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6 Reasons You Need To Try An Alkaline Diet

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Some people say that eating an alkaline diet is beneficial to your health. They base this diet on the theory that certain foods cause your body to make too much acid. If you reduce or eliminate these acidic foods, you’ll improve your health. Here are the health benefits proponents say you’ll get from eating an alkaline diet.

What is the alkaline diet?

The theory behind the alkaline diet is that eating low acidic foods changes your pH levels, which helps you lose weight and feel healthier. pH stands for potential hydrogen. Scientists use a pH scale to rank the acidity levels of substances. The pH scale measures how much acid a substance has on a scale of 0 to 14. pH 7 is considered neutral. Foods and drinks that have a pH 7 aren’t acidic or base. For a substance to be alkaline, it must be greater than 7.

The great debate about the alkaline diet

There is a heated debate about whether an alkaline diet is genuinely beneficial. Here are some things each side uses as their basis for supporting or not supporting this diet.

alkaline dietWhat do those who oppose the alkaline diet idea say?

Those who oppose this diet say it’s another fad diet. Naysayers contend that this diet makes claims about curing cancer that isn’t scientifically based. The alkaline diet recommends that individuals eat lots of fruits and vegetables. But those against the diet say this is a typical healthy eating pattern for cancer prevention that isn’t based on the acidity or alkaline of these foods. Doctors have recommended these foods for decades because vegetables and fruits are high in minerals, vitamins, fiber, and phytonutrients.

What do those who support the alkaline diet say?

Proponents of the alkaline diet say that according to studies, an acidic diet may increase the acidic overload in your body. This imbalance can hinder your kidney function. Another study that adheres to the alkaline diet quotes the acid-ash hypothesis.

The acid-ash hypothesis says when your body has too many blood protons, your bones erode and compensate by making alkaline to balance out the amount of acid in your body. It’s thought that many of the foods Americans eat are acidic and, over time, will cause osteoporosis. Today, most dieticians suggest that although eating a high acid diet can increase your urinary acid and calcium elimination, an alkaline diet isn’t the only thing that affects your risks of calcium loss in your bones. Things like overeating protein, sodium, and phosphorus can also affect your bones.

What do you eat on an alkaline diet?

The Alkaline diet suggests you should eat healthy plant-based meals emphasizing vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. They encourage you to limit eating red meats and processed foods. The goal of this diet is 80% of what you consume should be alkaline, and 20% of what you eat should be acid-forming foods. The list of alkaline foods you can eat is long, but some of the most common include these:

  • Sprouts
  • Almonds
  • Lentils
  • Tofu
  • Soy products
  • Fruits
  • Baked chicken
  • Whole grain cereals
  • Swiss chard, kale
  • Spinach
  • Avocado
  • Cucumber
  • Beets
  • Figs
  • Rice milk
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Leafy greens
  • Gluten-free

Acidic foods that should be avoided include the following:

  • Red meats
  • Processed meats
  • Fried foods
  • Fatty foods
  • Whole dairy
  • Yeast bread
  • Wheat products
  • Sugar

9 Potential Health Benefits of An Alkaline Diet

For the purpose of this article, we will list what proponents of the alkaline diet suggest are the health benefits. Remember, no diet by itself can make you healthy. Regular exercise, getting enough sleep, and eating a well-balanced diet contribute to your good health and reduce your risk of disease.

alkaline1 – Alkaline foods might lower your risk of stroke

Alkaline diets improve your overall cardiovascular health and protect you from high blood pressure, kidney stones, memory loss, and strokes. Here is an alkaline diet: a heart-healthy dinner suggestion you may want to incorporate into your meal plans.

Squash quesadilla

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup diced yellow squash
  • ¼ cup chopped onion
  • ⅛ teaspoon of chopped parsley
  • ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
  • Sprinkle of salt
  • Dash of Tabasco
  • Dash of crushed red peppers
  • 2-Gluten free tortillas
  • ¼ cup of fat-free shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Steam the yellow squash until just tender. Remove from the steamer and put into a bowl. Add chopped sweet onions, garlic salt, a dash of Tabasco, and red peppers. Stir. Place equal amounts of mixture into the two tortillas. Top with mozzarella cheese. Put under the broiler and until the cheese is melted. Remove and wrap up the tortillas. Enjoy!

