Rather Be Healthy

Brain Exercises are Better than Drugs in Preventing Cognitive Decline

It’s well known that chronic, heavy drinking damages your brain and actually speeds up the brain shrinkage that occurs with age. This is associated with memory loss, symptoms of dementia and cognitive decline.

Physical exercise is touted as one of the key ways to protect against brain shrinkage and other age-related brain changes, and now it appears it may help protect against some of the brain damage caused by drinking.

Exercise May Help Protect Your Brain From Alcohol-Related Damage

Among 60 long-time drinkers, those who were the most physically active had less damaged white matter in their brains compared to those who were less active.1 The white matter is considered the “wiring” of your brain’s communication system, and is known to decline in quality with age and heavy alcohol consumption.

Although the study didn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers concluded that “exercise may protect WM [white matter] integrity from alcohol-related damage,” continuing:2

“We cannot say whether exercise would necessarily improve white matter damage in individuals with a history of heavy drinking.

However, our findings in combination with the many well-established positive physiological and psychological benefits of aerobic exercise suggest that aerobic exercise could be potentially helpful for individuals with history of heavy alcohol use.”

Exercise Protects Your Brain From Shrinkage, Slows Cognitive Decline

One of the effects of chronic heavy drinking is that it speeds the shrinkage of key regions in your brain. Exercise is useful in this area, as research has shown that people who engaged in the most physical exercise showed the least amount of brain shrinkage, a protective effect that was even greater than that offered by mentally stimulating activities.3

Exercise encourages your brain to work at optimum capacity by causing nerve cells to multiply, strengthening their interconnections and protecting them from damage.

During exercise, nerve cells release proteins known as neurotrophic factors, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF, which activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons. BDNF also triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health.

Scientific evidence shows that physical exercise helps you build a brain that not only resists shrinkage, but also increases cognitive abilities.4 In one review of more than 100 studies, both aerobic and resistance training were found to be important for maintaining cognitive and brain health in old age.5

Moderate exercise may even reverse normal brain shrinkage by 2 percent, effectively reversing age-related hippocampus degeneration, which is associated with dementia and poor memory, by one to two years.6 On the other hand, the people in the control group who didn’t exercise saw an average of 1.4 percent decrease in hippocampus size.

Exercise is a Powerful Tool for Brain Health for Drinkers and Non-Drinkers Alike

The hippocampus region of your brain increases in size as a response to exercise, making this activity a powerful tool to fight the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The hippocampus, which is considered the memory center of your brain, is the first region of your brain to suffer shrinkage and impairment at the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, leading to memory problems and disorientation.

Other contributing factors to brain disease caused by the normal aging process may also include a decrease in blood flow to your brain, and the accumulation of environmental toxins in your brain. Exercise can help ameliorate both of these conditions by increasing blood flow to your brain, thereby increasing oxygen supply to your brain and encouraging a more vigorous release and removal of accumulated toxins through better blood circulation.

If you’re a regular drinker, this becomes even more important, as alcohol is a neurotoxin that can poison your brain. Increased blood flow may also promote delivery of more of the nutrients necessary to keep your brain cells healthy in the first place.

Brain Exercises are Better than Drugs in Preventing Cognitive Decline

Exercise has been shown to be better than mentally stimulating activities like brain training exercises at protecting your brain, but mental “exercise” is still important. In fact, new research shows it works better than drugs in preventing cognitive decline. The analysis of 32 trials found that mental exercise, such as computer-based brain training programs or memory, reasoning and speed-processing exercises, protected against cognitive decline better than leading dementia drugs like donepezil. Research into brain plasticity has proven that your brain continues to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity, which means that cognitive function can be improved, regardless of your age, and cognitive decline can be reversed.

If you’re interested in mental exercises for your brain, Dr. Michael Merzenich, professor emeritus at the University of California, who has pioneered research in brain plasticity for more than 30 years, has been instrumental in the development of a kind of “brain gym” environment — a computer-based brain training program that can help you sharpen a range of skills, from reading and comprehension to improved memorization and more. The program is called Brain HQ.7

“There are some very useful exercises in there that are for free, and you can actually drive improvements, for example, in brain speed, in the accuracy, with which the brain represents information in detail,” he says. “Basically, what you’re doing is reducing the chatter, the noisiness of the process of your brain. That impacts your capacity, for example, to record that information, to remember it. Because when the information is in its degraded form, when it’s fuzzy, when it’s imprecise, all of the uses of it – like your brain makes basically – are degraded.”

In the above-mentioned study, those who used computer-based training programs had significantly better memory and attention skills, improvements that were, in some cases, retained even five years later.

Another Reason for Chronic Heavy Drinkers to Take Up Exercise

There’s little doubt that exercise is one of the most important aspects of optimal health – not only for your brain but also for your entire body. That said, if you or someone you love has been affected by alcohol abuse, you know the great toll it can take on your personal relationships, work life and ability to function normally on a day-to-day basis, let alone fit in regular workouts.

The cravings for alcohol can become all-consuming and eventually an alcoholic does not feel “normal” until they’ve had a drink. The alcohol abuse inevitably throws off your circadian rhythm — the normal times you eat, sleep and wake up — as well, leading to a downward spiral of health and emotional effects. When you drink, it forces your brain to release unnaturally elevated levels of dopamine, a chemical your brain associates with rewarding behaviors. When you exercise, however, this same reward chemical is released, which means you can get the same “buzz” from working out that you can get from a six-pack of beer, with far better outcomes for your health.

This is why, if you know you’re prone to alcohol abuse or have a family history of alcohol addiction, exercising regularly can greatly reduce your risk of becoming dependent.

For those already addicted, exercise is beneficial too, and may actually help to lessen cravings. Research has found, in fact, that hamsters that ran the most consumed less alcohol, while less active hamsters had greater cravings for and consumption of alcohol.8 By replacing drinking with exercise, you may find that the rewarding feeling you get from exercise provides you with a suitable alternative to the rewarding feeling you previously got from alcohol.

What Type of Fitness Program is Best?

