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Nano Nano was good for Mork, but you??

There’s been a lot of talk lately about nanoparticles in various skin products, eg – cosmetics, lotions, and sunblocks. I don’t know who came up with this stuff but I’m not putting nano particles on this temple!!

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If I want something to go below the surface of my skin and into my bloodstream, I will eat or drink it; It’s called nutrition!! Here we are specifically talking about sunblock. Look for products that say nanoparticles and make like Dion and Runaway 🙂 There’s no place for nanoparticles in sunblock. Plus if they are that small that they get into your system, are they still protecting you from the sun. Also, the smaller the nanoparticle, the less effective it is against UV rays!!!! Having said all this, here’s a shameless plug, but a legitimate one if you are interested in a great NON-nanoparticle sunblock!! Beauty counter Countersun. Also if you would like to know more about nutrition and what you SHOULD be putting in your body, make a consult appt. at Main Line Integrative Nutrition

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PROTEIN for a PRO TEEN!!!!

If your teen is as active as mine, you will definitely want to make sure he/she gets enough protein to satisfy the growing and recovery demands of the muscles. Protein is of paramount importance when maintaining an active lifestyle. Fortunately, todays markets offer a wide variety of proteins; But which one should you use? I personally would suggest whey protein because it is a complete protein: Complete proteins contain all nine of the amino acids necessary for human dietary needs!!

Protein powders are a great whey to get extra protein in your diet. You can get all kinds of flavored protein powders but I find that the flavored ones also come with a bunch of crap you probably shouldn’t put in your body. Go with an all natural unflavored whey protein isolate. This protein powder is super versatile and although it is unflavored, it has a bit of creamy vanilla milky flavor that lends itself well to any smoothie!!

I am a huge believer that if your body needs something, you should obtain that need through the foods you eat or the drinks you drink. Take for example my body’s need for the flavors of aged oak barrels. I’m not gonna supplement this need with wood pills, I’m gonna get it directly in my diet from Knob Creek 🙂 There are plenty of foods that contain complete proteins such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese. The thing I like about the protein powder though, is that you can use it in a lot of recipes and it won’t necessarily change the flavor, might even enhance it a bit. Next time you make bread, pancakes, waffles, smoothies, pizza (put some in the dough), soup, throw a couple TBS of protein powder in it. To learn more about how you can integrate more protein into your diet, go to Main Line Integrative Nutrition and talk to Brenda, she’s the best nutritionist I have ever spoken with!!

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There’s a reason they call them dyes!

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Because most of them are horrible for you!! They should call them DIES!! Here’s what prompted this blog post. I got a bunch of crap for having mini chocolates in my fridge at work!! Now, because I’m constantly telling the office people that they are eating “CRAP”, they decided that their only recourse to feel better about eating this crap was to get back at me by making me feel bad about having said chocolates in my fridge 😦 You get the picture. So I swiftly pulled the bag outta the fridge and started reading the 5 or 6 ingredients in the chocolates. After that, I reiterated, that it’s the ingredients in the foods you people are eating, not the foods themselves. “Why day gotta hate”? Anyway, there are plenty of natural dyes, but are the big companies willing to pay for the natural dye when the #ed dyes are so much more inexpensive?

The Most Dangerous, yet cheap, Food Colorings

Many pediatricians have asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban certain dyes, including –

  • Blue dye #1 and #2
  • Green dye #3
  • Orange dye B, which is prevalent in hot dogs
  • Red dye #3 and #40
  • Yellow #5 and #6

Several if these dyes are banned in countries other than the United States. Manufacturers that sell in this other countries have to change their formulas. For example, in Great Britain Kraft boxed macaroni and cheese is pale because the yellow dye is banned.

Let me give a shout out to Kraft – There was a petition that went around to get kraft to take the yellow dye (the one that makes it look super yummy) out of their mac and cheese and so many people signed it that I believe they don’t put it in any of their mac and cheese any more!! 🙂 THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD 🙂

First of all, if every company started using natural dyes, which include:

Examples of natural food dyes are –

  • Brown is often made from caramelized sugar
  • Blue made from red cabbage or blueberry skins
  • Green made from vegetable extracts like spinach, parsley, etc.
  • Orange is typically made from the pulp around the annatto seed but can also be made with carrots
  • Red may be made of hibiscus, beets or the Cochineal beetle (sounds gross but it has been used for over a century)
  • Pink may be made from beets
  • Purple can be made from blackberry, purple carrots or red cabbage
  • Yellow can be made from turmeric or carrot

that the demand would be so high, they would start mass producing natural food colors/dyes and the price would come down!!

