Is Juicing Safe When You're Pregnant? What's the Scoop?

Pregnancy 

Is Juicing Safe When You're Pregnant? What's the Scoop?

By Bell Gia Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Banana Spinach Smoothie 

To juice or not to juice -- that is the question asked by many a mom-to-be when at their obstetrician's office during their first trimester check-up.  

Can I start juicing? Can I continue to make my own smoothies or extracted juice at home? Can I buy fresh or bottled vegetable and/or fruit juice at my local raw-juice bar, farmers' market, co-op, or grocery store?

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Food Safety for Moms-to-Be: Safe Eats - Fruits, Veggies & Juices, raw and unpasteurized fruit and vegetable juice can become contaminated with harmful bacteria that can cause vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, fever, headache, & body pain and should be avoided by pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. 

Vegetable and fruit juices that have not been pasteurized can contain harmful pathogens like Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in unwashed fruits and vegetables. Smoothies and freshly made store-bought juice, that has not been pasteurized, can also become contaminated with harmful illness-causing bacteria from coming into contact with dirty bacterial-containing juice-extracting equipment that was not washed thoroughly enough or from some of the fruit or veg that might have been stored with or along side of fruit or vegetables that did in fact carry on their outer rinds, skin, or peel the illness-causing bacteria. Commercial kitchen counters and surfaces that were not properly sanitized can also pass along sickening food-borne microorganisms to the produce going into the making of a smoothie or fresh juice when it is placed on the contaminated kitchen surface or countertop waiting to be fed into the juicer for juice extraction.  

Answer to the million-dollar question: IF unpasteurized juice is to be consumed by a pregnant mom-to-be, it is best to make the unpasteurized juice at home in order to err on the side of caution and hopefully avoid contracting harmful bacteria. This doesn't mean that a mom-to-be doesn't have to be particularly cautious when making her own juice however. Precautions still must be taken in order to prevent harmful bacteria contamination from ruining a nutrient-dense vegetable juice. 

To help prevent harmful bacteria often found on the outside of fruits and vegetables from getting into your juice, an expectant mother should always thoroughly wash raw fruits or vegetables under running water (without using any soap, detergent, or bleach solutions) and as an added precaution use a produce scrubbing brush to remove any surface dirt. It is also a good idea to attempt to cut away any and all damaged or bruised areas that are apparent to the naked eye. Bacteria can thrive and grow in crushed or banged-up spots of produce. To be safe rather than sorry, a woman possessing a maternal condition (preggo) should peel the fruit or vegetable's outside rind, skin, or peel off for good measure. 

Final Ruling: Thumbs up for trying to get your daily allowance of vitamins and minerals found in whole fruit and veggies. Eating a healthy, well-rounded diet is a great way of staying healthy, not gaining too much baby weight, and staying properly nourished as you manufacture another human being that will one day thank you for caring so much about your state of nutrition. 

References and Resources: 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Food Safety for Moms-to-Be: Safe Eats - Fruits, Veggies & Juices
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Nutrition During Pregnancy

Cilantro -- Benefits for the Skin

Beauty Treatments 

By Bell Gia

One star got overlooked at the Oscars this year.  For a change, it wasn't Leonardo DiCaprio as usual. No, this time the judges snubbed cilantro, the herb used by many of the red carpet beauties attending the 88th Academy Awards.



Cilantro - high in antioxidants like beta-carotene, lutein, beta-cryptoxanthin, vitamin C, and zeaxanthin. It also contains vitamin K, folate, potassium, manganese, choline, and many other phytochemicals. The oil extracted from cilantro's leaves have been shown in laboratory research to inhibit unwanted oxidation and have an antibacterial effect. This makes cilantro a great fighter against the war on acne when it comes to combating skin eruptions.

Pull out your blender and let's make some beautiful skin.

Skin Exfoliant

Ingredients needed: 

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

the juice of 1 lime

1/3 cup of cilantro leaves

1/4 cup of coconut oil

Combine:

Put the cilantro, coconut oil, and lime juice in a high-speed blender or food processor and pulse it until the mixture is of creamy consistency. Pour into a tupperware container and stir in granulated sugar until well mixed.  

Apply it: While in the shower or tub, rub mixture into the skin in tiny circular motions, clockwise and counterclockwise, to exfoliate the legs, arms, abdomen, knees, ankles, and chest. Simply wash off with warm water and save anything left over in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Pat your body dry. Now you're ready for those short Spring-colored shorty shorts. 