Ideally, to truly optimize your health, you’ll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates a variety of exercises. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:
•High-Intensity Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
•Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you’re really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.
•You can also “up” the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high-intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
•Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability. Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
•Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretching developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching (AIS), you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body’s natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

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Flax seed consumption reduces breast cancer risk by 28 percent in new study

In the first-ever study of its type, Canadian researchers have shown that flax seed consumption reduces the risk of breast cancer by 28 percent in postmenopausal women and flax bread consumption reduces risk by 26 percent in both pre- and postmenopausal women. These results indicate that flax seed and flax-containing breads may be simple but effective means for reducing breast cancer risk.

Flax seed: the richest dietary source of anti-cancer lignans
Lignans are a class of polyphenols which have powerful antioxidant and anti-estrogenic effects, and for this reason they have been suggested as a possible preventive measure for breast cancer. Indeed, lignans have already been shown to inhibit growth and induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) of both ER- and ER+ breast cancer cells both in vitro and in animal studies. Importantly, lignans also inhibit the ability of both ER+ and ER- breast cancer cells to metastasize by potently down-regulating the metalloproteinases MMP2, MMP9 and MMP14.

Unfortunately, lignans are not easy to get in the diet from commonly eaten foods. The best sources are whole grains, bran, seeds, nuts and legumes. But these only provide about 0.25 to 1.0 milligram of lignans per 100 grams of food. The shining exceptions to this are flax seed, sesame seeds, and chickpeas with lignan contents of 335 mg, 132 mg, and 35 mg respectively (per 100 grams of food). Flaxseed and sesame seeds are clearly superfoods when it comes to lignans, with over 100 times the lignan content of virtually any other food. (Note that normal flax oil contains no lignans.)

Up to 28 percent risk reduction for breast cancer shown in the first-ever study on flax seed
Owing to the emerging high potential of flax seeds for cancer prevention, Canadian researchers recently ran the first ever study specifically to analyze breast cancer risk versus flax seed consumption. They analyzed the diets of 2,999 women with breast cancer and 3,370 healthy controls (all aged 25 to 74 years) for flax consumption. Postmenopausal women experienced 28 percent less breast cancer if they consumed at least one quarter cup flax seeds over a month, and 26 percent less cancer if they ate at least one slice of flax bread weekly. Premenopausal women saw up to 26 percent risk reduction by eating flax bread, but were not protected (with statistical significance) by flax seed.

Flax lignans for breast cancer protection: How much is needed?
Postmenopausal women were well protected by consuming a quarter cup of flax seeds over a month. This provides roughly 163 mg of flax lignans per month, or about 5.35 mg per day. By coincidence, this almost exactly matches the 5.4 mg daily intake that was seen as the minimum required for protection from breast cancer in a previous study. Reaching this intake level is not likely in a normal diet. A recent survey showed that women living in Western countries consume only about one mg daily of lignans. Therefore postmenopausal women may want to consider supplementing with flax seeds for optimal protection (about half a teaspoon daily would do it). Likewise, premenopausal women may want to consider consuming flax breads, which may offer them better protection than raw seeds.

With this latest study from Canada, the case for flax seed as a preventive measure against breast cancer is stronger than ever. And more data is on the way. There are currently three ongoing clinical trials testing flax (seeds or lignans) against breast cancer. Until those results come out, it’s good to know that consuming even small amounts of flax seeds (or breads) regularly may offer significant protection against breast cancer.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23354422

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22842186

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22438134

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23572295

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17992574

About the author:
Ethan Evers is author of the award-winning medical thriller “The Eden Prescription,” in which cutting-edge researchers perfect an effective, all-natural treatment for cancer, only to be hunted down by pharmaceutical interests which will stop at nothing to protect their $80 billion cancer drug cash machine. The Eden Prescription is based on the latest science and draws on real historical events stretching back to the beginning of the “War on Cancer.” Ethan has a PhD in Applied Science.

The Eden Prescription is available on amazon: www.amazon.com/Eden-Prescription-cancer-what-think/dp/1439276552/
Follow Ethan on Facebook for the latest breakthroughs and news on natural medicine for cancer: www.facebook.com/pages/The-Eden-Prescription/130965870291786
For more information: www.edenprescription.com

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Food investigations: Welch’s fruit juice cocktails contain more corn than fruit: 80% water and high fructose corn syrup

If you buy fruit juices at your local grocery store, you might notice the Welch’s brand juices sold in refrigerated cartons. Welch’s calls them “refrigerated cocktails” and offers exotic-sounding flavors like Strawberry Peach, Dragon Fruit Mango Cocktail and Orange Pineapple Apple.

These products are aggressively marketed with pictures of splashy fruit and loud label claims like “Fruity and Refreshing!” But what Welch’s doesn’t reveal anywhere except in the fine print on its ingredients label is that these juice cocktails contain more high fructose corn syrup than fruit.

In fat, they contain so much high fructose corn syrup that the front label should actually show chunks of corn rather than the fruit they currently depict.

Is this corn syrup derived from GMO corn? See below for more…

Deceptively marketed and labeled
A Natural News investigation concludes that Welch’s refrigerated cocktails are deceptively labeled and marketed. The Welch’s website, for starters, hides the ingredients list from consumers, showing nutrition facts but not ingredients. High fructose corn syrup only shows up under ingredients, not nutrition facts.

The front label of Welch’s Strawberry Peach product uses the phrase, “Fruity & Refreshing” in a prominent position on the label. But if this claim were accurate, it would actually say, “Corny & Refreshing” because it’s made more from corn than fruit.

The front label (see picture below) also intentionally leaves out any mention of corn syrup even though high fructose corn syrup is the second most prominent ingredient of the product, right after water. It says:

Strawberry Peach flavored fruit juice cocktail blend made with apple, pear, strawberry and peach juices from concentrate.

No mention of corn.

The back label (see image below) begins with a giant, all-caps “LOVE” statement, jumping on the bandwagon of trying to associate LOVE with its product, even though no rational person would use the word “LOVE” to describe a highly refined liquid sugar that has been repeatedly linked to diabetes and obesity.

