Posts Tagged ‘nutrition’
Posted by terrepruitt on June 12, 2012
I mentioned in my Stuff Happens In Life As Do Moments that I had to rearrange my Nia class schedule because of “stuff”. The stuff that was happening required me to be visiting someone in a hospital. There was surgery involved in the situation and the situation required a “nutrition plan”. As with all surgeries and most medical situations the patient should be eating healthy food. The word HEAL is even in the word HEALthy. One of the “food stuffs” the patient was given to consume was “Health Shake”. I was curious as to what kind of health could be delivered in a carton. Well, after reading the ingredients it was confirmed that there is none – at least not in this carton.
The first ingredient is skim milk. At this point, I will not comment on that. Skim milk and dairy in general will probably be a topic of separate post, but for now, I am sticking to this “Health Shake”. The next ingredient is actually a good one: water.
The next five ingredients and/or additives were what caused me to have a conniption fit in the hospital room. I could not and cannot believe this carton of disgusting stuff is fed to people who are ill and need to receive nutrients to heal their bodies.
This to me is a huge glaring prime example of why so many people are sick in America. If this is what is consindered healthy and nutritious we are truly doomed.
CORN SYRUP, CORN OIL (WITH BHA/BHT), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SOY PROTEIN ISOLSATE!!!!
There isn’t actually any nutritious food in this carton. I didn’t even look at the “nutritional value” because to me there is none. NOT ONE IOTA! Genetically engineered sugar, with genetically engineered oil — that contain preservatives that most counties have banned, with more genetically engineered and further chemically altered sugar, with some genetically engineered protein.
The ice cream they served later was much healthier than this “Health Shake”. I really am completely disgusted with this item. I am disgusted that they are feeding it to a person who needs nutrients. I am even more disgusted that it is called a “Health Shake”. If they called it a chemical shake or liquid crap, I don’t think I would be so upset.
I was even more upset when later on I saw a straw in the carton — meaning the patient actually drank it. Now, let me remind you that I am not a perfect eater. I eat processed foods. I work to avoid food with high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup in them, but I do eat processed foods. But to say that these ingredients are healthy is shameful. To feed a body that needs healing a carton of chemicals is sad.
I just saw this statement:
“The U.S. does not have a healthcare system. Rather, it is a ‘Sickness System’ where the system thrives on people being sick. Far more profit is generated by sickness than health.”
And with this “Health Shake” being given to people in the hospital I am thinking it could actually be evidence that the statement is true.
Many of us have different ideas of what we think is healthy, but I am guessing that most people could look at this list of ingredients and agree that this is nothing but a cacophony of chemicals that really have no nutritional value.
Would you choose to drink this? If you were in a hospital and given this to drink would you think to read the ingredients? What do you think about this?
Posted in Food | Tagged: BHA, BHT, chemically altered, corn oil, corn syrup, genetically, heal, health, health industry, health professionals, Health Shake, healthcare system, healthy food, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, hospital, hospital food, hospital visits, Nia, Nia class, Nia Class Schedule, nutrition, nutrition plan, preservatives, processed foods, skim milk, soy protein, surgery | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 10, 2011
The other day I mentioned something about a particular food being poison, my friend “pishawed” me saying it really WASN’T poison. So I started thinking that maybe I had been a bit harsh so I looked up the definition of poison. What came up was wiki and it states, “In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms”. So now I don’t think I was being harsh.
In the context of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)*, Canola Oil, partially hydrogenated oil, and so many of the CHEMICALS that make up our food, I think it is pretty accurate calling them poisons —- if you are of the belief they disturb our natural healthy body functions. If you believe that HFCS actually does interfere with the production/the release of leptin which is the agent that helps notify the body it is full; if you believe genetically modifying a rape seed so is has “less” than the normal of the bad acid AND includes a pesticide so the insects won’t eat it; if you believe partially hydrogenated oil aka trans fat increase the LDL** levels and LOWERS the HDL*** levels; then I believe it is perfectly reasonable to say it causes disturbances to organisms or in short is poison. But that is only IF you believe any of that stuff.
