Alarming Facts about the Food We Eat

It’s getting harder and harder to stay healthy in our increasingly toxic world. We’re exposed to more chemicals, pesticides and pollutants than ever before in history; they seep into the water we drink, pollute the food we eat and permeate the air we breathe.

Recently, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group released a disturbing study after analyzing the blood of newborn babies across the United States. In addition to discovering 287 chemicals and other toxins in their blood, they also found 76 chemicals that damage cells in humans and animals; 94 that are toxic to the brain and nervous system; and 79 that are toxic to a developing fetus.

What’s causing this?
Alarmingly, over-farming is wiping out the nutrients in your vegetables and fruits. Fertilizers intended to sterilize the soil have robbed it of mineral content. Since the soil is depleted, so are the foods grown in the soil, and so are we.

Take a look at this important study by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) showing the loss of vitamins and minerals infruits and vegetables since 1975.

• Apples: Vitamin A is down 41%
• Sweet peppers: Vitamin C is down 31%
• Watercress: Iron is down 88%
• Broccoli: Calcium and vitamin A are down 50%
• Cauliflower: Vitamin C is down 45%; vitamin B1 is down 48%; and vitamin B2 is down 47%
• Collards greens: Magnesium is down 85%

So, how do you get the nutrients your body needs to safeguard your health?

Health professionals have signified certain supergreens and superfruits that infuse the body with phytonutrients to protect your health. Phytonutrients enhance your body’s natural detoxification pathways, enabling health and longevity. You might have heard of spirulina, chlorella and wheat grass, for example, which are supergreens. Mangosteen, Star Fruit and Acai Berry are powerhouses of nutrition, too—which is why they’re called superfruits. These superfoods can be your essential line of defense against environmental toxicity.

As the World Leader in Nutritional Cleansing, Cellular Replenishing, and Youthful Aging™, Isagenix® offers two revolutionary superfood products to boost your body’s ability to clear toxins and replenish with optimal nutrition. Isagenix Greens!™ and IsaFruits® contain the healthiest supergreens and superfruits on the planet. Our unique cold processing technique, which features natural spray drying and concentration, preserves the phytonutrients in these superfoods.

But, those are only just a few of the products available. And, I am excited to say my dietician approved my continuing to use all of the Isagenix products I enjoy!

If you would like more information contact me at 614-477-1794 or visit my website at www.aalthoff.isagenix.com and watch the "Are You Toxic" video.

To Your Health!!

Balance is the Key for Optimal Nutrition

As we get into the third and fourth months of the New Year, we see all those New Year’s Resolutions to get healthy and lose weight start to wane.

We all know that the average American gains seven pounds from Thanksgiving through New Years. We’ve even hopelessly coined the phrase, “The Seasonal Seven”. So we make a resolution January 1 to take off the weight, but most of us don’t keep it.

What is it that keeps us on this vicious cycle of gaining and losing? This perpetual existence of over indulging and then severely inhibiting our lifestyles is more than unhealthy; it's damaging. Why can’t the resolution stick and be a permanent change of health as opposed to an everlasting, never-ending restriction of food and choices, which consistently are sabotaged by the beginning of February?

In this fast paced world with smart phones and iPads and easy access to always being connected, we want the quick fix. We are the nation of the quick fix and the fast fix. So if something doesn’t give us that instant gratification the idea and the method are abandoned and off we go to bigger and better things… hopefully.

It’s not that we are always making bad choices, it’s that the choices we have are so limited. Our foods have become nutritionally bankrupt.

There are two main problems with food today and we must examine the changes in our food consumption in terms of type and quality since the 1950s:

· Some food is not really helping our body and may be harming us (Supersize it, residual toxins).

· Food no longer includes all the essential nutrients our bodies need to function correctly.

In essence we need to rebalance our bodies nutritionally. We need to remove the toxins and give our bodies a fresh start while flooding them with the organic essentials to help balance our pH and restore homeostasis. When our bodies are balanced internally and they can function the way they were meant to function the goals we have for health will more rapidly come to fruition. And we can all benefit from a constant, consistent intake of balanced nutrition rather than the rollercoaster of indulgence versus restriction. And what are the results of a truly balanced, optimal nutrition?

• Energy Boosts

• Consistent weight loss over time

• Reduced cravings for unhealthy foods

• Improved muscle tone

• Balanced digestion

• Better sleep

• Better mood

Aim for balance in your life in all aspects – Isagenix can help. Moderation and variety are the keys. And remember this is not a diet. This is optimal nutrition to be healthy for life.

