Swine Flu Vaccine: Going To Be A Hit In Vegas

Next week brings the first mass distribution of the eagerly awaited H1N1 swine flu vaccine.  There will be people lining up at clinics, hospitals, and local CVS pharmacies to get the shot or nasal spray that is supposed to protect against this latest, sometimes deadly, variation of the age-old pig flu.

Not sure I’m going to be one of them.  I’m really struggling with justifying the benefits of the vaccination when balanced with the possible side effects.  Although betting on the odds of experiencing adverse reactions is a sucker bet even when compared to Vegas odds,  I don’t have to worry about dropping dead if I go bust on a chancy Blackjack hand.

I’m struggling even more with the decision of whether to get my toddler son vaccinated.

First, everyday we are hearing about more deaths related to the swine flu.  So, it is clearly a growing threat that seems to popping up all over the country.  The latest reports include a startling statistic.  Apparently out of 100 pregnant women who have been diagnosed with H1N1, 28 have died!  That’s over 1 out of every 4.  Scary.

Swine flu vaccination circa 2009

Let’s talk about this new vaccination that would have supposedly protected those women from ever contracting the disease.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we can talk about the 2009 vaccine, we really need to talk about the vaccine that was produced to protect against the last U.S.-based swine flu outbreak.

This was 1976, and a soldier based at Fort Dix in New Jersey had been diagnosed with swine flu. He died within 2-3 days. Within a day or so, another 2-3 soldiers in the same base had been diagnosed as having contracted the pig flu. Mass panic led to the development of a quick vaccine to protect against this particular strain that had infected the soldiers.

Why the mass panic after only one death? Because the health officials that had examined this one case publicly stated that the flu strain contracted by the soldiers in New Jersey was similar to the strain responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic.

You remember the 1918 swine flu pandemic?  It was the outbreak that spread across the globe infecting an estimated 500 million people and killing anywhere between 50 and 100 million individuals worldwide. Can you imagine? A flu outbreak that killed at least 50 million people!

So, in 1976, just mentioning the 1918 outbreak led to a major panic and rush to the nearest clinic to get vaccinated for this latest flu threat.

That photo to the left is a widely publicized picture of then President Gerald Ford receiving the 1976 swine flu vaccination. Off topic: Did nurses really wear hats like that in 1976?

Well, in 1976, the anticipated outbreak never happened.  The soldier in New Jersey was the only death associated with that strain of swine flu.  The other soldiers lived, and no other cases were ever recorded. But let’s talk about the vaccine that was developed.

During the 1976 mass vaccination campaign, 1 in every 100,000 recipients of the vaccine developed Guillain Barré syndrome (GBS), a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system, often leading to paralysis and death. GBS is a known potential side effect of any influenza (flu) vaccine.

There is no known cure for GBS.

In 1976 roughly 40 million Americans received the vaccine and some 4,000 developed GBS.  Of these 4,000, there were 25 deaths confirmed to have been caused by vaccine-related GBS.

So, in the 1976 Swine Flu Fiasco, as it is commonly referred to, the disease racks up one kill, the cure twenty five.

1976 Body Count:      Swine Flu 1            Swine Flu Vaccine 25

Switch back to 2009.  The CDC is already distributing information that states that when receiving the new flu vaccine “the estimated risk for more serious reactions (e.g. Guillain Barré syndrome) is between 1-10 per million persons vaccinated”.

This is a circumspect way of acknowledging that the risks associated with the new vaccine is about the same as the vaccine produced in 1976.  According to these estimates, as many as 1 in every 100,000 recipients of the vaccine will develop GBS or some other severe adverse reaction.

Once again, there is no known cure cure for GBS.

So, I have to ask myself, how bad will this outbreak really be?  1918 bad (which would be really really bad)? Or 1976 bad (which means pretty much not bad at all)?

And I have to ask myself, just in case, do I spin the roulette wheel, get the vaccination, and hope that neither I nor my son land on black?

What about you? Will you be rushing to get in line for the long awaited swine flu shot?

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Will I Need A Prescription For These Sugar Pills?

Big Pharma is worried. Have you noticed that there are substantially fewer new drugs that are making it through pharmaceutical testing and being released to the consumer market? Especially in the mood treatment arena where Prozac and Valium have ruled for years.

Want to know one reason why?

