Holiday Eating Time Is Back

From Halloween through Valentine's Day, temptations abound.It happens every year about this time. The air gets nippier, the days get shorter -- and your jeans start getting tighter.

Ready or not, feasting season is here -- that seemingly endless time of temptation that starts with Halloween candy and continues with Thanksgiving stuffing and pies, merry-making treats, then New Year's toasts. Even beyond Jan. 1, there are Super Bowl chips and dips and Valentine's Day chocolates to contend with.

We have four months of constant feasting, says Roger A. Clemens, DrPH, food science expert for the Institute of Food Technologists. If we do feast, as many people do, without control, then we set ourselves up for bad patterns, ill health, and weight gain.

Statistics for how much weight Americans tend to gain during the end-of-the-year festivities vary from 1 pound to 10, but it's undoubtedly a tough time for anyone trying to eat healthfully.

And then there's exercise. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, most Americans -- 59% in 2003 -- do not engage in vigorous, leisure-time physical activity. Add in the time demands of the holidays and the urge to stay inside because of the weather, and you have a recipe for even more inactivity.

With all this working against us, just how can we keep from overeating and underexercising during the Halloween-through-Valentine's Day season? WebMD asked some health and fitness experts for advice.

Dietary Downfalls

First, it's important to understand why it's so hard to keep up healthful habits this time of year. During the fall and winter seasons, the experts say, many factors combine to increase the urge to overeat. They include:

• Food-focused celebrations. We normally socialize with friends and family using food and drink, says Clemens. And on special occasions, such as holidays, the availability and quantity of social fare increases -- raising the temptation to overindulge. The pressure to give in can be great, as we don't want to put a damper on the merrymaking or disappoint loved ones who have toiled to present good eats. The alcohol served at many social events can also destroy our resolve to eat in moderation.
• Stress. As if there weren't enough stress in everyday life, holiday obligations and expectations add to the strain. In an effort to ensure that you have the perfect holiday, you're doing all these extra things, like making sure you have the right decorations out and making sure your cards are done, says Bethany Thayer, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. All that extra work can be overwhelming. It can add to the stress, and the stress can lead to the overeating.
• Exhaustion. The demands of fall/winter festivities can leave people feeling sluggish and sleep-deprived. And when people are tired, they're more likely to overeat, says Amy Schmid, MA, RD, program director of nutrition communication for the Dairy Council of Nebraska.
• Emotional eating. Schmid says some people use food to soothe sadness, anxiety, dissatisfaction, or loss. Others simply use any celebration as an excuse to overindulge, says Janet R. Laubgross, PhD, a clinical psychologist specializing in weight management in Fairfax, Va. They think, Oh, I get to indulge because it's Halloween or I get to indulge because it's Thanksgiving, she says, noting that holiday marketing of food and consumerism contributes to the excess as well. Also, Thayer notes, when people who are trying hard to eat healthfully fall off the wagon, many get frustrated and give up on healthy eating.
• Cold weather. Some people crave high-calorie comfort food and drink when the mercury dips. It's comforting to eat stuffing, pumpkin pie, or your grandmother's high-calorie salad, says Schmid. It makes you feel good. It makes you remember the good days.

The same factors that contribute to overeating can also lead to physical inactivity.

The No. 1 reason people report for not exercising is lack of time, says Cedric Bryant, PhD, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise.

And, of course, overfull stomachs from all that holiday feasting, as well as stress, exhaustion, and cold weather, can dampen the best of workout intentions.

3 Keys to Survival

To make the feasting season a healthier one, experts say, it's important to do three things: Practice awareness, manage your stress and emotions, and plan in advance.

1. Practice Awareness

• Be conscious of what you eat and how much, says Karmeen Kulkarni, MS,RD, BC-ADM, CDE, president of health care and education for the American Diabetes Association. Allow yourself some special treats on the holidays but have moderate servings. When there's a lot of food available, try an appetizer-sized helping of each dish instead of dishing up a full serving.
• Tis the season to be realistic, says Schmid, noting this is not the best time for weight loss. She recommends trying to maintain weight instead of lose it.
• Be sure to keep it all in perspective, the experts say. Even though it's the holiday season, it doesn't mean for the next three months, you can do whatever it is you want, says Thayer. Allow some treats for the special days, but then get back into your healthy routine the next day.
• Always look for opportunities to move, says Bryant. For example, take a brisk walk whenever you get a few minutes; stand up and move around while you're on the phone call; and walk to a co-worker's desk instead of emailing him or her.

