Quinoa is healthy and delicious. Up until now, I’ve only enjoyed it as a side dish at fancy restaurants, usually paired with duck, lamb, or veal.

But it turns out that quinoa may actually be the next “superfood.” It may also be quite effective for losing weight (more details below).

But first, here’s a quick video on how to prepare quinoa at home:

Now, if you’re looking to lose weight, and you’ve struggled with other diets, then quinoa may be especially appealing to you.

First of all, it’s 100% gluten-free. If you are allergic to wheat or if you’ve been diagnosed gluten-intolerant, then quinoa is an ideal substitute.

Secondly, this South American grain is high in protein, essential amino acids, and iron. In fact, it contains 14 grams of protein for every 100-gram serving.

And thirdly, quinoa has been used to control weight loss since pre-Columbian days. The Incas even considered it to be a “sacred grain.”

In fact, it was recently called “one of the world’s superfoods” by the United Nations. Unlike its extremely popular friend from Brazil, the Acai berry, quinoa has no sugar and still tastes great, which makes it perfect for diabetics (or anybody else who’s trying to cut back on sugar).

Want to learn more? Then check out the Quinoa Super Diet.

It’s the first diet of its kind that utilizes this amazing grain to supercharge your diet, help you hit your weight loss goals, and possibly even give you the slim body you’ve been dreaming of.

The Quinoa Super diet is packed with health facts, dietary tips, and tasty recipes that are easy to understand, easy to make, and easy to add into your daily life. More importantly, it could be the “missing link” you’ve been looking for to help you lose weight.

Click here to learn more about The Quinoa Super Diet

This is a great excerpt about “pillar strength” from the new book Core Performance Essentials by Mark Verstegen and Pete Williams. Although I’ve not read the book in its entirety, I find Mark’s suggestions for improving core strength and posture to be very good.

If nothing else, make sure you read the section on the importance of shoulder muscles. I had no idea that shoulder strength was so important.

Also, if you click on the book title link and go to Amazon.com, you’ll notice the book now has 3 reviews. Each person rated the book a perfect 5. If you’re at all familiar with Amazon’s rating system, you’ll know that books that have three perfect ratings are rare.

PILLAR STRENGTH
Pillar strength is the foundation of all movement. It consists of hip, core, and shoulder stability. (If you’re having a hard time getting your head around this concept, it might help to picture your body as a mannequin with no limbs.) Those three areas give us a center axis from which to move. If you think of the body as a wheel, the pillar is the hub, and the limbs are spokes.

We want to have the hub perfectly aligned so we can draw energy from it and effectively transfer energy throughout the body. It’s impossible to move the limbs efficiently and forcefully if they’re not attached to something solid and stable.

There’s a reason why parents are forever telling kids to sit up straight. Without pillar strength, without what, I call “perfect posture,” you will significantly increase the potential for injury in a chain that starts with your lower back, descends all the way to the knees and ankles, and rises up to your neck, shoulders, and elbows.

The reason we train body movements instead of parts is because everything about the body’s engineering is connected. What happens to the big toe affects the knees, the hips, and ultimately the shoulders. The muscular system is both complex and simple, a series of muscular and fascial bands that work seamlessly to produce efficient movement. Many workout programs do more damage than good by producing muscle imbalances and inefficient movement patterns that sabotage this highly coordinated operating system that we’re born with.

Remember the way that movement evolves in infants. They move on their backs until one day this action allows them to roll over, initiating the hip crossover movement. Soon they progress to crawling, standing, and, finally, walking. With each step, they realize how to stabilize their bodies.

Aging reverses that process. Many people lose the ability to squat and maintain their balance, creating poor posture. Eventually, they lose the ability to stand, surrendering the core fundamental movement patterns they developed as toddlers. But instead of conceding that devolution as an unavoidable part of aging, why not look at getting older as a process of taking these movements to new levels? In this program, you’re going to take your body to the highest levels of performance and movement capabilities by challenging yourself to increase flexibility and stability. We’ll help you do this by adding resistance or increasing the balance demands. This will put you farther and farther away from the regression of aging.

Look, I’m not here to bash bodybuilding and tell you not to lift weights. This program includes resistance training because of its undeniable benefits. The Movement Prep and Prehab routines you’ll learn are not a cutesy program to ram the concept of functional exercise down your throat. It’s more about reprogramming the body to function properly — as nature intended — and to continually become stronger. It’s possible to become physically stronger every day of our lives.

Instead of looking at movement as coming out of the arms and legs, remember this perfect posture. If you can master the following three elements of pillar strength — shoulder stability, core stability, and hip stability — both while working out and in everyday movement, you will go a long way toward a healthier life.

