Good Fats, Bad Fats
When most people think of fat in their diet, they immediately think BAD. We’ve been conditioned to believe that all fat in the diet is bad. This simply is not true. Fat is an essential nutrient; what matters is what kind of fat it is. Good fats can work wonders; bad fats indeed will destroy your health. A no-fat diet is a disaster. Without any fat in the diet, your body would react in a multitude of unhealthy ways, such as destroying your gall bladder and having your hair fall out. So the healthiest strategy is to minimize bad fats and go ahead and indulge (in moderation) the good fats. Remember that all fats, good and bad, contain lots of calories, 9 calories per gram. The difference lies in how heart-healthy the individual fats are.
Good fats in your diet can actually help you lose weight and avoid a whole range of diseases including heart disease and cancer. Nutrition experts insist that if suddenly all Americans were to switch from bad fats to good fats, we’d see huge results and be much healthier. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is loaded with bad fats and short on good fats. Bad fats do indeed wreck havoc with our health. It’s the bad fats which promote obesity, heart disease, cancer and other ailments. Bad fats are not needed by the body at all but good fats are essential. Every one of the six billion cells in your body requires good fats to function properly.
So which are the good fats and which are the bad fats? Put in the most simple terms, saturated fats and trans fats are bad, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are good in varying degrees.
The term saturated refers to the molecular composition of the fat molecule. A fat is saturated if the outer electron shell is full (saturated) with electrons. The fat molecule also contains hydrogen atoms paired with carbon atoms. If only one pair exists, it’s a monounsaturated. Polyunsaturated means there are multiple bonds. But don’t worry, you don’t have to understand molecular biology in order to eat healthy!
In general, saturated (unhealthy) fats are solid at room temperature. Think of butter. It’s as saturated as a fat can get and it remains hard at room temperature. All saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Olive oil, which is a monounsaturated fat, is liquid at room temperature. Corn oil, a polyunsaturated fat, is also liquid and room temperature. In general, monounsaturated are the healthiest fats and polyunsaturated fats come in second. (See list below) Monounsaturated are considered the healthiest because they help raise your “good” cholesterol (HDL) and lower the “bad” cholesterol, (LDL). Polyunsaturated will help lower overall cholesterol, but it lowers both the good and the bad.
All saturated fats and trans fats are bad. Saturated fats include any fat of beef origin, like butter or beef fat (lard). Dairy products originate with beef, so the fat in a dairy product is saturated. Any solid shortening is a saturated fat. Saturated fats and trans fats are both dietary disasters.
Trans fats are a manmade invention, and are a good example of how sometimes people know just enough to be dangerous. When it was first discovered back in the 50’s that heart disease was caused in part by saturated fats, food scientists took to the lab and created trans fats; this is when margarine was born. Today, trans fats are in almost every processed food on the store shelves. Initially, they thought trans fats would be a healthy alternative to saturated fats, but they were wrong. Most nutritionists today admit that trans fats are bad and might even be worse than saturated. Trans fats are present whenever you see the phrase, “partially-hydrogenated.” Food labeling laws do not yet mandate than trans fats be listed, so you have to read labels carefully.
Cholesterol is often considered a bad fat, and it certainly is bad if it’s clogging your arteries. However, the cholesterol clogging your arteries primarily comes from eating saturated and trans fats, not from eating cholesterol laden foods like eggs. Cholesterol is made by the body and is actually considered an essential fat. The food industry uses this confusion to their advantage. Many food products are labeled “cholesterol free,” yet they’re loaded with saturated or trans fats so unsuspecting consumers think they’re buying a heart-healthy food. WRONG. Although you don’t want to eat a lot of cholesterol, what you really want to avoid are saturated and trans fats.
Monounsaturated: (The healthiest type)
Olive oil
Canola oil
Peanut oil
Avocado oil
Almonds
Pecans
Polyunsaturated fats: (Second healthiest type)
Corn oil
Safflower oil
Sesame seed oil
Soy oil
Sunflower oil
You might have heard of the so-called “Mediterranean Diet,” which is what folks in countries like Italy, Greece and Spain eat. A typical Mediterranean diet includes 30-40% fat but since most of the fat comes from olive oil, those countries have significantly less heart disease and obesity than the United States.
Lorraine Grula is a seasoned medical journalist with over twelve years and hundreds of health reports to her credit. Lorraine writes consumer-oriented wellness news from a natural health perspective. A rebel against the corrosive effects of big pharma and corporate media on the integrity of most health care news, Lorraine vows to provide objective, scientifically accurate, easy-to-understand practical information so consumers can form their own conclusions. Visit her website FeelingGood4ever.com FeelingGood4ever.com
Acne Skin Care
Acne is the scourge of the teenage years and a source of great distress and embarrassment at an age when young people are most conscious of their appearance. Almost no teenager, or adult for that matter, is spared a prolonged period of acne problems.
