Resyndicated – Page 50 – Green Lifestyle Market

How Low-Calorie Diet Beverages Are Not The Answer To Your Weight Problem

(DrFrankLipman – Vani Hari) When I saw Coca-Cola’s new anti-obesity ad, my jaw dropped wide open. Yes, you read that right… Coca-Cola is on a new mission to fight the obesity epidemic now, in what I call a desperate attempt to prevent declining sales. The sad part is that some people will actually believe their nonsense. In the advertisement they try to make a case that there is room for Coca-Cola products in people’s “healthy” diets.

Coca-Cola is promoting the introduction of new low calorie beverages and using the failed logic of “a calorie is a calorie” to convince people who need to loose weight to keep Coca-Cola products around in their diet. But you know what? A calorie isn’t a calorie – when it’s made up of chemicals that affect how much you eat and the way your body metabolizes those chemicals.

So I’m here to break that down for you and detail out why Coca-Cola’s low calorie beverages will not fight obesity – and if anything – the reliance on low calorie chemical-filled drinks just perpetuates the problem even more. Proving in fact, that these drinks will continue to be linked to the increase in obesity. So I want you to focus on the truth that I am about to share with you now.

Here are some quotes from Coca-Cola’s Anti Obesity Advertisement:

“For over 125 years, we have been bringing people together”

Really?? How? By selling a products to adults and children that are linked to diabetes, heart disease and obesity? Hmmm…. What do you call spending millions of dollars against the consumer’s right to know – i.e. GMO labeling – Is this bringing people together? If anything – it makes you an enemy company people should boycott.

“We’ve created smaller portion control sizes for our most popular drinks and we’ll have then in about 90% of the country by the end of this year”

A smaller can of poison will not solve obesity. Thank you.

“No matter where they come from, including Coca-Cola and everything else with calories. And if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you’ll gain weight”

This is faulty logic and I’ll show you why in just a minute…

“Across our portfolio of more than 650 beverages we now offer over 180 low and no calorie choices and most of our full calorie beverages now have low or no calorie versions. Over the last 15 years, this has helped reduce the average calories per serving across our industries products in the US by about 22%”

This is where I want to take a closer look at exactly which low calorie beverages Coca-Cola is referring to… here are some examples and the ingredients these low calorie beverages include:

Artificial Sugars – Linked to Obesity and a Myriad of Diseases

Sure you can save some calories drinking beverages with artificial sugars, but you won’t reduce your risk of obesity or getting a tumor.

If someone is trying to lose weight, the consumption of artificial sweeteners is not the solution and will not work as long term strategy. Artificial Sweeteners are proven to stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and promote fat storage and weight gain.

That’s right – consuming artificial sweeteners actually increases your appetite. Think about it – when someone consumes something that is sweet, but it has little to no calories – their brain receives a signal to want more calories because their body is not actually getting any energy (i.e. enough calories) to get satisfied. So that person keeps looking for gratification elsewhere and ends up craving more.

The fact that Coca-Cola and other food industry giants are getting away with this “orchestrated deception” is unbelievable and then to say developing low calorie beverages using these artificial sweeteners is actually going to help the obesity epidemic? Seriously? Who are they kidding?

Furthermore, there are more dangerous side effects from artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame, which is considered one the most dangerous substances allowed in our food supply. Aspartame is found in Powerade, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Dr. Pepper, Fanta Light, Fuze, Minute Maid Light, etc.

Over 10,000 complaints have been filed with the FDA on this substance since 1980 and has actually never been proven to be safe before it was approved for use in our food supply. Aspartame is linked to diabetes, auto-immune disorders, depression (which can cause you to eat more – once again), birth defects, and several forms of cancer.

“Erythritol” found in Vitamin Water Zero is a sugar alcohol the body does not easily digest and is linked to diarrhea, headache and other intestinal disorders.

Acesulfame Potassium or acesulfame K is the one of main sweeteners in Minute Maid Fruit Falls – which is a low calorie beverage aimed at kids – and Monster Zero for example. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) it is anything but safe. CSPI reported the safety tests of acesulfame-K that were conducted in the 1970s were inadequate. Specifically, two rat studies suggest that the additive might cause cancer, but these studies were never addressed by the FDA before they approved the substance to also be used unregulated in soft drinks. In addition it is mentioned that large doses of acetoacetamide (a breakdown product of this sugar) have been shown to affect the thyroid in rats, rabbits, and dogs. As you might know – the thyroid gland – regulates the endocrine system, which is responsible the metabolism.

