by Charly Mann

The holy grail of nutrition and health bars is one that tastes great and is truly good for you. After years of searching, I had come close to concluding that such a bar did not exist, and never would. The problem with 99% of these bars is they contain sugar, which means they are likely to give you an insulin rush that will soon leave you craving more unhealthy food. Sugar is also a leading culprit of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. Most of these bars also contain a long list of unnatural ingredients, such as artificial flavoring, sugar alcohols, maltodextrin, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup.

Recently, I was fortunate to discover GNU Flavor & Fiber bars. They contain no sugar or artificial ingredients, and have an incredible 12 grams of fiber, which is half of one's daily requirement, in a single 1.5 ounce bar. More amazingly, these bars taste great, especially the Orange Cranberry flavor. One bar is only 130 calories, which is less than half the 270 calories found in a small Snickers. They are primarily made of whole wheat flour and an array of natural high fiber foods including cranberries, bran, raisins, plums and apples. Their sweetness is derived from pure fruit juice. They taste like the best oatmeal cookie you can imagine.

Unfortunately, these things are not widely available. So, if you cannot find them in your favorite grocery or drug store, you can get them direct from GNU with a nice discount for your first order and quantity purchases.

Their website is:  www.gnufoods.com

by Charly Mann

Every month 75 million women in the United States, and more than one billion around the world, suffer from premenstrual syndrome. PMS was not even identified as a malady until 1931. Though the exact cause of PMS is not known, it is characterized by hormonal changes in women that usually occur during the week prior to menstruation. There are a multitude of symptoms that can be triggered by PMS, but anxiousness, depression, headaches and fatigue are the most common complaints. PMS almost always ends when menstruation begins.

Several studies show that taking a daily 1200-milligram calcium supplement significantly reduces PMS symptoms by almost 50%. (Calcium supplements in liquid form absorb into the body 5 times better then do pills do). In addition, two hours of aerobic exercise a week greatly reduces the severity of PMS.

Calcium has other benefits for your body. It helps keep the weight off. This is because a lack of calcium makes your body thinks you're starving, so you eat much more than you need. Insufficient calcium also greatly increases your chances of developing high blood pressure or heart disease. Finally, getting plenty of calcium protects against colon cancer and even helps to maintain healthy teeth.

by Charly Mann

Eat two full sized carrots or five broccoli crowns before each meal and you’ll reduce your appetite and consume 10 to 20% fewer calories a day.

Bring a bag of veggies with you to work or on a long trip to curb your cravings. Yellow squash, snap peas, broccoli, carrots, and celery are great in your veggie bag.

by Charly Mann

In the last ten years the number of children and adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder has gone up 4,000% according to the National Institute of Health. The number of adults with bipolar disorder has doubled during this period.

The cause of these increases is unclear to psychologists and psychiatrists, but I have a good idea what the problem is. If you were born before 1950, your chance of developing some form of depression in your lifetime were only 1/10 of those who were born after that time, and just 1/30 as likely as people born in the last thirty years. The big change during this time is that we have made huge advancements in technology that allow our brains be to far more passive. Our brains were designed to derive pleasure and satisfaction from active pursuits. For most of our existence as a species, we had to be continually resourceful just to survive. Now we “veg out" watching television, playing video games, and surfing the Internet. Today, there is little that requires a combination of physical exertion and problem solving.  Just a hundred years ago, more than 80% of the United States’ labor force worked on farms, or did skilled labor that required significant physical effort, such as furniture making, mining, and construction. Today, the vast majority of Americans have white collar and service jobs, and the number working on farms has declined from 38% to 2.6% of the population.

People who are physically active and spend time creating something that is visible and tangible suffer from depression much less, and score significantly higher in critical thinking tests than people who do not. Just as significantly, mentally and physically active people exhibit far more self-confidence.

