fat is needed to absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K). Margarine is the altered form of true butter. Margarine is hydrogen added to unsaturated fats, which then makes it saturated fat. Why is this done? Saturated fat has a higher boiling point which makes it harden. This is then turned into trans-fat form. I’ll stop there before you get confused. Basically stay away from trans fats if you want to protect your heart!

Now comes the part about hydrogenated vegetable oil. This is normally used in your “junk food” aisle of the supermarket. Basically this is the process of making margarine. In choosing those irresistible foods (that are pregnant with sodium, mind you – Standard Australian Diet, I guess), it is best to read labels. As soon as it says hydrogenated vegetable oil, stay away from it. What’s yummy (but also salty) is Red Rock Deli, and also Grain Waves, and the classic Kettle chips. I’ll bet you’re thinking of getting some now, eh?! Hehehe…I’m still a sucker for those.

Well, have a safe week, and be kind to your body. Until next time, take care. Remember, Health is gold, so are you!

Yours in Health,

Jane

Reading Food Labels

Heya!

How are my fellow friends today? Hope you’re all well! I think you will find this month’s topic rather interesting. I am very excited to present to you tips on how you can dodge the bullet and bring you knowledge to make healthier food choices by knowing exactly what food labels mean! Firstly I will start off with “Diet”. Next I will talk about “Fat-free” labels, and I will conclude by talking about “Added (nutrients)”

Diet – in plain English, the word Diet mean everything that you have eaten and drunk in the day. What does Diet mean when it comes to food labels? Diet here refers to foods that are low in sugar, low in salt, or low in calories.

For instance, we have “Diet Coke” – of course it has not fat, no protein but 100% carbohydrates. What makes up for all those calories? Sugar. But here’s the thing; it contains no table sugar, but it has aspartame, which makes up for the calories anyway. Yes it may contain less calories, but Diet Coke is what you call empty calories. The calories that make up Diet Coke have absolutely no nutritional value at all whatsoever.

What comes through our minds when we hear the word “Diet”? Usually the perception is positive, yeah? I’m afraid they’ve got you sucked in to this. What we need to learn is that with most foods, if it’s lower in this, then it’s got to be higher in that!

They play with our minds. Wow, no fat…obviously Santa Clause didn’t like that. It appears that we are becoming a fat phobic nation. Everything is fat-free this and fat-free that. All we remember about is “fat-free”. But what’s behind it?

Say for example we have fat-free dairy milk. The fat in milk is needed to make vitamin D *since vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin don’t forget*. Make sense? So, full fat milk helps absorb vitamin D, which increases calcium absorption. Bottom line is that if we have fat-free milk, we have no vitamin D, Calcium, or Good sleep.

Okay, let’s look at Tip Top bread Wonder White with Added nutrients. Basically what it’s telling you is that all the nutrients have been taken out (hence we have refined white bread), and replaced with useless “nutrients”. These added nutrients function differently from the nutrients from our body. They need different nutrients from our nutrients obtained from food. Therefore there’s no point in buying anything that says (This food has got) Added … whatever.

I hope you have learned something from today’s post. Keep reading. Please, further your knowledge and skills to conquer this confusion. Look out for my next post on Sunday August 8, 2010. I will be talking about Yakult, Butter vs. Margarine, and Hydrolyzed vegetable oil.

Meanwhile, have a safe, happy, and satisfying week ahead. Remember, Health is Gold, So Are You!

Yours in Health,

Jane

Insomnia

Hey!

Glad you could make it! Sorry I’ve been posting articles oh so late, I’ve had a very long day. Had literally ZERO hours of sleep 2 nights ago, no idea what happened. My eyes were tired but they just won’t shut! I was staring at the ceiling for from the time I got in bed (11pm) until 7.30am when I decided to just get up. Went to the bathroom 4 times!

Okay, now I’m getting to the point here. There’s three general classifications of insomnia:

1. Sleep Onset Insomnia (SOI) – difficulty falling a sleep, but then have peaceful sleep once asleep. (too many sleeps!)
2. Sleep Maintenance Insomnia (SMI) – sleeping well but finding it difficult to fall back to sleep once awake (in the middle of the night – e.g. after going to the bathroom, or any other interruptions)
3. Terminal Insomnia – sleeping well but then wakes up early, waking up tired

Okay then, what is insomnia? Insomnia isn’t just about not having enough hours of sleep, but it is also defined according to the quality of sleep. In other words, lack of sleep hours and/or quality sleep = insomnia.

What can we do about insomnia? Firstly, I want to you understand a bit about how the body works in terms of maintaining sleep/wake cycle (called circadium rhythm). We have the hormone called melatonin. Melatonin regulates the body clock. Melatonin is only ever active a night.