Pubescent girls are generally affected to a more serious degree because of the hormonal upsurges associated with the onset of menstruation. Basically, acne is the result of increased hormonal activity, which causes excess oil production in the skin’s sebaceous glands. Unfortunately, the areas most affected by acne are those which are almost constantly visible with today’s youthful fashion trends.
In extreme and far from rare cases, acne can lead to extensive and permanent scarring. Because of the emotional trauma attached to this disorder, it has assumed top priority status among problems that must be avoided at all costs, but this is easier said than done.
It has now been proved that oil-saturated foods, chocolate, poor skin hygiene and emotional upset actually play no role in acne occurrence at all, so there go a number of time-honored prevention targets. In fact, the most widely employed means of addressing the problem of acne – camouflaging cosmetics – are actually among the main acne aggravators. Many of them cause subtle skin changes that exacerbate acne occurrence. They can also cause the obstruction of the sebaceous glands, thereby preventing the free drainage of excessive oils. Often, this even applies to some of the so-called acne-prevention compounds.
While there is apparently very little an individual can do to prevent acne, there are now effective methods of treating it medically. However, for optimal results, these must necessarily be employed before serious disfigurement can take place. Since these treatments may involve hormone manipulation, they must take place under strict medical supervision.
e-acnecare.com Acne Care provides detailed information about acne care, acne care skin tips, acne skin care centers, and more. Acne Care is affiliated with i-acne.com Acne Skin Care.
Acne-Pimples-Zits-The Simple Facts And The Cure I Discovered
What is Acne – Pimples – Zits: The skin has numerous pores in it, sometimes oil’s, dirt or other things can cause these pores to become clogged, swollen, and red, this condition is called pimples.
What causes Acne in some people: Some folks get plastered with acne as a teen, while others carry some right into adult years, and yet others seem to hardly even get one pimple. Some folks swear that drinking a lot of soda causes outbreaks, while others blame chocolate. These may be more likely skin reactions or allergies to the products, instead of real acne. Because, How can drinking soda or eating chocolate cause ones pores to become clogged and infected ? Some folks say acne is also hereditary, I found out this may not be true also, since I have known parents who had very little acne problems growing up, but their children seemed to be covered with them as teens.
My secret discovery that stopped Acne – Pimples – Zits: I want to start right away by saying when I was a child and teen I started getting acne like most of us did. I tried the major brands of medicated pads and creams, they all helped a little but not much. Then I stumbled upon something that made almost all of my pimples go away for good. I stopped using all soaps on my face. Once I stopped using soaps my skin soon cleared up and I was never really plagued by acne again. Of course I would get one once in awhile or a rare boil someplace, but the acne never came back like it had done before. I often wondered how many teens and even adults that are plagued by acne, constantly wash their faces using soap, to clean their pores, not knowing that the soap may be the real cause of the acne. Of course this may not work for everyone, but when I stopped washing my face with soap, my acne stopped. If soap does not appear to be the cause of your acne, there are several products to try, such as: zeno, acnease, accutane, stridex, zenmed, triclear, tetrasil, astara, phytome, neutrogena, biore, phisoderm, and others.
Should you Pop Acne – Pimples – Zits: Everyone is different when it comes to this. I myself have popped the occasional ones I get, and when I did it always seemed to make them go away much faster then letting them do it themselves, and I have never had a scar form from doing so. But this is up to each of you, if you want to pop then pop, if you fear it, then let it alone. I also have had the occasional hard boils on my face over the years, these I have jabbed with the point of a clean needle then squeezed the junk out of them, once I did this they seemed to go away rapidly also.
How to make Acne – Pimples – Zits invisible or a lot less visible: First of all let me say I am a guy and not a girl, probably the strangest thing in my medicine cabinet is a small body of womans cover-up cream. I use it for hiding any rare pimples, boils, red skin areas or bites I may get on my face or forehead area. If you have fair colored skin, like I do, then you know how much a red sore or pimple stands out, it’s almost like a flashing neon sign saying ‘look at me!’. I found out when I was married, that a little dab of cover-up cream rubbed on the pimple or red spot, makes them almost disappear. Now the hard part is, finding a female to buy a bottle of the stuff for you in the store, so you don’t feel embarrassed if your a man like I am, of course when I was married, I bought worse things at times.