Welch’s annual report admits it is aware that consumers seek to avoid HFCS
All this corn syrup is being pushed as fruit juice despite the fact that Welch’s 2012 annual report openly admits the company is fully aware that consumers are attempting to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

It reads:

“Our mid-priced essentials line continued to grow in FY ’12 with its powerful message — no high fructose corn syrup.”

The context of this statement clearly implies that “no high fructose corn syrup” is a benefit of its essentials line of products. Yet, simultaneously, Welch’s continues to promote other products that contain alarming proportions of HFCS while avoiding any mention of corn on the front label.

80% water and corn syrup!
Only when you get to the back label do you learn that these Welch’s fruit juice cocktails — which are heavily adorned with photos and words that describe and imply “fruit” — are actually 80% water and corn syrup.

The first two ingredients are Filtered Water (i.e. tap water) and High Fructose Corn Syrup. An easy-to-miss bit of text admits, “Contains 20% juice,” meaning 80% of the beverage is not juice.

Nowhere does the product claim to be free of GMOs. As the vast majority of high fructose corn syrup produced in North America is derived from genetically modified corn, it is very likely that the HFCS used by Welch’s is actually GMO. A genetic test would not confirm this, however, as the heavy processing of HFCS destroys genetic integrity, rendering genetic ID tests useless.

Here are the photos of the label: (story continues below)

Deceptive labeling pushes more high fructose corn syrup to children
Welch’s fruit juice cocktails are depicted as if they were nothing but fruit juice. The photos, descriptive text and website text all imply they are made of nothing other than fruit juices. Nowhere on the product front label, website or promotional materials is corn depicted at all.

When consumers shop for fruit juices at their local grocery stores, they are easily misled by deceptive labeling practices such as those used by Welch’s. Consumers use the pictures and prominent text on the front of the product as their primary cues to determine the composition of the product, and if that product label primarily depicts fruit and fruit juices, a typical consumer will incorrectly assume the product is primarily made of fruit and fruit juices. That same consumer will typically have no idea the product contains more corn derivatives than fruit juice.

Most consumers — especially parents — are actively trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup. This is often the reason why they choose fruit juice instead of sodas, as a matter of fact. Yet if they reach for Welch’s juice cocktails, they are getting the exact same refined liquid sugar they were trying to avoid by choosing juice instead of soda!

Here at Natural News, we think Welch’s should be ashamed of itself for pushing water and high fructose corn syrup as a fruit juice beverage. Its labeling practices deceive rather than inform consumers.

We urge you to call the Welch’s comment line at 1-800-340-6870 and demand they stop selling high fructose corn syrup as fruit juice.

Corn is not a fruit. And corn syrup is not fruit juice. It is, however, often contaminated with mercury.

Demand that Welch’s stop tricking consumers into thinking corn syrup is fruit juice.

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Willow Bark Benefits: An Ancient and Effective Anti-Aging Remedy

Willow bark is an oldie but goodie anti-aging remedy that dates back to the time of Hippocrates in 400 BC, when people chewed on the bark to reduce fever and inflammation.

Prized for its high concentration of salicin—a chemical that mimics the effects of aspirin—extract from white willow bark is still used today to treat headaches, fevers, low back pain, osteoarthritis, gout, and inflammatory conditions such as tendinitis.

The key to longevity and wellness is keeping inflammation in check.

Chronic inflammation has been cited as a precursor to virtually every deadly disease! A natural anti-inflammatory, willow bark benefits supports a healthy inflammation response so that you can enjoy a disease-free life while you age gracefully from the inside out.

Enjoy Radiant Skin

Inflammation doesn’t just attack our insides. It leads to premature aging and can manifest on the outside as swelling and redness, leaving us with unsightly cystic acne or even rosacea.

Due to its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties, willow bark benefits is a wonderful panacea for sensitive skin conditions.

Willow bark benefits owes its antioxidant and antiseptic prowess to a potent blend of phenolic acids: salicin, salicortin, fragilin, populin, triandrin and vimalin.

Add flavonoids, tannins (gallotannins and catechin-type tannins) and minerals to the mix and you’ve got a skin-rejuvenating miracle!

Radiant skin depends on healthy cell turnover, but as we age, our skin sheds fewer cells. Willow bark extract is a natural source of salicylic acid, a BHA that exfoliates skin so that dead skin cells dissolve and new ones take their place.

Lines and wrinkles are smoothed, and age spots and discoloration fade away.

The synthetic salicylic acid found in many acne products is too irritating to most skins and ends up ushering in a host of other problematic skin issues. Even at the 100% level (which correlates to 10% salicylic acid) willow bark benefits causes no skin irritation.

Side effect free, willow bark benefits also does the job better. Salicylic acid increases cell turnover by 22% but willow bark has a two-point lead with a 24% cell turnover rate.

Exfoliation aside, willow bark has been shown in in-vitro tests to effectively treat two strains of acne-causing bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus and Propionibacterium acnes.

Let’s Go Shopping!

Next time you’re shopping for a new cleanser, toner or lotion, look for willow bark benefits are among the primary ingredients listed. It’s an all-natural goodie that even acts as a preservative to extend the shelf life of your product!

If you’re looking to treat breakouts, try Boscia’s Willow bark Breakout Treatment. Burt’s Bees makes a wonderful Peach & Willow Bark Deep Pore Scrub or check out Andalou Naturals Clear Overnight Recovery Cream.

As a natural β-hydroxy acid, willow bark can increase sun sensitivity, so be sure to wear sunscreen when you’re outdoors.
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Walking into your kitchen and taking a single multivitamin pill to cover your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals is so convenient. You don’t have to think about nutrition for the rest of the day! You’re covered!

Not so fast…

Sadly, scientists are discovering that pill multivitamins do very little good…and could actually be dangerous to your health.

The Myth of the Multivitamin

We’re told that taking vitamins will protect our bodies from illness. Take this pill to make your bones stronger. Take this pill to sharpen your memory. There is a supplement for everything that ails you…but what does the science prove?

