A Spotlight on Your Kidneys

How often do you think about your kidneys? Did you know that kidney disease is the 9th leading cause of death in the United States, more than breast cancer or prostate cancer? Over 26 million Americans currently have kidney disease but many more may not yet be diagnosed or even aware of problems as there are frequently no symptoms until the disease has progressed. One in three people are at risk for kidney disease due to diabetes, high blood pressure or family history. March is National Kidney Month and the National Kidney Foundation is urging everyone to give your kidneys a second thought.

Your kidneys are two fist sized organs located in your lower back. Although we are generally born with two kidneys, you only need one functioning kidney to live a normal, healthy life.

Kidneys work hard to keep your body healthy and their remarkable functions include:

• Filtering waste out of 200 liters of blood daily

• Regulating the body's salt, potassium and acid content

• Removing drugs from the body

• Balancing the body's fluids

• Releasing hormones that regulate blood pressure

• Producing an active form of vitamin D

• Controlling production of red blood cells.

Kidney disease means that the kidneys are damaged and can't filter blood they way they should. Main causes of kidney disease include: high blood pressure, diabetes, recurrent kidney infections that may have caused scarring, inherited diseases, overuse of over-the-counter pain medications, illegal drug use and traumatic injury. Symptoms of kidney disease may not be detectable until the disease has progressed. Symptoms may include: swelling of the face or ankles, changes in urine frequency or color, foamy urine, nausea, vomiting, changes in taste, numbness of fingers or toes, and fatigue or exhaustion. Caught early, treatment of kidney disease is very effective. But kidney disease is a progressive disease, meaning the damage can't be undone.

If you have kidney disease, diet changes will play a big role in maintaining your health. You may need to watch your protein intake, as too much protein can cause waste to buildup in your blood, making it harder for the kidneys to remove. Watching your sodium intake is important to help control your blood pressure and limit fluid buildup. Too little or too much potassium can be dangerous; the amount you need depends on how well your kidneys are functioning and what medications you are on. As kidney function decreases, you may need to watch your phosphorus and calcium intake. Extra phosphorus can build up and result in weak bones. You may also need to restrict your fluids. All of these specific nutrition needs can be calculated for you by a Registered Dietitian. In addition to diet changes, you will be treated with medications.

Should your kidney function continue to decline, you may need dialysis. Hemodialysis uses a machine to help filter and cleanse your blood. If you a candidate, you might be eligible for a kidney transplant, either from a living donor or from a recently deceased donor. The current waiting list for kidney transplants is about 3.5 years.

Prevention is the best cure for kidney disease, so follow these tips for healthy kidneys:

• Stay hydrated. Kidneys need hydration to work properly as they filter out waste through your urine.

• Eat a healthy balanced diet. Eat foods high in antioxidants to promote kidney health. Antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables, including red bell peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, and berries.

• Lower your sodium intake. Too much sodium can increase high blood pressure, which can damage the kidneys.

• Control your blood glucose. Diabetes is a major contributor to kidney disease because it damages blood vessels in the body that prevent the kidneys from working properly.

• Live a healthy life. Don't smoke, get plenty of exercise, maintain a healthy weight, use alcohol in moderation, and avoid illegal drugs.

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Overweight and Obesity - Can You Be Healthy If You Are Overweight?

It is a common idea if you are overweight or obese, you must be unhealthy as well. While there is a good reason behind this, it is not always the case. There are indeed exceptions, which means even if you are above a healthy weight, you can still be healthy: up to an extent, of course.

First, let us examine why there is a relationship between being overweight and being unhealthy. Usually, having a high body fat percentage is a serious complication on its own. The body is simply not able to function optimally when body fat becomes excessive... plaque builds up within blood vessels,

blood sugar rises, cardiovascular health degrades, and

vital organs like the heart and kidneys are affected.

Even liver function can be impaired, as it is forced to sustain greater stress.

Essentially, excess body fat is chronically taxing on the body. Not to mention it can facilitate the development of Type 2 diabetes, which is a corrosive disease by itself.

But... even if you are overweight, it does not mean you also have to be unhealthy.

