You probably heard it: On average, people gain fifteen pounds in the first few years after their wedding.
It is only natural that we want to pamper our spouses and want to feed them – the birds and the animals do it. The point is to put the right and healthful morsels in your spouse’s mouth. Because food can hurt. And food can heal.
Also: Get moving – together! Because marriage can be more than watching the same TV programs for fifty years from the same sofa.
Here a few ideas:
- Attend a cooking course together
- Alternate who prepares breakfast and cooking dinner - and then discuss after which meals you feel better
- Stop all snacks, preferably before you have children who will follow your example
- Plan an outdoors activity every weekend: a hike, a bike tour, a walk, a (healthy) picnic, a dive - whatever moves you
- Have sex often – it’s good for the marriage and good for the immune systems
- Take turns on a simple rowing machine/stationary bike in front of TV
- Eliminate all dairy (butter, cream, yogurt, milk, cheese, etc.) most of the time – and experience the difference
- Find recipes for a sinful birthday cake made without flour (hint: Viennese walnut cake - made of nuts and cream)
- Don't spend your money on juices and soft beverages; stick to water, herbal teas, green tea, black tea.
Hug and kiss and touch often – and have a happy marriage! Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
Gluten Intolerance On the Rise
September 28, 2010
Not only is gluten intolerance widely under-diagnosed, it is also getting more common, especially in the elderly.
The reason are still puzzling the researcher. I would venture four explanations (there are very likely more!):
1. Increased use of antibiotics. Antibiotics disturb the fragile balance of bacteria in the gut – there fore it is always good to question your doctor’s wisdom to prescribe and antibiotic. And if you really have to take one, also take plenty of probiotics – but not at the same time: Space it so that you take the probiotic in between antibiotic doses.
2. Increased use of adulterated “foods” – stuff your body doesn’t even recognize as food: additives, preservatives, colorings, prescription and recreational drugs (it is totally beyond me why those drugs are called “recreational’!), “new and improved” food items like Olestra, and so on, and so on.
3. Increase use of milk and dairy products that are highly changed through pasteurization, homogenization and addition of modern “food technology.” Mind, I don’t condone unpasteurized milk for reasons of infection. But I just think milk is for cow babies – and should stay with them.
4. Our eating habits: Not chewing well enough, eating late at night, eating snacks all the time. That way, the body is always busy with digesting – never has time for repair.
On the other hand, it is never too late to clean up your eating act: Eat fresh, unadulterated foods, cook for yourself and your family – there is no pursuit more worthwhile in life! Read More
Fats Are Bad – And a Few Other Medical Myths I Am Not Sure I Still Believe In
September 7, 2010
1. Fats are bad for us. - Even at that time when I felt I was giving best medical advice to my patient (“Cut down on fat”), I myself never was really able to cut out fats much. I get so incredibly hungry without! But I am still at the weight I had at age twelve … and have slowly come to the conclusion that I probably gave bad advice to my patients. (Sorry!). What I advise now: Olive oil for salads, coconut oil for frying, occasionally a bit of European-style cultured butter (very occasionally!).
2. Exercise hard. – The Centenarian Study has shown that people who live to a ripe old age usually are not strong on exercise. They have friends, putter around house and garden and live for a worthwhile cause. Plus they have good genes. – I am not saying don’t exercise – but like everything else: Do it in moderation! – A minute here and there on your yoga ball, daily, will give you better health than the gym once a week (my guess – no studies done).
3. Eat a snack before you go to bed. – Diabetics are taught this, and usually crackers and milk are recommended, both of which I think are really bad ideas. That dairy is unhealthy I have said before; crackers are nothing else than cardboard “food” – devoid of any nutritional value.
4. Snacks, in general. – Bad idea. Few people fare well on the “more meals but smaller meals” advice. Most people do “more meals and more and more calories.” I never snack – and I never try my own food when I am cooking – I just smell out if more salt is needed. And healthy snacks like celery sticks without the dip? They really make me hungry. - Forget snacks! Think of something more important!
5. Oh, and carrying water with you wherever you go. – Don’t! We got two hands to do really interesting stuff with them like fixing a car or playing the cello – NOT for lugging a water bottle or a coffee pot around. You don’t have to drink in the middle of your exercise or yoga class – before and after is plenty. Except if you are crossing a desert, don’t be seen with a bottle/cup in your hand. And drinks with calories in them? Also a no-no: Water and teas are all what is needed. Because drinks with calories are not drinks – they are meals.
6. Take a Tylenol or an Aspirin for fever. – Now, the body makes a fever to kill the germs that invaded you. It’s usually not a good idea to interfere with your body’s action. Go to bed early, drink hot herbal teas and sleep it out is usually the better response to a beginning cold.
7. Take a painkiller against pain. - If a simple Tylenol, etc. will do the trick, the pain is probably not so bad that you cannot tough it out (which is easier on your body – all the pain medications have unwanted side effects). Also: Better think why you got the pain in the first place: Hangover? Too much sun? Too much computer? Too little movement? Bad posture? Too little sleep?
To be continued, I guess. Read More