Natural Facial Cleanser    

   

Ingredients Needed:
3 Tbsp of pure water
1 tsp of organic honey
1 Tbsp of Chia flour
1 tsp of castile soap
1/2 cup of cilantro leaves

Combine:

Put cilantro in the high-speed blender or food processor with the 3 Tbsp of pure water and blend until  creamy. Spoon out and put into a bowl then add honey, chia flour, and castile soap. Mix together with a fork or wire whisk until its of creamy consistency.

Apply it: Wet your face while over the sink and then apply mixture to your face as you would any other facial wash. Washing in circular motions both clockwise and counterclockwise, making sure to get the crevices on the outside of the nostrils and the tip of the nose. Rinse with warm water and pat dry. Skin will appear bright and supple. You're ready for that selfie now, Beautiful. 

Skin Tightening Facial Mask

Ingredients Needed:
1/3 cup of cilantro leaves
3 Tbsp of chopped cucumber, no skin
2 Tbsp of plain Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp of rolled oats, uncooked
1 sprig of fresh mint

Combine:

Put cucumber, Greek yogurt, cilantro, rolled oats, and mint into a high-speed blender or food processor and pulse until mixture is of creamy consistency. Spoon into a bowl.

Apply it: While standing over the bathroom sink, apply mixture in clockwise circular movements to your face starting at the apples of your cheeks. Apply on the forehead, jawline, and don't forget your neck, Ladies. Avoid getting close to the eyes because the skin around the eyes is so tender. Let it sit on your face for about 15-20 minutes. If you have any leftover cucumber slices, lay those over your eyes as you recline on the sofa and dream of a clean house, no dirty dishes in the sink, and imagine a hot cup of chai waiting for you on the kitchen counter.

A little about the Writer: Bell Gia is a nutrition and fitness expert with 25 years of experience working with over 1,000 satisfied clients and writes to educate the public about incorporating more plants into the diet, getting sufficient sleep, and encourages a healthy habit of getting some sort of exercise everyday. Bell Gia travels the United States for work but calls Florida home most days of the year.  

GETTING TO THE FAT BURNING ZONE WHEN EXERCISING

GETTING TO THE FAT BURNING ZONE WHEN EXERCISING

Part 3 of 4

So you go to the gym with the thought of burning FAT. Your Fitness App -- Wahoo Fitness, MapMyFitness, RunKeeper -- tells you to exercise aerobically at 60%-70% of your maximum heart rate in order to be in your Fat Burning Zone. MyFitnessPal's blog, which is the Go-to blog for fitness advice for thousands of people blah-blah all the time about going SLOW at 60-70% of MHR in order to get to readers to their FAT BURNING ZONE. Omg! I wish they would STOP giving out what is WRONG INFO for most people...like almost EVERYONE!

MyFitnessPal tells Gym Lovers that for maximum fat-burning results, they should, "Spend 10 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes on the rowing machine, and 10 minutes on the elliptical...stick with a moderate intensity level...60% to 70% of your max heart rate." I'm not ragging on just MyFitnessPal, so many gyms tell their members the same advice that's DEAD WRONG 98% of the time. They're right 2% of the time when they're giving their advice to a person who has exhausted their glycogen stores already through fasting or having already exercised off 1,600 calories if you're a woman and on average 2,000 calories if you're a man. 

Exercising and the process of lipolysis or fat burning occurs when the body has high levels of adrenaline, also called epinephrine, (hormone responsible for increasing blood flow to the muscles, cardiac output, and blood sugar which occurs at greater work intensity rather than lower intensities) and low insulin levels (due to a lack of glucose in the blood and glycogen in the muscles and liver.)  

To explain fat burning or lipolysis scientifically I would need to use A LOT of alien terms used Chemistry I and II that most people just aren't familiar with. I really don't have to go into this level of explanation for this blog in order to convey an important exercise principle for maximizing weigh-loss benefits. All that is necessary for me to do in order to convince you to STEP UP your exercise intensity level and turn a DEAF EAR to this bad fitness advice is to REMIND YOU as to how fat is broken down by the body in response to exercise. 

Exercise is physical movement which requires energy. Energy comes from the food we eat. Our body's Go-to source for fuel is glucose or blood sugar. (The body will only breakdown fat and protein for energy when it doesn't have sufficient blood sugar.) When glucose levels are low, the body uses glycogen or STORED sugar to power exercise. Your body utilizes liver glycogen to keep your blood sugar levels up and muscle glycogen during exercise. 

When glycogen levels are EXHAUSTED, the body produces a hormone called Glucagon which increases blood glucose from the breakdown of fat (triglycerides) and protein. Glucagon is proportionately more active on the liver whereas adrenaline has a stronger metabolic action on muscle and fat. WITHOUT Glucagon acting on specific receptors on our cells, the body does not start the chemical cascade necessary to UN-STORE our Triglycerides (stored fat on our hips, thighs, butt, stomach, arms, and back) and then breakdown its chemical components in order to MAKE the blood glucose (ENERGY) Necessary to make us MOVE.  