Because evidently, sugar pills are as just as effective at curing us as many of comprehensively researched, painstakingly designed, and massively marketed medicinal cocktails being developed by companies like Merck and Smith-Glaxo. And it’s not that the new drugs don’t work. You don’t spend all those dollars on research and development unless you are pretty sure the drug will do what it’s supposed to do. The key to getting it to market is to ensure a minimum of overly dangerous side effects.

So the new drugs are typically effective in bestowing the medicinal benefits intended. It’s just that, during the clinical testing trials of these new drugs, the placebos are proving to work just as well at providing those same benefits.

New drug comes up for trial testing. A group of test subjects is selected. Some percentage of those subjects are given the real drug, while another group is given sugar pills that look like the real drug. Neither group knows whether they are getting the real thing or not.

Many of these tests are now showing that the group taking the placebo experiences an inordinately high number of member individuals who show the same benefits as those in the other group taking the real drug. In other words, in these cases, people even thinking they might be taking the real drug somehow fool their body into producing the same effects as they would expect if they really were taking the drug.

It’s really hurting the pharmaceutical industry because the FDA will not approve any drug where the placebo effect during testing distorts the true intended benefits of the drug.

As a result of this phenomena, scientists are beginning to discover that the power of the human brain can be a far stronger healing agent than Big Pharma’s black bag of pills, powders, and potions.

There’s a great article in last month’s Wired Magazine that gets into far more detail. You can read the online version here.

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V8 Juice: Nutrition In A Can? Or…

V8 Juice.

We’ve all seen the ads.  Guy drinking a soda looks over and sees his buddy drinking from a colorful can with pictures of celery, tomatoes, carrots, and other brightly painted vegies on it.  Guy knocks himself in the head exclaiming “Wow, I could’a had a V8!”.

V8 100% Vegetable Juice, now made by the Campbell Soup Company, still retains the same basic recipe as when it was first formulated back in 1933.  Per the V8 site, the original V8 Juice (there are now more than 20 additional V8 brands) contains a healthy mix of vegetable juices extracted from tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach.

Campbell claims that each eight ounce glass of the V8 100% Vegetable Juice equals two servings of vegetables.  So, in theory, drinking 2-3 cans of V8 each day should fulfill your daily requirements for the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and healthy plant based sterols that we would get from fresh vegies eaten raw, steamed, or even juiced.

But is that true?  I’ve often wondered about the processes required to prepare fruit and vegetable juices for mass storage and distribution, and the effects of these process on the nutritional value of the juice.  In other words, is drinking a glass of 100% Apple Juice from a bottle as nutritious as eating 2-3 raw apples?  Is drinking a glass of V8 as healthy as downing a couple of helpings of spinach and carrots?

Let’s look at how V8 (and most other fruit and vegetable juices) are processed.  We are not privy to the exact recipe of how the juice is prepared or what the percentage breakdown of the eight included vegetables is, so let’s just assume that, at the early stages, it really is a healthy combination of raw juices from the vegetables listed above.

Now this is a glass of juice I’d like to drink.  In addition to an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, freshly extracted vegetable juice also contains living enzymes.  These living enzymes are protein molecules and are essential for most of the building and rebuilding that goes on constantly in our bodies.

But, if I wanted to get the full nutritional value of that glass of raw juice, I would need to drink it quickly.  Prolonged exposure to air will speed up the breakdown of these living enzymes.  In fact, most of the valuable enzymes are destroyed within 20 minutes of exposure to air.  This is why, when you go to a juice shop and order wheat grass or any of the other freshly extracted vegetable juices, you are encouraged to drink it quickly.

Now if you’re lucky enough to be able to immediately seal that freshly extracted juice in an airtight container, you might be able to store it in your fridge for up to 3-4 days before the enzymes are completely broken down.   Freshly extracted fruit juice can be sealed and stored for up to five days before losing all the enzyme goodness.

Reading between the lines, I’m pretty sure all those living enzymes are gone by the time those cans and bottles of V8 reach my pantry shelf.

So, maybe V8 should change it’s name to:

V8 100% Vegetable Juice (But Without All Those Pesky Healthy Enzymes).

Okay, back to our glass of freshly made pre-processed V8 Juice.  Now the makers have to be able to package the juice in cans and bottles and ship it across the world so that it can be ready and waiting on your local grocery shelf.  But wait, first the juice must be pasteurized.   Per Webster’s Dictionary:

Pasteurization is the act or process of heating a beverage or other food, such as milk or beer, to a specific temperature for a specific period of time in order to kill microorganisms that could cause disease, spoilage, or undesired fermentation.

