Eating Healthfully When A New Baby Arrives
Eating Healthfully When A New Baby Arrives
A new baby can be overwhelming for the whole family. The last thing on your mind is cooking for yourself or eating a healthy diet. However this is the time you really need to eat right. Whether you're breastfeeding and need the extra calories, want to increase your stamina against the sleep deprivation or are starting to think about losing the "baby weight" - a healthy diet can really help with your energy level and overall outlook. Here are a few tips for how to eat healthfully during this exciting time.1. Say "yes, please!". Friends, family members and neighbors will ask if you need anything. Allow them to help by bringing you a meal or picking up some groceries. They really do want to help and allowing someone to cook for you is a labor of love and kindness. Friends who do not cook may want to bring you a prepared meal from a grocery store or your favorite restaurant.Many moms groups have members standing by to make a meal whenever they hear a new baby is coming home from the hospital. Take advantage ? you'll be able to return the favor when it's your turn to be "on call".2. If you do want to cook ? make large quantities. Use your freezer to stock left-overs and make your own convenience foods for a day when you don't feel like cooking. Good options include: lasagna, chili, vegetable soups, stews, roasts.3. Call a personal chef to come in and make meals for you. There are many services in the area who will prepare menu items based on your likes and dietary restrictions. This is an especially good option if you have a slow recovery or have a partner who is traveling.4. Order groceries online. If you don't feel like going out ? you can still get your groceries. Many local grocery and convenience stores offer delivery of whole foods as well as other staples and toiletries. Check the national chains for delivery in your area, such as Safeway.com.5. Buy healthy, fresh, foods. If your refrigerator is stocked with fruits, vegetables, cheeses, yogurts, meats and your pantry has beans, grains, pasta and condiments you're more likely to be able to throw something together to make a meal or snack, rather than order take-out or "fast" foods.An apple with peanut butter, yogurt with granola, a fresh fruit smoothie or veggies with cottage cheese make great adult power snacks without much preparation.6. Divide and conquer. Chores such as grocery shopping or cooking that you used to do can be delegated to your partner. Be gracious and appreciative. If his idea of making dinner is a cheese sandwich ? eat it and enjoy.6. Make a healthy diet part of your family's lifestyle. If you get into the habit of eating healthy foods now, you'll be able to set a good example for your new child when he's ready to eat. It's never too early to teach and learn good eating habits.Lisa Barnes is the owner of Petit Appetit an educational service devoted to parents who want to provide fresh, healthy foods for their families. She is the author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook (Penguin, March 2005). For information and to sign up for a free email newsletter visit http://www.petitappetit.com
Gout Pain Relief With Cherry Power – How To Ease Pain By Eating Fruit
Gout Pain Relief With Cherry Power - How To Ease Pain By Eating Fruit
We can all learn something new every day! And good doctors are constantly alert to learning from all of their patients. It takes a lot to surprise me after twenty years in medicine but - I hold my hand up - this is a new one!I had never heard of cherry juice or fresh cherries being used to treat gout or for gout pain relief until I heard it recently from a patient (who had been told it by his pharmacist, who had heard it from a relative etc etc). Anyway - a quick search for the "treatment of gout" on google turned up one (rather ancient -1950) research paper and a whole stream of anecdotal reports about the positive effect of cherries and their juice. It seems that consuming about half a pound of fresh cherrys a day or half a litre of fresh cherry juice can significantly lessen the pain and swelling of gout.I've never had gout and I hope you haven't either but I can tell you it's one of the most painful conditions known in medicine.Our blood contains a salt called uric acid. It's there all the time in everyone but is normally fully dissolved in the way that sugar is fully disolved in a hot cup of tea. But ... if the tea cools down ... what happens to the sugar? It comes out of solution as little sharp edged crystals. Well, guess what - that's exactly what happens in an attack of gout pain.A change in the blood chemistry allows the uric acid to crystalise out of solution and form little jaggy crystals (like bits of broken glass) in the joints. For some reason the first joint of the big toe is the most commonly affected - and the pain when walking is horrific. Quite literally "like walking on broken glass" as many of my patients describe it.Anyhow - back to those cherries.My patient swore that taking the cherry juice had made a big impact on his gout pain and had provided rapid gout pain relief. You might want to try this yourself if you have gout or you might want to recommend it to a friend or relative.I'm not clear whether tinned cherries can have the same effect.The most commonly quoted explanation of the effect is that cherries contain flavonoid compounds that may lower uric acid and reduce inflammation. As I described above, uric acid is the body salt that triggers gout attacks.I have found nothing published to suggest that taking regular cherry juice lessens the risk of you having an attack in the first place but if you suffer from gout regularly it may be worth a try. Cherry juice, cherry pie, ice cream with cherry sauce? Mmmm - sounds good to me!Dr Gordon Cameron MD is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.Joint pain, arthritis pain and frozen shoulder are among his areas of special expertise.
