May Russian River Times Publication

I am contributing to the Russian River Times, a local small town newspaper in my community. The following is May's publication
Enjoy!

Promoting Health One Bite At A Time
You are what you eat right? Well, sort of. More accurately, you are what you absorb and assimilate.

What does nutrition mean to you? Do you understand the importance of a healthy diet? Does this mean count your calories, count your points, restrict your fat and exercise more? That’s the story that your Dr. will give you but is it accurate? No, not really. It’s a much larger more complex picture than that and the previous recommendations just aren’t working.

Because of the confusing USDA dietary recommendations, the average American now consumes approximately 150lbs. of sugar per year in various forms. Sugar is inflammatory, and degrading to the immune system. In order to assimilate the sugar, the body pulls valuable vitamins and minerals from bones and tissue of the human frame thereby sacrificing healthy immune response.

As a nutrition educator, I am saddened by our current state of health in this country. How did the “richest country in the world” become the sickest and the fattest? 2/3 of the American people are obese and of those 2/3, most have diabetes one of the deadliest preventable diseases of our time. Deadly and preventable? Stop for a moment and say it…..deadly and preventable. Actually, many of our modern diseases are preventable. In 2003 the surgeon general reported that 68% of the deaths in this country could have been prevented through lifestyle change. If you knew that, in one to five years you could be hospitalized or dead if you didn’t change your eating habits, would you? Well, you know now. I just informed you that our current Standard American Diet, or just use the acronym SAD, is responsible for disease and death. Yes, the acronym for our current state of nutrition is referred to as SAD.

Let’s take a look back to my opening statement “You are what you absorb and assimilate”. This, my friends and neighbors should be thought provoking to you. If the majority of your food choices are based on nutrient density rather than taste, you are a unique and rare individual. Eating strictly for taste is one of two things. Either the individual lacks knowledge and is receiving their nutrition information through what I like to call 30 second media sound bites or the individual lacks nutritional maturity. That is, knowing the right choices yet making the wrong choices because “donuts taste good”. I ask you, do donuts carry Vitamins A, D, E, K, B or C? You know the answer, and so do I.

It is my goal to contribute to this paper monthly with information that will help you make the choices that will create an atmosphere for healthy cellular regeneration, immune support, well being and vitality. If after you’ve read my contributing columns and you still eat based strictly on taste, you are being immature and should prepare yourself for the inevitable illness and disease that is sure to follow. We have alarming rates of cancer, more heart disease than ever before, thyroid disruption, cold, flu and now we must worry about pandemics! Is your immune system ready to take on a pandemic flu? Not if you’re practicing the SAD way of life.

Dust off the fruit bowl, fill it up and begin with Mother Nature’s original 100 calorie snack pack, the apple!

The most important wealth is health. Remember, you have choices, choose foods that provide you with life, not death.

I leave you with these thoughts and I look forward to contributing each month and hope that I can help you or someone you know gain greater health, lose un-wanted pounds, boost the immune system, ease child behavioral complications and increase wellness through healthy cellular regeneration. You have a whole new body every 8 years. Let’s make it count. You’re going to be surprised at some of the old myths that I will dispel for you so you can begin eating satiating nourishing foods, and start living..