2. Manage Stress and Emotions

• One way to keep stress at a minimum is to lower your expectations about holidays. Ask for help to lighten your holiday schedule. Host a potluck holiday meal instead of cooking dinner. Or serve it buffet style instead of having a sit-down meal.
• Learn to say "no," in a courteous manner, to activities and food that aren't in your best interest. People may grow to respect it, and may even emulate it, Clemens says.
• If you're sad about a loss, turn to people for comfort instead of food. Invite a new member to your holiday table, says Schmid. Maybe it's not the same without a loved one, but think of new traditions.
• At social events, don't fill silence with food. Many people will eat and drink any beverage because they don't know what to say or how to act, says Clemens. Instead, he recommends making an effort to really get to know people, beyond superficial small talk: When we do that, we actually have the tendency to eat less, he says.
• Another way to deal with emotions is to make sure exercise remains a priority in your life. Exercise can be a great stress reliever.

3. Plan in Advance

• Eat a little before you go to a holiday gathering; hunger can undo the best intentions.
• Also, avoid sources of temptation whenever you can, says Thayer. After visiting a buffet, leave the room that's filled with food. If there are sweets in the office break room, don't go there. If you're given unhealthy food as a gift, bring it to the office to share.
• If you're traveling for the holidays, pick up some healthy, portable snacks at the grocery store before you leave so you're less likely to be tempted by unhealthy options.
• Think about what really matters during this busy time of year, and plan accordingly. Figure out what you absolutely have to do, because there always are some obligations, says Laubgross. Then let go of the rest.
• Also, schedule a brisk walk or hike after a holiday party or meal. Five minutes of exercise is better than 20 minutes of nothing, says Schmid.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line, the experts say, is to try to maintain a healthy lifestyle both in and outside of the fall/winter feasting season. Constant weight gains and losses can be harmful to your health and your psyche.

The best way to survive the feasting season? Keep in mind that celebrations are really about family and friends -- not food.

We need to instill in our social events that balance, moderation, and variety are key to better health, Clemens says.

Are Your Vitamins Safe?

Another Reason to take Whole Food Vitamins

Taking vitamins and supplements by pill has long been advocated by doctors and nutritionists in the health world - particularly in the realm of natural or holistic health. Unfortunately, many people take the wrong approach to ensuring their body gets the vitamins and nutrients it needs. What many don't realize is that the human body works best when digesting whole foods that include all the important vitamins - not just the vitamin itself. Thankfully, whole food vitamins and supplements can provide a healthier and better way!

When reading that Vitamin C found in many citrus fruits and vegetables helps to boost the immune system, you might be tempted to rush out and buy the latest Vitamin C tablet at a local discount or drug store. But when taking Vitamin C as an isolated vitamin, your body is missing out on a more complex source of nutrition that is produced only through consuming whole foods. In other words, it's not just the Vitamin C that contributes to a boost in your immune system or other health benefits; it's the entire process of eating and digesting whole foods. This process can only be matched by taking whole food vitamins and supplements.

What are Whole Food Vitamins?

Whole food vitamins are just the opposite of synthetic isolated vitamins. They are high-density concentrates of real whole foods processed by drying the whole foods and turning them into a powder form, which is then encapsulated so we can take the food as a pill. Whole food supplements contain all the cofactors and micronutrients found in whole foods, thereby providing a more complex source of nutrition than the vitamin supplements created in a lab.

With more than 25,000 different micronutrients, or cofactors, being contained in whole fruits and vegetables, it's no wonder citizens in our Western society find it difficult to consume the number of nutrients needed for optimal health. And synthetic vitamin supplements simply don't meet the complex nutritional needs of the body as do whole foods. By consuming whole food vitamins, you are getting the vitamins your body needs and providing an easy way for your body to process these vitamins. In a world of fast food and processed meals, these can be a lifesaver!

