5 Ways to Shop Healthy While Saving Money
Are you trying to save money by cutting back at the supermarket? Are you passing on the organic produce, grass fed beef, wild fish or free range eggs? I want to help you keep these items in your cart by learning to shop differently and making cuts in other areas. You owe it to your health!
1. Cook for an Army
If there are two people in your household cook for four or even six. Double every recipe. When you have extra prepared meals in the refrigerator or freezer, you are less likely to stop for take out on the way home from a late night at the office. Those take out meals can cost $10 or more each time. That can add up. People think cooking is a chore. Well if you cook one large meal, that can feed you and your spouse 3 times, how much work is that?
2. Shop your local Farmer’s Market
Many farmers can’t afford the cost of organic certification, but they will advertise that they use no pesticides. If this is the case, you are purchasing local produce that is pesticide free. In these economic times, wouldn’t you rather give your money to your local farmer than to grocery chain? Extra tip: shop the Farmer’s Market near the end of the day. Sure they may not have as much to choose from, but they also don’t want to pack it all up so they often offer their produce at reduced prices. This website will help you locate a market near you. http://www.localharvest.org/
3. Buy Whole Heads of Lettuce
Why spend 2-3 times more for bagged lettuce leaves that you end up rinsing anyway. Come on, you know it. We have been programmed to at least “rinse to refresh.” Bagged lettuce is not as convenient as you may think. Let the salad spinner be your new best friend. Trust me; it tastes a SO much better too. This goes for other “convenience” foods. Pass on the baby carrots and buy whole carrots and cut them up yourself. You get the picture.
4. Stop with plastic water bottles.
Purchase a stainless steel water bottle and fill up your water at home or at the office. Bed Bath and Beyond has them very inexpensively and you can find them everywhere these days. Please make sure you purchase stainless steel and NOT aluminum. I have probably 6 stainless steel water bottles. I keep one at the office, send one with my husband to his office, and I always have one in the car. And hey, if you leave it in the car on a hot day, at least it won’t leach chemicals like the plastic ones do. I was recently at an expo and when we broke for lunch I went to the food booth and got a salad and bottle of water. They wanted to charge me $4 for a bottle of water!! I told them to keep it. I don’t forget my stainless water bottle anymore!
5. Stock up
When your local grocer has a “Manager’s Special,” on clean meats like grass fed beef, wild fish, or free range chicken, that means they need to move it. Buy as much as you can fit into your freezer. The meat is not bad, it just needs to be cooked or frozen that same day. I have even seen these specials at Whole Foods. If you don’t understand why you should only be eating clean meat, please watch Food Inc., the movie. You can get it on Netflix now.
Progesterone Creams May Have Serious Side Effects
Leading doctors and researchers agree that Natural Progesterone is critical to a woman’s health and well being. That’s pretty much a given. However, research has proven that there is at least one important distinction between the natural progesterone our body makes and how over the counter progesterone creams work in the body.
While our own natural progesterone has the ability to convert into other hormones in the body, there has been no evidence to date that progesterone creams perform the same way. Yet, women continue to slather on progesterone creams in an effort to balance out what they suspect to be excessive estrogen levels, unaware of the damage they may be doing to their bodies.
Women who take in more progesterone than their bodies need can develop excessive amounts of progesterone which can result in serious side effects.
Initially, many women feel a calming effect when they first use progesterone creams. However, after several months of use and accumulation of excessive progesterone, depression may set in.
The second downside of high progesterone is its effect on Cortisol levels in the body. High levels of progesterone can increase Cortisol levels resulting in feelings of intense hunger and sugar or carbohydrate cravings, weight gain around the waist, reduced muscle mass, bone thinning, memory loss, fluid retention, reduced athletic endurance, reduced thyroid function, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and PMS.
Women with excessive progesterone who are still menstruating may even start missing their cycles. And since symptoms of excessive progesterone can mimic other health conditions, it can easily lead to misdiagnosis by health professionals and being prescribed unneeded medications to address problem conditions that don’t exist.
Asthma Linked to Hormone Replacement Therapy
According to a new study published in the British Medical Journal, women on estrogen-only Hormone Replacement Therapy have a 54% higher risk of developing Asthma after menopause.
The findings, from the major study involving almost 58,000 women over a 12 year period, add to growing body evidence suggesting a link between HRT and Asthma. This new information is yet more indication that Estrogen drugs that are synthetically created are nothing like the hormones our body creates.
The use of synthetic hormones has dropped sharply in recent years, ever since the Women’s Health Initiative study of 2002 found an increased risk of Ovarian Cancer, Breast Cancer, Strokes and other health problems in women on hormone replacement therapy.
The Women’s Health Initiative study, a clinical trial designed to determine if Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) was beneficial to healthy women, was halted 5 years and 2 months into the 8 year study due to serious safety concerns for the participants. The study concluded that the combination of estrogen and progesterone posed a significant health risk to women and that any benefits from HRT were not worth the side effects. The outcome of these trials has forever changed the way we look at HRT.
If you are currently on HRT or considering it, it’s important for you to weigh the potential risk versus benefits of this treatment. It is also important for you to know that you do have safe and natural alternatives for alleviating the symptoms and discomfort brought on by menopause.
If you are struggling with effects of hormone imbalance, I strongly encourage you to call me so we can discuss your options.