Ideally, you will do what is necessary to lose weight and improve your health. Your well-being will benefit from fighting to return to a healthy weight.

That said, weight loss is not something you will be successful with in a short period. It could take many months. Perhaps even a year or two for you to reach your ideal weight and maintain it. It is important not to focus too much on these details. Progress is not linear, so it is hard to estimate the time commitment lying ahead of you. Not that it ultimately matters, anyway. What is crucial is to adopt the habits and changes to start to improve your condition immediately.

Don't worry about how long it will take for you to lose weight, or even if you'll ever reach your intended goal. You can get there eventually. In the meantime, however, you ought to focus on actionable plans for your health that you can immediately set in motion.

These plans will get your health on track even if you are still overweight...

First and foremost comes a healthy diet. Do not underestimate the benefits of healthy eating and the benefit it can have on your well-being. Cooking more and eating fewer processed meals is a great start.

Secondly, you can get physically active, or add to your current routine if it is lacking. Be honest with yourself. Exercise on its own will make a significant difference - there is such a thing as being "fat and fit."

Lastly, finishing touches include... cutting down on alcohol, getting more sleep, and eliminating stress from your life as much as you can.

You should know there is no harm in being overweight and unfit. The problem occurs when you refuse to change your ways when you are aware that you must.

Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.

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Weight Loss Plans For Women Over 40

This is something that all weight plans for women over 40 need to keep in mind. No matter what diet plan you as a woman are following, research has shown that keeping a detailed food diary, a record of everything you eat, helps keep motivation positive and can quickly help you point out problem areas in your diet.

Maintaining a food journal while you are losing weight and for a full year after you reach your target weight helps keep the pounds off. Just knowing that you will be honestly writing down every bite you take can help curb overeating or eating unhealthy foods. There is no point in cheating in your food journal; its function is to help you maintain healthy weight loss so you will only be cheating yourself.

To make tracking food intake a fun project, start by finding an appealing blank diary or notebook for recording your food consumption. Pick something that you'll enjoy seeing several times a day. You can buy a special pen to use, something with an unusual design or ink color. Just for fun, you can use different ink colors for each day of the week. You'll be using your food diary multiple times each day so make it a pleasant experience!

Then plan how you'll record each meal and snack. The point is to not only write everything down, but to do it in a way that is easy to go back and read. This way you can quickly spot trends that are enhancing weight loss or foods that are blocking progress.

Many people like to keep a corresponding exercise journal, recording activities and length of time. It is a proven fact that weight loss occurs when calorie intake is less than calorie expenditure. That's the only way to really shed those extra pounds! Research confirms that calorie output has to be greater than calorie intake for lasting weight loss. So, keeping track of both food intake and exercise only makes sense.

If you would like, you can keep tack of calories using the many calorie charts for various foods. Although some experts insist on recording calories, others say focusing only on calories isn't the wisest activity. Portion size is another important factor. Simply cutting down the size of the portion is one of the easiest ways to lose weight. You are still eating many of the foods you enjoy, just smaller amounts of them, cutting calories by cutting portion size. Again, some advise weighing or measuring portions, others suggest using smaller plates and bowls so you will naturally cut portion sizes to match the size of your dinnerware.

You can include pictures of yourself and a weigh in every month to track your progress. Fill your food journal with inspirational quotes or anything that will help you maintain positive motivation. Make it beautiful, something to be as proud of as your new, slimmer body!

Use your food diary to look for patterns, watch for foods that are preventing successful weight loss, and congratulate yourself when you've achieved your weekly eating goals. Set aside a few minutes each week to analyze your diary. Food journals are a great tool to help speed weight loss, but to work, you have to use them! So, if you need a weight loss for women over 40, this food journaling is something simple you can do.