The Creation Process Makes a Difference

Whole food vitamins and supplements are produced through a unique process of culturing and fermentation, which makes the nutrients more easily digestible. This process also creates even more nutrients, probiotics, and enzymes to benefit the body. Many isolated vitamin supplements or synthetic vitamins actually pull nutrients from the body while being processed. These may also cause your body to store unprocessed nutrients that cannot be absorbed properly (sometimes at toxic levels), or the unprocessed nutrients may simply be passed out of the body unused.

Whole Food Multis

Half of US doctors use placebo treatments

Survey: Half of US doctors use placebo treatments

Interesting dilemma.

Just in from London...

"About half of American doctors in a new survey say they regularly give patients placebo treatments - usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition. And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found.

"That contradicts advice from the American Medical Association, which recommends doctors use treatments with the full knowledge of their patients.

"It's a disturbing finding," said Franklin G. Miller, director of the research ethics program at the U.S. National Institutes Health and one of the study authors. "There is an element of deception here which is contrary to the principle of informed consent."

"Placebos as defined in the survey went beyond the typical sugar pill commonly used in medical studies. A placebo was any treatment that wouldn't necessarily help the patient.

"Scientists have long known of the "placebo effect," in which patients given a fake or ineffective treatment often improve anyway, simply because they expected to get better..." Continued here. PDF in case

And therein lies the dilemma: to tell or not to tell?

Experts don't know if the placebo effect would be undermined if patients were explicitly told they were getting a dummy pill.

Your take?

Whole Food Multis

Vitamins A, C and E are 'a waste of time and may even shorten your life'

Vitamins A, C and E are 'a waste of time and may even shorten your life'

So said the headline published around the world this past week:

From the newspaper article:

"Vitamins taken by around a third of the population do not extend life and may even cause premature death, according to a respected group of international scientists.

"After reviewing 67 studies involving more than 230,000 men and women, the experts say there is no convincing evidence that taking supplements of the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E can make you healthier."

We were as stunned as anyone else at the timing and impact of this huge report.

As you know from the "Are Your Vitamins Safe?" report, this is only the most recent in a growing number of studies finding that synthetic vitamins (either from a lab beaker or isolated from a plant or animal) are worthless or even risky for a significant number of people. How can this be?

Here's a big reason:

These isolated synthetic vitamins are not absorbed and utilized properly by the body.

That's because - the 'main vitamin' ingredient, (e.g. A, E, C, etc.) which is extracted by synthetic vitamin makers, does not include the chemical cousins and other ingredients that main vitamin comes with in its natural form. Apparently, the body needs these "cofactors" to absorb the main vitamin.

It's cheaper to extract just the main vitamin. Only it appears now that the resulting synthetic vitamins are useless or worse.

What's the alternative?

Today there is a new class of multis, whole food multis. They put the whole food in the supplement (minus water and fiber), rather than just the isolated main vitamin or mineral.

Order the Pops Here

Vitamin Scare

Your daily vitamin might not be the insurance you think it is.

Are you aware of big vitamin scare going around the US and UK? The staid Reader's Digest even had a cover story, "The Vitamin Hoax: 10 not to take" Feb., 2007).

Worst case: some vitamins are harmful. Best case: they do, well, nothing. So says the Reader's Digest.

Before you pop that next daily multi, check the bottle for two things:

1. Toxic ingredients.
Artificial colors: FD&C Blue #2 Lake, FD&C Red 40, etc.
Preservatives: sorbates (eg, Polysorbate 80), benzoates (eg, sodium benzoate), nitrites (eg, sodium nitrite), sulphites (eg, sulphur dioxide)

2. Are they synthetic?
Look at the names of the vitamins and minerals in the “Ingredients” listing on the label of the bottle. (You may need a magnifying glass.) A vitamin or mineral is synthetic if only its chemical and/or popular name appears, with no plant source.

E.g. from the label of a popular synthetic multivitamin seen on TV

Ingredients: Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), DL-tocopheryl acetate (Vitamin E), ALL SYNTHETIC vitamins.

Your vitamins are not synthetic if they are listed with their whole food source. For example, “Vitamin C (from camucamu fruit)” indicates that you’re getting the Vitamin C, along with the other nutrients it lives with in the whole fruit. Not just the isolated vitamin C made in a lab.

That's the reason Dr. Heidi finally designed a daily whole food multi, the Pops.

