Healthy fat?? 

Although healthy fat sounds like an oxymoron, it's nontheless true.  Healthy fats are necessary, and according to Dr. Jordan Rubin, author of The Great Physician’s Rx™ for Health and Wellness book series, here’s why:

• Fats are building blocks for cell membranes, hormones, enzymes and neurotransmitters (messages from your brain to your body that make you think, feel and move).
• Fats slow down food absorption so you can go longer without feeling hungry.
• Fats are needed to absorb and use vitamins A, D, E & K.
• Fats help to keep us warm and cushion organs.
• The brain is 60% fat, and needs fat for connecting brain cells and making sure signals get through.

It is important to get healthy fats, so include foods such as ocean-caught fish, cod liver oil, and omega-3 eggs. Recommended are ocean-caught fish with fins and scales such as salmon, tuna and sardines, ‘fatty’ fish with high omega-3 levels. Choose grass-fed, free range or organic meats; when animals graze on their natural diet of greens, their diet is automatically rich in these essential fats.

Omega 3 fatty acid may be the best of all the good fats because they are also linked with a lower risk of virtually all the so-called "diseases of civilization," including cardiovascular disease, depression, ADHD, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, obesity, asthma, and autoimmune diseases.

The most wonderful time of the year?

Not so for everyone.  Although I'm one of those people who begin looking forward to the next Christmas season the day after this Christmas, not everyone concurs.

Some find the holiday season to be one of the most stressful times of the entire year.  Why so?  Perhaps work gets busier, finances get leaner, bills stack higher, family visits more often...who knows?

But according to an article at www.usatoday.com, studies suggest that high levels of stress can lead to obesity and trigger a raft of diseases- from heart attacks to ulcers.  These and other stress-related diseases sicken millions of people each year in the USA, says brain researcher Bruce McEwen at the Rockefeller University in New York.

So, while your eating Christmas cookies and all the trimmings of a Christmas dinner, try not to stress about it-doubling your chances of gaining weight over the holiday season. 

January 1 brings a brand new year.  We get to start over.  New beginnings are a wonderful opportunity to welcome change.  Make a list of ways to improve your health this coming new year.  Start by taking every available opportunity to 'chill.'

Merry Christmas, and have a safe, happy, and prosperous New Year!

Lack of sleep makes you fat?

It's refreshing to realize that it takes more than watching what you eat to lose weight.  We are so obsessed by dieting that we don't think about other factors.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, in his book Take Control of Your Health writes, "Not enough sleep can make you fat."

Hoorah!  Mercola says that sleep deprivation causes weight gain because it disrupts our hormones, increasing cortisol and ghrelin (both cause increased appetite), while decreasing leptin and insulin.  Decreasing leptin causes the body to crave more food, especially carbohydrates, while decreasing insulin levels increases the appetite and leads to low blood sugar levels and insulin resistance.

I've always enjoyed a good night's sleep, and now I won't feel so guilty about it.  After all, what's better than feeling rested, energetic, and one step ahead of the battle of the bulge?

For more information on this and other health and weight loss advice visit www.mercola.com.

Fun, Fat-free Healthy Recipe for the Holidays

A friend shared this recipe with me this summer and I can't seem to make it often enough!  It's delicious, healthy, and decorative for the Holiday Season.

Mix 8 ounces of fat-free sour cream, 8 ounces of fat-free cream cheese, and 1/4 cup of Xylitol.  Beat with mixer until smooth.

Stem 2 cups of red seedless grapes and 2 cups of green seedless grapes.  Rinse grapes thoroughly, drain, and stir into above mixture.  Pour into decorative bowl and top with pecan halves (optional).  Refridgerate for approximately 1 hour before serving.  Enjoy!

Not all sugar substitutes are created equally...

To me, one of the worst effects of sugar substitutes is the bitter after-taste.  Not so with Xylitol, a nealthy, natural sweetener with the same wonderful taste as actual sugar.

According to Xlear.com, pure Xylitol is a white crystalline substance that looks and tastes like sugar. It is a naturally occurring 5-carbon sugar alcohol found in many fruits and vegetables and produced in small amounts by the human body. For commercial use, it is manufactured from xylan hemicellulose sources such as Birch trees, cane bagasse and corn cobs/stalks. It is the sweetest of the polyols with the same sweetness as sugar (sucrose) but with 40% fewer calories and none of the negative tooth decay or insulin release effects of sugar.

Xlear.com also reports these Health Benefits:
1. Xylitol is one of bacteria's natural enemies. When certain harmful bacteria enter the body, they attach to the membranes of the nose and throat. They begin to culture and grow, causing infection and sickness.

When exposed to Xylitol (specifically Strep pneumo and H Flu), these harmful bacteria lose their ability to adhere to infected membranes and are not able to grow. Unlike most antibiotics, which kill the majority of bacteria and leave the resistant "super bacteria" behind, Xylitol merely flushes harmful bacteria away.

2. Significant dental benefits. These benefits have been confirmed in numerous field studies conducted throughout the world and has lead to official endorsements by the dental association in Finland, Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Estonia and the Netherlands of products containing high levels of this sweetener.

Xylitol has been clinically proven to:

• Fight and lessen the occurrence of Inner Ear and Sinus Infection
• Fight and Reduce Plaque
• Fight Cavities
• Reduces the secretion of Plaque Acids
• Facilitate the Remineralization of Tooth Enamel

Xylitol is also:
Recommended by Dentists, Medical Doctors, Periodontists, Pediatricians and many health organizations and health professionals worldwide.

Recommended as a sweetener for diabetics and people with hypoglycemia. It has a LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX (7) and has little effect on blood sugar levels.

Recommended as a natural replacement for fluoride. Clinical studies show that Xylitol helps reduce cavities up to 80%. It reduces plaque and allows fluoride to more easily penetrate teeth.

Xylitol is available at most natural health food stores.