Pasteurization kills organisms–such as salmonella, listeria, and brucella–that can make you sick or cause food and juices to spoil.  Our favorite governmental glee club, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), sets detailed guidelines for the pasteurization of fruit and vegetable juices.

What does pasteurization do to our glass of prep-packaged V8 juice?  Well, per numerous studies, it has been proven that the pasteurization process can destroy large quantities of the nutritional goodies that remain in our already enzyme-depleted glass of juice.

Specifically, it has been shown that the various vitamins in our glass of vegie juice react differently to heat.  Vitamin E is relatively stable and has a 90% retention rate.  In contrast, vitamin A has only a 60% retention rate after heat processing.  The B family of vitamins is relatively stable with retention rates ranging from 75% to 90%.  The exceptions there being folic acid, which has about a 50% survival rate after being pasteurized, and riboflavin, which is sensitive to both heat and light.

What about vitamin C?  Well the majority of the vitamin C in our pre-packaged glass of V8 vegetable juice never makes it to pasteurization.  Turns out vitamin C, like our living enzymes, is also very sensitive to air exposure and will break down in a short period of time.

In summary, a plate of raw fresh vegetables or a glass of raw vegetable juice contains quality protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and complex sugars to provide long lasting metabolic energy.  The same juice after going through pasteurization contains little protein, no antioxidants, and nutrients that have broken down into large quantities of simple, monosaccharide sugars.

Now, on the plus side, it has been shown that plant phenols are relatively stable throughout the heating process.  But, again, the free radical scavenging antioxidants aren’t.  They are almost completely lost.

So, is an eight ounce glass of V8 100% Vegetable Juice really equal to two servings of fresh vegetables or freshly extracted vegetable juice?

Not even close.  And when you throw in the extra salt that they add to enhance the flavor that is also lost during the heating process, you really have gone from 100% Vegetable to maybe 50% Vegetable Light Plus Salt.

I still drink V8.  The low sodium brand.  I know it’s not going to replace or even really reduce the need for real vegetables, but it is a tasty drink that does offer more nutritional value than soda, coffeee, or bottled water.

There are over twenty different types of V8 juices on the market. What’s your favorite? And do you drink it for the “health benefits”, or just the taste?

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Krill Oil: Three Times As Healthy As Fish Oil?

If you are already familiar with the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids and how fish oil supplements can help attain a healthy balance of these essential fatty acids, then you may want to scroll down to the ‘A Better Alternative?’ section.

It is well acknowledged in the scientific and consumer communities that taking in omega-3 fatty acids can improve your health.

Omega-3 fatty acids cannot be produced by the human body and are thus part of the “essential fatty acid” family.  We can only get them from the food we eat or the supplements we take.  Cold water fish, such as salmon and cod, are great sources of omega-3s.

There are three types of omega-3 fatty acids: alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).  All of these act as anti-inflammatories in the body.  Inflammation is a leading cause of many medical conditions including the deterioration of the cardiovascular (heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure) and brain (depression, Alzheimer’s) systems.  Inflammation is also primarily responsible for many of the effects of aging, including skin wrinkling, arthritis, and the degeneration of bone and tissue in the body.

Another member of the essential fatty acids are the omega-6s.  They are far more common in the typical diet and can be found in meat, nuts, and seeds.  Maintaining a healthy ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids can reduce the likelihood of suffering from a variety of medical problems including cancer, arthritis,and heart disease.  However, the proper ratio between the two can differ based on the condition you are trying most to alleviate or prevent.

Regardless of the ratio, taking in the appropriate amount of omega-3s and omega-6s can be immensely beneficial to our health.  Most people get plenty of the omega-6 fatty acids in their day to day diet.  However, due to the limited food sources available (how many people eat fresh salmon everyday?), supplementation is a great way of ensuring that we get the appropriate amount of omega-3s.

Fish oil pills have become a popular source of omega-3s over the last ten years.  Even doctors, who routinely disavow any nutritional benefits of non-prescription supplementation, are recommending fish oil supplements to their patients.  Especially those who suffer from any of the warning signs of impending cardiovascular issues (adverse cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, etc).

