Nutrition for Moms

Any nutritionist or dietician worth their weight, will tell you that the best source of nutrition comes from your diet – that is, what you eat. We recommend choosing a nutritional supplement to get needed nutrients from fruits and vegetables for good health.

The problem with most dietary habits is that they don’t include enough of the right foods. Not only that, but too many foods with little to no nutritional value. This is where we lack the vitamins and nutrients we need to maintain good health.

When considering a good weight loss plan and diet, and are trying to deal with the burdens of being overweight, we find that a poor diet is just the start of the problem. In fact, it’s not the extra weight that really is the issue. In order to be 50 or 100 pounds overweight, you are not consuming too many calories from fruits and vegetables…not a chance. If you’re carrying that much extra weight, there is a 99% chance that you are not getting anywhere close to the amount of good nutrition that your body needs to be healthy.

So being overweight is just another symptom of a poor diet. The real focus for an overweight person should be on getting healthy, and starting to make adjustments to a healthy diet. The weight loss will naturally happen as a “side-effect” of a healthy diet. The other changes may be a lowering of cholesterol, blood pressure, and even possibly less dependence on insulin if Type II Diabetes is present. Here’s more on getting vitamins and nutrients from your diet –

With the jury still out on the benefits of vitamin and mineral supplements—including multivitamins—the mantra you’ll most likely hear from doctors and nutritionists is to get your nutrients from food whenever possible. But that’s not always easy, especially within a limited calorie budget. Harvard Women’s Health Watch consulted two nutrition experts to find out if a supplement-free, nutrient-rich, low-calorie diet is possible to achieve. Their conclusion: yes, with the exception of vitamin D, which is tough to obtain through diet and sun exposure alone (unless you live in the southern latitudes and spend a lot of time outside).

Here’s what the newsletter says a 1,200-calorie diet that satisfies the nutrient needs for women ages 51 to 70 might look like:

Breakfast: 8 oz. nonfat yogurt, ½ cup sliced papaya, ½ cup sliced kiwi, 1 oz. (14 halves) walnuts, 4 oz. skim milk.

Lunch: 1 small whole-wheat pita, green salad (1 cup dark green lettuce, 1 red or orange pepper, 1 cup grape tomatoes, ½ cup edamame beans, 1 tbsp. unsalted sunflower seeds, salad dressing made with 1 tbsp. olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and pepper).

Dinner: 4 oz. broiled wild salmon with yogurt sauce (1 tbsp. Greek-style nonfat yogurt, 1 tsp. lemon juice, 1 clove chopped garlic), 1 cup steamed baby bok choy, ¼ cup cooked barley, and ¼ cup cooked lentils with spices to taste.

Read the HWHW article for the nutritional breakdown of this menu and for a list of nutrient-dense foods that its experts recommend form the core of your diet. And take a look at these diets that promote health and always have. Plus: here are 7 must-dos before you buy a functional food. (Source)

Comments: A healthy diet should be the focus for any person trying to lose weight or improve their health. A healthy weight will be arrived at when focusing on a healty lifestyle. Eating plenty of raw, whole food fruits and vegetables is the most important part of a healthy diet. That’s where the best source of good nutrition comes from. And until you reach the minimum recommended amount of fruits and vegetables per day, we recommend you take a look at some nutritional supplement comparisons for getting nutrients from a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Every diet plan should start with ridding those sugary drinks and substituting water in their place. Most people are not getting enough water in their diet, and the body’s signal that it needs water is often mistaken for hunger pangs. So, if you think you’re hungry, try drinking 16 oz. of water first. This is one the easiest and most effective actions to improving your health.

Mom wants you to be healthy, because your family needs you

Recently, we looked at the top five antioxidant vegetables and today we will look at the top five antioxidant fruits. Actually, it will be nine because five of the top antioxidant fruits are some kind of berry.

Antioxidants are disease-fighting compounds which can prevent cell damage and possibly ward off illnesses like heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and some cancers. Fruit is one of the easiest ways to incorporate antioxidants in your diet. After all, it comes in its own packaging and you can just grab it and go. Take that, prepackaged gummy snacks. Fruit is the original convenience food. Here are several fruits with high antioxidants you should try to include in your diet.

