Recovery Monday on YouTube

Fun Times in the Neighborhood

Hello Neighbors & Welcome Back after the Thanksgiving Weekend. I hope your plates were loaded with lean-mean protein and you enjoyed great times with your family and friends. Now, with the first of the Feasting Holidays under our belt, we can get on with the fun at hand! In the Neighborhood, of course! Check out these great opportunities to enjoy a little holiday Joy with your LivingAfterWLS

Nicole Richie Weight Loss

She is famous for the title "Walking Stick", "Walking Bone"... something like that. Well folks, this pic says it all. Isn't she too skinny?

Nicole Richie with her skinny body

But I must say that this was her past. She has maintained her weight quite well now.

Nicole Richie Before After Weight Loss

I knew that she would maintain her weight from the moment when she said to Vanity Fair, (in May 2006) that she is too thin and started consulting the nutritionists, psychiatrists. The result is now showing up. Once anorexic and skinny Nicole richie have now turned into slim and fit mother of two children: daughter Harlow Winter Kate Madden (born Jan11, 2008) and son Sparrow James Midnight Madden (born September 9,2009). God bless her and her family.

Nicole Richie with Joel Madden, daughter Harlow and son Sparrow

Click here to see current pictures of Nicole Richie

Success story of a vegetarian weight loss

Vegetarian women indeed have a lower risk of obesity, but that does not mean vegetarians can not be overweight. This time I wanted to share a success story of a vegetarian woman who became overweight but finally succeed to lose weight. I get this from women's health magazine November 2008 edition. It's an old edition but I think the experience of others can give us a valuable lesson.

The woman named Brandi Lemburg, height 5’8”, aged 26 years, came from Merysville, WA. She took 2 years 5 months to lose weight initially 230 pounds to 148 pounds. Please read the following full story…..

The Gain
Brandi Lemburg had been a vegetarian since age 9, but she was no fan of greens. ”I had potatoes with every meal,” she says. In her twenties, Lemburg worked her way up to three sodas a day and hot fudge sundaes every night. At 22 and 170 pounds, she stopped weighing herself. “I didn’t want to know,” she says.

The Change
In February 2006, Lemburg’s size-18 leans were cutting into her waist. She forced herself onto a scale and saw that she had gained 60 pounds. “When I read the number 230, my heart sank,” she says. “I had never weighed that much.” Realizing that she could easily top 300 pounds in another year, she took action.

The Lifestyle
Lemburg knew she needed a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. She went vegan, which forced her to get protein from soy, beans, nuts, and veggies instead of fattening dairy products. Sweet snap peas and organic apple slices with vegan peanut butter replaced cookies and Little Debbie’s cakes. “I gave up soda completely,” she says. She logged half-hour sessions on a treadmill three times a week. For the first two months, Lemburg lost five pounds a week. Eager for more, she started walking everywhere-to work, to school, to run errands-and practiced yoga five nights a week. “I do squats when I’m blow-drying my hair. When I watch television, I do lunges,” Lemburg says. By last July, her scale was down to 148.

The Reward
At her lowest weight since she was a teenager, Lemburg has lifted more than just a physical burden. “My weight was really bringing me down,” she says. “I had zero energy and I was self conscious. Now I wake up and I’m ready to take on the day.”

At the end of the story, Lemburg want to share her success tips to all of us. This may also be useful for us all. So try to think about it.

Eat in
“I try healthy meat and dairy-free recipes at home.
Have a shoe fetish
“I leave my shoes on after work so I’m ready to pull weeds or do some aerobic cleaning.”
Be positive
“I never let discouraging thoughts take over.”

Post Thanksgiving update

Alaskan Snow Puppies (my sister's two Bichon Frises)

View from the road my sister lives on - the Tanana River near North Pole, Alaska (at 3pm)

Tanana River

I'm back home. I had a really good week with my sister and her family, and my brother. A lot of visiting, remembering the good times with my brother-in-law. A few tears, but more laughter than tears. Although leaving was really hard it was wonderful to sleep in my own bed last night. I'm glad to be home.

I weighed on my home scales this morning. I'm up .6 pounds. That's slightly over 1/2 pound. Instead of beating myself up for not losing weight, which was my goal, I'm actually kind of happy it's only 6/10ths of a pound. It could have been so much worse.

I worked out on the treadmill and with the weights for at least an hour five of the eight days I was in Fairbanks, and went for a two hour walk on the last day (it was 30 degrees - spring time weather!). I ate healthy every day until after dinner. Then the cookie, candy and ice cream monster took control, and I made some really poor choices.

Unfortunately for me, all the treats on hand for the grandkids are all my favorite things. Ranger cookies, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies with frosting, cranberry cookies with oatmeal and white chocolate chips, every kind of candy imaginable, as well as several flavors of ice cream (we're talking about at least six 1/2 gallons of different flavors). Also, the pièce de résistance is my sister's homemade whole wheat bread. It's healthy, but eaten in large quantities with butter, it's not so healthy.

Where does this put me in my plan to get to my goal of 135? Obviously I'm not on plan at all since my plan was to get to goal by the end of the year. Today it's back to counting Points and back to the gym. Even though my weight has been going the wrong direction, I'm not giving up, and I'm not beating myself up. I feel more determined than ever to get back on track.

~Diana
176.2

Day 332-Thanksgiving Weekend

Prayers were answered and I was able to taste my plate at our family dinner feast.  It was an interesting year since most of us were either getting over a virus or beginning one!  I was touch and go there for a bit, but about an hour before we ate, I suddenly felt clear and not stuffy, I felt pretty good!

I had been taking Emergen'C since the very first moment I felt like I was getting sick.  I swear by this stuff!  I think this is the reason I made it through the holiday without being stuck in bed.  I even had the energy to be able to help my mom out, she was really sick but pushed herself through so that we could enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving.

So, my plans were changed.  I wasn't able to work out as much as I wanted or hoped to.  I did smaller workouts because I was just too achy and weak to do full workouts.  The whole weekend I struggled with sugar cravings and portions.  I honestly felt like I used to.  Crazy how you can spend a whole year changing habits and behaviors, and within a couple of days you can resort back to what you are trying to avoid.

I learned something HUGE.  I have said it before, I honestly believe it, but this extended holiday weekend just proved it once again.  It's ALL ABOUT EXERCISE!!  Without my typical, sweaty workout, I had a hard time with my eating, the way I felt, my time on the scale.  (It was up a pound)  I did a full workout today.  At first it was way hard!  I wondered if I hadn't yet fully recovered from my illness.  Luckily something interesting was on the TV and I was able to push through and get it done, but I am surprised by how much and how fast a body can change when you deviate from routine.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  I had a wonderful time with family, had wonderful meals with everyone, and I learned a lot!  You can try to loose weight by your food choices alone, but it can be very slow and challenging.  You can also try to loose weight solely by working out, but if you don't change your eating habits, although you are gaining a better heart and body, you may not be seeing the results on the scale as fast as you would like and end up giving up the much needed exercise.  You need both to have results!  Eating better makes it easier to workout and working out makes it easier to eat better.  It has been proven to me once again.

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VIII

Three Case Studies in Occlusion

In this post, I'll review three cultures with different degrees of malocclusion over time, and try to explain how the factors I've discussed may have played a role.

The Xavante of Simoes Lopes

In 1966, Dr. Jerry D. Niswander published a paper titled "The Oral Status of the Xavantes of Simoes Lopes", describing the dental health and occlusion of 166 Brazilian hunter-gatherers from the Xavante tribe (free full text). This tribe was living predominantly according to tradition, although they had begun trading with the post at Simoes Lopes for some foods. They made little effort to clean their teeth. They were mostly but not entirely free of dental cavities:

Approximately 33% of the Xavantes at Simoes Lopes were caries free. Neel et al. (1964) noted almost complete absence of dental caries in the Xavante village at Sao Domingos. The difference in the two villages may at least in part be accounted for by the fact that, for some five years, the Simoes Lopes Xavante have had access to sugar cane, whereas none was grown at Sao Domingos. It would appear that, although these Xavantes still enjoy relative freedom from dental caries, this advantage is disappearing after only six years of permanent contact with a post of the Indian Protective Service.

