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Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

Archives for June 2012

Exercise and nature for mood, social anxiety, memory and hot flashes

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Beautiful sunset at Lake Natoma, CA – after a fun time windsurfing

June is Celebrate the Great Outdoors month and June 15th was Nature Photography Day. These are just one of the many great reasons to get outside to exercise and enjoy nature.

I’ve blogged a great deal about exercise and the outdoors a great deal – when I reported back about food-exercise-biofeedback from the ADAA conference and nature and calm in Yosemite.

Here is some very recent research on some more great health benefits to motivate you!

(1)  Improved mood and better memory

A recent paper and titled Interacting with nature improves cognition and affect for individuals with depression and published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that something as simple and easy as 50 minute walk in the park improved cognition and mood.

(2)  Improved sleep and reduction in hot flashes in menopausal women

Another recent paper titled Sleep quality and aerobic training among menopausal women-A randomized controlled trial and published in the Finnish Journal Maturitas found that aerobic training for 6 months may improve sleep quality and reduce hot flushes among symptomatic menopausal women.

(3)  Less social anxiety and depression

This recent paper titled A Randomized Trial of MBSR Versus Aerobic Exercise for Social Anxiety Disorder and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that both mindfulness-based stress reduction and aerobic exercise “were associated with reductions in social anxiety and depression and increases in subjective well-being”.

Exercising has always been a big part of my life and I feel really flat when I don’t exercise. I grew up in a tennis family and played tennis for years and then switched to squash (similar to the US racket ball) when I got to high-school. In my 20s and 30s I did a lot of 5K and 10K runs, trail running and a few half-marathons – all in the beautiful Colorado mountains. I actually met my wonderful husband rock-climbing and we spent many fun years rock-climbing, ice-climbing and mountaineering!

These days we love to windsurf, hike and mountain bike in the summer. In the winter I telemark ski and Brad does snowboarding.

So I encourage you to get outside to celebrate the great outdoors, have fun exercising and take some beautiful photos.

At your next social event you’ll be chatty, calm and happy, will remember everyone’s name and you won’t be having hot-flashes! And you’ll come home and have a wonderful deep restful sleep.

Have fun and please share what you love to do for exercise now and what you loved to do as a child.

Antianxiety Food Solution review on Psychcentral.com

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Although some mental health professionals believe there isn’t proof of the link between behavior, mental health and diet, today most current research shows there is definitely a very important correlation if not an outright causal relationship.

The above is an excerpt from a wonderful review of The Antianxiety Food Solution by C.R. and Richard Zwolinski on their PsychCentral.com blog called Therapy Soup. What a wonderful gift on the one-year anniversary of my book!

You can read the whole PsychCentral.com review here.

I’d like to highlight a few of their comments in the review:

Richard and I give the Anti-Anxiety Food Solution 5 1/2 cups of soup—we really loved this book and plan to recommend it to patients with anxiety.

The book contains simple tests you can take to determine if you have any food intolerances or allergies which may be not only triggering anxiety symptoms but also wreaking havoc on your digestion.

C.R. took some of the tests and figured out that she needed vitamin B6 and GABA and she says:

I’ve started taking the B6 and the GABA and though it’s only been two weeks, I do feel less burned out even though my workload has recently increased.

I am a big fan of all the recent food-mood research and making this information easy for everyone to use and I appreciate these comments from the reviewers:

I especially like that the author has referenced all her information so you can see for yourself why she makes the recommendations she does. I also like that the information, while comprehensive, is accessible and easy to understand.

And I appreciate and support their holistic approach:

Therapy Soup readers know that we believe body, mind and soul are intricately linked and that a holistic approach to treatment for mental illness and/or addiction (or any health or personality issue) is truly necessary.

This holistic approach is reflected in their other very interesting blogs like this one on nosebleeds, mental illness and possible food intolerances and this one on autism, schizophrenia and nutrition. Of course I write about this food mood connection all the time and more recently have written about the bipolar-blood sugar- gluten link and the anxiety-panic-caffeine-gluten link.

Be sure to check out their other blog posts on PsychCentral Therapy Soup.

C.R. Zwolinski is a writer, editor, consultant living in New York. For more about naturally healthy nutrition (with a Jewish twist) visit C.R. at healthyjewishcooking.com. Learn about the benefits of sourdough bread, sprouting, organically grown foods and more.

Richard (Moshe) Zwolinski is a licensed psychotherapist in the fields of mental health and addiction. He’s the author of Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On (Without Wasting Time or Money), and blogs at Therapy Soup on the top-rated international web site, Psychcentral.com. He’s an anxiety and addiction specialist with over 25 years experience. He encourages you to focus on achieving spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health so you can live the happy, productive, meaningful life you were meant to live. He also volunteers with youth at risk and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, is available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com.

CA Assemblymember Jerry Hill speaks at NANP conference lunch – part 2

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This is a continuation of the presentation given by CA Assemblymember Jerry Hill during the lunch at the NANP conference, where he mentioned a number of CA nutrition/legislative matters that are near and dear to the hearts of our members, and are encouraging for the health of all Californians.