If our bodies have sufficient blood sugar, we will NOT burn fat when we exercise. If the body has glycogen to use to fuel exercise, we will NOT be burning fat as a fuel source. It is ONLY WHEN our bodies do NOT have glucose and glycogen to use for energy to fuel exercise that our bodies will RELEASE the hormone GLUCAGON which initiates the BREAKDOWN, RELEASE, REPACKAGING, and TRANSPORT of FAT to be used as energy to fuel exercise. 

Working out at 60-70% of ones maximum heart rate is NOT the initiator of fat burning. Aerobic exercise does not hold the key to using fat as our exercise fuel source. A lack of glycogen in our muscles and liver and the need to have an adequate level of blood sugar is what causes fat burning. Get through your glycogen stores as soon as you can and your body WILL GET TO BURNING FAT that much sooner. 

My website DietBella.com will continue this discussion in further detail in order to help everybody who's still a little confused or just wants a workout that will burn their unwanted fat laid out for them.

I've got to get back at work

Thx for reading and giving me a platform to help people in what I absolute LOVE,

-Bell Gia     

GREEN SMOOTHIE and CONFUSING WEIGHT GAIN

The All-Important Green Smoothie and Confusing Weight Gain

I'm probably going to take some heat-seeking missiles today from many a health coach and vegan for speaking what will seem to them as heresy but facts are facts and somebody has got to be gutsy enough to get the word out to so many dieters out there who have gained weight and can't figure out why or are stuck (plateaued) at a number on the scale and can't get under it no matter how much they exercise due in whole or in part to their morning green smoothie.

The Morning Green Smoothie -- You've heard Dr. Oz, The View, Mike & Kelly, Kimberly Synder, and the NutriBullet/Magic Bullet infomercial push the sacrosanct first-thing-in-the-morning green smoothie and all its health benefits. Not one of these health efficionados has mentioned its possible counter-productiveness to your losing weight or its ability to cause stagnation to your weight-loss efforts.  

Green Smoothie and juicing recipe books tell their audiences to make a "huge" Vitamix or blender full of green smoothie. "Don't worry about measuring ingredients," they shout,  just throw in a couple bananas, pour in a bunch of frozen berries, pineapple, peaches, and mango into your blender and use the liquid of your choice: coconut water, almond or soy milk, or cow's milk. Lastly, you are told to put a handful of whatever greens you want: spinach, kale, collard greens, or spring mix. Blend all that nutrient-dense produce up until its nice and creamy. Now drink up until your stomach is full and pay yourself on the back for doing such a great thing for your body--NOT! 

Those experts tell you to drink as much as you want of your Green Smoothie, whenever you want -- you are especially encouraged to drink it within an hour of waking up, to drink another tall glass two hours before your workout, and to drink some more after you workout because the Green Smoothie is packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals, making it so darn good for you. But is that Green Smoothie really good for your weight-loss program? 

If your Green Smoothie contains a large serving or several servings of fruit it is one of the LAST things you want to drink (eat) first thing in the morning within an hour of waking up and after a workout. Sorry to break it to you but if you are following their advice, your 16- to 24-ounce Green Smoothie is obstructing your weight-loss efforts and causing your bafflement on the scale each morning as to why you're gaining weight, not losing weight, or are stuck at a number on the scale that try-as-you-may you can't seem to be able to get below.

How exactly is your Green Smoothie sabotaging your weight loss and hindering your dieting efforts?

If you have belly bulge that hangs over your pants, jeans, or shorts, if your huge thighs rub uncomfortably together, if your hips are too wide for most of your skirts and dresses due to your fatty saddle bags, if your enlarged butt has double handfuls of cellulite-covered flesh hanging out both sides of your underwear then the LAST THING you want to do is drink a fruit-containing Green Smoothie in the morning within an hour of waking up and/or after your workout. It is better to remove that vitamin and fructose-rich health drink from OFF of your menu until you are at your maintenance weight and NOT striving to lose unwanted body fat. 

When you wake up in the morning, and haven't snacked during the night, your body is in a partially FASTED state which means it hasn't had food to immediately use as its energy source to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, your blood moving throughout your entire body, repairing your damaged cells, making new cells to replace your old, worn-out ones, etc... You haven't eaten so your body has had to use some of its STORED CALORIES known as GLYCOGEN found in your liver and in your muscles. 