So, in summary, various scientific studies conclude that a healthy balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids can help with the following conditions:

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Adverse cholesterol and triglyceride levels
• Depression
• Certain types of stroke
• Eczema
• Asthma
• Arthritis

Taking fish oil supplements can help achieve that healthy balance of essential fatty acids.

Fish Oil Supplements Do Have A Downside

Fish oils are a great source of the omega-3 fatty acids.  But they do have some risks.  Fish oil is obtained from fish that swim in oceans that contain varying levels of mercury and other toxins.  And because salmon and other cold water fish are way up the ocean food chain, they absorb all the toxins that have been ingested by the fish they eat, the fish that those fish ate, and so on down the line.

By the time a salmon is caught and harvested for its oil, it potentially contains dangerously high levels of mercury and other toxins that have poisoned our oceans.  You always want to check the quality of the fish oil supplements you buy to ensure that quality filtering processes are used to purify the extracted oil.  But, no matter the quality of the manufacturing, there is a risk of at least trace amounts of bad stuff in those pills.

A Better Alternative?

Krill are tiny shrimp-like marine animals that live in all oceans of the world.  They are considered a “keystone” species near the bottom of the food chain because they feed purely on phytoplankton and zooplankton and convert these into the main dietary sources for fish and other higher level marine animals.

In other words, they are a primary food source for many of the bigger boys in the ocean.

Turns out krill oil contains higher and more efficient concentrations of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA, EPA, and ALA than is found in the cold water fish that fish oil supplements are made from.

Three times the effectiveness of fish oil!

The effectiveness of krill oil is superior due to the fact that the omega-3s in krill oil are linked together in a different cellular structure that, without going all high school chemistry, mimics the structure of the fat in human cell walls.  This means that krill oil is more compatible with the human body and thus more easily absorbed.

In addition, krill oil contains astaxanthin, an extremely potent antioxidant the body uses to neutralize free radicals that can damage cells and tissues throughout the body.

Krill are a plentiful ocean resource.  Less than 1% of the ocean’s 600 million tons of krill is harvested annually.  This ensures an abundant, sustainable krill population.  This is a plus because many people are shying away from fish oil supplements due to the concerns over depleted fish populations across the globe.

Krill oil is typically packaged in small soft gel form.  This is compared to the larger fish oil gel pills that can be hard for some people to swallow.  And krill oil keeps longer.  Bottles of fish oil pills typically spoil within six months to a year.  Krill oil pills can stay fresh and nutritionally potent for up to two years or more.

And for some reason, krill oil doesn’t have the fishy smell or disgusting burp aftertaste that is so common with fish oil.

So, fish oil is a good source of omega-3s if you do your homework on quality and purity.  But krill oil supplements are clearly superior in terms of effectiveness and purity.

I’ve switched to krill.  I get mine thru Bulk Nutrition, which is a site I learned about in the homemade supplements guide I obtained.  It’s a great site that carries a large supply of quality supplement brands at super discount prices - especially when you buy in quantities.

Click to see the Bulk Nutrition krill oil I use.

They carry various brands, so be sure to type ‘krill oil’ into the ‘Quick Find’ search box on the left side of the page if you want to check their selection.  They also carry a wide range of other products that you can browse for.  Again, great prices and quick shipping.

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Saving A Marriage: A Mid-Life Success Story

First, this story is not about me. I am a happily married man who has tried to develop healthy ways of dealing with the problems that crop up in any marriage. The wife and I have our moments, but after ten years, we’ve learned enough about each other to play to each other’s  strengths, respect boundaries, and avoid pushing the wrong buttons. Usually anyway. Saving a marriage is just not a task we’ve had to face. Knock wood.

But we do have some friends that have been experiencing some real turmoil in their marriage. You’d never know it if you saw them in public.  As a couple, they seem to be perfect for each other. On the surface anyway.

He is a real Type A personality who is focused on his climb up the corporate ladder. Well, he doesn’t really climb - he sprints. It’s always about the next promotion and the next bump in salary. His rationale seems to be that the higher up the food chain he is, the more protected he is against layoffs and the other ugly by-products of these uncertain economic times.

She, on the other hand, is a stay-at-home Mom who is heavily involved in her kid’s activities and the school PTA. She manages the household, makes sure the kids get where they need to be, and can be found working the concession stand at many of her kid’s sporting events. Personality wise she is extremely laid back and seems to roll smoothly with the ebb and flow of active adolescents, a demanding husband, and a hectic schedule.

