Keep Your Health Tips

Dogs should be living to age 20 or more. That’s their natural lifespan. But it’s being cut short by chemical toxicity in their environment and in commercial petfood, which is fed (to a greater or lesser extent) to over 90 per cent of pets in modern society.

Whether you feed your dog fresh meat or home prepared food as your primary food source, if you’re giving ANY commercial petfood to your dog, the chances are that you’re cutting your dog’s life short. Add to this the toxicity of most veterinary-prescribed and over the counter drugs, including your dog’s vaccinations, cortisone (given for a multitude of problems), and parasite treatments (worms, fleas, ticks, mites and so on), and you’ve got a chemical cocktail which is causing premature ageing and death in companion animals all over the industrialized world.

Does it have to be this way?

Pollutants affect us all to some degree, but there ARE a number of steps that you can take to minimise your dog’s exposure to toxic compounds that affect your dog’s health and longevity. There ARE chemical-free dog food programs. There ARE natural alternatives to most toxic drugs routinely given to your dog. And you CAN reduce the pollutants and chemicals that your dog is exposed to on a daily basis.

For further information, and a free report on how you can improve your dog’s health and lifespan, visit

www.HealthyHappyDogs.com

Healthy Happy Dogs is a comprehensive resource for dog lovers interested in improving the health and lifespan of their dogs. Your dog’s health can be improved significantly without resorting to toxic drugs, and by avoiding almost all commercial petfood.

(c) 2005, Brigitte Smith, Healthy Happy Dogs

Brigitte Smith is a dog lover with a special interest in holistic dog health. Her site, Healthy Happy Dogs, has pages and pages of information on improving your dog’s health naturally. Brigitte is the author of several reports, articles, and the Healthy Happy Dogs newsletter.

For your special FREE report - “How to Improve Your Dog’s Health Within 30 Days - Maybe Even Lengthen Your Dog’s Life!”, Click Here: http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com

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I’m often asked how I find time to cook. My answer has two parts. First, healthy delicious food is essential for my well-being, so cooking usually comes first on my to-do list. Also, I find nothing more relaxing, creative or satisfying than trying a new dish or savoring an old favorite. Second, I use a pressure cooker. The usual response I get is, “The ones that explode?” Not exactly.

Pressure cookers have come a long way since the days of noisy valves and an occasional explosion. Thanks to new technology, today’s pressure cookers automatically depressurize when overheated. A pressure cooker is essential for quick preparation of whole grains and beans. For example, brown rice takes one hour to cook conventionally. It also requires the use of a flame tamer or very low heat to avoid scorching. With a pressure cooker, it takes 35 minutes and won’t scorch if an Ohsawa pot is used. Black beans cook in two hours conventionally, but take only 25 minutes in a pressure cooker. Long bean soaking times can also be avoided with a pressure cooker.

There are other advantages to pressure cooking. Foods retain their nutrient value because pressure cooking uses less water and the nearly airtight seal prevents nutrients from escaping. Pressure cooking tenderizes meat quickly so less expensive cuts can be used. Lower cooking times use less energy.

Select a stainless steel pressure cooker. Aluminum ones are available, but will leach harmful aluminum into the food. Look for a removable pressure regulator. A removable one is far easier to clean when it becomes clogged with food. The pressure cooker must generate at least 15 pounds of pressure to save time over conventional methods. A lid locking mechanism and pressure cooker and have a pressure release system will prevent explosions. The 5 liter size usually suits a family of 4. As when selecting any piece of cookware, pick it up by the handles and make sure it feels right in your hands.

My Magefesa pressure cooker is highly rated and has performed beautifully for 17 years (www.magefesausa.com) Kuhn Rikon’s Duromatic pressure cooker is also highly rated (www.kuhnrikon.com)

Perfect brown rice begins with the right rice. I like Ohsawa Rose medium grain or Southern Brown long grain rice. Both are available at Goldmine Natural Food (www.goldminenaturalfood.com) The Ohsawa pot is essential and also available at Goldmine Natural Food. The rice is cooked in this pot inside the pressure cooker. This makes scorching impossible. The recipe also calls for kombu, a seaweed that tenderizes the rice, making it easier to digest. Find it at your local natural foods store.

Perfect Pressure Cooked Brown Rice

1-1/2 cups brown rice

Tags: health food, Healthy Cooking, Organic Foodhealth food, Healthy Cooking, Organic Food

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FACT: Obesity accounts for 300,000 deaths a year in the U.S. alone.

Research into how junk food and fast food restaurants affect obesity, have found that there may be a relationship between the number of people per fast food restaurant and how many square miles there are between fast food restaurants located within your local area and obesity rates.

The way in which we eat, and what we eat, is of vital importance to our state of health. The convenience and habitual nature of the problem mean that fast food consumption is so in-grained, that healthy eating is near impossible.

There are no easy ways to fix junk food habits and make them into healthy habits, but I do have 7 quick strategies that you can easily put into place to start into motion your new lifestyle without junk food. I recommend implementing these one at a time, to ensure that you don’t overload and burn yourself out.

1. Do your shopping every week. Make it a regular habit to do your groceries every single week on the same day.

2. Make a shopping list on the computer with all the regular foods that you buy, to ensure that you aren’t going to run out of food at the end of the week, tempting you to reach for the fast food pamphlet, running out for take-away or buying unnecessary food items.

3. Don’t starve yourself !!!!!!! Eat 6 small meals instead of 3 large ones, snacking on healthy foods such as a fat burning apple, protein packed, metabolism raising light salad with boiled eggs and flaxseed oil dressing.

4. Make food your hobby. Join a cookery class. There are often many community classes that you can enrol in inexpensively to learn how to prepare interesting food.

5. Unplug the TV at the point. You will be less likely to sit there and watch it aimlessly if you have to make a conscious effort to turn it on. Particularly around 6-8 pm, the junk food restaurants will advertise, watch a DVD during these times. A recent review of childhood obesity research, has, not surprisingly found that the amount of time you spend watching TV has a direct affect on being overweight.

6. Try this recipe when you are feeling peckish to curb your need to buy junk food, or feeling the urge to have a smoke.

2 eggs beaten
1 Chopped lean bacon rasher - no fat.
1 chopped canned tomato
1/4 cup soy milk/low fat milk
1 finely chopped leaf spinach/frozen spinach
Sprinkling of low fat cheese

Mix ingredients together in mixing bowl. Transfer into a microwave safe bowl and cook on high for 2 minutes or until eggs have solidified. Eat with a low GI bread. You’ll find that depending on the quantity eaten, it can be a filling snack or light dinner.

7. When eating out. Avoid the restaurants with the all-you-can-eat option. These restaurants unfortunately encourage people to eat until they are bloated. Researchers found that 20% of weight gain among freshman University students could be attributed to their eating in the all-you-can-eat student dining halls.

References:

Caroli M, Argentieri L, Cardone M, Masi A. Role of television in childhood obesity prevention. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Nov;28 Suppl 3:S104-8.

Levitsky DA, Halbmaier CA, Mrdjenovic G. The freshman weight gain: a model for the study of the epidemic of obesity. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Nov;28(11):1435-42.

Maddock J. The relationship between obesity and the prevalence of fast food restaurants: state-level analysis. Am J Health Promot. 2004 Nov-Dec;19(2):137-43.

Copyright © 2004 Jenny Mathers. All Rights Reserved.

Jenny Mathers writes for Savvy Fat Burning Foods and has created a research resource to educate and inform about what REALLY is fat burning food.

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