6 Principles to Health
The following is taken from the philosophy of the CHEK Institute, where I have one of my certifications from. I have changed some of the wording to fit my perspective, but the overall philosophy is all here. This would be an overview of the basics the health, wellness and getting fit. There are of course other technical factors that also need to be addressed, such as hormones, food intolerance, medications, digestive issues and other other factors that could be pushing the system into toxicity and a high physiological load, or stress. All these issues could easily be put in these major topics as sub-topics. Read on and allow this to be some food for thought.

Taking Responsibility For Your Health
Creating the Foundation
Lets face it…most people spend their day running from one thing to the next, only to end their day feeling completely defeated and unaccomplished! As a society, we tend to live in a victim consciousness, unaware of the idea that we have choices…subdued into believing that the only person capable of keeping us well is our doctors…NOT TRUE! The choices we make around our health, and how we CHOOSE to care for ourselves, directly influences our ability to manage the stress of life, increase our vitality, and prevent illness!
In this post, we would like to offer a little insight into 6 principles of wellness that, when practiced, allow you to create your personal foundation on which to build health and live your life exactly as you desire it to be!

6 Principles to Health

Thoughts/Emotions
Each and every day the very first thing we do upon waking is experience a thought! Every feeling, every thought-every emotion we experience sends a message to each and every cell in our bodies. Some messages are more intense and more deeply-seeded than others, but, each cell is nonetheless affected either positively or negatively! As the Law of Attraction states: we attract into our lives whatever it is we think about and dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest

Breathing
After you wake up and have a thought, the second thing you do is breath. Most of us yawn, as well as have an increase in respiratory rate secondary to the release of Cortisol (a stress and awakening hormone). The average person breaths 20K times/day. If you are stressed or you are a chest breather, you breathe 40K times a day. It is believed by many health and medical circles that stress is one of the largest factors in the health and illness spectrum. Proper breathing is one of the primary modes/tools to help decrease stress and circulate the whole system into balance.

Hydration
Most wake up and race for the coffee. What you could do and need to do is go for WATER! You have been dehydrated for 8hrs and coffee is only going to exacerbate that dehydration leading to headaches, constipation, decreased concentration and performance. There are 10K reactions in the body and ALL require water!

Nutrition
You ARE what you eat…and can only be as good as what you put in your body! Over 2 billion cells are replaced every second in your body, those cells are made up of the very nutrients, or lack thereof, that you choose to ingest. As well as quality of foods, quantity, or ratios of macronutrients, is different for everyone as we all possess a uniqueness in the way our bodies are able to breakdown foods. Through the use of Metabolic Typing, we are able to identify exactly what foods and in what ratios are right for ourselves. This process assists in burning fat, restoring energy and vitality and maintaining a proper balance in blood sugar reducing excess load on the body!

Exercise
What are the right types and how much do you need? This is the most confusing area for many. Some work out too much and some don’t work out at all. The CHEK Institute teaches all professionals on taking great care and consideration on an individuals overall physiological load when assessing and designing programs. We each have individual demands we must meet each and every day, this in and of itself will create muscle imbalances, overload the joints and ligaments and eventually leads to injury. Working smarter not harder and the Less Is More principle ensures great results, purpose and increased motivation, eliminates pain and increases functionality and performance!

Circadian Rhythms
This is a fancy word for sleep. The cycles of light and dark that result from the movements of the sun and planets affect nearly all living creatures! Anytime light stimulates your skin and eyes, regardless of the source, your brain and hormonal system are immediately activated and the body releases cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone which when activated prepares the body for movement, work, combat or whatever might be necessary for survival. Sleep is our bodies only opportunity to rebuild and repair…if your not sleeping, having interrupted sleep cycles or work graveyard shift, you are not rebuilding and recovering.