In order for you to LOSE BODY FAT, stored calories from your eating excess protein & carbohydrates and from the correct amount of fat or from too much dietary fat that you consumed, your body MUST use up its daily supply of glycogen BEFORE your body has the need to breakdown its stored fat, UN-STORE those fats from your liver and muscle cells, and repackage them for delivery to your organs and tissues that need fuel to beat, breathe, circulate, repair, and create. 

Every hour since your last meal or snack before going to bed, your body has HAD TO use its glycogen stores to provide your body with the energy source it REQUIRES to keep your body functioning. The body gets that required energy from your liver and from your muscles. A dieter who seeks to successfully LOSE weight in the form of BODY FAT from off their butt, hips, thighs, arms, and stomach MUST USE UP their day's supply of glycogen housed in their liver and muscles BEFORE their overweight/obese body is going to perform the energy-intensive process of breaking down, un-storing, and the repackaging of their undesired fat for energy which is HOW YOU LOSE BODY FAT WEIGHT. 

If you drink that ill-advised Green Smoothie first thing in the morning, your body STOPS being in a partially fasted state where it was using up your stored calorie reserves to soon be able to begin USING YOUR STORED FAT as fuel, but INSTEAD your body has now received via your Green Smoothie the readily-available glucose for energy and has also received the carbohydrates it needs to replenish your partially-empty glycogen stores in your liver and muscles.

Your BODY FAT weight-loss efforts have now been STOPPED, hindered, and derailed due to your really healthy but NOT WEIGHT-LOSS PRODUCING Green Smoothie. Buon appetito -- NOT!

If you want an expert who KNOWS how to get you to LOSE BODY FAT or get LEAN, please contact me, Bell Gia, in any of the following ways:

Fill out the contact sheet at TheRealBellGia.com

Email me at TheRealBellGia@gmail.com 

Email me at GetStarted@DietBella.com

LOSING WEIGHT AND KEEPING YOUR METABOLISM UP - DIET and EXERCISE 101

LOSING WEIGHT AND KEEPING YOUR METABOLISM UP

DIET and EXERCISE 101

Part 2 of 4

BEFORE you start ANY DIET, it is essential that you ask and then answer the 2 following questions:

1.) WHY are you dieting? 

2.) WHAT are you hoping to lose or gain?

In actuality, those two questions are asking the same thing but most people don't really understand question one so over the years I have found it helpful and definitely quicker to ask question two in order to shed light on and bring about the correct answer to WHY you set out to diet in the first place. 

Those may seem like two simple questions BUT they are NOT. I have worked with over 1,000 people who wanted/needed to diet and/or who wanted/needed to exercise. I would guesstimate that 95% of my clients either couldn't answer those two questions or answered those two questions wrong. 

Your INDIVIDUALIZED diet and exercise success is found in the answers to those two queries. Your diet and exercise programs FAIL to bring about your desired results when you don't ask yourself those two questions or you experience FAILURE with your diet and exercise regimen when you don't do the behavior(s) that CAUSE those sought-after outcomes. 

So, why are you dieting? 

• Are you wanting to lose EXCESS BODY FAT?
• Do you seek to eliminate your body's INSULIN RESISTANCE?
• Do you desire to GAIN MUSCLE?
• Do you want to GET LEANER?

If your answer is: I want to lose excess body fat, what you are actually saying is that you seek to lose EXCESS STORAGE FAT that's disguised as your muffin top, FOPA, spare tire, bra fat, back fat, thunder thighs, thighs that rub together, fat butt, turkey neck, double chins, and chicken wings. 

If your answer is: I must eliminate my body's insulin resistance because I have high blood sugar or both my blood sugar AND my hemoglobin A1C are elevated, what you are really saying is that you must use up your liver's and muscle's glycogen stores, cause your muscles to require more energy from glucose and thus becoming more sensitive to the insulin that your body releases in response to the food you eat or the liquids you drink.  

If your desire is to gain muscle, you are in reality saying, "I want to build BIGGER muscles" which will require some additional protein and the CORRECT kind and amount of exercises for those particular muscles you want to enlarge AND give those muscles their necessary recovery time. 

Men and women don't get more muscles. You are stuck with the number of skeletal muscles you were born with. (Sorry!) You can make them grow larger so you and those you care to have notice your well-sculpted or gargantuan physique. 

If your aim is to GET LEANER then what you are in essence saying is that you need to REDUCE the amount of STORAGE FAT your body has inside your fat cells, the fat cells that have accumulated between your muscles, on top of your muscles, wrapped about your organs, etc...