There is a website that provides cures, facts and other great information on Acne and numerous medical conditions, the website is called: All About Health, and can be found at this url:
rb59.com/medical-health-info
By Robert W. Benjamin
Copyright © 2007
You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter, or on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.
Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software business on the internet for over 5 years, and has been producing low-cost software for the past 25 years. He first released products on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970’s-80’s.
End times Prophecy News
rb59.com/prophecy-news rb59.com/prophecy-news
Homeopathic Relief from Arthritis Pain
If you suffer from arthritis, you already know that this joint disorder creates symptoms of inflammation, stiffness, and pain. These symptoms can range from mild stiffness and discomfort to debilitating pain and significant loss of range of motion.
As a boy, I looked on with great dismay and a sense of powerlessness as a close family friend suffered from a debilitating case of arthritis. He tried everything conventional medicine had to offer — from harsh drugs (some with awful side effects) to radical joint surgery. But none of these treatments stopped the advancing march of his arthritis.
Around the same time, I was seriously injured in a car accident. Conventional medicine saved my life by keeping my bodily systems functioning while I was in a coma, and putting me back together with state-of-the-art surgical techniques. However, after the acute trauma was past and side effects of certain drugs started to weigh heavier than their limited results, I began to explore natural health remedies to aid in my rehabilitation.
Homeopathy: Rapid and effective healing without dangerous side effects
That is when I discovered homeopathy, which uses all-natural and well-researched remedies to activate the body’s own natural healing powers. Unlike many over-the-counter and prescription drugs, homeopathic protocols work by stimulating and rebalancing our immune systems to marshal our bodies own healing powers.
Some of the standard over-the-counter drugs commonly used for arthritis are naproxen, ibuprofen, and aspirin. The range of known possible side effects listed for these drugs includes: damage to the stomach and intestines, nausea, indigestion, heartburn, bloody stools and vomit, muscle cramping, seizures, open ulcers in the mouth and too many more to list here. For a complete list of possible side effects of these individual drugs, go to drugs.com/” target=”_blank www.drugs.com, do a search for the drug, and scroll down to side effects.
Part of my deep interest in homeopathy is the fact that homeopathic remedies are not associated with dangerous side effects. This, coupled with the effectiveness of homeopathy, has led to its growth in the United States at a rate of 25-50% in recent years, making it the second most turned to choice for healing after conventional Western medicine.
Safe natural health remedies for arthritis
A few years ago, my grandmother started taking a new drug for arthritis. After taking this drug for several months, she suffered a minor stroke. She stopped taking it and a short while later the drug was pulled from the shelves for causing strokes. That’s when she came to me seeking a safer, more effective approach to her arthritic pain. I provided her with a topical formula applied directly to her inflamed arthritic joints. Happily, while the lotion provides quick relief from localized pain and helps her stay active and healthy, she no longer has to struggle with potentially dangerous side effects.
My mom was also experiencing arthritic pain — although not to the degree as my grandmother. I shared several homeopathic remedies with her as well as the topical remedy blend that worked for my grandmother. She, too, has found relief — but is careful to use it only when the arthritis flares up. Unlike conventional medicine, homeopathic remedies stimulate the body’s own chemistry to provide natural relief. In many instances only a few doses or applications are required. Some of the remedies I have seen used successfully for arthritis include Apis, Lithium Carbonicum, and Benzoic Acid.
Of course, the cornerstone of homeopathy is the constitutional remedy. While self-treatment thru the use of specific remedies will provide relief from symptoms, the most thorough approach is to visit a homeopathic practitioner who will work with you to uncover your body’s unique constitutional remedy. This type of natural health remedy will naturally work on the root causes of your body’s challenges, which will in turn work on the symptoms. Ultimately, the constitutional remedy will promote general well-being and provide overall balance. This natural, holistic approach to healing with homeopathy is extremely effective.
Take control of your natural health
Staying active and functioning well has been of enormous value to my mother and grandmother. And the fact that Homeopathy offers us an effective alternative to drugs with dangerous side effects, gives us a feeling of empowerment and confidence in taking charge of our health. If you suffer from arthritis, I encourage you to experiment with homeopathic remedies and to develop a relationship with a homeopathic practitioner. You just may discover that you can banish the pain from your joints without relying on potentially dangerous drugs or surgeries.
Jason Fleming is a dedicated student and advocate of homeopathic medicine. As founder and CEO of sympathical.com/ Sympathical Pharmaceuticals, Jason is pushing the boundaries of traditional homeopathic knowledge by creating and testing homeopathic remedy combinations that enable people to get natural relief from a variety of common health conditions.