Bottom Line
We all can do our own part in keeping ourselves healthy and fit. Maybe this could be part of the solution to the national health care debate! Let’s help prevent ourselves and other people from falling off the wellness cliff in the first place and help one another stay on the playing field of health. We can all be empowered to take care of ourselves and motivated by others around us, if we were to work as a team whether that be your friends, co-workers, family or neighbors. Support yourself to support others around you and the energy will surely come back to you! And remember, we all need different things to stay strong and healthy and its up to us as individuals to discover and respect those differences that make us who we are. It is not an exact science and it does not mean “all or nothing”, a little bit of consistency can go a long, long way. Or there’s the 80/20 rule. Take care of your self 80% of the time and 20% the time give yourself a treat and let loose.

As always, be good to yourself! ; )

I have clients asking me about artificial sweeteners and its effects on metabolism, cancer, epilepsy, you name it. So I decided to delve into the arena of artificial sweeteners and try to get a grasp on its effects, benefits and consequences of regular use. What I got was just the tip of the ice burg when it comes to all the differing opinions and studies related to this topic. So what I have here are a few excerpts from a few articles I thought to be the most straight-forward and clearly written in their explanations.

Side Effects

According to the National Cancer Institute, the definition of an artificial sweetener is; “Artificial sweeteners, also called sugar substitutes, are substances that are used instead of sucrose (table sugar) to sweeten foods and beverages. Because artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than table sugar, smaller amounts are needed to create the same level of sweetness.”
The article on the National Cancer Institute website continues…
“Is there an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer?
Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer arose when early studies showed that cyclamate in combination with saccharin caused bladder cancer in laboratory animals. However, results from subsequent carcinogenicity studies (studies that examine whether a substance can cause cancer) of these sweeteners have not provided clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans. Similarly, studies of other FDA-approved sweeteners have not demonstrated clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans.
What have studies shown about a possible association between specific artificial sweeteners and cancer?”
From here I can only send you to the website where the article breaks down the above question in detail. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

Metabolism and Blood Sugar Levels

“My particular concern is that artificial sweeteners are 200 to 13,000 times as sweet as sugar, and that is a potent stimulus for turning a sweet tooth into a fang,” Dr, David Katz told Oprah.

A few things I found on Wikipedia

A 2005 study by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio showed that increased weight gain and obesity was associated with increased use of diet soda in a population based study. The study did not establish whether increased weight leads to increased consumption of diet drinks or whether consumption of diet drinks could have an effect on weight gain.[7] DeNoon, Daniel J. Reviewed by Charlotte Grayson Mathis MD. “Drink More Diet Soda, Gain More Weight? Overweight Risk Soars 41% With Each Daily Can of Diet Soft Drink”, WebMD Medical News (2005), accessed 2007-06-25

Animal studies have indicated that artificial sweeteners can cause body weight gain. A sweet taste induces an insulin response, which causes blood sugar to be stored in tissues (including fat), but because blood sugar does not increase with artificial sugars, there is hypoglycemia and increased food intake the next time there is a meal. After a while, rats given sweeteners have steadily increased caloric intake, increased body weight, and increased adiposity (fatness). Furthermore, the natural responses to eating sugary foods (eating less at the next meal and using some of the extra calories to warm the body after the sugary meal) are gradually lost.[8] Swithers SE, Davidson TL (2008). “A role for sweet taste: calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats”. BehavNeurosci 122 (1): 161-73. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.122.1.161.

The following are a few excerpts from an article on Women To Women .com; the exact web page is listed at the end of the article.

Sugar substitutes and the potential danger of Splenda
by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

Short-circuiting the insulin spike

Basically, artificial sweeteners confuse your brain. The enzymes in your mouth begin a cascade that primes your cell receptors for an insulin surge, and when it doesn’t arrive your brain feels cheated. That’s why most diet sodas are loaded with caffeine – so you’ll still feel a jolt.
But even if your brain is distracted momentarily, soon enough it wants the energy boost you promised it – and you find yourself craving carbohydrates. In one study, people who used artificial sweeteners ate up to three times the amount of calories as the control group. But again, this is individual. It all comes down to the brain’s perception of calories, which can get thrown off whenever artificial ingredients are substituted for whole food.