If you want a daily multi that is whole-food based, with no toxins or synthetic vitamins, go here and get some. They're not a drug, so give them a few months to test them.

If you HATE to pay shipping like I do, check the 4 month (4 boxes) "subscription" option, and you don't pay shipping.

Regardless of whether you get the whole food multis designed by Dr. Heidi or not (I've taken them for three years) please throw out any synthetic vitamins that might be doing you more harm than good.

FDA Monitoring Vitamins

....a firm is responsible for determining that the dietary supplements it manufactures or distributes are safe and that any representations or claims made about them are substantiated by adequate evidence to show that they are not false or misleading. This means that dietary supplements do not need approval from FDA before they are marketed...firm does not have to provide FDA with the evidence it relies on to substantiate safety or effectiveness before or after it markets its products.....manufacturers do not need to register themselves nor their dietary supplement products with FDA before producing or selling them......the manufacturer is responsible for establishing its own manufacturing practice guidelines to ensure that the dietary supplements it produces are safe and contain the ingredients listed on the label.....there are no provisions in the law for FDA to "approve" dietary supplements for safety or effectiveness before they reach the consumer.....The manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that the "Supplement Facts" label and ingredient list are accurate, that the dietary ingredients are safe, and that the content matches the amount declared on the label...That is directly from the FDA website, It honestly scares me.

Whole Food Nation has posted this.........

Whole Food Nation’s manufacturing facility, Garden State Nutritionals (GSN), New Jersey is FDA-licensed and certified GMP. GMP, which stands for Good Manufacturing Practices, is a certification given by the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) and NSF International, two independent national nonprofit organizations that employ a uniform set of standards so that consumers can be assured that what’s on the label is also in the box, and that they are receiving pure supplements at accurate dosage levels. GSN has earned the coveted NNFA GMA 'A' rating, and is kosher-approved.

GSN has been manufacturing health supplements since 1977 and supplies diatary supplements to more than 35 countries around the world.

GSN link - http://www.gardenstatenutritionals.com/

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not review or approve dietary supplements like Pop a Green™ or Pop a Purple™.
  
• The FDA instead licenses factories to manufacture dietary supplements, and issue label guidelines.
  
• Pop a Green™ and Pop a Purple™ are manufactured by an FDA-licensed factory that has met all the FDA label guidelines.
  
• These guidelines include posting the statement in the box below. (The FDA does review and approve drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex.)

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Whole Food Nation
Are Your Vitamins Safe?
Vitamin Girl Shop

8 healthy foods?

These 8 "Healthy" Foods Are Fakes...

Foods are found in grocers everywhere that claim to be healthy. If you read the front package it seems like real fruit, or whole grains but we have to think twice about foods that make health claims and read the ingredients - not just the BIG BOLD things on the front of the package.


Look at this list of these Fraud Foods, the ones that lead us to believe we are eating healthy.

1 Smucker’s Simply Fruit
All varieties of Smucker’s Simply Fruit contain more fruit syrup than actual fruit. And the syrup doesn’t even come from the fruit in the products’ names, but from (cheaper) apple, pineapple, or pear juice concentrate.

2 Multigrain Tostitos
A one-ounce (8 chips) serving of Multigrain Tostitos has more sugar (1 gram) than any of its “Four Wholesome Grains.”

3 Kellogg’s Special K Fruit & Yogurt
The company touts that the “ cereal combines the crunch of whole grain goodness, the smooth creaminess of yogurt and the sweet taste of berries….” Yet there is more refined rice than whole grain wheat, no berries (just dyed apple pieces), and no yogurt (just yogurt powder that is usually heat treated, killing any beneficial bacteria) in the cereal.

4 Sara Lee Fruits of the Forest Deep Dish Pie
Pie is no health food, but Sara Lee’s looks like an exception. With photos of luscious apples, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, the pie seems like a virtual cocktail of vitamin-packed fruits, “simmered in their own juices” to cut down on the added sugar. But Fruits of the Forest has more partially hydrogenated oil and sugar than any fruit except apples. The upshot: Each serving (1/9 of a pie) has 340 calories, 4 -1/2 grams of saturated fat, and 4 grams of trans! That’s half a day’s bad fat.

5 Kellogg’s Eggo Nutri- Grain Pancakes
The box boasts that these pancakes are “Made with Whole Wheat and Whole Grain,” but they consist primarily of white flour.