The most striking thing about these data is the occlusion of the Xavante. 95 percent had ideal occlusion. The remaining 5 percent had nothing more than a mild crowding of the incisors (front teeth). Niswander didn't observe a single case of underbite or overbite. This would have been truly exceptional in an industrial population. Niswander continues:

Characteristically, the Xavante adults exhibited broad dental arches, almost perfectly aligned teeth, end-to-end bite, and extensive dental attrition. At 18-20 years of age, the teeth were so worn as to almost totally obliterate the cusp patterns, leaving flat chewing surfaces.

The Xavante were clearly hard on their teeth, and their predominantly hunter-gatherer lifestyle demanded it. They practiced a bit of "rudimentary agriculture" of corn, beans and squash, which would sustain them for a short period of the year devoted to ceremonies. Dr. James V. Neel describes their diet (free full text):

Despite a rudimentary agriculture, the Xavante depend very heavily on the wild products which they gather. They eat numerous varieties of roots in large quantities, which provide a nourishing, if starchy, diet. These roots are available all year but are particularly important in the Xavante diet from April to June in the first half of the dry season when there are no more fruits. The maize harvest does not last long and is usually saved for a period of ceremonies. Until the second harvest of beans and pumpkins, the Xavante subsist largely on roots and palmito (Chamacrops sp.), their year-round staples.

From late August until mid-February, there are also plenty of nuts and fruits available. The earliest and most important in their diet is the carob or ceretona (Ceretona sp.), sometimes known as St. John's bread. Later come the fruits of the buriti palm (Mauritia sp.) and the piqui (Caryocar sp.). These are the basis of the food supply throughout the rainy season. Other fruits, such as mangoes, genipapo (Genipa americana), and a number of still unidentified varieties are also available.

The casual observer could easily be misled into thinking that the Xavante "live on meat." Certainly they talk a great deal about meat, which is the most highly esteemed food among them, in some respects the only commodity which they really consider "food" at all... They do not eat meat every day and may go without meat for several days at a stretch, but the gathered products of the region are always available for consumption in the community.

Recently, the Xavante have begun to eat large quantities of fish.

The Xavante are an example of humans living an ancestral lifestyle, and their occlusion shows it. They have the best occlusion of any living population I've encountered so far. Here's why I think that's the case:

• A nutrient-rich, whole foods diet, presumably including organs.
  
• On-demand breast feeding for two or more years.
• No bottle-feeding or modern pacifiers.
• Tough foods on a regular basis.
  

I don't have any information on how the Xavante have changed over time, but Niswander did present data on another nearby (and genetically similar) tribe called the Bakairi that had been using a substantial amount of modern foods for some time. The Bakairi, living right next to the Xavante but eating modern foods from the trading post, had 9 times more malocclusion and nearly 10 times more cavities than the Xavante. Here's what Niswander had to say:

Severe abrasion was not apparent among the Bakairi, and the dental arches did not appear as broad and massive as in the Xavantes. Dental caries and malocclusion were strikingly more prevalent; and, although not recorded systematically, the Bakairi also showed considerably more periodontal disease. If it can be assumed that the Bakairi once enjoyed a freedom from dental disease and malocclusion equal to that now exhibited by the Xavantes, the available data suggest that the changes in occlusal patterns as well as caries and periodontal disease have been too rapid to be accounted for by an hypothesis involving relaxed [genetic] selection.

The Masai of Kenya

The Masai are traditionally a pastoral people who live almost exclusively from their cattle. In 1945, and again in 1952, Dr. J. Schwartz examined the teeth of 408 and 273 Masai, respectively (#1 free full text; #2 ref). In the first study, he found that 8 percent of Masai showed some form of malocclusion, while in the second study, only 0.4 percent of Masai were maloccluded. Although we don't know what his precise criteria were for diagnosing malocclusion, these are still very low numbers.

In both studies, 4 percent of Masai had cavities. Between the two studies, Schwartz found 67 cavities in 21,792 teeth, or 0.3 percent of teeth affected. This is almost exactly what Dr. Weston Price found when he visited them in 1935. From Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, page 138:

In the Masai tribe, a study of 2,516 teeth in eighty-eight individuals distributed through several widely separated manyatas showed only four individuals with caries. These had a total of ten carious teeth, or only 0.4 per cent of the teeth attacked by tooth decay.

Dr. Schwartz describes their diet:

The principal food of the Masai is milk, meat and blood, the latter obtained by bleeding their cattle... The Masai have ample means with which to get maize meal and fresh vegetables but these foodstuffs are known only to those who work in town. It is impossible to induce a Masai to plant their own maize or vegetables near their huts.

This is essentially the same description Price gave during his visit. The Masai were not hunter-gatherers, but their traditional lifestyle was close enough to allow good occlusion. Here's why I think the Masai had good occlusion:

• A nutrient-dense diet rich in protein and fat-soluble vitamins from pastured dairy.
• On-demand breast feeding for two or more years.
• No bottle feeding or modern pacifiers.
  

The one factor they lack is tough food. Their diet, composed mainly of milk and blood, is predominantly liquid. Although I think food toughness is a factor, this shows that good occlusion is not entirely dependent on tough food.

Sadly, the lifestyle and occlusion of the Masai has changed in the intervening decades. A paper from 1992 described their modern diet:

The main articles of diet were white maize, [presumably heavily sweetened] tea, milk, [white] rice, and beans. Traditional items were rarely eaten... Milk... was not mentioned by 30% of mothers.

A paper from 1993 described the occlusion of 235 young Masai attending rural and peri-urban schools. Nearly all showed some degree of malocclusion, with open bite alone affecting 18 percent.

Rural Caucasians in Kentucky

It's always difficult to find examples of Caucasian populations living traditional lifestyles, because most Caucasian populations adopted the industrial lifestyle long ago. That's why I was grateful to find a study by Dr. Robert S. Corruccini, published in 1981, titled "Occlusal Variation in a Rural Kentucky Community" (ref).

This study examined a group of isolated Caucasians living in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky, USA. Corruccini arrived during a time of transition between traditional and modern foodways. He describes the traditional lifestyle as follows:

Much of the traditional way of life of these people (all white) has been maintained, but two major changes have been the movement of industry and mechanized farming into the area in the last 25 years. Traditionally, tobacco (the only cash crop), gardens, and orchards were grown by each family. Apples, pears, cherries, plums, peaches, potatoes, corn, green beans, peas, squash, peppers, cucumbers, and onions were grown for consumption, and fruits and nuts, grapes, and teas were gathered by individuals. In the diet of these people, dried pork and fried [presumably in lard], thick-crust cornbread (which were important winter staples) provided consistently stressful chewing. Hunting is still very common in the area.

Although it isn't mentioned in the paper, this group, like nearly all traditionally-living populations, probably did not waste the organs or bones of the animals it ate. Altogether, it appears to be an excellent and varied diet, based on whole foods, and containing all the elements necessary for good occlusion and overall health.

The older generation of this population has the best occlusion of any Caucasian population I've ever seen, rivaling some hunter-gatherer groups. This shows that Caucasians are not genetically doomed to malocclusion. The younger generation, living on more modern foods, shows very poor occlusion, among the worst I've seen. They also show narrowed arches, a characteristic feature of deteriorating occlusion. One generation is all it takes. Corruccini found that a higher malocclusion score was associated with softer, more industrial foods.

Here are the reasons I believe this group of Caucasians in Kentucky had good occlusion:

• A nutrient-rich, whole foods diet, presumably including organs.
  
• Prolonged breast feeding.
• No bottle-feeding or modern pacifiers.
• Tough foods on a regular basis.
  

Common Ground

I hope you can see that populations with excellent teeth do certain things in common, and that straying from those principles puts the next generation at a high risk of malocclusion. Malocclusion is a serious problem that has major implications for health, well-being and finances. In the next post, I'll give a simplified summary of everything I've covered in this series. Then it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Losing 250 Pounds

Suzi has lost an incredible 256 pounds in one and a half years. She was a morbidly obese 430 pounds 18 months ago. She's a 40 year old single mother and now weighs 176.

She was able to accomplish this incredible feat without weight loss surgery. But she did quit her job and moved in with her parents to focus on weight loss. She's kept up a very time-intensive exercise regiment to get rid of the loose and flabby skin.

