Your Best Health and Wellness Online

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and yet again I am sure most of us have eaten a little too much of what should not have. I am fortunate to have had a wonderful meal prepared for me with organic and natural food used as much as possible. Still the tendency to over eat is still there.  As a result I started to look for some good tips on how to better control what we eat over the Holiday season.  After all there is a reason that the number one New Years Resolution is to lose weight.

One site I found with good information is 7 Tips For Eating Healthy During the Holidays. I liked the tips that they proposed with some exceptions.  When they say thicken with Corn Starch versus Cream simply due to calories I always consider the source and quality of the calories. Remember to stay way from processed foods as much as possible. A good organic cream is healthier for you than processed corn starch any day.

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I recently travelled from my home where it was in the 70’s to Washington DC where the temperature was a record breaking 22 - 31 degrees. I was freezing! I started to get sick with a stuffy nose and a really sore throat. So I got to thinking, does the cold weather really give one the cold?

First what is a cold? According to the Mayo Clinic “The common cold is a viral infection of your upper respiratory tract — your nose and throat.” Certainly sounds like what I cought. There is much more information on the Mayo site.  So establishing that I was cold and in cold weather and I have a cold. Is that the cause?

The cold is viral so could it be a particular virus that inhabits and lives only in cold weather? My instincts tell me not. If that were the case then why do people get colds in warm and hot clients? It’s not like they have a sickness called the ‘warms.’

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I just ran across this link to 12 natural remedies online and I thought I would share it. Not sure how many people are aware of some of these and I know they do not work for everyone.  Still I always liked trying to hit the problem at the root cause rather than just the symptom and sometimes these cures help a lot.

My personal favorite is tea for sore throats. I have a few herbal teas I take and they really do soothe and help me get through.

Do you have any that help you? Share them with everyone below.

I was working on my High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) article and research when I came across this wonderful article on Digg which shows that American fast food is mostly corn.

Pretty scary indeed. Now I have nothing against good proper corn, specially when it is organically grown, but I also believe that everything should be eaten in moderation.  This is a case where not a lot of moderation is happening.  Already a good portion of our processed diet consists of corn via HFCS in one form or another, but the prevalence of corn in our diet is amazing.

To me our body was made to take in many kinds of food and be the most efficient when its in balance. This is a case where there is no balance. Whether it is corn or soybeans or sugar are any of the other major food products that seem to find their way into our mainstream food, too much of it is bad. Even the silly commercials from the Corn Industry that try to convince us that HFCS is ‘all natural’ and OK to eat state it by saying ‘in moderation.’ Please where is the moderation in this?

What do you think?

Since it has come up from a few of my friends that have visited this humble blog I thought I would say a few things about me, the main contributor to this site. I was your normal American male eating a normal American diet full of soda and processed foods for much of my life. I am basically working 60+ hours a week and am as active as any normal male, but that changed about two years ago.

I started to work more and more and my activity dropped. Further my ‘normal’ diet of processed and fast foods started to catch up with me fast. Unhealthy, fatigued, over worked, stressed out and 207 pounds I felt I needed a change.  My wife also wanted to make many changes in our life and together we researched what we could do.

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Recently I was offered a Trace Metal Analysis done by Biochemical Laboratories out of Edgewood, New Mexico. I have never had one before so I did not know what to expect. What is a Trace Metal Analysis you might ask? Well according to the documentation from the lab report, it is:

“A useful indicator of dietary availability and metabolic utilization of trace metals. TMA also reveals exposure to toxic metals. Results are influenced by general state of health, diet, exposure, exercise, digestion and absorption, hormone balance and genetic factors.”

First this is they take about half a gram of hair for the analysis. OK, pretty painless so far outside some missing hair and perhaps an additional visit to the hair cutter to straighten it up. Then they send it off to the labs.

Here is what they return. A list of all the metals and whether I am too high or too low in them such as Calicum, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Copper, Zinc, Iron.. the list goes on. So along with the normal levels for each item, whether one is too high or too low, they also include some basic information on what factors may influence your state. Let me give you an example from my report.

Your Calcium level is 80.0, the Normal Value is 30.0 - 60.0. High calcium levels may indicate mobilization from the bone due to poor absorption and utilization. High calcium is consistent with joint problmes. High calcium may indicate poor bone and dental health… etc..

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In these tough economic times it can be so hard to stay healthy.  I see more and more of my friends and co-workers cutting back on healthy food purchases and buying cheaper more processed foods.  So, is it possible to save money and eat healthy?

Luckily the answer is a resounding yes! One of the goals of our site is to show you how you can save money while staying healthy. While it is tempting to cheat a little here and there it is possible to save a few dollars on your organic food purchases.
The first way that we have found that works very well for my family is by a local Organic Food Buyers Club.  What this club does is provide a way for locally grown organic food to be distributed directly from the growers to the buyers while avoiding the middle man. Sometimes these clubs are also called coops or co-ops.  No matter what it is called you can get your healthy fruits and vegetables much cheaper than by going to your local healthy food market.

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Welcome to Your Best Health and Wellness Online! This is where we (and I do say we as there is a team of people behind this blog) will be providing you all sorts of information on how to live your best life yet. We believe that by eating healthy and following some simple healthy lifestyle tips you can begin to achieve just that!

Some of the things you can expect to find here are:

• Organic food information
• Alternative medicine information (truth and false information)
• Exercise tips
• Information on how to fight common problems like Candida
• Healthy home tips
• Financial tips because we believe health and wellness also means in your wallet
• Happiness tips - real health and wealth begins with you and your happiness

There may be more as we grow. If there are any topics of interest, please let us know. We welcome all comments.