Is Sugar Toxic?

Please see this great article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hpw

Pesticide exposure, a public problem to be overlooked.

As it states, pesticides "…on our food, even after washing; …in our bodies, for years; …& in our environment, traveling many miles on wind, water and dust."

Even we produce all vegetables and fruits in our own little garden, we may not be able to avoid pestticides because of the water we used and dust we "received".

How much is too much? Here is the resource.

An inexpensive but very important fruit we can not overlook!

Banana, a very common and inexpensive fruit that almost everybody can afford to eat everyday. It may not be delicious as some other costly fruits, but it is essential to our health.

Some people with anxiety or depression may experience like this: At specific time each day, her or his heart beats over 120 per min. Usually they would call 911 at this situation. However after examination in the emergency room or the hospital, he or she would be told that he or she is healthy, no any signs of heart attack! But her or his experience a few minutes ago is scaring! The truth is: she or he does not have heart attack. Think about, how does a heart attach occur at a specific time each day?

But how come? People can consult their doctors about the reasons caused by anxiety.

Sometimes, the doctors would recommend eating more banana. Why? Because she or he is lack of potassium, which is important to the heart pump and rich in banana. Meanwhile, banana also contains element zinc, which is important to improve our body's defense system.

So, do not look down the inexpensive fruit. It is cheap but works well.

Stress: the killer of happiness

When people are living under pressure too long without release, in the end he or she might be depressed.

When people often feel blue, or often see the negative of life, or are down very easily, he or she is most likely under stress or with anxiety.

When depressed, people easily feel hopeless, sad, or helpless, or lose control. Nothing seems to be good or beautiful in the world.

When seeing a doctor, people might be recommended using some medicines. But be careful that people may get dependence on them and be never able to get rid of it.

To reduce the stress, the first thing is to get rid of the sources: the pressure.

Be away from the pressure if possible.Seek positive feedbacks, support, and encouragement from family and friends.

If like music, listen to happy music instead of sad melody.

If possible, find a person you trust to tell our feeling and our story. We need release something from our mind and  our heart. If not, go somewhere and yell or shout to the nature.

If like travel, go to the nature instead of crowd city.

If like excersie, make sweat ourselves and take a hot shower afterwards.

If like movies, watch those with happy and beautiful stories instead of tragety or violence or advanture.

Avoid alone although tempered.

Most important, try to do what we like or interest instead of something demanding too much.

Life is not easy in modern society, we have to take care of ourselves.

The longevity factor: happiness from self-satisfaction!

Rich people do not always live longer than  un-rich people.
Eating nutrients-rich food does not always end up longevity.
Living in clean environment does not always guarantee the longevity.
Well-educated people do not always live longer than the illiterate people.
Excising well doe not always results in longevity.
So what can lead to the longevity?
I would say: happiness from self-satisfaction.


If you are never satisfied with what you have, you are often under pressure or stress, causing irreversible changes in your physical body and psychological minds.


So, be simple, be natural, be real, and be happy, then likely live longer!

My own energy drinks

The argument and debate on whether energy drink is healthy or risky is not new and may become hotter and hotter. Before any conclusions are drawn, I prefer not drinking them, neither my family. Sometimes it is hard to see the effect immediately. When you see it, it is too late. We each person has only one life, there already have been enough healthy risky factors around us that is hard to escape. If we can, why not avoid as much as possible.

If I really need energy drink,  I will make it by myself from natural products. The easiest way is to make ginseng tea, or jujube tea, Chinese Wolfberry tea, or a combination of the two or three. The way to make it is simple: Put them into boiled cool water and soak for at least half hour, drink the tea and eat the ginseng or the fruit at the end.

Note: This is my personal experience and not recommendation for any body.

Be away from those food and drinks that potentially contain artificial hormones and antibiotics

Believe or not, many modern diseases have a lot to do with the food and/drinks we eat/take every day. To feed the people with enough food, farmers start using artificial fertilizers to increase food productions or genetically modified transgenic crops. Animals are fed with synthesized feeds that contain hormone and antibiotics, which is under the limit set by FDA, but obviously exist and precipitate in the animal meat or carry over to the milks.  Of course, a standard testing will tell you no risk for eating them because they "meet" the requirements from FDA. Unfortunately, when we eat them every day, the accumulation will be huge, which may reach the limit to cause any health problems.

Recently, there are so many examples around us like a friend of mine who has very good life style and habits with very positive attitude toward work/life. She is a Yoga coach and certainly looks very healthy. To everyone surprise, one day she was diagnosed with a cancer. And no body believe it and really do not understand she has a cancer.  But this is true! After a discussion, she told us that she drank milk every day like drinking water.  Here I do not want to link her cancer to the milk, but the milk from the cow that eat cloned crop feeds is definitely a food my family try to avoid.

I prefer to cooking food with the raw materials for my family; the more natural and simpler, the better. Taste may be not as good as the "delicious" food from restaurant, but I know what I put during cooking.