Date: February 15th 2012

Mary’s Natural Pathways to Health

Mary Sahs, ND

Naturopath « Heath & Wellness Consultant « Happiness Coach

Mary’s Natural, LLC

810 599-7556

February 15, 2012 

This Week’s Contents

• The Pathway to Health
• Mary’s Favorite Stops on the Pathway
• Product of the Week
• Get Healthy - Get Happy
• What’s Mary Up To Now?
  

The Pathway to Health

Fill Your Tummy!

What does it take to fill up a tummy?

Of course, it varies from person to person, but on average, the capacity of a human stomach is about 1 quart (4 cups). It can, however, expand to hold quite a lot more… maybe even nearly a gallon for you big guys! You may have noticed this during a holiday meal or at your last all-you-can-eat buffet. Pushing those limits is not a particularly healthy thing to do. It tends to impede the digestive process while it makes you feel uncomfortable levels of internal pressure on your organs.

Your stomach has very active muscles which expand and contract during digestion to mechanically break down the food you’ve eaten so that the digestive enzymes can chemically more easily break it down further. Different enzymes are required to break down the proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Hydrochloric acid is secreted by your gastric gland to kill off any lingering bacteria in your food. After all this, the food has turned semi-liquid and moves by muscular contractions (peristalsis) into the small intestine.

Often when people eat too much, food mixed with digestive juices is pushed back up into the esophagus, generally called reflux. If there is hydrochloric acid in the mix, you will feel a burning sensation. If it happens often, it may cause damage to your esophagus. This condition has been implicated in esophageal cancer. If this kind of distress is tied to eating more fat than usual, it may indicate liver or gallbladder problems. Aging is also responsible for the under-production of digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid. People who treat reflux with antacids are only masking the symptoms, not treating the cause. To treat the cause, it’s better to supplement with full-spectrum digestive enzymes and perhaps some extra hydrochloric acid to help with the natural breakdown of foods.

Satisfaction vs Satiation

When we eat, our goal is to satisfy hunger and provide our bodies with the nutrients it needs in order to thrive. Eating nutrient-dense foods allows us to feel satisfied with a volume of food smaller than our normal stomach capacity… only one or two cups of food feels good and provides all the nutrients we need. When we eat low-nutrient foods, we tend to never feel satisfied, but instead keep eating until we are satiated... unable to eat another bite, but we would if we could.

I recently saw a video comparing the digestion of some Top Ramen noodles (made from 15 mostly chemical ingredients) and some home-made noodles (made from flour, egg and salt). While the home-made noodles had broken down in the stomach within minutes, the ramen noodles were still easily identifiable as ramen noodles after 2½ hours of the poor stomach muscles grinding away at them. This helps illustrate that eating real food is preferable to eating much of the chemical-laden glop that passes for food in our grocery stores these days.

Eat More and Maintain a Healthy Weight

Many of us have been eating for satiety instead of satisfaction for years and years. We are used to feeling full, and we like it. So when we make an attempt to lose weight, we find ourselves feeling hungry all the time. This is generally due to the food choices we are making based on someone’s idea of what a perfect 1200-calorie day looks like. Those little 100-calorie packets of sweet/crunchy chemicals will never satisfy your appetite or nourish you like a 100-calorie serving of a good vegetable soup will!

New diet plans such as the latest Weight Watchers program or the Volumetrics program teach you how to select foods that will best satisfy your appetite as well as nourish your body, so that you may eat a substantial plateful of food at each meal and still lose weight. I know from my experience with Weight Watchers that the program works best when we can eliminate our addiction to sweets and focus on learning to love fruits and vegetables, which is not as difficult to do as you might think. Time and experience work wonders. Utilize the fabulous phytonutrients contained in fruits to appease your sweet tooth.

The Volumetrics plan is much the same: fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, good fats, low-fat dairy. The addition of herbs and spices to your meals only serves to add still more disease-preventing phytonutrients. It’s easy to make a tasty, satisfying meal out of these items, with enough variety to last the rest of your long, healthy life.

Fiber is another huge factor in food satisfaction. Most people don’t get anywhere close to the 30-35 grams a day recommended for keeping our digestive system scrubbed out, pink and sparkly. The only way I’ve determined we can get enough fiber is to add sufficient legumes to our diet. While some fruits and vegetables offer significant fiber, they can’t really hold a candle to one cup of black beans, pinto beans, cannelini, lentils or chickpeas, at nearly 20 grams.

