Category Archives: Guest Posts

Guest posts from professionals on various health topics.

How To Handle The Runaway Stress Response

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By Debbie Mandel

womanA little stress, acute stress, is actually good for you. It wakes up your creativity, fuels your vitality and keeps your immune system vigilant. The qualifying word is little. However, when stress becomes chronic and you find yourself rushing from activity to activity with no personal time for yourself, it’s not the external world that is landing on your doorstep; rather it’s your need to constantly open the door!

Here’s what happens when you experience stress. Powerful hormones are released throughout the body, elevating blood pressure and putting your senses on high alert. Glucose is driven up into the brain and muscles. Your evolutionary pre-programmed response is fight, flight or freeze. However, in modern times whom do you fight? Where is the proverbial saber tooth tiger? You take it out on all your relationships, most importantly the relationship you have with yourself.

Ultimately, stress robs you of an optimistic resiliency that allows you to adapt to various obstacles; instead you are hitting your head against a wall of frustration. This is why stress needs to be systematically released because it is toxic to health and happiness. Go green not only by shedding toxic chemicals or processed foods, but also by shedding stress. Even little stressors accumulate and inundate. While you might not be able to control the big stressors in life, you can do something about the small ones. Once you learn to reduce your personal stress response, you will notice that those various aches and pains disappear. Also, you will feel more energetic, experience more “aha” moments, and embrace your authentic true self.

womantwisting8 little de-stressing techniques with a big impact:

• Begin your day in control instead of waking up with a jolt. Set your alarm clock five minutes earlier to lie in bed and ease into your day.

• Have a power breakfast of lean protein, complex carbohydrates. Complex carbs will help you release serotonin to stabilize mood and lean protein will help your brain focus. Food and mood correlate highly. Throughout the day eat balanced snacks and meals to be balanced. The Mediterranean diet is a good stress-reduction diet.

• Be aware that you are blown about in different directions with multi-tasking and over-scheduling. Begin by shedding one thing from your to-do list. How does this make you feel? What can you do for yourself with this new-found time?

• Move stress out of your body. Walk your legs to their next happiness. Begin an exercise program because Activity Alleviates Anxiety.

• Spend time outdoors to reset your natural rhythm from the technology overload. The sunshine vitamin improves mood.

Live in the moment. One moment can be bad, the next one good.

• Live in the moment. One moment can be bad, the next one good. People who are stressed live in the future – the next task, or they imagine a future catastrophe. Be fully present in all your activities. Use the activity, like cleaning out a drawer, as an opportunity to alter your perspective away from the stressor.

• Find a creative hobby to compensate you for loss, disappointment and sadness. Fill the emptiness with what makes your heart sing.

• Practice re-framing negatives into positives every day. Human beings have a negativity bias which perpetuates the stress response and makes things seem more awful than they are. We all take the facts and make up stories about them. Make yours a positive or witty story. Cultivate a positivity bias to live in greater joy.

- Debbie Mandel, MA is the author of Turn On Your Inner Light and Addicted to Stress. She creates stress-management workshops and is an inspiring speaker. To learn more visit: www.turnonyourinnerlight.com

10 Ways Slender People Think Differently And Stay Slim Naturally – Part 2

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Continued from Part 1 of the article…..

By Michelle Hastie

http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kickhabit.jpg6. The Naturally Slim and Slender Don’t Work out Just So They Can Eat Food

This was probably the worst part of dieting EVER! Every time I ate I had to think about how much movement it would take to then remove that food off my body. This is an insane way to live! When you don’t have worries around weight you simply eat because you are hungry, and exercise because you want to.

7. The Naturally Slim and Slender Know They Don’t Need to Be Athletes

I don’t know about you but I grew up in the arts not the athletics. This doesn’t mean that I am completely inept when it comes to exercise (I mean I did become a personal trainer at some point). But when I decided to live like a personal trainer does, I gained weight faster than a speeding bullet. Ok well not that fast, but pretty darn fast. I move daily, don’t get me wrong… around my house, walking my dog, doing chores, etc. The truth is I lost 10 lbs. stuck on the couch for 30 days, so clearly this is not the answer.

8. The Naturally Slim and Slender Know that Missing a Day, Week or Month of Exercise Doesn’t Cause Weight Gain

Unless you are training to be in a marathon, body building competition or becoming a bikini model you do not need to worry about missing workouts. Your body is constantly changing. Some days it will want to move all day! Some days you will not want to move from your bed. The important thing is if you listen it will always balance itself out, so stop trying to do it for it! It’s only dieters that worry and guilt themselves over a missed workout.

