How to Make Your Resolutions Work for YOU

 Wellness  No Responses »
Dec 302013
 

The third secret of lasting change in my 5 part series on the five serest of change (if you missed the previous secrets, you can find them here) is that you need to be empowered: there has to be some room for you to modify or adjust the process to fit your own needs and life. Research shows that you need to have some control over the steps you are taking or you just won’t stick with it.

Any time someone tells you what to do, what happens? We innately and intuitively rebel. We don’t want to do it, because we want control over our own choices. It’s human nature.

My sister is a physician and she is working in Abu Dhabi and where she is, there is no pork allowed. Every time she comes home, she eats all the pork she can. She will say that before going there, pork was not even on her radar screen: she was never a big fan of pork and could live without bacon. Now when she comes home, she cannot get enough and looks to have pork any time she can!

That’s often how it works with diets when we are told we cannot have something, we just want it more. It has nothing to do with willpower or the lack of it. It’s not about weakness. If we are told we can’t have or do something, invariably, that’s all we think about. It’s called thought suppression theory and it’s been proven over and over again. If we are told not to think about something, it becomes impossible to NOT think about it.

The question was first posed by Dostoyevsky in 1863: how do you stop thinking about a white bear? People told not to think about a white bear while thinking out loud will mention it about once a minute. Now in your normal conversations, how often would you talk about a white bear? But once the idea is planted, the mind attaches to it and we can’t stop thinking about the white bear or the ice cream or the new shoes on sale.

Since Dostoyevsky, there have been many studies on this phenomenon. One of the initial studies by four scientists, Wegner, Schneider, Carter and White in 1987 revealed that when we try to stop a simple thought or task and we succumb to that impulse to stop, a snowballing effect begins. We try and fail and try and fail and the thought becomes increasingly persistent. In fact, studies show that suppression may be the beginning of obsession instead of the other way around. Instead of not doing something it becomes something we cannot stop thinking about.

In my forthcoming course, Finally Make It Happen, we look at how you can make change while staying empowered. So there are no rules, no fixed or mandatory steps. You retain control over the specific actions steps you take and the pace at which you decide to make change so that you never feel that you lack control or decision authority over your own life.

I’ve learned, as I bet you have too, that grapefruit diets or forcing yourself to stop doing something, or even to reverse it and to do something, that isn’t what you want to do, feels hard or doesn’t fit in your lifestyle, is not going to work long-term. Only YOU know the best steps to take and the order and speed with which to take them. So in my course, I help you to identify the right steps for YOU and put a plan in place to keep moving forward and making progress at your own pace. Only you know what’s right and best for you and so you need to be empowered to create the right course of action for YOU.

But you don’t have to wait to take my course to put this secret into action. Any program, process, diet or plan you pursue can be tweaked or modified to fit your lifestyle and your habits. Be empowered to modify any program to fit YOU. If most of it works but one part doesn’t, follow the parts that align with you and either wait to take on the other part until you’ve had some success, or modify it: skip it or do it 3 times a week or every other day instead of every day.

Start with something that feels doable for you and let it evolve over time as you feel ready. It may take some time, but you didn’t get to where you are over night, so why should you think you can undo it that way? Just keep moving forward and it won’t be long until you Finally Make It Happen.

To your wellness and health: your true wealth!

Inger

Author: Inger Pols is the Editor of the New England Health Advisory and Author/Creator, Finally Make It Happen, the proven process to get what you want. Get a free special report on The Truth About Sugar: It’s Not All Equal. Learn more about Inger and receive her free bestselling ebook What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You.

Article Photo: courtesy of Salvatore Vuono | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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The Easy Way to Make Your Resolutions Stick

 Wellness  No Responses »
Dec 302013
 

In this second part of a 5 part series on the five secrets of change, (if you missed the first secret, you can find it here) we are going to look at the second secret of making lasting change: lasting change has to feel effortless. Because let’s face it: if it’s hard, are you going to do it?

This flies in the face of a lot of what we have been told. That change has to be hard or change IS hard. The truth is, if it feels hard, you will not stay with it. So you need to break down your action steps into small enough pieces that don’t feel hard. (Small can still be hard, so they have to be small but ALSO not feel hard.) Then you can totally fit them into your day, into your life, without creating any stress because as we learned in the last article, stress will engage your amygdala and make it work against you.

