The Amazing Kernel

According to research completed in March 2001 by Dr. K. Phillips of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the sunflower kernel is rich in a number of nutrients that have been shown to protect against cardiovascular and other diseases and to act as antioxidants and anti-carcinogens. When considered in aggregate, this amazing kernel packs a powerful nutritional punch. Sunflower kernels contain high levels of vitamin E, betaine, phenolic acids, and choline. In addition, the kernel is a good source of arginine and lignans. Each of these compounds, while perhaps unfamiliar to the layperson, has been studied by the scientific community and shown to offer a variety of health benefits. Vitamin E (Tocopherols): May protect against cardiovascular disease. Betaine: May protect against cardiovascular disease. Phenolic acids (chlorogenic acid): Antioxidant and anti-carcinogen. Choline: Plays a role in memory and cognitive function. Arginine: Potential heart benefits. Lignans: May protect against heart disease and some cancers; lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride.

Sunflower seeds offer an easy way to add some crunch, taste, and nutrition to a variety of foods. Toss them over your salad, mix them in with popcorn, serve them a la carte, or even add them to your fresh baked, whole grain breads and muffins. To Your Health, J

8 Tips for Avoiding the Holiday Pounds

It's that time of year. The leaves turn majestic hues of red and gold. The air becomes fresh and crisp. We can finally put an extra blanket on the bed and cuddle up with a cup of hot tea. Yes, it's fall. We just spent 8 months killing ourselves to get into that bathing suit, but now we've replaced it with a worn pair of jeans and a much more relaxed attitude towards food. After all, it's the holiday season, and no one'll notice a few extra pounds under layers of clothes. A little extra weight just gives us a New Year's resolution to focus on, right?

Wrong. According to a study by researchers at Sweden's Linköping University, those 4 weeks of celebrating can actually lead to long-term weight gain. Essentially, the researchers took a group of healthy young people, increased their caloric intake by 70 percent, and lowered their exercise levels. They also had a control group whose diets weren't altered. At 4 weeks, the participants in the test group had gained an average of 14 pounds. After 6 months, and no longer on an increased-calorie diet, only a third of these participants had returned to their original weight. After 1 year, the test group members were each still an average of 3.3 pounds heavier. After 2 and a half years, the "gluttonous" group continued to gain, while the control group still maintained a stable weight. Now, most of us don't increase our calories that drastically for 30 days straight. Sure, there's Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving leftovers, Hanukkah, the work Christmas party, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, not to mention the extra sweets, cocktails, and (ahem) fruitcake. But according to the New England Journal of Medicine, the actual average weight gain over the holidays is only 1 pound. (They obviously didn't poll my family or friends.) So what's the big deal? The problem is, a year later, the vast majority of people have not removed that pound. Continue this pattern over 30 or 40 holiday seasons and the problem becomes—quite literally—huge. So how are we supposed to get through the holidays without gaining weight? Here are eight effective ways to get yourself ready to beat the holiday bulge. 1) Buy clothes that fit right now. This first tip might be a bit pricy, but it's a great motivational aid in staving off weight gain. A new addition to your wardrobe in a size that shows off your summer body can be all you need to prevent those extra pounds from creeping on. Imagine that beautiful holiday dress or great pair of pants, then imagine being unable to zip them up thanks to sugar cookies. Yeah, no one wants that. So before you begin the festivities, go buy yourself something perfect to wear to your parties and hang it someplace visible, so it serves as a constant reminder. Perhaps on the TV where you play your P90X®, INSANITY®, or TurboFire® videos, or in front of that treadmill that might be starting to collect a little dust in the corner, or on your refrigerator door . . . that way, if it doesn't fit quite the same way the next time you try to slip into it, you know it's time to get back to work. 2) Write it down. We try to write down everything we eat, right? We spend countless hours each month staring at a food diary, adding up our calories, and seeing if we got the correct balance of macronutrients. And then the holidays happen, and our little book ends up in the bottom drawer. It's almost like we're hoping that if we didn't write it down, it didn't happen. Unfortunately, the scale doesn't fit in that bottom drawer. The truth is, if we would write down the not-so-perfect meals and treats, we could find a way to compensate for them, at least a bit. For example, you have a peppermint brownie in the break room at work, which you know is carbohydrates and fat. Eat one less portion of carbohydrate and one less portion of fat for your dinner. It's not ideal, but it'll help. Or perhaps you couldn't resist Mom's homemade scones for breakfast. You could plan on an extra 20 or 30 minutes of your workout tonight. The point is, if we write it down, and do the math, we can lessen the damage. It isn't a good long-term plan, but to help compensate for a few slip-ups, it can help. 3) Keep exercising. Most fitness trainers will tell you the slowest point of their year is between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Sure, their clients schedule workouts with the best of intentions, but then they cancel them for parties and gift shopping. It's hard to remain balanced when you have a million things to do and gifts to buy. Yet the greatest gift you can give yourself is to stay focused on your fitness