If Coca-Cola wanted to really improve their offerings – they would immediately eliminate artificial sugars from their products.

Natural Flavors – Trick Consumers To Drink More

By producing zero or low calorie drinks that taste like the “real thing,” Coca-Cola is “hijacking” your taste buds one by one. Food scientists can engineer natural flavors to cause the inability to stop eating or drinking. All of the Coca-Cola products listed above have added natural flavors. These flavors scientists synthesize trick your mind into wanting more and more. They don’t want you to have the full essence of the strawberry or real coconut – they want you to only experience the best 1 millionth part of the taste – so you get “addicted” and keep having to go back for more and more, searching continuously for gratification – eating more of that product which in turns fills Coca-Cola’s pocket, as well as other big food companies.

This is an industry trick that is used in so many products – beyond drinks – but is the most prevalent in low calorie beverages. In a few versions of Coca-Cola’s product Zico – a coconut water – they have to use natural flavors to cover up the fact that they are getting coconuts from all over the world, that taste different, which they then process into “concentrate.” The coconut water is heated down to syrup and then reconstituted with water. To keep the flavor consistent – they have to add back in natural flavors and what you end up with is an inferior product that is a mix of several different species of coconuts that have lost their original integrity, taste and nutrition.

Artificial Colors – Attract Adults and Children to Unhealthy Drinks

Adding artificial colors into food, actually contributes to the obesity epidemic by attracting children (and adults) to fake sweetened drinks that provide almost zero nutrition. This is another marketing ploy by Coca-Cola to target more people to get addicted to their products.

Additionally – it’s important to note – the caramel coloring that Coca-Cola and other soda giants like Pepsi use – is completely artificial – not the stuff you make at home by cooking sugar. This caramel color is manufactured by heating ammonia and sulfites under high pressure, which creates carcinogenic compounds. A high dose of this known carcinogen is proven to cause liver tumors, lung tumors, and thyroid tumors in rats and mice.

When The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a study last year found dangerous levels of caramel coloring could be contributing to thousands of cancers in the US, it prompted Coca-Cola and Pepsi to quickly change their formulas so they didn’t have to include the cancer warning label on their products in California.

Regardless of the reformulation – many of Coca-Cola’s products still contain this caramel coloring – even if it’s in a lesser amount. How small of a dose of poison are you willing to take on a regular basis?

Overconsumption of Caffeine – Causes Addiction and Adrenal Fatique

The reason why so many of Coca-Cola’s low calorie drinks contain caffeine – is because they want you to become addicted. The stimulation you get from the caffeine, along with the taste of something sweet – keeps you coming back for more and more. One of the most alarming drinks on the market is “Monster Zero” which can be directly affect how youradrenal glands function and lead to persistent exhaustion. What happens when people are exhausted all the time? They stop moving… and likely gain weight.

Right now, Monster energy drinks is being sued by multiple families because it is suspected to have caused death of their loved ones. Despite these lawsuits and the recent FDA report about the dangers of energy drinks, Monster continues to be on the market.

Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO’s – Linked to Obesity

Every single one of Coca-Cola’s products here are likely to have GMO’s. That’s because they have a hidden corn based product – like sorbitol, fructose, aspartame, maltodextrin, or citric acid. And why in the world would they have spent millions fighting GMO-labeling in California, if their products weren’t full of them!

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences shows that GM food is indeed contributing to the obesity epidemic. The study found that GM corn fed to mice led to an increase in overall body weight of about 3.7 percent, while also increasing the weight of the liver by up to 11 percent.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM), reported studies that show GMOs responsible for faulty insulin regulation and therefore advise their patients to have GMO-free diets.

Preservatives – Accelerate Aging and Acidify The Body

Preservatives like sodium benzoate are in almost all of Coca-Cola’s products. The Mayo Clinic reported that this preservative may increase hyperactivity in children. Also, when sodium benzoate combines with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) benzene can form a carcinogen and kill DNA cells, and accelerate aging.

Preservatives cause accelerated aging because they acidify the body. Dr. Jameth Sheridan (D.H.M.) Doctor of Holistic Medicine, states that it takes 36 glasses of water to re-alkaline your body after drinking just one diet soda. 36 glasses! Wow.