Basically a person who diets seeks to:

REDUCE STORAGE FAT and to do that they must first deplete their glycogen stores

DEPLETE GLYCOGEN STORES by engaging in anaerobic exercise not aerobic exercise

BUILD BIGGER MUSCLES by increasing the workload or weight lifted by those particular muscles

.....to be continued.....more answers coming your way in my next post

Thx for reading,

-Bell Gia

WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT CALORIE RESTRICTIVE DIETS and THE SLOWING DOWN OF YOUR METABOLISM

WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT CALORIE RESTRICTIVE DIETS and THE SLOWING DOWN OF YOUR METABOLISM

Part 1 of 4

Most diets are doomed to fail on Day 1 because You and I (the dieters) start the diet with the wrong premise or outcome in mind. We say to ourselves, "I want to lose weight" but we never qualify that  statement (what kind of weight) and some of us never quantify our weight loss either (how much do I need to lose or how much am I willing to lose). 

An analogy I often use when initially consulting with a new weight-loss client is likening dieting to taking a trip. When you decide you want to take a trip, first you make up your mind WHERE you want to go (say California). Then you choose HOW you are going to going to get to your destination (car, plane, bus, or train). Thirdly, you decide WHAT you are going to do on your trip (sightseeing, amusement parks, famous restaurants, hiking, skiing). Lastly, you decide WHEN you are leaving and how long you will be away (committing to a diet start date AND committing to diet for a certain length of time: 14, 21, 30, or more days). 

So WHY are most diets doom to fail on Day 1? Most dieters set themselves up initially for failure because they start out their diets with the wrong premise or outcome in mind. Ninety-nine percent of us start a diet by saying, "I want to lose weight" but what kind of "weight" do you want to lose? Is it water weight, lean muscle, or FAT? You think that's an absurd question; don't you? It really is not. 

Starting a diet with the idea of losing weight without clearly defining the kind of weight you want to or need to lose DOESN'T allow the you "the dieter" to lose the kind of weight most of us desire to be rid of which is FAT. Without qualifying the type of weight we want to lose, you will probably 95% of the time be dieting the wrong way--like wanting to get to California the next day but choosing to take the train as your mode of transportation. It's not going to work!

Most dieters seek the help of a dietitian to lose weight because many health insurance companies will pay for you to consult or work with a dietitian (a dietitian will create a diet with a certain amount of calories 1,200 for women and 1,600 for men usually with a macronutrient ratio profile of 45-65% of calories coming from carbohydrates, 20-35% of total calories coming from fat, and 10-35% of total caloric intake coming from protein.) Many doctors recommend that their overweight and obese patients see a nutritionist in order to have the nutritionist prescribe certain medications, diet pills, or vitamins and minerals (only nutritionists can prescribe meds and vitamin/mineral supplementation legally.) 

Only the smallest percentage of those who are overweight and/or obese are given the correct referral to a WEIGHT-LOSS SPECIALIST, a certified professional who has obtained the education, work experience, and expertise in bringing about the loss of FAT weight loss in patients/clients. This is partially the reason why America has sixty-six percent of its population currently considered medically overweight (a BMI of >25 and <29.9), 34.9% of Americans are labeled medically obese (a BMI of >30/), and 1 out of every 20 Americans are medically described as extremely obese (a BMI of =40 or >40).

So, what kind of weight do you want to lose? The correct answer probably is FAT. You don't want to lose just water weight and chances are you do NOT want to lose your lean muscle mass, but the sad truth is YOU PROBABLY ARE GOING TO LOSE MOSTLY WATER WEIGHT, 25% of your LEAN MUSCLE MASS, and some fat (hopefully) before you have gotten frustrated and quit your diet altogether.

Most dieters are given calorie restrictive diets by their dietitians and nutritionists or they have put themselves on a diet based upon reducing total calories consumed. Clinical research shows that calorie restrictive diets bring about a weight loss of 25% from lean muscle mass and a 75% weight loss from fat. That means if you lose 10 pounds, 7.5 of that weight is from fat and 2.5 pounds is from a loss of lean muscle. Losing lean muscle causes a reduction in your metabolic rate due to the fact that you have LESS active muscle to burn or use up the energy you eat in the form of food (kilocalories). 

Do you realize what this means? This means that most people who lose weight via calorie restriction reduce the total amount of calories they can consume after they stop dieting. For example, if Kathy used to consume 1,800 calories before she started her calorie restriction diet and lost 20 pounds (5 pound of which was lean muscle), Kathy must reduced her total caloric intake by 50-65 calories PER DAY in order to maintain that 10-pound weight loss. If Kathy goes back to eating the way she used to, she will regain ALL HER WEIGHT BACK in about 54 days. And so will YOU if you lose weight using a Calorie Restrictive Diet.