goals and get your workout in. Shopping getting in the way? Do it online and save some time. Parties getting in the way? Just show up later. Who cares if everyone else is a couple of cocktails ahead of you? You'll be healthier, and you won't have to worry about the embarrassing YouTube® videos in the morning. Just stay consistent, even if it's inconvenient. You'll be much less likely to look like Santa (both belly-wise and red-nose-wise) at the end of the month. 4) Eat before parties. Most holiday parties don't focus on low-fat, low-calorie refreshments, so unless you're organizing the event, the best damage control is to show up with a full tummy. Make sure you eat your meals and snacks throughout the day, and try to eat a healthy meal before attending any party. If you're going straight from work, prepare a healthy and filling snack to eat on the way. You'll be a lot less likely to swim in mayonnaise dips and pigs in blankets if you're full. 5) Get junk out of the house. The majority of people don't get into their car at midnight, drive to the store, buy the ingredients for cookies, bake them, and then stay up to eat them. But if those homemade cookies that Linda in accounting made for you are already on your kitchen counter, you better believe you'll find a way to justify it. Frankly, at 12:30 AM, after a rotten day, for most of us there's nothing like a few cookies to drown our sorrows. The secret is to get the garbage out of the house. Send it to work with your significant other, donate it to a bake sale, re-gift it to your 100-pound friend with the perfect metabolism, or just dump it in the trash. Linda will never know. If you have holiday dinner leftovers, box them up for your guests individually and send them home with them. If your family still sends you that Pepperidge Farm® cookie assortment, invite a bunch of people over for a pre-party party and serve 'em up before the drinks. Try not to be wasteful, but get the less-than-healthy temptations out of your reach. 6) Offer to prepare healthy fare. This suggestion won't be well received by those of us who'd rather spend Thanksgiving sitting around watching football than toiling in the kitchen, but if you do the cooking, you have the control. Your family could have a tasty and satisfying meal without ingesting thousands of calories and fat grams. The way the turkey is prepared, the type of stuffing, how vegetables are made,