For me, the best part about beans is that they can be made into so many variations, just by adding well-selected herbs and spices. You can turn a bland, but very nutritious, meal into Asian, African, Italian, Greek, French, Mexican, Caribbean, or Indian delights with ease. Serve with small portion of whole grains (choose gluten-free if you tend toward gluten intolerance) for a memorable main dish.

One High-Volume Low-Calorie Meal

By special request, I’d like to share with you a recipe that’s perfect when your appetite is huge and your taste buds are craving something wonderful.

Sesame Noodles

For the “noodles” in this dish I have 3 recommendations:

• Tofu Shirataki is a noodle made from tofu and yam flour. It comes in a plastic bag of water and is located in the produce department near the tofu. There are only 40 calories in the entire 8-ounce bag. Rinse well with fresh water and drain very well.
• Leftover spaghetti squash is wonderful for this recipe. You can use a big pile of it with a clear conscience. Again, make sure it’s very dry to avoid diluting the flavors.
• FiberGourmet makes spaghetti now. FiberGourmet pasta has 18 grams of fiber in every 2-ounce dry serving, and only 130 calories. Buy it online or at Hiller’s grocery stores in SE Michigan. Check their website www.fibergourmet.com to see if it’s available at stores near you.
  

Toss the noodles with

            1 cup shredded cabbage and carrots

            ½ cup fresh bean sprouts.

Thinly slice one or two green onions for garnish

Thai Peanut Sesame Sauce

2 Tbs tamari

2 Tbs rice vinegar

2 Tbs PB2* peanut butter powder

1 Tbs water

½ Tbs dark sesame oil

1 Tbs Sriracha hot chili sauce (get the one with the rooster on the bottle)

Whisk these ingredients together and pour over the noodles and veggies. Toss all together and serve garnished with the sliced green onions and a little sprinkle of sesame seeds.

This dish may be served hot or cold.

* PB2 is a product made by Bell Plantation. It is powdered roasted peanuts which have had most of the oil removed. It reconstitutes in water. There are only 45 calories in a 2-Tbs serving, but it tastes and feels just like regular peanut butter. It is available online at www.bellplantation.com or at a couple of retail locations in our area. St. Joseph Mercy Health System (Ypsilanti) has it, as does Nu U Nutrition in Williamston.

Drink Up

You may have noticed I haven’t said anything about beverages yet. Some of us pour huge volumes of liquid down our throats each day. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon what’s in that cup, glass or super-size container.

Your best option is, of course, pure water. Water provides our necessary hydration better than any other liquid. Dehydration is often disguised as hunger. If you’re feeling hungry, but it’s not time for a meal, you may simply be thirsty. Try drinking a full glass of water and wait about 20 minutes. Your “hunger” may be satisfied.

Coffee contains caffeine, but it also has been shown to protect against colon cancer. Green tea contains enough phytonturients to save us from a whole array of ailments. Some folks recommend 5 or 6 cups a day for best results. Herb teas have a wide variety of therapeutic uses, such as aiding sleep, relieving depression, treating colds, helping digestion, calming nerves, breaking through constipation, detoxing kidneys and liver, and many more. Not only that, since they are sugar-free and chemical-free, they make a good substitute for part of the 2 or so quarts of water we need daily.

Keep in mind that many liquids, especially soda (even diet) do not perform the same function as water for hydrating our cells. Even coffee and caffeinated teas create a need for extra water in order for our bodies to stay properly hydrated.

Mary’s Favorite Stops on the Pathway

We made a great discovery in Ann Arbor last week. If you love Indian cuisine, and I’m guessing even if you don’t know you love Indian cuisine, you must take a moment to stop at Hut-K Chaats at 3022 Packard Rd. Affordable and delicious food, prepared in the most healthful manner. There are not many items on the menu, but it’s still difficult to choose because everything sounds so good! They offer Chaats (an amazing combination of tastes and textures), a Wrap filled with raw fresh greens, fruits, vegetables and tasty sauces, and whole grain delights called Back2Roots made from any combination of 13 different kinds of grains. Simply wonderful! It’s mostly vegan, but don’t let that dissuade the meat-eaters. You&rs quo;ll never miss the meat. Really. Go there.

