Can’t Stop Eating? Here’s How

 

Think of your body as a machine. If you give it the correct fuel it will run smoothly. If you give it incorrect fuel or eat at the wrong times, it will not run smoothly. It’s that simple!

Your body runs on the fuel called ‘blood sugar’. Blood sugar comes from food, real food not caffeine, sugar, or alcohol. To keep your energy stable and balanced you have to give your body fuel at frequent intervals or it will get out of balance even cause binge eating.

When you sleep all night you aren’t feeding your body so it is like a mini fast. That’s why the first meal of the day has traditionally been called ‘break the fast’ which we have shortened to breakfast. Yes, people used to eat breakfast first thing in the morning.

Now, however, times have changed and many people are not even eating breakfast let alone first thing in the morning. This can cause an energy problem all day.

I like to call it ‘the first half hour.’ This is the most important time of the day to prevent binge eating and overeating all day long. It’s the best time to gain self-control. You can do that by eating something in the first half hour of getting up. Why?

When you don’t eat your blood sugar drops; that’s the mini fast that happens while you sleep. When your blood sugar is low you will have no self-control. By eating first thing in the morning you can raise your blood sugar levels and get a great start to the day. It doesn’t take much a hard-boiled egg, a spoonful of cashew or almond butter, some celery sticks with peanut butter on them, a piece of real cheese not processed cheese food, a quarter of an apple or orange with some nuts or cheese, leftover meat or tofu from the night before. It must not be wheat, items containing sugar, caffeinated beverages, or tobacco. Part of a puffed rice cracker well chewed is also fine with a little protein with it. Protein is the key to stabilizing your blood sugar. Then exercise and eat breakfast.

If you don’t eat first thing or if you have sugary foods, wheat products, caffeine, or tobacco you can set yourself up for a day of blood sugar spikes up and down. When your blood sugar drops or if it is up and down all day, you might have allergies, anxiety, confusion, poor concentration, depression, crying spells, insomnia, headaches, lack of sex drive, weak spells, leg cramps, nightmares, fears, and anger. The list is long of the ways going without eating can create health issues for you; this is just a partial list. But one of the most interesting is that you will have no self-control. You won’t know when to stop eating and you won’t be able to pick healthy food.

Going without eating breakfast can create binge eating later on in the day. Once you set up the cycle of your blood sugar dropping and going up and down all day you will want to eat something to raise your blood sugar, and eat, and eat. Yep out of control eating. Or you might grab a caffeinated drink, something with sugar or wheat and sugar, alcohol, or even gum, something that will bring up your blood sugar right away and stop the pain or emotions that are out of hand. Unfortunately that will be a temporary fix and your blood sugar will come crashing down in an hour or so and you will once again reach for caffeine, nicotine, or a sugary or high carbohydrate snack or perhaps binge eat.

The real cure is not medication; it is eating within the first half hour of getting up. I suggest you eat a little something as described above, do some exercise, and then have breakfast. That will balance or stabilize your energy levels. Even a liquid protein drink is fine as long as it doesn’t have sugar or HFC (high fructose corn sugar or syrup) in it. If you don’t exercise then just eat breakfast. I hope you don’t skip exercise; it can bring up your blood sugar levels and keep you fit.

The ideal lifestyle would be to get up in the morning and have a small snack, exercise for an hour, eat breakfast and go about your day. Then have a small snack every 2-4 hours. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and foods with sugar and/or wheat in them. Learn to carry a small packet of nuts and seeds with you. Pumpkin or sunflower seeds are especially good so are almonds and Brazil nuts. If you carry snacks you will always have something handy to eat to keep your blood sugar balanced. It is especially important for people of all ages to eat to balance their energy.

For snacks I like to have leaf lettuce spread with cashew butter and rolled up, individual cheese sticks, or part of an apple and 5 or 6 almonds. Baby carrot sticks are fine but can be sweet so eat some protein with them. All vegetables can serve as a snack: zucchini sticks, slices of red or yellow pepper, lightly steamed broccoli or cauliflower. I have a friend who eats beets as a snack. The first time I saw him eating a beet like it was an apple I was really taken aback, but I got used to it and now suggest it, with a bit of protein of course since beets can be sweet. Beets are in some of the supplements holistic practitioners suggest to clients to help with blood sugar problems.