whether the cranberries are real, and countless other things can make or break the healthiness of a meal. There are tons of cookbooks out there, plus recipes in this and past newsletters, that can help you out. Yes, it does require a bit of work. But you're part of the Beachbody community. You can do anything! 7) Choose wisely and proportionally. Something occurs during a holiday meal. It's like a Las Vegas buffet—we feel like we have to eat some of everything. We feel almost like those foods will never exist again, and this is our last meal on the planet. This year, why not try to eat only your favorites, as in two or three items, and keep the portions to the size of your palm? If you're still hungry, try to fill up on veggies (preferably ones that aren't drowned in butter or cream-of-mushroom soup). If you want dessert, lean toward a small slice of pumpkin pie (220 calories) as opposed to pecan (a heftier 543), leaving out the hydrogenated nondairy whipped topping if possible. If you're going to have an alcoholic beverage, go with a flute of champagne (100 calories) as opposed to that rum-laced eggnog (with more than four times more calories, at 420). Just a few wise choices will save you a ton of calories, and probably a significant amount of heartburn as well. 8) Don't beat yourself up. Quite possibly the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up over a bit of holiday indulgence. Yes, it does stink to backslide after working your tail off. But sometimes it doesn't stink as much as dealing with your mother when you turn down her brisket and potato pancakes. Sometimes, we don't have time to go to work, buy a Christmas tree, decorate it with our kids, make dinner, oversee homework, tuck kids in bed, and spend an hour doing our Beachbody workout of choice. We can only do our very best. Mentally beating yourself up will only make you feel worse, which never helped anyone get back to their fitness program. So if you happen to gain that 1 extra pound this holiday season, be part of the rare group who actually follows through with their New Year's resolution and manages to shed it again. A week of hard work and a slight calorie deficit should do the trick. Resolutions don't come easier than that! A wise person once said, "The toughest part of a diet isn't watching what you eat. It's watching what other people eat." That really is the crux of the problem with dining out in public. When you're surrounded by people who are consuming the equivalent of their body weight in fat grams, it's really tough to stick to that chicken breast and steamed veggies. But if you have a game plan, you're more likely to walk out with both a satisfied tummy and a satisfied mind. So spend a few minutes on researching, on eating, and on exercising beforehand, and be strong when you get there. The effort will be worth it, and you might even be an inspiration to your dining partner. What greater reward is there than that? Oh, yeah—a six-pack.

Virgin Coconut Oil

Virgin Coconut Oil is an extremely versatile and wonderfully delicious tasting oil. Good quality coconut oil is one of the most stable cooking oils, plus it's highly resistant to rancidity. There are many ways to incorporate coconut oil into your diet. It could be used anywhere you currently use any of the "seed" oils (soybean, corn, canola, safflower, sesame seed, sunflower seed); used as a butter for spreads, over popcorn, or for baking; used in soups or 'smoothies'; eaten right off the spoon; eaten as a "candy" or "white chocolate" when refrigerated or frozen; put in coffee or tea; mixed with peanut butter; etc. Good quality coconut oil is also mild on the skin, and used in many areas around the world to both nourish and protect the skin and hair from, among other things, the harsh effect of the sun. Coconut oil has natural anti-oxidants and acts as an anti-oxidant itself. Also, coconut oil is rich in medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which have natural anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. Coconut oil contains Monolaurin, which is the same anti-microbial agent found in human mother's milk. Plus, Caprylic and Capric acids (medium chains), which are relatively and uniquely high in coconut oil, diminish the nutritional requirements for essential fatty acids (EFAs). Our coconut oil is made using a process called the Fresh Centrifuge Process. Fresh-Centrifuge Process is the emerging process benchmark for VCO extraction from fresh coconut meat that prevents contamination, alteration and deterioration of the oil, and retaining its freshness. The VCO produced is practically the same as it exists in fresh coconut meat - fresh smell and taste, no fermentation acid contamination, no peroxide contamination, no aflatoxin, no diminution of the heat-sensitive vitamin E, un-altered fatty acid profile, and high laurin content. It is a wholistic process that starts at coconut growing where and natural farm productivity improvement methods are implemented, and age of coconut fruits are monitored to get the optimum age for harvest (Note: underage and overage nuts contain lesser laurin oil). It employs an innovative process of extracting the oil at fresh conditions using purely physical method of centrifugation or high-speed spinning, thru a specifically-fitted high-speed low-turbulence centrifuge, without use of heating, fermentation and freezing methods of extractions. The final oil is packed in bottles and containers that undergo 100% preventive sanitation and disinfection, and sealed with slight vacuum to maintain freshness throughout shelf life. To Your Health, John

ADDANASSTOMY

Ijust read a blog from one the worlds best streghth and condtioning Mike Boyle and thought I would share it with you. Enjoy the humor and truthfulness.

I’ve got a newsflash that will change the world of
fitness and training forever.

I discovered an essential new operation that be
life-changing. The operation is called an addanasstomy.