6 Gerber Graduates for Toddlers Juice Treats
The packaging is decorated with pictures of oranges, grapes, cherries, peaches,
and pineapples. Yet the leading ingredients are corn syrup and sugar – and the only “fruit” they contain is nutritionally poor white grape juice concentrate. These snacks are more candy than fruit juice!

7 Enviga
Coca-Cola/Nestle claims that their new drink’s combination of caffeine and an antioxidant extracted from green tea will cause people to burn more calories than the drink provides and help them control their weight. In fact, one in five people drinking Enviga burn fewer, not more, calories and long-term studies on the ingredients in Enviga show no consistent effect on weight.

8 DanActive “immunity” dairy drink
This Dannon product claims to help “strengthen your body's defenses.” But the only study Dannon did to see if drinking DanActive kept people from getting sick found that it didn’t! Source cspinet.org

From the: Whole Food And More Blog

Can't eat right? Missing your daily dose of fruits and veggies? Try the Pops, Whole Food Vitamins. Veggies and Fruit in a way you can live with.
Green Pops Page
Purple Pops Page

From Robin- About the ER Fat Burn Program

This is a post from my aunt, I thought it was great and felt I should share it, I am hoping to start the program soon myself. I share a lot of the same views, I also do not have a weight problem, am to thin in fact, but have similar issues with food.

Why the ER Fat Burn wasn't for me...

"I didn't need to lose weight. I audited the program because I wanted to make sure my ten-year-old son was eating right." -Robin.

"I was eating right, mostly plants, and no red meat, not too much fat and rarely ate sweets. (ok I thought I was eating right!)

"I did drink a lot of Alka Seltzer because my stomach was always upset. I was always bloated and couldn't get rid of the 10-year-old baby belly fat. I didn't have energy to play with my son or stay awake with my husband after our son went to sleep.

"I didn't sleep well, always woke up a few hours after falling asleep tossing and turning for hours. I didn't make a connection with how I felt and the food I ate.

"A little voice kept telling me the ER Fat Burn program wasn't for me because I don't like meat, I've never heard of kefir, can't drink milk, don't like fish or cod liver oil, and didn't know how to find or afford the foods on the ER list.

"It wasn't as hard to find the real food as I thought it would be. I've become a regular at the St. Paul Farmers Market. This is where I found pastured eggs, pastured chicken, and grass-fed beef.

"I found raw cheese, uncured bacon and ham, real butter from grass-fed cows, Himalayan salt, sprouted bread, Kombucha and many other ER foods from my local Mississippi Market co-op. It was fun foraging for these foods. I didn't have to eat things I didn't like – fish, yuck. ( I am using lemon Cod Liver oil and drinking non-homogenized whole milk)

"The best and most unexpected thing was how my 10-year-old has grasped what I've learned in the ER program and has changed the way he eats.

"He tells all his friends what we eat now and why. He's on his own mission to help get his friends off the chicken nuggets, fast food and even low-fat milk. He will only eat eggs and meat from pastured sources. He helped me make butter a while back and loves the whole milk (I admit I haven't found raw milk yet - but I will).

"It's priceless to know I'm teaching my son how food affects health. The timing was so perfect to involve him in the things I was learning from Dr. Heidi. The entire ER group has helped shape the future of my son, so Thank you all!

"Also, my family loves grass-fed beef, that's huge for my son and me, we've never been red meat eaters.

"I haven't used Alka Seltzer in 10 weeks, no more upset stomach, bloating and the baby belly fat is gone.

"I enjoy playing with my son (and husband) again. I have energy again.

"Most nights I sleep through the night. If I do wake it's not all the tossing and turning like before.

"Thank you Dr. Heidi for showing what real food is and helping my son get on the ER food plan. Maybe when he has his own family our Extreme Regime food will be normal...

Thank You Robin!!!

Food Fight Round 2

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Food fight. Round two.

In Food fight. Round One, we discovered what, contrary to some people's beliefs, does not make most people fat.

Here's the second surprise from the food fight front:
What food DOES make a person fat?

One journalist spent five years looking into this full time. He reviewed tens of thousands of pages of research findings, and interviewed numerous doctors and nutrition folks. Here's his second (of nine) conclusions about what DOES make a person fat.