Many so-called diseases are the result of having blood sugar out of balance. Epilepsy type episodes, crying spells, depression, even agoraphobia. I had a client once who was so fearful of going out she was bed ridden and on anxiety drugs. She got an alarm clock and plates of snacks and kept them by her bed. Every 2 hours she had a bite or two of the snack and set the alarm to wake her to eat the snack in another 2 hours. The next day she was up and out and going shopping at the mall, something she hadn’t done in many months.

If you want more specific instructions you can find them in The Anger Cure book. There are also questionnaires to fill in to assess if you have a blood sugar problem. Don’t be a slave to sweet foods and caffeinated drinks. You can gain control of your life and stop binge eating and more by simply balancing your energy by balancing your blood sugar levels.

Kathleen O’Bannon is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and 3^rd generation healer. Her 12 books on nutrition and healing and frequent radio and TV appearances have guided thousands of people to better health in their body, mind, and spirit. Kathleen does private consultations and can also speak to your group on many topics on health and healing including: The Love Diet; Food and Mood at Home, Work, and School; and Eat Right-Feel Right. She can be contacted through her web site, now under construction:http://www.kathleenobannon.com or http://www.healthalive.net

 

Healing with Roy G. Biv

 

This system of healing has been in place for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Hildegard of Bingen used it. She was a visionary, poet, composer, naturalist, Abbess, theologian, nun, and healer who lived in Bingen, Germany from 1098 to 1179. She fought hard to maintain her position as an Abbess when women were considered no more than servants. She also used wine, mostly white wine. Often the wine was heated slightly and then diluted with more white wine and then drunk to eliminate a lot of health issues of the day. (Wine is made from grapes or other fruits.) But the Roy G. Biv system, along with prayer and other spiritual healing techniques, was her major emphasis. Most of her work, and it includes several very large compendiums of healing with plants, herbs, stones, metals, etc., is published in books, one of which has 300 chapters on healing and medicine.

Many well-known doctors and healers use Roy G. Biv for healing. I first started in 1964. I started on myself and then branched out in 1968 when my co-workers at TV Ontario started asking me about healing. Many of them were healed with this system, I’m happy to say.

Roy G. Biv is easy to apply to healing almost any disease or health challenge. And if it doesn’t heal it completely, it will improve the condition of the patient/client.

I have written about using Roy G. Biv for healing in many of my books like The Anger Cure; Whole Foods for Seniors; Sprouts; The World’s Oldest Health Plan; Nutrition and Health in the Bible; Kathleen’s Health Dictionary; and Energy, Health, and Beauty…After 50.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sure that most nutritionists use it, many yoga teachers teach this system, perhaps even your mother or grandmother used this system or tried to get you to follow it. Your health can benefit greatly from using Roy G. Biv for healing. It can help heal body, mind, and spirit.

By now you must be thinking something like: “I’ve never heard of this system of healing and certainly can’t imagine that my doctor or nutritionist uses it.”

Roy G. Biv Explained

It’s pretty simple, really. Roy G. Biv stands for the colors of the spectrum. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. These are the colors of  the most healing foods on the planet: vegetables, herbs, and fruits.

When most of your diet is composed of Roy G. Biv foods, you might have more energy, be more alert, sleep better, have fewer aches and pains, think more clearly, and even have better poops.

“But what about brown and white foods like mushrooms and cauliflower?” you ask. Yes, you can also include them as many mushrooms can be healing. Some sprouts might even be included in the white food category until they are in the sunlight and develop the green of chlorophyll. I like to include sprouts in the green category, the G. in Roy G. Biv.

I’d love to include some supporting medical information for each of the colors, but that would make this little article into a book, or a multi volumn set of books. There is a huge amount of material published on the healing power of vegetables and fruits.

If you want to see the latest information for any food just go to www.pubmed.com and put in the name of the food. I put in cherries and got 3,657 published medical journal articles on cherries. Of course some of  the articles might be about more agricultural interests than healing, but still there are many uses for all the foods. In pubmed there are subgroups that you can select for more specific information and under cherries they listed: gout, exercise, inflammation, melatonin, arthritis, sleep, and health.