If you would like to know more about why you shouldn’t eat some dyes, schedule an appointment for a consult at Main Line Integrative Nutrition and while you’re there, sign up for an integrative nutritional plan that fits your lifestyle 🙂

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Tumeric or Turmeric?

Tumeric or Turmeric? Whichever way you say it, it is one powerful spice!! It is a member  of the ginger family which also has numerous health and digestive benefits which we will talk about at a later time. Here is an excerpt from drugs.com:

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What is it used for?

Traditional/Ethnobotanical uses

Turmeric has a warm, bitter taste and is used extensively as a food flavoring and colorant; it is a primary component of curry powders and some mustards. The spice has a long tradition in Asian medicine to treat problems ranging from flatulence to hemorrhage. Use to treat ringworm, as a poultice, for pain, and in the management of jaundice and hepatitis has been documented. It is also being heralded as an anti-inflammatory which is perfect as lately science is learning more and more about how people are becoming more and more susceptible to inflammation because of their horrible lifestyles!! “Eat more turmeric, live longer”!!

Miscellaneous uses

Turmeric is used as a spice in curry powders and mustard. It is being investigated in clinical trials for the treatment and prevention of cancers, particularly of the gastrointestinal tract, and for treatment of colitis and Alzheimer and Huntington diseases. And this one is my own discovery; it is also used as a non-dairy creamer and is super delicioso in my coffee, here’s a link: Laird Hamilton Superfood Turmeric coffee creamer!!

You should experiment with turmeric and find your own path to turmeric happiness. If you would like to learn more about the benefits of turmeric in your diet or would like more information on how you can make better lifestyle choices regarding your nutrition, set up a consult meeting with Dr. McBride at Main Line Integrative Nutrition

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Going green? Don’t stop at recycling!!

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Go green with your grilling too. Vegetables taste better and are healthier for you if you grill them because you are not losing any of the nutrients in the cooking medium (water, oil, steamer). And make sure you don’t “char” them because that char is loaded with carcinogens according to some recent studies. You can see here that I took some corn and just threw it on the grill as is. It comes out great!! Plus, I’m not too concerned about the nutritional value of corn 🙂 I have also found that the thicker you slice the zucchini, the better it comes out and once you grill asparagus, it’s hard to do it any other way!!

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Grilling your proteins are also a healthier alternative to “indoor” cooking.

Grilled meats have a reduced fat content. This is because the fat drips off as the food cooks. It results in healthier meals and makes it easier to manage a low fat diet. Grilled foods also have lower calorie content than fried foods. This helps in weight management and keeping fit. Reduced fat intake helps to lower bad cholesterol levels in the blood. Healthy cholesterol levels improve cardiovascular health. Various health conditions such as obesity, stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes become a risk with fried foods.

When you grill your food, it helps to reduce the risk of such diseases. It also ensures that you get more value out of your food. This is because of the shorter cooking time involved when you grill. It results in minimal loss of moisture and vitamins from vegetables. This ensures that as much of the nutritional content is retained in the food when cooked. Healthy cooking contributes to good health and overall wellbeing.

To learn more about how to integrate more healthy eating habits into your everyday routine, visit Main Line Integrative Nutrition

A NATION WITH INFLAMMATION!!

Inflammation causes more problems for people than you may think. You probably don’t even realize you have inflammation. Most people don’t acknowledge they have it because you can’t see it, taste it, or smell it, unlike an evisceration or a cold or gas respectively 🙂

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It’s called silent inflammation and the only way you will probably know you have it is to get rid of it. Sometimes it’s not just “getting older” or “need a new mattress”, it could be silent inflammation 😦

Take a few steps to remediate this physiological maelstrom of confusion and you will either feel way better or at the very least, tell your Dr. that you are aware of the effects of inflammation have tried to alleviate it. Here are a few ways to get rid of inflammation:

  • eat less sugar
  • stop eating processed foods
  • eat, drink, and pop turmeric
  • I don’t know whether exercise will but it’s good for your mental game
  • drink resveratrol or as I like to call it, red wine 🙂
  • get enough sleep

Just google silent inflammation! For a healthier lifestyle, visit mainlineintegrativenutrition.com

Ditch the ice, use this superfood instead!