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How to Choose Good Quality Honey

What is considered as good quality honey?
Even after deciding that a certain floral variety of honey would be your most favourite type of honey, many of us are often still left with the question of "How do I choose the same floral variety of honey amongst all the countless brands of honey from all over the world, with a big range of prices in the market place?"
When I am navigating through the maze of all the different honey in the shops, I look out for certain specific information to ensure that the honey I buy is value for money. Good quality honey, that is, honey of value can be judged by five key factors, namely:
1. Water content
Good quality honey essentially has low water content. Honey is likely to ferment if the water content of honey is greater than 19%. The reason is that all unpasteurized honey contains wild yeasts. Due to the high sugar concentration, these yeasts will pose little risk in low moisture honey because osmosis will draw sufficient water from the yeast to force them into dormancy. In honey that has a higher proportion of water, the yeast may survive and cause fermentation to begin in storage.
Honey is very hygroscopic, which means that it easily absorbs moisture from the air. Thus, in areas with a very high humidity it can be difficult to produce good quality honey of sufficiently low water content, which can be measured using a gadget called refractometer. Raw honey's moisture content can be as low as 14%, and is usually deemed as more valuable and hence is relatively more costly. Honey containing up to 20% water is not recommended for mead-making. One simple way of judging the relative quantity of water in honey involves taking two same-size, same-temperature, well-sealed jars of honey from different sources. Turn the two jars upside-down and watch the bubbles rise. Bubbles in the honey with more water content will rise faster.

2. HMF(Hydroxymethylfurfural)
HMF is a break-down product of fructose (one of the main sugars in honey) formed slowly during storage and very quickly when honey is heated. The amount of HMF present in honey is therefore used as a guide to storage guide to storage length and the amount of heating which has taken place. HMF's occurrence and accumulation in honey is variable depending on honey type. High levels of HMF may indicate excessive heating during the extraction process. Honey that is traded in a bulk form is usually required to be below 10 or 15mg/kg to enable further processing and then give some shelf life before a level of 40 mg/kg is reached. It is not uncommon for honey sold in hot climates to be well over 100 mg/kg in HMF. This is mostly due to the ambient temperatures (over 35°C) that honey is exposed to in the distribution channel. Some countries set an HMF limit for imported honey. You may also want to note the colour of the honey as it can sometimes be an indicator of quality because honey becomes darker during storage and heating.
3. Inverted sugars
High levels of HMF (greater than 100 mg/kg) can also be an indicator of adulteration with inverted sugars . Cane sugar (sucrose) is "inverted" by heating with a food acid, and this process creates HMF. Many food items sweetened with high fructose corn syrups, e.g. carbonated soft drinks, can have levels of HMF up to 1,000 mg/kg
4. Impurities
For most consumers, good quality honey is expected to be visually free of defect -- clean and clear. Honey which has a very high pollen content appears cloudy, and the presence of many other contaminations such as particles of wax, bees, splinters of wood, and dust certainly does make it look unappetising and unappealing for anyone to buy and consume, and hence it appears as if it's of very low value. Unfortunately, no matter how much food value or health benefits some of these particles like pollen can offer, this kind of honey is hard to be associated with good quality honey and is immediately rejected by most consumers at the super-mart. And this explains why it's almost impossible to find unfiltered, raw honey on the shelf. Its cloudy appearance makes them commercially unattractive.

5. Colour
Honey is color graded into light, amber, and dark categories which do not really have any bearing on quality. Some of the most distinctively and strongly flavored honey varieties, such as basswood, are very light, while very mild and pleasant honeys such as tulip poplar can be quite dark. Honey color is measured on the Pfund Scale in millimeters. While it is not an indicator of honey quality and there are exceptions to the rule, generally speaking, the darker color the honey, the higher its mineral contents, the pH readings, and the aroma/flavor levels. Minerals such as potassium, chlorine, sulfur, iron, manganese, magnesium, and sodium have been found to be much higher in darker honeys.

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Sports Nutrition

Whether you're a "weekend warrior" or a professional athlete, nothing affects your ability to perform more than good nutrition. Properly fueling your body helps you establish desirable body weight, stay in great shape, and maintain those all-important nerve-muscle reflexes. And if good nutrition isn't part of your training program, physical conditioning and expert coaching won't make much difference to your game.
There isn't one particular diet that's right for every sports enthusiast, of course. A lot depends on the age of the player and on the sport that's played. In general, however, a simple balanced diet allows your body's nutrients to work together like members on a team -- each nutrient performs a specific function. Carbohydrates, for example, are an important source of energy for sports that require repeated bursts of power -- such as basketball, soccer, hockey, football, and tennis -- and for long-distance events, such as long-distance running, swimming, and cross-country skiing. But although filling up on foods that contain mostly carbohydrates is great for maintaining energy, your body still has a need for proteins, minerals, and vitamins. And lack of just one nutrient is a disadvantage to your body and therefore, your sports performance. Ideally, these nutrients should come from the food you eat every day, but if you aren't eating balanced meals (or even if you are), taking a nutritional supplement that will give you balanced nutrients is a wise choice. 