There are a lot of things that we COULD call poison if we want and be accurate; alcohol, antibiotics, medicines, etc. These things also interfere with our bodies systems, but they are not consumed ALL the time. If they are . . . there are issues, as you can agree in the case of an alcoholic. An alcoholic’s body does not function properly and a lot of health issues generally arise. Too much antibiotics without the proper counter measures can lead to OTHER types of infections or issues. So it is, we ingest these types of “poisons” with care, caution, and infrequency. But it is difficult to do that with our food.
There are so many chemicals, our food is sooooo over processed, so much of our food is genetically altered a lot of it can be considered poison . . . in my opinion. So, was a I being harsh? No, I don’t think so. Could be that if we start looking at what our food is doing to us we might see the need to change things. Food is supposed to be NUTRITION, but ours is not so much any longer.
As I always say, I don’t eat perfect. I am working hard to reduce my consumption of overly processed foods, things with HFCS, Canola Oil, and partially hydrogenated oils in them. I believe by reducing my intake of these things cause disturbances to organisms, I am allowing my body to get more out of the food I eat.
What do YOU think? Was I being harsh by calling something that has HFCS, Canola Oil, AND partially hydrogenated oil in it poison?
*HFCS or the new name “corn sugar”
**LDL = Low-density lipoprotein, commonly thought of as “bad” cholesterol
***HDL = High-density lipoprotein, commonly thought of as “good” cholesterol
Posted in Food | Tagged: Alcohol, antibiotics, bad cholesterol, Canola Oil, corn sugar, food being poison, food CHEMICALS, good cholesterol, HDL, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, LDL, leptin, nutrition, over processed food, partially hydrogenated oil, rape seed | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 27, 2010
My husband broke a vase last night. As he first starts to read this he probably won’t be too happy because this post might appear to be about him and this blog was not supposed to be about us, it is supposed to be about Nia, and health, fitness, and nutrition. I have noticed that my posts that are strictly about exercises and working out don’t get as much traffic as the ones that are about life’s situations. There are so many sites and blogs about ways to exercise and workouts to do, so I am thinking I will do more posts about situations that connect to health and wellness, like this one. It is not about my husband, but about me and how I feel I have progressed to assist with my own wellness.
Used to be a broken vase would greatly upset me, but I think of myself as getting better with stuff like that. He was in a hurry and was doing something nice for me (very nice*) and he accidentally knocked a vase down. Oh well. I sighed. I was sad for a moment. He even said, “Vases are like that, ya know? They break.” Which is true and truly funny at the same time. But for me, just going on with the evening is different than I used to be about a decade ago. I am a “stuff” person so I used to lament over broken things. Sometimes I do a little still, but I am learning—still.
I was wondering what to write today when I was rushing around trying to bake some banana bread for a friend who donated to my MS Walk. Guess what I did? I broke a vase. I laughed. Then I was sad. But then I was happy because, “Vases are like that, ya know? They break.”
I know that often times it is so much healthier to let things go, but honestly it is not always easy. Once upon a time I would have been so upset about the vase last night that I would have allowed it to ruin the evening. Because accidents seem to happen when people are rushed (see the first sentence in this paragraph). If I would have had a fit last night I would have ruined the evening AND had a totally impossible time dealing with the vase I broke today. It would have been, “What? It’s not ok for my hubby to break a vase, but when I do it, oh well?” Yeah, right. And we were both trying to do something for someone else.
So . . . . sigh. I feel so much better that I had a nice evening last night with my hubby. I will also be able to have a nice evening tonight too because he will just be able to tease me about breaking a vase, but I won’t be apologize because I was a jerk when he broke one. So instead of getting upset (over something that really is not worth getting upset over) I let it go which actually helped me health-wise because I didn’t have a ball of anger inside. That helped keep the evening open so that we could have a nice evening. I am not worrying about how I am going to explain to him that I can break a vase and he can’t.
Being able to let things go and just move on away from it is a good thing sometimes. Because really in life vases ARE like that, ya know? They DO break.
