by dnshah | Jan 12, 2021 | Age Defying, Diet and Weight Loss, Health and Wellness Tips, Stress Management, Virus
Our daily recommended servings for fruit is between 1 – 2 cups depending upon age and gender. But the definition of “1 cup serving” is not necessarily 1 true cup. So it’s good to understand what a piece of fruit literally translates into in terms of serving size from the hyperlink above – for example 1 small apple = 1 cup serving or 16 grapes = ½ cup serving or ¼ cup of dried fruit = ½ cup serving.
Knowing where to find this information can be empowering when creating your own meal plan for the week to ensure you get your recommended fruit intake.
When I reach out for a type of fruit, I consider the nutrilicious value (nutrient value & the taste together). I lean more toward stone fruits and berries. Stone fruits provide great nutrient value, taste, and more volume for equivalent calories when satiating hunger. And berries provide ample antioxidants. An antioxidant rich diet seems to protect against stroke, artery stiffness, blood clots, high blood pressure, and chronic inflammation. Berries are an excellent choice for fruit consumption because they provide 10 times more antioxidants than other fruits or vegetables, are immune-boosting, memory improving (blueberries), cardiac-protecting, have anti-cancer properties, AND boost our natural killer cells. Our natural killer cells are part of our immune process to fight against virus (think COVID19 protection here among others)
by dnshah | Oct 2, 2020 | Age Defying, Diet and Weight Loss, Health and Wellness Tips, Stress Management, Virus
These days health professionals are exploring what supplements and foods can help specifically with COVID19 illness. While we all explore ways to get GBOMBS into our daily routine, what does one do if they feel especially concerned about lung function? The answer could lie in quercetin.
Quercetin is a natural pigment in many fruits, vegetables, and grains. (plant-based not animal). It’s an antioxidant which also boosts immunity, is anti-inflammatory, and reduces blood pressure and allergy symptoms.
Antioxidants are compounds that bind to free radicals. Looking back at chemistry, free radicals are end products of reactions where there are free floating electrons – remember them? I recall my Chemistry teacher telling me he thought that was a carcinogenic thing. Fast forward almost 40 years and now I can say, he was right. Free radicals are damaging to the body, and are linked to numerous chronic illnesses, including cancers, heart disease, and diabetes.
Antioxidants neutralize the free radicals by binding to them and this helps minimize the destruction that could occur. A recent study I looked at (May, 2020) shows that quercetin has benefits specifically with lung cancer cells. Some people take quercetin supplements, but I always prefer real God-made foods. Common quercetin food sources include:
by dnshah | Sep 1, 2020 | Age Defying, Diet and Weight Loss, Health and Wellness Tips, Obesity
-with sugar! In the United States, 88 million adults—more than 1 in 3—have prediabetes, but more than 84% don’t know they have it (CDC). Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the US, and it’s also the #1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations, and adult blindness.
Classis symptoms include
- Urinate a lot (often at night)
- Are very thirsty
- Lose weight without trying
- Are very hungry
- Have blurry vision
- Have numb or tingling hands/fee
- Feel very tired
- Have very dry skin
- Have sores that heal slowly
- Have more infections than usual
If you feel like you could be in a high-risk group for pre-diabetes, your health care practitioner can do blood tests to get more information:
- An A1C test measures average blood sugar level over the past few months
- A fasting blood sugar test measures blood sugar after an overnight fast
- An oral glucose screening test measures blood sugar after drinking glucose
People that are higher risk for diabetes (Types 1 & 2, pre-diabetes, & gestational) have multiple risk factors below:
- Overweight
- Older (> 45 years for prediabetes, > 25 years for gestational)
- Family history of diabetes or gestational diabetes
- Are physically not as active (< 3x/week)
- Have birthed a baby weighing more than 9lb
- African American, Hispanic/Latino American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Pacific Islander, or Asian American
There are people suffering every day, and the numbers keep rising. Please join me in breaking up with sugar – it doesn’t have to be a radical break-up with significant withdrawals… plan for a gentle reduction and substituting those decadent desserts into less sugar-filled ones. It’s all about progress, and we really have to start somewhere… If you want help with meal planning and satisfying your sugar cravings, give me a call and let’s see how we can co-author your breakup with sugar!