2 – An alkaline diet could lessen your risk of pain and inflammation

Consuming alkali rich foods, which appear on the Mayo Clinic Diet list, can decrease your inflammation that causes health problems such as the following conditions:

  • Back pain
  • Headaches
  • Muscle spasms
  • Menstrual symptoms
  • Joint pain
  • inflammation from arthritis

3 – Enjoy potential anti-aging properties

Some say that eating a diet of primarily alkaline foods promotes anti-aging effects because it decreases inflammation and helps your growth hormone production. Seeds and nuts offer many health benefits. Even though they’re high in fat, nuts are an excellent source of healthy fats. They help reduce LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol for your body. Here’s a list of the nuts you can snack on if you’re eating an alkaline diet.

  • Chestnuts
  • Almonds
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Sesame seeds
  • Coconuts

4 – Could protect your muscle mass and bones

When you’re on an alkaline diet, you will eat lots of fruits and vegetables, which help strengthen your bones and muscles from deterioration. An alkaline diet supports your bones by balancing the minerals that build bone, such as calcium, phosphate, and magnesium. It may also help with vitamin D absorption and growth hormones which can help fight off chronic diseases. After the age of 50, you begin to lose your muscle mass. Maintaining muscle mass as you get older can help prevent falls and broken bones. Acidic overload because of eating foods high in protein and grains encourages loss of muscle mass. Eating foods high in potassium, studies suggest, preserves muscle mass in older women and men.

5 – Alkaline foods might lower your risk of diabetes

An alkaline diet may help prevent diabetes. Some medications can increase your risk of getting hypoglycemia. Eating alkali-rich foods can guard you against an increased risk of low blood sugar levels. Eating this diet helps you control your weight, which is a considerable risk for Type 2 diabetes. Always check with your doctor before going on a diet to ensure it’s the best choice for you.

6 – May lower your cholesterol

In general, plant-based diets lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which contribute to heart disease. Plants are high in fiber rather than animal proteins, high in fiber, and have less fat. They are also low and have little or no cholesterol.

7 – Possible heart health benefits

Eliminating red meat and processed meat lowers your blood pressure and reduces your inflammation, which protects your heart. Being on an alkaline diet lowers your risk of heart disease because you’re eating less red meat and processed meats. This diet is low in calories and fat, all of which promote a healthy heart.

8 – Potential oral health improvement

Eating a more alkaline diet may protect your teeth. Acidic foods wear down the enamel on your teeth. This increases your chances of having tooth sensitivity, cracks, and even cavities. Switching from a high in sugar and high acid foods diet can make a big difference in your oral health.

9 – Might protect against kidney disease

If your diet is high in acidic foods, it may not be healthy for your kidneys. Adjusting your diet to eat more alkaline foods decreases metabolic acidosis and lowers your risk of kidney disease. Here’s a super simple alkaline smoothie recipe to start your day.

Spinach and Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of fresh spinach, washed and chopped
  • ½ cup of fresh strawberries washed and cut up
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 1 cup of coconut water or almond milk
  • One tablespoon sesame seeds

Directions:

Place the ingredients into your blender. Blend and enjoy.

Alkaline diet warnings

Like any diet where you’re excluding foods, you should always check with your doctor before going on the alkaline diet. Overeating alkaline can lead to health problems and potential nutrition deficiency. An alkaline diet is low in protein and overall calorie intake, which could affect your health. Also, individuals who take medications that affect their body’s levels of potassium, calcium, or other minerals should be sure to talk to their doctor before trying out the alkaline diet.

alkalineFinal thoughts on eating an alkaline diet

Eating a healthy diet that’s rich in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains is always beneficial. The alkaline diet touts many health benefits, such as improved cardiovascular health, kidney health, and a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. It can also help you lose weight. If you decide to try the alkaline diet, be aware that there is controversy surrounding its effectiveness and medical advantages. As with any diet that eliminates a lot of foods, always talk to your doctor before you go on a diet that could affect your health.

How The ‘Moringa’ Plant Prevents Mood Swings And Balances Hormones

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If you want to have a better balance of vitamins and minerals for your brain and body, look no further than this special plant.