Our brains need mental stimulation and active pursuits that require skill and creativity. There are many activities that can ensure sustained mental health, including painting, gardening and writing, which can be combined with regular strenuous exercise to allow our brains to function as they were meant to. Make your mind healthy by putting it to work.

by Charly Mann

We all love sweet foods and drinks, but for the most part they are terrible for us, making us fat, fatigued, and depressed. Sugar is a pure carbohydrate that goes almost directly into our bloodstream giving our brain and bodies an almost instant high. What is actually happening is we are getting a sugar fix, which greatly increases the insulin hormone in our blood system. This insulin rush releases the mood enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin into our brain.  Modern humans have become addicted to sweet foods because they incorrectly believe they will make them feel good and more energetic. The problem is we are not able to properly metabolize sweet foods very well. Only by eating a balanced diet of healthy fruits, vegetables, proteins, and high fiber carbohydrates can our body adequately regulate its appetite and feeling of fullness. Sweet foods, whether made with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame, sabotage our metabolism and increase our desire for more sweet foods.

Look at what we eat. Almost all the food we buy except for fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, and dairy contain either real or artificial sweeteners. Our drinks, coffee, tea, sodas, fruit drinks, and even many waters are sweetened. And don’t be fooled by 100% pure fruit juices, they contain the same or up to 50% more sugar (called fructose) as a sweetened soda. Sugar and sweeteners, real and artificial, are the backbone of our processed food industry. As sugar addicts, we much prefer sweetened foods over unsweetened ones. Sugar and sweeteners are also inexpensive added ingredients that add texture and bulk to food products including cereals, breads, crackers, catsup, peanut butter, salad dressings, snack foods, and many canned and frozen foods. Sugar contains no nutrients and is high in calories. What is worse, our body craves these sweet unhealthy foods, which causes us to gain weight and not eat foods that are nutritious.

As humans we are designed to get sweet food from natural sources such as fruit and honey during the warm summer season. Sweetness is supposed to signal to our brain that a food is ripe and healthy. Sugar and artificial sweeteners in foods and drinks fool us into believing what we are eating is good for us. Sugar,as we know it in a refined form, was first introduced in very small amounts in the 15th century in Venice, Italy. By the time the United States was founded in 1776  sugar was a very expensive luxury that ordinary people rarely tasted. It was not until the 18th century that the middle class began using sugar in a fairly limited form, primarily in tea and chocolates. Today, people in most of the world consume more sugar than fruits, eggs, and vegtables combined. We also eat far more processed food, which is usually sweetened by sugar, than fresh.

Sugar and artificial sweeteners should not be considered foods, but addictive and dangerous food additives devoid of protein, fat, fiber, and any form of nutrition. Most of us live our lives with a craving for sweets, which in reality is a dependency on the serotonin surge and energy boost that sugar produces. In order to satisfy this addiction, each person now consumes an average of 140 pounds of sweeteners a year, which is more than 42 teaspoons a day. Consumption of these sweets is a leading cause of insomnia, aggressive behavior, irritability, mood swings, and panic attacks. Eating sugar and artificial sweeteners is also major cause of depression because it reduces our serotonin level, which is designed to keep us emotionally and mentally balanced.

Artificial sweeteners confuse our brains into thinking we are going to be getting the insulin and serotonin surge we get from sugar, but we do not. The only jolt we can get from artificial sweeteners is from the caffeine often added to the drinks and foods in which they are found. But even if artificial sweeteners fool our brains momentarily, soon we crave the energy boost the sweet taste promised, and we begin craving and then eating unhealthy carbohydrates that will give us that boost. Studies have shown that people who use artificial sweeteners often wind up consuming as much as three times the calories in a day as people who do not. Artificial sweeteners are chemicals, not food. They have no calories, nor do they provide any nutritional benefit.

Real and Artificial Sugars are Poison to Your Body

How to Live Without Sweets

It is easy to kick the sweet habit. You can go cold turkey from sweets right now with only positive s. Within hours you will fbe eeling and thinking better. Your anxiety level will be significantly reduced. Remarkably, your appetite will decrease and you will be attracted to healthy foods. Within the first day I cut out all sweets I noticed that my desire for water increased by 300%, and I actually looked forward to eating fruits throughout the day. I no longer have low blood sugar food cravings, and eat at least 30% less than I used to. I also no longer crave junk carbohydrates. I actually look forward to a medium sized glass of 1% milk in the morning. I also feel physically and mentally better than I have in almost twenty years.

