Saturday, June 8, 2013

Ginger

This blog post is all dedicated to ginger... No not the red heads but ginger as in the food we eat! I found an interesting post about how ginger has been shown to help with pain and  inflammation (migraines) ://www.chironexus.net/2013/05/ginger-as-effective-as-drug-for-migraine/203069, this being interesting to me because that is the title of one of my nutrition courses this trimester, 'nutrition for pain and inflammation'.
When I first started taking this course I though oh man, no one is going to come to me (the nutritionist) for pain and inflammation (instead they will goto a medical doctor to give them drugs to mask the problem which is a NO NO) and also I thought it was a bit much to have an entire course dedicated to pain and inflammation... Like the really hard biology crap (oh wait biology is what I majored in in undergrad...) hahaha life has a way of really biting me in the butt. I thought I was done with the hard stuff and more onto things that really are easy for me to understand, because nutrition is what we do everyday.. Everyday we eat. But this class is on another level and what makes it even harder, my teacher is so perky and excited about this subject lol!
Anyways, back on to GINGER, what does it do for us? It treats nausea (especially in pregnancy), stomach ache, rheumatism, toothache, pain and fever. There are great ginger teas out there and also I suggest 250 mg 3 times a day as needed. I could go on to tell you how all this works biologically but trust me, the cyclooxygenase pathway is freakin boring and long. The link that I posted above talks about ginger shown to treat migraines as well. So next time you are suffering from any of the above conditions, try opening up the pantry/fridge instead of the medicine cabinet!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 is THE master vitamin!!!!! Get it! If you aren't getting it through your diet than you should take a supplement. I take a vitamin B6 supplement EVERYDAY! I  use Standard Process brand for most of my vitamins, it's a great whole foods vitamin. I've also heard Douglas Labs brand is great as well. These are sold by doctors. I get mine from my chiropractor ;) aka my husband.
Vitamin B6 is found in a lot of cereals, bananas, chicken, turkey, halibut, etc.
It is important to get this vitamin. If you are on a high protein diet, it is even more important and the requirement is increased. We need this vitamin for homocysteine and it helps with decreasing risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Vitamin A

In Indonesia parents expect to loose 25 % (1/4) of their children by the time they are 5 years old from malnutrition and disease and this is from a simple vitamin A deficiency. This is such a poor part in the world and they don't have the knowledge to know that they need to be giving their children vitamin A.
Pregnant women should be careful with their intake of Vitamin A, should not exceed 5000 IU/day because excess vitamin A can cause birth defects. We get our vitamin A mainly from animal sources and carotenoids from vegetables and fruits. When i think vitamin A, i think of bright colored foods, so foods such as carrots, sweet potatoes, mango, cantaloupe, watermelon, etc. Also found in liver, dairy products, eggs (yolk) and some margarine can be fortified with vitamin A.
Vitamin A is also a hormone regulator, that leads to it helping in menstrual symptoms, benign fibrocystic lumps in breast tissue and gastric ulcers.
It also protects against forms of cancer and is used in high dosages to treat types of cancer.
It aids in aging!!! Wrinkles that are caused from the sun can be treated with retanoic acid
(form of vitamin A), acutane is also retanoic acid(vit. A form) which is a used to treat acne. It also helps with night vision. The list goes on but those are some fun facts!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Vitamin D3


Do any of you ever feel a slight depression once winter hits? I definitely do, I love the warm weather and have a hard time dealing with the cold. There are many people i know that suffer from seasonal depression. Did you know there is a simple cure? Drug free? Non-addictive? YES!!! This is so fabulous! Vitamin D3 is the answer to your problem! The reason we need Vitamin D3 is because naturally, we get it from getting at least 15 minutes of sun everyday(yes, the sun gives us great vitamins). In the winter months, living in Idaho and New York, that is for sure not available (and no you can't get it from a tanning bed). Did you also know that it is important when in the summer months and you are outside enjoying the sun to not use sunblock for at least 15 minutes? Yes, sounds crazy but if you are constantly covering up with sunblock than you aren't soaking up all that fabulous Vitamin D3. I'm not telling you to go out and get sun burnt, you get the idea! Here is the one that i take, you can get it pretty much anywhere. Also make sure that it is soft gels and about 2000IU is what i recommend.

My journey

Hello everyone! I'm sure this blog is just going to blow up and make me the famous nutritionist I know that I will be! I wanted to create this blog to help inform. I really want feedback also! I will be posting things that I learn from school and hopefully it can help you. It will also be fun to have this documented so i can look back on this when I'm super successful and famous for my fabulous nutrition tips that I'm giving out for free...for now! ENJOY!