Food Stress: Eating for Youth

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antioxidants, Effective living, Feeling energized, Food Stress, Health, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, Stress Management, Switch what you swallow, UpBeat Living

© 2016 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M., World Rights Reserved.

Marilyn Barbone – Fotolia

Hands up, everyone who would like to feel or look younger!   Everyone knows the signs and sensations of aging.  So what if you could do something that would take no extra time or effort on your part, but would work against the mechanisms of aging?  You have about 70 trillion cells in your body.  Your cells have only what you put in your mouth, and what you breathe in, to use for their processes and for making new cells.  Why not make the most of what you feed your cells?

That’s right, I’m recommending you eat.  However, I want you to switch what you swallow.  And I want you to chant “switch what you swallow” to yourself every time you get ready to eat, and every time you wish you were or looked younger.  Antioxidants are your new best friends, if you want to feel and look younger.  So what’s an “antioxidant”?  It’s basically any substance that fights oxidation, or free radical damage.   Substances around us, like air pollution and cigarette smoke, are huge sources of free radicals.  They promote cell aging.  Pesticides in conventional foods are a great source of free radicals.  More environmental toxins in this century make it a wise choice to make sure you eat more antioxidant foods.

Jim Rohn said,

Take care of your body.  It’s the only place you have to live.

Your multivitamin/mineral supplement is probably helping to some extent.  However, eating fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains is powerful.  Antioxidants fall into several groups: enzymes, vitamins (A, C, E, Beta-carotene), and flavonoids, or polyphenols.   There are over 5,000 flavonoids in different foods, according to Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, a Tufts University professor of nutrition, quoted in WebMD.  Blumberg says different antioxidants work in different ways and in different types of tissues.  Therefore, we need a variety of antioxidant foods working for us.  For enzymes and vitamins, catechin, hesperetin, luteolin, and quercetin, think berries and citrus, other fruits, green crunchies, nuts and seeds, even squash, sweet- and white potatoes.  For epicatechin 3-gallate, drink your green tea.  Cook produce as little as possible, since a British study found cooking can reduce much of the antioxidant power of food.  Find selenium in chicken, eggs, fish, garlic, grains, red meat, and shellfish.  Find lycopene in tomatoes, pink grapefruit, and watermelon.  Look to the dark green vegetables for lutein. Concentrated flavonoids are in cranberries, pomegranates, and purple grapes.

Are you craving a giant salad with lean protein yet?  Good!  Why not have that for dinner, for the next 3 days, and eat fresh fruits or veggie sticks for snacks?  Why not cut back on sugary sodas for several days, and drink juice blends instead?  Try my easy antioxidant invention, the Moteajo:  Pour a cup of green tea over ice, and add a cup of blueberry-acai juice; crush in some fresh mint leaves, and enjoy!  Notice your energy rising in just 30 minutes.  Try fewer processed foods just for 3 days, and notice how smooth and soft your skin is, how bright your eyes are, and how calm and clear your mind and emotions are.  So to look and feel younger, it’s powerful to switch what you swallow!

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .
• Recent changes have made our Facebook likes look low.  Would you click “Like” in the right-hand column?  You’ll get our appreciation and a huge rise in your good karma!

Food Stress: Does Food Make You Tired?

Tags

antioxidants, fatigue, Food Stress, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, UpBeat Living

©  2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM

Does Food Stress strike you now and then?  Do you ever think, “hey, I need a snack!” Then you grab something that seems like it will taste good, you eat it, and you feel…TIRED.  It happens too often!  The point of food, originally, was to fuel the body.  In today’s world, we are able to have flavorful food that also looks appealing.  With the influx and mixing of many cultures in this country, the array of foods and beverages available is endless.

But sometimes, our ideas about what is and isn’t good food can lead us astray.  When I worked in Tucson, there was a deli downstairs from my office that had the best cheese Danish I have ever tasted. I often had a midmorning snack of cheese Danish and coffee—Heaven! When I moved to Phoenix, I never replaced my dreamy favorite snack.  Finally, a major food company began promoting frozen cheese Danish together with other flavors of frozen pastries.  I believe they could be heated in either a microwave oven or in a toaster.  I waited and waited for the cheese Danish flavor to arrive in my local market.  Finally, it arrived!  I captured a box, went home, heated one, and ate it with relish.  Heartwarming memories of my Tucson office days filled me as I inhaled this pastry.  Then, in a few minutes, I was overtaken by a leaden fatigue.  My delicious snack had stolen my energy!  I had Food Stress.  I had eaten the calories but got no energy from the snack.  Plus, it made me tired!