Her typical breakfast these days is a bowl of oatmeal and fruit. (Photo of oatmeal, blueberries and sunflower seeds shown here is via Flickr).

See her inspiring story here.

Check me out...

I'm a veritable little housewife:

Bread

Ahhh, home made bread.
12 oz strong white flour
12 oz strong wholemeal flour
2 tbsp organic raw cane sugar
1 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp natural yeast
3/4pt tepid water

Throw it in the mixer for 20 mins, bung it in a large Pullman bread pan (not one of those poxy little loaf tins that are really for cakes or tea breads, but a high 5 inch sided bread tin) and let it prove for an hour. Shove in the oven for 30 minutes at 175 deg C and BINGO! The above.

Fresh Vegetable Stock

What can an MSG free wifey do without OXO?? no Knorr to gnaw on. Sweet horror!
Not at all... lets just get old Mrs. Beeton's cookbook out from 1950 and see what we can come up with. Ahh haaaaaa!!! Brown foundation sauce!
The above vegetable stock was made thus:
1 Onion, sliced WITHOUT removing the skins
1 very large carrot - (of rupturing size)
3 sticks of celery
4 sprouts (had them in the fridge, might as well thunk I)
white pepper
2 tbsp salt
tsp of parsley
tsp of sage
tsp of marjoram
tsp of dill

Boil to death for about an hour and a half, or 20 minutes in the pressure cooker, strain, shove in bottle. The result = the above. The darkness depends on the onion peel. No peel, no colour. How funky is that? Its all coming back to me. I remember wrapping eggs with onion skins and they made a swirly brown pattern when they were cooked. The more onion skins, the darker the colour... so beef gravy (add dripping from joint only to this brew) will still be brown.

Home made Baked Beans in tomato sauce

Ok, not the most visually appealing of photos, and it does look EXACTLY like what you would pour out of a can, but these baked beans are the mutts nuts. I have honestly been missing out my entire life. I BEG you to try this recipe even if you HATE beans. BEGGING YOU!!!!!

Baked beans from a tin contain yukkies and sexy additives including MSG my arch enemy. These monkeys are completely free from ALL shite.

1 x 500g packet of canellinni beans
soak overnight and then cook in pressure cooker in plain water for 10 minutes. set aside.

for the tomato sauce:
7 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic (whole)
2 cans organic chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp salt
200mls of stock (above) or water

Heat oil and fry onions gently until golden and see through - 4 or 5 mins
Add garlic and fry for a further 4 or 5 mins.
Add the tins of tomatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 15 mins or so. Don't let it burn, keep an eye on it and stir a lot. Add the stock & salt and bring back to the boil.

Completely blitz this mixture to death in a liquidizer or with a hand blender until completely smooth and creamy. Add all the sauce to all the beans.

This makes the equivalent of 6 cans of baked beans, but if you had to buy them in a shop would be millionaire prices as they are TO DIE FOR! Then portion them into food bags - 400g in each (a cans worth) and freeze - that's if you haven't already eaten the whole batch already!!!

Today has been good. The hypno went well, and things are ok. Have screaming PMT and a bladder and kidney scan tomorrow which I am not looking forward to, so stress levels quite high, but am managing to stay MSG free, day 4 has come to a close and I am off to bub-byes.

Evening all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The top picture is what I see while walking/running on the treadmill at my sister's house. The picture was taken at noon, and you can the sun is barely above the trees. Total daylight here is now at 5 hours and 14 minutes.

The second picture is what I see when I lay on the floor by the windows to do my floor exercises, and look up. It's so pretty here, it looks like a Christmas card when I look outside.

I've exercised three of the last four days, 50 minutes on the treadmill and only about 20 minutes weights. I don't have my iPod, so I watch TV. It's kind of like torture but I've been doing it.

My food has been pretty good, lots of vegetables and fruits, except those darn cookies, ice cream and candy that are here for the kids are getting me almost every night. I'm perfect all day, then ruin it each night. I'm hoping the exercise is helping. I haven't dared step on the scales all week even though they haunt me every day.

It's early here in North Pole, Alaska, 6:30am. The temperature outside isn't too bad, it's a balmy -5 degrees (it was -42 earlier this week so that feels warm!). I love that they have radiant heat in the floor so it's warm and toasty on my bare feet.

My sister and my husband are in the kitchen fussing over the turkey. Today will be a day of food, fun, and family. There will be 18 people here for dinner, eleven adults and six children. It'll be a crazy, loud day, with a lot of laughter.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Day 329 - Cold

I have a cold.  I am not happy.  I feel like poo.  I dragged myself to the elliptical because no stupid cold is going to make me break my goal.  It was a shorter workout, but a workout none-the-less.  I pray that my nose isn't so stuffy tomorrow that I can't taste the feast.  I hope I wake up all better.  I am thankful it's not the flu.  :o)

cheeky little weigh in

Ok, I needed to share this... I weighed this morning and I was 16 stone 8. that is a loss of 5 and a half pounds in 48 hours.

OH MY!

Also been peeing like a racehorse.

Kirstie Alley On Oprah Winfrey Show

(see more on Kristie Alley Weight Loss)

Kirstie Alley Weight Loss

Kirsten Louise "Kirstie Alley" has been in the news for a while with her weight loss and gain thing. If you are not familiar with the name, then you should be familiar with "Rebecca Howe" from the award winning comedy series "Cheers" (1982-1993) or you might remeber her in the less popular show "Veronica's Closet" in the late 90's. She's engaged in other stuffs too.

Kirstie Alley Before After Weight Loss

At some point in her career, she gained a bunch of weight. In 2005, her weight increased to over 200 lb (91 kg). Now at this time what one would do? Just exercise, crash diets, regular workouts and so on. Normally, when a famous actress gains a couple of pounds, then she is not the girl that finds the Guys anymore, rather she's an Aunt or something like that oldie and ugly roles in the film.

But Kirstie after her weight gain, headlined a "mockumentary" style comedy series for Showtime called "Fat Actress". In the show Alley played herself as an overweight actress trying to make it to the Hollywood. Alley also became an advocate against obesity and was a spokeswoman for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program. She had lost 75 pounds (34 kg), according to Alley on a November 6, 2006 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (see more on Kirstie Alley on Oprah Winfrey Show).

Kirstie Alley On Oprah Winfrey Show

She appeared clad in a semi-bikini outfit, with a fabric midriff and several yards of translucent chiffon to hide her back-view.

Kirstie Alley revealing bikini on Oprah Winfrey Show

But after quitting the Jenny Craig weight-loss program, she started it all over again. She gained almost 83 pounds (37.6 kg) after that.
Now that she has struggled in her career and have gone through many ups and downs, we should encourage people like them, shouldn't we? So, what do you guys think about Kirstie Alley and her weight loss struggle. Have anyone else suffered from this thing?

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VII

Jaw Development During Adolescence

Beginning at about age 11, the skull undergoes a growth spurt. This corresponds roughly with the growth spurt in the rest of the body, with the precise timing depending on gender and other factors. Growth continues until about age 17, when the last skull sutures cease growing and slowly fuse. One of these sutures runs along the center of the maxillary arch (the arch in the upper jaw), and contributes to the widening of the upper arch*:

This growth process involves MGP and osteocalcin, both vitamin K-dependent proteins. At the end of adolescence, the jaws have reached their final size and shape, and should be large enough to accommodate all teeth without crowding. This includes the third molars, or wisdom teeth, which will erupt shortly after this period.

Reduced Food Toughness Correlates with Malocclusion in Humans

When Dr. Robert Corruccini published his seminal paper in 1984 documenting rapid changes in occlusion in cultures around the world adopting modern foodways and lifestyles (see this post), he presented the theory that occlusion is influenced by chewing stress. In other words, the jaws require good exercise on a regular basis during growth to develop normal-sized bones and muscles. Although Dr. Corruccini wasn't the first to come up with the idea, he has probably done more than anyone else to advance it over the years.

Dr. Corruccini's paper is based on years of research in transitioning cultures, much of which he conducted personally. In 1981, he published a study of a rural Kentucky community in the process of adopting the modern diet and lifestyle. Their traditional diet was predominantly dried pork, cornbread fried in lard, game meat and home-grown fruit, vegetables and nuts. The older generation, raised on traditional foods, had much better occlusion than the younger generation, which had transitioned to softer and less nutritious modern foods. Dr. Corruccini found that food toughness correlated with proper occlusion in this population.