Perfect match, right? The ambitious breadwinner and the supportive wife?  Maybe not so much.

A few months ago, he came up to me while I was in the front yard playing with Junior. After a few pleasantries, he turned and asked me “Does marriage counseling work?”

Turns out things weren’t so rosy in the marriage. He was bored and frustrated at work. She was irritated at his lack of attention to his family.

They tried counseling, but after trying 2-3 different counselors, they couldn’t agree on one to move forward with. They each favored the one that seemed to favor them.

Long story short, they decided to take a self help approach. We went to dinner with them last week, and the change in their relationship was pretty apparent. He was much more attentive to her. She seemed to be more tolerant of his dinner table soliloquies on the state of the U.S. economy. They were even holding hands at the table.

According to them, they are still pushing through their issues, but they seem to be much happier just knowing they are working towards a common goal. I asked them what had changed. Had they finally found a counselor they could work with?

They said no. It was all about this program they heard about on the radio called The Us Factor. It’s some program put together by a doctor that helps you work on your marriage and improve your relationships.

I don’t know much of anything about the program except that it seems to be helping our friends. I also don’t know what the odds are of saving a marriage that’s gone sour, but they seem to be one of the lucky couples who have come back from the brink. At least so far. They encouraged me to get the word out about this program, so you can click here or on the graphic to learn more. Again, don’t know a thing about it myself, but it’s helped two people I know come back together.

Any tips you want to share on keeping a marriage intact and exciting? Just leave us a comment below.

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I Trust Lance Armstrong… I Think

It’s tough not to like Lance Armstrong.  Even tougher not to admire him and what he’s accomplished.  A discussion of his achievements would read like a real life Rocky story, but that’s not what this post is all about.

Lance is now promoting a new energy drink called FRS.  After trying FRS, he was so impressed he actually approached the company, The FRS Company,  about endorsing the product. And he must be committed to the stuff, because he’s now also a member of the The FRS Company’s Board of Directors.

I’m not a big fan of most of the “energy” drinks you see lining the shelves and coolers of your local health store or grocery.  Catchy names like Red Bull, Full Throttle, and Monster Energy (”Unleash the beast!”) are slapped onto stimulant laced drinks that typically contain way too much sugar and way too much caffeine.  I’ve already given you a rundown of the ingredients you find in most of these drinks, so no need to rehash them here.

FRS, which stands for Free Radical Scavengers, is advertised as a healthy energy drink that uses all natural ingredients to provide a kick.  Minimal sugar and minimal caffeine. The formula relies on a unique antioxidant called quercetin to encourage the production of energy at the cellular level.  According to the FRS web site:

Quercetin is a natural antioxidant found in the skins of apples, blueberries, and onions. It protects the adrenaline that your body naturally creates to give you energy for small daily tasks like staying awake at work and big events like running a marathon. Quercetin allows your body to use energy more efficiently so you feel more energy for a longer amount of time.

I’m a big fan of the power of antioxidants.  Especially as we age.  But they are not the miracle cure that’s going to enable us to splash around in the fountain of youth.

However, I am always interested in finding reasonably safe energy supplements - i.e. ones that aren’t full of sugar, caffeine or other herbal heart-pounders like guarana or ephedra - that can give me the occasional boost I need to get off the couch and into the gym.

So I picked up a 4 pack of FRS to give it a try. Not cheap.

First, the stuff tastes like flat 7-Up. Sort of lemon-limey without the in your face carbonation that many of the other energy drinks have. But you’ll definitely want to throw these into the fridge, because FRS goes down alot easier when cold.

According to the product literature, a single can of FRS delivers the same antioxidant quantity as roughly three servings of blueberries, or eight servings of raspberries. This is due to the 250 mg of quercetin and 100 mg of catechins in each serving. We learned above that quercetin is an antioxidant that can be found in apple skins, red onions, and blueberries. Catechins are found in tea leaves, especially green tea, and have been proven effective at promoting cardiovascular health.

In addition to the antioxidant ingredients, FRS also contains high levels of the B-vitamin family (niacin, riboflavin, B-6, B-12, etc) as well as significant quantities of vitamins A, C, and E. Again, very little caffeine (<50 mg) and very little sugar. The B vitamins contribute to the energy mix, but you can get those alot cheaper in pill form. So, FRS must be pinning it’s value proposition on the quercetin.

