Nikkis Blog Spot

Heartburn (acid reflux) is very common and affects around one in five people, some may experience an attack of heartburn every day, and some may experience an attack once or twice a week.

Many people, not understanding the cause of heartburn will go to their GP and will be prescribed antacid medication. Unfortunately, these antacid tablets won’t act in treating or curing the problem, but rather will just suppress the symptoms and alleviate the pain.

With any illness or disease, it’s first important to understand what has caused the problem, or what is causing the problem to occur. In the case of heartburn, the problem begins within the stomach; before food travels from the stomach into the small intestines, hydrochloric acid and other digestive enzymes are released. If not enough hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes are produced, the food will sit in the stomach in a partially digested state, it will begin to rot and become acidic. It’s this rotting of food within the stomach which causes acid reflux to occur; the food will become acidic and make its way back into the esophagus.

In order to ensure food is digested and assimilated efficiently in the stomach, it’s important to have adequate amounts of digestive enzymes, while simultaneously eating a healthy diet rich in alkaline fruits and vegetables and low in refined and processed foods to assist in the functioning of a healthy body, the growth of good bacteria and the constant stream of digestive enzymes.

Being deficient in digestive enzymes can lead to many serious health issues, in which taking medications for heartburn will never fix. There are three different classes of enzymes and all of them within the body are needed to assist in the healthy function of organs, tissues, metabolism, digestion and chemical reactions which take place. If these normal body functions are compromised due to the lack of essential enzymes within the body, many illnesses, diseases and health related problems can and probably will occur.

Some food sources rich in digestive enzymes include;

• Apple cider vinegar (raw, un-filtered and with the mother)
• Probiotics (good bacteria)
• Vegetables (especially dark green vegetables)
• Fruits (i.e. pawpaw, pineapple)
• Nuts and seeds
• Raw foods

Implementing a natural approach to treating heartburn can cure and prevent future attacks, medication alone will only continue to suppress symptoms and make matters worse.

Consuming refined and over processed foods will not fuel the body of beneficial nutrients and enzymes, and will only assist in feeding bad bacteria growth and decreasing the state of your health. Significantly reducing or eliminating these food sources while consuming a diet rich in raw foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, will keep your body alive with essential nutrients and enzymes.

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If you want to achieve healthy, vibrant and clear skin, you need to protect it and provide your body with the substances it needs. After all, the skin is the largest organ of the human body.

You can’t drive your car without petrol, you can’t play piano without a piano, and you can’t have healthy clear skin without providing the body with the essential nutrients it needs.

For many, many years, dermatologists, doctors, nutritionists and scientists have all denied any link between nutrition and acne. Not so recently has research been conducted which clearly shows the link between nutrition and acne. The reason? What we put into our mouths affects how our body functions, whether the food we consume is good for us or whether the food is bad for us, it will affect the state of our hormones, insulin and overall health.

High GI sugar, for example, will spike insulin levels; this is something I’m sure most people reading are aware about. The insulin hormone influences the action of almost every single cell in the human body and considering that our body is completely made up of cells, this is a pretty serious function of the human body and research has extensively shown that consistent altering of the insulin hormone from the consumption of high GI foods, is the cause of nearly every degenerative disease known to man, including but not limited too;

* Cancer
* Alzheimer’s Disease
* Parkinson’s Disease
* Diabetes
* Heart Disease
* Osteoarthritis
* Inflammatory Bowel Disease
* Arthritis, and
* Aging

To understand how acne can be caused, and cured by nutrition, check out this short article in a PDF document written by Dr. Loren Cordain. Loren Cordain is the scientist behind the extensive research conducted on the relationship between diet and acne.

Good nutrition is extremely important for good health, it is therefore also extremely important to keep the functioning and vitality of the skin.

Some of the fundamental nutritional requirements needed to keep skin looking healthy include:

Oxygen

We obviously need oxygen to survive, but if you exercise on a regular basis you will be increasing your overall oxygen intake. Too much oxygen can cause an increase in oxidation within the body, ever seen a marathon runner who looks 50 when they are 30? The points below on antioxidants and carcinogens are extremely important to apply in order to prevent the increase in aging of the skin which can be brought on by excessive exercise.

Water

Our bodies are made up of 60-70% water. Dehydration can affect the appearance of skin, causing it too lose plumpness, become itchy, cause dry cracks, cause roughness and/or flake or bleed. Dehydration can also be a condition caused by outside factors; weather and skin products have the potential to dry or dehydrated skin.

Good fats and oils

Good fats such as coconut oil and fish oil play an essential roll in keeping skin looking vibrant and young. Good fats participate in keeping the skin elastic, connective tissues strong, oily and hydrated while calming irritated skin, providing antioxidant protection and in some cases restoring damaged skin.

Antioxidants

Free-radicals are un-stable electrons which attack the cells in our body causing them to weaken and potentially become diseased. Free-radicals can be created through normal daily activity, such as breathing, eating and exercising, however free-radical damage can increase the more you are stressed, the more you breathe in chemicals and pollution, smoke, eat junk food and don’t get an efficient amount of sleep.

Antioxidants work by combating the free-radicals which bombard our system on a daily basis, reducing the rate of cellular destruction which causes aging and disease.

Fruits and vegetables are the best source of antioxidants. Within the beauty industry there is a big push to take synthetic vitamins such as A, C and E within topical creams, however if you’re not actually ingesting these vitamins through the intake of fruits and vegetables and other natural antioxidant sources, your body will never be able to absorb enough antioxidants through the skin to actually prevent cellular destruction and damage.

Protection and reduction of carcinogens

Carcinogens increase the rate of free-radical damage. Chemicals are one of the worst carcinogens for the human body as they easily make their way into the system and start destroying cells at a rapid pace.