In another study published in 1985, Dr. Corruccini studied rural and urban Bengali youths. After collecting a variety of diet and socioeconomic information, he found that food toughness was the single best predictor of occlusion. Individuals who ate the toughest food had the best teeth. The second strongest association was a history of thumb sucking, which was associated with a higher prevalence of malocclusion**. Interestingly, twice as many urban youths had a history of thumb sucking as rural youths.

Not only do hunter-gatherers eat tough foods on a regular basis, they also often use their jaws as tools. For example, the anthropologist and arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson described how the Inuit chewed their leather boots and jackets nearly every day to soften them or prepare them for sewing. This is reflected in the extreme tooth wear of traditional Inuit and other hunter-gatherers.

Soft Food Causes Malocclusion in Animals

Now we have a bunch of associations that may or may not represent a cause-effect relationship. However, Dr. Corruccini and others have shown in a variety of animal models that soft food can produce malocclusion, independent of nutrition.

The first study was conducted in 1951. Investigators fed rats typical dry chow pellets, or the same pellets that had been crushed and softened in water. Rats fed the softened food during growth developed narrow arches and small mandibles (lower jaws) relative to rats fed dry pellets.

Other research groups have since repeated the findings in rodents, pigs and several species of primates (squirrel monkeys, baboons, and macaques). Animals typically developed narrow arches, a central aspect of malocclusion in modern humans. Some of the primates fed soft foods showed other malocclusions highly reminiscent of modern humans as well, such as crowded incisors and impacted third molars. These traits are exceptionally rare in wild primates.

One criticism of these studies is that they used extremely soft foods that are softer than the typical modern diet. This is how science works: you go for the extreme effects first. Then, if you see something, you refine your experiments. One of the most refined experiments I've seen so far was published by Dr. Daniel E. Leiberman of Harvard's anthropology department. They used the rock hyrax, an animal with a skull that bears some similarities to the human skull***.

Instead of feeding the animals hard food vs. mush, they fed them raw and dried food vs. cooked. This is closer to the situation in humans, where food is soft but still has some consistency. Hyrax fed cooked food showed a mild jaw underdevelopment reminiscent of modern humans. The underdeveloped areas were precisely those that received less strain during chewing.

Implications and Practical Considerations

Besides the direct implications for the developing jaws and face, I think this also suggests that physical stress may influence the development of other parts of the skeleton. Hunter-gatherers generally have thicker bones, larger joints, and more consistently well-developed shoulders and hips than modern humans. Physical stress is part of the human evolutionary template, and is probably critical for the normal development of the skeleton.

I think it's likely that food consistency influences occlusion in humans. In my opinion, it's a good idea to regularly include tough foods in a child's diet as soon as she is able to chew them properly and safely. This probably means waiting at least until the deciduous (baby) molars have erupted fully. Jerky, raw vegetables and fruit, tough cuts of meat, nuts, dry sausages, dried fruit, chicken bones and roasted corn are a few things that should stress the muscles and bones of the jaws and face enough to encourage normal development.


* These data represent many years of measurements collected by Dr. Arne Bjork, who used metallic implants in the maxilla to make precise measurements of arch growth over time in Danish youths. The graph is reproduced from the book A Synopsis of Craniofacial Growth, by Dr. Don M. Ranly. Data come from Dr. Bjork's findings published in the book Postnatal Growth and Development of the Maxillary Complex. You can see some of Dr. Bjork's data in the paper "Sutural Growth of the Upper Face Studied by the Implant Method" (free full text).

** I don't know if this was statistically significant at p less than 0.05. Dr. Corruccini uses a cutoff point of p less than 0.01 throughout the paper. He's a tough guy when it comes to statistics!

*** Retrognathic.

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VII

Jaw Development During Adolescence

Beginning at about age 11, the skull undergoes a growth spurt. This corresponds roughly with the growth spurt in the rest of the body, with the precise timing depending on gender and other factors. Growth continues until about age 17, when the last skull sutures cease growing and slowly fuse. One of these sutures runs along the center of the maxillary arch (the arch in the upper jaw), and contributes to the widening of the upper arch*:

This growth process involves MGP and osteocalcin, both vitamin K-dependent proteins. At the end of adolescence, the jaws have reached their final size and shape, and should be large enough to accommodate all teeth without crowding. This includes the third molars, or wisdom teeth, which will erupt shortly after this period.

Reduced Food Toughness Correlates with Malocclusion in Humans

When Dr. Robert Corruccini published his seminal paper in 1984 documenting rapid changes in occlusion in cultures around the world adopting modern foodways and lifestyles (see this post), he presented the theory that occlusion is influenced by chewing stress. In other words, the jaws require good exercise on a regular basis during growth to develop normal-sized bones and muscles. Although Dr. Corruccini wasn't the first to come up with the idea, he has probably done more than anyone else to advance it over the years.

Dr. Corruccini's paper is based on years of research in transitioning cultures, much of which he conducted personally. In 1981, he published a study of a rural Kentucky community in the process of adopting the modern diet and lifestyle. Their traditional diet was predominantly dried pork, cornbread fried in lard, game meat and home-grown fruit, vegetables and nuts. The older generation, raised on traditional foods, had much better occlusion than the younger generation, which had transitioned to softer and less nutritious modern foods. Dr. Corruccini found that food toughness correlated with proper occlusion in this population.

In another study published in 1985, Dr. Corruccini studied rural and urban Bengali youths. After collecting a variety of diet and socioeconomic information, he found that food toughness was the single best predictor of occlusion. Individuals who ate the toughest food had the best teeth. The second strongest association was a history of thumb sucking, which was associated with a higher prevalence of malocclusion**. Interestingly, twice as many urban youths had a history of thumb sucking as rural youths.

Not only do hunter-gatherers eat tough foods on a regular basis, they also often use their jaws as tools. For example, the anthropologist and arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson described how the Inuit chewed their leather boots and jackets nearly every day to soften them or prepare them for sewing. This is reflected in the extreme tooth wear of traditional Inuit and other hunter-gatherers.

Soft Food Causes Malocclusion in Animals

Now we have a bunch of associations that may or may not represent a cause-effect relationship. However, Dr. Corruccini and others have shown in a variety of animal models that soft food can produce malocclusion, independent of nutrition.

The first study was conducted in 1951. Investigators fed rats typical dry chow pellets, or the same pellets that had been crushed and softened in water. Rats fed the softened food during growth developed narrow arches and small mandibles (lower jaws) relative to rats fed dry pellets.

Other research groups have since repeated the findings in rodents, pigs and several species of primates (squirrel monkeys, baboons, and macaques). Animals typically developed narrow arches, a central aspect of malocclusion in modern humans. Some of the primates fed soft foods showed other malocclusions highly reminiscent of modern humans as well, such as crowded incisors and impacted third molars. These traits are exceptionally rare in wild primates.

One criticism of these studies is that they used extremely soft foods that are softer than the typical modern diet. This is how science works: you go for the extreme effects first. Then, if you see something, you refine your experiments. One of the most refined experiments I've seen so far was published by Dr. Daniel E. Leiberman of Harvard's anthropology department. They used the rock hyrax, an animal with a skull that bears some similarities to the human skull***.

Instead of feeding the animals hard food vs. mush, they fed them raw and dried food vs. cooked. This is closer to the situation in humans, where food is soft but still has some consistency. Hyrax fed cooked food showed a mild jaw underdevelopment reminiscent of modern humans. The underdeveloped areas were precisely those that received less strain during chewing.

Implications and Practical Considerations

Besides the direct implications for the developing jaws and face, I think this also suggests that physical stress may influence the development of other parts of the skeleton. Hunter-gatherers generally have thicker bones, larger joints, and more consistently well-developed shoulders and hips than modern humans. Physical stress is part of the human evolutionary template, and is probably critical for the normal development of the skeleton.

I think it's likely that food consistency influences occlusion in humans. In my opinion, it's a good idea to regularly include tough foods in a child's diet as soon as she is able to chew them properly and safely. This probably means waiting at least until the deciduous (baby) molars have erupted fully. Jerky, raw vegetables and fruit, tough cuts of meat, nuts, dry sausages, dried fruit, chicken bones and roasted corn are a few things that should stress the muscles and bones of the jaws and face enough to encourage normal development.