Have you ever considered that sometimes, we make big changes with little thought, such as getting married, moving to take on a new job, or having a baby? We can do some of those without fear and even with excitement, but going to the gym feels hard. Why is that? Research shows that we have two parts t our brains: our logical rational side and our emotional intuitive instinctual part. When they are aligned, we make change, even big change, easily. When they are not, and our desire to be fit conflicts with our desire to eat ice cream or sleep in, change is hard.

In those cases, we need to unite the left and right brain so that they don’t resist one another or compete against one another: rather, both sides of our brains support one another in a common goal. Logic and emotion can unite and we can engage positive and negative emotions together to create powerful motivation.

In my forthcoming course, Finally Make It Happen, we look at how to bring both sides of our brains together. We shore up our motivation and focus on the reasons why we want the change, both logical and emotional, the positive and the negative, so they both become drivers, not just one. Then doing something new can feel easy.

We also remove any barriers to the belief that we can do it, whether they are conscious or unconscious. Many of us also have beliefs from childhood that we don’t even know about that can block our efforts. That’s because up until age 6, our brain is in a theta wave state that has no filter. After that, we begin to filter and question what we hear. Until then if we hear that change is hard or we are weak, we can’t tell if that is true or not so we imprint it in our minds as a belief. We may not even know it’s there!

We need both sides of our brains working together and we need to believe that we can do it in order to make it happen. But even without going through my course, you can apply this secret to your change efforts right now. When you are trying to take action, make a new habit or create change, find steps that do not feel hard, steps that feel manageable and doable, even if they seem really small. It’s about starting movement in the right direction, beginning to take action and building new habits slowly over time. Because that’s the only way to make it stick.

In my Finally Make It Happen course, I also share willpower weapons that you can use to take willpower out of the game and help you easily make new habits. I arm you with dozens of tricks and tips you can use to be successful without it feeling hard. I’d like to give you just one small tip that you can use today to help make a new habit more easily: anchor your new habit to something you already do.

For example, they often say that if you have pills to take at night you put them by your toothbrush. That way you won’t forget because you have already anchored the brushing habit into your routine, and every time you do, you’ll see your pills there and remember. That’s a simple and straightforward way of anchoring, but sometimes you have to be more creative.

I had a client who wanted to try to add meditation but could never seem to find the time or remember to do it. So we started with short little 1-3 minute quiet times and we looked for a time in his day when it would fit. But he was a busy executive and everyone wanted his time. At home, his family needed him present for them. So even 1-3 minutes alone with no phone calls or no “Daddy, look!” was hard to find.

So we anchored his quiet times to getting in the car. Every time he got in the car, he would take a couple minutes to clear his head and be quiet, his own meditation. It may seem odd to tie meditation to the car but it was a time when he knew he would be alone and it was something he knew he would do at least twice a day. He could have chosen toothbrush time but was fearful he’d be interrupted by his wife or other distractions at that time. The car idea worked for him.

On his way to and from work, or if he ran an errand at lunch, he took just a couple minutes. Soon he was meditating several times a day regularly and feeling the benefits so much that he decided to carve out larger blocks of time for it. But that was an easy choice then because he really wanted more: he didn’t start with large blocks and force that on himself; he started small and found a way to tie it to something he already did.

If you keep it feeling effortless and take small steps that don’t feel hard, you will progress over time until you Finally Make It Happen.

To your wellness and health: your true wealth!

Inger

Author: Inger Pols is the Editor of the New England Health Advisory and Author/Creator, Finally Make It Happen, the proven process to get what you want. Get a free special report on The Truth About Sugar: It’s Not All Equal. Learn more about Inger and receive her free bestselling ebook What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You at www.ingerpols.com

Article Photo: courtesy of Idea go | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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The Truth About How Cholesterol Works

 Cholesterol  No Responses »
Dec 302013
 

Despite popular belief that it’s the cholesterol in your food that influences cholesterol in the bloodstream, that has not been proven to be the case. Your body makes 75% of the cholesterol it needs to survive for healthy brain and cell function. The other 25% it MUST take in from the food you eat.

When you eat more cholesterol in your diet, the body simply adjusts its cholesterol production downward to compensate. Research confirms that eating cholesterol-rich foods does not increase your cholesterol levels; the body is an adaptive, reactive mechanism which responds to changing conditions and balances appropriately.

(There are foods that will raise your cholesterol in an unhealthy way and we’ll talk about that later.)

