2. Go To Bed After Midnight

In his book, The Maker's Diet, Jordan Rubin devotes a chapter to 27 recommendations on how to GET sick and suggests that if you want to remain healthy as long as possible, go against these 27 suggestions if at all possible. Every week I will post the next 'recommendation'.

2. Go To Bed After Midnight
This is a great way to get sick. From biblical times to just before the Industrial Revolution, people used to go to sleep and rise with the setting and rising of the sun. This is the natural way to link your peak activity to the body's natural hormonal rhythms.
D. Joseph Mercola believes the timing of your sleep affects its quality. He says, "The more hours that you can sleep before midnight, the better off you will be." He cites a study published in the Lancet (a respected medical journal in Great Britain) indicating chronic sleep loss produces serious symptoms mimicking the effects of aging and the early stages of diabetes (including age-related insulin resistance and memory loss). And finally, according to the late Elmer Josephson, "Authorities tell us that one hour of sleep before midnight is equivalent to four hours afterward."

1. Stay Out of the Sun

In his book, The Maker's Diet, Jordan Rubin devotes a chapter to 27 recommendations on how to GET sick and suggests that if you want to remain healthy as long as possible, go against these 27 suggestions if at all possible. Every week I will post the next 'recommendation' so that it will be a series.

1. Stay Out of the Sun
Civilizations throughout history have understood that the sun is vital to human health. The human skin uses the energy from the sun to manufacture vitamin D for the body. This hormone/vitamin is important for many reasons, including its role in strengthening immune system function and poper mineral absorption.
Critics claim that exposure to the UV rays of the sun cause higher rates of melanoma and other forms of skin cancer. This might be true for a small population segment - those with compromised immune systems who don't consume adequate nutrients (especially health fats). However, the people who actually get the most exposure to sunlight in different parts of the world exhibit the lowest incidence of skin cancer. The only logical explanantion is that exposure to sunlight is not unhealthy.
What is unhealthy is exposure to sunlight with the diets we consume. Rex Russell, M.D. notes that when sunlight activates the phytochemicals in healthy foods, consumption of these foods not only blocks the harmful effects of UV rays, but they also produce "antiviral, antibacterial, and anticancer components, as well as pest repellents."

Beta-Alanine

Beta-Alanine is a non-essential amino acid (meaning that our bodies can produce it and are not required by the diet - the opposite being true for essential amino acids) and is the only naturally occuring beta-amino acid. The greatest natrual dietary sources of beta-alanine are believed to be obtained through ingesting beta-alanine containing dipeptides, found in protein rich foods such as chicken, beef, pork and fish.

Benefits of Beta-Alanine as supported by scientific studies:

• Increase Muscular Strength & Power Output.
• Increase Muscle Mass
• Increase Anaerobic Endurance
• Increase Aerobic Endurance
• Delay Muscular Fatigue - Train Harder & Longer

You can find this amino acid in Dub Muscle.

www.betaalanine.info

Asparagus

Mmmmm.....Asparagus!! I love this stuff!! And there are lots of reasons why, besides the fact that it tastes really good!

Asparagus is:

• great for your heart health because it is pumped full of folate. Folate is essential for a healthy cardiovascular system. Also, because asparagus has high amounts of folate, it makes it an excellent birth defect fighter. Without folate, the fetus' nervous system cells do not divide properly. Just one serving of asparagus supplies almost 66% of the daily recommended intake of folate!
• also a good source of potassium while being quite low in sodium. This, combined with an active amino acid, makes asparagus a great natural diuretic. Body builder competitors incorporate asparagus in their daily diets to help them keep off water weight. Apparently, asparagus has been used to treat problems involving swelling, such as arthritis and rheumatism, and may also be useful for PMS-related water retention (I just learned something new with that and I plan to put that to the test!!).
• contains a special kind of carbohydrate called inulin that we don't digest, but the health-promoting friendly bacteria in our large intestine do. When our diet contains good amounts of this carbohyrdrate, the growth and activity of the friendly bacteria increase, making it much more difficult for unfriendly bacteria to thrive.

So eat up!! Don't be afraid of the 'aspargus-pee' - it's benefits far outweigh that small detail! By the way, I looked up the reason for that, and it turns out it is due to sulfur-containing amino acids which break down after ingestion and lovingly creates that strange odor in urine. I also didn't know that only about 50% of the population may notice the smell!

One more note: Asparagus contains naturally-occuring substances called Purines. 'Since purines can be broken down to form uric acid, excess accumulation of purines in the body can lead to excess accumulation of uric acid.' Individuals with kidney probemes - like kidney stones- or gout (two examples of uric acid-related problems) may want to limit their intake of purine-containing foods. Asparagus is a wonderful health beneficial food, but in all things moderation!

Chart and some information adapted from www.whfoods.com

Cranberries

Cranberries have long been valued for their ability to help prevent and treat urinary tract infections. They are full of health-promoting antioxidants, which combat free radical activity and protect against damage to cellular structures and DNA. Recent studies show that this berry may also promote gastrointestinal and oral health, prevent the formation of kidney stones, lower LDL(bad) and raise HDL (good) cholesterol, aid in recovery from stroke, and even help prevent cancer.

Good news!!! Cranberries are in season! Everything holds their highest nutritional value when fresh and cranberries are at their peak from October through December.

Resveratrol

Dub Youth is an amazing product. I have had it tested by Dr. Steven Elmore, D.C. and I know that Youth is good product to take. It has several awesome ingredients, one of which I want to spotlight today.

"Chronic inflammation is believed to be at the root of many diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Synthetic anti-inflammatories cannot be taken on a regular basis to prevent chronic inflammation without risking other health problems. Natural anti-inflammatories, on the other hand, are found primarily in plant foods and can be consumed on a regular basis throughout a person's life with no side effects.
Since this is one of the natural anti-inflammatories, it is believed that the benefits of Resveratrol include the prevention of heart disease, cancer and other diseases associated with chronic inflammation. These are benefits that Resveratrol pills may provide.
Other benefits are being studied. It has an anti-aging effect on cells and is being studied for its effects on Alzheimer's."

You can read more about the ingredients at www.dubnutrition.com.