When your body is in an alkaline state your chances of developing disease is significantly lower than a body in an acidic state. This is because our bodies are made of up of billions of cells that are naturally alkaline according to it’s ph balance. When we consume more acidic foods (i.e. many of Coca-Cola’s low calorie drinks) vs. alkaline foods this upsets the balance and leads to all sorts of trouble for our bodies and the organs that regulate our metabolism and weight.

Bisphenol A (aka BPA) in Cans – Linked to Obesity

After reviewing the results of over 3,000 children and teens who had high urine BPA levels and high body mass index, a very recent study determined that BPA is linked to childhood obesity. BPA has already been banned in baby bottles – however, kids across the country are still drinking Coca-Cola products tainted with this environmental toxin.

Coca-Cola has downright refused to eliminate BPA from it’s products and even defends the use of this metabolism destroying compound on their website.

Fructose & Fruit Juice From Concentrate – Too Much Sugar For the Body To Process

You’ll find crystalline fructose in Vitamin Water Zero, which is made from (genetically modified) corn starch which is 20% sweeter than sugar. Fructose is processed by the body differently than other sugars – and is linked to fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, coronary arterial disease and obesity.

Coca-Cola claims that they have helped remove soda from schools by replacing them with juices. (This not entirely true – they actually fought the removal of vending machines in schools). Nonetheless, these juices are mainly comprised of fruit juice concentrates and do little if anything to solve the problem of obesity.

Consuming fruit juice concentrate on a regular basis actually overloads sugar in the liver, which increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

For instance, Minute Maid fruit juice might contain several ounces of straight fructose, with none of the fiber, pulp, or living enzymes that help the body properly digest the sugar.

A Cola Cola sponsored smoothie bar using real whole fruit in schools would be a MUCH better solution – just a thought.

In summary, at the end of Coca Coca’s advertisement they invite you …

“To learn more, and visit coke.com/comingtogether”

Ha! That’s funny. When pigs fly! That’s the last place anyone should go to learn about solving obesity.

If you know a friend or family member who still consumes Coca-Cola products – especially these “low or zero calorie” beverages – please share this article with them.

You could be their hero!

Wishing you lots love, health and a longer life than this tortoise.

Food Babe

Yes, Organic Farming Can Feed the World

(Cornucopia – TakePart – by Anna Lappe) A few years ago, I was at a biotechnology trade meeting listening to a panel on GMOs. Throughout the two-hour session, the panelists all sang the praises of the technology—not too surprising at an industry event. (At the time, the GMOs under commercial planting were limited to seeds genetically engineered to produce an insecticide and/or resist a proprietary herbicide.)

What was unexpected was what came next: One of the speakers took the mic to say those opposed to GMOs should be tried for crimes against humanity. Seriously. Sure, the comment may have been a gross misuse of the term, but a similar sentiment runs throughout the messaging from the biotech industry that says we can’t feed the world if we don’t embrace the technology.

If my experience last month in Turkey is any indication, the notion that GMOs are the only way to feed a growing population is way out of step with both the leading thinkers on food and farming and the world’s smallholder farmers—who produce much of what the planet eats and 80 percent of the food in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

These farmers may not have money on their side, but I saw the power of strength in numbers at the Organic World Congress. Held this year in Istanbul, the conference brought together people from 81 countries to discuss the latest research from organic farm fields and to share private and public developments that promote organic agriculture.

What I heard should have biotech execs shaking in their boots, or their penny loafers, as the case may be: Organic agriculture is taking off around the world, especially where it’s needed most. About 80 percent of all organic producers are based in developing countries, with India, Uganda, Mexico, and Tanzania leading the charge. To date, 162 nations are now home to certified organic farms, and in 2012 the 37.5 million hectares of farmland produced a harvest worth $63.8 billion. While that works out to less than 1 percent of global agricultural land, the figure dramatically undercounts the actual amount of land farmed using organic principles, as many farmers are not part of an official certification program. And consider that globally, organic agriculture has received a fraction of the subsidies and 0.4 percent of the research dollars funneled into chemical farming ventures.

One of the themes of the three-day gathering in October was that embracing these practices is increasingly being seen as key to food security, from national departments of agriculture all the way to the halls of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Several speakers quoted José Graziano da Silva, the head of the FAO, who said, “We cannot rely on an input-intensive model to increase production—the solutions of the past have shown their limits,” at a recent international summit.