"2. The problem is carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis - the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body.

"9. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. The fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be." Taubes, p. 454

Before you gasp in disbelief, here's what Andrew Weil, the well known MD said about Taubes' stunning and revolutionary book on Larry King Live:

“I think this is a very important book. I’ve been recommending it to my medical colleagues and students. There are some very big ideas in this book…[Gary Taubes] has done a meticulous job of showing that many of the assumptions that are held by the conventional medical community simply rest on nothing…

"It’s very important to get these out to the medical community because a lot of the ways we try and prevent and treat obesity are based on assumptions that have no scientific evidence.”
-Dr. Weil, speaking on Larry King Live, 2008

Gary Taubes was as surprised by this conclusion as you might be right now.

[Carbs: bread, pasta, legumes, grains, cereal, chips, rice, sugar & sweets, donuts, muffins...]

"Hey," you say, "doesn't that sound like Atkins? But he's been been vilified in the professional community, hasn't he?"

Yep. Millions of people have lost weight using his approach. But Atkins today has many detractors. Here's a surprise reason...

Food fight. Round Three, next.

Posted by Kim Klaver at 12:11 AM

What does not make a person fat

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Food fight. Round One

People have been fighting for years about what foods make a person fat or slinky, sick or healthy.

Here's the latest surprise from the food fight front:
What's a food that does NOT make a person obese?

One journalist spent five years looking into this full time. He reviewed tens of thousands of pages of research findings, and interviewed numerous doctors and nutrition folks. Here's his first (of seven) conclusions about what does NOT make a person fat.

"1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease or any other chronic disease of civilization." Taubes

Dietary fats include coconut oil, the fat on a Porterhouse steak, butter and bacon. They do NOT make you fat or obese after all.

Before you gasp in disbelief, here's what Andrew Weil, the well known MD said about Taubes' stunning and revolutionary book on Larry King Live:

“I think this is a very important book. I’ve been recommending it to my medical colleagues and students. There are some very big ideas in this book…[Gary Taubes] has done a meticulous job of showing that many of the assumptions that are held by the conventional medical community simply rest on nothing…

"It’s very important to get these out to the medical community because a lot of the ways we try and prevent and treat obesity are based on assumptions that have no scientific evidence.”
-Dr. Weil, speaking on Larry King Live, 2008

Gary Taubes was as surprised by his conclusion as you might be right now.

So what, did he find, really DOES make a person fat?

Food fight. Round Two, next.
By Kim Klaver, Whole Food Nation

Are Your Vitamins Safe?

Dr. Heidis ER Program Observations

Friday, October 10, 2008

5 things I learned from ER Fat Burn

It's nice to know when a way of eating works for you. But it's nicer still when that same strategy works for lots of others, too.

Dr. Heidi has just run two ER Fat Burn 5-week programs. I know everyone in it because all were customers and readers of my stuff (about 50 active participants and more auditors). Here's what I learned while taping the group calls and from the many emails I received.

1. The experienced dieters in the group report that losing weight by eating ER real food works better than calorie counting, starving or pills. WAY better. Plus they were never hungry.

2. Eating real foods has a big side benefit: it regenerates bodies and heals ailments that most people thought they'd have to just "live with" for the rest of their lives. From acid reflux to scaly skin.

3. Eating specific real foods helps people reduce cravings for sweets and bread. Suddenly they don't feel deprived and sad about not having it.

4. Most of the participants thought they were eating pretty well. But they were stunned at how rejuvenated they felt after a week or two of eating ER real food. And love to go foraging for it.

5. Half of the group of July ER Fat Burn actives signed up for the Sep Fat Burn, and nearly half are already signed up for the October Detox/Cleanse program. In a time of "recession" someone laying out $500-600 for such a program several times over 4 months is a statement of its effectiveness all by itself. Think? NO ONE is rich here.

Dr. Heidi's October Detox/Cleanse 4-week program starts Oct 25. It's the second major cycle in the ER Real Food Weigh Loss approach. ER Fat Burn is not a prerequisite. You can start with the Detox/Cleanse. You will be able to sign up for it soon.

What if these neat things happen to you when you put some real food into your body?

Posted by Kim Klaver at 4:30 PM

Are Your Vitamins Safe?