* These data represent many years of measurements collected by Dr. Arne Bjork, who used metallic implants in the maxilla to make precise measurements of arch growth over time in Danish youths. The graph is reproduced from the book A Synopsis of Craniofacial Growth, by Dr. Don M. Ranly. Data come from Dr. Bjork's findings published in the book Postnatal Growth and Development of the Maxillary Complex. You can see some of Dr. Bjork's data in the paper "Sutural Growth of the Upper Face Studied by the Implant Method" (free full text).

** I don't know if this was statistically significant at p less than 0.05. Dr. Corruccini uses a cutoff point of p less than 0.01 throughout the paper. He's a tough guy when it comes to statistics!

*** Retrognathic.

Dairy and weight loss

Maybe you've heard that dairy is a way to lose weight. Some time ago I read a lot articles about this. Research on dairy as a weight loss tool is still new and the researchers still need a lot of data to reach a definitive conclusion. But I hope this is true and can give us more healthy choices in dealing with the problem of obesity.

Research has been done shows that people who go on a diet rich in dairy will lose more fat in their body and a little muscle. Where usually happen people will lose some muscle along with the fat. This research was conducted by Michael Zemel, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and medicine at the University of Tennessee. I believe this is a new important breakthrough because all people do not want to lose their muscle.

I'm sure at this moment you must be thinking how could dairy, which usually contains fat, can even help people lose weight. The reason is because the calcium contained in dairy helps our body release fat-burning hormones and other compounds in dairy help you hold on to muscle tissue often sacrificed during a weight loss program.

This effect is more obvious to people who initially only consume calcium approximately 500 milligrams per day (one serving of dairy). Because in general a lot of people who do not drink enough dairy (about 3 servings a day), then maybe this will help many people, including me. I myself do not get enough servings as needed. And may also help you too.

Even though we still need more research on this, dairy is very important to our overall health and the key to building strong bones.

Lower the calorie intake and increase dairy consumption. Do you have suggestions or opinions?

Day 328 - Thanksgiving is on it's way...

I LOVE this time of year!  Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday of year for so many reasons!  Of course, the food is a huge factor, but not like it used to be.  I mostly love the holiday because of family.

In my family, it really hasn't changed since long before my oldest memory of childhood.  The location did change when my grandparents got to the point where they were no longer able to host.  The opportunity then fell upon my parents where I was able to have a more helping hand in a few of the preparations.

My mom and I get together and set the table and have time to just converse about the big day.  I always enjoy that time together. She's also makes detailed notes each year so that if she or my dad weren't able to do what they do, we'd be able to step in and help out.  Life is what it is and some day I know that it will be my husband and my turn to take on the duties, to carry on the tradition for this side of my family.  I pray it's not for several more decades.  I love watching my dad and smelling the roasted turkey as we walk into the house.  The smell of the stuffing, the yams, and all the other familiar aromas when settling into the livingroom and kitchen area.  I enjoy seeing the kids' excitement over the day. It's wonderful to just spend the day being around each other, relaxing, when time doesn't seem to exist.

It's the menu that has for the most part, remained the same.  Each year we all know the menu, know what to expect. There have been few variations to the main meal, and we all love that!!  This year my mom wasn't able to get the usual rolls that we have had with the meal for eons.  I pray there won't be a riot!  No, as much as things have remained the same, so many things have changed.  What once was my grandparents with their children and their families has now grown into a whole new generation.  I love the constant that it is in my life.  I have only missed one of these dinners in my 35 years of physical existance.

With so many Thanksgiving dinners behind me, this is the first one where I am not worried.  I am not worried of over eating, I am not worried about being deprived.  (Like that has ever happened in the history of me) I am not worried about feeling out of control.  This is the first Thanksgiving that I can go, and honestly enjoy the whole day without a bit of anxiety over what passes my lips.  I am excited and I have a plan!

I am going to have a good, solid workout in the morning.  I am going to have a late breakfast that has a balance of carbs and protein around 10ish so that I don't go into Thanksgiving dinner at 2 ravished.  I am going to fill my plate with small servings of foods I adore!  When dessert comes around, I am going to have partial servings of the things I like so when I sit down I'll have 4 different types of dessert making up 1 maybe 2 actual servings.  The plan is to not go back for seconds. What happens if I do? It could happen. But maybe I'll just keep a balance of my carbs and protein so that my appetite doesn't control me.  At the end of the day, I will only have had 2 main meals and dessert that could count for a 3rd meal.  If I keeps portions down, I'll get my fill without over doing it.  My desire to binge hasn't been there now that I have allowed myself whatever I would like.  The fact there are no "no-no" foods, they don't hold control over me.  I have a bite or two, and I'm good.  If I feel I have eaten more than I should, I can also just do a mini workout (5-10 min.) when I get home.  Something to get my heart pumping and my metabolism started, just to help things along. Ever walked after being stuffed?  You feel so much better than if you just sit and do nothing.  It finally feels so wonderful not to be a slave to the holiday I adore.

Thanksgiving Strategies

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Feeling up for it....?

Ok, I think I am ready to give this a go, I've been in a dark place there for a few weeks. I am not going to worry about the band, how its working, not working or if it makes any goddamn difference to my life at all except for making me puke if I eat too much.

Its 2 years since my band was fixed. 2 LONG YEARS. I have got down to 15 stone 6 (216lbs) at my lightest and am now 16 stone 13.5lbs (237.5). When my band was fixed I weighed 17 stone 12 (250lbs) so I have lost the sum total of 12 and a half pounds in 2 years with my band alone - no dieting particularly, but thinking about stuff obviously. That is SHIT SHIT SHIT. I know I don't play the game, but nor do others entirely. This is not a quest for making a band work. This is a quest for losing weight in any way possible AND sorting out the underlying issue for being overweight in the first place. I started the blog with that intention 5 & half years ago. That intention has not changed. If I realised that sleeping upside down is the only way to lose weight I would try it. I cannot think about my band right now. The band is not the reason I am gaining/losing weight. Something else is driving me to overeat IN SPITE of having a band. That is the issue I must resolve if I have any chance of using my band as the tool it was designed for.

So this last week i have lowered my MSG foods a little bit, not a lot, but I certainly didn't eat the quantity of sauces this week. I felt some craving and funnily enough when I had craving I couldn't eat it because of the band! Sod's law!

I had about 3 tight days last week, had a coffee or 2 in the morning but then make a mistake like swallowing a tablet or having a sneaky bite of DS lunch that would then throw my band into "NO WAY JOSE" mode and that was that for the day.

That said, I didn't have too many pukes... only when I was being a stupid git, getting annoyed with my band and getting a bit desperate.

Like the night we went out for a dinner at Spiceland. DH runs the badminton club now because the chap who set it up was leaving, and we all did a surprise dinner for him at the curry house. Before he arrived we all ordered drinks and my orange juice was a no go on first mouthful. Have no idea why, but my band, Albert Ladysmith Steptoe, didn't want orange juice. He certainly didn't want curry either and I sat with the bowl of curry sauce in front of me for 4 hours. In the end I tried to force him, but he kicked me and I had to run to the loos for relief.

That was just gutting. I paid £18 for a buffet indian dinner and a pint of orange juice that I didnt eat any of. The most expensive meal I've never had. We were there only 2 weeks ago for a friends wedding reception and everything was hunky dory. Such a fickle cantankerous little thing is Albert.

Had a couple of days like that, but I guess it was for the best as I lost 1 pound this week in spite of myself.

So yesterday was weigh in day. I decided that I might as well start cracking the whip at this body of mine and went completely MSG free yesterday.

I had mashed potato with scrambled egg for lunch/tea and then later I had some more mashed potato with cheese for dinner. I haven't got much stuff in at the moment, so this was a bit of an odd day to say the least! I don't normally just eat mashed potato!! I was really craving my sauces. It was all I could do in the evening not to grab some pickle to go with my mash or brown sauce or ANYTHING!

Anyway, I did it. I fed the Wiltshire farm food meals to the DH & DS and Onion (Charlotte our lodger's nickname) for dinner as, although they only contain Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein - this is essentially MSG. Hydrolyzed anything contains high levels of MSG. I don't crave these meals, its mainly the highly flavoured sauces, but who knows how dark this will get.