There are sooooo many ways to move our bodies. You can do simple movements all day and never go to the gym and stay trim.

9. The Naturally Slim and Slender Understand the Importance of Enjoying Exercise Rather Than Burning Calories

There are sooooo many ways to move our bodies. You can do simple movements all day and never go to the gym and stay trim. You probably won’t have the strength or endurance you prefer, but you won’t be overweight. You can walk, do yoga, dance, cross fit, go to the gym, and it’s literally endless. It’s only dieters that choose their movements based on what burns the most calories versus what’s the most fun or feels the most amazing during… So many clients tell me how much they enjoy it after but not during. I choose not to do anything I don’t enjoy even for a minute that includes the stair stepper.

10. The Naturally Slim and Slender Don’t Worry About Exercise as a Means for Weight Loss

I know so many people who are thin and don’t ever “exercise” in the way you would define the word. They just do their regular movements throughout the day, eat until they are full and that’s that. Your body can adjust for anything. It can adjust your appetite for the months when you run 5 days a week and then the months when you barely get out walking. As long as you are listening you can always keep your body in balance. Eliminating your stress is the real cause of your weight loss and most dieters stress over their exercise or lack thereof. Focus on relaxation instead of exercise and see where that gets you!

- Michelle Hastie, President/Founder, As Seen In Shape Magazine, Total Body Health Solutions

10 Ways Slender People Think Differently And Stay Slim Naturally – Part 1

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By Michelle Hastie

girljogIt’s no secret that those with their ideal body have different thought patterns and beliefs. The question then becomes what the heck are those different thought patterns and beliefs? Being that I lived my life in my ideal body, overweight and then back to my ideal body I am very aware what those differences are. Today we are focusing on the 10 ways to change your thinking around food and exercise. This will allow you to have your ideal body by thinking the same way those who have the results you desire do! Now as you read these you may think to yourself… “Well of course they don’t do the things I do because they aren’t trying to lose weight, they are already slim!” I want you to think about whose habits you are modeling… most of you are modeling dieters. It’s time to listen to the real experts, those who don’t think about their weight ever!

1. The Naturally Slim and Slender Don’t Count Their Calories

Have you ever met someone who stays slim naturally? Not the person who is dieting to stay trim, but that person who you quietly scowl at because they are on their 3rd piece of pizza and you are wondering where the heck they put it? Well that person does not count their calories. Nor do they care. They simply eat until they are full and they trust that their body will give them that cue therefore it’s not their job to determine how much to eat.

2. The Naturally Slim and Slender Refuse to Starve

When you talk to someone who has never struggled with their weight they will tell you they love food, and they especially love to eat it. Duh right?! The only people who are starving themselves are dieters and last time I checked those aren’t the results you desire… so it’s time to stop following their habits!

3. The Naturally Slim and Slender Don’t Understand the Need for “Cheat Days”

Whenever I hear someone say they are having a “cheat day” I cringe a little because it takes me right back to my dieting days. Trust me when I tell you there are no naturally thin people having cheat days. In their mind every day is a cheat day because there are no rules! And when there are no rules, there is no desire to overeat, binge eat or eat the 3 pints of ice cream that you have to get out of the house before the cheat day is over.

4. The Naturally Slim and Slender Emotionally Eat without Weight Gain

Everyone emotionally eats! Why? Because eating is an emotional experience.

Everyone emotionally eats! Why? Because eating is an emotional experience. It can bring up memories from our mothers home cooking, or our first date at that delicious Italian restaurant. The problem starts when you abuse food, which you will not find in the household of someone who is in their ideal body. So to recap… emotional eating… Good… abusing food… Bad.

5. The Naturally Slim and Slender Don’t Believe in Labeling Something as “Eating Bad”

First of all there is no “eating bad” when you aren’t worrying about your pounds. There is simply food that made you feel good and food that made you feel bad. No judgment. No shame. No guilt. Just an understanding that eating that food again definitely has a consequence. You can still eat it; you just have to deal with the consequences.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this article…..