Instead of watering your drink down with ice, why not infuse more flavor whilst keeping it ice cold. I use frozen blueberries. Although blueberries may not suit every drink, it will play nice with most of them. I fill my glass 3/4 full with frozen blueberries and then add the drink. Not only are you keeping your drink cold, you are increasing the health benefits of your drink. Blueberries are nutrient dense superberries! A 1 cup serving ( I eat way more than that 🙂 has 4 g fiber, 24% RDI vitamin C, 36% vitamin K (potassium), 25% manganese, and only 84 calories! Yes they are high on the carb scale but unless you are on a low carb diet, don’t worry about it, live in the blueberry moment. Here’s some other BBBs ( big blueberry benefits ):

Blueberries reduce DNA damage

Blueberries protect your cholesterol

Blueberries may help lower blood pressure (also, may not but it looks more likely that it will 🙂

Blueberries are good for my heart so chances are they are good for yours as well

Blueberries help your memory, I think??

Blueberries have Anthocyanins which help with diabetes

UTI?? Eat some blueberries

Extra hard workout? Eat some blueberries, they will help reduce muscle damage.

Do your own research on these amazing berries because I just pulled this stuff off the internet but I have also read some of these facts numerous times on different sites and I’m 52 and I act and work and play like I’m 30 and I eat a ton of blueberries! Coincidence??? Probably not.

Where do I get my blueberries? Wegmans of course. I buy the giant frozen bag and they are delicious. Give em a try. Let me know what you drink with your blueberries.

#blueberries #wegmans #blueberrymartini #blueberrylemondrop #pomtini

Is this your next favorite snack?

NUTRITIONAL POWERHOUSE!!

It should be! It’s the kumquat. I bought some the other day because I love anything orangish/tangerineish/tangeloish, and really wanted to try them. Turns out that I can’t stop thinking about these pop in your mouth nutritional powerhouses. What makes them so good? The flavors of course. I say flavors because there are so many. First is a super tart wake up call for the senses, then a tangy tangeriny sensation which is slowly subdued by a sweet edible rind. Once you have a few kumquats under your belt, you will have no problem popping them like oxys on a bad day!! In fact, if your having a bad day, start popping these babies instead!! They’re tastier, more nutritious, and a lot cheaper than oxy. They may even save your life! BOOM!! There it is, kumquats are actually a life saving fruit. Try them on salads, or in stir-fry or make an Asian glaze for salmon.

Protein pow”d”er!!!!

It’s not rocket science: The body needs protein!! We don’t, however, have access to the proteins we want all the time, such as pork, chicken, beef, BACON 🙂 etc. Enter, protein powders. There are so many protein powders on the market today. Which one should you use?!?! Here’s 2 that I would recommend; One is rice protein and the other is 100% Whey Protein Isolate Powder. Now let me say this, I am recommending these because this is what my wife and son use. I know that if my wife is using these, they have been thoroughly researched and tested by her, which in my world, is a pretty good recommendation as she has a pretty strict diet. The beauty of these protein powders is that you can pretty much put them in anything you eat, especially in the morning which is super important. You can put it in cereal, make a breakfast smoothie, yogurt, juice, etc. We make homemade protein bars with our protein powder. The last batch was excellent! It was a chocolate protein bar with peanut butter and nuts and they were great. These bars are perfect for a great post workout supplement.

 

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To find out more about YOUR OWN nutritional requirements and how you can benefit from the use of protein powders, make an appointment for a consult at Main Line Integrative Nutrition. The greatest Nutritional consultants on the main line, if not the country 🙂

 

Check out my sisters website!!

This isn’t just for people in and around Philly. If you have questions regarding your nutrition, schedule a consult or an online consult. Brenda will work with you on a cellular level and give you an individualized recommendation. If you’ve tries “everything” and are still wondering why you don’t feel GREAT, give her a call, she’s the best of course 🙂 Here’s the link: Main Line Integrative Nutrition