One study from Oxford University followed 20,000 people for five years. Half the study participants were given placebos [pills with no nutritional value] while the other half were given pills that contained a mix of vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene.

At the conclusion of the study – neither group showed any benefits. There was no additional protection from heart disease, cancer, eye health or bone health.

Dr. Jane Armitage, who worked on The Heart Protection Study at Oxford, explained, “The vitamins were absorbed but they did nothing.”

Researchers believe it is due to the synthetic chemistry of the vitamins. Our bodies are unable to recognize – or use – synthetic vitamins.

Biochemist Eric Llewellyn adds that synthetic vitamins can actually cause vitamin deficiency.

He pointed to calcium supplements taken to prevent osteoporosis as an example. “For calcium to enter the bones, it needs to be attached to a phosphate molecule. When the supplement enters the blood, the body takes phosphate out of the bones to stick it to the calcium. The bones end up with less phosphate and no added calcium, so the calcium supplement is actually making the bones weaker.”

What are possible alternatives to multivitamins?

The Power of Vitamin-Rich Food

If you eat a balanced diet, packed with fruits and vegetables, you may be getting all the recommended nutrition you need.
•Eggs, orange and red veggies, and tuna provide your body with vitamin A – crucial to your immune system, vision and skin.
•Peanuts, asparagus and cauliflower give you ample vitamin B1 (thiamine) – needed for optimal brain function and energy.
•Oats, eggs and mushrooms provide vitamin B2 (riboflavin) – needed to convert food to energy and balance your pH.
•Salmon, cabbage and kidney beans boost your levels of vitamin B6 – which acts as a natural anti-depressant and regulates your sex hormones.
•Broccoli, peppers, citrus and berries boost your levels of vitamin C – used to strengthen immunity, fight infection and keep bones strong.
•Seeds, nuts and fatty fish such as salmon and tuna provide both vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids – critical to brain function, a strong immune system and cell membranes.
•Sunshine naturally boosts your vitamin D levels and is required to absorb calcium, protect the heart and preserve the central nervous system.

However, pro-supplement researchers point out that the average person does not consume a balanced diet. They also emphasize the fact that the nutritional value of our food is drastically lower than it once was.

Patrick Holford, founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, said, “Levels of key minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron in our soils, have fallen by almost 50 per cent over the past 50 years.”

The water in many parts of the world test positive for contaminants. Produce can sit in cold storage for months before making it to your grocery store – slowly losing the majority of the vitamins and minerals it once offered due to oxidation.

If you don’t have access to organically grown produce, you also run the risk of chemical pesticide contamination.

The Natural Alternatives to Multivitamins

Before taking any supplement you should consult your doctor to discuss possible reactions with medications you’re currently taking. Children and women who are pregnant or nursing should always include their doctor in nutritional decisions.

Juicing and green smoothies provide raw concentrations of vitamins and minerals in a single serving – much like a vitamin supplement – without the synthetic ingredients. They are easy to customize for taste and caloric intake. They are better for you (and less expensive) when you make them at home.

The Organic Consumers Association says raw supplements are 100% plant-based or food-based – providing you the advertised benefits without the additives you don’t need.

One such raw supplement uses eight superfoods considered to be the most nutrient-dense on earth.

Whether you choose nutrient-rich food, juicing, green smoothies or a raw supplement – all effective and safe alternatives to synthetic multivitamins – getting the nutrition your body needs is the key to total body wellness.

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Think the only way to stay wrinkle-free is to avoid the sun and moisturize faithfully? Well don’t discount the effect of a little white refined substance that’s in nearly everything you eat.

New research points directly to your sweet tooth and prepackaged foods; studies have now proven that sugar causes wrinkles. The more you indulge in sweets and overly processed foods containing sugar the quicker you’ll lose your healthy “glow.”

It make shock you to discover that the average American eats a whopping 22 tablespoons of sugar daily and most of this is from processed foods, not including traditional sweets.

Skin Science and Sugar

A process called glycation, in which a sugar attaches to and damages proteins in your blood, makes you more vulnerable to skin damage and premature wrinkles.

The more sugar you consume, the more damage you inflict on your skin by exposing it to glycation end products (AGEs), which eventually damage not just the proteins they are attached to but the proteins nearby as well. Which in turns proves the point that sugar causes wrinkles.

Collagen and elastin are the most important proteins for skin health. They are the two building blocks essential to keeping your skin smooth and flexible. The British Journal of Dermatology explains, “Dryness and lack of elasticity occurs when these proteins become damaged.”

Your skin is your body’s largest organ and collagen its most abundant protein.

Collagen production steeply declines every year after your mid-thirties and a diet high in sugar damages your remaining collagen reserves. Diabetics are especially prone to wrinkles caused by sugar since their condition can go undetected for years.

Reversing The Wrinkle Damage Caused by Sugar

Retinoids – found in beauty lotions and skin serums – help collagen remain supple and prevent glycation from further damaging your skin.

Scaling back the amount of sugar you eat is crucial to skin health. Sugar has some of the worst effects on your total body health – especially fructose which has been proven in countless studies to be highly inflammatory. Fructose is found in many everyday foods, such as cereal crackers and spaghetti sauce.

Curbing your intake of sweets affects far more than your skin, of course. Too much sugar promotes fat cell growth, increases your risk for insulin resistance and puts you at higher risk for obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

The average American consumes more than two pounds of sugar every week!

Sugar content is not just the typical “sweets” – such as candy, soda and baked goods. Many pre-packaged and pre-prepared foods contain sugar additives such as high-fructose corn syrup. Products you may not consider sweet could have a much higher sugar content than you’d imagine so always check your labels!

How Much is Too Much?

Experts recommend keeping your sugar intake between 15-25 grams per day – especially if you are pre-diabetic or diabetic.

Removing sugar from your diet is not easy if you have a sweet tooth. It is considered a highly addictive substance. Try weaning yourself off processed foods but don’t substitute with artificial sweeteners which have been proven to stimulate cancer growth.

You should also avoid using agave syrup since it is a sap that has been over-processed and is almost entirely fructose.