In Istanbul, former U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan shared examples of interest in organic agriculture at the USDA: “Times have radically changed,” she said. “Fifty thousand people have taken an organic literacy course as staff of USDA.”

Research, including studies presented at the conference in Istanbul, is showing that organic agriculture can deliver reliably high yields—and that organic fields thrive in the face of disaster and duress, where chemical-reliant crops falter. Organic fields, for example, fare significantly better than chemically managed ones in the face of extreme weather, such as droughts or floods. A 30-year study from the Rodale Institute, for example, found that organic farm fields yielded 33 percent more in drought years compared with chemically managed ones. Organic agriculture can also reduce on-farm energy use and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. One comparative study in Slovakia found that chemical farming systems were more than 50 percent more “energy demanding” than the organic systems.

Pat Mooney, executive director of the ETC Group, a global antipoverty group, had the audience spellbound by his tales of woe: The monoculture design of industrial agriculture has decimated species diversity in our food system.

“In the last half century,” Mooney said, “the industrial food chain has destroyed 75 percent of the genetic diversity of our food chain.” Mooney’s message was that organic agriculture is key to protecting this disappearing biodiversity, which farmers have long known is the heart of food security.

All this interest; all these benefits. So why isn’t organic agriculture a bigger player in the global marketplace? In part, the answer has to do with the power, specifically the consolidation of power, among the agribusiness giants profiting from the chemical agriculture model. Mooney mentioned that in the two weeks prior, the world’s first- and fourth-largest fertilizer companies merged. While we were gathered in Turkey, news came out that several multinational companies, including one largely controlled by Monsanto, had acquired major stakes in SeedCo, the largest seed company in sub-Saharan Africa. As The Ecologist wrote of the deal, “Taken together, this means that three of the world’s largest biotechnology companies, Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta, all now have a significant foothold on the continent in markets for two of the three major global GM crop varieties: [corn] and cotton.”

I would never suggest promoters of industrial agriculture and GMOs have a Machiavellian strategy for global food chain dominance, but the consolidation of the food chain is alarming. Perhaps that was what was most inspiring about soaking in the stories in Istanbul: The 981 attendees of the Organic World Congress were the faces of the counterforce. The farmers, researchers, and advocates at the front lines are pushing back against this corporate consolidation—and speaking up for a truly sustainable system that can feed the world.

Seven Things You Need to Know When Your Doc Says Your Cholesterol Is Too High

(DrFrankLipman – Frank Lipman) Getting a blood result with a high total cholesterol, for most people, unfortunately means that their doc’s about to follow it with “Here’s a prescription for Lipitor.” This is because the medical profession is obsessed with lowering your cholesterol because of misguided theories about cholesterol and heart disease. Why would we want to lower it when the research actually shows that three-quarters of people having a first heart attack, have normal cholesterol levels (1), and when data over 30 years from the well-known Framingham Heart Study showed that in most age groups, high cholesterol wasn’t associated with more deaths? In fact, for older people, deaths were more common with low cholesterol (2). The research is clear – statins are being prescribed based on an incorrect hypothesis, and they are not harmless. They can have lots of unpleasant and health-damaging side effects, including muscle pains, increased abdominal fat, mental fogginess and increased diabetes risk. So I encourage you to question the status quo, especially when the statin prescription feels like a doctor’s knee-jerk response. Ask how necessary a statin really is and if perhaps your cholesterol concerns can be addressed in a healthier, drug-free way.

So, here’s what you need to know when your doc sits you down for a cholesterol talk:

1. Your Doctor May be Basing Your Diagnosis on Data That’s a Half-century-old

Hard to believe but today’s mainstream thinking on cholesterol is largely based on an influential but flawed 1960s study which concluded that men who ate a lot of meat and dairy had high levels of cholesterol and of heart disease. This interpretation took root, giving rise to what became the prevailing wisdom of the last 40+ years: lay off saturated fats and your cholesterol levels and heart disease risk will drop. This helped set off the stampede to create low-fat/no-fat Frankenfoods in the lab and launch the multibillion-dollar cholesterol-lowering drug business in hopes of reducing heart disease risk. Did it work? No. Instead of making people healthier, we’ve wound up with an obesity and diabetes epidemic that will wind up driving up rates of heart disease – hardly the result we were hoping for.