Do your shopping in the perimeter of the grocery store to avoid the processed foods in the center aisles. Read labels carefully. Stay away from foods with the artificial sweeteners aspartame, neotame, saccharin, acesulfame K, and sucralose, and the sugar sweetened foods that contain sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, cane sugar, beet sugar, glucose, sucrose, maltose, maltodextrin, dextrose, sorbitol, fructose, corn sugar, fruit juice concentrate, barley malt, caramel, or carob syrup. Also avoid alcoholic beverages and wine; they both contain significant amounts of sugar.

by Charly Mann

Eat lots of healthy, high-fiber, and low caloric foods like black beans and carrots.  Carrots are a fantastic energy boost when you start to feel run down in the afternoon. One cup of black beans contains an incredible 15 grams of fiber.

Turn off your television and turn down your music. Studies have shown people eat much less when the boob tube is not on and there is quiet, slow-paced music in the background.

Chew your food thoroughly and it will be converted to fuel for your body instead of stored as fat.

Eat your food in soft light, which is much more conducive to eating slowly than florescent.

Brush your teeth after lunch and dinner. People typically delay eating one to three hours after they have brushed.

Take a deep breath between bites. Consciously slowing down between bites will decrease your caloric intake by 10%.

by Charly Mann

At current smoking rates one billion people will die because of smoking tobacco in the 21st century. More than ten people die every minute from smoking related diseases.

Almost one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related.

50,000 Americans die each year from secondhand smoke. That is about ten times as many Americans killed in the War in Iraq. It is also about the same number of Americans killed in car accidents every year.

1.2 million Chinese and 650,000 Europeans will die this year as a result of smoking.

Around 100 million people died from tobacco use in the 20th century. This is nearly three times a many as the number of people killed in combat in all the wars and revolutions of the 20th century.

So I say let us focus even more on eliminating this terrible scourge from the face of the earth, and save this lives of one billion fellow humans.

For each person who quits smoking right now the positive results are almost immediate.

Twenty minutes after you have your last cigarette your blood pressure, pulse rate, and the body temperature of your hands and feet return to normal.

Eight hours after you quit the carbon monoxide and oxygen levels in your blood are back to normal.

Two days after you cease your nicotine habit your ability to smell and taste are greatly enhanced.

Within nine months your energy level will have greatly increased.

After a year your risk of developing a coronary heart disease is cut in half.

In five years your chance of dying from lung, throat, or mouth cancer is reduced by 50%.

At the ten-year mark your risk of lung cancer is the same as someone who had never smoked.

After fifteen years your risk of coronary heart disease will be the same as a nonsmoker.

by Charly Mann

Fish oil (Omega-3) adds years and quality to your life. It helps to lower bad, LDL, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure, and increases your good HDL cholesterol. It protects you from heart attack and stroke by breaking up clots in your arteries. It improves your ability to reason, remember, and stay focused. It alleviates the symptoms of depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder, dyslexia, and compulsive personality disorders. It reduces the risk of breast, colon and prostate cancer. It is also is effective in reducing inflammation and pain from arthritis and cystitis.

Recently Omega-3 Fish oil supplements were shown to work as well or better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure. A large four-year study concluded that a daily omega-3 fish oil pill had a slightly better success rate than Crestor in combating this disease.

Americans now spend more than fifteen billion a year on bottled water.

It takes about 50 million barrels of oil a year to make the 28 billion plastic bottles that contain this water. This is enough oil to fuel about 20% of the cars in the United States annually. Bizarrely it takes three times more water to produce the bottle, than the amount of water the bottle actually holds.

Eighty percent of plastic water bottles end up in landfills and are not recycled. Most plastic bottles will never biodegrade.

Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline.

Bottled water is typically 1000 times more expensive than tap water.

In almost every scientific comparison test the quality of bottled water is no better than tap water.

Forty percent of the bottled water sold in the United States is actually tap water.