SHOULDER STABILITY
Anyone who participates in a sport involving hitting or throwing understands the importance of the rotator cuff. It’s even more important in everyday life.

We tend to think of the hands and arms as carrying the workload for the upper body, but it’s really the shoulder, or at least it should be. After all, we think of someone shouldering a burden.

The shoulder “girdle” consists of the humerus, scapula, and clavicle. It’s engineered for a remarkable range of three-dimensional movement. From the shoulder, it’s possible to rotate, press, and pull. We can raise our arms to the side or across the body. We can rotate shoulders by holding the elbows in and by moving the hands up and in — or in a 90-degree angle to the torso.

Our natural instinct is to drop the shoulders forward, especially after long periods of sitting. But you want to do the opposite, bringing the shoulders back and down, which will give you proper posture.

Remember The Karate Kid? Mr. Miyagi, the wise martial arts instructor, made his young student Daniel LaRusso paint his fence and wax his cars. For days this went on and Daniel wondered if he was ever going to learn karate. When he confronted Miyagi, the old man asked him to demonstrate the various motions of painting and waxing and then attacked Daniel from all angles. Using the same motions, Daniel easily defended himself and quickly realized that he had not just been painting and waxing but stabilizing and strengthening his shoulder muscles and mastering these vital, functional movements.

If you’re involved in martial arts, this program will help by stabilizing your shoulders — and I won’t make you wax cars and paint houses. Even if you have no desire to become the next Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, you must strengthen this area to perform everyday activities from cleaning to passing objects to filing to, yes, waxing and painting.

Most of us don’t realize how hunched over we are from sitting at computers and traveling in cars and airplanes. People tend to think that this affects only the elderly, but that’s not the case. The next time you’re people-watching at a mail or airport, pay attention to the position of their thumbs. If they’re rotated in, pointing toward the body, that means their heads and shoulders have moved forward.

Unless those people do something, I guarantee that they will soon have rotator cuff and back problems, which will limit their ability to participate in the daily activities of life.

As people age, they tend to flex forward, as if the chest is caving in. We want to do the opposite, almost as if there’s a fishhook inserted under the sternum, pulling us up. This will allow the shoulders to fall into place and help give perfect posture.

We’re not trying to be military cadets, standing at attention. Instead, think of this as standing or sitting tall in a comfortable position, always elevating the sternum.

The exercises in this program will require you to bring the shoulders back and down, but you’ll want to make it a daily habit. To make lasting change, we want to lengthen the chest and strengthen the muscles of the upper back. Think of pulling your shoulders toward your back pockets. This posture is the exact opposite of the shoulder shrug, the same motion that you make when you say, “I don’t know.” That’s what a sitting lifestyle does to you. If you create a habit of bringing your shoulders down, you’ll be amazed at the results. People will find you more confident and think you’ve lost weight because you’re no longer slouched over. They might even think you’ve grown. There have been instances of adults following this program and gaining up to an inch of height from standing tall and bringing their shoulders back, as well as improving hip and core stability.

CORE STABILITY
The middle third of our pillar is the “core,” which consists of the muscles of the abdominals, torso, and lower back. It’s the vital link between shoulder and hip stability, and it includes such muscle groups as the rectus abdominis, transversus abdominis, internal and external obliques, lats, the erector spinae, and many small stabilizer muscles between the vertebrae of the spine.

These are the tiny muscles that often get shut off because of a back injury and never become reactivated, causing long-term back problems. These small stabilizer muscles cannot function alone; they must be helped by training the muscles of the core to become strong and stable with the right types of recruitment patterns that will enable them to work in tandem with the shoulders and hips.

Core training is not just about the abs — abs are less than a third of the equation. Countless books and magazine articles promise great abs, and though many of them have terrific exercises that we believe in, they’re of little use unless done in conjunction with exercises aimed at integrating your shoulders and hips.

Instead of just focusing on the abs, we want to create the framework for all movement. The aim isn’t just a well-sculpted midsection; it’s a high-performance core.

In order to maximize the benefit of the exercises in this book, it’s important to keep your tummy tight, not just while exercising but all day. Think of your tummy flat against the hip bones. Keep your tummy tight, as if pulling your belly button off the belt buckle. This isn’t the same as sucking in your gut and holding your breath. Keep the abdominals in, but still breathe.

The abdominal and lower-back muscles work as a team. The point guard is the transverse abdominis, which is the first muscle that’s recruited each time you move. If you can keep that “TA” activated and your tummy tight, you’ll be well on your way to optimum movement and preventing long-term deterioration.