Melatonin causes us to then become drowsy, and lowers body temperature. An amino acid called tryptophan is needed to convert to melatonin. The conversion of melatonin from tryptophan is a two-step process. Firstly tryptophan (Trp) is converted into serotonin (a neurotransmitter), which then in turn converts into melatonin.

Knowing that, can you see the relationship between tryptophan, melatonin, and insomnia? Tryptophan is an essential amino acid (protein building block), which means that we need to obtain it from the diet. If we have a deficiency in tryptophan, it can be said that serotonin would also be upset, thereby affecting melatonin levels.

What could we do (apart from counting sheep – does that really work?) to help get a better night’s sleep? We need to look at the foods that contain tryptophan then, don’t we? Actually, diet plays an important role in insomnia. How? This is where correct timing and consumption of food comes in. Eat carbohydrate foods during the day and protein foods at night.

• food that contains more carbohydrate than protein – releases energy
• food that contains more PROTEIN than carbohydrates – helps us sleep

So we need to eat more protein containing foods than carbohydrate containing foods. Some healthy foods that contain tryptophan are milk, cheese, sunflower seeds, white rice, potatoes.

What other ways can you get better quality and quantity sleep? Exercise earlier in the morning. Also, just before sunrise, head outside and allow the sunshine hit your forehead for around 20 minutes. This releases vitamin D. It’s quite complex so I’ll just stop at this point. Only warm milk has tryptophan, not your normal cold milk. You can try Valerian root or Hops, or Lavender tea to help you sleep. These can be found in your health food store. They work because they have chemicals that relax the nervous system. How about a warm herbal bath before bed?

If you have any other suggestions or ideas I may have missed, please feel free to drop me a line. Wishing you and your loved ones peaceful sleep and enjoy the rest of the week. Take care. Remember, health is gold, so are you!

Yours in Health,

Jane

First Health Topic – Aspartame

Hey!

Today’s (or rather tonight’s) health topic is going to be about aspartame. We all know aspartame is commonly used as an artificial sweetener, but what’s with this “thing”? Sugar substitute, yeah, but did you know it’s 200 times sweeter than table sugar? (called sucrose – general rule of thumb, anything that ends in -ose is a sugar). Oh, btw, Stevia is a natural herb! Just had to add that,

Now, let’s work this out in a logical sense; these numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number to make calculations easier:

• 1 gram sugar (carbohydrate) = 4 calories (16 kJ)
• 1 teaspoon of table sugar = 4 grams

Say that there are (a ridiculous amount) 300 calories in a 600mL bottle of soft drink, what percentage of the calories constitutes for the sugar? Yes, 99%. That’s a no-brainer!

Remember how I said that 1 calorie is equivalent to 4 kJ? Multiply 4 by 300 and what do you get? 1200kJ of s**t! Please don’t fall for that “99% fat free” crap. Pfft! (More on that at a later date).

Now, back to Aspartame (APM), usually 1 tablet of NutraSweet (or whatever you use) is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of table sugar. Tell you what, Aspartame in food as an artificial sweetener has the code E951.

What happens if one continuously consumes ARTIFICIAL sweeteners? Aspartame enters the body and attacks special chemicals (neurotransmitters) in the brain. Yes, our body actually makes aspartame, which is why I underlined the word artificial.

What happens is that (artificial) aspartame reacts with oxygen *called oxidation*, which gives you methanol. Methanol is an alcohol that is rapidly absorbed once it enters the body. This bad guy causes ….(*drum roll*)

BLINDNESS!!!

But wait, there’s more! No deposit, no interest, and nothing to pay – except for your dental plan – till 2012! Hehe. Once absorbed, Methanol is then converted to Formaldehyde and formic acid. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen (cancer causing substance).

Now, having said that, I’m not trying to scare you or anything. Notice how I underlined the words continuously and artificial? I want you to keep that in mind. Hey, it’s not all bleak! Your body deserves better. With all else, please read it, understand it, and make your own educated choices.

Remember, Health is Gold, So Are You!

Until next time (Wednesday and Friday), I hope everyone has an enjoyable and content week ahead.

Yours in Health,

Jane

Days of Blogging

Hey Guys!

Just to let you know, I will be blogging on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until the end of this month, then I will continue with a weekly blog. These blogs will be longer in length.

This is where the business end of things start to kick off. I will talk about our Monthly Health Topic, meaning that I will have 4 blogs on the one health topic, for each month from August until December this year and the rest of next year. Hope you all look forward to reading them!

Meanwhile, take care!

Yours in Health,

Jane!