Happy Birthday, Canada! So besides honouring the birth of my country with some fabulous friends, a raspberry Stoli and juice, and spectacular fireworks tonight, I wondered what type of gift I could give her.

Then I saw it: a poster sponsored by The Health Council of Canada asking us to voice our opinion on the current health care system and how the government has been spending our money. What a wonderful gift for Canada!

By joining the conversations on the Canada Values Health discussion board, we can help our entire country as well as ourselves and all of our loved ones. Current topics  range from `Unnecessary Use of the Health Care System’ and `Preventing Illness & Promoting Health’ to`Prescription Drugs’ and `Seniors Care’.

If you’re looking for a constructive gift for Canada, please consider posting and commenting your thoughts about the Value for Money in our publicly funded health care system.

Happy Canada Day!

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Remember back in April how we reported the discovery of mysterious, anti-aging Blue Zones? And in May we talked about optimism as a common factor among these health zones?

For our convenience and in a well-written, thorough post, our friends over at The X-Ray Vision-aries Blog have listed a total of 25 amazing health tips gleaned from this research. I highly recommend this read and they even link to the Blue Zone Vitality Compass!

I’m almost 2 years younger than my calendar age, expected to live until I’m 87, disease free until 75, and could add another nine years to my life by taking the Blue Zone health tips. How young are you?

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With all this talk about processed orange juice and nutritional supplements, we’ve been asked to assess the quality of our food supply. To help us out with this, two Live Lighter readers recommended the new movie, FOOD Inc.

I’m psyched to watch this documentary on the globalization and industrialization of our food because of it’s constructive message. The intention is to educate consumers and promote conscious purchasing. It reminds us that we have the power to change things!

Check out the official movie trailer (2:16 min):

Thanks for sharing this great info with us, Emmanuel and Denise!

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Two weeks ago, we published “Say it Ain’t So, O.J.!” which revealed important information consumers should know before buying processed orange juice. Two days after publishing that post, the Florida Department of Citrus contacted me via email with the subject heading, “Orange Juice Facts”.

The PR director was respectful and simply wanted to communicate their side of the story. She offered her phone number and email in case I wanted to discuss it with her in more detail.

I replied the next day and suggested she leave a comment on the post to get a conversation going with Live Lighter readers. I also requested an interview.

As of today, they have not posted a comment nor have they responded to my email. So in attempts to remain objective and on behalf the Florida Department of Citrus, here is the main content from their email:

Orange juice is one of the healthiest morning beverages. In fact, an 8-ounce glass of 100 percent orange juice delivers essential vitamins and nutrients to support good health and is also more nutrient dense than many commonly consumed 100 percent fruit juices, such as apple, grape, pineapple and prune. By law, 100% orange juice is made only from oranges with no added sugars or preservatives.

Approximately 68 percent of Canadian orange juice comes from the United States. By utilizing state-of-the-art technology, Florida is able to provide a consistent supply of high quality orange juice year round. For more than 100 years orange juice has been processed through pasteurization to ensure food safety, which is in strict compliance with all USDA and Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations. When oranges are processed, natural components such as orange aroma, orange oil from the peel, and pulp may be separated from the orange juice. After the juice is pasteurized, these natural orange components may be added back to the orange juice for optimal flavor.

Please visit www.OrangeJuiceFacts.com for more information about orange juice.

Since it doesn’t look like I’ll get an interview, I thought I’d share my questions with you and see if you have some of your own to add:

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This blog is all about natural health. If most nutritional supplements are synthetic, why are we even discussing it on Live Lighter? Well, recently I came across two separate sources that provided the same sound reason for supplementation in today’s society. It convinced me that this topic warrants discussion.

The following is a synopsis of what I found researching this fascinating health debate:

Those against nutritional supplements say:

• Every nutrient we need can be found in food. “If you’re generally healthy and eat a wide variety of foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lean meats and fish, you likely don’t need dietary supplements.” (source: The Mayo Clinic)
• Poor quality nutritional supplements are useless. Many supplements sold on the market may not be as potent as they claim to be or their bioavailability is questionable. If supplements are not in a form our bodies can  absorb, they simply pass through our system and provide no value. (source: Surefirewealth.com) Read the rest of this entry »
  
  

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The hot summer days are upon us and our bodies are craving light, cooling foods. Let’s celebrate salad season with a recipe!

Created recently, this one was a BIG hit with everyone who tried it. Since quinoa (see pic) is an easy-to-digest grain, it’s especially delightful for those with digestive issues.