Better news for dieters coming in future parts of this 4-part blog about LOSING FAT and not losing lean muscle mass or water weight.

Thx for reading,

-Bell Gia

Juice Incorporation When Diagnosed with Cancer

In the United States, men have a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer. For U.S. women the statistic is a little better. The risk is 1 in 3. Over one and a half million new cases of cancer were estimated by the American Cancer Society in 2015. A diagnosis that is oftentimes fatal, disfiguring, or disabling.

The cells belonging to the human body all have their specific jobs to do to make life happen. Normal, healthy cells do the job(s) they were created to do. Those cells also divide in an orderly way in order to make new cells for when old cells wear-out and need to be replaced. The worn-out or aged cells die and the new ones take their place.

Well, that's the way it's supposed to be. Cancer occurs when normal cell death known as apoptosis does not happen. Cancer is when the cells have uncontrolled growth. The cancer cells keep on growing and creating new cells, never dying. The cancerous cells crowd out normal cells. Soon, the cancer cells spread to other parts of the body. This is called metastasis.

In the United States there are basically three acceptable treatments for cancer: radiation (or laser), chemotherapy (drugs), and surgery (cutting.) Different kinds of cancers respond to treatment in different ways. Some types of cancer are best treated with surgery. Surgery can be used to take out the cancerous growth. Surgery is not used for all types of cancer. For example leukemia is treated with drugs.

Chemo or chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancerous cells or to slow their growth. Some chemo is administered intravenously and others use pills as the delivery vehicle. Chemotherapy drugs travel to nearly all parts of the body so chemo is oftentimes used for cancers that have metastasized. Chemo is sometimes used in conjunction with radiation.

Radiation of varying kinds and degrees are used to slow the growth of or to kill cancer cells. Proton beam radiation therapy uses a proton beam instead of x-rays because protons cause little damage to tissues as they pass through and release their energy at the cancer. Brachytherapy or internal radiation therapy is a form of cancer radiation that uses permanent radioactive pellets about the size of a grain of rice to eradicate the cancer (used currently for prostate cancer generally in the U.S.)

Your particular form of cancer treatment will be decided upon by you and your doctor and will be based upon what's best FOR YOU, dependent upon the type of cancer you have, and is also likely contingent upon the stage of your cancer (stage 1-4) as well.

If you awaiting a cancer diagnosis, have been diagnosed with cancer, are receiving cancer treatment, or have recently finished cancer therapy or surgery, the American Cancer Society has said the following on their Cancer.org website: "Nutrition is an important part of cancer treatment. Eating the right kinds of foods during and after treatment can help you feel better and stay stronger....Good nutrition is especially important if you have cancer because both the illness and its treatment can affect your appetite. Cancer and cancer treatments can also affect your body's ability to tolerate certain foods and use nutrients."

Getting more vegetables and fruits into your body when diagnosed with cancer, currently receiving cancer treatments, or having just finished cancer therapy can help the body obtain the energy and essential nutrients it needs and/or lacks to be cured of this dreaded disease and is an integral part of obtaining the "good nutrition" recommended by the American Cancer Society.

The juicing of organic vegetables and fruit in combination with eating healthy meals can provide someone going through cancer, the opportunity to incorporate the added vegetables and fruits advised by oncologists when the appetite is waning or when the eating of solid food is too difficult. Good nutrition is of vital importance. Vegetables and fruits are an integral part of good nutrition, therefore, consume more vegetables and fruits today by making your own fresh organic vegetable juice, ordering a nutrient-dense green juice at a local juice bar, or by purchasing a juice incorporation program through a business like DietBella.com or similar company.

To all of those fighting the Good Fight Against Cancer, never give up. The world needs You in it.

Thx for reading,
-Bell Gia

Calorie Restriction, Alternate-Day Fasting, and Dietary Restriction as it Relates to Juice Fasting

IS JUICE FASTING REALLY FASTING?

Part 2 or 2

Barriers to effective communication can distort or retard the message trying to be conveyed and could result in communication failure. In order for two people to have a successful 2-way conversation, about fasting and juicing or any subject, both parties must possess or acknowledge a mutual understanding of the words being used. Because I want you and I to have a provocative discussion about fasting and juice fasts, I'm going to cover a few medical definitions for: eat, detox, fasting, calorie restriction, alternate-day fasting, and dietary restriction (I will be as brief as possible.) 

Eat: to ingest food through the mouth

Detox: to remove a poisonous or harmful substance or to cause to stop using drugs or alcohol by providing special help and treatment.

Fasting is voluntarily not eating food for varying lengths of time. 

Calorie Restriction is the reduction of caloric intake typically by 20-40% of ad libitum consumption - while maintaining adequate nutrient intake.