2. Pssst. Guess what? You Actually Need Cholesterol

For decades we’ve been sold the story that dietary cholesterol is bad and that it gets into your bloodstream and clogs your arteries. This view has affected what we eat, what we worry about, what drugs we take and it has become the main focus of preventive medicine in Western medicine. The problem is, this depiction of cholesterol as this artery clogging-fat is totally oversimplified and actually false. And the notion that your total cholesterol number needs to be low is not only downright wrong, it’s dangerous too. Cholesterol helps make key hormones, synthesizes vitamin D, it is an essential component of cell membranes and we need it for brain and nerve function. It is needed for many functions in the body and is essential for life! And we now know that elevated cholesterol is not the cause of heart attacks – so don’t fall for that line.

3. Your “Numbers” Measure Cholesterol, But Really How Bad Is It?

The dirty little secret is that what’s measured on your standard cholesterol test or “lipid profile” tells the doc very little about the actual state of your health. The typical lipid profile test simply estimates how much total cholesterol, HDL (high-density lipoprotein), LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol and triglycerides are in the blood. It doesn’t tell us a thing about the cholesterol’s very important particle size – as in, how much of that LDL number is made up of the more benign “large particle” fluffy kind and how much is the more troublesome small particle kind. Both the OK stuff and the gnarly stuff get lumped in together under a big, old, non-specific LDL umbrella – making the average cholesterol test, at best, woefully inadequate and imprecise. Consequently, you may have blood teeming with the less alarming large particle LDL, and still get signed up for a statin. And with the new controversial – and in my book dangerous – “wider net” guidelines proposed by American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, expect that to happen a lot more. The new guidelines will make an estimated additional 15 million more adults (plus a few kids as well) “eligible” to take statins in an effort to drug down their numbers, regardless of what type of LDL they have. Bad news for people, good news if you’re buying drug company stock.

4. Insist That Your Doctor Dig Deeper

If your doc is saying your cholesterol is too high, get a second opinion, not necessarily from another doctor, but from another, more detailed test than the standard lipid profile. If you have a family history of heart disease or other risk factors getting a more complete picture is even more vital. Press your doctor to review and assess the other often overlooked but possibly more important factors that can shed a brighter light on your unique situation – namely tests which look at hs-C-reactive protein, particle sizes of the LDL cholesterol (sometimes called NMR Lipoprofile), Lipoprotein (a) and serum fibrinogen. These measurable physical clues will help fill in a few more pieces of the puzzle, and enable you and your doctor to develop a more customized program to help manage your risk, with or without cholesterol drugs. If your doc’s not interested in looking under the medical hood, then it may be time to switch to a new mechanic.

5. For Many Statin Studies, the Fix is Usually in Well Before the Results Are

When you get right down to it, it’s hard to take most of the pro-statin studies seriously when so many of them are either sponsored by the drug companies themselves or done by researchers and universities whose labs are financed by Big Pharma either directly or through “donations.” In fact, the studies were mostly done by drug companies with a history of fraud in reporting results. So naturally, it’s tough to get to the truth of what statins do and don’t do for health. What happens instead is that well-meaning doctors get snowed in by positive statin studies because, as the song goes, they “accentuate the positive, and eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with Mr. In-between!” Making matters worse? It’s also not uncommon for the doctors involved with setting the statin guidelines to have a stake in the companies that produce them, so small wonder the drugs are pushed on the public with such enthusiasm.

6. If Mom and Dad Made It into Their 90s, Think Twice

Unless you’re at high risk for heart problems, have been diagnosed with heart disease, stroke or for instance, have a worrisome family history, particularly of early heart attack and death, it’s more than likely you may not need cholesterol-lowering drugs. If high cholesterol runs in the family as well as longevity, then you too probably have less to worry about too. Regardless, don’t be afraid to push back and tell your doc you’d prefer to avoid drug therapies. Assuming you’re not in a mission critical situation, discuss the possibility of trying a more holistic approach to get your numbers down to what is considered a normal or healthy zone based on all of your specific risk factors, not just your cholesterol numbers. If your risk factors are high and you and your doctor feel you must take a statin, request the lowest dose possible for your situation and take a high-quality CoQ10 supplement to help counteract some of the negative side-effects. Add to that as many lifestyle changes as possible to help cut risk and slow the progression of any heart disease you may already have.