• Berries. By far, they have the highest levels of antioxidants of any fruit. Each of these berries ranks higher than any of the other fruits on this list. They are a top five list all by themselves. The highest is blackberries, followed by cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. With the exception of cranberries, these are everywhere right now, from backyard gardens to farmers’ markets and grocery stores, so fill your shopping cart or go out and pick some (with permission of course). Nothing tastes better than late summer berries and they give your body invaluable nutrients.
• Apples. You know what they say about an apple a day keeping the doctor away. And they say it with good reason. These are just about to come into season and there are so many wonderful juicy varieties here in the Northwest. Crisp or mellow, tart or sweet, you’re bound to find something everyone in the family will like. Packed with numerous antioxidants, apples are best enjoyed with the skin left on for maximum benefit.
• Oranges. With their high vitamin C content, it’s no wonder we all inherently reach for a glass of orange juice at the first sign of a cold to boost our flagging immune systems. Grapefruit, tangerines and clementines, though not in the top 10, are also good choices for vitamin C, as is pineapple.
• Plums. Again, the redder the food, the higher the antioxidant level is going to be. You’ll still get good nutrition from black and purple plums, but take advantage of the health benefits of the red plums that are in the stores right now for an extra boost. Some studies list prunes, which are dried plums, as the number one antioxidant fruit. However, the high sugar content of dried fruit is a drawback for some.
• Red grapes. As with plums, you’ll still benefit from other varieties, but the red-skinned fruit is the higher antioxidant level. Who can hear the word “polyphenol” and not think of Alton Brown and his commercial for Welch’s grape juice, chalkboard and all? And, as is also true with prunes, raisins will give you some antioxidant benefits, but their high sugar content is not ideal.(Source)

Comments: There you have it. A list of healthiest fruits to choose from. The important thing isn’t so much to be sure you choose from this list, but being sure to eat plenty of different colorful fruits and vegetables each day. One other note: there are nutritional supplements that provide plenty of nutrients from a variety of different grapes and berries, in the event that you want to add more antioxidants to your diet but you aren’t eating any grapes or berries (which would be your first choice).  Studies show that those who eat close to the minimum number of recommended fruits and vegetables each day are 95% more likely to be a healthy weight. So start eating more of them today!

Moms Nutrition
Caring about Moms Everywhere

Probably the biggest contributor to the extra weight that the majority of Americans have, is the calories they get from beverages. It is just too easy to consume a lot of calories when they come in the form of juice drinks or soft drinks. Too many beverages are just loaded with sugar, alcohol included. By substituting water for those many other beverages, you can easily cut a few pounds from your weight, not to mention the improvement in your energy levels. Here’s more from ABCnews.com –

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Soft drink makers should invent and market a new category of semi-sweet beverages that will help wean Americans off their reliance on sugary drinks, nutrition experts said on Monday.

They proposed a new class of reduced-calorie beverages with no more than 1 gram of sugar per ounce, which with about 50 calories is about 70 percent less sugar than a typical soft drink contains. They said such drinks should also be free of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine.

“We need to retrain American tastes away from super-sweet drinks,” Lilian Cheung of the Harvard School of Public Health said in a statement.

“If we can shift the present American norm back to a lower expectation of sweetness, people will adjust their palates, particularly the younger population.”

The American Beverage Association, which represents soft drink makers, was not immediately available for comment. Of course not, they don’t want to face the facts that they are responsible for the demise of a large number of people’s health! (source)

Note: If the best we can do is create a new ‘class’ of juice drinks and sweetened drinks that have low amounts of sugar, so be it. Something done is better than nothing done about the obvious source of unhealthy calories that are widely consumed. But in reality, the problem needs to be addressed by eliminating any beverages with sugar or artificial sweeteners from your diet.  The results are clear from the thousands of people who have taken this approach to get healthier. And certainly most of them are happy to lose weight as a result of this action.

All you have to do is look at the consumption of soft drinks on a per capita basis to realize that this is the #1 source of calories contributing to not only the overweight and obesity epidemic, but the dwindling health of America.
No health care plan is going to make you healthy or take care of you. Only a healthy lifestyle from healthy choices will. So start choosing health.

Moms Nutrition

While many people keep searching for the fountain of youth food, drink, or supplement, the fact is that good ol’ common sense prevails. That is, the consumption of plenty of fruits and vegetables is the best source for nutrition that will keep you healthy, aging at a ‘normal’ pace, and preventing sickness and disease.