There were 61 listed when I selected ‘cherries and inflammation’. One article discussed the use of tart cherries in soothing skin care cosmetics to be applied to the skin to overcome inflammation. Inflammation is the current hot topic in nutrition and healing, and generally, articles about it mention Turmeric, but tart cherries or tart cherry juice is also helpful for reducing inflammation and a lot easier to get your family and friends to eat than turmeric.

I selected cherries because they are red, and  that’s the first letter of Roy G. Biv. You can select any fruit or vegetable and look for medical journal articles in PubMed. If you do the advanced search you can select human rather than animal or agricultural uses.

The Michigan Cherry Commission and cherry growers were warned by the FDA in 2005-6 for publishing articles in the newspaper extoling the virtues of eating cherries for your health. This seems rather silly when you consider that there are so many articles showing that cherries can contribute to better health and better sleep. However, the FDA said if they continued talking about the health benefits of cherries they will have to register them as drugs, as if drugs actually did healing.

Generally the FDA only comes down on companies that publish health information for their product, not for fruits or vegetables. In many cases companies cannot even say what their food product is good for because it will be considered prescribing their product for a health problem and that is only allowed to be done by doctors. The FDA also has allowable claims that can be made for food products. A product or food item has to go through rigorous testing, and lots of expensive paperwork, to show that it will do what they say it will. Which is good when there is a new food or food product, but a lot of foods have healing powers attributed to them from centuries of use. That doesn’t count as far as the FDA is concerned. Your grandmother could be in trouble with the FDA if she tells you that eating beets is good for you and can clean toxins out of your liver. Ooops, that’s a health claim that is not allowed by the FDA even though people have been prescribed beets for cleansing by holistic doctors and nutritionists for decades.

Many herbs are now outlawed from mentioning their health-giving properties because the FDA doesn’t allow it to be said because they haven’t approved the claim. If a company or grower doesn’t spend the time and money to produce the required tests and paperwork to obtain an official claim, nothing can be said about the health properties of that food.

That’s why you can find out for yourself many of  the healing properties of food by researchng the published articles and clinical trials on pubmed.com

The Roy G. Biv healing system is simple: Eat vegetables and fruits of these colors every day. The more fresh vegetables and fruits you eat, the better you will feel. I have had people tell me that a sprout formula I developed for five network marketing companies had healed them of the following health challenges: 3 kinds of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, MS, lupus, insomnia, frequent colds, and more. Sprouts are green vegetables, the essence of the plant.

If you want to feel younger and more vital, reverse aging, sleep better, and get more out of life, please consider following the Roy G. Biv system of healing and eat 6-10 servings a day of fresh fruits and vegetables. The official definition of a serving is a half cup, 4 ounces. Even a small bottle of veggie juice is at least one serving of vegetables.

An easy way to start is with parsley. This healing green food is high in vitamins, minerals, and chlorophyll. Start by adding freshly chopped parsley to your current meals, even oatmeal! Gradually add in sprouts like alfalfa or fenugreek. Have a salad with your evening meal that is made with Romaine, butter, or leaf lettuce. Add beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, red and yellow peppers, onions, garlic, and lemon juice and olive oil. Have a baked sweet potato at least every week. For dessert have fresh fruit and nuts. Put fresh fruit on your cereal. Have tomatoes with your eggs. Grab a bottled juice in the grocery or gas station that has fresh fruits and vegetables in it.

There are a lot of ways to follow the Roy G. Biv system of healing. Just eat more vegetables and fruits and you’ll be on your way to vibrant health.