*This is what my husband was doing when the vase broke. He had gone outside in our yard and cut some flowers for me. Usually he just gives them to me to put in vases, but I was busy cooking so he was being super nice and putting them in vases too. Sometimes life it like that too, homegrown freshcut flowers brought to you by your love.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: fitness, health, letting go, Nia, Nia exercise, Nia fitness, Nia wellness, Nia workout, nutrition, vases, wellness | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 13, 2010
Ahhhh, so what are you thinking? Friends that you have all your life? Yeah, no. This is about friends for LIFE. As in friends for health. As in friends for well being. It is very important to have good friends. The definition of “good friends” is vast and we can have a lot of “good friends”, but I believe that we all can benefit from friends that we can connect with.
Most of us have an array of friends in our life, we have people we call friends but they might REALLY be categorized as acquaintances. We have friends that call us when they need something, and friends we call when we need something. We have friends that annoy us and friends that don’t. We have friends that we might not think of often, but that we are very fond of. And, when we are lucky we have friends that fill us up. That make us feel good. They make us feel grounded and connected to humanity.
These friends could agree with us when we need it and tell us to get it together when we need that too. They could agree with us on something and disagree with us on others. They can see our faults and ignore them or try to help us with them, but either way, they are there and they are our friends. I believe that is vital to our health. I believe that sometimes life needs to be suspended—in between appointments, and kids athletic games, around the Nia classes, the gym, and the yoga practice, regardless of work and responsibilities–you need to be with those types of friends.
Enjoy time visiting with these friends no matter how frequent or infrequent it is important to connect, to refill, to recharge. It is awesome.
It is as important as good nutrition and exercise . . . . .at least, I think so . . . . I think there are friends for life.
Do you believe that friendships play a role in life/health?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: athletic games, connected, exercise, friends, grounded, gym, humanity, life, Nia, Nia Classes, Nia Practice, nutrition, yoga classes, Yoga Practice | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 13, 2010
We have a certain expectation of things in the United States. We have the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates Biologics, Cosmetics, Drugs, Foods (except meat and poultry), Medical Devices, and Veterinary Products so we expect a level of safety. Did you know that supplements are NOT required to be tested and/or approved by the FDA? There are NO “clinical trials” or safety inspection administered by the FDA that a supplement is required to pass. Most supplements aren’t even required to be so much as registered.
An Act was signed into law back in 1984 by President Clinton, the Dietary Supplemental Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that makes the supplement manufacture responsible for self regulation. The supplement manufacture is to make sure the product is safe and pure, with NO policing. No one checks on them. This is a $27 Billion business (it could be more that figure is the only one I could find and it is from 2007–three years old).
There are rules about the labeling and so they are “supposed” to be truthful in their labeling. The FDA steps in where there is a problem (as in reported deaths or mass illnesses), but there is no testing done by the FDA to ensure anything about the supplement before it is marketed and used by the public.
I just find that so amazing. I wanted to share it with you because even though I know this, I still forget. I would think that if you are concerned enough about your health and wellness that you want to take a supplement, I would check with your doctor to see if you really even need to be taking a supplement. They are expensive and you might be getting all the nutrition you need from your diet. That is actually the best way, but I understand that it not always possible. I would advise people to be careful. I would suggest that one way to be careful would be to buy supplements that are manufactured by trusted companies. I like to think that a well known, well trusted company is going to produce a safe quality product.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: diet, dietary supplements, FDA, health, nutrition, nutrition supplement, President Clinton, supplements, wellness | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 29, 2009
You know when you are feeling tired or can’t make it through a workout think about what you have eaten. It really makes a difference. We don’t have to rely on the experts to tell us that, just think about it. There are a lot of ways people can eat, vegan, raw, vegetarian, etc., but stepping away from a diet that has a name and just trying to eat less processed foods and foods that are less processed can really make a difference in how you feel.
If you pay attention to how you feel for a week or so, then try to cut out some of the processed foods that you normally eat you will notice a difference if you take note.
Sometimes you might not need to adjust your workout or the exercise it could be just fine, it could just be that you don’t have the proper nutrition to fuel your body. A blog is not the place to get informaiton on what your body actually needs because everyone is different. I am just suggesting that you take a look at your diet and see if you could make a few adjustments to get better NUTRITION and see how that affects you. If you want specifics you need to see a nutritionist or work with a personal trainer.