7. Stack the Deck and Play Your Cards Right

Though high levels of small-particle, LDL may be a significant risk factor, it’s one of many that play a role in the progression of heart disease. But the science is imprecise. For example, there are many people with high LDL who are otherwise healthy and millions with so-called “normal” readings who are still at risk for a heart attack. In fact, on the standard cholesterol test usually done, your HDL and triglyceride levels are more important numbers to look at than LDL. Ultimately, the more HDL-boosting steps you take, the better the odds, and if you’re able to do it without medicating the numbers, so much the better.

So what to do next?

Here are 10 essential steps to take to help stabilize and improve your situation and reduce risk overall:

1. Eat a Fantastic Diet

Shoot for a diet that consists of whole, organic or locally grown foods, plus some grass-fed, humanely-raised animal products. Avoid factory farmed meats and keep processed foods to a minimum, as they’re anything but whole!

2. Eliminate Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates

They’re no good for your body, brain or heart, and are what increase the more dangerous triglycerides and small LDL particles.

3. Avoid Man-made Fats But Don’t Be Afraid of Good Sources of Fat

There is no good evidence of a link between saturated fat and heart disease. In fact, when we eat good sources of saturated fat, we often increase the large fluffy benign LDL particles. And yes, please eat the whole egg, but make sure they come from pasture-raised chickens, which have been allowed to roam free, eating plants and insects.

4. Bring on the Shrubbery

If you want to improve your lipid profile, eat plants and lots of them!

5. Eliminate No-fat and Low-fat Everything

If the label says no or low-fat, leave it on the shelf. First of all, it’s likely to be a processed food but more importantly, no and low-fat products are usually high in sugars, which actually boost the small more dangerous LDL, the last thing you want to do!

6. Add a Little Sauerkraut

Or for that matter, any fermented veggie to help fortify the resident gut bacteria that play an important role in protecting your arteries against inflammation

7. Go a Bit Nuts

And don’t forget the olives. Aside from being delicious, nuts and olives are thought to have the power to stop LDL from damaging arterial walls.

8. Ditch Your Vices

If you smoke, stop. No exceptions. If you drink, avoid hard liquor. A small glass of red wine with dinner every other day for most people is fine. A bottle every day or two is not.

9. Move Like Your Life Depends On It

Because it does. Better yet, more movement helps boost HDL and flush bad LDL out of your system.

10. Keep Your Mouth Clean

Poor dental health increases instability in the coronary arteries, which in turn boosts the odds of a heart attack.

5 Ways to Make Space in Your Life

(DrFrankLipman – Laura Kraber) In a culture that extols achievement and equates being busy with being important, dialing down and prioritizing “life” as opposed to “work” is not always easy. When we find that our days are spent enduring a schedule of non-stop obligations, or, even worse, suffering from stress-related ailments and exhaustion, it is time to re-think our choices.

The Eleven Eleven Wellness Center is located in the heart of the achievement-oriented, “cult of busy” world of New York City. Almost daily we meet with patients who are struggling with stressful, over-committed lifestyles that leave them little room for replenishment or renewal, let alone sleep, exercise, and time with friends and family.

Learn to appreciate yourself minus your achievements and successes. Pay attention to how you feel when you have a bit of time on your hands: many of us keep ourselves constantly engaged in order to avoid feeling lonely, unfulfilled or unimportant.

Sometimes the tweaks and adjustments we make are simply not enough and our jobs demand more than we can give. When our bodies rebel through illness, stress symptoms, or just general exhaustion, it is usually a sign that something in our life must change. Start by modifying habits, re-thinking choices, and eliminating obligations and see how far you can go to reduce commitments. Here are 5 simple guidelines to help you decompress your days.

Schedule Downtime

Create pockets of time in your schedule so you can take a few moments to journal, meditate or simply contemplate your day, your feelings, and your goals. Go for a 15-minute walk in the park; browse a bricks-and-mortar bookstore; sip a cappuccino at a café, and enjoy your own company and your own thoughts.

Build in Transition Time

Don’t assume that every task and every meeting will go exactly as planned and according to schedule – by padding your schedule with 10 – 20 minutes of extra time before and after important meetings or obligations, you have the breathing space to get to know your client a little better, or work extra on the task that you are enjoying, or deal with the inevitable unforeseen setback, when a 1 hour task ends up taking 90 minutes or the traffic is worse than expected.