If your tap water doesn’t taste right it is probably your plumbing, and a water filter, which takes out containments, but leaves the healthy minerals in water should solve the problem. (By the way distilled water is free of containments, but lacks the minerals your body needs from water.)

by Charly Mann

If you take good care of your immune system you can live a healthy and active life until you are at least 100. Your immune system fights off infections that make you sick, as well as the physical deterioration associated with aging. As we grow older our immune system declines, which increases our risk of serious illnesses such as cancer. The immune system has two major defenses to fight off disease, T-cells and antibodies. As we age, our T-cells become less and less capable of fighting off disease. Our immune system also produces significantly fewer antibodies, which fight illnesses brought on by bacteria and viruses. Finally, the older we get, the less successful our immune system is at identifying and fighting off malignant or cancer cells.

However there is a magic bullet to help restore your immune system, and that is broccoli. This is because broccoli contains a wonderful chemical called sulforaphane, which stimulates the creation of T-cells and antibodies. The antibodies that it helps produce fight off dangerous molecules called free radicals, which are a major cause of disease and aging. Scientists at UCLA have already shown that the sulforaphane in broccoli reverses the decline of the immune system in old mice and other older animals, and when eaten on a regular basis restores it to the level of young animals.

The better our bodies can defend against free radicals, the less we age physically. The UCLA study has concluded that the sulforaphane in broccoli is able to stimulate immune system defenses that can delay our body's decline. A healthy immune system can prevent many maladies associated with growing old, including cardiovascular disease, degenerative joint diseases and diabetes.

The following is a list of other things you can do to ensure your immune system stays healthy.

1. Maintain an optimal weight for your height and sex.
2. Keep a regular sleeping pattern that includes at least 7.5 hours of sleep every night.
3. Take a multivitamin everyday.
4. Don’t drink any alcoholic beverages. Alcohol does far more harm than good to your body.
5. Learn to deal with stress and anger in your life; both cause major damage to your immune system.
6. Exercise vigorously for at least forty-five minutes five days a week.
7. Stay away from all illegal drugs; all of them significantly weaken your immune system.

by Charly Mann

Everyone in the world is getting fatter -- even the Chinese. Today one in four Chinese adults are overweight, and that is likely to increase to half their population within twenty years. The problem in the world is that more and more of us have an abundance of food available at any time, and it has a higher caloric content, such as beef, oils and dairy. Humans, however, are not used to being able to get food on a regular basis. For most of our one million years as a species we had to go for long periods without much to eat. Thus, we are biologically programmed to burn fewer calories when we lose weight so we don’t starve. This is why diet foods and diet books are unable to keep our pounds off once we lose weight. And it really is not our fault. You can blame it on the hormone leptin. Whenever we lose a significant amount of weight our leptin level falls, and this causes our body to work more efficiently and burn up to 20% fewer calories than before. As a result, even if you maintain the same diet that caused you to lose weight, your body will start gaining it all back.

There is now hope that someday we will be able to take a leptin pill to fool our bodies into not burning less calories after we lose weight. Until we have a leptin supplement, you will have to eat even less and exercise more, if you want to maintain your weight after you have taken off some extra pounds

By Charly Mann

We need exposure to a dark night sky to stimulate the production of melatonin by the pineal gland in our brain. This melatonin maintains what is known as the circadian rhythm of our body. If we are exposed to natural darkness on a regular basis our bodies function naturally on an internal 24-hour clock. We sleep well, are more productive, healthier, and happier. Unfortunately, we live in a world of artificial light in which many try to cheat their circadian clock.

The amount of artificial light in the world has tripled since 1970, coinciding with similar increases in depression, divorce, crime, and the use of prescription sleeping pills, anti-depressants, and caffeine. As a result of all this artificial light, two-thirds of the world's population live in cities and towns where it never gets dark enough for their brains to recognize nighttime. The starry night that Vincent Van Gogh immortalized in his famous painting is something few of us will ever see again. Most of us see less than half a dozen stars, even on a clear night, when we look up into the night sky. Less than a hundred years ago 4,000 would be visible. Even if we go to some remote or rural area, we are unlikely to be able to see half the stars our ancestors did because artificial light pollution makes even those areas less dark than they once were.