 

Kathleen O’Bannon is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and 3^rd generation healer. Her 12 books on nutrition and healing and frequent radio and TV appearances have guided thousands of people to better health in their body, mind, and spirit. Kathleen does private consultations and can speak to your group on many topics on health and healing including: The Love Diet; Food and Mood at Home, Work, and School; and Eat Right-Feel Right. She can be contacted through her web site, now under construction: http://www.kathleenobannon.com

 

Anger and Your Heart

Angry outbursts can kill you. The more you have the more chances you have of having an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). A study published in 1995 in the journal Circulation reported that an angry outburst can often trigger a heart attack within 2 hours. Twenty years before the time of this research I was a nutritionist at The Nutritional and Preventative Medical Clinic in Toronto where we planned diets and chelation therapy for thousands of people to help reduce clogged arteries and reduce their chances of dying. We used many tests to determine the balance in a client’s body to plan an appropriate healthy eating pattern. We used a plant-based diet under the supervision of Dr. Jerry Green. During the 1970s practitioners used to refer to the ‘Type A Personality’ which was a description of a person who had massive stress and anger. The Type A personality person was known to finish your sentences before you could, asked you to speak faster, ran hither and thither doing things really fast, tried to do way more than they could possibly do and worked at getting everybody else to do the same, and got mad easily. By the 1990s they determined that the A in Type A Personality actually stood for anger.

This is when I first realized that there was a simple answer to this problem by using nutrition to stabilize the blood sugar and prevent anger and rage. We used a nutritional and holistic approach. Many of the clients who didn’t have chelation but did follow the personal diets we planned reduced their anger, chest pain, total lipids, and panic attacks. They felt better, looked younger, and enjoyed life more.

Anger, regular frequent outbursts, can trigger the production of lipids that clog arteries. We have known this for decades. Most research does not go into the aspect of diet, but reports on the percentage of incidents associated with anger.

A newer study published in August 2013 in the American Journal of Cardiology repeats the same information. They found “The incidence rate of AMI onset was elevated 2.43 fold within 2 hours of an outburst of anger.” They also found that “greater intensities of anger were associated with greater risks.” So the more times you get angry and the stronger your anger is, the more chances you have of experiencing a myocardial infarction.

The latest review published in March 2014 of all the literature on anger and heart problems showed a connection between angry outbursts and all cardiovascular events including arrhythmia and ischemic stroke. All the results showed it happen most often within 2 hours of the angry outburst.

Reducing the incidents of angry outbursts should be the aim of anyone who has a history or family history of cardiovascular problems. This can easily be attained by following a heart healthy natural food diet. This means eating a lot of vegetables, especially dark green and dark orange ones. These foods contain the minerals that can help with relaxation of the muscles in the heart and chest. Eating the right foods at the right time can also prevent the drop in blood sugar that often triggers the adrenal cascade that creates the angry reaction in the first place.

My favorite radio show host in Boston, Frankie Boyer, is fond of me talking about the phrase “the first half hour”. This is the most important thing to remember in your lifestyle to prevent almost all health problems associated with anger. What is the first half hour? That’s when you need to eat something first thing in the morning that will raise your blood sugar levels and prevent your blood sugar from dropping and creating anger or a need for sugar, caffeine, or nicotine, which can trigger a stress reaction that can lead to anger. If you do not eat something to raise your blood sugar, you can create the ideal situation in your body to cause anger and many other reactions that are bad for your health.

The simple solution is to eat a little snack within the first half hour of getting up and then eat healthy foods throughout the day. What can you eat first thing? A few unsalted unroasted nuts, a small piece of cheese, nut butter on some lettuce or celery, a small piece of an apple and some nut butter or cheese, a sardine, a green smoothie with no sugar, or even a hardboiled egg.

You can eat a small snack so you can do a workout and/or meditation and then eat breakfast. Or you can eat your breakfast then. A protein smoothie with a vegetable protein source like hemp, soy, or sprouts can be a really fabulous way to start your day and reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems. You’ll have more energy and feel better.

This way of reducing anger is fully explained in The Anger Cure. This book is a total nutritional system for reducing anger and includes personal questionnaires that can show you which habits need to be changed to have better cardiovascular health and reduce anger, rage, negativity, and depression.

You can reduce your anger levels and feel better, look younger, and have more energy.

Kathleen O’Bannon, CNC, is the author of 11 books on nutrition and healing including The Anger Cure: A Step-by-Step Program to Reduce Anger, Rage, Negativity, Violence, and Depression in Your Life and Sprouts, The savory source for health and vitality. She has a private Wellness Practice and teaches nutrition and natural food cooking. She can be reached through the email on her web site: http://www.healthaliveproducts.com.