by dnshah | Jul 28, 2020 | Age Defying, Health and Wellness Tips, Virus
We have over 100 trillion bacteria in our gut microbiome. Our microbiome impacts a majority of our immune system. I’ve written previously about eating for our gut bacteria (Balancing Trillions of Friends), but it is vitally important to also promote diversity in our gut bacteria also.
Dysbiosis is an imbalance between the “good” and “bad” bacteria. Dysbiosis can happen from inadequate diet, lack of exercise, surgery, or antibiotic use. Adding prebiotics helps with dysbiosis. Prebiotics are food for the good bacteria. With prebiotics, the healthy bacteria can cultivate over time. Probiotics are actual bacteria strains. Each can contain different genus, species, and strains. Since we know that diversity is important, the more the merrier! But if you buy a particular probiotic bottle with a fixed number of strains, and you take it daily. It may not help as much as if you purchase 2-3 different probiotics containing different genus, species, and strains. Then you can alternate what you are providing the microbiome. It’s more efficient at promoting diversity.
To learn more about probiotics check out the Metagenics Video on probiotics. Contact your local health & wellness coach for more information!
by dnshah | Jul 28, 2020 | Age Defying, Health and Wellness Tips, Virus
What we know for sure is that smoking seems to increases risk of flu. Data shows a higher mortality among smokers in the 2012 MERS-CoV. Some preliminary studies on COVID19 and smokers found unfavorable outcomes. This data was done so early with COVID19, that it may not be current but I wanted to provide the analysis and observations.
- Smokers were 1.4 times more likely to have severe symptoms compared to non-smokers
- Smokers were 2.4 times more likely to be admitted to an ICU, need mechanical ventilators, or die compared to non-smokers
The pattern (this study and more current ones) seems to indicate that smoking is most likely linked to negative progression and adverse outcomes with the COVID19 pandemic. So, this is more evidence to indicate that one of the best things smokers can do to protect themselves from COVID19 risks is to quit smoking.
Although this habit is one of the harder habits to break, please reach out and get help from medical professionals or work with a health & wellness coach trained in this to progress your goal of smoking cessation. It’s a life-saving lifestyle change.
by dnshah | Jul 28, 2020 | Age Defying, Diet and Weight Loss, Health and Wellness Tips, Virus
Green tea contains an anti-viral and anti-inflammatory compound called EGCG (epigallocatechin). Some of the benefits of EGCG that we know about include:
- Direct or Indirect Inhibition of viral entry: (hepatitis B & C, Zika, HSV, HPV, Epstein-Barr, Dengue, West Nile, Chikunjunya, Enterovirus, Japanese Encephalitis, Tick born Encephalitis, HIV, Ebola, Influenza)
- Inhibits inflammatory enzymes
- Helps to Prevent respiratory infection
At this time COVID19 has no known universally accepted treatment or cure and there is no clinical evidence that EGCG can prevent, treat, or cure COVID19. Still some chemists are looking into the impact of EGCG on Covid19 because it has a high affinity for binding to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
While primarily found in green tea, small amounts can also be sourced from apples, kiwi, strawberries, hazelnuts, and pecans. There were some concerns cited on the purity of green teas sourced internationally, and possible harm from teas sourced from sites that didn’t have as thorough government safety standards.
The full effects of EGCG on COVID19 are unknown to date. Excessive EGCG hasn’t shown serious adverse effects in studies ()19). It seems to have broad human appeal due its safety profile; however excessive caffeine consumption should be monitored. There are known medication interactions so always check with your doctor before making dietary changes.