To learn more about my Nutritional Rebalancing Program with Isagenix, please email ANGELA at adshep2002@yahoo.com for her personal username and password and the best place to review the program. 10 minutes of your time is worth a lifetime of abundant health and balance.

Being a Successful Stat-at-Home Mom

http://aalthoff.isagenix.com/us/en/isavideos_enterprisingwomen.dhtml

Why Vitamins & Minerals Are SO IMPORTANT

After you read this, take a look at what you consume and determine if you feel you get enough vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat. Could your health & wellness be improved if you consumed or supplemented more?

Source: The Health Awareness Foundation

Where do vitamins/minerals come from?

VITAMINS are natural substances found in living things such as plants. Vitamins must be obtained in the body from foods or supplements, as the body cannot usually produce them

MINERALS are found in plants. Plants get their minerals from the soil – soil gets their minerals from water washing over rocks. For vitamins to do their job, they require minerals. Minerals must also be obtained from food or supplements.

ANTIOXIDANTS are specific vitamins or minerals that protect body cells from the damaging effects of Free Radicals. Free radicals come from or are caused by smoking, sunlight, stress, exercise, etc., and are one of the primary causes of premature aging, sickness and disease.

How do vitamins/minerals get in the body?

Vitamins and minerals get into your body when you eat plants such as fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and spices or when you take a vitamin/mineral supplement. You can also get some vitamins and minerals into your body by eating meat as most animals eat plant food.

SUPPLEMENTS are vitamins and minerals that have been extracted from a plant or created in a laboratory and put into a form that can be ingested and used by the body.

There are effective supplements, ineffective supplements and hazardous supplements.

Uneducated consumers are at risk from two sides:

1. Consumer knows they should supplement but doesn’t know how to select an effective supplement, therefore wastes their money, time and health.
2. Consumer is uninformed (or given bad advice) on the need to supplement and sacrifices their health.

Where do vitamins/minerals go in the body?

Vitamins and minerals go from your stomach to your intestines. They then go through a very complex allocation system whereby the body distributes certain vitamins and minerals to parts of your body based on its own priority system.

If a nutrient is needed in a certain organ that it (the body) deems more important, it will take the nutrient from a less important organ, and allocate it to a more important organ. Sort of a “rob Peter to pay Paul” action. That’s why it is critical to maintain proper vitamin & mineral levels.

Vitamins and minerals in your body should not be viewed as independent substances, but rather as a cooperative network of nutrients working together. If one nutrient is missing, it throws the entire network of nutrients out of balance.

“A deficiency of a vitamin or mineral WILL cause a body part to malfunction and eventually break down – and, like dominos, other body parts will follow.” James F. Balch, M.D. Prescription of Nutritional Healing.

How do vitamins/minerals leave the body?

Vitamins and minerals are “used” by the body. As they perform their function, they often use themselves up in the process, which is the case with most of the critical disease fighting antioxidants.

Even thinking uses vitamins and minerals. Exercise and stress use a lot of vitamins and minerals; the use of diuretics (substances that increase the discharge of urine) such as drugs, alcohol, coffee, tea and sodas – washes vitamins and minerals out of the body creating deficiencies – this can create a major health problem!

Tobacco and alcohol can also inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals, or accelerate the loss of them.

YOUR HEALTH, YOUR INTELLIGENCE, YOUR ENERGY AND YOUR APPERANCE ARE DEPENDENT ON YOU REPLENISHING YOUR VITAMINS AND MINERALS SEVERAL TIMES PER DAY.

What do Vitamins and Minerals do for you?

Build Up Your Immune System

Illness and disease are not “caught.” One doesn’t catch cancer, heart disease or a cold. You create these ailments with deficiencies based on what you eat or don’t eat.

Increase Your Energy Level

Vitamins & minerals are involved in the release of energy from digested foods. Strong, lasting energy levels are good indicators of a healthy vitamin and mineral intake.

Enhance Your Appearance

Skin clearness, tone, and elasticity; hair strength, thickness and color; fingernail strength, color and texture all depend on vitamins and minerals. Some people look 50 years old at 30. Some look 30 at 50.

Everyone will die, but how you look and feel for the last 20-50 years depends on your lifestyle and vitamin & mineral intake throughout your entire life.

For more information on how to properly supplement your body in obtaining an adequate amount of vitamins and minerals, contact me at 614.477.1794 or visit www.aalthoff.isagenix.com