This basic message has seemingly been lost amongst a cloud of messages about the lack of health care in the US. The real lack of ‘health’ care is in the poor diet choices made by most Americans. You can’t expect to eat processed foods that have little to no nutritional value, drink soft drinks that are filled with high-fructose corn syrup, and do little to no exercising… and be healthy.

The simplest plan for good health is not rocket science. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, drink plenty of water, get enough lean proteins and healthy carbs, and exercise regularly. The simplicity for being healthy has also been lost amongst a plethora of manufactured foods and drinks and specialty exercise products, not to mention weight loss drugs.

If you could start with one change to your diet that would make more of a difference than anything else, it would be to start consuming more fruits and vegetables each day. If that’s sounds difficult, then try starting with just one more piece of fruit or vegetable each day. And each week, add one more to your daily diet…until you reach the magic number of nine. Even five per day is most likely better than what you’re getting now.

Because most people don’t, won’t, or can’t get more fruits and vegetables in their diet, choose a Nutritional Supplement that has plenty of whole food nutrients – a concentrated powder of fruit and vegetable nutrients that has whole food nutrition not just a few vitamins. This is what makes it more effective in benefitting your health than if you were to just take a vitamin.

The reason? There are hundreds of phytonutrients in the whole food, not just a few vitamins. And they all work together for the benefit of your health.

Moms Nutrition

It is ashame that these studies are not performed on whole food nutrition – i.e. any fruits, vegetables, or grapes or berries, OR a good nutritional supplement that contains nutrients from those foods.  These studies can be misleading because of the headline that comes with such study.

Case in point –

Vitamins Don’t Prevent Cancer
Lots of people are convinced the key to preventing cancer is to take lots of extra vitamins and minerals. If only it were true.

In the latest evidence otherwise, a 1,500 patient trial presented here at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, showed that taking selenium supplements did nothing to prevent the recurrence of lung cancer in patients who had their tumors surgically removed. If anything, selenium appeared to make the disease more likely to recur and kill people.

The ten-year trial led by researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center took patients (mostly smokers) who had been operated on for early stage  lung cancer and gave them either 200 micrograms of selenium, a typical dose in many supplements,  or a placebo.

After five years 72% of patients taking selenium were alive and cancer free,  compared to a greater 78% of those who got a placebo. While the difference was not statistically significant, it suggested that excess selenium might  be harmful to smokers. read more…

Comments: The bolded title above is the headline for this story. First of all, this study is only referring to “selenium supplements”, not VITAMINS. One mineral that is being studied is not consistent with the headline.  Secondly, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water – just because one mineral shows no benefit on its own, doesn’t mean that the source of that mineral is not going to be of benefit. In other words, whole food fruits and vegetables (specifically dark green vegetables) that contain hundreds of nutrients may be the key to getting the right balance and antioxidant power that can prevent sickness and disease.

The bottom line: if you’re going to supplement your diet, do so with a whole food nutritional supplement that contains as much of the entire food’s nutrients as possible.  Except for specific needs that your doctor may recommend, you may want to avoid synthetic vitamins.  (One such recommendation may be Vitamin D).

The Health & Wellness Institute

Coffee might stave off more than just sleep, according to research showing that those who chug a lot of java have a lower rate of head and neck cancers.

Prior research on the link between coffee and cancer has yielded mixed results. Some studies, for example, have found lower rates of kidney and ovarian cancer among coffee drinkers, while there appears to be no effect for colon cancer.

For the new report, scientists pooled results from nine earlier studies on head and neck cancers, which also included information on coffee or tea drinking. In each study, cancer patients had been compared to either the general population or to hospital patients who didn’t have cancer.

Overall, the risk of developing head and neck cancers was 12 percent lower in people who drank coffee compared with those who didn’t, after accounting for a variety of factors, including cigarette smoking.  Read more…

Comments: Why this reduced risk may be a mystery. Maybe because of the stimulant that coffee provides which enhances mood.  Perhaps the stimulant motivates users to be more productive and focus on something purposeful.  Whatever the case, it’s good to know that us coffee drinkers have one more reason to be gulping down the java.

And for the foods that we continue to turn to as our source of nutrients for the prevention of sickness and disease? Well, drug companies are now doing the same, looking for that one component or compound in a food that may be responsible for fighting unhealthy cells or repairing a damaged organ or otherwise. This is another reason for supplementing with a whole food nutritional supplement - because you want as many of those nutrients that are in the entire food, and a variety of them at that.