In this article I’ll be sharing information about California Healthy Food Financing Initiative and school lunches, the award and the delicious menu. The “Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force”, labeling of GMOs and the tax credit for farmers who donate fruits and vegetables to food banks were covered in part 1.

(1)  The introduction of the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative (AB 581) to expand access to healthy foods in underserved communities.

According to the author, AB 581 will increase access to healthy and nutritious foods to underserved urban and rural communities in California.  Known as “food deserts,” regions of California without access to healthy food generally have a higher incidence of certain types of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, heart disease, and premature death.

You can read the whole bill here.

(2)  First Lady Michelle Obama is championing the cause of improving the health of our children. The California Department of Education will work closely with school districts as they make school lunch improvements

“These new standards will help put more fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches, which means healthier children in our classrooms,” State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson stated.

This is a great start and we do have a way to go as Congress wants to keep pizza and french fries on school lunch lines, fighting back against an Obama administration proposal to make school lunches healthier.

Assemblymember Jerry Hill wrapped up by saying “thank you for everything you are doing” and awarded an Assembly Certificate of Recognition to NANP:

I am pleased to recognize and commend the NANP for its advocacy on behalf of holistic nutrition professionals in support of their right to practice.

recognition from assemblyman jerry hill
Recognition from CA Assemblyman Jerry Hill

And then we all enjoyed a delicious organic locally sourced lunch that was free of gluten, corn, soy, canola, white or artificial sugars and included raw dairy and wild-caught fish.  You can see all the menus here. Here is the lunch menu:

Tossed Arugula and Baby Spinach, Dried Figs, toasted Walnuts with Balsamic Vinaigrette (Dressing on the side)
Poached Salmon with Watercress Reduction
Brown Rice Lentil Pilaf
Braised Spinach with Extra Virgin Olive & Herbed Roma Tomato
Gluten-free Bread
Raw Butter
Seasonal Fruit with Fresh Whipped Cream
Vegetarian Option: Roasted Eggplant Stuffed with Mediterranean Vegetable Ragout with Quinoa Pilaf

May all Californians (and everyone everywhere) be healthy and happy and have the means to eat delicious and healthy food like this. Thanks Assemblymember Hill for joining us and doing your part!

[Note: I say “we” on behalf of NANP and the legislative committee, which I chair]

CA Assemblymember Jerry Hill speaks at NANP conference lunch – part 1

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Assemblyman Jerry Hill luncheon address at NANP conference

It was a real pleasure to have CA Assemblymember Jerry Hill (who  represents the 19th district) join us for lunch at the NANP conference.  We had met him and invited him to join us during the recent CA lobby days. We are so pleased he joined us and we thoroughly enjoyed his wonderful presentation.

Assemblymember Hill started off by saying “You represent everything that is good” and endorsed the conference theme of Holistic Nutrition Through the Ages, saying “what you are doing is so important”.

Assemblymember Hill then went on to mention a number of CA nutrition/legislative matters that are near and dear to the hearts of our members, and are encouraging for the health of all Californians:

(1)  On May 3, Gov. Jerry Brown  drafted a “Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force” to develop a 10-year plan to improve Californians’ health and reduce health-care costs.

Preventable and chronic health conditions are detrimental to every Californian’s quality of life, cause disproportionate social and economic burdens, and result in California spending 80% of the state’s total healthcare dollars on just 20% of the population.

The NANP and our members can be a big part of this, distributing wellness and nutritional information and helping people make informed decisions about their own health.

(2)  The labeling of GMOs was added to the CA ballot on May 2

In victory rallies across state today, supporters celebrated as the California Right to Know campaign filed 971,126 signatures for the state’s first-ever ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically engineered foods. The huge signature haul, gathered in a 10-week period, is nearly double the 555,236 signatures the campaign needs to qualify for the November ballot.

If passed this November, Californians will join citizens of over 40 countries including all of Europe, Japan and even China who have the right to know whether they are eating genetically engineered food.   

You can read why we need this GMO labeling to ensure the safety of food for California families and children and that even chickens refuse GM corn (or mielies as its called in South Africa)

(3)  California legislators enacted a tax credit for farmers who donate fruits and vegetables to food banks.  Here is information on AB152 prior to the bill being passed: http://www.cafoodbanks.org/docs/AB%20152%20Full%20Factsheet.pdf

Every dollar in credit leverages approximately 10-20 pounds of fresh healthy food for low-income Californians. California growers want to do their part to help low-income Californians eat more fresh healthy food. California would be following the lead of several other states, including Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, and Oregon that offer tax incentives to encourage fresh produce donations from growers to emergency food providers.

You can read this great post by Amy Winterfeld: what lawmakers in other states are doing to encourage better eating and support local economies.

Assemblymember Hill also shared information about California Healthy Food Financing Initiative and school lunches and this, together with the award and  menu  will be covered in part 2.

[Note: I say “we” on behalf of NANP and the legislative committee, which I chair]