The Eat for a Future Today Diet

Eat for a Future

OK Kids the biggest risk to your health is heart disease. Heart disease is affecting younger and younger people every year. Here is a strategy to minimize your risk, if you are young and healthy and want to stay that way learning now to Eat for a Future might be one of the most important things you ever do. It is most very significant for the young person whose health has been compromised. Today more and more of our young people are facing serious health challenges at younger ages. NEVER doubt for a moment that all life is created equal and precious. You who feel marginalized, overlooked, spurned by the in-crowd have more in common with the stressed weight obsessed young social butterfly than you know. The isolation and loneliness so many of us live with is a crushing burden. A burden that is harder and harder to bear if you develop vitamin deficiencies, weight control issues and health problems. Unfortunately the skinny among you can have just as much or more to worry about when it comes to blood pressure. If you: smoke, eat too many salty food/snacks, don’t exercise, and eat poorly you may be at even greater risk of High blood pressure.

The thing is that having a larger perspective and imagining a future that is healthy and happy is something you can and should do. You must value your life, I know it’s hard sometimes to care about tomorrow in this screwed up world but take it from me when you are really standing face to face with your mortality the vast majority of you will wish for the choice to choose life. Take pleasure in the small things, be the best person you can be. I have tried sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully to inspire those close to me to eat in a healthier way. Imagine if you will that you have been told that unless you change your habits that you will develop a terminal illness. How does that make you feel? Like a large foot just kicked you in the stomach? Well my dear, it is quite literally true that unhealthy lifestyle will kill you sooner or later. The problem really is this; for you cynics out there that say “I don’t care.” You think that dying young is preferable to dying sick and old, but you don’t get it yet; you will be young and sick and dying.

The most difficult hurdle to cross is accepting that you have to make a change and following through with the desire to change. My eldest son was critically ill during the blackout of August 2003 with life threatening antibiotic resistant pneumonia; learning at the age of 19 that life can be fragile was a difficult lesson for all of us.

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Friday’s Reflection -Earth

Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and the dawn seen over the ocean from the beach.

Henry Beston ‘The Outermost House’See  http://www.henrybeston.com/index.html

our south seas voyage

Spring is renewal and I feel the awakening of the earth in my soul. As we look for a reason to hope you can find it if you hold yourself above the fray and refuse to get caught up in the contagion of doom. Turn the TV, radio off. Turn inward & just tell yourself defeat is not an option.

Don’t I get depressed? Damn right I do, who could be a cancer survivor given a poor prognosis & not get down now & then. Who could look at the headlines & see the impact of the planet’s peril and the world economy peril & not get depressed. I am here to have a conversation with my sons and anyone else who cares to and I am telling you, We can hope for a better future, We must get off of our collective asses and do something. Don’t sit there and whine about the state of the world if you’re not willing in the smallest way to take responsibility and do ONE thing.

There is inspiration all around us, if you need some there is Veronica Guerin the Irish reporter who took on the Drug lords of Ireland and almost single handedly was responsible for the cleaning up of some neighborhoods in Dublin. (The Movie Veronica Guerin with Kate Blanchett should be at your local video store)

In the wake of Guerin’s death, the Irish parliament realised the potential of using tax enforcement laws as a means of deterring and punishing criminals. It then enacted the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996 and the Criminal Assets Bureau Act 1996, so that assets purchased with money obtained through crime could be seized by the government.

I tell my kids this is the ‘Power of One’. One person can make a difference; start small, help a friend, a stranger- “pass it on”. Take a bag to the park pick up garbage, once, twice or even every time you go. Be kind, above all be kind, you will be amazed how contagious it can be.

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Smells make me sick!

Ever been shopping in one of those enticing kitchen or decorating stores  having a lovely time browsing around until you come to the section selling candles and pot pourri.  If you are really sensitive you couldn’t even walk in the store, sometimes though these scent laden aisles or sections take you unaware, you’re feeling great until suddenly your head starts to ache and you begin to get nauseated.  I know that for many it takes a long time to isolate what made you suddenly sick when out shopping -delayed reaction or moving fast gets you past the culprit area. Honestly I wonder if there is any “Sense” in shop owners who bombard you with smells the second you step into their space. I am more than likely to turn around and leave after the first whiff. Unfortunately candles and pot pourri aren’t the only smells to trigger this aversion. Smells from: perfumes, some colognes, detergent, bar soap, skin care, moisturizers, hand cream, some fabric softeners, cleaners, traffic exhaust, insecticides, paint are the most likely candidates for people suffering from sensitivity.

For years I suffered from migraines without realizing that the votive candles I liked to burn at night were triggering migraines, or my obsession with lysol and other cleaners to de-germ everything was making me chronically sick.  Some reactions to smells worsten over time. I can’t go near Ivory Snow, Dettol and most men’s colognes.

Chemical and fragrance sensitivity is a rapidly growing problem for many people in the workplace and often as soon as leaving ones home.  Once you have developed  fragrance irritation it is most likely you will become more sensitive over time with repeated exposure.  Certain chemicals may trigger sensitization at high levels of exposure resulting in sensitivity at a much lower level.

Cancer and sensitivity to smells. Why is there a “fragrance free” sign in many doctors offices and intensive care wards? Many patients undergoing chemo are acutely sensitive to smell. So sensitive that even the smell of food can trigger nausea. Morning sickness ++++.  Store owners everywhere would be well advised to remember the following numbers:  in the U.S. 1,437,180 new cancer cases in 2008,  in Canada 166,400 new cancer cases in 2008. (from American and Canadian Cancer Society) Most of these people are walking around trying to live normal lives while so many businesses and employers are oblivious to the daily challenges they face. It is hard enough to fight cancer without being made sicker by the smells around you. Worldwide there are an estimated 100-150 million asthmatics. In the U.S. the number has risen by 60% since the 1980’s. Many asthmatics (up to 95%) have attested to smells being likely to bring on an attack.  While many of the same smells affect Asthmatics as Smell Sensitives the result can be life threatening for the asthma sufferer whose airway can constrict when exposed to certain smells.

The majority of products such as cosmetics, household cleaners and laundry products contain fragrance. There is further exposure from air freshener & scented candles. There is little known and even less control of the components used to make up the fragrance in a particular product. Fragrance is increasingly cited as a trigger in varied conditions from allergies, asthma to migraine headaches.  Fragrance are volatile compounds the effects of which are just beginning to be understood.

http://www.hrmguide.net/canada/law/fragrance-sensitivity.htm

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