Artificial light is dangerous to us in other ways, particularly for women. Scientists think that women working night shifts, or staying up late at night, are at a 73% greater risk of developing breast cancer than women in areas that receive normal nighttime darkness, and go to bed by eleven. Also disruption of normal night exposure disrupts the timing and release of female reproductive hormones that determine the timing, frequency, and duration of menstruation.  Women who regularly work through the night also have a higher occurrence of colorectal cancer than women who do not. The International Agency for Research on Cancer at the World Health Organization recently added working at night to its list of probable human carcinogens.

by Charly Mann

I grew up in a time when cigarettes were considered safe. In fact, I recall television commercials that touted the health benefits of a particular brand. This was also a time when marijuana was considered a dangerous and addictive drug. Over the years, things have changed and there is a broad body of research that proves the dangers and addictive characteristics of tobacco. At the same time, it sometimes seems as though the claims about marijuana were exaggerated too and it is perhaps no worse than alcohol -- or is it?

Marijuana is one of the most complex substances on the planet. It is an extremely powerful and pleasurable drug with side effects including damage to brain cells that control thinking, emotion, pleasure, coordination, mood and memory. Unlike alcohol or cocaine which are each a single molecule, marijuana has 400 different chemical components, of which 60 are unique to marijuana.

One of the special chemicals in marijuana is THC, which causes your brain and body to behave very abnormally. When THC enters the body it breaks up into more than 80 different byproducts which travel through the bloodstream to the brain and the rest of the central nervous system. THC stays in the body from five days to several weeks, far longer than alcohol and other drugs. It accumulates in the microscopic spaces between nerve cells in the brain called synapses, and in doing so impairs a myriad of brain functions. It alters the chemicals in the brain that regulate attention, mood, energy level and appetite. It reduces one's ability to concentrate and increases forgetfulness. It also greatly dimishes one's ability to do complex tasks, think logically, and drive a car. It also won't help your romantic life, because regular use decreases one's sex drive. Since THC stays in the body so long, even an occasional user (once a week or twice a month) functions at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.

Scientists also know that marijuana can increase a person's heartbeat by up to 50%. This is a very dangerous side effect for anyone with heart problems or high blood pressure. In fact, the risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana.

Obviously we cannot recommend marijuana as a safe substance, nor or we trying to imply that its use should be criminalized. We do think everyone will feel better and live longer if they stay away from foods and drugs that are unhealthy or reduce the brain's ability to act optimally. Of course there are medical reasons that drugs can have a positive effect in reducing pain or fighting disease. For those trying to maintain a normal weight during chemotherapy, marijuana's ability to stimulate appetite might prove beneficial. There is also evidence that it can provide short-term benefits to people who suffer from glaucoma.

by Charly Mann

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an inventor, diplomat, author, scientist, printer, and one of the United States major founding fathers. He invented bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the lightning rod. As ambassador to France during the American Revolution, he secured military and financial support from France that was essential to the United States winning independence from Britain.

As a young man, Franklin decided that eating a vegetarian diet would be good for his health and mind. He also figured that he could save money by not eating meat, and could spend the saved money on books.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an inventor, painter, scientist, engineer, anatomist, architect, botanist, and writer. He is responsible for the two most acclaimed paintings of all time, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He drew up detailed plans for inventions that were many centuries ahead of their time including the helicopter and tank. Da Vinci was a vegetarian for humanitarian reasons. He said, “the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."

Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was the most prolific inventor in history, with more than 1,000 patents to his name. In 1908, Edison stopped eating meat to improve his health. Once his health was restored he was so pleased with his change in diet that he continued to be vegetarian. This coincides with the following statement he made, “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."

The most innovative human of the twentieth and twenty-first century, Steve Jobs, is also a vegetarian. He is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation. Apple is responsible for producing the first consumer personal computer, the iPod, and the iPhone. Pixar Animation is the first and leading computer animation studio, responsible for movies like Toy Story, Cars, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and WALL-E.

Albert Einstein became a vegetarian during the final years of his life saying, "I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It always seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore."

Eating unsweetened plain not-fat yogurt is very good for you. One of yogurt’s most important benefits comes from the bacteria that is added to cow’s milk to produce yogurt. These bacteria are excellent at preventing bad organisms in your body from making you sick. A recent review of more than one hundred studies on the immunological effects of yogurt concluded that eating yogurt was especially helpful in enhancing the immune function for the elderly and people whose systems are compromised by disease or medical treatment. Some research also indicates that eating yogurt reduces cancer and gastrointestinal disorders. An eight-ounce serving will supply you with more than one third your daily need for calcium. It is also great source of healthy protein. Your body needs nine essential amino acids that come from protein, and yogurt’s protein supplies them all. Yogurt is also easier to digest than milk for those who are lactose intolerant.