We need cholesterol because it keeps cell membranes from falling apart and plays an integral part in cellular repair. It builds brain and nerve tissue, supports the immune system, and maintains neurotransmitter and brain function.

Cholesterol is also a vital pre-cursor to many major hormones including testosterone, progesterone, estrogen, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Cholesterol helps regulate mood, is required for synthesis of vitamin D and helps us digest fat-soluble vitamins such as A,D,E and K. We could not live without cholesterol!

If you don’t eat cholesterol, your body will go into crisis mode and start making the extra cholesterol it needs to survive and thrive. When you are tested, your cholesterol will be high, even though you are actually cholesterol deficient.

Let’s take a quick look briefly at the body’s inflammatory process to better understand what cholesterol does. Bear with me while we talk a little science.

When you cut yourself, the damaged tissue releases chemicals to start the inflammation process. Blood vessels constrict to slow down bleeding, blood thickens so it can clot and cells multiply to repair damage and facilitate healing while the immune system calls on cells and chemicals to protect against viruses and bacteria from attacking the cut.

This is very similar to what occurs within the arteries. As damage occurs from oxidizing fats and nutrient imbalances, chemicals are released to begin the inflammatory process. Arteries constrict, blood begins to clot, the immune system sends help, and nearby cells are told to multiply. As this process occurs over and over again in the artery lining, scars called plaque form. Over time, blood thickening and artery constriction combine to make a heart attack or high blood pressure more likely.

So remember the first step after trauma: chemicals are released to begin inflammation and start the healing process. Enter cholesterol, whose primary function is cell repair. Cholesterol is sent to help repair the damaged tissue in the artery linings and elsewhere: it is actually helping your body heal and keep you alive!

Now if the inflammatory process is occurring repeatedly, cholesterol is continually being manufactured or recycled in order to facilitate the healing process. When tested, your cholesterol levels will seem high.

But your body needs that cholesterol to heal, and your body is manufacturing the exact level of cholesterol it needs for brain and cell function along with that healing.

What effect do you think forcing cholesterol levels down artificially with a drug like a statin would have on the body? And if eating cholesterol-rich foods doesn’t increase your cholesterol levels, what does?

We just learned that cholesterol steps in to help cells heal, it is released upon infection or inflammation. It is also a precursor for stress hormones.

Whenever you the body is fighting an infection, whether it is an environmental allergy like pollen, a food allergy like gluten, or a bacterial or viral infection, you will find high cholesterol levels. If the body is under stress, cholesterol, which is needed to make stress hormones like cortisol, will be high. If the stress is short-lived, cholesterol will later drop: if you live a life of constant stress, you will see chronic low-grade inflammation, and consistently higher cholesterol levels as well.

Take the cholesterol away and leave the other concerns like infections and bad food choices and your body’s ability to heal is compromised. Take the cholesterol away but leave the stress triggers and you interfere with the body’s ability produce stress hormones, which can lead to serious health concerns.

Cholesterol is actually protective in these cases and higher levels are actually beneficial to the body’s health and well-being. We’ll cover this further in a future article, but I want to help you begin to see (because I realize this is a whole new way of thinking about cholesterol and understanding its role in your body for most people so it may take some time to really register) that cholesterol and yes sometimes high levels cholesterol levels are not only necessary, they can actually be beneficial.

Several studies have shown that people with high cholesterol actually live longer than people with low cholesterol. And 75% of people hospitalized for a heart attack had “normal” cholesterol. Perhaps you can begin to see why high cholesterol may not be a bad thing, especially since it hasn’t been directly linked to heart attacks or strokes.

As we saw when we looked at the inflammatory process in the body, cholesterol is  present whenever there is inflammation in the body. The inflammation that occurs from a stressful moment, and infection or an allergy is part of the body’s natural healing process occurring as nature intends it and that’s a good thing.

Sometimes, however, there is inflammation that occurs that is not necessary or desirable; it is self-induced from food choices that are not natural for our bodies. In today’s world, we bombard our body with artificial chemicals and nutrient imbalances that the body never had to deal with before. And we do it over and over and over, each and every day.

Eating cholesterol rich foods doesn’t raise cholesterol. But there are some foods that do. And that is a topic for another article you can read for free at www.nehealthadvisory.com

To your wellness and health: your true wealth!

Inger

Author: Inger Pols is the Editor of the New England Health Advisory and Author/Creator, Finally Make It Happen, the proven process to get what you want. Get a free special report on The Truth About Sugar: It’s Not All Equal. Learn more about Inger and receive her free bestselling ebook What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You.

