What is Your Diet Costing You?

Over 40 years ago I begin to change my diet when I felt tired all the time. I was teaching first grade at the time and was tired most of the time at the ripe od age of 25!  I  went to two alternative Doctors in Houston,  TX. Mind you forty Years ago the only health food nut we knew was Jack La Lane. So these two Doctors , Dr. Lowell and Dr. Klinkhammer a researcher for the University of Texas school of experimental science then on Blodgett Street were not the norm .

When I walked into Dr. Klinkhammer’s office he began to do something called live cell test. He asked me to rinse a saline solution in my mouth and through the teeth. The results were deposited on his slide.  He then could view my cells activity and health.

While he was viewing my cells in the microscope he looked up at me momentarily and said,” Caroline people are going to find out that cancer and cancer prevention has a lot to do with our diet. He spoke those words when no one had an inkling that diet had to with much of anything.

blood cells healthy and unhealthyHe could look at the cellular membrane and mine at the time did not have definite shape and integrity. (this is not the actual picture of mine..but you can see the picture…the top healthy cells have a definite shape and the bottom ones are irregularly shaped.) Along with other tests that Dr. Lowell did they determined what supplements I needed to help me on the road to health. In fact both Docs liked Shaklee supplements wherever they could use them because they saw the best results at the cellular level.

After my health started to improve I remember I didn’t have to take a nap after school to start dinner and had lots of energy that I had not experienced before….Funny what a good diet and  good supplements do for your body.. Your cells then start to get the nutrition they need to build a healthy body.

 

My Introduction to Food Supplements

Dr. Klinkhammer and his partner Dr. Lowell, introduced me to food supplements. I had been taking vitamins that my gynecologist had put me on…Theragram M a synthetic vitamin. While on the Theragram M I never felt any better..still looked for the couch to lay down as soon as I walked into the door from teaching school.

Dr. Klinkhammer and Dr. Lowell told me that they used Shaklee Vitamins because they saw a definite difference in how patients cells improved. So I begin a regimen of Shaklee vitamins along with the Shaklee Energizing Soy Protein which were important to feed the cells. I remember after a couple of weeks I had more energy and didn’t have to lay down on the sofa before I prepared dinner. So I was convinced that these were different.

Synthetic and natural vitamins look different

When you use something called chromatography you will see that synthetic have concentric lines and natural contain lines radiating out from the center called the life force. In other words there are live enzymes in the product. Below are 2 of Shaklee’s Products…their Vitamin C and their Multi called, Vita Lea

Chromatagrams fo Vita Lea and Vita C

Here is a chromatography of  a synthetic and a natural for comparison…it is easy to see why  whole food supplements like Shaklee get results.

synthetic vs natural vitamins

 

       Why we Call the American Diet SAD

As we age we start to see the difference as our health starts to decline. If a person has gone the SAD Standard American Diet and has not supplemented their diet extra vitamins and minerals they find their health declining around age 40! Below is a chart showing a Harvard study of groups who chose alternative to the conventional . As you can see those that use conventional begin to decline in health at age 40 vs. mid 80’s for those who have chosen a healthy lifestyle.

Harvard Comparison of Morbidity

                 Seniors Spend More on Drugs Than Veggies!

 

Now, about that money… For Americans age 65 and older, the mean annual expenditure for drugs is $798; for medical services, $935; for medical supplies, $200; and for health insurance, $3,186. That’s a lot of cash, especially when you consider that the mean after-tax income for this age group is $43,969, according to our friends at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Now, here’s the truly astonishing part: This same group spends a mere $452 on fresh fruits and vegetables. Put another way: Seniors are spending $346 more on drugs each year than they are on fresh, green goodness. Talk about a misallocation of resources!

Some of you are likely thinking, “But I need those drugs to control my blood pressure, or arthritis, or type 2 diabetes.” Just name your ailment. Frankly, you’d probably be right—at least, in the here and now. I’m not a doctor, nor do I claim to be. But we all know these lifestyle diseases are largely preventable and sometimes reversible with diet, exercise, supplements and stress reduction.

It’s hard to see the big picture, however, when many or most of your friends and neighbors suffer from similar diseases of civilization. It just seems normal to hand over your hard-earned dollars to Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca, etc. And remember, ALL DRUGS have side effects!

Don’t get me wrong there are times when one may need a life-saving drug, however for the majority drugs should only be a temporary solution until one improve their health profile. And pleeeeze do not say oh well if I have adult onset diabetes I will just get a drug. There are healthier ways to control it then drugs by lifestyle changes.

Nevertheless, there is a better place to put that $798 you can direct to  your green grocer first.

Finding Lettuce in Texas… and Screwed up Belief Systems

 

The most common reasons I’ve heard for not eating whole, healthy foods, other than “nachos just taste better,” are: they’re too expensive; or, they’re simply unavailable. To the former, I say: Pay now in food costs or pay later in medical bills and a lowered quality of life. To the latter: High-quality food is difficult to find in many parts of the country, but it is not impossible

 

Even in One of Fattest Cities in America

 

Corpus Christi, Texas, commonly billed as “America’s fattest city.” you can find a farm-share program for $35 per month, Corpus Christi residents can pick up a full basket of seasonal fruits and vegetables biweekly at the Southside Farmers Market, or so I read. But the farm’s proprietor, Rey, who said he’d had to discontinue the farm-share program this year because of what amounted to a lack of demand. He’d had to give away too much of his produce to local homeless shelters for the program to remain profitable. Did You hear that? He had lack of demand for wholesome healthy food!