Reprinted from: Core Performance Essentials: The Revolutionary Nutrition and Exercise Plan Adapted for Everyday Use by Mark Verstegen and Pete Williams © 2005 Rodale Inc. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.

Here’s a new article on Seasonal Affective Disorder. The article is written by Dr. David Edelberg, the co-author of the new book, The Triple Whammy Cure. Since we’re in the heart of winter, I thought it might be of some interest to you.

If you live in a sunny place like Florida then you probably won’t know what I’m talking about. The wintertime blues, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), usually begin when the days start getting shorter and the sky clouds over into perpetual gray. People with SAD dread October because the clocks move back an hour and, in a single day, autumn twilight becomes dark night.

Symptoms of SAD include depression, brain fog, easy sleepiness, carb craving, and weight gain.

At the very heart of the wintertime blues is a lack of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin. When the gray winter days in the Northern Hemisphere arrive, the serotonin you stored up in the sunny summer months starts declining. At the same time, your brain’s stores of sleep-inducing melatonin increase, making you feel like a hibernating bear.

Women are the major victims of wintertime blues because all women start life with less serotonin in their brains than men. But if you’re someone trapped in a SAD life, with no immediate prospects of wintering on the Costa del Sol, you can beat the wintertime blues and get your life back. Basically, you’ll need to pull out the stops and do everything you can to stimulate your brain to make more serotonin. This includes lighting up your life, exercising, taking a couple common supplements, and timing your intake of good carbohydrates throughout the day.

Here are 10 low-cost steps you can take right now to banish the wintertime blues:

1. Go outside and walk briskly with your face in the light—even if it’s gray outside—for 20 minutes every day. Both the light and the exercise will kick up your feel-good serotonin. Of course, if the wind-chill outside will deep-freeze your face, find a health club with windows, locate a treadmill or a stationary bike in the brightest light, and hop on.

2. Keep your curtains or blinds pulled open all the way so sunlight (or daylight, even on cloudy days) can pour into your living/work space.

3. Paint your walls light colors—they’ll reflect the light.

4. If your car has a sunroof, let in the light while you drive (singing along to your favorite songs is optional, but I recommend that too).

5. Increase the wattage of your light bulbs to between 5,000 and 10,000 lux (units of light). Choose subcompact fluorescent bulbs, a bit more expensive but mine have lasted 7+ years. The newer bulbs don’t have the annoying flicker and strange light the old fluorescent tubes once had, use 25% less energy than a standard bulb, and fit in most fixtures. If you have any sort of a desk job, buy a full spectrum light box (available online) and aim it at your languishing self for an hour a day.

6. Add the raw materials your body needs to make more serotonin by taking these supplements every day: 2 grams of fish oil and one B complex 100.

7. Eat a small amount of high-quality carbohydrates with every meal and as snacks throughout your day. Fruits, nuts, veggies, and whole grains are among the best choices, as are beans, soups, and oatmeal. You need a little carbohydrate at every meal for your brain to produce serotonin. In fact, craving comfort foods in the winter is your body’s cry for more carbs to boost serotonin—but, please, if you want to keep your weight stable, make good food choices most of the time.

8. Premenstrual aggravation of wintertime blues is very common. If you notice a worsening in the week or so before your period, understand that your hormones are taking your serotonin levels on a roller-coaster ride: when your estrogen drops, as it does in the week before your period, your feel-good serotonin goes right along with it. Get your PMS under control by following the healing path in The Triple Whammy Cure.

9. Try alternative therapies: acupuncture and Chinese herbal remedies—together called traditional Chinese medicine—have a seasonal component that make them effective for mild wintertime blues. Flower essence therapies like honeysuckle, mustard, and sweet chestnut all have antidepressant and energizing qualities. And bodywork therapies such as massage and Reiki allow your chi to flow freely thought your body, reducing symptoms of wintertime blues.

10. If after trying the ideas in items 1-9 your symptoms haven’t budged, consider taking St. John’s wort or 5HTP, both of which increase serotonin levels.

Copyright © 2006 David Edelberg, M.D.

Author:
David Edelberg, M.D., the author of The Triple Whammy Cure, is a practicing physician for more than 30 years and was chief medical adviser of WholehealthMD.com. In 1993, he founded American Wholehealth (AWH), a network of health care centers that combines conventional and alternative medicine. He teaches alternative and integrative medicine to medical students and residents from the University of Chicago. For more information about The Triple Whammy Cure, visit www.triplewhammycure.com.