Feeling Drained?
“I just don’t have the energy that I use to have.” It’s probably the most common complaint I hear from my clients. Loss of energy is not normal, though many people write it off as just part of “getting older.” The truth is there are many older people who can run circles around us.
Our energy levels are directly influenced by the levels of Estrogen, Testosterone and Progesterone in our bodies. When hormone levels sore too high or dip too low, or fluctuate wildly, one of the major results is energy drain. Let’s take a closer look:
- Low Progesterone levels can leave you sleep deprived and, if left unchecked, may lead to total exhaustion.
- Low Estrogen levels can make you feel both mentally and physically weighed down.
- Low Estrogen and Testosterone together can leave you feeling listless.
- Low Progesterone with high Testosterone may result in a woman experiencing sleep deprivation, leading to low energy.
Just as it’s easy for many women to write off their challenges with menopause as something you “just have to live with,” the same can be said for feeling less energetic. If low energy levels are having a direct effect on your every day life, testing your hormones may reveal the root cause.
So how are you to know if your lack of energy is a direct result of your hormone levels being high, low or all over the place? There is a very simple and accurate saliva test I offer to many of my clients, which, when analyzed by the lab, produces a clear picture of what’s going on inside you. If a problem is identified, I then work with my clients on an individual basis to balance their systems, not with drugs, but naturally.
Cancer Prevention Through Hormone Balancing
Statistics show that approximately 1 in 7 women will get breast cancer. Most women don’t realize they are exposed to something daily that increases their risk and that’s Xenoestrogens or external estrogens that mimic our own estrogen.
Science shows that estrogen can cause cancer cells to grow. Researchers stumbled upon something interesting while studying cancers cultured in plastic petri dishes, and that was that these cancers grew even without added estrogen. The phthalates that leach out of plastic are potent estrogen mimickers. We call these Xenoestrogens or external estrogens. This compound can cause cancer cells to grow where in other instances they would stay dormant.
These estrogen mimics are found in plastic bottles that hold all types of beverages from milk to water. Also found in plastic wraps that cover your foods.
We will also be exposed to other estrogen mimics from non organic meat and dairy products from animals given growth hormones. And numerous pesticides used on our crops also have estrogen like activity.
Even some of our body care product such as shampoos and sunscreen contain chemicals that cause a dysfunction of estrogen.
The first step is to eliminate these harmful external estrogens through changing habits and eating the right cancer fighting foods. Yes, there are foods that supercharge your own healthy estrogen that can prevent cancer from growing! The next step is to restore balance to our body’s own estrogen. For more on cancer prevention, click here.
There is a very simple and accurate saliva test I offer to my clients, which, when analyzed by the lab, produces a clear picture of the levels of not only your estrogen, but progesterone and testosterone. If a problem is identified, I then work with my clients on an individual basis to balance their system, not with drugs, but naturally. For more information on testing, click here.
Hot and Bothered by Erratic Hormone Levels?
Hot flashes and Night Sweats are the most common menopausal symptom, affecting anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of women.
Declining estrogen levels are usually to blame for hot flashes at menopause. However, women with high estrogen levels or fluctuating estrogen levels also experience hot flashes. And women with normal estrogen levels can still experience hot flashes if they have low testosterone or progesterone.
The Dangerous Truth About Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
In July 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative study, a clinical trial designed to determine if Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) was beneficial to healthy women, was halted 5 years and 2 months into the 8 year study due to serious safety concerns. The study concluded that the combination of estrogen and progestins posed a significant health risk to women and that any benefits from HRT were not worth the side effects. The study found a 41% increase in the risk of stroke, a 29% increase in the risk of heart attack, a doubled risk of blood clots, a 22% increase in cardiovascular disease and a 26% increase in the risk of invasive breast cancer. Despite these statistics, many health practitioners continue to prescribe HRT. Read more
Your Anxiety, Iirritability and Anger May Be Hormone Related
If Anxiety, Irritability or Anger has taken over your personality, you’re not alone. Many women with hormone imbalances experience these feelings. When Estrogen levels drop, or wildly fluctuate, the diameter of a woman’s blood vessels can change and that can result in the feeling of anxiety. When experiencing decreased levels of Progesterone, irritability often arises. Likewise, when a woman has Testosterone deficiency, anxiety is often the result along with fear and social withdrawal. On the reverse side, an excess of Testosterone may result in intolerance to stress and a tendency to jump to anger.
A Truly Healthy Sugar
Many people look at the time between Halloween and New Years as a total diet loss. Sweets are everywhere, from candy to desserts. And, when January rolls around, we get depressed about it. What if I told you that you can eat desserts without consuming too much sugar? The secret is Xylitol (zy-li-tall)! Read more
Slow Down Aging With Proper Nutrition
Do you ever wonder why some women just don’t age? We’ve all thought, “How does she do that?” To make matters worse, many of those same women never struggle with menopause symptoms. There is a connection. Our hormones play a major role in how fast we age and how good we look. When hormones are in balance, we look and feel great.
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Karen Roth, MS, NC
Karen Roth, MS, NC holds a Masters of Science Degree in Holistic Nutrition from Hawthorn University. She earned her undergraduate degree from UC Irvine. Karen shares her knowledge to empower her clients to take control of their health with food choices that best support their specific health condition and specific metabolic type...
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