Eat Right – Feel Right™

The human machine was designed to survive by eating food. Real, whole food is best. Food supplies the fuel to run your body. What most people miss out on is all the vitamins and minerals that are found in vegetables, seeds, and nuts. These are called the ‘micro nutrients’ because they are in small quantities. The ‘macro nutrients’ are protein, fats, and carbohydrates that are in larger (macro) quantities. These nutrients should comprise our entire diet.

For centuries there have been groups in society that have maintained health eating vegetables, nuts, and seeds, and in some cases whole grains. The current popularity of eating vegan or vegetarian foods has raised some questions as to the validity of eating this way.

All vegetables contain protein, some more than others. Foods like soy (which contains complete protein for humans), spirulina, and Moringa oleifera leaves can sustain human life because they contain high amounts of protein along with other macro and micro nutrients. Of course these foods should always be organically grown to avoid contamination from GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).

It is important for good health to ensure that you are eating enough vegetables to sustain health. That’s why we have the food pyramids. The United States government says that we need to eat 8-10 half cup servings of vegetables a day to maintain health. Are you eating that amount? Are you eating fresh, whole, organically grown vegetables and fruits every day?

If you would like some ideas of what to eat and how much, take a look at this food pyramid produced by OldWays.

You can see their recommendations of the amount of vegetables to be eaten in one day. This is called a plant-based diet because plants comprise the largest amount of the foods to be eaten; they are the basis of your diet every day.

One good way to get enough vegetables in every day is to drink a vegetable smoothie first thing in the morning. Vegetable smoothie is a fancy name for vegetables that have been blended up, whole, with enough liquid added to make them totally drinkable. What vegetables can you drink this way? Cabbage, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, collard leaves, mustard greens, avocado, tofu, beets, the list is as endless as the variety of vegetables available. Some people add fresh berries, peach, pear, or even apple to the veggie mixture as well. Fresh sea vegetables would be a nice addition. Sprouts of any kind would be nice so would nuts and/or nut butter. Make sure your blender is strong enough to blend the vegetables to liquid.

Eat some vegetables at every meal. A great way to get started is to add chopped fresh parsley, watercress, dill, or other green leaves to every main dish just before serving. This colorful and flavorful garnish is also nutritious. Have a salad at every meal or better yet have a salad as your meal.

If reading about the nutritional advantages of vegetables and fruits doesn’t make you want to eat more of them than perhaps watching the movie “Forks over Knives” might do it. This film has several case histories that show people who were ill with the regular health issues of Americans like diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease who all reversed these health issues by eating more vegetables. You can see them change right before your eyes. It’s very inspiring. Of course they also reduced the amount of the things they were eating that were causing the health issues like high fat and the empty calories of white flour products, sugar, and refined and processed foods.

Vegetarians eat a diet based on vegetables (which also includes grains since they are vegetables). There are several kinds of vegetarians. Lacto vegetarians also include milk in their diet. Ovo vegetarians include eggs. Lacto-ovo vegetarians include both dairy and eggs, but no other animal products, and they eat lots of vegetables.

People who eat no animal products are called vegans. Many vegans eat this way as a religious and/or political choice. Some people eat this way for health. Many vegans do not do anything that would harm animals so they don’t wear leather either. Many people become vegans as a way to stop the pollution of the planet from the residue of animals raised for food.

Many religious groups support vegetarianism because they are against killing and especially killing animals. So health isn’t the only reason many people are vegetarians or vegans, there are many reasons someone might want to adopt this lifestyle.

With any eating and/or lifestyle plan, it is up to the person to educate himself on the ins and outs of changing. If you have any health problems or are under the care of a physician, notify them of any changes you are planning to make so they can monitor your progress.

It is possible to enjoy better health by avoiding processed foods, saturated and/or hydrogenated fats, tobacco products, sugar and flour products, any foods grown with GMO (genetically modified organisms) seeds, or foods containing chemicals known to be harmful.