Please come back and let us know how you like it once you’ve tried it:

Fresh Basil & Black Bean Quinoa Salad

This recipe was inspired from The Vital You’s “Quinoa and Black Bean Salad” (very different BUT equally yummy) found in the Ultimate Holistic Cookbook:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water, filtered
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped finely
4 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp cold-pressed virgin olive oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 can black beans, rinsed
sea salt and pepper, to taste

Quinoa Preparation:

1. Put quinoa in a small pot and pour tap water over grains. Swish grains around with your fingers. Strain water and loose debris down sink. Repeat again, one to two more times.
2. Combine rinsed quinoa with filtered water and a dash of sea salt. Bring to boil, lower heat to minimum, cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Let cool.

Salad Preparation:

Mix cooled quinoa with rest of ingredients. Enjoy!

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“PSYCH-K is a user-friendly way to rewrite the software of your mind in order to change the printout of your life.” Robert M. Williams, M.A. Originator of PSYCH-K®

Back in March, we introduced PSYCH-K as The Ultimate Self-Improvement Tool. While I stand-by the title, the weekend workshop revealed the word `self-improvement’ is misleading. The reason why has become one of my favourite features of this self-help tool.

You can find further explanation of these important features and a complete description of PSYCH-K in the originator’s own words, The Missing Piece Peace in Your Life!.

Here are the most intriguing aspects of PSYCH-K: 

1. Personal Development Differentiation. The word `improvement’ implies the need to `fix’ while `development’ denotes change. Just because we want change (a natural process) doesn’t mean our lives are broken. As Dr. Lipton deduces in The Biology of Perception, beliefs create our lives. Simple cause and effect. Put aside judgments, blame, etc. and it becomes a results-based system. Not a matter of right or wrong.
2. Kind of like conscious self-hypnosis. When you’re changing (or `balancing’) a belief, you are 100% conscious in PSYCH-K. With the help of a certified facilitator, using muscle-testing and PSYCH-K techniques, you consciously choose self-supporting beliefs and consciously `program’ them into your subconscious mind. Read the rest of this entry »
   
   

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Life is fun and easy. At least, that’s what my conscious mind would like to believe. I wonder if my subconscious is on board with me on this one? Hang on, let’s see… Darn. No luck. Ok, well, that’s cool. I’ll just use PSYCH-K™ and reprogram that puppy into my subconscious right now.

It took about 4 minutes, but according to my self-muscle test, it’s in there! And thank-You because people like Emmanuel Donchin, director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Pyschophysiology at the University of Illinois, suspect that, “As much as 99 percent of cognitive activity may be nonconscious.”

So I celebrate with a little dance in my chair. You’re welcome to join in the festivities because… Yay! Life is fun and easy!

This is only a taste of what I learned and experienced this past weekend…

PSYCH-K basic workshop: a life-altering experience

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Preservatives and their negative effects on our health has been a hot topic for years. Just this week Live Lighter wrote about a Toronto Star interview with Alissa Hamilton, author of a new book questioning the health claims of orange juice manufacturers. But what if there were good preservatives?

USANA Health Sciences is a company that claims to have created such a thing! They have a line of skin care products specially designed with a truly unique, patented, self-preserving technology. If you have 7:30 minutes, check out this video of Dr. Regina Hamlin describing the science behind the Sense anti-aging technology:

For those of you who don’t have the time to watch the video, Dr. Hamlin says that preservatives are necessary as they increase the shelf-life of a product and kills bacteria, fungus and molds. But USANA solves the irritation caused by chemical preservatives with their self-preserving technology.

It’s made of purifying botanicals, anti-oxidants and active ingredients stabilized in liquid crystals that become the preservatives themselves, so the products stay fresh naturally.

So, Readers, what are your first thoughts on USANA’s Sense anti-aging technology?

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Editor’s Note: This guest post was contributed by Nicole White, who writes about masters in health care.

I live alone, so it’s easy to set my schedule according to my pace and moods. I am used to my routine - the early morning jog, the cooking, cleaning and household work after that, then settling down to work, eating lunch, and then on to my regular tennis game with a group of friends, after which it is back to work, dinner and sleep. I pretty much live and breathe this schedule for five days of the week, so when I have guests, expected or unexpected, it sort of irritates me to make the enforced change.

I recently had my sister’s children over for a fortnight while she and her husband were taking a much-needed break and trying to work on their marriage. While I love them very much and am very attached to them, they’ve never stayed over for more than a day or two, usually accompanied by my sister. So you can imagine the chaos and confusion that coexisted with me and the kids during these two weeks.

Suffice it to say that my carefully planned schedule was shot to hell - no morning jogs, more time in the kitchen, less time for work, and more time involved in making sure the kids did not fight, throw tantrums or break stuff around the house and hurt themselves. The first few days were the worst; not having been around kids a lot, I was unprepared for the effort that it would take to look after two children full time. I found myself getting irritated, with the kids at first and then at myself for feeling this irrational frustration.

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