My web site

For more articles, information, and ways to order the POPS go to VitaminGirlShop

Experts Agree

Experts agree on something. Finally.

Posted on: October 16th, 2007 by Heidi Dulay

Why Veggies? Because they are a prime source of "co-factors" - the term professionals use to refer to vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrients the body needs to process food. Co-factors are crucial for absorbing nutrition from food, making fuel for energy, neutralizing stress, and aging gracefully. Even the low carb fanatics know they have to eat veggies with their meat, fish, eggs or cheese2. Otherwise, they get stuck and have bad breath. Our bodies can't break down the proteins in meats well enough without co-factors. Not only do poorly processed proteins clog us up, but they cause leaky gut - holes in the intestines that bacteria make, as they gobble up the rotting protein lodged in the intestines.

A leaky gut allows foreign substances to pass into the bloodstream and land in joints. This results in inflammation and joint pain. It causes the immune system to start misfiring and the skin to break out in unsightly acne, lesions and scabs. Sometimes, what leaks through causes toxic growths and arterial plaque. Soon, diseases emerge, like allergies, arthritis, acne, osteoporosis, lupus, even cancer and heart disease.3

Not having enough cofactors causes cravings

- the body's cries for missing nutrients. Cravings remain until the body gets what it's looking for, or becomes too exhausted to look. When we eat junk food like sugar, alcohol, any white grain (white bread, white rice, most pasta), or other refined food like soybean or corn oil, the body has to scrounge for co-factors. It steals them from bones, organs, muscles and other tissues. It does that so that it can at least use the junk food for fuel. This puts off death, but not for very long.

"But I hate veggies," people say.

"The only ones I like are French fries and ketchup. Fruit makes me fat… Do beans count?" Or, "I can't eat fruit. I’m diabetic." Or, I don't have time to cook veggies. They just rot in my fridge."

That's why we created Pop-a-Green. And its twin Pop-a-Purple. So we could pop a pill to help make up for our sins of nutrition omission… We ' re not perfect either.

Whole Food Nation

The Pops

Introducing "The Pops"™

Posted on: October 16th, 2007 by Heidi Dulay

The Pops are a dose of good nutrition in a capsule - one Purple in the morning, one Green in the afternoon or evening.

• Energizing whole food multi, Pop-A-Purple
• Relaxing whole food multi, Pop-A-Green

Promotes

• Digestion
• Elimination and detoxification
• Energy
• Better sleep
• Better skin
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Reduced cravings
• Reduced aches and pains
• Normal cholesterol and blood pressure
• Weight loss

Whole food source of:

• Antioxidants
• Metabolic enhancers
• Digestive enzymes
• Probiotics

Green Pops Page
Purple Pops Page

Who needs whole food multis?

Who Needs Whole-Food Multis?

• Adolescents
• Alcohol drinkers
• Athletes
• Dieters
• Drug users, prescription or recreational
• Elderly
• Health fanatics
• Junk food regulars
• Overweight and obese people
• People who supplement with specific nutrients
• Sick people
• Stressed out people
• Smokers
• Women who are pregnant, nursing, or taking oral contraceptives
• Workaholics

Whole Food Nation

Fiber is a cheap filler....

Fiber is a cheap filler...
Posted on: October 16th, 2007 by Heidi Dulay

Fiber is a good thing - if it's in food, or in a fiber supplement. It is NOT a good thing in a vitamin/mineral supplement, whether the supplement is synthetic or whole-food.

Why? Two reasons:

First, if fiber is among the ingredients in a capsule or tablet, you're getting less of the expensive ingredients (the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, probiotics, etc). You can buy a month's supply of fiber (psyllium husk, oat bran, wheat bran, etc.) in the bulk section of a health food store for a few dollars. A good vitamin or whole-food supplement costs way more.

The space in a capsule is best saved for precious ingredients, not wasted on cheap fillers, don't you think?

Second, fiber prevents the body from using vitamins and minerals. It can bind with vitamins and minerals and carry them right out of the body. Phyllis Balch, in the Fourth Edition of her immensely popular guide to natural health, recommends that "supplemental fiber and minerals should be taken at different times." (Prescription for Natural Healing, 2006, p. 30).

So, if you need to add fiber to what you eat, take it alone.

Whole Food Nation