Well, does it work?

Well, there’s certainly no immediate energy rush. Used to be when I downed a Red Bull, I’d feel a quick jolt as the sugar and caffeine hit my system. None of that with FRS. But at the same time, no jacked up heart rate, no twitching muscles, and no urge to punch through a wall. I’ve always thought I would have loved to have had Red Bull around when I was twenty and invincible. But nowadays, I’ve shorted out enough fuse boxes to know that power surges aren’t all good.

Did some more research and discovered that the FRS formula is not designed to provide that quick surge that the other drinks deliver. FRS supposedly provides an all day energy boost that, while not as intense as the typical energy drink, is much longer lasting. According to Lance Armstrong and the rest of the FRS Company, after taking drinking FRS, you’ll feel much more energized at the end of the day.

Hence the FRS marketing slogan “Tired of being tired?”.

The key to FRS’s claim is the antioxidant quercetine and how it interacts with the body to increase mitochondria production. Without getting all high school biology, mitochondria are the energy producing components in our body. More mitochondria equals more energy at a cellular level.

Now, if the claims are true and FRS does help you feel less fatigued at the end of the day, then great! But this stuff is being heavily marketed to athletes as a performance boosting drink and I just don’t see how a slight, long lasting increase in energy levels qualifies as a performance boost. Well, I take that back. Maybe it does help in marathon type of activities such as running the New York Marathon or cycling the Tour De France.

But wait. There have been studies that prove that quercetine does increase mitochondria production. In mice. But what about people?

The jury is still out, but recent studies such as this one indicate that quercetine does not increase mitochondria production or boost athletic performance in humans in any way.  Potentially another in a long line of nutritional supplement claims based solely on the results of animal experiments.  Humans aren’t mice.

So, like I said, I want to trust Lance.  And I’m sure he’s done his homework on FRS.  But while it does appear the energy enhancing capabilities of quercetine might wake up a tired mouse, I’m not sure it’s going to do a thing for me.

I’m going to keep my eye on the ongoing studies around the benefits of quercetine.

So,what’s your favorite energy drink? And do they work for you? Leave a comment and share your experience.

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Flipping Mushrooms On The Grill

Evenings are finally getting cooler here in Dallas.  A nice change from the 100+ degree days we’ve been getting for much of the Summer.  Grilling out in those temperatures is little more than throwing a slab of meat on a plate and leaving it in the sun to cook.  But, now that Fall is finally approaching, I fired up the old Weber grill this weekend.

Family wanted burgers.  Me, I’ve been getting my fill of beef, chicken, and fish lately, so i wanted to try something different.  I went browsing in the local Sprouts and found some fresh portobello mushrooms that were 6″-7″ in diameter and looked just like tasty round slabs of meat.

I’ve heard that vegetarians often use mushrooms in place of meat, so, being the adventurous eater that I am, I bought a couple of the firmer looking brown caps.  Time to grill up some meat and mushrooms!

Marinated the meat with Worcestershire sauce and the mushrooms with olive oil and some red pepper.  Threw them all on the grill, and learned that portobello mushrooms kick out a different sort of smell when cooking.  More earthy and somewhat fresher than the smell of charring meat.  My neighbor actually stuck his head over the fence to ask what I was cooking.  When I told him mushrooms, he ducked back down muttering something about it being unnatural to grill anything but meat in Texas.

Once cooked, I slapped one of the mushrooms between a  bun, threw on some lettuce and tomato, and had one of the tastiest burgers I’ve ever eaten.  Really really good.  Now when I get burned out on eating beef and chicken, I can always throw some mushrooms on the grill or in the oven to spice up my diet.

Forget the fact that taking a break from meat is always a good thing to do to allow your body to do some self cleaning, but mushrooms are really healthy.

Some fun facts about a mushroom’s nutritional value:

First, unless you know what you are doing, don’t pick your own mushrooms.  There are hundreds of species which are poisonous.

Second, mushrooms are not vegetables, and they are not herbs.  They are fungi.  You just aren’t likely to see a “Fungi” sign in your local Kroger, so look for mushrooms in the veggie section.