Your sports diet has a dual purpose: It keeps you healthy and it prevents fatigue so you maintain a high energy level during exercise.  Learn how to properly fuel yourself for top performance. For example, cutting back on refined sugar products will ensure there isn't an abrupt rise in blood sugar -- and subsequent drop once exercise begins. Good sources of carbohydrates that don't affect blood sugar levels include whole wheat bread; whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce; vegetables and fruits; and low-sugar, high-fiber breakfast cereals. Not hungry? Eat anyway. Just because you don't feel hungry doesn't necessarily mean your body has all the nutrients it needs.
And don't forget that staying properly hydrated is also part of your sports nutrition plan. You lose between one and three quarts of water per hour during exercise, which not only decreases your endurance but puts you at risk of dehydration. Drink 8-10 ounces of water every 15 minutes during a prolonged sports activity. Don't wait until you feel thirsty -- dehydration can occur before you ever sense thirst. Heavy sweating also results in the loss of electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, which are critical for all bodily functions.  Cold soda water will reestablish the proper balance of water and electrolytes in your bloodstream, as will sports drinks.  

Remember that good nutrition and fluid replacement have a major impact on athletic performance. Use a sound nutritional program to complement your sports activity, and give yourself that competitive edge.

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Why Lose Weight? Here Is the Answer

Each year millions of people think about dieting to lose some weight only to have the thought stopped with the question, "Why Lose Weight?" After all, as most of us probably know, you torture yourself for 3 or 4 months to drop 15 or 20 pounds and before you know it the weight is back, plus a few extra pounds. So, naturally, the question of why lose weight wins out and we decide to stick with our current lifestyle of over indulging and manipulating the TV remote.

In general, the thought of the process of dieting overshadows the reason for weight loss. The thought of the miles of walking, the eating healthy, and in a lot of cases, the fasting to lose fat, blurs what should be our ultimate goal. That goal should not be to look good but to give us a healthy body. In a lot of cases, we may meet our weight loss goal and be happy with ourselves. The doubt jumps into our head when we don't maintain that goal. It then becomes, in our mind, the diet's fault. Thus comes the question, why lose weight, we're only going to gain it back again.

So, why is it important for us to drop a few pounds? Think about this. Every year, nearly 112 million people die due to being overweight. If you're an adult between 30 and 65 years of age, being 10 to 20 pounds overweight dramatically increases your risk serious illness or even of death. In general, people who are dramatically overweight are more likely to die from their unhealthy lifestyle than people of the same age living their lives at a healthy weight.

Coronary heart disease and heart attack can be directly linked to obesity. It's a fact that people who are overweight or obese suffer more heart attacks than those who are not overweight. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are also more prevalent in those who are overweight. We can also add diabetes to the list of health risks associated with obesity. Facts show that obesity is prevalent in over 80 percent of the people who suffer with diabetes. If you were compiling a list of health problems associated with obesity, you could also add cancer, sleep apnea, asthma, and even arthritis.

Taking into consideration the health risks mentioned above, the question of "Why lose weight?" should be answered. Instead of asking "Why lose weight" maybe the question should be "Why Can't I lose weight?". Keep in mind that anything worth having is worth working for. Our health is one of the most precious possessions we have. So, get back to eating healthy to lose the fat, and walking to firm the muscles, and most of all, make a pledge to keep the weight off. Set your goals beyond just meeting your weight loss goal. Make your goal to be to live healthy and maintain a good weight for a set period of time. Better yet, why not set it as a lifetime goal. That way, the question of "Why lose weight" never comes up again.

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