Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts

Saturday, December 26, 2015

My family has asthma and we find relief, naturally

Hate asthma?  Hate the drugs, too?  You might wanna read on.
Asthma can be a terrible ailment, one that is quite common here in the Philippines; so common that everyone in my 6-member household has it, sparing only me and my middle child, Mesoo.  After my very athletic youngest child recently got so sick from asthma that it reduced him to near-uselessness during a very prestigious tournament, not to mention that he had to take steroids to even breathe properly, I decided that enough is enough and sought out a way to help him (and the rest of the family).  Thing is, I am not a fan of asthma drugs (and you shouldn’t be either), so I wanted to find out how my asthmatic relatives can find relief, naturally.

One day, as I was getting stocks for the grass-fed milk that I sell, I noticed a sign of a company called Greenpastures, and, on a whim, I decided to check it out.  Boy am I glad I did, because through their product, GoProtect, I was finally able to find what I’ve been looking for: a natural weapon against asthma (and other respiratory ailments).

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Are you feeding your family sickly chickens? Feed them the best!

I live in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, and the neighboring towns are mostly farming communities that raise all sorts of crops and animals.  In regards to chicken, I heard people say that the ones who raise chicken actually don’t eat them.  I don’t know if it was said jokingly, but I have a feeling it was serious.

How come?  Well, I suspect it’s because the ones who raise chickens know first-hand of all the junk that is being fed to these poor birds.  I’ve done some research on the internet, and if what I saw there is the practice over here, then indeed, we should stop eating chickens too.

That is, stop eating chickens raised the conventional way.  What if you can enjoy delicious, very healthy chickens raised naturally…and we reap the great health benefits of such?  The brand that I offer to you, La Granja pastured chickens is just that.  Better yet, if you live in uptown Cagayan de Oro City, you can get these superior meats straight to your doorstep.  

Are you feeding your family sickly chickens?  Feed them the best!  But first let’s talk about the chickens you’ve been eating all along.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Sleep deprivation: it’s hazardous to your health.

As I am writing this, I am home on sick leave.  I see great wrong in this, because I take great lengths to keep myself healthy.  I eat right, exercise (which hasn’t happened much lately because of the darn rain), and take supplements.  But why am I sick nonetheless?  There’s an easy answer to that: I have been violating another essential habit for good health.

I have been abusing my body in terms of sleep, or the lack of it being more accurate.  Sleep deprivation: it’s hazardous to your health.  In fact, the lack of sleep is one of the most epidemic health hazards today.  Even if you do everything else right, you will still be a wreck if you do not allow your body to rest.  It’s that simple…and this blog article will talk about that.

For a much better explanation on why we need sleep (or what is the effect of sleeplessness on the body) and how to sleep better, I suggest you visit this article here.  The article just nails it, and it made me realize how foolish I was (or still am, as I’m now paying for my sins) for thinking that skimping on sleep is no big deal.  It is a big deal, and you’d be wise to learn from my mistake.

In a nutshell, here are just a few of the hazards that sleep deprivation can bring to your body:

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Are you giving your family good milk? Find out!

Right below is an infographic from www.weedemandreap.com on the GOOD-BETTER-BEST principle when it comes to buying food.  It is an excellent resource on how we should pick the foods that we give our families.  Since this blog entry would focus on dairy, I made a red box around the Dairy portion.

Are you giving your family good milk?  Find out, as the best milk to drink for optimum health is…

Click for larger picture

Here's a little close up of "bad" and "best" of the dairy category, as, again, this is the article's focus.



So I bet you have some questions, such as:
  • What's CAFO milk?  Is that what my kids are drinking?
  • Pasteurized milk is the only way to safely drink milk, right?  You should kill all the bacteria.
  • Low Fat/Skim milk considered “bad” when it’s supposed to be good for you?
  • Raw milk?  Really?  Why does milk have to be raw to be considered “better” or “best”?
  • Is it possible to get the “BEST CATEGORY” of milk in Cagayan de Oro City?  

I’d be happy to answer these questions for you.  Here we go…

Saturday, July 13, 2013

My new self-improvement project: Improving my eyesight, naturally

People who know me personally would attest that I’m often into self-improvement endeavors.  Well, allow me to introduce to you my new self-improvement project: improving my eyesight naturally.  Yep, I endeavor to bring my vision back to 20-20…and in this blog entry, I’d like to show you how I do so.

This new project of mine came out because I lost my glasses.  I had one of the sides hooked onto my shirt as I walked in the mall, and I guess it fell off without my knowing and now here I am, blind as a bat (well, not really, but I’m pretty strongly nearsighted).  Instead of spending for a new pair, I decided to try to find out if I can, indeed, have better eyesight without glasses.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Natural sugarcane juice – truly a sweet alternative to unhealthy drinks

One of the most frustrating things that parents have to deal with when it comes to nutrition is that even though we can be vigilant in providing high-quality, nutritious food at home, when our kids are away, the outside world has very few wholesome choices to choose from.

Be it malls, fast-food joints, and school canteens (this is the most frustrating one, because we leave our kids in this place 5 days a week with a whole lotta trust), we really can’t avoid junk food, fatty food, a huge lack of green stuff, and sugary drinks.

So what are you gonna do, homeschool your kids and keep them in the house 24/7 under lock and key?  (No offense to homeschoolers.  I think home schooling is great.)

Well, when it comes to unhealthy, artificially-flavored sugary drinks, a friend and neighbor of mine proposes a solution that I think schools, school canteen owners, and small entrepreneurs should take note of: Natural sugarcane juice – truly a sweet alternative to unhealthy drinks.