Non-fat plain unsweetened yogurt is far better for you than any other yogurt. First, it does not contain bad ingredients like sugar, modified cornstarch, and fructose found in popular sweetened yogurts. It has only 100 calories in an 8 ounce serving, with no fat, less than 5 mg of cholesterol, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 450 mg of calcium, and 520 mg of potassium. The next healthiest yogurt on the other hand, low-fat plain sugar-free, has 60% more calories than non-fat, twice the cholesterol, 2 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbohydrates, and about 20% less calcium and potassium. Finally, plain sugar-free yogurt has 230 calories, 8 grams of fat, 30 mg of cholesterol, and less protein, calcium, and potassium than low-fat yogurt. Frozen yogurt is not the same as yogurt in the dairy case, and will not yield the same health benefits. It has only a fraction of the beneficial bacteria of fresh yogurt, and does not help those who are lactose intolerant.

Non-fat plain yogurt is a great substitute for mayonnaise in foods like potato salad, coleslaw, and tuna salad. It also is a healthy replacement for sour cream on baked potatoes, in salad dressing, and dips.

You can add fruit or sugar-free fruit jam to your yogurt just before eating it to make it more delicious. You can also sprinkle on a bit of artificial sweetener.

by Charly Mann

Carrots help prevent heart attacks, reduce bad cholesterol, lower the risk of lung, colon and breast cancer, ward off eye diseases and improve vision, lessen your chance of stroke by almost 70%, and fight off fatigue and hunger by preventing low blood sugar levels. They are also an excellent source of Vitamins A, C and K, as well as Potassium.

Carrots, most importantly, are loaded like no other food with beta-carotene. Just half a cup of carrots provide four times the daily protective antioxidant beta-carotene recommended by the United States Government.

Carrots contain a nutrient called falcarinol which provides protection against colon cancer. If you eat carrots daily, you reduce your risk of that disease by 24%.

Eating seven ounces of carrots a day for just three weeks can lower your cholesterol by eleven percent.

Not only does eating a carrot a day reduce your risk of a stroke by 68%, people with the highest levels of beta-carotene in their system have the highest stroke survival rates.

Eating carrots really can improve your eyesight. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A which helps you see better in dim light.

More than 10% of people over the age of 65 develop macular degeneration, which meaning the loss of central vision. Eating a healthy amount of carrots each day reduces your chance of this disease by 40%.

Eating just one regular sized carrot a day reduces your risk of lung cancer by 40%, according to a recent British medical study. New research is also finding that heavy smokers who had a diet rich in beta-carotene were much less likely to develop emphysema than those who did not.

Having carrots on a regular basis makes women only 12.5 to 20% as likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not.

Carrots are high in carotenoids, which regulate your blood sugar levels, making it less likely that you will get low blood sugar ( "sugar cravings") or be fatigued.

Eating one serving of carrots a day reduces your risk of a heart attack by 60%.

Eating carrots on a regular basis provides great protection from senile cataracts (the most common form of cataracts), which is the leading cause of blindness among older people.

People who eat a diet rich in carrots reduce their risk of cervix, bladder, larynx, prostate, and esophagus cancer by 50%.

Carrots' molecules are similar to the human hemoglobin molecules, and assist blood building and the prevention of anemia.

The beta-carotene in carrots is an anti-inflammatory, which means it reduces the effects of arthritis, rheumatism, gout and other inflammations.

Two handfuls (two ounces) of almonds daily can lower your LDL cholesterol (i.e., the bad kind) by 9.4 percent. (One handful of almonds lowers your LDL by an average of 4.4 percent.)

Eating almonds will also significantly increase the vitamin E levels in your plasma and red blood cells. A recent medical study concluded that eating 10 percent of your daily calories in almonds would increase your vitamin E level by 13.7 percent. If you eat twice that amount, the average vitamin E level increases by 18.7 percent. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that defends your cells against damage and prevents artery-clogging oxidation of cholesterol. Most Americans do not get enough vitamin E in their diet.