If you’ve never heard of it before, moringa contains so many vital nutrients for the body. Healers recommended it to patients for thousands of years because of its healing benefits. Today, millions of people use it in tea, and take moringa supplements or powder to enjoy the incredible benefits of this plant. To give you more of an idea of how powerful this plant truly is, in 2008, the National Institute of Health called moringa (moringa oleifera) the “plant of the year,” acknowledging that “perhaps like no other single species, this plant has the potential to help reverse multiple major environmental problems and provide for many unmet human needs.”

How Moringa Plant Can Help

Because moringa contains many antioxidants and nutrients, past research has focused mainly on how it can help to treat disease and malnutrition in many parts of the world. Almost every part of the plant can be used, as moringa is very versatile. Throughout the world, moringa is used for treating severe conditions including the following:

  • inflammation-related diseases
  • cancer
  • diabetes
  • anemia
  • arthritis and other joint pain, such as rheumatism
  • allergies and asthma
  • constipation, stomach pains and diarrhea
  • epilepsy
  • stomach and intestinal ulcers or spasms
  • chronic headaches
  • heart problems, including high blood pressure
  • kidney stones
  • fluid retention
  • thyroid disorders
  • low sex drive
  • bacterial, fungal, viral, and parasitic infections

Some interesting facts

So, to give you an idea of just how nutrient-packed moringa plant is, here are some interesting facts about the vitamins and minerals in this amazing plant.

  • two times the amount of protein in yogurt
  • four times the amount of vitamin A in carrots
  • three times the amount of potassium in bananas
  • four times the amount of calcium in cows’ milk
  • seven times the amount of vitamin C in oranges

Have you ever tried the moringa plant? Here’s why you should:

Moringa grows in tropical locations around the world, from the Himalayas to parts of India and Africa, and it contains over 90 protective compounds to help combat disease and boost the immune system.  Many people call moringa “the miracle plant” due to its potency as a natural remedy for fighting inflammation and malnutrition.

So, we’ll give you a few important reasons to start adding moringa to your diet.

It contains many antioxidants to help reduce inflammation

Moringa continues to gain traction as a powerful natural remedy and replacement to conventional pharmaceuticals because it contains some of the same compounds as the drugs do, without the nasty side effects. According to a report published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, moringa contains essential amino acids, carotenoid phytonutrients, as found in carrots and tomatoes, and antibacterial compounds that work identically to those found in medicines.

Inflammation can cause many problems within the body. Still, moringa can fight inflammation due to the potent anti-aging compounds present in the plant, including Vitamin C, beta-carotene, quercetin, and polyphenols. These compounds help to reduce risks for certain types of cancers, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases.

It can balance hormones naturally

In a 2014 study published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, researchers selected ninety postmenopausal women between the ages of 45–60 years to test how different levels of moringa would affect their hormones. Results showed that supplementing with moringa and amaranth caused marked increases in antioxidants in the body along with impressive decreases in oxidative stress.

Also, researchers found better-fasting blood glucose levels and increases in hemoglobin, leading them to conclude that moringa can prevent hormonal changes and age-related diseases.

Moringa plant promotes brain health and prevents mood swings

Moringa contains a significant amount of protein and is packed with tryptophan, which helps the body produce the serotonin relaxation hormone. Besides that, Moringa can also help reduce fatigue, depression, mood swings, and insomnia, according to some studies.

moringa

Final Thoughts: How to Use Moringa

If you’d like to start using the moringa plant, here are the most common ways to do so:

  • Dried moringa leaves or powder. The leaves of the moringa plant have the most antioxidants and healing benefits. So you can either take capsules, powders, or teas with mealtimes to utilize the plant in this way.
  • Moringa seeds. Moringa pods and flowers have high phenolic content, essential proteins, and fatty acids. These parts of the plant can help to purify water and add protein to nutrient-poor diets. Creams, capsules and moringa powders will usually be prepared using the seeds.
  • Moringa oil. Also called Ben oil in some parts of the world, you can find moringa oil in creams and lotions. If you choose to get the oil by itself, keep it in a cool, dark place away from high temperatures.