Locals can, however, still buy Rey’s produce and that of 15 other farmers at the Wednesday and Saturday markets. In short, there is lettuce to be found in Corpus Christi, but folks down there aren’t buying much of it.

 

Cut out the Franken Foods! You Can Opt Out

 

The growing diet industry make dollar after dollar from a chronically overweight and sick population. God gave us a free will to make our own choices  and I support us all having the choice to franken foodsspend life feeling crummy, to buy diet books, quick fix fast weight loss…Hey but you can be skinny and sick as well.

It is okay to start a well rounded program for weight loss  like Shaklee 180 that not only helps you loose weight but keep it off because you have learned the principles of healthy eating.  There are other good programs as well…but give it up for the loose weight fast. Come on it takes a while to gain it and it takes time to make a lifestyle change and lose the weight.

Read my daughter’s post on Jacqui McCoy from the Biggest Loser and why programs like this don’t work for the long run. Jacqui gained back a 100 lbs. in no time because programs like those do not teach life style change

To make matters worse, federal agricultural subsidies have helped make cheap-but-empty calories so cheap that “poor” increasingly means “obese-but-malnourished.”

 

We start children young on making poor diet

Choices in preschool.

 

lunchablesI dropped one of my grandsons off at a preschool and they were serving as a morning snack white croissant rolls and milk! Yikes…talk about a sugar rush…and then of course in the afternoon they give them a sugar cookie! And they are serve once or twice a month lunchables. Do you know how much sodium and food additives are in lunchables?  What happened to real food anyway??

So can you tell me why we have an obesity and health crisis here in America.  Nutrition habits start young and what we give our children early affects health later on in life.

Where does that leave Americans? Overweight, chronically ill, and struggling.

 

 Opt out of the modern American diet.

These guidelines aren’t always easy to follow. Truth be told,  we all deal with those moments of temporary weakness. You know when you are at the super market  pondering the wisdom of buying a pint of banana chocolate ice cream for dinner in lieu of the salmon and veggies but, add the question, “Will this build better health?”  (See comment about desert below)

 

       Tips for Better Eating

  • Sit down at a table and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner—nothing more and nothing less. A car is not a table. A couch is not a table. A desk is not a table.

 

  •  Oh! And turn off the television, or your electronic distraction of choice, during every meal. A bit of conversation, or music if you’re dining solo, will slow you down before a casual meal turns into a feast fit for Emperor Caligula.
  • Don’t eat seconds. Another meal will come your way, and you will not starve to death waiting for it.
  • Never eat commercially processed food. Just don’t do it. What does “processed” mean? Look at the back of your milk carton. Does it have words you can’t read”? If so, it’s commercially processed in my book unless you have a biochemistry degree and know what they mean

There is simply no way to eat enough commercially manipulated food to feel satiated without consuming excess calories. Too many people are fighting this losing battle; they may have minor successes along the way, but they will likely be short-lived. So put down the Lean Cuisine and master or re-master the art of simple home cooking.

  • Eat vegetables with every meal, even breakfast. Ketchup is not a vegetable. I will add spinach to an egg omelet and  or green onions. When I make my 180 Shaklee Smoothie I will add some kale or spinach  and a small part of frozen banana.
  • Dessert is like alcohol; have a little with friends, but never alone. The implicit social pressure to not eat a half gallon of ice cream is enough to keep most people in check, but it’s pretty easy to curl up with a dozen cookies when no one is looking. No judgment; we’ve all done it.
  • Never drink soda, including diet soda. Although artificial sweeteners contain no calories, they trick your endocrine system into thinking you’ve consumed real sugar, triggering an uptick in insulin and ghrelin, a key hunger-regulating hormone. So say “goodbye” to Diet Pepsi and “hello” to club soda and unsweetened iced tea.
  • Eat the full-fat version, not the artificially low-fat or non-fat substitute. Less of the real thing is always more satiating than more of the fake stuff. Who wants to live in a world without real butter and bacon? Not I!
  • Break a sweat every day, even on Sundays. You don’t have to join a fancy gym. Your local YMCA likely has classes geared toward seniors so you don’t end up in aerial yoga next to a 25-year-old former New York City Ballet dancer. (Laugh away, but aerial yoga is a real thing and quite the rage among twenty-something urbanites of means. At $20 or so per class, think of how much they could be saving for retirement instead.)

Plus, if you’re recently retired and missing office camaraderie, a group class is a no-brainer way to get out of the house every morning. Or just take a brisk walk; it costs nothing.

  • Eliminating processed foods is a difficult adjustment for many people. You might not know what else to eat. If that’s the case you’re not alone; there’s communal amnesia about how to cook whole foods that taste, umm… tasty. It’s a skill, but it’s an easily learned skill.

Oh, and lest I forget, even if you like hotdogs, fast food, and pre-packaged anything now, our palates are malleable. Start eating whole foods and after awhile you’ll want to eat them. You may feel like you’re in the twilight zone for the first couple of weeks; just give it time.  You could eventually learn to like broccoli. (I love it roasted actually)

To Your Health,

Caroline Heinemann

 

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