Top 3 Tips to Reverse the Effects of Wrinkles Caused by Sugar
1.Limit sweets and opt for raw, organic sweeteners whenever possible – such as raw cane and raw honey. Even these sweeteners should always be used in moderation.
2.Include more antioxidant rich foods to fight free radical damage. A diet that includes antioxidants has been proven to slow the effects of aging. Vitamins B1 (thiamin) and B6 are recommended by dermatologists to inhibit AGEs. Tuna, seeds and beans are rich in these skin-friendly vitamins.
3.Avoid prolonged exposure to the sun.

If you can’t live without sweets, consider an ounce of dark chocolate, which contains less sugar and helps curb your craving for salty and sweet foods. Unlike milk or white chocolate, 70% cacao (or higher) chocolate is also heart healthy!

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Body image is the way you perceive yourself – and how you think others perceive you. Magazines featuring air-brushed photos of beautiful women who still weren’t beautiful enough should tell us that striving for perfection is futile.

From toddlers, labels are attached that begin to define body image and sense of self.
• Chubby – fat, chunky, big, hefty, plump
• Pretty – cute, handsome, beautiful, attractive
• Skinny – thin, lean, bony, scrawny
• Tall, short, dark, pale, tomboy, girlie, athletic…the list goes on.
All of these labels put individuals in a box. That box becomes the method used to define ourselves and the people around us. That box is restricting, self-defeating and often cruel.

Girls as young as FIVE are worried about their weight – and want to be thinner.

If the labels are perceived as positive, we strive to remain within that idea at all costs. If the labels are perceived as negative, we feel less than or not as good as the people who are labeled as ideal.

Trying to overcome negative body image is a painful process – one you might not think affects you.

When you think of negative body image, you may picture young people going through puberty. That awkward stage of acne, growth spurts and clumsiness.

Experts believe as much as 91% of all women are dissatisfied with their body.

Girls, boys, women and men. Negative body image does not affect one group or even one gender. The statistics for men are difficult to gauge because negative body image among males is a silent epidemic.

Eating disorders for both genders are on the rise in an effort to reach some societal standard that is often unrealistic if not downright impossible to reach.

50% of teenage girls and 30% of teenage boys use dangerous methods to lose weight.

Every person is unique. It is easy to say “love yourself” and hard to do if you focus on those labels of too fat, too skinny, too tall or too short.

Compared to who?

Our goal should not be outward appearance but total body health. If you treat your body – the only one you will ever have – with respect, it will reflect in how you feel about yourself and how others perceive you.

Top 10 Ways to Overcome Negative Body Image
1. Don’t be mean to yourself…or anyone else. What you think about others are often the same thoughts you use when you judge yourself. If you make fun of people you deem “ugly” or “overweight” then your per-occupation with your own outward appearance can reach unhealthy levels. If you lump people different than you in an “other” column – as if they are a different “type” or “species” than you – it is impossible to view yourself objectively.

2. Forget the DIET hype. People who constantly diet have a higher risk of developing eating disorders, are more likely to binge eat and cause a domino effect of physical and mental health issues that include depression, irritability, anxiety, digestive problems and metabolic syndrome.

Diets don’t work – 95% of people who diet gain back the weight they lose and often gain more than they originally lost. Looking and feeling good are common sense. Eating right, regular exercise and sleeping are your weight control keys to success!

3. Put body image in perspective. Instead of spending so much time obsessing over your outer self – consider focusing your attention on education, hobbies and socializing with your friends. Keeping your mind engaged will help you notice others with the same interests. Working to get fit and healthy is an admirable goal but it should never consume your life.

4. Know your body and accept it. Perhaps you inherited your mother’s larger hips or your father’s height and broad shoulders. Our genetics are a strange cocktail that are unique to every person and learning to love your body is the first step in working with your particular body size and shape.

Having the same size and weight goals of a person six inches shorter or taller than you is unrealistic and setting yourself up for failure. You may be the same height as a friend who is a perfect size six but may have a much larger build. Don’t diet to fit anyone else expectations. It is your body, your health and you are the only one who has the right to dictate what is “right” for you.

5. Listen to your body – it will not lie. When you aren’t getting the right nutrition you are going to feel it. Inability to sleep deeply, stress and anxiety, feelings of fatigue and sluggishness, lack of focus and a greater urge for high-fat/high-sugar foods. When your body feels like it’s dragging, you get greater cravings for caffeine and sugar. Masking poor nutrition only makes the problem worse over time.

6. Solve problems – do not try to eat them. Any person is susceptible to developing an eating disorder. When we are sad, angry or filled with anxiety, our natural response is to reach for comfort food.

Those foods that “make us feel better” are typically not healthy and will only result in more anxiety if you gain weight or feel bad physically. Get to the root of things that bother you. Don’t bottle them up and remember: there is nothing wrong with asking for help!

7. Celebrities are not “average” people! Remember that most celebrities are paid based on how they look on camera. They have an entire team of people who make sure they eat right, exercise and take care of their skin and hair.

When they become pregnant or go through a tough time, they have a team of people who helps them drop the weight fast and get back to “camera weight” without the distractions the average person has. Many celebrities have spoken out about suffering for years with eating disorders, emotional problems and drug addiction to maintain their public image.

Your standards for getting fit should encompass your life as it is right now – not the unrealistic “rapid” weight loss of an actress. Then there is all the Photoshopping of otherwise beautiful women and men. If perfection is impossible – even for them – why would you strive for it?

8. Set goals that are realistic and healthy. If you are overweight, out of shape, want to take up running or cycling, want to build more lean muscle mass or simply wish to feel good in that little black dress you bought – know that progress takes time.

Healthy weight loss is considered by experts to be one pound per week. If that doesn’t seem like much – remember that in the course of one year you will lose more than 50 pounds! Losing weight the healthy way increases your chances of keeping it off for good!

9. Celebrate the beauty of you! Loving yourself, respecting yourself and appreciating all the wonderful things about you make you more confident, increase self-esteem and make you more attractive to others. It isn’t about how many inches your waist is. It isn’t about your clothing size. Nor is it about whether or not you have six-pack abs.