I looked for some OXO or Stock cube substitutes. Organic thinks I. Well by law you are NOT allowed to put anything with MSG in it in an organic product. But its a bit like the stupid phrasing on labels:

No nuts (cannot guarantee nut free)
No Soya, Milk, Gluten (made in a factory that uses said products cannot guarantee free from said)

etc...

Just because its organic doesn't mean they cant use ingredients that contain MSG in it.
This from the SOIL ASSOCIATION:

Yeast and yeast extract are permitted as additives in organic foods, therefore there will be some MSG in organic foods which have added yeast, or yeast extract.

Well, that's good then. You can read the whole article here.
So you want to buy organic stock cubes? They have yeast extract in them. So you think ah ha!!! Look for yeast free!! Yeast free stock cubes have Maltodextrin! That's full of MSG too!

Now, there is NO Maltodextrin in the organic ones. that has Yeast Extract. In the Yeast free, there is no Yeast extract, but there is Maltodextrin. If they cant get it in there one way, its in there in another. Its like they WANT us to have it. Why? I have no idea. I don't want to have this blog getting all political and attacking food companies, but there must be someone out there who can produce a product that is PURE for goodness sake! Even when we TRY to do better, we fail because its side swipes us in another way.

So I have no other option but to start making my own stock. I have gone back to Fresh Whole Organic Milk - The lowest msg containing milk there is (we usually have UHT Skimmed - the highest MSG containing milk there is. No shit!), and the msg contained is naturally occurring not added or released by chemical process in some way - like Heat treating! I have gone back to pure block organic butter, fresh vegetables, brown rice (white rice is washed in some form of MSG containing ingredient before drying & bagging!), my own home made bread - which means I can actually make small rolls just for me too - organic meat that isn't full of fillers containing the shit and has breathed the same air I breath and ate the grass that I have walked on personally.

Out goes:
Mayo, malt vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, salad creme, cocktail sauce, tomato sauce, daddy/brown sauce, any other condiment sauce I love, butter/marg spreads, shop bought yoghurts, strong cheese, peanut butter, nutella, wine (unless home made), pre packaged meats, ready made meals, jars of cooking sauce for pasta or casseroles etc, some spice mixes (especially sharwoods curry blends), stock cubes, packet soup mixes, canned soup, baked beans in tomato sauce, spaghetti in tomato sauce, bovril & marmite (or vegimite), all non organic pasta, coconut milk powder, and everything that has been adulterated in some way by food technicians.

Its back to basics.

I am currently enjoying a home made curry. I used a Sri Lankan curry powder which has whole spices and no additives - thankfully, seeing as I bought 2 huge tubs of it only a few months back and weirdly have only used once, and persisted with Sharwoods (and bought more of even though I have these 2 other tubs) which has MSG and Other hydrolyzed sexy goodies!! Funny that eh?

I made it with green lentils, chopped tomatoes & onions served with a packet of steamed rice which doesn't have any weird sexed up additives. Its nice, but I feel a bit in need still.

I know some might think I use sauce to help me eat things with the band, and to a certain extent that is true. I have loved sauce for years though. My binge foods have not changed for some time and looking back through this blog over the 5 years I have written it, I can see the foods in there that I still want, and some. In fact my binge foods have been drastically reduced by the band (donuts, cakes, much bigger indian takeaway and much bigger chinese meals and other volume foods like whole chocolate cheesecakes and pies etc which I just cannot cope with now). Sauce has always factored big, and I guess the band just adds to this crime. Looking through those lush foods I used to love pre banding, they are all highly processed, high in all kinds of autolyzed this and hydrolyzed that, heavy on flavour and essentially VERY high in free MSG of some description.

I think I have cracked my demon.

Obviously its not everyone's bag, and I must admit I have never come across another condiment abuser, but there must be others out there who just love their sauce!

Its Hypnotherapy tomorrow, so I am ready to ROCK this bodies WORLD!

Greetings from Alaska

Yes, they kill animals and stuff them, then put them in airports up here in Alaska. These are polar bears in the Anchorage airport, where we changed planes on our way to Fairbanks. A rather barbaric custom. The first picture is of some mountains on our way to Anchorage. Mountains are everywhere up here. So beautiful.

The memorial service

Yesterday the memorial service yesterday for my brother-in-law was really beautiful. The picture boards my nieces (his daughters) had put together brought tears to my eyes, but at the same time emphasized he lived a very full and happy life.

The little chapel was filled with people that had worked with him or known him for many years. Everyone had warm, funny, or loving memories to share. It was -34 degrees yesterday, but people in Fairbanks don't let the weather stop them. They were all there and it helped my sister a lot to hear the stories about her husband. There were tears and laughter as we listened to people stand up and share their memories of Bill. It was a good day

The diet and exercise
I'm trying to eat good, but darn it's hard with all this food around. Today we're having another big family dinner. I'm eating a lot of vegetables but a lot of other stuff I shouldn't be eating (like cookies). I'm staying out of the ice cream because I bought some Weight Watcher ice cream bars but my 7-year old nephew saw me eating them and wanted to try one. Of course he loves them so now I have to share with him.

I made a good choice this morning and skipped the cookies for breakfast and had my usual low-fat egg mcmuffin thing I make every day at home (except I used my sister's homemade whole wheat bread instead of the multi-grain muffin I usually use--which is so much better).

As soon as I finish this post I'm heading upstairs to the treadmill and my sister's weight set. Maybe I can undo some damage I did on Saturday (cookies, cheese, ice cream).

I'm trying but it's not easy.

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Bicycle Safety Tips

I wanted to share these tips because I often hear a lot of accidents occur during cycling. It's easy to get hurt on a bicycle. Many people who feel safe because they only bike in a quiet street in the neighborhood get an accident.

Indeed, if you're just scratched or broken bones can be healed, but what if your head hurt? Each year, nearly 70,000 bicyclists suffer serious head injuries. High enough, isn’t it?
I would like to invite you all start thinking about safety. Because any purpose to be achieved by cycling will be in vain if we become permanent disabled.

The first and most important tip is to use a helmet. Helm will prevent you from serious brain injury. Head injury rehabilitation is a very costly. Compared with such costs, a bicycle helmet is a good bargain. So, always wear a helmet. Look for a good helmet, made of strong material and fits your head so comfortable to wear.

The second is to obey all traffic laws. Bicycles must drive like other vehicles. Never ride against traffic or riding on the wrong side of the road. Beware when to turn, do not run zig-zag at high speed, and watch the other vehicles around you.

The third is to use your hands correctly. Keep both hands ready to brake, do not use your hands to hold mobile phone or other equipment such as walkman or MP3 player. You may not stop in time if you brake one-handed. Use your hands to tell others what you want to do, turn left, turn right, etc.

The last one is keep your bike in good condition. Maintenance and repair costs are relatively less expensive than the risk we have to suffer when the accident happened. If you feel there is something wrong with your bike, check and fix it immediately.

Exercise important in teens' blood pressure control

Exercise important in teens' blood pressure control

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regular exercise may help keep teenagers'
blood pressure in check, regardless of their body weight, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among nearly 1,300 Canadian teenagers they followed for five years, declining exercise levels over time were linked to small increases in blood pressure.

Gains in body fat were also linked to blood pressure increases, but excess weight did not fully account for the relationship between exercise and blood pressure changes --especially in girls.

The implication, the researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is that both weight and exercise habits independently affect teenagers' blood pressure.

And that means that getting teens off the couch might help keep their blood pressure under better control, write Katerina Maximova and colleagues of McGill University in Montreal.

The findings are based on 1,293 boys and girls who were 12 to 13 years old at the start of the study. The teens reported on their typical physical activity levels and had their body fat and blood pressure measured at the outset, and then periodically over five years.

For each exercise assessment, the teenagers reported the number of times in the past week they had engaged in moderate to vigorous activities -- like biking, walking or jogging -- for at least 5 minutes.

Overall, the researchers found, the teens' blood pressure inched upward for each session of exercise they lost over time. The increase amounted to less than one point in systolic blood pressure -- the top number in a blood pressure reading -- but the findings do suggest that sedentary lifestyles directly affect teenagers' blood pressure, according to Maximova's team.