I had reread Dr. Batmanghelidj’s (aka. Dr. Batman) book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, in preparation for the Wellness Corner radio program this past week. I thought I would share some information here as well since many who consider themselves wellness oriented and health-conscious didn’t realize all of the health benefits to be gained from drinking water. Some didn’t realize that when we talk about taking in water it means just that; plain, unadalterated water.

As many who routinely visit the chiropractor may know, water is a must for holding an adjustment as well has reducing the inflammation caused from subluxation. The reason for this is because the body carries the signals by utilizing water along the neural pathways.

When the body is under stress because of lack of sufficient water, ie – dehydration, the nerves do not have part of the necessary tools to carry messages from the origination point to the destination point. Also, the connective tissues need the water to be able to maintain, repair, and rebuild. If dehydration occurs, subluxations can occur as well.

To further aggravate the matter, inflammation causing pain follows which is both good and bad – good that your body is alerting you to the need for correction and bad in that your body has had to get to this point to draw your attention to the lack of water intake.

I’m not suggesting that subluxations only occur because of dehydration. But what I am saying based on the information that I’ve read is that many of the body’s signals are misinterpretted and result in what is commonly called disease.

This is a bold statement. Dr. Batman has personal experience to back this up.

He was a political prisoner for a time and had only water to give to those in the prison to utilize in treatment. He had multiple occasions where he had to treat other prisoners suffering from ulcers. After checking to make sure that perforation of the stomach had not occured, he had his patients drink glasses of water. In all of those cases, his patients made dramatic improvement.

Because the body uses water to not only aid in the actual digestion process but also to continually renew the stomach lining, a person in a dehydrated state would be putting themselves at risk of a possible ulcer because of a lack of water.

I, too, have personal experience with this paradigm shift in disease treatment. After reading this book for the first time, I found that those rare occasions when I did have an allergy flair slightly even after removing toxins from the home, if I drank an 8 ounce glass of water followed by a pinch of sea salt on the tongue would cause the congestion and drainage to dry up – literally. That is just one example.

Ok, so it’s obvious I find the technical information from this book fascinating. I tie this in with God’s design – which I also find totally fascinating…

Our body is 2/3 water, the earth is covered with 2/3 (or more) water, God used water to give life to his people – the Exodus through the dry water bed with the walls of water coming down to save the people from the Egypian pursuers as well as baptism first begun by John and carried through to our time, and cleansing – the flood cleansing the earth from the detestable sin of man.

We have been designed to need water for cleansing, purifying, and sustaining life. I will be sharing more from this book later, but for now, go fetch a tall glass of water and enjoy!

Although I’m not done reading it yet, I’ve really enjoyed Ellen Cutler’s new book MicroMiracles: Discover the Healing Power of Enzymes.

There are a lot of new things I’m learning. One of the most powerful is this concept. What you eat is not nearly as important as what you digest.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the book that I think does a good job of explaining the importance of enzymes:

When foods contain sufficient amounts of enzymes, digestion begins with your very first bite. Chewing and mixing with saliva activates some enzymes so they can do their job. Unfortunately, cooking destroys most of them. Consider milk, which is subjected to high temperatures in order to kill any microbes. This process—known as pasteurization—also destroys phytase, an enzyme that enables the body to absorb and use the calcium from milk. In other words, the bioavailability of the calcium declines dramatically.

With foods depleted of their enzyme supplies, your body must manufacture its own to support the digestive process. This is an expensive proposition, as enzyme production conusmes a lot of energy, among other invaluable resources. If your body is responsible for supplying the enzymes in saliva and in gastric, pancreatic, and intestinal fluids, it must curtail production for other purposes. Thus, other tissues and organs—including the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and muscles—don’t get all the enzymes they need. This enzyme “relocation” and the resulting deficiency may set the stage for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other chronic health problems.

This may not sound so bad, except for everybody is born with a predetermined “enzyme potential.” In other words, you can only produce so many enzymes in your life before your body wears out.

Edward Howell, MD, says in his book Enzyme Nutrition: “The length of life is in direct proportion to the rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism.”

This is why eating foods that are rich in enzymes can help to extend your life. Foods rich in enzymes don’t tax your body as much… because your body doesn’t have to produce as many enzymes to aid in digestion.

This is why Ellen concludes: “The ideal diet would consist of organically grown, pesticide-free foods, with substantial amounts of raw foods in at least two meals per day, since only raw foods contain active enzymes.”

There’s a ton more I’d love to share, but then this post would become outrageously long. If you’re looking for a new health book to read, I highly recommend MicroMiracles.