Mushrooms are made of 70%-80% water, which was really surprising to me as the portobello burgers I cooked had the texture and chewiness of meat.  And at only 100 calories per ounce, they are a perfect weight loss substitute for beef or chicken.  Mushrooms contain very little sodium and fat, and 8% to 10% of the dry weight is healthy fiber.

How about vitamins are other nutritional goodies?  Mushrooms pack quite a wallop.

Mushrooms are an excellent source of potassium.

Potassium is a mineral that helps lower elevated blood pressure and reduces the risk of stroke. One medium portabella mushroom has even more potassium than a banana or a glass of orange juice. One serving of mushrooms also provides about 20 to 40 percent of the daily value of copper, a mineral that has cardioprotective properties.

Mushrooms are a rich source of niacin, selenium, and riboflavin.

Selenium is an antioxidant that works with vitamin E to protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals. Male health professionals who consumed twice the recommended daily intake of selenium cut their risk of prostate cancer by 65 percent. In a Baltimore study on Aging, men with the lowest blood selenium levels were 4 to 5 times more likely to have prostate cancer compared to those with the highest selenium levels.

Certain mushroom species are famous for their healing and immune system boosting capabilities.

Shiitake mushrooms have been used for centuries by Asian cultures to treat colds and flu. Lentinan, a beta-glucan present in the fruiting body of shiitake mushrooms, appears to stimulate the immune system, help fight infection, and demonstrates anti-tumor activity.

So, the next time the family wants burgers, just throw sone fungi on the grill for a tasty and healthy meal.

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Oprah Versus The Supplement Scammers

I knew this would come at some point.

We’ve talked about all the fake celebrity supplement endorsements that are being splashed across the Internet and in popular magazines and newspapers.  And because a recommendation from Oprah is second to only a blessing from the Pope, it’s no surprise that her face is attached to all kinds of miracle supplements including acai and resveratrol pills and juices.  I believe it all stemmed from an episode of her show where she and her resident “health expert” Dr. Oz touted the benefits of acai.

Supplement makers saw that, put their scheming heads together, and came to the conclusion that:

“Hey, if she likes acai, then she must love resveratrol!  And if she likes them in their natural form, she must love the convenience of having them processed and crammed into pills,  powders, and potions.  And hey, didn’t she lose alot of weight recently - again?  It must have been the acai!”

Guess Oprah has tired of seeing these supplement makers bless their products with her smiling face and newly toned body.  She and Dr. Oz have teamed up and dropped lawsuits on 40 different supplement companies.  Well, 40 different company names, anyway.  Truth is, many of these “free sample” supplement scams are run by multiple shell companies that roll up into one large holding company.  One that is usually located in the corporate meccas of Vietnam, Granada, or some other hard to reach business haven.

On her website, Oprah Winfrey has laid out her law:  “Consumers should be aware that neither Oprah Winfrey nor Dr. Oz are associated with nor do they endorse any açaí berry product, company or online solicitation of such products, including MonaVie juice products…Neither Oprah nor Dr. Oz are associated with nor do they endorse any specific resveratrol product, company or online solicitation of such products. Any companies that misrepresent their affiliation are making false claims.”

“We know that thousands of people have been misled by these marketing practices,” said Marc Rachman, the attorney for Oz and Winfrey and companies that manage their images and trademarks, on Friday. “Oprah.com has received e-mail in the thousands from people who believe Oprah and Dr. Oz are affiliated with these products and have endorsed them when they haven’t.”

It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.  But as most of us know, whether it’s a photo, an advertisement, or an email, once it’s out there on the Internet, it’s pretty much there forever.  So, I would expect to see some of these companies just disappear, leaving a trail of acai, resveratrol, and colon cleansing ads with Oprah’s smiling face scattered across the World Wide Web.

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Say Goodbye To The Summer of 2009

School starts this week.  My stepdaughter is off to her first day as a highschool sophmore, and my three year old has his ‘meet the teacher’ day at his new preschool later this week.

It’s been an interesting Summer.  Junior is growing up and has turned into a fearless little daredevil when it comes to jumping in swimming pools, trying to boogie board on the beach with his cousins, or leaping from precarious heights never doubting my ability to catch him.

Can be nerve-wracking at times.  It’s great that he doesn’tseem to share many of the fears that many toddlers his age go through (well, he’s not crazy about thunderstorms), but a little healthy caution would help lower my blood pressure when he’s dashing out into 3 foot waves at the beach.  We’ve been working on his swimming skills, so next year should be easier.