And that, they write, could have "important public health implications."
High blood pressure and other heart disease risk factors like type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol were once uncommon, or unheard of, in children and teenagers. But rates of these conditions in teenagers have risen since the 1990s, in tandem with escalating obesity rates.

A study of Canadian teenagers published last month found that between 2002 and 2008, the percentage with at least one heart disease risk factor -- such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol -- rose from 17 percent to 21 percent.
Those researchers also noted that more than half of Canadian children between the ages of 5 and 17 are not getting enough exercise.

And while young people may not see immediate health effects, studies show that teens who are overweight, inactive and carrying heart disease risk factors tend to become adults with those same problems.

The American Heart Association recommends that all children ages 3 and older have their blood pressure checked yearly. Diet changes and exercise are usually the first-line treatment for high blood pressure in teenagers, though some may also need medication.

When it comes to exercise, experts generally recommend that kids strive for 30 minutes of moderate activity, like brisk walking, on most days of the week, as well as 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, like running or bicycling, at least three days per week.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, November 1, 2009.

It's a crazy life, but it's my life

Quoting Jon Gosselin (who would of thought??).

My life is going to be a bit nuts the next few weeks, not that is hasn't been pretty crazy for several weeks, so really it's just the saga continuing.

My husband and I are leaving in about two hours for Fairbanks for Thanksgiving week with my sister, nieces and their families, and my brother and his wife. It'll be a bittersweet week since the patriarch of the family won't be at the dinner table Thanksgiving day. Here's the link to my brother-in-law's obituary. He lived a good life and I'm sure he's in a better place right now. It's just the rest of us that are suffering.

The Monday after Thanksgiving I'll be heading to Oakland for a week for work. Then a week in the office. December 14 I'll be off to Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) for a week. Immediately after that we're going to Denver to spend time with my husband's sister and family, and his dad. After that a week in Arkansas with my mother-in-law and her husband for New Years.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it all, but we both decided we need to spend more time with our loved ones. We chose to live far away from them mainly for financial reasons because this is where the jobs are in our field, not in Fairbanks or Denver or Arkansas. Tech jobs are here in Seattle. We're lucky in that we really like our families. I like his and he likes mine. We all get along really well.

As our relatives are getting older we want to spend as much time with them as possible. They won't be around forever and we want to be with them while we can, not regret having been too busy to travel to be with them.

My blog will be neglected for the next few weeks. I'm going to try my best to stay good with the eating and exercise. I'm at 175.4 this morning. Not great and certainly not where I want to be. My goal is to at least maintain until the end of the year. I'm not setting any unrealistic goals for myself. I know how this works when I travel. Exercise is difficult, although I will hit that treadmill at my sister's house and the hotel gyms when I'm on the road.

Happy holidays to everyone. Enjoy your families and your loved ones. Be kind to each other. You never know when it'll be the last time you see someone. Settle old grievances, nurture relationships.

What do you have to do in order to Lose Weight?

OK. Let's begin our small review. Firstly, I want to say that I hope this information will be useful for you and you could use it.
In so many forums and discussions online, a lot of people are confused how really to lose weight. But what is the best way to be slim? And is this healthy? And the most important question: Is this really working?
I will try to answer now these questions. To start with, exercising is the most useful way to get rid of your extra body weight. But according to me and maybe you will agree with me, this can make you feel exhausted. And then, why feeling tired. So, this is a good way to lose weight, but not the best one.
OK, let's think about another way.

Dieting

is one of the most common ways to be slim. Something like this: vegetable for breakfast, another one for lunch... And why dieting? You will feel yourself tired too just like exercising.
So, this is not the best answer to our question. Then, what? How really to remove the fats?
Now, let's think of some products. Maybe you have heard about Proactol. This is a product with more than 5 years experience. This product is also recommended by a lot of doctors and specialists. Now I will introduce you how it can help you in your real aim:

Weight Loss

.
It is a 100% healthy product that can remove extra fats and this will happen in NO TIME. You will see the result of the best Best Fat Binder instantly after trying it. But what exactly is Proactol.
This is a small box that contains a certain amount of pills. These pills are 100% clinically proven. I think that this is the most important thing. Therefore, there are healthy for us. With more than 15,000,000 clients up-to-date, this product was rated "excellent" in a lot of ranking about the best product to

Lose Weight

.
I like so many other people have also tried this product and this is the reason for writing this small review in my

Weight Loss Blog

. This is not just my reviews. In our other article about Weight Loss Reviews you can read more people's thoughts after using this fat binder.
If you like our article you can continue reading the Proactol official Home Page for more information: Proactol website.

Ham & White Bean Soup

Delicious!1 Tablespoon canola oil2 Tablespoons butter, unsalted, divided1 large onion, chopped1 shallot, chopped3 stalks celery, sliced3 large carrots, diced1 teaspoon You Have Arrived Savory Provence Seasoning Blend1 pound cooked ham, trimmed and cubed3 (15-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, canned, drained and rinsed1 (32 ounce) box chicken broth, reduced sodium1 bay leafground black pepper, to

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There has to be a logical explanation

(This is a REALLY long post. Grab a coffee and settle down for the evening!)

Right. After being a complete emotional cripple for the last few days, I decided that there just MUST be some logic to it all.

When you consider that people have walked the earth for thousands of years without being obese; that obesity as a disease is relatively new in about the last 50 years or so, and the internet has been going for at least 20, then someone somewhere must have the information I need.

I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like before the internet, even given the fact that I have only had it for 10 years this January. What on earth did we do before? How did we find out information? Whatever those skills were, I don't remember them and haven't needed them since I had the internet.

I cannot begin to imagine how thios planet would be had the library in Alexandria not burnt down taking with it, to a vast extent, the whole intelligent worlds information. Thank goodness the internet cannot 'burn down'.

But it can feel like it when you are searching for things with no end to the information, but it not being the thing you want/need. You can start to think of yourself as unique to this problem you are facing when you return 1,285,935,959,280 google results for "food addiction", when what you want needs to be much faster and easier to solve.

I went to slimming world on Monday as you know. I spent the rest of the day looking up counseling services for drug addicts, alcoholics etc trying to find some strategies to stop me overeating. I read a pfd file on alcoholism which was really great. I could completely relate it to my food addiction and it got me to thinking about cutting out all the foods I crave and staying off them.

I can easily cut out the foods I want/crave/need/must have for about a week, but after that.. forget it! I still needed a strategy to help me cope in the long term. the article about alcoholism talked about peers and family and support at groups, and obviously the lovely people who wrote back did suggest just that... over-eaters anonymous and the like.

But this is me... right? I am not good at just telling people "I am a fuck up" face to face, and this is the only place where I do admit an awful lot of things I never would because I am semi anonymous. This IS my group therapy, if you will. I started to think of another possible solution.

do you remember than I had NLP suggestion back in the summer with that wierd woman who spoke in a really odd Yorkshire accent and whistled through her bad fitting false teeth at me (Beryl Reid's clone!) about avoiding "the hard cheeses and the fatty foods, the greasy foods" etc that I DON'T eat a lot of and I considered her a quack and the therapy a load of shite?

Well, years ago I had analytical hypnotherapy for a few horrible issues back when I was at college. This was the thing I needed as it really helped me. So I decided to have a look into it further. The NHS provide hypnotherapy on prescription in some cases, not that I was going to go to the doctor, but I thought I might try and find a therapist that worked with the NHS and privately. An NHS practitioner would have to hold certain qualifications and be, well... good!

I found three women who I felt good about. Their photo's were nice. One I didn't call because on her website she said how you needed to be careful about fakes and charlatans and you need to make sure that they have the right qualifications bla bla and that she did have these particular ones she was talking about... which, I don't know... makes me kind of think that SHE is a fake. I don't know why, but someone who tries to put me off other people for one reason or another must have an agenda... cant really explain it, but that's kind of how I felt.

So I rang the other two. One still hasnt got back to me, but Rachel did and she looked nice, my age, and her voice was nice and I felt at home. I think I couldnt take that other NLP lady seriously because she had a neckercheif, was fat, looked and spoke like Thora Hurd or Beryl Reid and her voice just totally grated each time her teeth whistled. *Shudders* I couldnt concentrate and she hadnt listened to me as she tried to put me off foods that I dont eat... kind of pointless really.