Appreciate what makes you unique, what makes you special – you will see so many incredible qualities in yourself if you take the time to look. Be your biggest fan!

10. Ask for help if you need it. Surround yourself with positive people who lift you up – who contribute to your happiness – and look to them when you falter in your goals. Whether you need help sticking to a healthy eating plan, a buddy to workout with, a personal trainer to show you how to do the exercise that is right for you or someone to discuss emotional issues with – ASK. There are so many people willing and able to help.

In order to overcome negative body image – forget about what society portrays as “normal” or “attractive” and do what is right for you, your life and your body type.

See yourself, love yourself and accept yourself unconditionally.

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If you were able to listen to your body right now – what would it tell you? In the modern world, there is likely no end to the advice our bodies would give us: stay away from processed foods, eat organic, drink more water and say “no” to overindulgence in bad habits!

For the vast majority of us, those messages would apply. As a collective we are exercising less and our nutrition is certainly worse than it was even two decades ago.

What most of us forget is just how much our mental health affects our physical health. It all starts with your mind – health, longevity and anti-aging – and then your body becomes involved.

Are you listening to your body?

Skyrocketing statistics for cancer, mental disorders, heart disease, diabetes and dementia – just to name a few – over the last 10-20 years proves that something is going very wrong.

Stress Kills You Slowly

According to the American Psychological Association, in the United States alone, more than 75% of adults experience at least one physical symptom of stress – for example, the inability to sleep, fluctuation of appetite and weight control, headaches, indigestion,
sexual dysfunction and general muscle tension.

Top 5 Causes of Stress
1.Job-related problems
2.Money issues
3.Health complications
4.Relationship discord
5.Inadequate nutrition

Researchers in the scientific community – at institutions including the Mayo Clinic, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health – have studied the effects of stress on the human body. All have concluded that stress has a major negative impact on your whole body wellness.

Many mental disorders such as panic attacks, feelings of helplessness, depression and attention deficit disorders have also been linked to stress.

Remaining in a long-term stress state results in your “fight-or-flight” response getting stuck in the “on” position. When the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are constantly released into your body they trigger chronic inflammation – another verified building block of serious disease.

In other words, when you don’t listen to your body – it begins to shout.

How can you get out of the vicious cycle of stress?

Genetics can play a small part in how we deal with stress. Some people have overactive stress responses and can become anxious over small obstacles while others remain calm even in emergency situations.

Most scientists agree that it’s your life experience that truly determines how you will handle stress. If as a child you were subjected to neglect, abandonment or even abuse, research has shown that as an adult you will have a higher vulnerability to stress.

All of us deal with stress to varying degrees. Perhaps you have a high-pressure job or you suffer from a chronic illness. You may not be able to remove the causes of your particular stress, but you can train your body and your mind to deal with stress more effectively.

1. Let Go of Negativity

It may seem over-simplified but it works. A bad childhood that continues to affect you decades later not only stole your yesterdays…it continues to steal your tomorrows.

Limiting the presence of toxic people from your life – family, friends or co-workers – removes the amount of time they can drown you in negativity. Removing them entirely is not always easy but your body and your mind will thank you.

2. Take Time for You

Your physical and emotional needs matter. Learn to step away for a moment to calm your mind and give yourself the opportunity to find an alternative to the “fight-or-flight” response. Surround yourself with positive people – especially people who make you laugh.

Improve your nutrition in small steps and make sure you get enough sleep every day. Yoga and meditation have been proven to drastically improve stress as well as physical health.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

If you cannot find peace of mind on your own – there is no shame in asking for help. Often, people who are disconnected from our daily lives bring a different perspective to the table. You may be “too close” to the situation to adequately resolve it. Seeking assistance is reasonable and can be effective if you are caught in a loop of illness-causing stress.

Solutions to managing your stress may not be easy to implement. It may require tough choices on your part. Sometimes even life-altering decisions. You have to be your biggest fan and know that you have the power to change the stress and discord around you.

Listen to your body…what is it telling you?

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Crying Can Help Relieve Stress, But for Optimal Health You Need Better Stress-Relieving Tools

The connections between stress and physical health are undeniable. Studies have found links between acute and/or chronic stress and a wide variety of health issues, including:
•Lowered immune system function
•Heightened inflammatory response
•Increased blood pressure and cholesterol levels
•Altered brain chemistry, blood sugar levels and hormonal balance
•Increased risk of cancer and increased tumor growth1

The video above brings up another biological reaction associated with stress: crying.2 Interestingly, tears that are shed due to an emotional response, such as sadness or extreme happiness, contain a high concentration of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) — a chemical linked to stress.

One theory of why you cry when you’re sad is that it helps your body release some of these excess stress chemicals, thereby helping you feel more calm and relaxed.

While crying is a healthy response to a stressful situation, settling in for “a good cry” every day is unlikely to quell the ill effects of stress on your body.

Energy psychology techniques such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be very effective by helping you to actually reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life. Exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and meditation are also important “release valves” that can help you manage your stress.

Higher Heart Rate Tied to Earlier Death

Stress can also jack up your heart rate, making you feel like you’re running in a hamster wheel even when you’re sitting down. This too can have a very detrimental effect on your health. According to recent research,3 higher heart rate is tied to earlier death, even in those who exercise regularly. According to MedicineNet.com:4

“Should you be worried if your heart rate is high? Maybe, said study author Dr. Magnus Thorsten Jensen, a cardiologist at Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte. ‘A high heart rate does not necessarily mean disease,’ he said. ‘But we know that there is a very strong and significant association between high heart rate and life expectancy.'”

Dr. Jensen’s previous research had shown that those with a resting pulse of 80 beats per minute die as much as four to five years earlier than those with pulses of 65 beats per minute. This is actually a remarkable finding, as this difference in life expectancy is similar to that of having a cancer diagnosis.