6 Signs You’re Here to Be a Healer

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There are many different types of healers among us, and you may be one of those chosen as a healer if you share one or more of these signs.

We believe that you and every other being on this planet are here for a reason. You may not yet know what your reason for being here is, but you absolutely do have a gift to share with the world.

Not recognizing that you are valuable as a person due to your own unique talents and personality is a sign of low self-esteem. A lack of self-love is the root of depression and can also be a source of stress.

It is not egotistical to appreciate your uniqueness and skills. There are numerous ways to use the power of healing to influence the health and well-being of those around you. Healers know and they use that gift by sharing it to improve the lives of others. By the very definition of their gift, healers are generous.

Hats off to healers

Healers come in many different forms. Think beyond traditional medicine when you think about healers. Here are a few possible paths for healers:

  • Midwife/Doula
  • Massage therapist
  • Yoga teacher
  • Herbalist
  • Beautician
  • Mental health professional
  • Shaman
  • Lightworker
  • Chiropractor
  • Botanist
  • Nutritionist
  • Reiki therapist
  • Physical therapists
  • Fitness trainers
  • Veterinarian
  • Organic farmer
  • Environmentalist
  • Animal rights supporter

It is believed that the placebo effect, where patients respond by being healed from a pill with no active ingredients, is simply the effect of spending time with someone who listens and represents themselves as a healer.

Healers are typically available, approachable, have integrity, listen, empathize, ask questions, give time, demonstrate caring, and seek to understand the people that they work with.

If healing is your gift, you have a tremendous talent that will bring well-being to many whose lives you touch. Reading this article could be your first step to learning that healing is your calling.

6 Signs You’re Here to Be a Healer

healer

1. Helping people comes naturally to you

When others are suffering, you recognize it and seek ways to help, without being asked. You might be the only one who notices that facial expression of pain in your friend. Maybe your intuition prompted you to ask your friend what was wrong and they opened up to you about something that was causing them emotional pain.

2. You love connecting to others in meaningful ways

If talking with, touching, teaching, or learning from people makes you happier than anything else, you are meant to be a healer. The joy of connection is one that all healers have in common.

Healers recognize the value of all life. Healers also have tremendous respect for the diversity of opinions, thoughts, and gifts that others have and they love the give and take of meaningful connections.

3. You feel a pull toward something greater than yourself

Your destiny is out there, waiting for you, and you feel a tug directing you. Our article 5 Things That Happen when You’re a Lightworker described some other experiences that healers have had. Some of these experiences reveal that there is more beyond this life here on Earth.

4. You have heightened senses if you are a healer

The sense of intuition, as well as your senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, are all more developed in yourself compared to others. You are the first one to notice the smell of something burning, the cry of a child, or the slight downturn of your friend’s smile when she says she’s doing fine.

Picking up on the small cues helps a healer to use their gift to identify problems or threats. Sensing these things helps a healer to take action quickly to prevent further harm. Read our article 6 Things Sensitive People Do Differently to learn more about how your sensitivity can help others.

5. The universe is sending you repeated signs that you need to move in the direction of healing

Signs often come when we aren’t seeking them. If you are here to be a healer, you can be sure that the universe has been trying to tell you to get busy and develop your gift.

A dream or a vision may have been sent to you to guide you toward the path of being a healer. You may have had a wonderful experience with a healer yourself and yearned to know what they knew so you could teach others.

Signs can be sounds, sights, experiences, memories, or words on a page that bring up positive emotions in you, like the ones that you are reading now. Listening to the world around you as you sit quietly is the best way to receive the message that the universe is sending you about your calling.

6. You feel like you don’t fit in your current role

People are either givers or takers and if you are in a role where there is a lot of talking, but not much giving, you will feel conflicted. As a healer, your sense of injustice goes off when you feel the balance is too heavily weighted with one side than the other.

15 Secrets to Staying Young at Heart From People Over 100

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With age often comes wisdom. Centenarians have reached a hundred years of age and have plenty to share in that regard. Consider this: the average life expectancy worldwide is about 70 years old. So, what do those that outlive this statistic by thirty-plus years have to say about staying young?

Well, some of the answers and shared wisdom may surprise you. Not everyone reaches this rare milestone the same way. Some continue habits that many don’t find conducive to living to 100-plus years, while others swear by eating healthy, exercising, and embracing treasured relationships.