- Michelle Hastie, President/Founder, As Seen In Shape Magazine, Total Body Health Solutions

Martial Arts Is A Healthy Alternative For Families

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By Master Joseph Ash

karateWith the fast pace of the modern day family, there is a constant search for high quality programs that can fill voids and find a balance between school, work, family and exercise. Running from one activity to the next, eats away at not only time, but the overall quality of life for families. Not to mention, those activities often leave mom or dad on the side-lines watching instead of taking advantage of the benefits. Martial arts is a healthy alternative to traditional activities and it is something the entire family can do.

Martial arts education has been around for centuries, but only since the early 70′s did it start to catch on in the United States. Then it was predominately popular amongst the rough and tough adults of the day. Around the mid 80s the kids started to trickle into classes with the explosion of the original Karate Kid. After that it was Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers and numerous others productions attempting to capture the hearts and minds of little ones. Currently, there is a mix-martial arts fad, but there is still an ever growing population of elite schools that receive families. Such high quality martial arts programs provide families with a healthy and safe alternative to the more traditional activities.

For the children, traditional sports and after school activities are more social and less productive in terms of life skills. Combine poorly staffed programs with overcrowded, unmotivated participants and you get a lot of opportunities for unbecoming behaviors.

For the children, traditional sports and after school activities are more social and less productive in terms of life skills. Combine poorly staffed programs with overcrowded, unmotivated participants and you get a lot of opportunities for unbecoming behaviors. I’m all for letting kids be kids, but there seems to be too much free time, not enough structure and little motivation within many programs. Many times with traditional sports politics, cliques and favoritism exist and play a big role in whether or not children get to participate in the activity. Not having the opportunity to participate can greatly affect their feelings of self worth, confidence and self esteem. In the end, sports becomes more of a game about how we can win, instead of providing educational opportunities about life.

For parents themselves, taking part in a martial arts program will allow them to model ideal healthy lifestyle habits as well as, increase their own overall fitness levels, reduce stress and obtain mental clarity. With martial arts, no longer are the parents only allowed to “watch” their children do all the things they use to do, they do it along side them bringing another level of connection, purpose and meaning to each other. In some cases, everyone can participate at the same time, providing a wonderful balance of time, fitness and family.

With the numerous benefits martial arts provides practitioners, for families it brings a whole new meaning to “quality time.”

- Master Joseph Ash, Owner, BAEPLEX Family Martial Arts Center, Inc., Author: Martial Arts Unlocked

Good Nutrition Beyond The Family Meal !

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By Stacey Antine

healthyeatingboyFamily meals are an important tool to emphasize healthy eating and social habits, but the sky is the limit when you connect good nutrition to exploring the great outdoors on family time! Warm weather means it’s time to shut off the TV, to stop texting and get connected with trees, birds, worms and so much more right in our own state, town or backyard. Here’s how to get started on your exciting outdoor adventure with family and friends:

• Mark the Calendar. Schedule play dates with nature at parks, farms, farmers’ markets events and botanical gardens by getting them on the calendar when everyone (pets, too!) is available and then, start the research!

• Start a Garden. From my personal experience of working with thousands of kids of all ages, they love to grow, harvest and cook with their hand-grown food. There is nothing more rewarding for a child (or grown-up kid) to plant carrot seeds, watch their tops grow and then, dig for orange gold when these delicious carrots loaded with beta-carotene are ready to be harvested. Remember you won’t see dancing chicken nuggets in the garden or cans of soda being dumped on the plants because it would hurt the plants. Once kids make the nature-nutrition connection and apply it to their own bodies, their light bulbs go off and you will see their food choices move in a healthier direction.

• Jump into Composting. Composting and gardening go hand-in-hand. It’s an exciting way for the family to eat more fruits and veggies to help build up the pile, reduce landfill garbage, get some exercise and hang out with worms!

• Variety Cures Boredom. Each weekend can bring a new adventure by visiting the local zoo, hike a new path, bike ride as a family and pack a fun, nutritious picnic at the local park. Splurge by camping overnight (I can promise you that you will not find any vending machines at these locations!).

• Go Veggie Picking. Visit a local farm that offers the public the opportunity to pick your own produce and enjoy the experience knowing where your food comes from.

• Bring the Binoculars. Sitting still is a new concept for many of us in our 24/7 lifestyles, but if you just rest and take in the sites, you will be amazed to watch nature at work!

• Keep a Journal. Kids love to create journals of their experiences including what foods they picked and tried, what bugs they found, and any other family adventure. Everyone can participate in drawing, writing or adding stickers of what was observed. Don’t forget the camera!

