This is the everything-you-need-to-know-to-be-as-healthy-as-possible newsletter, brought to you by Kristy Russ, pharmacist and health consultant. I have close to 20 years experience in helping people improve their health. I specialize in nutritional medicine, which is the secret of "true" preventative medicine. Yes, if I'm successful in getting people to follow my advice, I will put myself out of a job.

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Mom's Health Advice:
The Good,
The Bad and
The Ugly

Well, I've been soliciting opinions for ways to improve my website and a common response was that the information in the e-zines was great, but it was too long and didn't come often enough. And could I please put some personal stuff in it so we can get to know you too?

So I will endeavour to keep my readership happy. We'll see how this goes between working in the pharmacy, working from home on my own business, shuttling the kids to (insert activities of the month here), renovating my bathroom and all the other minutiae that eats up my days...

I just had a wonderful and relaxing Mother's Day. (Hope all you fellow Moms are thinking the same thing). My favorite part was treating myself, my Mom and my daughter to a pedicure. It's a tradition I started a few years ago and we ALL love it.

So in honor of Mother's Day, I was inspired to write about all the health habits we received from our mothers as we were growing up. Some of them are good, but most of them are bad. We know they meant well, but unfortunately they were just passing along the bad information they were taught.

So to stop the cycle of passing along bad health advice, here's a breakdown of some the good, bad and just plain ugly advice most of us learned from our moms:

The Good:

• Eat your veggies- Vitamins. Antioxidants. Fiber. Low glycemic... Perfect!
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away- Ditto above point. (Cleans your teeth too!)
• Go out and play- Excellent! Get your face out from behind the computer/TV/Iphone... and get some exercise and vitamin D.
• Wash your hands- THE #1 way to stop catching every illness that's going around.

The Bad:

• Clean your plate- Pay attention to your body signals and eat until you've had enough- and no more!
• Put butter on a burn- I think the theory was it would be a good "moisturizer" & keep it from drying out. The reality is it locks the heat in & continues the burning AND it interferes with tissue regeneration.
• Don't go outside with wet hair, you'll catch your death of cold- Colds are from viruses, which has nothing to do with whether you're cold or not.
• You have a cold- go to the doctor and get some antibiotics- OMG. I could lecture for an hour about this. Again, colds are from viruses and antibiotics are USELESS against viruses. (Re-read those last 5 words several times please). Going to the doctor wastes everybody's time & money, spreads your germs, and taking antiobiotics when not needed adds to the huge problem of bacteria resistance.
• Scrub your face with soap to get rid of pimples- First of all, don't use soap except on your hands. All it does is strip the natural oils off your skin, which then need to be added back with moisturizer. If you have oily skin, it just makes you produce MORE oil. Find a soapless cleaser (it's tough- 99% have soap). Second, a bar soap actually clogs your pores, which leads to more pimples. And 3rd, scrubbing will spread the bacteria around, again leading to more pimples. (Hmmm, lots to say here. I think I'll dedicate a future e-zine to skin care...)

• Potatoes are a staple food- Potatoes are possibly the worst food habit our Moms could have given us. Little did they know they may as well have served us cotton candy. Avoid them as much as possible. Check out this back issue about the effects of high glycemic foods if you don't know what I'm talking about.
• What your dinner plate looks like- Most of us grew up with our plates looking like this:
  
  
  

  

  Am I right or am I right? Never mind if it was fried or not. It was lots of protein & carbs (usually potatoes!) and a few veggies for color.

  This is what it should look like:

  

  HALF!!!! veggies, 1/4 protein and no more than 1/4 low glycemic carbs (NOT potatoes). If you keep the proportion of your food like this, you will have lots of energy, lose weight and never get diabetes. Really! Check out my new web page for more information.

For the most part, our Moms did a great job raising us, so we can forgive them for not having ALL the right information, right? All we need to do is make the corrections now so we can help reverse the damage and make sure we don't pass these on to the next generation.

Belated Happy Mother's Day!

Because Laughter Really IS Good Medicine...

What's New at
Antioxidants-Make-You-Healthy.com

Not only is eating a low glycemic diet the healthiest way to eat, it is truly the most effective AND, more importantly, permanent weight loss diet you could ever do.

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Nutrition News

Sports & Energy Drinks Damage Teeth

Novel Surgery Using Capsaicin May Reduce 'Beer Belly' Visceral Fat

New Study Highlights The Need For Health Education Programs To Ward Off Childhood Obesity

Daily Omega 3 Fatty Acids In Fish May Ward Off Heart Disease

Prebiotic May Reduce Colon Cancer Risk, Severity Of Colitis

See you next month...

Good Health to You,

Kristy Russ, BScPharm Pharmacist and Health Consultant

P.S. Give your body the best nutrition possible. You'll not only feel better now, but you'll also have that quality of life in the future that you've always imagined for yourself. Click here to find out more.