For most of the country, fall is just around the corner. Soon, it’ll be time to put away your shorts and get out your sweaters. Before you know it, you’ll be getting ready for Halloween. But just because you’re wearing bulky clothes, don’t start eating foods that’ll make you bulky. Continue to find non-food treats and rewards for yourself. Instead of something edible, get yourself this adorable Candy Corn Bubble Night Light. He may look scrumptious enough to eat, but he’ll last longer than any edible candy corn. I think this little guy would look great just in just about any room. The best part is that he has zero carbs and zero calories too!

I ordered a bunch of different types of food but it still hasn’t shown up yet. I haven’t blogged for a few days because I was hoping to post reviews on some of the stuff I purchased. I ordered some soups, some drinks, and even some tasty looking desserts. Let’s just hope that it all tastes as good as it looks, or I’m going to pretty disappointed.  In the meantime, if the stuff arrives Monday, I’ll start reviewing then. If not, well, I’ll find something else to write about.

I believe that there is a lot of evidence that says ginkgo biloba enhances memory. I know that there have been some recent studies done in order to disprove its efficacy, but we all need to look at who’s behind these studies and their motives for funding them. But in case you want to try other methods to improve your memory, here’s a list of 120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power. For me, I think I am going to try #41, “Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.” I’ve always been pretty good at doing crossword puzzles, but I have to admit that Sudoku is too much challenge and not enough reward for me. However, from what I understand, the whole idea of improving your thinking skills is to do something new and different because developing your skills in a new area also helps your brain. So I guess I’ll go solve the Sudoku puzzle in today’s newspaper…. as soon as I remember where I put my pencils.

After reading about how being overweight can seriously damage your liver, I decided to do some research. I found a great list at DoctorYourself.com titled, “There must be Fifteen Ways to Love Your Liver“.  Some of it’s common sense stuff we should all know, like avoiding alcohol, and washing your hands after using the bathroom. But the author also talks about the benefits of vitamin C, lecithin and B vitamins and how “Max Gerson, M.D. believed that cancer in general is a disease of the liver.” I’d never heard of Gerson till now, but I just found the website of the Gerson Institute and it says that he ”was inducted in to the Orthomolecular Hall of Fame in 2005.  Dr. Max Gerson, began observing that cancer could be cured with nutrition in tandem with systemic detoxification. Albert Schweitzer stated that Dr. Gerson was one of the most eminent geniuses in medical history.”

Of course, like always, I want to state that you should always check with a trusted health care professional before trusting any information you find online. And having said that, I think I’ll look into buying a book about Gerson therapy, just to make sure my liver isn’t seriously affected as a result of my weight

I really like stevia. In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a zero calorie sweetener made from the leaf of the stevia plant. That’s right, NO CALORIES and it tastes just like sugar. In a few minutes, I plan on logging onto Amazon and buying some products made by the Stevita company. They have all sorts of great looking drink mixes (cherry, orange, lime, etc) and the prices are so low, it’s about 25 cents a serving. WAY less than any bottle of soda and much healthier too.

I’m also planning picking up a box of Truvia at my local store. They seem to be brand new, and their main product seems to be packets of stevia, similar to other zero calorie sweeteners. However,  unlike those other sweeteners, there’s no icky chemicals and as a matter of fact, stevia is a member of the chrysanthemum family.

Right now, I don’t know which company makes the better product, but I plan on supporting both of them equally. I hope everyone else that is concerned about their weight does the same. I think it would be so exciting if major food manufacturers started offering cake mixes, candies, puddings, and all sorts of goodies sweetened with stevia. Until they do, I guess we’ll just have to show our support for this amazing product with our consumer dollars.

I get a lot of visits from people searching for Pepto Bismol and dogs because of two posts I did, one about how much it helped my dog, and the other about how it is dangerous for cats. I’m happy to report that my dog is doing fine and only needs Pepto-Bismol on rare occasions. She does fine when she eats her normal dog food (Purina One with yogurt) but she has a tendency to sneak cat food when no one’s looking. The cat food really plays havoc on her sensitive stomach, so I make sure to keep Pepto pills on hand at all times.

DGL (De-Glycyrrhizinated Licorice) from WonderLabs seems to help her too, but the Pepto is handy in case she eats something she shouldn’t, like when she goes into her Kitchen Shark mode and pulls things off the counter when no one is looking.

I want to preface this by saying the article I read doesn’t mention any alternative therapies, such as the Budwig diet. However, the reporters at Newsweek have presented a lengthy (five pages) and compelling discussion of what has been done in the fight against cancer and why these methods haven’t succeeded. It states that many treatments are hit-or-miss, and asserts that it’s time to rethink the war on cancer.  I would love to offer more of a synopsis, but it’s five pages, so I suggest you read it yourself so you can fully grasp the information as it’s presented.

I always knew there are health risks associated with being overweight, but I didn’t know it could cause nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, especially in teens. I have to admit that this report on MSNBC shocked me to the core. The story talks about patient such as a fifteen year old boy  at 5-feet-4 that weighed 180 pounds and end-stage cirrhosis (aka liver failure). Thankfully, he received a liver transplant, but he is still having weight issues. He’s grown an inch and a half since his operation, but his weight is now up to 219.

To me, this shows that weight gain can affect the whole family, and also that weight loss should involve the entire family. Even if just one member of the family is overweight, everyone in the household needs to change their eating habits and exercise patterns, in order to protect each other from long term health problems.

I know we’ve all seen the commercials on tv, showing a healthy amount of adhesive can help denture wearers. However, the medical journal Neurology reports that denture-wearing patients developed neurological problems and abnormally high levels of zinc in their blood due to overusing the product. The study, done by  Dr. Sharon P. Nations of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and her colleagues chronicles four patients that developed neurological damage when gums absorbed trace metals. One patient experienced poor balance, weakness in the hands, while another became dependent on a wheelchair because of weakness in her arms and legs.

The article goes on to say that the patients in the study seemed to be using excessive amounts of adhesive. They were all using at least two tubes a week but normally,  a tube of denture cream should last from 3 to 10 weeks when used as recommended.