Normally, if you exercise regularly you’re likely to have a much lower resting heart rate than if you do not exercise. As reported by the featured article:

“That raises the issue of whether higher heart rates simply reflect the heart-unfriendly lifestyles of couch potatoes. The new study aimed to answer this question: Does a higher resting heart rate translate to an earlier death even among those who are healthy and exercise regularly? The researchers found that the answer is yes, suggesting that ‘resting heart rate is not just a marker of fitness level, but an independent risk factor,’ Jensen said.”

The study included nearly 2,800 men who were followed for 16 years, from middle-age onward. For each 10-beat per minute increase in the men’s resting heart rate, the risk of death increased by 16 percent. Compared with those who had a resting heart rate of 50 beats a minute or less, men with resting heart rates of 71 to 80 beats per minute increased their risk of early death by just over 50 percent. Those with heart rates between 81 to 90 beats doubled their risk, and a heart rate over 90 was equated with triple the risk. Dr. Jensen told The New York Times:5

“If you have two healthy people exactly the same in physical fitness, age, blood pressure and so on, the person with the highest resting heart rate is more likely to have a shorter life span.”

Based on these results, Dr. Jensen suggests rethinking the “normal” range of resting heart rate, which is currently set between 60-100 beats per minute, as the higher range appears to be a potent indicator of poor health, independent of physical fitness. So what can you do to improve (i.e. lower) your resting heart rate?

Two of the most obvious strategies include quitting smoking and exercising regularly. Even the mere act of reducing the amount of time you spend sitting down could help. Too much sitting actually takes a heavier toll on your health than you might think. According to research6 published last year, reducing the average time you spend sitting down to less than three hours a day could increase your life expectancy by as much as two years. Reducing your stress and being able to go through your day in a relaxed state would also certainly have a beneficial impact on your heart rate.

EFT — Your Best Defense Against Anxiety and Stress

Even the conservative Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 85 percent of all disease has an emotional element. Many, if not most people carry emotional scars — traumas that can adversely affect your health. Chronic stress is akin to emotional scarring, and causes ongoing damage to your cells.

According to cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton, the true secret to life does not lie within your DNA, but rather within the mechanisms of your cell membrane. Each cell membrane has receptors that pick up various environmental signals — which includes your thoughts and emotional state — and this mechanism controls the “reading” of the genes inside your cells. Your cells can choose to read or not read the genetic blueprint depending on the signals being received from the environment. This is what is now known as epigenetic control, i.e. the environment within your body — including your emotional terrain — controls your genetic expression, not the other way around.

Using techniques like energy psychology, you can correct the emotional short circuiting that contributes to your chronic stress. My favorite technique for this is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is the largest and most popular version of energy psychology. There are many derivatives of EFT and some likely work even better but EFT is the one that I have the most experience with and is the most established.

EFT was developed in the 1990s by Gary Craig, a Stanford engineer specializing in healing and self-improvement. It’s akin to acupuncture, which is based on the concept that a vital energy flows through your body along invisible pathways known as meridians. EFT stimulates different energy meridian points in your body by tapping them with your fingertips, while simultaneously using custom-made verbal affirmations. This can be done alone or under the supervision of a qualified therapist.7 By doing so, you help your body eliminate emotional “scarring” and reprogram the way your body responds to emotional stressors. Since these stressors are usually connected to physical problems, many people’s diseases and other symptoms can improve or disappear as well.

In the following video, EFT therapist Julie Schiffman discusses EFT for stress relief.

While the video above will easily teach you how to do EFT, it is VERY important to realize that self-treatment for serious issues is dangerous and NOT recommended. It is dangerous because it will allow you to falsely conclude that EFT does not work when nothing could be further from the truth. For serious or complex issue you need someone to guide you through the process as there is an incredible art to this process and it typically takes years of training to develop the skill to tap on deep-seated, significant issues.

Cry if You Need to, But Address Your Stress for Longer-Term Benefits

As much as you may try to ignore it, you cannot separate your wellness from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some part of your body, and stress can wreak havoc on your physical health even if you’re doing everything else “right.”

The classic definition of stress is “any real or imagined threat, and your body’s response to it.” Celebrations and tragedies alike can cause a stress response in your body. All of your feelings, positive or negative, create physiological changes. Your skin, heart rate, digestion, joints, muscle energy levels, the hair on your head, and countless cells and systems you don’t even know about change with every emotion.

Fortunately, there are effective tools available to help your body compensate for the bioelectrical short-circuiting caused by stress that is the root of so much illness and poor health. Exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and meditation are also important “release valves” that can help you manage your stress.

The beauty about energy psychology techniques such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is that it can reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life, thereby providing a more lasting effect. While it’s easy to do on your own, it’s advisable to seek the help of a licensed therapist8 if you’re dealing with trauma-based stress such as PTSD or grief following the loss of a loved one.

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3 Foods That Drain Your Energy

By Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN

If you’re like most people, you’re intimately familiar with the midafternoon energy slump. While it’s tempting to turn to caffeine or sugar in hope of a quick energy burst, there are better ways to stay awake and productive.

But before we get to those, let’s look at 3 foods that drain your energy. And, in order to understand how these 3 foods rob your energy, you need to remember the following cardinal rules of energy:
1.Because digestion is such an energy-dependent process, any food or process that compromises your digestion will drain your energy.
2.Since your blood carries oxygen to your cells for energy production, any food or process that thickens” your blood or ruins the health of your oxygen-carrying red blood cells will rob your energy.
3.Your adrenal glands help you deal with stress. Any food or process that weakens your adrenal glands will impair your ability to cope with stress and lower your energy.

With those rules in mind, do your body a favour and limit your intake of the following 3 energy-sucking foods.

Energy Draining Food #1:
Wheat and Gluten

For the purposes of this article, we’ll consider gluten and wheat one in the same.
However, the distinction is that gluten is a protein found in many grains like wheat, barley, and rye. And it has now been linked to more than 190 auto-immune diseases…

…most notably celiac disease – a condition where the immune system attacks your small intestines.

Although only about 1% of the population is diagnosed with celiac, the reality is that the human body has NOT evolved to digest wheat/gluten properly.