So where did I get—where do any of us get—our ideas about what a good, satisfying snack would be?  I got the cheese Danish idea from the deli in Tucson.  I saw it, it appealed to my tastebuds, and a tradition was born.  We see images of foods in TV commercials and shows, in movie theater images—before and during movies—in newspapers and online.

Recently, I saw a holiday foods promotion from a major grocery chain.  Of the 30 or so food products in the newspaper’s holiday insert, all but two were guaranteed to tire the snacker.  These foods were:  frozen, extremely salty, extremely fatty, extremely sugary, or two or more of these together.  Some were loaded with dyes and artificial ingredients.  Some beverages were labeled for “energy” but laden with caffeine.

What’s wrong with these foods, if you’re eating for energy?  In Chinese medicine, these foods are all yin, or weakening.  Also, foods lose their energy, their vital life force energy, when frozen.  A lot of salt, fat, or sugar makes most people tired right away.  Too much caffeine stops providing a lift, stresses your kidneys, and makes you deeply fatigued.

What foods were great in this holiday insert?  Fresh produce, organic salad greens, black and green teas, organic coffees. All these are loaded with antioxidants, which bring oxygen into your cells quickly.  Fresh fruits and veggies also contain many absorbable vitamins and minerals the body needs, plus vital life force energy.

Want instant energy?  Eat a big green salad and a smoothie made of greens, ginger and fruits.  The ginger is yang and will balance the yin of regular diets.  Think about the foods you crave, and ask yourself where you ever got the idea that those were good to eat.  Fill your meals and snacks with colorful produce, and notice your energy soaring and your health getting stronger and younger.  You can beat Food Stress, and you are worth it!  Now that’s Upbeat Living!

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma! Due to a recent FB change, our “likes” look low.  Thanks for your help!
• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), and Peace Within: Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Either Peace Withinor Sacred Meditation are available through her office.  Just call, or email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.    
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .

Upbeat Living: Getting A Bigger Better Brain!

Tags

Alzheimer's Disease, antioxidants, Brain health, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Majid Fotuhi, Eating right, Kebba Buckley Button, Memory, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

© Tijana – Fotolia

Got memory problems?  Feel stressed when you can’t remember things?  Want to prevent or minimize Alzheimer’s Disease?  There’s new hope from the latest brain research!

 

Your brain is involved in everything you do!

~Dr. Daniel Amen

 

A few years ago, Dr. Daniel Amen, a clinical psychiatrist and medical director of the Amen Clinics, introduced us to a conversational level of brain science.  Dr. Amen (say, “AY mn”) has studied tens of thousands of brain scans and made many practical conclusions.  First, he offered programs on PBS about brain types and personality.  He taught us how to identify different brain types and how to feed people with different brain types, to get them to relate pleasantly.  More recently, he has given programs about how the brain ages, what affects it negatively, and how you can keep yourself and your brain young.  He also talks about the ability of the brain to recover from both injury and toxic exposures.  He illustrates his points with brain scans of patients, before and after recovery treatment.  Your brain can bounce back after injury or insult, with the right treatment!

 

Which brain do you want?

~ Dr. Daniel Amen

 

Enter neurologist Majid Fotuhi, M.D., Ph.D.  Dr. Fotuhi is not only on the neurology faculty at Harvard Medical School, but also a consultant in neurology at the Alzheimer’s disease Research Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  His specialty is research in protecting the brain from degeneration, especially in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and general memory loss.    Dr. Fotuhi has found that brain size is important in memory functions, especially the size of the hippocampus.  The hippocampus handles the relationship of short-term memory to long-term memory and to spatial orientation.  Dr. Fotuhi has studied the causes and effects of brains shrinking or enlarging.  One of his amazing findings is that patients can have Alzheimer’s disease present in the brain but have no memory loss, if the hippocampus is large.

 

Cells in other parts of your body—such as your skin, stomach, and liver– slough off and get replaced, but for the most part, the cells in your brain are the ones you were born with.