In my practice I’ve seen that many patients are better able to break their addiction to sugar and maintain weight loss with the help of sugar substitutes. This is probably because insulin is not involved. Also, the substitutes are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, so you may use less of them. In certain cases, I think moderate use of artificial sweeteners is okay – as long as you feel well.

But you should know that sugar substitutes don’t have to be artificial. There is another way!

Stevia and sorbitol – natural alternatives to artificial sweeteners

Other countries and diabetics have both taught us a lot about controlling insulin naturally. For many years, diabetics have used products sweetened with polyalcohol sugars like sorbitol, xylitol, malitol, and mannitol. These are natural sweeteners that do not trigger an insulin reaction. (Xylitol can be derived from birch tree pulp.) They have half the calories of sugar and are not digested by the small intestine.

While most polyalcohol sugars have no side effects, sorbitol is a natural laxative and can cause diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, bloating and flatulence.

For this reason, we recommend the herb stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) over sorbitol as a natural sweetener to our patients. Known in South America as the “sweet herb,” stevia has been used for over 400 years without ill effect. Stevia has been enormously popular in Japan, where it has been in use for more than 20 years, now rivaling Equal and Sweet’N Low. It’s 200-300 times sweeter than sugar, so just a small portion of stevia will sweeten even a strong cup of tea.

We’ve known about stevia in the US since 1918, but pressure from the sugar import trade blocked its use as a commodity. Today stevia is slowly gaining steam as a sugar substitute, despite similar hurdles. The FDA has approved its use as a food supplement, but not as a food additive due to a lack of studies. Stevia can be used for anything you might use sugar in, including baking. It is naturally low in carbohydrates. You can buy stevia at most health food stores and over the web. There will always be those who have a sensitivity to a substance, but based on reports from other countries it appears to have little to no side effects. For women who want to move through their cravings for sugar without artificial chemicals, stevia is a great option.

More importantly, you can do a lot to support your body in other ways to reduce your dependency on sugar and sugar substitutes – something I encourage every woman to do. Once your body returns to its natural state of balance, you may find that you can toss out those artificial sweeteners and put sugar in its proper place: where you have control over it and not vice-versa.

Artificial sweeteners are chemicals, not food! They have no calories because they don’t nourish your body in anyway – they’re toxins your body has to clear, or, depending on how well you detoxify, store. But if you can’t live without your diet drink, don’t beat yourself up about it. Accept it and give your body extra support elsewhere.

http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx

Low Glycemic Sugar Alternatives

There is yet another approach to all this once you have curbed your sweet tooth and sugar cravings and that is to go low. Another sweetener that your body can process but that does not create an insulin spike is agave nectar. This is the syrup from the agave cactus that is used to produce tequila. Every alcoholic beverage is created from fermenting a sugar and these sugars have different effects in the digestive and metabolic system. Agave nectar (found in most health food stores and Trader Joe’s) is a perfect alternative because it can give your brain the sugar effects it wants (mostly) but without there being the risk or spiking of an insulin response. Agave nectar still contains carbohydrates in the form of sugars, just that these sugars in small doses are not as reactive as regular table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc… This also means, that your brain will not crave the “real deal” if you try to fool it with the non-sugary, sweetness-only stuff.
Also, a great fruit that can help curb your sugar cravings are berries. Berries tend to be low on the glycemic index and also provide a nice assortment of vitamins and anti-oxidants. And again, these are not fooling the brain of sugar, you are getting sugar that in low quantities will not create an insulin response.

Bottom Line

As you can see there is quite a bit of information and studies out there related to artificial sweeteners and natural sweeteners. Everyone is different and your body’s response to any kind of sugar, artificial sweetener or low glycemic carbohydrate will be different. It is a matter of experimenting on what works for you and you alone based off activity, metabolic type, current health conditions, potential family health inheritance issues and how sugary/sweeteners make you feel overall. One thing I always encourage all my clients to do is 1. Get rid of the sweet cravings and 2. Get rid of the processed food cravings. Once these two dietary roadblocks are conquered, eating clean won’t feel like a chore or a punishment because your system will start to feel so much better on real foods, and I mean real foods 95% of the time.