Get planning and enjoy the great outdoors with your family and remember that good nutrition is an experience that can be achieved beyond the plate at the family meal.

- Stacey Antine, MS, RD, founder, HealthBarn USA, author, Appetite for Life and recognized as top 10 dietitians nationally by Today’s Dietitian magazine for her work with HealthBarn USA.

Practicing And Teaching – Good Hygiene Habits

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By Susan Terkel

washhandsGood hygiene is one of the most important habits to acquire. In the days before “germ theory” was developed, in the late 1880s, the connection between good hygiene and good health was not generally understood. Yet some cultures stressed cleanliness and purity, even without an understanding of how important hygiene was to good health—and, indeed, their populations were often healthier and lived longer.

Today, we know it is important to wash our hands, faces, and bodies, and to brush our teeth. We know this helps to protect us from germs that can make us sick. Thus, one of the roles of a parent is to teach the child the importance of hygiene. Most parents understand the value of hygiene, but not all parents know exactly what to do or how to convey that value or teach that habit to a child.

Washing hands. Washing hands regularly can dramatically reduce germs, because washing with ordinary soap and water, for only 15 seconds, and drying hands with clean towels can kill as much as 99.9 percent of germs. This translates to staying healthier, getting sick less frequently and, perhaps, even recovering more quickly and fully.

That is because widespread use of anti-bacterial soap is increasing the rate of resistance to antibiotics.

Regular soap is the best choice. That is because widespread use of anti-bacterial soap is increasing the rate of resistance to antibiotics. Drying with a clean towel, or a paper towel (instead of a blast of hot air from a machine that may not be entirely free of germs), reduces the risk of picking up additional germs—after washing away the original ones. Also, washing with soap is more effective than using a hand sanitizer. While hand sanitizers are often very useful, and effective, regular soap does a better job of killing germs.

To sum up this advice: wash your infant’s hands often, and, later, teach your children exactly how to wash their own hands, and you will have taught them an important lesson in hygiene and healthy living. And remember that habit for yourself!

Washing genitals. The intestines, and therefore stools, harbor countless infectious germs in the body. It is important to keep those germs from traveling into the blood stream and other parts of the body. This means that washing your hands before and after changing a diaper, and keeping stool from entering your child’s urinary tract (or mouth) is vital. It also means wiping, then washing a girl’s genital area from front to back, and washing a boy’s genitals, with soap and water are vital. Later, it means teaching your child healthy habits: washing their hands after they use the toilet, and when they take a shower or bath, washing the genital area with soap and water.

babyDirty diapers, especially those with loose stools, can easily allow germs from the stool to enter the urinary tract and cause an infection. That infection can spread to the bladder, or worse, to the kidneys. While girls, with shorter urinary tracts, tend to get more urinary tract infections (around 10 times more), boys tend to get more serious infections.

Boys with foreskins get more urinary tract infections than boys who have been circumcised, in part, because the genitals of boys with foreskins are slightly harder to clean than those without them. This is especially true of younger babies, whose foreskins have not separated from the glans.

The advice here is to change diapers frequently. Wash your hands and wash your child’s genitals with soap and water, remembering to go from front to back for girls. It’s a good idea to avoid letting a daughter linger in dirty bathwater. And, it is important to keep the bathtub clean, since bathtubs are one of the most germ-harboring places in a home (ditto for kitchen and bathroom sinks and faucets).

Later, teach a daughter to wipe herself from front to back, thus keeping germs from her anal area and from feces away from her urinary tract. And teach a son how to keep his genital area clean, mainly by washing it with soap and water – regularly.

To sum things up. The medical community and health educators and many parents are recognizing the value of hygiene—especially hand washing and genital hygiene. They have learned that good hygiene habits are effective, inexpensive, and simple ways to prevent infection and disease—but only when they truly become everyday habits.

- Susan Terkel studied Child Development at Cornell University, and has written over 20 books on medical and social issues. Recently, she coauthored an award-winning book, The Circumcision Decision: An Unbiased Guide for Parents, which helps expectant and adoptive parents make a decision to circumcise their son or leave him intact. She also coauthored Small Change: It’s the Little Things in Life That Make a BIG Difference, a book about habits to acquire or to give up.