~ Dr. Majid Fotuhi

 

Large brains are good!  So how can you have a larger brain?  Dr. Fotuhi has 5 steps for you, summarized here:

1. Take a DHA supplement.  This will provide Omega-3 fatty acids, which actually reduce the plaque formation of Alzheimer’s Disease.
2. Use brain-stimulating switchups. Use your other hand to shave or clean a counter, or write backwards.  These practices will build your hippocampus.
3. Use breath exercises. Since stress increases production of cortisol, and cortisol reduces memory, any stress reduction techniques can increase your memory.  In particular, Dr. Fotuhi recommends this breath technique:  inhale to a count of seven, hold for a count of seven, then exhale to a count of seven.  Shortly, you will feel your entire system relaxing.
4. Do pushups. This pushes blood to your brain.  One third of your brain is blood vessels, so the increased circulation is powerful.
5. Eat superfoods.  Those most helpful to the brain are:

• Elderberries.  They contain corsitine, an antioxidant which stimulates the activity of the cell mitochondria, the cells’ energy factories.
• Pecans.  These contain choline, which supports brain health and specifically memory functions.
• Chicken giblets. A powerful source of Vitamin B12.  People with low B12 have a smaller hippocampus.
• Clams. In addition to B12, they contain zinc and iron, which also support brain function.
• Vegetable juice. This contains a potpourri of both known and as yet unidentified vitamins.

 

So current research shows that we can help ourselves, with simple methods, to have better brains and better memories, even with Alzheimer’s Disease.  Why not pick three of these and work them into your daily routine?  Living well is the best revenge!  Support your brain and enjoy your memory for many years to come. Now that’s Upbeat Living!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

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UpBeat Living: Coffee, the Health Drink

Tags

antioxidants, Brain health, Coffee benefits, energy, Feeling energized, Green coffee extract, Health, stress

Fotolia

Good news, coffee lovers!  The case for coffee as a health drink has been building.  In my book, Discover The Secret Energized You, there is a section (p. 53, “Perk With Coffee”) on the health benefits of coffee.  In the several years since the book came out, everything it said about coffee has been further proven, and more medical benefits have come to light.  So don’t stress over your love of coffee, just read on while sipping!

Of course, this article is not medical advice.  Confer with your doctor before making any dietary changes.

Coffee is one beverage found delicious by people in many cultures for centuries.  And now it is known to have many health perks.  While many think the only ingredient in coffee is caffeine, coffee actually contains thousands of organic compounds.  The lift people get from drinking it may come from the antioxidant compounds, more than from the caffeine.  And, it contains only 6 calories per cup, if you don’t add the sugar, the syrups, the milks, or the whipped cream.  Or that muffin that looks so good, over there in the glass case.  Save yourself hundreds of calories per serving by drinking coffee black.  Another reason to drink coffee black is that a compound in dairy products, casein,can block the benefits of the  antioxidants.  Darn!  But this doesn’t apply to nondairy creamers, soy milk, almond milk,  or coconut milk.

Speaking of dieting, recent medical research has shown that green coffee beans can help you lose weight surprisingly fast.  Bottles of green coffee bean extract are flying off store shelves. But if you want  less caffeine and more beneficial compounds from your coffee, use dark roasts, even espresso, and keep the brewing time short.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), the antioxidants in coffee may reduce inflammation and thereby reduce the risk of potential disorders related to it. Cardiovascular disease is one of these. Phenols, volatile aroma compounds, and oxazoles in coffee contribute to its high antioxidant content. A typical serving of coffee contains more antioxidants than typical servings of grape juice, blueberries, raspberries, and oranges, according to another study in the AJCN.  Antioxidants fight aging. and give you energy right now.  Would you like to age more slowly?

Want more good news?  Coffee drinking is now associated with lower risk of cancers of the kidney, liver, and prostate.  It’s also associated with lower risk of Type 2 diabetes (tends to lower blood glucose), with Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and dementia.  Short-term, coffee helps you feel more alert and improves concentration.

Possibly the most interesting research indication currently is that coffee seems to raise the activity of Bifidobacteria in the digestive tract. You may have noticed coffee , um, stimulating elimination.  Some people even use coffee for enemas.  But lactobacillus Bifidus is a primary digestive bacterium specific to the large intestine. So you could get more efficient digestion and possibly a flatter abdomen from drinking coffee. Or taking green coffee bean extract.

So do you love coffee? Do you feel good, feel alert, and function well with a cup or several per day? Then why not relax in a favorite chair, sip your favorite blend, and let the research roll in?

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .