My Diet My Life: Current Article

Date with Destiny
by
Terry Tasche, R.N., B.S.N.

"Control your own destiny or someone else will." Jack Welch
When I don't take control of what it is I really want, which is a healthy body and a healthy life, others may eventually have to make my choices for me. In the end, when I continually impulsively indulge in junk food, I will cheat myself out of health, and the doctor will wind up making choices for me that I may not like, but have to do.

How can I get control of my desires and feed my body what it needs instead of what I want so I won't have a "date with destiny?" Knowledge can help me know the benefits of eating right. Something that I now know is that over dosing on sugar causes the body to cross over into a state of acidic pH balance, which is not good. In order to get back to normal the body needs calcium, which it draws from its own source, the bones. That is probably one reason I was losing my bone density, because I was not aware of how eating sugar deteriorates the bones. Thank Heaven I Now Know and can THINK better about my health.

Since health begins at the cellular level, we need to feed the cells nutrients if they are to grow into healthy systems, like organs, muscles, tissue, teeth, eyes, brain and bones. There's a lot to be fed, by me, to keep me going. Health starts in my head with the desire to take care of me.

Here's a little information about what vitamin C does for our bodies. According to the Contemporary Nutrition book by Gordon M. Wardlaw, cigarette smokers need extra vitamin C because of the great stress on their lungs from oxygen and toxic by-products of cigarette smoke. And, Dr. Wardlaw states, "The best understood function of vitamin C is its role in synthesizing the protein collagen. This protein is highly concentrated in connective tissue, bone, teeth, tendons, and blood vessels." Vitamin C is very important for wound healing. Tomatoes are high in vitamin C. My husband grows them in pots on the roof deck of our garage, and they are sweet and delicious. It doesn't sound as though I'd want to leave home without it. Vitamin C is plentiful in orange juice, but not in soda pop.
Here's an interesting fact: the term folate (vitamin B9) is derived from the Latin word folium, which means foliage. The vitamin folate is found in foliage like green vegetables, i.e., spinach and asparagus are good examples. This helps me remember to go green and eat green. Folate helps metabolize various amino acids and their derivatives, such as homocysteine, one of the culprits sited in Alzheimer's Disease. Folate also helps to form DNA. Golly, these seem like pretty important nutrients.

The point is that knowing how much my body relies on my choosing healthy food for it helps me to lay off the junk food and lay in healthy provisions. Choose things with nutritional value, like cheese instead of chips (Protein satisfies, and carbs cause craving.), carrots instead of cupcakes loaded with a lot of calories, fruit instead of fries. The best way to get nutrients is the old-fashioned way, to eat them in healthy food. Maybe we should change the old phrase from, "Eat your fruits and vegetables," to "Eat your vitamins and minerals." It's a conscious choice, which can lead to a date with a healthy destiny.

Go to TerryTasche.com, Tutorial page, to sign up to receive the free tutorial this month and see how to make the bookmark, which I created for my daughter's high school graduation.

Graduation Bookmark ~ FrontGraduation Bookmark ~ Back

This compact Canon S90 was used to take this month's image. It's a recommendation I'm glad I followed, because the Canon S90 is indeed fantastic. The Canon S90 has amazing image quality. Its jpeg files open to 24-28MB. The specs are as follows: 10MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD. It fits in my pocket and is available on Amazon.com at an even lower price than I recently paid.

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Canon PowerShot S90 10MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD

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