I’m Rare But No Longer Alone

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By Nika C. Beamon

heartI am, and probably always will be, a “drug addict”, forced to swallow pills daily to function like a so called “normal” person. I suspect I was never “normal;” it’s a fact I couldn’t ignore by the time I was in my senior year at Boston College nearly 20 years ago. It’s taken me two decades to learn what is contributing to my body withering down to my “fighting” weight; a thin frame I never thought I’d see again. In fact, I used to joke with my friends that I had eaten the old me long ago so that chick was never coming back. But, here she is. While I am happy to be able to see my toes without peering over the spare tire caused by years of bloating, prescription pills, inactivity, and a diet based on need rather than taste, the fact that I am physically weaker with less stamina reminds me of how broken down I had to get before I found an answer to the mysterious illness attacking me.

The possibility that I was being attacked by an autoimmune condition was bantered about for years. Nearly three dozen doctors lit up my insides like the Empire State Building, dissected pounds of flesh and extracted gallons of blood from me trying to come up with the correct diagnosis. But, they failed time and time again. Instead, I was given a mini pharmacy worth of drugs to “cure” the random illness.

Despite devastating setbacks and unspeakable frustration, I continued to go down a who’s who list of doctors until I got a definitive answer, one that seemed to explain my plethora of problems.

Despite devastating setbacks and unspeakable frustration, I continued to go down a who’s who list of doctors until I got a definitive answer, one that seemed to explain my plethora of problems. It sounds like I’m speaking in code when I tell people what’s ailing me: I have IgG4 related systemic disease. If you’re thinking: “What?” You’re not alone. It’s the same thing I thought the first time I heard it. I had to look it up to understand. So, what is it? It’s a chronic inflammatory disease which can cause excess connective tissue to form in multiple organs. In my case, it has assaulted and honed in on my liver, pancreas and lymph nodes. It’s a rare condition and I have it.

I have a name for the enemy that has sidelined so many things in my life like children, vacations, financial security and basic physical comfort. All I can do is hopefully subdue it with the proper treatment. But, what’s that? Rare conditions like this one make the right course of action difficult to find. I just didn’t know it until I tried to run over to my nearest doctor to say, “Cure me.” The response: There is no cure.

My body may still be broken but my soul is finally healed. It’s not torn apart by doubt and fear of the unknown anymore. I have a new-found peace because I finally know what my ailment is. I can now accept not only my frailties face them with a better frame of mind.

- Nika C. Beamon is a veteran television journalist working in New York. She is the author of I DIDN’T WORK THIS HARD JUST TO GET MARRIED. Through lively and revealing interviews with women from various walks of life, Nika Beamon explores the challenges and issues affecting single women. She’s currently awaiting the publication of her memoir: Misdiagnosed: The Search for Dr. House. To read more about it: https://www.facebook.com/MisdiagnosedTheSearchForDrHouse In 2000, she published her first mystery novel, Dark Recesses, the poignant tale of David Jackson, a promising, young attorney who travels to rural Virginia for a family reunion and is entangled in a web of betrayal that had been hidden in his family tree. In 2002, she completed her second novel, Eyewitness.

Losing Weight Without Dieting – Yes It Is Possible!

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By Bonnie R. Giller

mirrorYou’re standing in front of the mirror having changed your clothes three times already this morning. Nothing seems to fit right. You are discouraged and start with the negative self-talk you are all too familiar with. “Why can’t I just stick to my diet”, you say to yourself. “I am such a failure; I will never succeed at weight loss”. “Tomorrow I will start my diet again”.

Does this sound familiar to you? If you have been battling your weight for some time, then likely you have been on countless diets that have not worked long term and you have gotten very good at berating yourself for your failures. The commercials all sound so promising! The radio ads promise fat burning powers of the miracle pills you just bought at the health food store. Why aren’t you able to lose weight?

The answer likely lies in the fact that you are dieting. You see, nobody lives on a diet. One goes on a diet but eventually goes off the diet. Forty to fifty percent of American women are trying to lose weight and are on a diet at any point in time. Half of pre-teen and teenage girls are on diets. However, 95% of all dieters regain their lost weight and more within 1 to 5 years. These are very alarming statistics because dieting clearly doesn’t work and repeated “yo-yo” dieting has been shown to have negative health effects, including an increased risk of heart disease and long-lasting effects on the metabolism.

Dieting makes you preoccupied with food; what you ate yesterday, today and what you will eat later or tomorrow.