Delete or Outsource

Take some time to analyze your schedule and responsibilities and pick one thing that you can delete entirely and one thing that you can outsource to a family member or paid helper. Services such as Task Rabbit allow you to pay freelancers to handle errands and tasks you don’t have time for. If you have children, start enlisting them in household tasks and see what you can hand over to them; from organizing school activities and social calendars, to emptying the trash and feeding the pets, children are usually capable of more than we ask of them.

Connect With Friends

Make a list of things in your area that you want to do but never find the time. Whether it is a yoga class at the new studio, or a trip to a museum or park, think of a friend or relative who would enjoy that outing as much as you and schedule a time for it.

Routinize Tasks to Free Up Time

Whether it is grocery shopping, bill-paying, or scheduling doctor visits, there are any number of repetitive tasks in our life that can be more efficiently handled. One solution is to have a time and a place and a regular habit. For example, Monday night is finance night in my house – we take a few minutes every Monday to pay bills, send out invoices, and check credit card statements, so the bills don’t pile up. Sunday morning is my weekly meal-planning time – I write out the dinner schedule for the coming week and make a shopping list or place an online order for grocery delivery. Automated shopping services, e-pay accounts, or online calendaring can help keep your family on track.

Maca Root Can Increase Libido and Help Treat Sexual Dysfunction

(NaturalNews – Michael Ravensthorpe) Few foods can beat maca root when it comes to improving stamina and physical performance. In fact, this nutritious tuber, which is native to the Andes of South America, was the Incas’ primary source of energy, and it remains a popular natural alternative to anabolic steroids among many of today’s athletes. Studies have also shown that maca root can help rebalance hormones, decrease total cholesterol and treat constipation. It is even a rare example of a land-based vegetable that is rich in the essential, thyroid-regulating trace mineral, iodine.

However, maca contains another health benefit that is often overlooked by researchers: it is an excellent natural libido and sexual performance booster in both animals and humans, and numerous studies prove it.

Effects on libido and sexual performance

A May 2001 study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology found that maca root could significantly improve sexual performance and fertility in male rats. For the study, the researchers fed 60 sexually experienced male rats either a 15 milligram or 75 milligram extract of pulverized maca root, or a 0.5 milliliter saline sample (as the control), on a daily basis for a 15 days. During the first week of testing, the researchers noticed that the rats that were fed the maca root demonstrated significantly greater sexual activity than the control group, with the rats who were fed the 75 milligram dose exhibiting even more activity than those fed the 15 milligram dose. This increased activity remained constant during the second week, and was also coupled with increased locomotion. This result lead the researchers to conclude that “both acute and chronic maca oral administration significantly improve sexual performance parameters in male rats.”

Many researchers believe that these libido-boosting properties stem from maca’s concentrations of the aromatic compound, p-methoxybenzyl isothiocyanate, which is a potent aphrodisiac that appears to be exclusive to maca. Maca’s fertility-boosting properties, on the other hand, have been attributed to its glucosinolate levels, which are similar to those of horny goat weed, another plant known to aid sexual health.

Effects on treating sexual dysfunction

Two double-blind studies have confirmed that maca root can treat sexual dysfunction in humans. For the first study, which was published in the Andrologia journal in April 2009, the researchers fed 50 male patients who were suffering from mild erectile dysfunction with either a 2,400 milligram extract of maca root or a placebo. After 12 weeks of testing, both groups experienced an improvement in their International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) scores. However, the researchers noted that “patients taking maca experienced a more significant increase than those taking placebo.” The maca group also exhibited greater “sexual well-being” than the control group.

The second study, which was published in the CHS Neuroscience & Therapeutics journal in 2008, sought to determine whether maca root could treat sexual dysfunction that was induced by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), i.e. antidepressants. Once again, the results were positive: of the 20 male and female tested, those that were fed high doses (3 grams) of maca per day exhibited a significant improvement in their Arizona Sexual Experience Scale (ASEX) scores, while those that were fed low doses (1.5 grams) exhibited a minor improvement. The researchers concluded that maca root could provide a dose-related alleviation of antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction, and also noted that it “may also have a beneficial effect on libido.”

Sources for this article include:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11297856
http://www.kcweb.com/herb/hornygoatweed.htm
http://science.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com/maca.html