Regardless of how these amazing folks have gotten to such a phase in their lives, many have something to say about simple living, being, and enjoying the undeterminable time given to each of us.

“Don’t fight the day, just let it be. Get up and be positive.”–  Gussie Levine, 100 years old

Here are 15 shared secrets of staying young from centenarians:

staying young

1. “Treat people right and be nice to other people the way you want them to be nice to you.” – Gertrude Weaver, lived to 116 years old

Ms. Weaver lived to be 116 years old, and attributes her long life to simply being kind and loving to others. She sadly passed just five days after becoming the world’s oldest person.

2. “The trick is to not act your age.” – Marvin Kneudson, lived to 101 years old

Mr. Kneudson was indeed a young soul but left a remarkable legacy. He helped develop the community college system across the Midwest.

3. “Attitude, attitude, attitude.” – Trudi Fletcher, 100 years old

A lifelong creator, Ms. Fletcher attributes her longevity to keeping a positive and realistic attitude about life.

4. “I was a good advertisement for the merchandise I selected on my frequent buying trips to New York.” – Lillian Cox, 107 years old

Ms. Cox remains a stylish and trendy woman well into the twilight of her life. She confides that her resolve to eat less simply plays a key role in keeping her healthy and vibrant.

5. “Move it or lose it.” – Louise Calder, 101 years old

This woman is a poster child for exercise. She does 30 minutes of stretching before leaving her bedroom and walks a mile daily.

6. “Perhaps we are here to be an example to others in hard times.” – Robert McRaney, 101 years old

Ms. McRaney is a model of resilience, having rebuilt her home after it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. She attributes her good fortune to a higher power and a strong will.

7. “Just stay out of trouble.” – Harry Adler, 101 years old

Mr. Adler maintains that doing what we know is right and following one’s conscience in key to living a long life.

8. “A wonderful and loving family, the good Lord and a rum and coke every afternoon.” – Anonymous centenarian

One respondent to a survey to Forbes magazine wished to remain nameless, but left us with a good example of enjoying and appreciating family, faith and guilty pleasures.

9. “I picked the right parents and genes!” – Andy Weinandy, 100 years old

This smart gentleman is simply thankful to his parents and his favorable genes. He has a point: scientists do indeed credit genetics as influencing longevity.

10. “They’re (men) are more trouble than their worth.” – Jessie Gallan, lived to 109 years old

Okay, this may not be a favorite quote for our male readers. Ms. Gallan was an independent woman that never married. She instead devoted her life to getting regular exercise, maintaining a close circle of friends, and working hard.

11. “I’ve never been to a beauty shop and I’ve never been vain.” – Adelina Domingues, lived to 114 years old

Ms. Domingues medical records are nearly empty – she never took any medications, broke a bone, or went to the hospital. Then again, she never drank or smoked…amazing.

12. “I attribute my great longevity to a great extent to walking, not being in the back of the car strapped down.” – George Boggess, 103 years old

Mr. Boggess marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and served on the D.C. Superior Court. Aiming to live to 105 years, he credits his vociferous walking instead of driving as his main health secret.

13. “One, you gotta have good genes. Two, you gotta be damned lucky for 100 years. And three: try not to eat anything that’s healthy. It’s true. I eat whatever I want. The secret to longevity is ice cream.” – Paul Marcus, 101 years old

Remember how we said that not everyone achieves this age using common wisdom? Well, Mr. Marcus is Exhibit A. Good for him.

staying young

14. “Health, sleep and relaxation.” – Misao Okawa, lived to 117 years old

Ms. Okawa was not one for words, hence the absence of a quote. However, she credited her long life to a sushi diet, eight hours of sleep, and remembering to relax. A Japanese native throughout her life, her people are notorious for living to old age. Japan is currently the home country to over 50,000 centenarians.

15. “Sleep, bacon, eggs and grits.” – Susannah Mushatt Jones, 116 years old

No quotation is needed. Ms. Jones is one to enjoy food and the simple pleasures of life. She passed away in 2016, shortly before her 117th birthday. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she was the oldest person alive at her death. She and her family were inseparable.  Ms. Jones always credited her healthy life to her family’s love and generosity to others as her reason for staying young at heart.

