Bovine Colostrum

I read a lot of diet books in my line of work as you might imagine - some of them are plain daft, some of them are pretty sensiible if you can stick with them but I never really thought about the cost of doing them.

After all, people coming to me for coaching are not really thinking about the price of the food the eat, more about working out how not to eat it...

Now and again, I do look at the difference in prices in the shops between the cheap mass produced foods and the expensive imported fruit and veggies in my basket but I never regret spending the extra.

Then I heard this week that Forbes have done a study of how expensive diets are - how much it costs to eat the diet rather than buy the program - and they found the average diet is way above the cost of an average budget for food - in some cases double.

But what do you do if you can't afford to spend so much? Is there an answer?

Well there is - But it's not so easy. It takes time. And imagination if you're not going to get bored with it all.

Nevertheless, if cost is an issue, you may want to skip the formal dieting altogether and just eat on good principles:-

• skip the junk - that should save you money
• drink water rather than anything else - ditto
• fill up on cheaper fruits and vegetables - they are usually the ones in season locally which are usually healthier anyway - and wholegrain carbohydrates - they are the ones with the goodness still in them
• cook yourself rather than eating out
• bulk out soups, casseroles and stews with vegetables and pulses
• eat only what you need and no more
• cook double and freeze the rest for another day - otherwise buy just what you need and avoid wasting food
• learn to cook with herbs and spices to add variety to your cooking. Find recipes online or in books at your local library.

In fact, needing to save money or not, those principles wouldn't do any of us any harm.

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I was reading an article that claimed that eating ice cream might help woman get pregnant. I know, it sounds crazy and you might be led to believe that I was reading one of those crazy tabloids out there, but according to the article a study from the well known Nurses’ Health Study showed that eating two ice cream servings a week reduces a woman’s risk of infertility by approximately 38 percent.

Although scientists were able to observe the dramatic increase in percentage, to this date they are not able to figure out why. However, it is obvious that the fat in the ice cream and in other full fat dairy products or perhaps a substance inside the fat seem to help the ovaries function properly. Of course, I am not making this up. Dr. Chavarro who is a fellow in the research department at Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, backs up this research according to the article I read.

The same Dr. Chavarro also found that woman that get their daily iron from pasta, cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables, had a better chance of not suffering from the risk of infertility, as supposed to those who got their iron from chicken, beef and fish. He attributes this finding to the fact that pasta may encourage egg development, and that there is the possibility that the fat on meat limits iron absorption.

http://lookstare.com/blog///index.php/Health?cat=60

One of the things that concern me the most about traditional medicine and its treatment protocols is that most of the drugs that are prescribed have major side effects. For instance, I was reading that the drug REQUIP (Ropinirole Hydrochloride) which is used to treat moderate to severe Restless Legs Syndrome, and some time is used to treat Parkinson’s disease, has some minor side effects that I think should be looked into by those who are about to use it.

The possible side effects of REQUIP are:

Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, drowsiness, sleepiness. Some patients also show urges to gamble, increase sexual urges, and hallucinations.

As always consult a licensed health care provider to discuss this side effects or any other questions that you might have. The content provided here is solely for informational purposes only and was not meant to treat or diagnose an illness.

Research into the existence of a gene which controls fat formation continues apace with new information coming to light regularly in the scientific press.

Whether a fat gene exists or not (and I do think it is harder for some people to lose weight) will not make a jot of difference to you and your body.

The only thing which makes a difference is how much and what you eat and how much you move.

You can decide you have fat genes and give up or you can take action and succeed at losing weight.

Yes, it might be harder for you than your best friend or your partner but there's no point in comparing yourself with them. Do what you need to do to lose that weight.

Sometimes my clients fondly imagine they have a fat gene - when they are really just eating too much and not moving enough.

On the other hand, if you have a treatable medical condition such as a thyroid problem which makes it extremely difficult to lose weight no matter what you do make sure that you see your doctor for help.

'Skinny Gene' Does Exist, UT Southwestern Researchers Find

A study of 24 middle-aged men in Canada has shown that rigorous exercise can shrink your waistline even if you eat calories to compensate for all the activity you do.

The men did aerobics for an hour, five times a week for three months and were told to eat additional calories to cover the amount they were burning.

The waist size of the men shrank by an inch whether they started out as slim or obese.

Another benefit of exercise to stack up with all the others.

Yet, just think what would have happened if they hadn't eaten the additional calories - they'd have lost about 15 pounds of fat too. What a waste of three months exercise!

Charlotte Observer | 09/09/2007 | Study: Exercise helps, even without weight loss