I got this in my inbox earlier today, from Dr. Ben Kim’s site. He has lots of good information, and even has treats like this too. If you’re planning on making fudge for Christmas, you might want to give his recipe a try. It sounds really good.

Plus, if you go read the recipe, he also has a link to a great page that talks about blood sugar, insulin and sugar-regulating mechanisms. Make sure to read it and remember the information before you indulge in holiday treats. Personally, I think we all need to learn how to enjoy celebrations and occasions without making them centered around food that can have long term consequences on our health. For example, my family and I probably aren’t going to have a big Thanksgiving feast this year. We’ll have a nice meal, but I don’t think we’ll be chowing down and eating to excess, like I have done in the past.

For some, life would be unbearable without their daily candy or soda fix. But if you can possibly live without sugar, you may be taking significant strides to prolonging your life. Some researchers in Germany have found that eliminating sugar from the diets of some worms increased their life span by up to 25 percent. I don’t know how much of this carries over into human life, but I think it’s encouraging that studies are being done in this manner. Who knows, maybe they’ll one day find a worm that’ll outlive us all.

I recently accepted an opportunity to review the diet at skipaday.com. Normally, I’m hesitant to recommend diets, because I don’t think diets are successful unless you change your entire life style as well. The plan at skipaday.com is amazingly simple, here’s their description:

“The Skip-A-Day Diet can turn-off your appetite up to 48 hours. Your body will be using stored fat for nourishment while your appetite is shut off. While you’re sleeping, some of your stored fat will be used to replenish your reserve energy supply. If you eat nothing at all on diet day, your body will draw on your reserve fat and use it that day and night. This means you will be losing weight even while you are asleep.”

This makes sense to me, because it kind of ’shocks’ the body’s metabolism and could cause weight loss. Normally, your body gets used to your eating patterns, and that’s why following a particular plan usually doesn’t work. But if you eat one day, and skip meals the next day, it may cause your body to feed off your fat on the days you don’t eat.

I think I will give this a try over the next week, just to see what happens. Right now, I have to admit that I like eating meals on a regular schedule, but I’m also very curious to see if this plan is effective. I don’t think it could be harmful to anyone, but as always, if you decide to try it, then make sure to consult with your health care professional before starting this or any other weight loss plan. Make sure to check back here in a week or so, and I hope I’ll have some great results to report.

Kraft Foods Inc announces a nationwide recall on Baker’s Premium White Chocolate Baking Squares. This is due to possible salmonella contamination and this product was distributed throughout the United States.

“Kraft said it was notified of the possible contamination after testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detected the presence of salmonella in some 6-oz. packages.”

I would LOVE to know WHY Kraft did NOT detect this contamination, and it was only brought to light as a result of federal testing? Is this standard practice for Kraft? I would’ve thought they tested everything before it ever hit the grocery store shelves, but I guess I’m wrong. If you have any of this chocolate in your home, make sure to read the article to check the affected serial numbers. While you’re at it, if you have any Kraft food in your home, ask yourself if you are positive that Kraft made sure it was safe for you and your family to eat.

It looks like there could be some E. coli contamination in some of their potato salad. Man, that really bothers me. I can kind of understand raw food like lettuce but when it comes to prepared food, there is just no excuse!

Oh speaking of raw food, the article also mentions recalled spinach contaminated by salmonella. Pretty soon, the only safe food to eat will be canned raviolis or something gross like that.

Yesterday, I had a bowl of cereal and milk. It’s the first time I’ve had cereal this year, and the milk was soy milk. I LOVED IT! So today, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if soy milk is beneficial or not. It seems like there’s a lot of debate about the subject. I know that I would never feed it to a baby, but there’s a big list of foods that I would never give to a child. I’ll keep trying to find out more information, but in the meantime, I may just have another bowl of cereal in the near future.

Normally, I use Bankrate.com as a resource for information on finances. I was surprised to find out that they have an article detailing some secrets of the diet and weight loss business. It’s a detailed two page article, so I won’t give a comprehensive review here. I’ll just point out the part that really opened my eyes:

Just because the government allows it on the market doesn’t mean it’s safe or does what it claims.
There’s a misperception that the government wouldn’t allow a product to be marketed if it were bad for you, says Cleland. “People think these products have been pre-approved by the government before allowing it to be sold. That’s not the case.”

I didn’t know that until I just read it. I knew that the government didn’t inspect pet fod, but I thought anything and everything meant for human consumption had to be pre-approved. I guess I was wrong. There’s more shocking information in the article, so be prepared.

I found this story about eating healthy foods at the site of one of my local news stations, KPHO. On the first slide, it said something about beans and how they are a good source of iron, fiber and protein. It also discusses the health benefits of foods such as fish, garlic, cinnamon and pectin. A word of caution: The slideshow goes by extremely fast, so its better to just pause it and then click on each picture at the bottom individually.

I found a comprehensive list of foods that some claim are injurious to our health. I don’t think there’s many surprises on the “bad” side, it lists items such as junk food, sugar, and milk. On the good side, there’s some interesting information, including the theory that enzymes may play an important role in defeating cancer. At the link titled, “Nutrients Detoxify And Rebuild An Overwhelmed Immune System“, some of the information seems very familiar, but I am intrigued by the suggestion that “the sulfur-containing amino acid L-cysteine helps neutralize heavy-metal toxins and toxic by-products.”

I haven’t had an episode of reflux for a long time, but it came back full force today. Partially because I ate right before lying down for a nap, but I feel its also because I haven’t taken any acidophilus caps for a long time.

My acid reflux/GERD used to be rather severe, but I thought it was completely tamed with the acidophilus. I guess this means I should keep taking something if it works, or at least I should always have a supply on hand. Right now, I have nothing to treat my stomach and I doubt I’ll be able to lie down again for several hours. I guess I should always remember to be prepared, but since I didn’t keep stuff on hand, I hope someone can learn from my boo-boo.