Product of the Week

Essential Therapeutics Bone Support Formula is a carefully formulated blend of Calcium and Phosphorus in the form of microcrystalline hydroxyapatite for superior absorption, as well as  Boron to reduce the excretion of calcium and possibly suppress the development of osteoporosis. Consider this supplement if you may be suffering bone loss due to aging.

Get Healthy - Get Happy

“If your heart is full, you don’t feel that hungry.”

~ H.H. Swami Tejomayananda

“A boy’s appetite grows very fast, and in a few moments the queer, empty feeling had become hunger, and the hunger grew bigger and bigger, until soon he was as ravenous as a bear.”

~ Carlo Collodi

What’s Mary Up to Now?

Mary is convinced that the literacy level of our population will determine the course of our future. In order to help raise the literacy level, she has undergone training with the Livingston County Literacy Council to become a volunteer literacy tutor. In order to maximize the benefit of her training, she has also established Old School Tutoring to help others enjoy the benefits of having reading and writing skills appropriate to their age and education level. Mary is offering private tutoring programs in reading, writing, and penmanship, teaching these subjects the way she was taught back in the 1950s, since the methods used back then seemed to work quite well. If you know someone who could use some help catching up on these skills, please check out the website, and contact Mar y to discuss options.

Mary has a health information website at Mary'sNatural.com to provide you with up-to-date natural health information about your condition and easy access to an expanded line of fine products through the VIP Dispensary. Digestion, heart and brain function, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, diabetes, IBS, adrenal fatigue, ADHD, arthritis… it’s all covered. Your best options for low-risk, highly effective natural treatments.

Mary also has a food information website at ATasteforHealth.com where she shares her joy in the tantalizing tastes and aromas of real food, healthful food, food that makes your body thrive. Love real food! Many people don’t understand that liking particular foods is a learning experience, and the more often you drop the overly-processed, chemical-laden  commercial foods, and pick up natural, fresh-picked foods, the more you will enjoy and even prefer REAL foods. Start now, if y ou haven’t already.

Natural Solutions for Anxiety and Depression? Get your free report at www.endanxietyanddepression.com

Tired of Being Tired? Get your free report at www.adrenalwakeup.com

Mary’s Natural Store is online and open for business. If you’re looking for excellent supplements at reasonable prices, click in and take a look. If you have any questions about what you see, please don’t hesitate to call 810 599-7556 or email mary@marysnatural.com

Mary’s Natural is on Facebook and I’d love to have more “likes” there! Please click and join me, and tell your friends!. I promise I won’t over-post and drive you nuts.

Tweet me @msahs! I won’t overwhelm you there, either.

A Taste for Health, the website: http://www.atasteforhealth.com is taking shape. This is my FOOD website. I will be providing recipes and ideas for healthy dining, expanding your culinary horizons, and learning to love real food.

Mary’s Blog! Visit “Mary’s Blog” to see what it’s all about! Short essays about whatever’s on my mind. If I can offer a new perspective, I’ll be happy, and I hope you will be too.

Mary’s Natural, LLC is pleased to be your local source for

§         Save Your Life Coaching Guidance through the natural healing protocol developed by Dr. Richard Schulz.

§         Solaris Health Assessment  Stop guessing. Find out exactly how to optimize your health. (coming soon)

§         Protocel (Cancell/Entelev) cell cleansing food supplement..

§         Essential Therapeutics Supplements you can trust.

§         Emotional Balancing Aromatherapy customized just for you.

§         Digital Medicine Cabinet sound healing.

§         Acutonics Tuning Fork sound healing sessions.

§         Geopathic Stress Relief for your home.

Mary’s Natural Pathways to Health

Mary’s Natural, LLC

Mary Sahs, ND

3315 Pinckney Rd. Howell, MI 48843

(by appointment only)

mary@marysahs.com

810 599-7556

http://www.marysnatural.com

http://www.atasteforhealth.com

You have received this newsletter because I have met you at a networking event, in a class or seminar, or at a social occasion. If you would prefer not to receive future issues of this newsletter (every two weeks), please email unsubscribe@marysnatural.com and you will be promptly removed from the mailing list. On the other hand, If you like what you see, please feel free to share this newsletter with your friends and associates.  Go to A Taste for Health and click on the subscribe button. Email addresses will never be shared.