He has published an excellent e book called How to Live with a Frozen Shoulder and is a regular contributor to magazines and textbooks
Visit Dr Cameron's website for more information about whiplash injury and other joint related conditions.
Eating Junk Food — The Hidden Price
Eating Junk Food -- The Hidden Price
You probably are very familiar with the benefits you get from NOT eating healthy. You get to eat food that tastes good, you get to be lazy and sit on the couch and veg out and watch TV. You get to not do all the hard work of exercise. There are many other benefits that people get from not eating healthy, and many others that I probably did not list. I am not going to list them all, because you know most of them. I will list the benefits most people do not want to admit, often, even to themselves.There are four main benefits that you probably get from not eating healthy, that you don't want to admit (along with the obvious ones):1. Avoiding being responsible
2. Getting to be right and making others wrong
3. Dominating others and avoiding domination
4. Justifying yourself and invalidating others.These things are the hidden benefits. I will talk about each of them in more detail, and explain what I mean. You have to dig down and be honest, though. These four things are usually true for everyone, and the point of my sharing them is to make you aware of them, and for you to be honest with yourself about them. Most people do not think of these things as benefits. But if you look at them and are really honest with yourself, you will see the benefit people get from them.People get to avoid being responsible by putting the responsibility on the medical symptoms and disease care system. You live under the illusion that they will create a magic pill or invent some technique or system to make you thin and healthy without you having to do a thing. They are responsible for your health, not you. It is an illusion many of us believe. Because then we get to avoid being responsible for our own health and eat anything we want. We get to do what we want, and then blame all of our symptoms on someone else.You get to be right and do exactly what you want. You don't have to listen to all those doctors, all those people, especially that annoying "health freak" in your family. Every family usually has one. You get to be right about being able to do what you want. You get to make them wrong. And don't we all enjoy making someone we don't like so very wrong? We all want to be right and I can prove it. Have you every seen someone try and prove themselves wrong? Argue that they are not right? People love to be right and that includes being right with being able to eat whatever they want for whatever reasons they want.You get to dominate others, and avoid others' dominating you. You do not have to do what they say. You can do what you want. You can probably even control people and make them angry by doing things your way, by doing what you want.You get to justify yourself and invalidate others. You get proof for yourself that what you are doing is right. You get evidence that the way you are doing it is right. You get to make sure that other people's way of thinking is wrong, and make sure they know you know they are wrong.These are the hidden benefits that many people get for not eating healthy. Benefits that, if you are honest with yourself, you like getting as well.What I am also going to point out is the not-so-obvious cost of not being healthy. There are benefits to eating junk food. But, as you know, nothing in life is free. If there is a benefit, there is a cost. What most people do not see is the cost, the price you have to pay for the benefits you are getting.There are also tons and tons of hidden costs that most people never see. I will list some of the biggest ones. This is the price you have to pay to eating junk food:1. Vitality
2. An abundance of energy to do everything you want to do
3. Happiness
4. Love and closeness with others
5. Satisfaction and fulfillment in life
6. Healing symptoms and disease
7. Symptoms and disease going away,
8. Relief from the suffering that goes with the symptoms and disease
9. Inner peace and harmony
10. Being symptom- and disease-free
11. Mental focus, memory, and clarity (no brain fog)
12. Being awake and fully alive every day (not just dragging through stuff and surviving)
13. Being present and having the ability to be with people
14. No worry or fear
15. Being confident in yourself
16. Being complete and happy
17. The ability to deal with issues that arise simply and with ease
18. Having better health now, with security for yourself and your family later
19. More time to do what you want to do
20. Simpler choices
21. Looking great, feeling good, reducing fat, and having tons of energy
22. Being satisfied and Not being hungry all the timeThe list goes on and on, but these are some of the big ones.These are all things you do NOT get if you avoid eating healthy. It is the price you have to pay to not eat healthy.If you are eating healthy, these same things are your rewards. These are the things you get when you are well. These things show up in your life as you are being healthy and well. So much so, that I want you to think of your own reasons why, things vital to your happiness, freedom and life that you know you would get you out of bed for in the morning wanting to eat healthyGet really big reasons of why that will drag you out of bed in the morning eating healthy. I share this and more with you in my free e-course that this article is a part of. Go to http://www.HealthyEatingDiet.com to get the full e-course. Dr. Jamie wants to help give you Permanent Results with his "non-diet." He is also giving you dozens of valuable free gifts to "ethically bribe" you into helping him make his new book, "The Ultimate Non-Diet" a #1 best seller. For details on the book go to: http://www.TheUltimateNonDiet.com/free