Alternate-Day Fasting consists of two interchanging days; one day, subjects may consume food ad libitum (sometimes equaling twice the normal intake); on the other day, food is reduced to 25% of normal caloric intake or food is withheld altogether.

Dietary Restriction is the restriction of one or more components of intake (typically macronutrients) with minimal to no reduction in total caloric intake - is another alternative to calorie restriction. 

When you go into your local juice bar either with the premeditated thought of beginning their juice fast or juice detox program or are talked into it by the person behind the counter or their supposed "nutrition expert," what exactly are you going to be doing? Your answer: Juice fasting or juice detoxing. But are you really?

The drinking of a combination of the following: vegetable juice and/or fruit juice and/or juiced herbs, is essentially not eating solid food but instead getting your daily supply of nutrition from liquid extractions of said foods. You just aren't going to be consuming anything solid. According to the medical definition of the word fasting, you will be doing the opposite of fasting which is...ummm eating or the ingesting of food through the mouth.

Now that we have clearly established the fact that you will not be fasting. You are, in actuality, engaging in dietary restriction from solid food as well as abstaining from red meat, poultry, dairy, grains, fish, alcohol, and maybe caffeine if the juice bar you're going to isn't adding a caffeine-containing green tea or black tea in their juice mixture to heighten its anti-oxidant content or add a stimulant to make your liquid diet more palatable. So maybe the juice bar is using the wrong name for what they're selling you or perhaps your understanding (and theirs) of what a fast really is was incorrect (we all get it wrong sometimes.) The next question you and I must ask is: Are you detoxing using plant-based juices? 

For us to answer that question together, it is helpful to refer to the medical definition of the word detox from above. Detoxing is the removal of a poisonous or harmful substance. By definition, you will be removing from your diet those things that the juice bar (and supposedly YOU) considers to be poisonous or as harmful substances. Those foods are: red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, grains, alcohol, and maybe caffeine. So here's the million-dollar question: If you have agreed to do a detox from these agreed upon food poisons or harmful substances (by medical definition of the word detoxing,) why on Earth would you go back to eating those poisons or harmful substances after several days or even one day of juice detoxing? (I'm just asking!) 

So you aren't really detoxing either unless you agree that red meat, poultry, fish, grains, alcohol, and maybe caffeine are poisonous or harmful substances which you can not be saying if you do, in fact, go back to eating those foods upon conclusion of your juice ingestion experience. You and I have now arrived at the correct conclusion that what you will be actually doing when drinking these juices is temporarily removing or practicing dietary restriction from red meat, fish, poultry, dairy, grains, alcohol, and maybe caffeine. You are engaging in dietary restriction. 

We have established the fact that you aren't fasting. You aren't detoxing. You are actually engaging in dietary restriction (and what does the medical research say about the effectiveness of dietary restriction upon weight loss and long-term health outcomes? Nothing good. Do some research.)

So in order for us to conclude this conversation of ours, we need to ask a third question (and maybe a fourth): Are you partaking in a calorie-restricted diet? 

To be able to answer that query, you and I need to know the number of total calories in the juices you will be drinking each day. I can tell you right now that this usually presents a HUGE PROBLEM in most juice bars. The bottles of juice you buy DO NOT have a nutrition facts label on the back and there isn't an information pamphlet available for your review in order to find out how many calories you're consuming. You can try asking the salesperson or nutritional expert on staff, "How many calories are in each one of these juices I'm buying?" but good luck getting that concrete answer from the person selling you your juice or from the nutritional expert on hand. They do not know!!

I'm warning you to be prepared to hear an entire dissertation about how juicing isn't about calories. Juicing is all about flushing your system out of toxins or nourishing your body on the cellular level. Don't allow that person to evade your question. Don't allow her or him to change the subject or to redirect you. NO! What you are paying for IS about the total number of calories you are taking in and the number of grams of protein and carbohydrates (sugar) you are consuming if you are concerned with providing your body with the correct amount of protein to avoid muscle catabolism and if you are normally on a Paleo-type or Low-Carb Diet then you must know the total amount of calories and how many carbs your juice contains. Don't let anyone tell you that it isn't important to know how much protein, carbohydrates (sugar), and total calories are in the juices you are buying. This is important information. 

Ask him or her: EXACTLY or precisely what can her or him tell you about their juice aside from how it is made and perhaps the names of the vegetables, fruit, and/or herbs that are in it. Do they even know the ORAC Value of the juice so if nothing else, you can at least be satisfied that you are buying a product that will help raise your anti-oxidant levels for that day or for those days?