Here’s How Your Thoughts Affect Your DNA

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We already know that our brain can affect our health in many ways, but now scientists believe that our thoughts can change our DNA. Thinking stressful thoughts is possibly shortening your lifespan, and researchers can measure that through changes in your DNA.

Certain vital pieces of your DNA tell your body whether that cancer risk from your father’s side of the family will show up as cancer cells in your own body. Developments in research have proven that our experiences in the physical world, like our diet, flexibility, and exercise have an effect on our DNA but how our thoughts influence DNA is just now beginning to be understood.

Here’s How Your Thoughts Affect Your DNA

As you may have read in our article, This ONE Thing Will Help You Live Longer, the growing field of epigenetics is learning that we have some control over which genes will end of being expressed as we age. Here’s an except from that article explaining the important pieces of our DNA that can be affected by our thoughts:

According to Dr. Dave Woynarowski, who spoke in 2011 at The Longevity Now Conference, telomeres are the parts of our DNA that are like a biological time clock that determines how much time you have left to live.

Telomeres are responsible for every cellular mechanism. We can live longer and slow down the aging process by doing 2 things:

1) Slow down the loss of telomeres and

2) Add length to the telomeres

How to add more years to your life with your thoughts

Researchers believe that telomere length is potentially a metaphor for the length of your life. The longer the telomeres, the longer we have left to live. Scientific American explains the important part of our DNA that is affected by thinking in this way:

‘Telomeres are stretches of DNA that cap our chromosomes and help prevent chromosomal deterioration — biology professors often liken them to the plastic tips on shoelaces. Shortened telomeres aren’t known to cause a specific disease per se, but they do wither with age and are shorter in people with cancer, diabetes, heart disease and high stress levels. We want our telomeres intact.’

Mindfulness and meditation are two ways to use thoughts to help keep telomeres intact. A study of breast cancer patients and telomere length found that those who practiced a mindfulness meditation were able to keep the their telomeres longer, while the control group who did not meditate had shorted the telomere end of their DNA.

The researchers believe that processing, rather than repressing, difficult emotions like anger and fear leads to better physical and psychological well-being. Meditation is one way to calm the thoughts and affect our DNA.

The researchers believe that supportive conversations that enable emotional expression are also helpful. Whether you talk to your friends, relatives or a therapist, being able to express your emotions is away to change your thinking about a situation. By discussing problems, we can often see that a solution is available by changing our mindset.

Yoga is another way to keep our DNA molecule length intact. Yoga was part of the mindfulness meditation study as well. Physical movement and awareness of yourself as being physically present in your body is another way to be mindful.

Being present in the moment rather than worrying about the future or being upset about the past can help your DNA to help your body live longer. By changing our thoughts to reframe mistakes as a positive learning experience helps us to focus on what we can do now to improve things.

We can improve our emotions and mood by improving our thoughts and that will in turn help affect our DNA telomeres to stay as long as possible. Avoiding stress and anxiety are important for healthy DNA.

How stressful thoughts affect your DNA

Being mindful helps keep your DNA telomeres long, but the opposite is also true; stress shortens telomeres. In another research study on DNA and negative thoughts, researchers looked at DNA telomere length and stress levels.

The scientists found that ‘Women with the highest levels of perceived stress have telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women. These findings have implications for understanding how, at the cellular level, stress may promote earlier onset of age-related diseases.’

Women who had more stress had shorter life spans as measured by their DNA. For those who are concerned about their well-being and health (ie. longevity, life span) these research results are enough to make you seek out ways to change your thoughts and have a positive impact on your DNA.

Awareness is important to changing thought patterns. Identifying when you are saying negative things about yourself or others is the first step. When you notice it is happening, try to observe yourself. What happened that made you feel that way? Try challenging your thoughts and changing your mind. Changing your thoughts could be the healthiest thing you’ve done for tour DNA lately.

 

5 Signs You May Need to Quit Dairy Immediately

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Milk. It isn’t doing your body any good, and there are at least five reasons you need to stop eating dairy immediately. Dairy products like cheese, ice cream, butter, and milk are all part of our cultured tastes and the foods we grew up loving.