Here’s more on foods as the source of disease killers –

U.S. scientists, who have tried for years to develop drugs to reduce the risk of cancer with limited success, are turning to plant substances, researchers said.

The synthetic drugs finasteride and dutasteride, which treat enlargement of the prostate gland, have been effective at deterring prostate cancer, while the osteoporosis drug raloxifene and the breast cancer treatment tamoxifen — synthetic — have cut the breast cancer rate in half among high-risk women.

However, chemicals from plants and other living organisms are the basis for almost one-third of today’s prescription medicines and scientists have identified a variety of promising candidates that may prevent cancer.

John M. Pezzuto of the University of Hawaii in Hilo and his team, using terrestrial plants, have uncovered several molecules with promising cancer prevention activity, most notably resveratrol, the red-wine compound made by a range of plants.

Gary D. Stoner of Ohio State University has been studying cancer prevention potential of berries and beets and he and his team have used a freeze-dried and powdered black raspberry mixture that blocks formation of esophageal and colon cancers in rats. More…

Bottom Line: We need a variety of plant based foods in our diet to get the wide variety of antioxidants – vitamins and nutrients – for the prevention of sickness and disease. Those same foods provide healing when you already have a health problem. So don’t skimp on those healthy foods.  You may even want to grow your own foods at home. It’s not that hard!

Check out ways to do that on Amazon with your own home garden!

Moms Nutrition

If it’s not a holiday or vacation day, you may not realize what the celebration or labeled day or month is, but you should take note of this one. That is fruit and vegetable month, started with the intention of increasing awareness of the importance of those foods. (Hallmark cards are not to be found!).  Fruits and vegetables are the best source of vitamins and nutrients for your health. This is why we recommend whole food supplements that contain nutrients from those foods, so that you can get the nutrients you need while working on a way to eat more of those whole foods instead!  There is no better place to get the antioxidants and vitamins you need than these whole foods, a plant-based diet.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in a “Fruit and Vegetable” month. Not only are fruits and vegetables important, but the manner in which they come to us are too. Let’s take a look at why you may want to consider organic –

We should celebrate.  Florida is a fertile source for many produce favorites and when our growing season is over, our neighbors to the north are still harvesting delicious fresh vegetables and fruits for us to enjoy.

We learn that ignorance is bliss, however, when we discover that celery can be coated in 67 pesticides. Yes, sorry, that tuna salad in the fridge is possibly dosing your family with chemicals designed to kill weeds and creepy crawly pests.

However, a new report by nonprofit public health advocates Environmental Working Group is a blessing to all of us who like to keep our produce drawers full and our doctor visits to a minimum. The report is the result of poring through thousands and thousands of USDA pesticide reports. This determined which fruits and veggies have the best and worst chemical residue. Read more…

Comments:  One thing to keep in mind- if you don’t eat the minimum number of fruits and vegetables and you consume fast foods and other unhealthy foods, then the choice between organic and non-organic is not that important. Work on improving your diet one step before going further and seeking out all organic foods. It’s enough for most people to work on avoiding fast foods and start drinking more water and eating more healthy foods.

Here’s more info on organic just to give you an idea:

Organic farming only uses naturally occurring chemicals or traditional remedies to control pests and diseases. According to public perception, organic food is the healthy option. Sales of organic produce have rocketed over the past few years with the organics industry sending out messages of safer, healthier food created by farming practices which are better for the environment. But is it really as good as we think? Critics argue that organic farming leads to the risk of contamination with potentially dangerous bacteria and mould toxins, and increased levels of ‘natural pesticide’ found in organic produce could even be as dangerous as synthetic chemicals.

So who do we believe? Are organic fruit and vegetables as harmless as they appear? And why do they cost so much? In this piece, common views about this subject are discussed. More info…

Comments: There are many criteria that makes a food qualify for the label ‘organic’. The problem is that there are gray areas in the definition. You aren’t going to go wrong by choosing organic, they will have higher amounts of quality vitamins and nutrients as opposed to non-organic. There is a book that you may want to check out for reference on what foods, what preparations, growing and raising methods, and more details related to diet that will educate you on whats best for your health. It’s called What To Eat by Marion Nestle. Marion provides lots of great information, data, facts, and well thought out opinions and conclusions about what she feels is best for you.