I want to leave you with this thought to work through with your brain: Are you buying a Calorie-Restricted Juice Diet, which medically is defined as the reduction of caloric intake typically by 20-40% while maintaining adequate nutrient intake, from this expensive juice bar when you purchase their juice program or are you simply buying a bunch of juices that will allow you to practice Dietary Restriction from red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, grains, and maybe caffeine for a day or for several days only to return to eating what the juice bar implies is food that is poisonous or are harmful substances?

Thx for reading,

-Bell

Is Juice Fasting Really Fasting?

IS JUICE FASTING REALLY FASTING?

1 of 2 Parts

I've gone over fasting in my last two previous posts. You haven't heard the last from me on the all-important subject. I will continue to blog about fasting because there's just so much fab research being done currently on the subject and much of that research is showing some spectacular results in in improving glucose levels, cholesterol, C-Reactive Protein, kidney and liver function, and lowering blood pressure in both animal and human studies. 

I'll also continue to shout out about fasting because I love it. Fasting works for me better than anything else I have ever tried (and I have tried almost everything-trust me) in keeping my weight exactly where I want it to be and in helping me to maintain both a high-percentage of lean muscle mass as well as a single digit body-fat percentage simultaneously. Who doesn't want to achieve all that a little quicker and a whole lot easier?! Fasting hasn't just worked for me. It has worked awesomely for 8 out of 10 of both my male and female clients.  It would probably work for you too if you knew more about it and made up your mind to give fasting a whirl. 

Today, in the first of two sequential blogs, I want to branch off a little from fasting and talk about juicing. I feel pretty compeled to blog about Juice Fasting and/or partaking in a Juice-Detox Program because so many of the juice bars you and I frequent are pushing their high-priced juice fasts and juice detox programs as if they were the second coming or something. It seems as if you can't be truly healthy if you haven't "detoxed" yet. 

Because so many people who buy their juice, over making it themselves at home, have told me that oftentimes they feel a touch bit guilty or pressured by the juice bar's staff to purchase a juice detox program or to lay down their cold-hard cash for a 1-, 3-, or 5-day juice fast, I feel motivated to open up a discussion about whether these costly juice fasts and juice detox programs are all they're cracked up to be. 

Whether you're trying to get more fruits and veggies into your diet, hoping to "up" your antioxidant levels, or attempting to lose weight, it seems like almost everyone has had their hands wrapped around a green-looking juice recently. And most of us are buying our fresh-pressed juice outside of the home because making our own juice is a time-consuming pain in the butt. 

Let's admit it, juicing at home is best because that way we know exactly what's going into our juice but is a lot of work. First, you've got to drive to the grocery store, walk to the produce section which is normally in the very back of the store (this forces you to buy other items you hadn't intended to purchase because of impulsivity), vacillate for 20 minutes trying to decide what in the heck to juice (kale or swiss chard...apples or carrots...celery or no celery) buy the veg and fruit you guessed would be the best for you to extract its juices from, pay for it, and then drive back home only to have to carry all those haevy vegetable & fruit-filled bags into the house. 

If all that effort wasn't time consuming enough, you then had to unpack all the juicing material, dump the produce into the sink and wash the snot out of all of it with a pricey biodegradable, food-grade veggie wash to remove any pesticide drift (chemicals from nearby conventional plants due to the fact that many organic and conventional produce companies use the same facilities to process their products.) There is also oftentimes a food-preserving wax coating the outside skin of bell peppers, cucumbers, apples, lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, cantaloupes, eggplant, and avocados to protect them from bruising or damage, to prevent mold, and to improve their overall appearance. The main reason you should wash or scrub your produce is to get rid of any germs and bacterial contamination like E. coli that could be on their outside skin which could make you very sick if you didn't wash it off. After washing the fruits and veggies or peeling off its skin if the produce was conventional, then, chances are, you had to cut the plant matter into small enough pieces in order for them to fit into your particular brand of juicer. 

You remember your juicer; don't you? You know the one that you shoved under the counter or placed high up on some shelf somewhere gathering about a half inch of dust on top since the last felt compelled to use it--which was probably not since the first week you bought it because juicing, as you learned, is a bookoo of hard work just to get a small nutrient-dense filled glass. And let me not fail to mention the huge clean-up job that must be done after you've juiced. 

All of this time, hard work, and effort costed you money. With the greatest of intentions, you realized, and you certainly aren't alone, it sure is a lot easier and cost effective just to drive over to your local juice bar, order a juice, and pay $10-15. This takes me to the blog topic at hand--Is Juice Fasting Really Fasting? 

I will start Part 2 of this particular blog topic in my next post. 

Thanks for reading,

-Bell