This poses a big threat to your energy levels because any food that compromises your digestive and intestinal (where most of your nutrients are absorbed) is bound to suck your energy

Continued irritation of the small intestines (by eating grains, for example) can lead to “leaky gut” – a condition in which large food particles are able to pass into the bloodstream via ever-widening pores in the intestinal wall.

When this happens, your body identifies the undigested proteins in these food particles as a threat and mounts an immune response to neutralize them. This is how food sensitivities develop and how your immune system becomes overworked.

You see, grains were only introduced into the human diet during the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago. However, considering that we’d been on the planet for roughly 3.5 millions years WITHOUT them, grain consumption only represents 0.004% of our evolutionary timeline.

This tiny fragment of time hasn’t given the human body enough time to evolve to digest grains efficiently. That’s just one reason that so many of us have issues digesting wheat and other gluten-containing grains.

The second reason that wheat is hard to digest is that it is – by definition – a seed. And the biological role of a seed is to propagate the species. That’s how plants continue to flourish. They spread their seeds, which eventually end up in the soil where they germinate into full-grown plants or trees, which in turn bear more fruits and seeds. And the cycle continues.

However…

In order to survive in harsh environments (like the human digestive tract), seeds contain built-in protective mechanisms. Wheat contains gluten, which attacks the human intestinal tract – making us less able to digest it.

Theoretically, this would allow the seed to pass through our body, into our stool, and back into the earth…allowing the wheat “species” to carry on.

We’ve now seen 2 substantial reasons why wheat/gluten is not fit for human consumption. In spite of all the claims by wheat-pushing lobbyists that we need its fiber for cardiovascular and intestinal health, I’ve never met a single person whose energy and health has not dramatically improved upon going wheat/gluten-free.

NOTE: if you want more fiber, there’s plenty to be had by eating more fruits, vegetables, and nuts. In fact, Paleolithic never ate grains and his reported fiber intake was between 100-150 grams per day by eating those aforementioned foods. Our current average intake 15 grams of fiber per day pales in comparison – even with all those grains in our food supply.

To recap…

Wheat robs your energy for a number of reasons, most notably because of its deleterious impact on human digestion and our eventual (and unwanted) immune reaction to it.

Oh… I didn’t even mention how grains (especially refined ones) wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels, which is a surefire way to drain your energy. But let’s discuss that in more detail as we cover the next energy-draining food…

Energy Draining Food #2 & #3:
Sugar (and Caffeine)

As you can see, I’ve coupled sugar and caffeine here – because they have almost identical effects on your energy levels – but we’ll still consider them energy-draining foods #2 and #3.

Let me explain…

The adrenal glands are your “fight or flight” organs – releasing cortisol and adrenaline during periods of stress.

Interestingly, these same hormones are secreted when STIMULANTS (like caffeine and sugar) enter your bloodstream.

When you become stressed (or ingest stimulants – sugar and/or caffeine), your adrenals start ramping up their activity. They release adrenaline and cortisol – two “catabolic” hormones, which break down your energy reserves for immediate use.

Remember, your body thinks it’s in a state where it needs to FIGHT or FLEE – so it needs that readily available energy.

Cortisol, when chronically present in your bloodstream, is a detrimental hormone leading to quick glycogen (stored carbohydrates) depletion, a rise in blood sugar, and eventually weight gain.

Adrenaline has similar energy-depleting effects. Initially, however, it gives you that feeling we often term the “rush”, as a result of an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and carbohydrate breakdown into blood sugar.

But that quick surge in energy is soon followed by a debilitating crash in which your body does its best to recover from the “stressful” situation, whether it be your morning coffee or a near fender-bender on your way to work.

Having these 2 hormones chronically circulating in your blood is not a desirable situation.

The other problem with having high levels of both cortisol and adrenaline is that since they breakdown your stored carbohydrates for energy, releasing glucose (sugar) into the blood for immediate use, your pancreas is then called into action and eventually into overproduction.

Your pancreas produces and secretes the hormone INSULIN to remove glucose out of the blood to be stored in your muscle, liver, and fat cells.

As blood sugar rises, so do your insulin levels. Over time, your body’s cells can become desensitized to too much insulin, leading to a condition you may have heard of called Type 2 Diabetes (insulin resistance).

But before that dreaded day, something more immediate happens that absolutely shatters your energy levels.

Since insulin removes excess sugar from your blood, high blood sugar levels lead to high levels of removal (via insulin), leading to low blood sugar (or hypoglycemia).

When your blood sugar crashes, all “normal” decision making is thrown out the window as all you can think about is “I need sugar. I need sugar.” This is when you start feeling jittery, anxious, and in desperate need of a quick sugar or caffeine fix.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, chronically high and low blood sugar levels also drain your adrenal glands – setting you up for all-day fatigue in the future.

Elevated blood sugar doesn’t just arise from adrenal stimulation either. Eating sugar (in its basic form) or refined carbohydrates (white bread, pastries, etc…) are TWO catalysts that skyrocket your blood sugar (and adrenal stress) almost immediately upon entering your mouth.

Chronic stimulation (ie. stress, sugar, coffee) of your adrenals wears them down and can eventually lead to adrenal fatigue. That’s one of the reasons many people feel “drained” almost instantly when dealing with stress. Their adrenals simply can’t handle it anymore.

Interestingly, sugar and salt cravings become more pronounced with adrenal fatigue as mineral deficiencies and “out of balance” hormones cause unwanted changes in your body.

As this happens, the health of your blood cells begins to weaken. Your oxygen-carrying red blood cells lose their integrity and begin to stick together instead of freely floating through your blood stream.

The result – you feel more lethargic. Heck, if your blood is sluggish, you will be too.

It’s amazing when you think about it…

Eating sugary foods and drinking caffeinated beverages – the very foods that you’ve been led to believe give you energy – on a daily basis are crippling you from the inside-out.

They are ROBBING YOU of energy because they are slowly and surely wearing away at your blood sugar levels, pancreas, adrenal glands, and most other systems in your body.

When the cells, organs, and sytems inside your body become sick and lethargic…
SO DO YOU.

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