Luckily you can perform this operation on yourself with
out the aid of a doctor. In an addanasstomy we take the
average gluteless bench press addicted trainee and we
begin an intensive program of squats and lunges to attempt
to add increase the size of the glutes maximus. Hence the
name. ADD AN ASS TO ME or in this case really to you.

It’s funny, in fitness we always seem to be trying to lose
something. Most of the time it seems to be around the waist.

The truth is that most people need to lose a little in front
and gain a little in the back. Don’t always think about taking
away, think about adding a little, but only in back. The way
most people look these days glutes belong on a milk carton.

I can see it now. Wanted lost glutes. Last seen just before
freshman year of college. The glutes began to disappear the
day you sat down for good and decided never to exercise again.

It was only a matter of time.

It’s so wonderfully rare to see a man or a woman who fills
out their pants properly. Don’t get me wrong, I see lots of
improperly filled pants. You know what I mean. In these days
of thongs and low cut jeans, it is even worse. I think you can
visualize the young girl with the adipose overflowing the top
of the jeans. Had enough yet? This same young girl is always
pulling up her low cut jeans because she has no glutes to
hold them up. For men the beer belly or the plumbers crack
are almost cliché. Both at least an indirect result of no glutes.

The truth is that gl utes are essential to survival.

Low back pain expert Stuart McGill, author of Low Back Disorders,
describes the loss of glute strength and size as gluteal amnesia
( his term, not mine) and goes on to implicate lack of strength
in the glutes for the debilitating back pain that afflicts so many.

The cure for gluteal amnesia is an addanasstomy.

The truth is we sit too much, we take too many elevators, we
skip too many stairs. The result.

Loss of glute function and the relative disappearance of the
bodies most vital muscle. Then to top it off we go to the gym
and do what? Of course, we work on our upper body. No wonder
everyone’s back hurts.

The cure. Squats, lunges, one leg squats, split squats. Hip
extension exercises and bridging exercises.

The good part is that the disease is cureable and that you
can perform the operation on yourself.



Regards,

Mike Boyle

To Your Health,

John Hall

Organic Is Better!

Everyone knows organic is better. You cannot argue that fresh, pesticide free, preservative free, hormone free, and just plain healthy food is better than the junk people are ingesting at their local fast food joints. The only argument one may have against purchasing it more than they do is that not all retailers carry it. That problem can be solved by buying organic food online.

With the advent of the internet came mobile everything – you can have a car washing service come to your door, or even purchase a car to be delivered! You can have a doctor come to your home. You can make an appointment with a hair stylist for you, or even for your dog, to come to your house and make you all pretty. You can also have your groceries sent directly to you, fresh, organic, and ready to become a delicious meal – snacks and beverages too! Organic food online is the solution to the crowded local supermarket that doesn’t have much of what you need anyway.

If you want to take your natural health and beauty a step further, try salon quality personal care products that go beyond the “green” movement and are completely toxin free. You hear people use the old adage that “you are what you eat”, but putting stuff on yourself can be just as harmful as putting it inside of your body. Chemicals are used to change your hair color, not give it the nutrients and cleanliness it needs to be healthy and vibrant. This is not a band wagon to join, this is an entire lifestyle undertaking that will help aid in prevention and being proactive instead of prescriptions and being reactive.

If you are new to this and have been ingesting fatty and unhealthy foods for a while, you may want to research detox diets for weight loss and jump start your new outlook on eating and drinking. What you put in to your body is not just for your satisfaction, but is supposed to re-charge your entire system and keep you healthy from the inside out. Drinking water, getting plenty of sunshine, and eating organic and healthy foods is the best way to keep your immune system, muscles, skin, eyes, and all of your other organs and functions healthy for as long as physically possible.

A secret of the medical community is that they don’t care about prevention. They don’t care that you eat right or keep the right amount of nutrients and vitamins in you. They don’t want you healthy because they don’t get paid unless you are sick. Pharmaceutical corporations are banking on the fact that you will not take care of yourself and need their drugs to help alleviate the symptoms, but surely not find a cure – they don’t want you healthy because then you won’t use their products.