Article Photo: courtesy of Stuart Miles | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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What You Need to Know About Homocysteine: the missing link to heart health

 Cholesterol, Diet, Health  No Responses »
Dec 272013
 

A friend of mine called me recently and said she’d read an article about a really important test to assess your wellness and she was concerned because she had gone through her records and her doctor had never given her that test. She wondered if she should demand it or change doctors or what she should do.

When she told me the article was about homocysteine, I knew she had read that high levels of homocysteine in the blood are reliable risk factors for heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, neurological conditions such as Alzheiner’s and Parkinson’s, thyroid concerns, infertility, depression, digestive disorders and chronic pain.

High levels of homocysteine impact your body in a number of harmful ways including accelerating aging and depressing your immune system so I could see why it caught her attention, even though many of us know little if anything about it. And I also understood why she had not been tested, as most doctors do not test for homocysteine levels for several reasons.

Bear with me for a moment while we go into some science and let’s look at what homocysteine is and why it matters.

Homocysteine is an intermediary amino acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and those proteins control virtually all cellular process as well as catalyze most reactions in living cells. There are 20 essential amino acids that the body requires to function: 10 of which the body can make, and 10 of which must come from our diets.

Homocysteine is not one of those essential 20, but rather it is made from another amino acid called methionine, which is one of the essential amino acids we must get from food.

We get methionine from protein-rich foods such as fish and eggs and sunflower seeds.

During what’s called the methionine cycle, methionine is converted to a substance known as S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe). SAMe performs an important function in its ability to donate methyl groups as needed during chemical processes throughout the body. When SAMe donates its methyl group, homocysteine is synthesized. Scientists would say the SAMe has been methylated which means it has lost a methyl group. This is important because the methylation process regulates gene expression, protein function and RNA metabolism.

All homocysteine in the body is created during this methionine cycle and most of it ends up bound to plasma and stored. But it can be released into the bloodstream when there are changes in the body’s biochemistry that are not ideal, so high levels of homocysteine are linked to a variety of specific health problems.

Once homocysteine is released in the blood, one of two things can happen to metabolize it. First, it can be remethylated back into methionine. This process requires folic acid (folate), vitamin B12, vitamin B2, zinc, magnesium and TMG (or trimethylglycine) from choline. Most of the body’s homocysteine goes this route, known as the remethylation pathway, which creates more SAMe to support further healthy methylation..

The other possible option for the homocysteine is that it can be utilized to create cysteine which is then converted into glutathione, a powerful antioxidant. When the body is under oxidative stress, this conversion process, known as the transsulfuration pathway because it produces sulfate byproducts, can be accelerated. The sulfate products are normally flushed from the body through urination. This pathway requires B6, B2, and zinc for proper function.

Both SAMe and glutathione benefit the body in important ways (glutathione is an anti-aging, antioxidant, detoxifying agent and SAMe has been shown to effectively treat depression, osteoarthritis, and liver disease and it affects our cells’ ability to grow and function properly) so we want our bodies to be able to convert homocysteine efficiently. When the conversion process goes awry, homocysteine levels will increase.

High homocysteine levels have been shown to increase free radical oxidation in the body, and the damage that goes along with them. This can accelerate aging. High homocysteine levels can also damage artery walls in one of several ways: it can contribute to atherosclerosis, or thickening of the artery walls; it can increase the likelihood of your blood clotting, potentially leading to a stroke; and it can lower the nitric oxide in your blood. Nitric oxide plays a critical role in healthy and flexible artery wall maintenance.

High homocysteine levels also impact your immune system, since weakened conversion processes to glutathione means less glutathione will be present and less antioxidant protection will be available to the body.  And high homocysteine levels promote higher levels of two chemicals the body uses to promote inflammation, arachidoic acid and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). As we learned in the cholesterol article, inflammation is a necessary and healthy part of our normal body function. But chronic inflammation can cause permanent damage to systems and tissues such as nerves, joints, and arteries and can also result in chronic pain.

Because of the inflammatory concern and the impact on antioxidation, some argue homocysteine is a marker for a higher risk of most every chronic condition, including cancer. At a minimum, when homocysteine levels are high, we know that something is wrong inside the body and some important process is not functioning as it should. If homocysteine is such an important indicator, why aren’t we hearing more about it?

