Category: Health and Fitness

Autoimmune issues, Diet, Fitness, Health and Fitness, Healthy Eating, NonGMO, wellness

GMO Corn – Are you eating it?

mardeecalkins

After watching the very informative film, Genetic Roulette (you can stream this on Amazon for $3.99), I realized that most gluten-free people have been making a grave mistake with our gluten free diets.

For ten years, corn has been my carb-of-choice because it was “safe” for me. Tex-mex restaurants were my go-to for dining out, but guess what? Unless it’s an organic Tex-mex restaurant, we’re adding to the health problem that’s forced us to be gluten free in the first place.

Corn is the most compromised grain when it comes to GMO’s. Everything I’ve read and watched has convinced me that my auto-immune disease is a result of the chemical companies and what they’re doing to our grains.  “Leaky gut” syndrome is a result of the chemicals (BT toxin) on corn that are designed to explode the stomach of the bugs that get on the corn. Problem: those same chemicals have worked great on our small intestine, breaking down the lining of the small intestine, allowing our food to leak into our bloodstream and then confusing the immune system’s function of determining what is an actual virus or bacteria and what is simply our food that has not been digested correctly. Our small intestine is ultimately our immune system and once it’s comprised, it takes daily focus to repair it.

Protect your kids, save yourself and learn more about the chemicals that are in some of our most common foods and what they are doing to your body. The increasing cancer, diabetes, autism and heart disease rates are not a coincidence with our changing food supply. Our health issues rising correlate almost exactly with the introduction of chemicals into our food supply. Keep in mind that most of the chemicals, antibiotics and hormones in American food are not allowed in other countries. GMO’s are more dangerous than anyone wants us to know. Start healing your immune system today by not buying anything except Non-GMO foods. Every time we purchase a GMO product, we support the chemical corps that have infested our food with their chemicals.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being a science experiment. Check this out: http://www.nongmoproject.org

Autoimmune issues, Diet, Health and Fitness, Pilates, Spinning, Yoga

Happy Spring! Are you eating for the season?

mardeecalkins

There’s so much truth and value in eating the foods that are naturally available to us within each season. The great news in Spring and Summer is that there is so much fresh produce available.

Here’s a brief reminder of all the great nutrients and vitamins that come in the form of tasty fruits and veggies for Spring:

Apricots; mangoes; rhubarb; strawberries and cherries just to name a few in the fruit section!

Artichokes; asparagus; mustard greens; spinach; carrots; chives; and water cress just to name a few in the veggie area.

Look for organic produce that is not coming across the country to your grocery store or just go to the local farmer’s markets. It reduces the footprint on the Earth (less gas and pollution to get our food to us) to buy local and it’s so much better for your body! Happy Spring!!!

Diet, Health and Fitness

Stop Dieting and Start Eating to Lose Weight

mardeecalkins

It’s natural to feel like we should cut back on our calories if we want to shed some pounds, but the reality is, it’s the quickest way to get your body to store fat.

Why is that? Our bodies recognize distress signals fast, and hunger is a very important one. It’s genetic. In times of hunting and gathering, food wasn’t so readily available, so the body knew to store food as fat for times of famine.

When you keep your body from having food at reasonable intervals, it triggers the body to store future calories as fat. It’s easy to avoid this, simply eat every three to four hours. Most importantly, eat whole foods: fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, eggs and nothing processed.

Eating whole foods that are rich in all the nutrients and minerals your body needs keeps you from craving the foods that you don’t need. Our bodies don’t crave food when we support our system nutritionally. Eating sugar makes you crave sugar. Eating carbs makes you crave carbs. Why? Because your body is incredibly intuitive and it understands that it did not get what it was looking for with those last few calories you gave it, so it triggers hunger because it needs more. More calories? No, more nutrition.

So give your body what it needs and do it at regular intervals. Never go more than four hours without eating something healthy and full of vitamins and nutrients. Have an apple or a handful of nuts, keep it simple and notice how you feel. As you stabilize your blood sugar levels, your energy levels will increase, your cravings will diminish and those extra pounds you’re not so fond of will fall right off.

Send me your thoughts and ideas on how to improve your health, lose weight and look better. It’s never too late and it’s almost always simple.