Dieting makes you preoccupied with food; what you ate yesterday, today and what you will eat later or tomorrow. Dieting makes food the enemy and causes guilty feelings when you don’t eat diet-type foods. When you go on a diet, you are in essence putting your body into a short-term starvation state. When given the first opportunity to really eat what you desire, you will often experience a feeling of such intensity that any initial thoughts of wanting to be thin fly out the window. You feel out of control, guilty, and view yourself as having no willpower. However, this type of eating in response to semi-starvation is actually normal. It has nothing to do with willpower! When you are underfed, you will obsess about food. Period!

The best solution to achieving weight loss and a body you love is to embrace an intuitive eating approach to food. Intuitive eating is eating based on your physiological hunger and satiety cues not based on situations or emotional cues. So, that means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied or comfortably full. I recognize that for the chronic yo-yo dieter, this is not necessarily easy. It requires you to explore how you got to where you are today in your eating habits and understand deeply what it means to become an intuitive eater. During this process, it is important for you to begin to get rid of the diet mentality that you have, and to truly believe that you will never diet again. If you continue to think there is “just one more diet, this time I’ll be good”, then you won’t be able to move forward to becoming an intuitive eater. You will continue to have foods that are “good” and “bad” and you will continue to think of yourself as being “on” or “off”.

To help you get started on the path of intuitive eating, commit to the following 3 steps:

1. Throw out all the diet books and pre-printed menus from magazines that you have tried over the years. Make a commitment to yourself that you will no longer be tempted by new diets that come out because you are committed to learning to listen to your body.

scale2. Get rid of the bathroom scale. Do you weigh yourself every morning or even several times per day? Does the number on the scale influence your mood for the day? Most likely it does, even if you don’t consciously realize it. Your weight fluctuates day to day and is a measure of more than just fat. It includes your bones, organs, muscle and substances such as water, food and waste that pass through your system. Begin to measure your success by other factors other than the scale such as improved blood work, blood pressure, mood, energy level and overall satisfaction with your progress toward becoming an intuitive eater.

3. Seek out caring support to help you on your journey. Becoming an intuitive eater is a process and the amount of time it takes will depend on how long you have been dieting, how strong your diet mentality is, how long you have been using food to cope with your emotions and how willing you are to trust yourself. It is very important for you to surround yourself with like-minded people who can provide positive feedback and support.

Losing weight and keeping it off does not have to seem impossible. You were born with the natural instinct to eat when hungry and stop when full. Chances are you lost this ability due to all the diets you tried and the media exposure to quick-fixes. You can reclaim what you were born with and achieve guilt-free eating, a body you love and a life free of dieting. Intuitive eating is the answer you have been looking for.

- Bonnie R. Giller helps chronic dieters and those struggling to lose weight achieve weight loss without suffering through another diet that doesn’t work. She does this by creating a tailored solution that combines three essential ingredients: a healthy non-diet mindset, nutrition education and caring support. The result is they lose weight and keep it off without dieting. Bonnie is a Registered Dietitian (R.D.), Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist (CDN) and Certified Diabetes Educator (C.D.E.) with specialized training in Intuitive Eating. She is the author of 5 Steps to a Body You Love without Dieting. Get your copy Free and learn more at www.brghealth.com – Click on Diet-Free Weight Loss.

4 Key Elements Of The Japanese Food Culture

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By Andrew Black

riceLike many other Asian countries, Japan is a rice eating nation. To the Japanese, a nutritious and healthy diet is not a choice, but a part of their culture. The Japanese cuisine is so intrinsically healthy that some people are campaigning for it to be included in the UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. A traditional Japanese meal has twelve parts, not necessarily courses. These are appetizers, clear soup, steamed food, grilled food, simmered food, salad course, miso soup, pickles, rice, sweets, and fruits. The first part of the meal is accompanied by Sake, since the Japanese do not take Sake along with rice. The meal is followed by a leisurely tea.

Rice Centered Food:
Rice cultivation is believed to have begun in Asia about 2000 years ago. Taken in limited quantities, rice provides the essential starch for our bodies. The rice consumed in Japan is particularly rich in starch, and hence, more sticky. Even the national drink of Japan, Sake, is a wine made from rice. Rice is intrinsic to many Japanese dishes, including the world famous sushi, which is rice, and raw fish seasoned and wrapped in Nori.

Japan celebrates healthy food. Japanese food is cooked fresh and consumed right away. Due to the Buddhist influences in the 15th century, most Japanese eat more vegetables and less red meat or fowl.