This means almonds can significantly reduce your chance of developing coronary heart disease. Additionally, studies have shown that adding one or two ounces of almonds to one’s diet does not in any weight gain.

The more you mentally challenge your brain the more new brain cells you create, and the more likely you are to avoid mental impairment as you age.

Reading is one of the best ways to stimulate your brain. Read classic literature that will not only increase your vocabulary, take you to another world, but also bring forth themes that make you deeply reflect. History, Biography, and Self-Help books all provide you with new information and are likely to make you a better conversationalist. Well-written newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal offer an array of in depth topics that will give your brain a challenging two-hour exercise that will enhance your mental capacity on a daily basis.

Continue to confront yourself with new experiences. Visit stores you have never been to before, try new restaurants, listen to music that is unfamiliar, go to museums, and discover areas within a fifty-mile radius of your home that you have never seen. Consciously dressing a little differently a few days a week can also become a fun and challenging experience.

Conversation that is thought provoking and lets you look at different sides of an issue will invigorate your mind and help enhance your logic, creativity, and quick thinking.

Avoiding television may be one of the best methods of preventing Alzheimer’s. It is typically a totally passive and vegetative experience that may actually reduce your mental capacity. After watching TV, your eyes are tired and your brain is zapped from not being able to work. Conversely, just sitting quietly and reflecting will help to improve your thinking and recharge your brain.

The United States is in a health care crisis. As many as forty million Americans have no medical insurance. This breaks down to almost 30% of citizens between 18 and 24, 27% between 25 and 34, and almost 19% between 35 and 44. Almost 10% of U.S. children are not covered by health insurance.

On the other hand, almost every county in Europe including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland provide universal health care to all it’s citizens. Universal health care is also provided in Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.

The major misconception about Universal Health Care is that it is free or inexpensive. The British system costs the average English family $9000 a year. It is estimated that if the United States were to offer coverage similar to Britain’s it would cost the typical family $14,000 a year. This is primarily because of America's high obesity rates compared to other industrialized countries. It must also be emphasized that when a county offers universal care health care it is usually rationed, meaning you can expect long waits for appointments and procedures unless they are deemed an emergency.

The average American now consumes 44.2 pounds of sugar and 40.1 pounds of high fructose corn syrup each year. There is no difference in the way the body processes these two sweeteners. High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener like sugar but is produced by converting corn first to glucose and then to fructose sugar. Sucrose is the chemical name of the sugar from cane sugar. Many scientists think that our increased consumption of sugar and high fructose corn syrup in the last twenty-five years in foods like sodas, ice cream, cereals, and many other processed foods is the leading cause of American’s rise in obesity.

Sugar in any form is bad for us. It is not only without any nutritional value, it actually depletes our body of important vitamins and minerals. Sugar disrupts the acid balance of the blood. In order to restore this balance our body has to use up valuable stored nutrients including calcium, potassium, salt, and magnesium. Because of this sugar, contributes to fatigue, osteoporosis, depression, confusion, and attention deficit disorder. Sugar is also highly addictive.

A representative from the FDA has said foods that contain high fructose corn syrup are not natural because a synthetic fixing agent is required in an enzyme preparation to produce it. Researchers at Rutgers University claim high fructose corn syrup contains compounds that may contribute to diabetes.

For much of last couple of decades, food companies have been using high fructose corn syrup in foods because it was cheaper. Recently, because of the rise of corn prices, sugar and high fructose corn syrup cost about the same amount. As a result, more companies are switching back to sugar. Whichever form of sugar food companies use, you might be better off to think of these added ingredients as poison for your body.

Bad fats are the main culprits behind our arteries becoming clogged. Good fats on the other hand produce good cholesterol, which protect the body from clogged arteries.

If you eat a healthy diet that is low in bad fats, just one slip of eating something high in bad fats like a milkshake or a cheeseburger will likely cancel the positive effects of the good fats you ate that day.

BAD FATS

Fats that are bad for your health and greatly increase the risk of heart disease are called saturated fats and mainly come from animal foods such as beef, chicken, milk, cheese, butter, and pork.