The bottom line: make the effort to eat more fruits and vegetables this month and every month and every day. They are the cornerstone of your good health and provide the vitamins and nutrients and antioxidants for the prevention of sickness and disease. Until you get enough of those foods, add Moms whole food nutritional supplement to get added nutrients from a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Check out Moms friend Marion Nestle’s book What to Eat

Jack LaLanne, a one-time sugar-holic who became a television fitness guru preaching exercise and healthy diet to a generation of American housewives, died age 96.  He was admired by so many, his daughter said (and we certainly agree!).

LaLanne, who became U.S. television fixture in his close-fitting jumpsuit starting in 1959 and came to be regarded as the father of the modern fitness movement, succumbed to pneumonia following a brief illness at his home in Morro Bay, along the California’s central coast.

“He was surrounded by his family and passed very peacefully and in no distress … and with the football game on Sunday, so everything was normal,” Yvonne LaLanne, 66, told Reuters. Read more…

Comments: It may be a long time before we see anyone like Jack LaLanne. We have entered a day when science seems to trump common sense and good ol’ fashioned plant-based foods for staying healthy. Those who farm their own food have a better chance of getting those healthy nutrient-dense foods, but the percentage of farmers is so low that the few that remain, don’t turn out the same quality as once did. The point is that everything we can do to add more nutrition to our diet is almost required for maintaining good health.  A balanced diet and lifestyle that includes plenty of water, regular exercise, and plant-based foods, is the best approach for the prevention of sickness and disease while providing the benefits of increased energy, healthy looking skin, and longevity….as J LaLanne proved.

Moms Friends

A new report recently released says vitamin D provides no protection against certain types of cancer.

More than 7,000 cases were studied by the National Cancer Institute and several other institutions.  Researchers examined vitamin D levels in blood that had been collected from thousands of men and women before they received a cancer diagnosis.

The study found no protection against Lymphoma, cancer of the endometrium, esophagus, stomach, kidney, ovarian or pancreatic cancer.

“What we found overall there was no strong association between vitamin D and cancer risk so the lower levels were not associated with the higher risk and higher levels were not protected against cancer,” said Dr. Kathy Helzlsouer, study chairwoman. Source…

Comments: While I would suggest that a food-based source of Vitamin D would be preferred over a synthetic one, for various reasons, including studies like these that can turn negative, don’t throw out your Vitamin D in a bottle just yet. However, don’t be lured into a sense of false security about your health, thinking that taking a handful of supplements each day will provide the nutrients your body needs to remain healthy.  The best source of good nutrition is a plant-based diet.  If you don’t get enough fruits and vegetables in your diet, then use a whole food nutritional supplement that provides nutrients from a variety of those foods.

Finally, it is easy to also find both sides of a study – each that contradicts the other – for any vitamin or otherwise. The good news here is that there are many, many more studies that show the benefits of Vitamin D than there are studies like these. You may also question the motivation of either side – who benefits from the conclusions offered, that is. Then you may question whether or not the study is biased. That’s why it’s best to stick with a healthy diet that includes plenty of plant-based foods.

The Health & Wellness Institute, PC

Older adults with relatively low intakes of vitamins B6 and B12 may have a higher risk of developing depression than those who get more of the nutrients, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among 3,500 older adults they followed for up to a dozen years, the risk of developing depression symptoms declined by 2 percent for every 10-milligram (mg) increase in daily vitamin B6 from food and supplements.

The same was true for every 10-microgram (mcg) increase in vitamin B12 intake.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, do not prove that the B vitamins themselves protect against depression. But the results do echo those of some previous studies tying the vitamins — as well as folate, another B vitamin — to depression risk.  More…

Comments: The importance of having adequate vitamins levels in the body is good to stress and research to provide the concrete evidence of such importance.  Yet it is equally important to know that the source of such vitamins should come from whole food ripe, raw fuits and vegetables or other plant-based foods.  While this is the best source of nutrition, because most people do not get enough in their diet, we recommend Moms Nutrition as a way to get more nutrients from different fruits and different vegetables. With more research providing the evidence of how important it is to have plenty of the right nutrients in your diet, take this as more reason to take the steps to improve your diet. That means at least 7 servings per day of those good foods. Your health depends on it!

The Health & Wellness Institute, PC