Freshness of Ingredients:
Japan celebrates healthy food. Japanese food is cooked fresh and consumed right away. Due to the Buddhist influences in the 15th century, most Japanese eat more vegetables and less red meat or fowl. Meals consist of fresh vegetables and sea food, and prepared and presented to be aesthetically appealing. Japanese cuisine is also considered healthy because of its fermented sauces, like Miso and Natto which contain natural yeast. Many ingredients are procured fresh, including sea food. In sushi; the fish goes from the sea to the plate in less than a few hours. Such fresh food brings rich nutrients which are lost in other cultures where food is processed and stored for days and weeks, if not months.

Artistic Presentations:
One of the truly unique characteristics of the Japanese cuisine is the artistic presentation of food. Though most Western cuisines follow the idea of garnishing and presenting food, it is elevated to an art form by the Japanese. The Geisha tea ceremony, with its chakaiseki ryori cuisine, the aristocratic court style called honzen ryori, and the kaiseki ryori. These distinctive styles of cooking each have their own presentation styles and ceremonies. Aesthetic presentation and courteous service are the hallmarks of a Japanese meal. Special tableware, utensils, and silk tablecloths are just essential elements of the visual feast that teases all your senses.

Japanese restaurants typically specialize in a single type of food, like tempura or sushi or sukiyaki or soba or udon or unagi.

Eating Out:
In the recent decades, with Westernization, the Japanese have started eating out at French or Italian restaurants. Japanese restaurants, however, still carry on the traditional methods of serving food, including the conveyor belt style sushi restaurants. Unlike restaurants elsewhere, the Japanese restaurants typically specialize in a single type of food, like tempura or sushi or sukiyaki or soba or udon or unagi. Whatever the style of cooking, the Japanese cuisine is famous for its unique flavor, the ‘umami’.

- Andrew is a passionate advocate of Japanese food culture. After several trips in Japan, where he tried some of Japan’s best food, Andrew started to blog about Japan food. Aside from blogging, Andrew trains Western chefs on how to properly use Japanese ramen noodle machines to achieve the best results.

The Many Faces Of Malabsorption/Malnutrition (M/M)

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qaQ & A With Dr. Michael Wald

If you can answer even half of the questions below, you might consider yourself an expert in malnutrition/ malabsorption, abbreviated MM issues.

TRUE OR FALSE: Testing for MM disorders are routinely done by most doctors?

ANSWER: False. In fact, most gastroenterologist do not routinely perform tests for MM. When they do, our experience is that testing is woefully incomplete.

TRUE OR FALSE: MM problems may mimic other health problems such as multiple sclerosis, nerve problems, headaches, osteoporosis, infections and various intestinal disorders to name a few?

ANSWER: True. Defi ciencies of nutrients may result in breakdown of many cellular, tissue and organ systems.

TRUE OR FALSE: MM is a term used to refer only to Celiac Disease (CD)?

ANSWER: False. CD is a malabsorption disorder caused by an autoimmune reaction to dietary gluten found in barley, rye, oats and wheat. However, there are several other forms of MM including, but not limited to, nonceliac gluten intolerance, atrophic gastritis, increased indicant, parasite disorders, cows’ milk intolerance, soy milk intolerance, fructose malabsorption, Lactase defi ciency inducing lactose intolerance (constitutional, secondary or rarely congenital), sucrose intolerance, Intestinal disaccharidase defi ciency, Intestinal enteropeptidase defi ciency, cystic fi brosis, chronic pancreatitis, carcinoma of pancreas, Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, Bile salt malabsorption, terminal ileal disease, obstructive jaundice, bacterial overgrowth.

TRUE OR FALSE: Most gastroenterologists routinely test for various forms of MM?

ANSWER: False. Unfortunately, many of our patients have needlessly suffered for many months and even years from various health problems resulting from nutritional and metabolic problems from MM syndromes. Which signs and symptoms below are sometimes caused by MM syndromes?

a. Diarrhea, fl oating stool, bloating, gas
b. Weight loss and growth retardation
c. Swelling or edema of the face, hands, lets and other body regions
d. Fatigue and weakness
e. Muscle cramps, osteopenia and osteoporosis
f. Easy bruising and bleeding problems

ANSWER: All of the above are true.

TRUE OR FALSE: Many MM disorders will respond only to high doses of oral supplements, intramuscular vitamin shots and/or intravenous nutrition drips?

ANSWER: True

- Dr. Michael Wald, Brain-Energy Blast