Sometimes we think we are eating healthy because the packaging claims it is “natural” or “wholesome”, but the truth is more processed foods are just full of chemicals. Just look at what you are eating. Check the INGREDIENTS, not just the big words on the package that make claims.
I believe that good nutrition affects your ENTIRE body: you physical body and your mental state. If your body has property nutrition you have more energy and you FEEL better. You can actually make it through a workout without just wanting it to be over, and then that makes your body feel good and then your mind feels great because you feel like you can conquer the world.
We were at a gathering today in San Jose with a lot of good food. Not too much processed food. A lot of vegetables. I am sure I am going to feel great tomorrow. Good nutrition makes a difference.
Posted in Food | Tagged: Good nutrition, nutrition, San Jose exercise, San Jose Personal Trainer, San Jose Workout, work out San Jose | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 2, 2009
My blogging intent was to blog about healthful things, exercises, nutrition, but I keep thinking that readers might like other things too. And I keep thinking of things I want to share. I have so much I keep learning about Nia, we are doing more things in San Jose, and life is just full of stuff. I am going to try to start posting three times a week instead of two. I think that I am going to keep up with my opinion on healthful things on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but on Thursdays my posts will be different. We will see how this all goes.
With my first post that is less-in-the-realm-of-wellness-and-the-like will be simple. I wanted to share, that my house smells like flowers. I love Star Gazers** and recently (almost two weeks ago), my husband bought me some. He bought roses and Star Gazers, but the Star Gazers have lasted longer. And they make our living room and dining room smell so nice.
You cannot walk down the stairs or sit on the couch without getting a big whiff.
They are so gorgeous. What is your favorite flower?
**Lilium “Stargazer” (the Stargazer lily) is a hybrid lily of the Oriental group according to Wiki
Posted in Flowers, Star Gazers | Tagged: exercises, Flowers, hybrid lily, Lilium, Nia San Jose, nutrition, Oriental group, San Jose, San Jose Nia, Star Gazers, Wiki | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 14, 2009
I love to eat roasted asparagus. I like it when it is really cooked, not burned, but crispy. It is probably past the point of supreme nutrition, but that is my favorite way to eat it. I do like it at its most nutritious, too, boiled until it is tender not soggy. I haven’t always liked asparagus. I believe the way vegetables are cooked now is different than from when I was growing up. Plus, I believe that it is much easier to obtain a fresh vegetable now than when I was growing up.
Apparently the season is from March through August, but we eat it all year round. To me it tastes better during the “Asparagus season”.
One of the reasons I love to eat it roasted is because it is so easy to cook. I rinse it off, then chop off the ends—I don’t do that bend and break thing because holding the entire bunch in one hand and chopping with the other is much faster to me — then I line them up in a pan (I have a jelly roll pan). I sprinkle olive oil on them. I usually use garlic infused olive oil, but sometimes I go for the lemon olive oil. Then I salt them and use whatever spices I feel like, then in they go. I usually cook them at 400 degrees. I let them bake for 15 minutes, then I flip them. And let them go 15 minutes more, but you can take them out at anytime and they are delicious. Sometimes I cook ‘em less, sometimes I cook ‘em more. Depends on my mood and when the rest of the meal is ready.
Nutritional Value per 100 g (3.5 oz) as per USDA Nutrient database
Calories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Carbohydrates . . . . . . . . . .3.88 g
Sugars . . . . . . . . . .1.88 g
Dietary fiber . . . . .2.1 g
Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.12 g
Protein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.20 g
In addition Asparagus contains Thiamine (Vit. B1), Riboflavin (Vit. B2), Niacin (Vit. B3), Pantothenic Acid (Vit. B5), Vitamin B6, Folate (Vit. B9), Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, and Manganese.
Seems to me like they are way worth the time and effort it takes to cook them.
What is your favorite way to cook asparagus?
Posted in Vegetables | Tagged: Asparagus, Asparagus Season, boiled, Calcium, calories, carbs, easy to cook, fat, fiber, garlic, growing up, infused oil, Magnesium, nutrition, nutritional, nutritional value, nutritious, olive oil, Potassium, protein, roasted asparagus, spices, USDA, USDA Nutrient Database, Vegetables, Vitamin B, Zinc | 8 Comments »
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