So I have an appointment - 45 minutes FREE consult on Friday. That's more professional I think. Then if I want to go ahead, I can book a session at a later date. I like that idea.

In the evening after I got back from work, I still had some wine and some chocolate and some prawn cocktail and some pickle with my dinner and DH and I tried to find out the things that I wanted to eat the most.

It is sauce. Any kind of sauce at all.

My Mum once said "Its better for me to have 2 teaspoons of sugar in my tea, than it is to give up sugar and find myself eating a packet of biscuits or cake every day". I completely understand this, and this could be my downfall. She tried to give up sugar in tea, but found it elsewhere and instead of eating 30 extra calories each cup of tea when was having tea and a slice of cake so about 300 calories. She put ON weight by giving up sugar in tea.

You cannot have sauce on its own. You cant sit down to a dish of pickle. I looked at the pig out foods I bought on Sunday, and I bought prawns - because I love the cocktail sauce! I brought smoked salmon - because I love the dill sauce. I bought Doritos - because I love the tray of dips.
I buy curry and suck the chicken or prawns and spit them out on occasion simply to eat the sauce!!!!

What new madness is this????

I think of the times I have had a few slices of cheese so that I can eat salad cream. Made mashed potato so I can eat daddy sauce (brown sauce) or pickle. Then I think of the times that the cheese/cracker/mash/Doritos is finished and I pour a little more sauce on my plate and lick it off my finger. A particular favorite of mine when I do that is sweet chili dipping sauce.

Ok, there are a few exceptions. I love chocolate minstrels and biscuits and other things, but biscuits feature much less in binges. Minstrels feature quite a bit. Doritos feature a lot as so all kinds of sauce with something. I order at least 2 or 3 curry's a week for example and when we have a Chinese, I order 2 POTS of sweet and sour sauce and pour it over a carton of seaweed and then all over some Singapore noodles or chili beef.

Ok, so I need to eliminate the following in my diet:

Salad creme
Brown sauce
sweet chili dipping sauce
cocktail sauce
tomato sauce
pickle
balsamic vinegar and olive oil
dips - salsa etc
salad dressing
curry
Chinese
Dorito's

When DH & I were considering this list I said "maybe I will find I have to stop other things too. I might find I am starting to have gravy with everything etc..."

Yesterday I began to wonder if there were any foods that food addicts clearly need to abstain from - a NO GO list if you like. I found a lot of info but the main things that cropped up were
CHEESE, MEAT, SUGAR, MILK, CHOCOLATE and often foods containing E621.

Cheese - Now, I like cheese quite a lot, but I don't have it that much in everyday (non binge) eating. I might have a few grams grated on something, but seeing as I used to love it grated on beans on toast - which I cant eat anymore with the band - or on a jacket potato - again not that often I have that - I don't eat as much as I have in the past. The only exception to this is when I have a few slices in the evening with SAUCE which has been quite common as a binge food.

Meat - well I really cant tolerate too much meat with the band, so that's limited and I have never been a big crazy fan. I could easily be vegetarian in fact and never eat meat again. Its not something I hate or love. Its just... meat.

Milk - Hmmm. I drink a lot of milk I think. I have milk in coffee and I have maybe 6 cups or more every day. I know people talk about coffee having side effects etc, and I am probably addicted but hey - coffee dont make you fat so I dont give a shit. Milk however, has a lot of empty calories at about 70 cals each cup. Its a lot of calories to use because of a drink. I dont use milk in any other way. I dont drink it as a straight drink or stuff like that. I dont think this forms part of my addiction to food, but it is in chocolate and I do have a lot of coffee... So I had to weigh it up. do I drink coffee for the coffee or the milk. well I know its for the coffee because if there is no milk in the house I still drink coffee black. So think that's put the milk issue to rest.

Sugar - Well, maybe this forms the addiction. There must be a lot of sugar in all those sauces... and chocolate certainly has a lot of sugar, but I don't add sugar to things. Being brutally honest, I think If i was addicted to sugar I would add it to coffee, tea and porridge and cereal if I have it, want cakes and biscuits and sugary foods like sweets etc a lot of the time, and this is NOT what I do or want. I cut out sugar in tea when I was 12 because I hated it, and I cut sugar in coffee about 6 years ago because if wasn't refreshing me. If someone gives me sugar by mistake (rare) I cant actually drink it as it tastes weird. I do like biscuits and cakes, who doesn't! But I don't crave them, need them or dream about them. Looking at the sauces, some don't contain sugar at all, and on most its quite a long way down the ingredients list.

So I was starting to get rather disheartened. I was not going to find anything to help me and seemingly no one had the same problem with condiments. (ha ha! A condiment complex!)

The last on the list of addictive foods, kind of like a side issue for some people it would seem was E621. I had no idea what it was. Its Mono Sodium Glutamate or MSG. I have head of it. I thought it was a salt or a nutrient or something.

Its got a recent researgnce and is called Umammi in Japanese which translates as flavouring. I was intrigued.

Well just have a look at www.msgtruth.org for MUCH more info.

40% increase in appetite
Inability to lose weight even when half starving yourself
Added to the food chain since 1940 in greater quantities - parallel with obesity rising

Its in EVERY SAUCE. Its in ALL TAKEAWAY FOODS Its in CHOCOLATE its even sprayed onto our crops, in practically every frozen, packaged, canned and processed foodstuff on earth.

Its even in skimmed milk.

Obviously you need to do some serious research on this subject because most people sensitive to MSG have proper real medical reactions like shaking, palpitations, headache, vomiting etc. I don't get any of this but every single food I crave and love is high in this shit. Its name is covered up and disguised so sometimes there is more than one ingredient in the item you are eating that has MSG in the ingredient!

I was interested to see Bouillon cubes (oxo and stock cubes) and packet soups, tinned soups, prepared meals, tinned tuna and other things I also eat very regularly that have MSG in.

I am sure there are a lot of additives out there, and they are all "safe" for the majority of consumers, but some people are sensitive to certain things. When I consider that I have tried to lose weight time and time and time again and then more something is FAT FREE, or REDUCED FAT or DIET or VITAMIN ENRICHED the more MSG in has in it. If you remove the fat, you take away flavour so they must put it back in in some way.

MSG used to be made from seaweed. Its now mainly manufactured from GENETICALLY MODIFIED BACTERIA.

Ok, I spent the day looking into this yesterday and all evening after I got home from work. I KNOW that this is my problem. I just know it is. I read the articles about Bees leaving hives near fields sprayed with Auxigro (MSG) and about the "Food addiction you never knew you had" which just makes me feel SO MUCH BETTER.

I finally found out the common denominator of my binge foods, and I can avoid them.

Randomly, if I take a benadryl and red bull each day I can stave off the effects of any miniscule amounts of MSG I ingest by accident. Benadryl combats the histamine release from MSG and red Bull contains Taurine - Taurine is blocked out of production by high MSG doses. Taurine is required for efficent fat absorption & solubilization. Studies also showed that dietary taurine supplementation help renal disease - & I have problems with my kidneys right now don't I!!!!

For me, this is such an amazing breakthrough and by reading through the pages of many website I can see that a lot of my health problems are probably being exacerbated by this stuff.

I am going to try to eliminate MSG from my food by sticking to the following detox plan for a week and then gently return to normal and try to keep msg at low levels and see what happens.

I think that eliminating MSG and having Hypnotherapy to help my emotional state and cravings could be what I need. Its bizarre that I should be able to eat so much food and put on only a pound and then be good and lose nothing. From the studies of MSG on rats, that is just what happens to some susceptible individuals.

You just get fatter and fatter and crave foods containing it more and more. Its what makes me eat on past the stop signal. Its what makes me eat when I don't want to. Its keeping me fat.

Hey, I don't know if this really is the key to all my worries. It really does seem a bit too easy and unbelievable to be that simple. All I know is this stuff rang serious alarm bells when I read it through and all I could do was sit here feeling angry that this could be the reason why so many people are obese these days.

If food tastes good, then you buy more. Why don't the governments ban cigarettes or alcohol even though they damage peoples world? If they don't ban those, then they aren't going to stop a bit of GM bacteria that's "completely safe" to eat from being added to your tomato ketchup.

Oh, did I tell you they also put it in vaccines..?

Watch this space.