To Your Health,

John Hall

Healthy Snacks For Kids

These days it is so easy to hand our kids a pre-packaged convenience item to munch while we race to get to the next meeting or practice that we are already 10 minutes late for. Parents, we are not doing our kids, or ourselves, any favors by letting them suck down sugary drinks and nutritionally void snacks in the backseat of our cars. Taking just a little time, when we have the time, to prepare healthy snacks for kids will have them feeling and performing better throughout the day’s long schedule.

Good quality cheese sticks are just as easy to reach for as those neon colored "fruit" snacks. Delicious and full of protein, your kid will be satisfied and energized until dinner. Peanut butter is another high protein, kid friendly snack. Spread atop a rice cake or used as a dip for apple slices, peanut butter can be a versatile and tasty mini-meal-on-the-go. Choose a sugar free, natural peanut butter to alleviate any worries about unnecessary additives.

Mix up a batch of “sneaky” muffins to have ready during the week. Throwing a few extra fruits or veggies into a batter for banana or zucchini bread will make a nutritional difference, but nobody but you will be the wiser. Whole grain cereals are also a great, convenient choice. In a pinch, fill up a ziploc bag with dry cereal for munching on in the car. At home, try mixing it with yogurt and fruit to create an easy parfait. Tubes of yogurt can also be frozen into healthy snacks for kids and used to replace those syrupy popsicles and chemical laden ice-cream treats.

Hummus may not sound like a kid-friendly food, but it is a fun and excellent dip for chips (try making your own sweet potato chips with olive oil and sea salt) or veggie sticks. Hummus is also a great source of vitamins and iron and can serve as a sandwich spread in place of mayonnaise.

Include your children while making new snacks. Let them use their imaginations and get creative! If things get messy in the kitchen, don't worry! Kids can have as much fun cleaning up as they have cooking. Kids are more likely to try a new food when they are proud of preparing it with you. Equipped with healthy snacks for kids, we are better prepared to lead our children towards healthy habits for life.

To Your Health,

John Hall

Research Continues To Show Fat Fighting Potential With Whey Protein

New research is showing that supplementation with whey protein may improve your blood lipid profiles and reduce your levels of liver fat by 20%.


A study published in the journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that four weeks of supplementation with whey protein may significantly reduce the markers of fatty liver disease in obese women. This is accomplished by reducing the amount of fat inside liver cells. It also showed that key markers of blood lipid profiles which measure risk for heart disease were also improved.

Fatty liver disease is more frequent in obese patients and is also the hepatic component of metabolic syndrome. It is associated with health issues such as insulin resistance, poor glucose tolerance and high levels of blood lipids.

Other studies similar to this have indicated that higher whey protein intakes may have beneficial effects for fatty liver disease.

Bortolotti and colleagues wanted to test this hypothesis so they studied the effects of 4 weeks of supplementation with 60 grams per day of whey protein in obese non-diabetic females. They consumed 3 shakes per day with 20 grams of whey protein each time.

All the obese participants had BMIs between 20.9 and 52.4 and fat concentrations in their liver was between 1.9 and 20.5 percent of liver volume.

After four weeks of whey protein supplementation the participants liver fat concentrations decreased by 21 percent and their fasting plasma triglyceride levels decreased by 15 percent. Their total cholesterol concentration also decreased by over 7 percent.

According to this study it was concluded that whey protein supplementation improved the markers of fatty liver disease and plasma lipid profiles in obese non-diabetic patients.

To Your Health,

John Hall

PS to purchase the best whey protein go to

Carrots Raise Nutritional Benefits

All our lives we've been told to eat our carrots, they help improve your eyesight. Maybe you've wondered - what exactly is it about the carrot that is good for my eyes? That would be the beta-carotene. In addition to giving the carrot its name and orange color, it also converts to vitamin A in the body which helps improve vision. The vitamin A forms a purple pigment called rhodopsin the eye needs to see in dim light. Rhodopsin production is spurred by vitamin A, raising the effectiveness of the light-sensitive area of the retina.