There are a number of reasons. First, the test is relatively expensive and is rarely covered by insurance. As a result, it’s not readily available. Another reason is that there are currently no patented drugs for lowering homocysteine levels, so pharmaceutical companies have no interested in contributing to the marketing, which is how most medical conditions gain attention in today’s world. Another reason not to test would be that some doctors might not know what to tell their patients if the test came back high; without a drug to prescribe the only answer would be to change your diet, something not every physician is comfortable tackling in a brief office visit.

If your doctor decides to test you, which typically only occurs with cardiologists working with high risk heart patients, you’ll want to see a score of below 8.9 units. (obviously, the lower, the better). In between 9 and 19.9 units, your risk will increase from significant to extremely high, in correlation with the increase, of dying a premature death from a chronic condition or degenerative disease. Over 20 units, you’re at risk of heart attack or stroke, right now.

Whether you are tested or not, if you would like to improve your homocysteine levels, the prescription is clear: change your diet and your lifestyle. Eat mainly healthy fats and oils like omega 3s and avoid bad fats like trans fats. Increase your consumption of vegetables: shoot for half of your calories from vegetables, especially dark leafy green ones! Make sure your protein sources are high quality ones like organic eggs, wild fish, legumes, and small amounts of nuts and seeds.

Look to ensure your diet is rich with folate, vitamins B12, B6, B2, zinc and magnesium. (If you eat as above, it should be. If not supplement with a whole food supplement.) A greens superfood powder or pill may also be helpful if you find your diet lacking. And reduce stress, a known pro-inflammatory.

A special note to vegetarians and vegans: while generally it is stated that high homocysteine levels result from a diet too heavy in meat and too light in vegetables, studies have actually shown that many vegans and vegetarians have high homocysteine levels. One study showed vegans to have 50% higher homocysteine levels and vegetarians to have 30% higher homocysteine levels than their omnivore counterparts. This is because their bodies lack the B12 required for the conversion processes. (B12 is typically found in animal protein.)

Vegetarians were found to have 37% less (and vegans 59% less) B12 than the omnivore group, enough to constitute clinical deficiency in 78% of the vegans and 26% of the vegetarians. The study also showed that people eating vegan and vegetarian diets lacked the essential amino acid methionine because the levels in plants are lower than those found in meat. Vegetarians  and especially vegans need to look to add B12 to their diets through injections, sublingual (under tongue) or spray B12 supplements.

Homocysteine may not yet be fully understood, but its importance is definitely being recognized. If you are a high risk for heart concerns, you may want to push for a homocysteine test. But because the prescription will be to change your diet, you may want to consider making some of those changes, whether you are tested or not.
To your wellness and health: your true wealth!

Inger

Author: Inger Pols is the Editor of the New England Health Advisory and Author/Creator, Finally Make It Happen, the proven process to get what you want. Get a free special report on The Truth About Sugar: It’s Not All Equal. Learn more about Inger and receive her free bestselling ebook What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You.

Article Photo: courtesy of KROMKRATHOG | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Why Vegetables in a Can (Especially Tomatoes) Are Less Healthy

 Diet, Fruit & Veggies  No Responses »
Dec 082013
 

This is the last of four articles in the fruits and vegetables series. Previously, I looked at picking the right fruits and vegetables, examined how pesticides affect produce, and why frozen fruits and vegetables are better than canned.

One reason why frozen comes out the winner is that canned food contains Bisphenol A or BPA, which is a major concern when eating canned fruits and vegetables.

BPA is an industrial compound that has been shown to be toxic even at low doses. It is an endocrine disruptor, which means that it acts as a hormone in the body, taking up space in receptor sites and leaving excess hormones to flow through the body and cause damage. BPA has been tied to numerous health concerns including breast and prostate cancer, infertility, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.

BPA is ubiquitous as it is found in so many places including water bottles, cans, air, dust, office water coolers, printer inks and toners and thermal receipt paper used by grocery stores and gas stations (which can rub off onto the hands and then be absorbed by skin or ingested after contact with the mouth). The CDC found BPA present in the urine in 93% of the U.S. population and the Environmental Working Group found BPA present in the cord blood of newborns.