The USDA says that the average American consumes around 275 pounds of dairy products yearly. All those pounds of creamy dairy may have added some pounds to your body as well.

Although dairy tastes great, the problem is that our physical bodies and digestive systems did not evolve to process dairy products from cows. We evolved as foragers, walking and finding our food from the land in the form of edible roots, plants, fruits, and vegetables. Occasionally our ancestors could catch an animal so they could eat meat.

Dairy products from animals taste great and provide a good source of nutritional calcium. Unfortunately, there are health risks associated with eating dairy.

According to a recent study, calcium sources from products that are non-dairy would be better for our health; ‘Bones are better served by attending to calcium balance and focusing efforts on increasing fruit and vegetable intakes, limiting animal protein, exercising regularly, getting adequate sunshine or supplemental vitamin D, and getting 500 mg Ca/d [calcium per day] from plant sources. Therefore, dairy products should not part of a healthy vegetarian diet.’

The high-fat content of many dairy products can lead to problems with obesity. Saturated fat has also been associated with a higher risk for arterial disease like stroke and heart disease. Still not convinced? Here are five signs that your body wants you to stop eating dairy immediately.

5 Signs You May Want to Stop Eating Dairy Immediately

dairy products

1. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have problems with inflammation

Galactose is a simple sugar in milk that researchers believe reacts in the body similarly to fructose, which can cause inflammation and myriad other issues.

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, eczema, or colitis could directly affect your dairy intake. The good news is that a simple dietary change can fix the problem.

2. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have allergy symptoms

Just like any seasonal allergy you might have, your body’s immune system kicks in to fight off the intruding allergen.

If you have the following symptoms and you eat dairy regularly, it’s a sign you could have a dairy allergy:

  • Sensitive skin
  • Itchy skin
  • Acne
  • Red, blotchy skin, especially on the face
  • Sinus and nasal congestion
  • Tickling cough
  • Coughing up phlegm
  • Itching of the tongue, lips, gums, or throat

3. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have digestive problems

health-gut

Gas, stomach discomfort, and diarrhea are all uncomfortable signs of lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance is fairly common in the global population. After we finish with our mother’s breast milk, our ability to digest lactose decreases as we age.

Researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says ‘Mammalian infants need mother’s milk for nourishment and growth. However, milk is not necessary for humans after the age of weaning, as evidenced in part by the physiologic decrease in and often loss of the ability to digest lactose (milk sugar) for roughly three-fourths of the world’s population.’

4. You may want to stop eating dairy immediately if you have a genetic risk of breast or prostate cancer

Unfortunately, hormone-treated cows pass on hormones through their milk to humans. Hormones in milk can affect both the male and female risks for cancers. In women, ovarian cancer risk is higher among those who consume milk with hormones, and in men, the risk for prostate cancer goes up with milk consumption.

A family genetic risk for cancers means you could also have that risk. If your parents, siblings or other family members have breast or prostate cancer, you have one more reason to stop eating dairy immediately.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine cites 7 different studies linking milk products to prostate cancer.

5. You may want to stop eating dairy if you have a risk of diabetes

The lactose in milk is a naturally occurring sugar that can be dangerous for diabetics. Researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition say, ‘The American Academy of Pediatrics warned against early introduction of cow milk because of the relation between milk consumption and type 1 diabetes in children.’ These negative health effects continue into adulthood.

There are other reasons to stop drinking milk that doesn’t concern your physical health – for example – the dairy production industry and its impact on the environment due to the use of pesticides, animal waste production, and the impact on global warming. Also concerning to most vegans is the welfare and treatment of animals in the dairy industry.

dairy

Final Thoughts on Understanding the Signs That Dairy Foods Do Not Agree With Your Body

If you aren’t ready to stop drinking milk or eating dairy products immediately, try limiting yourself to occasional tastes of excellent savory cheese, hormone-free milk as a cream for coffee or tea only, and grass-fed locally-sourced butter.

You have a choice regarding your health and what is best for you. Feed your body with the best nutrition, and you will always support your health. If you choose to keep dairy in your diet, it is always best to buy organic, grass-fed, free-range, additive-free, and hormone-free dairy products.

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