But that's not all that carrots can do for you. The beta-carotene in carrots is an antioxidant combating the free radicals that contribute to conditions like cancer, heart disease, and macular degeneration. Medical studies conducted in Texas and Chicago indicates that men with the high levels of beta-carotene and vitamin C had a 37% lower risk of cancer than the men with lower levels. Carrots also contain another antioxidant called alpha-carotene. A study conducted in Bethesda , MD concluded that men who consume high amounts of alpha carotene have a lower incidence of lung cancer.

Cooking carrots actually raises the nutritional benefits. The fiber in carrots can trap the beta carotene, making it difficult for your body to extract. By cooking them slightly, you free the beta-carotene, from the fiber, which allows your body to absorb it better. Eating only a half-cup serving per day will give you more than the recommended dosage of beta-carotene. Remember, when you buy carrots raw at the store, you should cut off the leafy tops before storing for maximum vitamin retention. Getting your carrot-a-day is easy, considering the vegetable's versatility and “blendability”. Carrots can subtlety enhance but don't overwhelm. Here are a few ways to put more carrot power on your table.

Cook grated carrots with beans, split peas, lentils, rice, or pastas. Carrots are great in stuffing. Try them roasted - split large carrots lengthways and brush with a little olive oil then put on a roasting tray in a 400 degree (F) oven for about 45 minutes until tender and browned. Try roasted carrots, potato, sweet potato and pumpkin served with steamed green vegetables and a nice sauce.

Toss grated carrot with potatoes for hash browns. (Toss in grated zucchini and minced onion, too.)

Add to sauces, white or red. Grated carrots give body and impart subtle flavor, and they fit any tomato or creamy soup, sauce, or casserole.

Mix finely-ground carrots into peanut butter for a new kind of healthy crunch. (If you want to make a really GOOD Peanut Butter & carrot sandwich, add a few slices of banana.)

Hot & Cold Salads: Sauté onions, green peppers, and grated or finely sliced carrots. Remove from heat and pour your preferred salad vinegar over hot veggies. (It will hiss and steam.) While hot, add to chilled salad greens. Toss and serve.

Herb and Vegetable Bread or Biscuits: To your regular dough, add finely grated carrots; minced onion (dried flakes or fresh green); parsley; garlic powder; sprinkle of basil and pinch of oregano or sage. Top it all off with some dried or pesto tomatoes and a few hearty shakes of parmesan cheese.

To Your Health,

John Hall

The Amazing Kernel

According to research completed in March 2001 by Dr. K. Phillips of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the sunflower kernel is rich in a number of nutrients that have been shown to protect against cardiovascular and other diseases and to act as antioxidants and anti-carcinogens. When considered in aggregate, this amazing kernel packs a powerful nutritional punch. Sunflower kernels contain high levels of vitamin E, betaine, phenolic acids, and choline. In addition, the kernel is a good source of arginine and lignans. Each of these compounds, while perhaps unfamiliar to the layperson, has been studied by the scientific community and shown to offer a variety of health benefits.
Vitamin E (Tocopherols): May protect against cardiovascular disease.
Betaine: May protect against cardiovascular disease.
Phenolic acids (chlorogenic acid): Antioxidant and anti-carcinogen.
Choline: Plays a role in memory and cognitive function.
Arginine: Potential heart benefits.
Lignans: May protect against heart disease and some cancers; lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride.
Sunflower seeds offer an easy way to add some crunch, taste, and nutrition to a variety of foods. Toss them over your salad, mix them in with popcorn, serve them a la carte, or even add them to your fresh baked, whole grain breads and muffins.

To Your Health,

John Hall

Weight Gain vs Cancer Risk

Research from the UK shows that maintaining a healthy weight may decrease a person’s risk of developing up to a dozen different types of cancer by very significant margins. The study’s lead author is Dr. Andrew Renehan, senior lecturer at the School of Cancer Studies at the University of Manchester. The findings were published in the February, 2008, issue of the prestigious UK medical journal, The Lancet.