Coconut oil and palm oil are also high in saturated fats.

GOOD FATS

Polyunsaturated fats are good for you and can be found in most nuts and seeds as well as soybeans and olive oil.

438,000 Americans will die this each year from tobacco-related diseases including lung cancer and emphysema.

Dietary fibers make it easy for food to move through your digestive system. Foods high in fiber also absorb much more water than low fiber foods in the intestine. People who eat a high fiber diet usually digest food three times faster than those who do not.

Fiber also lowers bad cholesterol and reduces the occurrence of low blood sugar, which can make you feel hungry. People who regularly eat high fiber foods have much lower rates of colon cancer and polyps in the intestine.

Apples, carrots, oranges, pears, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and raisins all are high fiber foods, and unlike most high fiber breads contain no added sugar.

Remember, high fiber foods also make you feel full faster than other foods.

As humans we have spent most of our million year history facing challenges finding edible plants and hunting animals for our next meal. As a , we were programmed to eat large, high calorie meals, since the time for our next meal was far from certain.

Modern man has little problem eating whenever he feels even slightly hungry, and usually sets aside time for three full meals every day. Combining our recent abundance of high calorie foods with our biological conditioning, it is little wonder that obesity is a huge problem today.

One of our best hopes in curtailing this trend is to eliminate processed foods in our diet and replace them with food that is more natural to our body’s biological needs, such as whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. During most of human history, these foods composed more than two thirds of our diet.

One other method we can employ to control our overeating is to override our impulses for high calories foods through willpower, and create a rewarding experience in our minds by eating natural healthy foods.

Eat lots of carrots. They provide a great carbohydrate buzz, are very low in calories, help prevent many diseases, and are very filling.

Brush your teeth right after you want to stop eating every day. Even if you feel a snack compulsion, you will have strong second thoughts about messing up your clean teeth.

Write down on a small piece of paper what you are “allowed” to eat when hunger temptation strikes – like water, carrots, tomato juice etc. Then place  the list on you wrist secured by a rubber band or string.

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil is unrefined and comes from the first pressings of olives. It helps keeps your good (HDL) cholesterol high and your bad (LDL) cholesterol low.

Nothing is more important to your body than water. Not only are we 60% water in body weight – each of our body’s organs and cells are primarily water.

Each day we lose more than one half gallon (2.5 liters) of water which we must replace. Depending on your weight and size you will need nine to thirteen cups of water to have a healthy body.

Drinks that contain caffeine, such as tea, coffee, and most colas are diuretics, meaning they cause you to lose more water than usual. If for example your body needed 12 cups of water a day to be properly hydrated – you would need 18 cups of a caffeinated drink. (In other words two cups of water are equivalent to three cups of a caffeine drink.) Caffeine also blocks the absorption of vitamins and minerals, as well as causing loss of calcium.

Sudden weakness on one side of the body, numbness or tingling in a leg or arm, and inability to talk or slurring of speech are all potential signs that you are suffering a stroke. More than 150,000 Americans die from a stroke each year, and more than 700,000 are victims of them. The best defense for a stroke is treatment within three hours, usually with clot-busting drugs.

If you are typical beef consumer you might believe that cows live in large pastures, and that grass is their primary diet. The reason you might think this is because this was how beef cattle was raised until recently. Cattle raised this traditional way take three years to mature. Today, however, most cattle are kept in cramped feedlots, and are fed a diet of primarily corn, which makes them ready for slaughter almost twice as fast. As a result, beef is less expensive, and we are eating 50% more per person than we did fifty years ago. A major downside of this according to the Union of Concerned Scientists is that corn-raised beef is far more unhealthy, and has a far higher percentage of saturated fats than grass-fed beef.

First keep in mind whenever you feel hungry nothing tastes as good as being thin.

Second when you’re craving something unhealthy, imagine watching yourself eating it nude in front a mirror.

The average Medicare patient sees seven different doctors, including five specialists who work in four separate practices, each year. This is because most doctors are paid through a "fee for service" system in which visits, tests and procedures are reimbursed separately. Medical practices know the best way to do well in this system is to have a variety of doctors offering specialized services. In 2008, we will spend $500 billion on these services, or about $1 million in payments per practicing physician.