Avoiding BPA is a positive step toward improving wellness, and while some exposure may be hard to avoid, avoiding canned products can prevent one big source of exposure. Virtually all cans, including those containing fruits and vegetables, soda, soup, baked beans, spaghetti and ravioli and even infant formula, are lined with BPAs. Most tin cans have an epoxy liner made from BPAs (ironically to prevent the interaction of the food with the metal in the can). It’s estimated by the FDA that 17 % of the American diet comes from canned foods (and that doesn’t account for all the canned foods served at restaurants), so this is a big area where we reduce can our exposure to BPAs.

The Environmental Working Group tested canned food across the U.S. and found that in more than half of the products tested, there were levels of BPAs 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals. (There is no safe standard specifically for BPAs. The FDA acknowledges it’s a concern and examined BPA levels but failed to set a safe standard level against which to test.)

The National Workgroup for Safe Markets recently released a report titled No Silver Lining that tested a random sampling of 50 cans from across the U.S. and Canada, looking at typical products many Americans might eat on a daily basis. BPA was found in 46 of the 50 products. The highest level ever found in the U.S. was found in a can of DelMonte French Style Green Beans, with a level of 1,140 parts per billion or ppb.

Walmart’s store brand (Great Value) of Sweet Peas came in at 329.3 ppb. Healthy Choice Old Fashioned Chicken Soup had 323.6 ppb. Healthy Choice Chicken with Rice Soup had 172.4 ppb.  Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup had 130.4 ppb and Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup had 127.5 ppb. The amounts varied by can even among the same product offering, perhaps reflecting the time the product remained in the can.

While again there are no specific acceptable levels of BPAs, the study found that consumption of even one can of food might yield more BPA levels than were shown to cause health effects on developing fetuses in laboratory animals.

Unfortunately, there are no viable alternatives that work across all food products, which poses a manufacturing challenge that has made the industry reluctant to change. Eden Organic is the only company using a BPA-free lining for canned foods that I know of; they bake an oil and plant-based resin onto the cans instead. Muir Glen, another organic company, hopes to be BPA-free within the next year or so. There is one premier fish product, Henry and Lisa’s Natural Seafood (Sashimi-Grade Canned Albacore Tuna) that is also BPA free.

But no company has been able to offer BPA-free canned tomatoes due to the acidity of the tomatoes and their tendency to leach more from the metal of the can. Glass may be an option for pre-made sauces, but keep in mind that manufacturers may purchase canned tomatoes as a base ingredient for the sauce, so they may still contain BPAs from their original content sources.

For those of you who use canned tomatoes, there are options other than using fresh tomatoes. Pomi tomatoes, distributed by Boschi Food and Beverage of Italy, offers tomatoes in BPA-free containers. Their chopped and strained tomatoes are available on Amazon. And Trader Joe’s offers tomatoes in cartons that are also BPA-free. Short of preserving them yourself, those are the best options.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is sponsoring a bill banning BPA from food packaging, allowing for a one-year delay in the ban to enable manufacturers to make the shift. Senator Feinstein stated, “I no longer eat food out of cans. I no longer buy cans. I look for jars.” (I am thrilled that she is working to eliminate BPA in cans, though she might suggest eating more fresh local fruits and vegetables instead of opting for those in jars!)

Sadly, in all but five states (Maryland, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Washington) baby and infant products are still sold in BPA-laden cans. Given babies’ size and developing systems, that seems criminal to me.

We should all try to avoid BPAs and proactively work to minimize our exposure: Avoiding food in non-BPA-free cans is a great first step. But it’s an effort that is even more important for pregnant women and young children.

According to obstetrician Hugh Taylor of Yale University School of Medicine, who studies the effects of BPA on pre-natal development, “Fresh fruits and vegetables may be more expensive, but I believe that the risk is too high not to spend the extra. The entire life of that individual may be altered by a few months of BPA exposure in pregnancy. This is where the greatest risk lies. We are programming the hormonal response of the next generation. The worst effects may not become apparent for years.”

One final word before we end this series on fruits and vegetables: Don’t let the cautions we’ve discussed prevent you from eating more fruits and vegetables. Try to get up to 13 servings a day. Fresh, local and organic is always best, but do the best you can. Definitely choose organic for the “dirty dozen,” even if it means opting for frozen. Buy local mixed with frozen for the rest, with as much organic as your wallet and lifestyle will allow.

 

To your wellness and health: your true wealth!

Inger

Author: Inger Pols is the Editor of the New England Health Advisory and Author/Creator, Finally Make It Happen, the proven process to get what you want. Get a free special report on The Truth About Sugar: It’s Not All Equal at www.IngerPols.com

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