Junior also starts tee ball this month.  Can’t wait to see that.  We’ve been practicing his hitting and catching, and he does have an arm.  Accuracy?  There’s some work needed there.  I’m trying to free up some time so I can help coach the team.  These are wonderful times to be a Dad, and I want to stay as close to the action as I can.

Trying to find somewhere to take the family for an end of Summer long weekend vacation.  This is really when I miss living on the east coast.  Living in Atlanta, we were five hours from the beach or three hours from the mountains.  Perfect for quick pick up and go trips.

Here in Dallas we’re hours from nowhere.  Best we can find are lakeside cabins down in Austin or up in Oklahoma.  But as beach people from way back, it’s just not the same.

Football season is kicking off.  Bulldawgs open up against Okie State in two weeks.  Can’t wait.  Doing a guys weekend and driving to Arkansas to watch them play the Razorbacks in September.  Really can’t wait for that.

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Homemade Nutrition - Make Your Own Supplements

I’m in complete agreement with the argument that maintains that, as we get older, our bodies need more nutrition than we can absorb from the typical daily diet. This is partially because today’s fruits and veggies just aren’t as healthy as they were 25 years ago, but it’s also due to advances in body science that have led to newly discovered chemical interactions that serve to ward off the effects of aging using various sources of antioxidants and other nutritional goodies.

But unless you’re actually eating 6-8 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day (primarily vegetables), chances are you’re not getting enough of these rejuvenating substances, especially as our bodies age and begin to lose the ability to efficiently utilize the vitamins, minerals, and other good stuff (antioxidants, phytochemicals, etc.) in the foods we eat.  Hence the need for supplements.  The right supplements.

And just to review.  We’ve talked about supplements that we think work.  We’ve talked about supplements that we just don’t think are worth the money.  And we’ve talked about supplements that are just out and out scams.

Supplements can be expensive.  Just head over to your local GNC, and before you know it, the clerk has talked you into buying a hundred dollars worth of stuff to treat what ails ya.

Worried about cholesterol?  They have multiple pills, potions, and powders to choose from.  Want to burn fat?  Just grab a bottle of one of those energy kickers they sell for $30-$45 bucks.  Want to stay young?  Step right up, pull out that credit card, and purchase a bottle of acai pills.  Yea, they’re a little expensive, but they’re hot right now.  And Oprah swears by them!

Maybe at this point you might want to review the three questions I ask myself before I’ll even think about laying out dollars for a supplement.

Picking the right supplements is important.  Picking the right supplements and not going broke is even more important.

Well, last week I picked up an interesting e-book called Homemade Supplement Secrets.  Did you know that you pay a huge premium for many supplements when, if you were to purchase the ingredients individually, you could cut the substantially cut the cost?

This book actually teaches you how to make your own supplements.  It takes you through all the steps, including analyzing a popular supplement that might cost you $50 per bottle in the store, buying the ingredients from online supplement suppliers, and, using inexpensive kitchen-type equipment, mixing your own version of that supplement for a fraction of the cost.

Really interesting stuff.  And for $27, just getting a list of his preferred online suppliers is worth the cost to me.  These suppliers have been checked out for quality and offer supplements at really really cheap prices, especially when you buy in bulk.

Just to give you an idea, here’s the table of contents of the 193 page downloadable e-book:

Chapter 1: Supplement “Suckers” 101…………………..9
Chapter 2: Supplements – Are They Worth It?……..12
Chapter 3: “Back Room” Supplements……………………23
Chapter 4: Marketing Secrets Exposed ………………..31
Chapter 5: The Good, The Bad, And The UGLY ………48
Chapter 6: The Home-Based Supplement Lab ………59
Chapter 7: “Knocking Off” The Top Supplements ….68
“Energy/Pre-Workout Aids”…………………………76
“Mass Gainers” …………………………………………..90
“Muscle Builders” ……………………………………..106
“Fat Burners” ……………………………………………117
“Sports Performance” ……………………………….132
“Post-Workout Recover”……………………………146
“Nitric Oxide” …………………………………………..159
“Hormone-Boosters” …………………………………176

Really good stuff.  The analysis of the popular supplements in the categories listed above is valuable and provides alot of insight as to what works and what doesn’t.

Their web site is a little hype crazy, but the book is definitely worth it.

Click here to learn more about Homemade Supplement Secrets.

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