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!

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Food Stress: A Little Levity on Healthy Eating

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Eating right, Effective living, Feeling energized, Food Stress, Health, Humor, Kebba Buckley Button, lighten up, stress, UpBeat Living

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

Do you ever feel like there are so many rules for eating that you never enjoy a meal or snack anymore?  With so many experts and so-called “gurus” giving pointers, do you ever feel like you’re in Food Jail, boxed in by too much conflicting advice about dieting and exercise?  How are you supposed to be in Upbeat Living, if you aren’t allowed to enjoy food and beverages?  If this sounds like you, then the following interview with Dr. Hart A. Tack may provide some comic relief.  A few years ago, this interview circulated the Internet, interviewer unknown.

Dreamstime

Q: Doctor, I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it…  don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually.  Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster.  Want to live longer?  Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies.  What does a cow eat?   Hay and corn.   And what are these?  Vegetables.  So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.   Need grain?   Eat chicken.   Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable).   And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A:  No, not at all.  Wine is made from fruit.  Brandy is distilled wine. That means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way.   Beer is also made out of grain.  So have a cup now and then!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.  If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can’t think of a single one, sorry.  My philosophy is: No pain…good!

Q:  Aren’t fried foods bad for you?
A:  Nonsense.  Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.  In fact, they’re permeated in it.  How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q:  Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q:  Is chocolate bad for me?
A:  HELLO: Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It’s the best feel-good food around!

Q:  Is swimming good for your figure?
A:  If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q:  Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?
A:  Hey!  ‘Round’ is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.
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I hope this piece gave you a chuckle.  Now, for real food advice, and pointers you can really use to feel your best, read the next two articles and generally look around this blog.  Or send your questions to Kebba Buckley Button at kebba@kebba.com .

__________________________________________________________________

 

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 .