Healthy nuggets of news to keep your motor humming

Welcome to the 19th issue of our newsletter:

Healthy World Digest

In this issue:

* Insulin, friend of fat

* Sugar, exercise and weight gain

* Obesegens

* Dr. Oz revisits dehydration

* Herbal remedies for constipation & ulcers

Oh, and we wont harass you with numerous mailings or with articles that are longer than the Bible.

Just a few important, interesting, up to date, super beneficial health items that you could easily apply to you life or pass along to loved ones.

It's in all likelihood the number 1 wellness matter in the developed and developing world, a crisis of epidemic proportions.

Simply put, we are getting fatter. The typical person is about 20 - 30 pounds heavier than 25 years ago.

Working in a public school for a few years, I noticed around 1/3 of students were overweight. This contrasts to the two or three kids per class who appeared to be heavy when I was a public school student.

On a somewhat humourous note, I recalled how the heavy kids were teased about being fat. It was unfortunate and I must admit I was an active participant. But, at the schools that I worked in recently, being fat didn't seem to be much of a negative. I guess it?s because so many kids were fat.

* Insulin, friend of fat

You may have noticed that I lean towards a low carb diet. I am certain that much fat gain as we get older can be decreased by eating fewer carbs, especially sugar.

Here are some specifics.

When you eat carbs, your body releases a hormone, insulin, is released to help usher the sugar out of your body. That's because the sugar is treated as a poison by the body.

As this occurs, your body becomes very mindful of the presence of sugar in the system which can be burned for fuel. Sounds good right?

Not really because your body ceases using fat for fuel. So, the fat is then stored. That's one way to gain unwanted fat and weight.

When insulin is not present or active, another hormone, glucagon, kicks in. That's good because it signals the body to use up stored fat.

But glucagon is very timid in the presence of insulin. To embolden glucagon make sure to avoid too many carbs, especially simple sweets.

* Sugar, exercise and weight gain

More on sugar. After you exercise, typically within two hours, what you consume can have a huge impact on the health benefits you reap from your exercise.

Taking in sugar within this post-exercise window, will negatively affect both insulin sensitivity and human growth hormone (HGH) production.

One study found that munching a low-carbohydrate meal after aerobic exercise enhances your insulin sensitivity. This is very beneficial, since impaired insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance, is the central cause of type 2 diabetes and a crucial risk factor for other chronic diseases, such as heart disease and, as explained above, weight gain.

In addition, eating fructose or other sugars, including that from fruit juices, inside this two-hour frame will reduce your natural HGH production.

If you miss reaching HGH release during working out, you will still receive the calorie burning effect from the workout. However, you'll miss the HGH "synergy bonus" of enhanced fat burning for about two hours after working out.

Since HGH is a main factor in muscle production, you will also not gain the muscle you should via working out.

This is an exceedingly crucial fact to remember if you want to gain some muscle, cut body fat and shed a few pounds.

* Obesegens

Again, I need to cite Dr. Oz, this time for bringing the concept of obesegens into the public awareness on a recent health programs.

Obesegens are believed to be chemicals that make you and keep you fat. So, even if you are not overeating and are moderately active, such chemicals still force your body to store fat especially as you age.

This is not a wholly new idea. As often occurs, alternative media was onto this before mainstream media hooks in.

Obesegens are more and more seen as chemicals and nutrients that increase fat storage & appetite and decrease metabolism.

High fructose corn syrup, essentially a sugar, is cited as an omnipresent obesegen. It is everywhere. Soft drinks, canned goods, breads, etc.

Pesticides and hormones in meat and fish are also believed to be obesegens.

Also, as our site, Healthy Water, noted years ago, chemicals in the water system are also thought to wreak great physical damage on us including weight gain.

This newsletter isn't the proper vehicle for getting into the reasons for the effects of these chemicals on our bodies. For more, just type the word "obesegens" into a search engine and you will get many good links on issue.

For now, do whatever you can to reduce chemicals, pesticides, hormones, artificial anythings, from your life.

You don't have to become obsessional about it. Do what you can.

An example of what can be done is what I've done. I drink filtered water only, buy organic produce whenever I can, in addition to organic bread and natural, organic soaps.

Is it a little difficult to find organic stuff? Yeah, somewhat. Is it more expensive? Yeah but as I've cut out a lot of takeout food and fast food, I find that I am actually spending less on foods.

I'll give you a concrete example.

A bottle of water or soda costs about a dollar. Designer drinks can run a couple of dollars. Shopping for organic produce in NYC, a pretty expensive trip, I can still make a glass of organic, fresh juice consisting of carrots, celery, beet and ginger for about a dollar a glass. Can you possibly compare a Snapple ($1.50 in NYC) to a glass of fresh organic veggie juice?

* Easy herbal remedy for constipation

South Americans with little access to modern medicines use this simple herbal strategy for dealing with constipation. They simply take a wedge of lemon, sprinkle a little salt on it and eat it. Most people have a bowel movement within ½ hour of eating this.

This piece of info about a great herbal remedy did not suggest why it works but I suspect that taking the lemon with its volatile oil undiluted may do the trick.

Click for more health benefits of lemons

Click for more herbs for constipation

* Easy herbal remedy for ulcers

Fresh cabbage juice has been shown to effectively treat ulcers. A study showed 91% of persons taking a small glass of green cabbage juice daily reported their ulcers cleared up.

* Dr. Oz revisits dehydration

I'm not obsessed with Oz. No, honestly. But he does have a good show. Some months ago, there was a segment on Dr. Oz that essentially derided the idea of the importance of water and the health problems dehydration can present to us. I was very disappointed.

Well, on the same obsegen program just a few days ago, Oz had a segment that essentially reinforces what we have presented in Healthy Water, on the importance of staying hydrated. Well, done Oz!

For more on the effects of dehydration on human health, visit our site -> Healthy Water

P.S. on Dr. Oz

As I just said, Oz presents a good program on health that maintains a fine balance between being alternative or conventional, alarmist or soothing.

But, there was one particular program on antiaging which was disturbing to me. Not because of the specific advice but rather the sense that the guests on the program, dermatologists, were on to heavily advocate the use of their cosmetic surgery services.

This commercialization of what should be good health info is something that we face all the time. But it really is quite disgusting. I can't imagine any of us turn on a program like that to have botox pushed on us.

Well, that's all folks. See you next month.

See you next month!

Sal

Healthy Water