Chemicals are found everywhere, in food products, in supplements and in beauty products. Fairly recently a study found many shampoo’s and lotions contained the chemical 1,4-Dioxane, which is very well known for causing cancer. Many other chemicals are found in products you probably consume or use on a daily basis; toothpaste contains fluoride (read article titled Toothpaste Warning), look at the ingredients list for your shampoo and conditioner and chances are about 90% or more of the ingredients are chemicals alone. Most shampoos, conditioners and toothpastes will contain the extremely harmful chemical sodium laurel sulfate (SLS), which acts as a foaming agent. SLS is extremely well known for its carcinogenic effects in damaging the formation of the eyes; potentially causing blindness, causing cancer and causing skin irritations.

By following the tips mentioned above along with a healthy diet and lifestyle, your amount of cellular damage will significantly be reduced and the functioning of healthy cell renewal will take place, as a result your skin will be healthy, vibrant and young.

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Agave nectar is a natural sweet syrup, similar to honey and is commonly produced in Mexico from the Agave Americana plant, also known as Century Plant.

Pretty much all agave nectar that can be purchased is natural; which means it isn’t over processed and doesn’t contain added ingredients such as sugar and colours. It’s the natural state of agave nectar which has been associated with medicinal properties including; fighting bad bacteria including pyogenic (a pus producing bacteria on the skin) and feeding good bacteria.

Agave is probably mostly well known for being the ingredient which makes Tequila; the same species of agave (blue agave) which high quality Tequila is made from is also used to make high quality agave nectar; however the nectar doesn’t go through an alcoholic fermentation process, so it doesn’t consist of any alcoholic properties.

The sweetness of agave can be up to four times sweeter than refined sugar, which means when cooking with agave you only need to use around 1/3 cup agave to every 1cup of refined sugar in an original recipe. In addition, the carbohydrate content in agave nectar consists of 90% fructose and has a low glycemic index within a range of 28-32; honey has a glycemic index of 58. This places agave nectar as a healthier option over refined table sugar which has a glycemic index of 65.

The reason why high glycemic index foods should be eliminated/reduced within our diet, is that almost every disease known to man can be linked back to a diet too high in carbohydrates and sugar. Some health declining effects listed in scientific publications which are associated with excess sugar in the diet include;

• Lowered immune system strength
• Increased inflammation
• Cause of acne
• Inhibited absorption of certain minerals
• Decreased tissue elasticity and function
• Feeds cancer cells
• Weakens eyesight
• Causes many problems within the gastrointestinal tract
• Causes Candida
• Increased tooth decay
• Can cause autoimmune diseases
• Contributes to obesity
• Increases rate of aging
• That’ll do! But trust me, there are many more health risks associated with excess sugar

Consider trying agave nectar next time you bake or want to sweeten your coffee or tea. Some brands that make agave nectar include Spiral Foods, Maretai and Wholesome Sweeteners.

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There are still many people who have negative associations with anything that contains ‘saturated fat’. I believe this mainly is conceived through the belief that saturated fat from animals raises blood cholesterol levels and causes heart disease. However, there is no evidence showing that too much animal fat in the diet promotes heart disease. In-fact there is over 20 studies that have shown people who have had a heart attack haven’t consumed more fat than people who have not had a heart attack.

Animal fat should be the main source of energy for our bodies, without modern technology processing food and making it available at our convenient local grocery, we would be picking fruit and vegetables when they where in season, and hunting for animal meat.

I’ve heard on many occasions that nutritionists have advised patients that coconut oil is bad for their health because it’s close to 90% saturated fat. These nutritionists are poorly educated and have failed to differentiate the many types of saturated fats from each other.

Saturated fat can be broken into three different categories, short chain, medium chain and long chain.

Coconut oil is a medium chain fatty acid, this fat is digested and assimilated easily in the body and is transferred directly to the liver where it is immediately converted into energy, also meaning it isn’t directly stored as body fat. In addition, coconut oil stimulated the thyroid gland which regulates the metabolism and can help speed it up.

One of the worst dietary myths is that “Eating fat can make you fat”. In-fact, you actually need healthy fats to help you lose body fat and keep your body healthy. Some of the benefits from eating healthy fats contained in Cod Liver Oil, where mentioned in my previous article titled ‘Time to bust out the Cod Liver Oil’.

There are many other health benefits from eating good fats, below is a list of some of the benefits associated with the consumption of coconut oil;

- Supports healthy metabolism
- Supports thyroid function
- Supports heart health
- Strengthens the immune system
- Assists in fat loss
- Improves digestion
- Improves skin appearance and elasticity
- Helps treat Candida and yeast infections
- Improves cholesterol levels
- Assists in killing off viruses
- Helps kill bacteria
- Relieves symptoms of diabetes
- Has proven anti-tumor effects

Coconut oil is one of the best oils to cook with, because of its high saturated fat content it can withstand higher heats without oxidising and going rancid. So for any situation where oil will be heated to boiling point, i.e. frying onions, coconut oil would be your best option. When fat has become oxidised or rancid, it has turned into hydrogenated fat which is the worst form of fat we can consume. Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils are well known for causing cardiovascular disease.

Lauric acid is also rich in coconut oil and makes up approximately 50% of its fatty acids. Lauric acid is a key disease-fighting substance; it has been known to help fight viruses such as HIV, influenza and herpes as well as enhance the immune system and ward of bad bacteria and yeast infections. In addition, the only other natural source of lauric acid is found in mothers milk which helps in protecting newborn babies against pathogenic bacteria.

When purchasing coconut oil be sure to buy one that is organic and un-refined. Although most coconut oils available will be of good quality, some coconut oils will be refined, bleached and deodorised and should be avoided as the health benefits would have become close to non-existent.

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