It is also possible to enjoy better health by including the recommended amount of vegetables daily, especially unprocessed and raw veggies. Eating vegetables every day is essential to good health. Consider your own body and activity level when choosing a healthy lifestyle. It isn’t essential to be a vegetarian or vegan to be healthy. It is essential for you to monitor how you feel when you make any changes in your lifestyle. You might want to keep a diet and lifestyle log. The instructions for doing so are included in my book The Anger Cure.

 

That’s why I say: Eat Right – Feel Right™

Kathleen O’Bannon, CNC, is the author of 11 books on nutrition including Sprouts, the savory source for health and vitality, Whole Foods for Seniors, and the Anger Cure. She is a dynamic speaker and media personality. For 30+ years she has helped people feel better using her own unique brand of nutrition consulting. She can be reached through www.healthaliveproducts.com or email her at thecarrotlady@hotmail.com. Start the new year right with nutrition. Sometimes simple changes in your lifestyle can bring huge rewards in your health and mood.

This article is for informational purposes only. It is not to be construed as prescribing or claiming to cure any disease.

Vitamin D: Do we need it?

 

Vitamin D is needed for absorption of calcium and prevention of rickets. New research published by William D. Fraser, M.D. in 2013 shows that vitamin D plays a supportive role in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, MS, cancer, psychiatric disorders, and neuro-muscular diseases. Because of its antibacterial, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory properties it may also play a role in lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease and even eczema in children.

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency

There is no clear pattern of symptoms. In fact many people remain asymptomatic despite low levels. But here are the more common symptoms:

• Fatigue
• General muscle pain and weakness
• Muscle cramps
• Joint pain
• Chronic pain
• Weight gain
• High blood pressure
• Restless sleep
• Poor concentration
• Headaches
• Bladder problems
• Constipation or diarrhea
• Cognition in adults

Diseases associated with Vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to play a role in almost every major disease. This includes:

• Osteoporosis and Osteopenia
• 17 varieties of Cancer (including breast, prostate and colon)
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Obesity
• Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes
• Autoimmune diseases
• Multiple sclerosis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Osteoarthritis
• Bursitis
• Gout
• Infertility and PMS
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic Pain
• Periodontal disease
• Psoriasis

 

Vitamin D3 is the best form to use as a supplement. Although the new recommended daily allowance (RDA) and the Reference Daily Intakes (RDI) is now set at 800 IU for adults, the dose required for helping with autoimmune and cardiac diseases is now as much as 4,000 IU daily. The Mayo Clinic often recommends 2,000 IU daily in several doses for 3 days to help improve respiratory diseases including COPD in adults.

Vitamin D is an essential part of a calcium supplement if you are interested in preventing osteoporosis. A good supplement would include calcium, magnesium, vitamins D and K, and boron. Many people taking this complement of nutrients have reported to me that they have reversed bone loss in their jaws, and other areas as well as found it useful in healing bone fractures and breaks. I am now an inch and a half taller than when I graduated from high school and I give the credit to this kind of complete supplement.

Here is the conclusion of a study published in 2012 in Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism:

“It appears that vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and that vitamin D deficiency may be linked to disease severity in RA. As vitamin D deficiency has been linked to diffuse musculoskeletal pain, these results have therapeutic implications. Vitamin D supplementation may be needed both for the prevention of osteoporosis as well as for pain relief in patients with RA.”

If you have an autoimmune disease, immune disease, bone loss, or any of the deficiency signs listed here, please check with your doctor before you take any vitamin D above 1,000 IU a day. If you are wondering whether vitamin D deficiencies might be playing a role in your health, even though you get at least 20 minutes of sun a day, please ask your doctor to do a blood test to determine your levels. Many people who live in areas where there is a lot of sun shine are showing up deficient in blood tests.

 

Kathleen O’Bannon, CNC, is the author of 10 books on nutrition including “The Anger Cure: A step-by-step Program to Reduce Anger, Rage, Negativity, Violence, and Depression in your Life.” Kathleen can be heard on many radio stations throughout the US and Canada and is available for wellness coaching and speaking engagements. Kathleen@kathleenobannon.com