The researchers analyzed data from 141 previous studies with information on over 280,000 people who were followed for up to 15 years. This approach expanded the research to more types of cancers and more diverse populations than researchers had ever looked at before. Researchers have long suspected a link between weight gain and certain cancers, including colon and breast cancers. But the new study suggests it could also increase the risk for cancer of the esophagus, thyroid, kidney, uterus and gall bladder, among others.

The study results show that in men, an average weight gain of 33 pounds increased the risk of esophageal cancer by 52%, thyroid cancer by 33%, and colon and kidney cancers each by 24%. In women, a weight gain of 29 pounds increased the risk of cancer in the uterus and gall bladder by nearly 60%, esophagus by 51% and kidney by 34%.

“This study provides a lot of circumstantial evidence about the dangers of obesity,” said Dr. David Robbins, a gastroenterologist at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, who was not involved in the study. “It also highlights the cancer crisis we face as obesity rates increase worldwide.”

“One of the hypotheses is that the presence of excess fat cells could affect the levels of hormones in your body,” Renehan said. “At a cellular level, that may favor the development of tumors in humans.”

“The simple message is that, if you manage to keep a healthy body weight, you will have a lower risk of developing cancer,” said Ed Yong, of Cancer Research United Kingdom.

If you would like to lose weight once and for all – the first step is understanding the true cause of an overweight condition - and the many myths about weight loss that are so prevalent today. For more info you can contact John Hall: John@johnhallstudios.com or call 312.421.6640

To Your Health,

John Hall

Quinoa - The Mother Grain

Quinoa, though not technically a cereal grain like wheat or oats, has been cultivated and eaten as a cereal for thousands of years by South Americans. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is the tiny seed of the Chenopodium Quinoa, a leafy plant that is a distant relative of spinach and beets.

Quinoa was called the "mother grain" by the Incas (chisiya mama). Now, as people in the rest of the world learn more about Quinoa, they're discovering that its ancient nickname was well deserved - Quinoa is indeed a nutritional powerhouse.

Quinoa's protein content, about 16 percent, is higher than that of any other grain. Wheat also has a high protein content, about 14 percent, but the protein in wheat and most other grains is lacking in the amino acid lysine, which Quinoa has in abundance. In fact, the amino acid composition in Quinoa is almost perfect. The World Health Organization has judged the protein in Quinoa to be as complete as that in milk. In addition, Quinoa contains more iron than most grains, and is a good source of calcium, phosphorus, folate, and many B vitamins. Eating a serving of whole grains, such as Quinoa, at least 6 times each week is an especially good idea for postmenopausal women with high cholesterol, high blood pressure or other signs of cardiovascular disease.

A 3-year prospective study of 229 postmenopausal women with cardiovascular disease, published in the July 2005 issue of the American Heart Journal, shows that those eating at least 6 servings of whole grains each week experienced slowed progression of atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque that narrows the vessels through which blood flows and lss progression in stenosis, the narrowing of the diameter of arterial passageways.

To Your Health,

John Hall

Yams & Heart Disease

Yams are a good source of both potassium and vitamin B6, two nutrients that your body needs every day. Vitamin B6 helps your body break down a substance called homocysteine , which can cause damage to blood vessel walls. High intakes of vitamin B6 have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Potassium is a mineral that helps to control blood pressure. In the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) study, one study group ate servings of fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy food in place of snacks and sweets. This approach offered more potassium, magnesium and calcium. After eight weeks, this group lowered their blood pressure by an average of 5.5 points (systolic) over 3.0 points (diastolic). Yams also contain a storage protein called D ioscorin .

Preliminary research suggests that Dioscorin can help your body to achieve increased kidney blood flow thereby reducing blood pressure.

In addition, Yams' complex carbohydrates and fiber deliver the goods gradually, slowing the rate at which their sugars are released and absorbed into the bloodstream. Because they're rich in fiber, yams fill you up without filling out your hips and waistline. Yams are also a good source of manganese, a trace mineral that helps with carbohydrate metabolism and is a cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defenses.

To Your Health,

John Hall