He (my neighbor) invited us to try some of the stuff out (we sometimes call it tubo juice, tubo being the Filipino word for sugar cane), and my kiddos and I love the stuff immensely!  I must’ve imbibed a gallon worth—without fear of health consequences, which I will explain later.

Check out the video below, which I took when my kids tried out the tubo juice. (There are different varieties of the machines.  This is one of the bigger ones, but there’s a tabletop version too.)


Now, if you want one of these bad boys so that you can set up some health-promoting drinks in your establishment for a change (school canteen owners, please consider this), then contact me by email at lessonsofadad@gmail.com.

I shall now use the rest of the blog entry to discuss to you some of the great health benefits of sugarcane juice (info from the flyer).  Even though unhealthy table sugar comes from the same thing, you’ll be very surprised that this (far less processed) product has wellness written all over it!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

UPTOWN COW delivers best quality fresh milk to uptown CDO residents

Do you want the freshest milk you can taste delivered straight to your doorstep?  Are you one of those who wants a healthier milk alternative than what is available in the supermarkets?

If you live in the uptown subdivisions of Cagayan de Oro (Xavier Estates, Pueblo de Oro, etc.)  then you’re in luck.  UPTOWN COW now delivers fresh milk to uptown CDO residents!


As you would surmise from the flyer, the milk that UPTOWN COW would distribute will give CDO uptown homeowners a product that is far superior than what is offered in supermarkets.  It is fresher (the cows are milked just one day before delivery); the cows are raised on a pasture instead of commercially raised (not cramped and disease-laden, virtually eliminating the need for the cows to take antibiotics, etc.); the choco milk has less sugar than what you get elsewhere; and there’s a raw milk option to increase the health benefits even more.

Simply put, if you buy milk from commercially raised cows (like from the big companies), where they live cramped, diseased-laden lives, raised on commercial feeds instead of grass, then you may run the risk of getting a whole lot of chemicals in your milk (see Who Knew this Cocktail of up to 20 Chemicals Was in Your Glass of Milk?)

It’s far better to get your milk from pasture-raised cows like the source of UPTOWN COW’s milk, a dairy farm located in nearby Alae.  But then, as the flyer also advertises, I’d like you to try the raw milk option.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Making health and fitness a top priority in 2013

It is quite predictable that among the top of every New Year’s Resolution list that we all come up with is the desire to be healthy and/or lose weight.  Evidence of this is that the highest sales on exercise equipment come around this time of year.

2012 was a good year for me in this area.  Not perfect, but good…and allow me to share with you my tips on how to be live a healthy life on a budget.

It’s a funny thing that many of the resolutions regarding health or weight loss are among the first resolutions that are broken.  Ok, it’s not a funny thing, it’s more of a sad thing, really.   As I reflect why this is so, I’ve come to the conclusion that:

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The White Hat and Bettina open in CdeO’s Centrio mall

If you know me personally, you’d know that I’m quite the health nut, and one of my greatest frustrations when going out is finding a snack that would pass my standards when it comes to being both healthy and delicious.  Furthermore, I have 3 kids and a wife, all who won’t mind the bad stuff unless I give them a better alternative (and, truth be told, I have my own lapses as well).

Well, last Sunday saw the opening of a rare find, indeed: a place that I actually can recommend to those who have similar viewpoints as I do; a place where I can take my family and feel good that they’re snacking on wholesome food.

That place is Cagayan de Oro’s first branch of The White Hat, a frozen yogurt place, located on the first floor of the new Ayala Centrio mall.  

If you’re thinking, “Another frozen yogurt place, big deal!” then allow me to correct you.

That's why it's so good!
Most places of this type use the cheap powdered stuff, which lowers cost but makes poor quality yogurt.  The White Hat uses only real dairy.  Yup, real milk turned into real yogurt….and that makes all the difference.

All you need to do is taste it.  It is creamier, yummier, and healthier.  Real dairy, from real Philippine cows, makes for a really good yogurt experience!   Why is real yogurt so good for you?  Well, all the nutritious food and supplements you ingest mean nothing if you don’t have a healthy stomach to digest it with.  Your stomach needs beneficial bacteria, and real yogurt has lots of it.  You can also check out this article on the many health benefits of yogurt.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Surprise! Coffee can actually be very good for you.

I used to demonize coffee, and now I am thinking that my judgment of the popular drink was unfair.  Indeed, drinking coffee can be good for you.  Who knew?

You see, I am quite the health freak (an unfair tag, there’s nothing freaky about being healthy), especially during my younger days.  Back then, I’d be pretty vocal about coffee being a no-no as it was addictive and that there’s nothing beneficial about it.

While I still think that you should be wary of imbibing substances that could cause addiction, I have learned, through this awesome article, that coffee is a chock full of benefits that are now too numerous and too solid to ignore.  I’m now not only convinced that drinking coffee (in moderation) is not bad for you, but not drinking it could actually cause you to miss out on some great benefits.  Wow, that’s a big step in the opposite direction.

There are some guidelines you need to follow to get the benefits of coffee, but before I say those, I’d like to give you a quick list on what coffee does for our benefit, according to the article.

Drinking coffee:

Friday, July 29, 2011

No time to excercise? Here’s a surprising way to produce growth hormone, and lose fat and increase muscle in the process

I haven’t gone to the gym in years.  With a growing family and a full time job, I just really didn’t have the time nor the money.  But lately, whenever I come across people who I haven’t seen in quite a while, just about all of them give me the same response:  “Have you been working out lately?  You’ve gotten bigger/fitter.” 

It puzzled me a bit that I get that kind of a response.  But then, a light bulb lit, and I suddenly remember a series of articles that I read in one of my favorite health and wellness sites.  These articles told of a surprising way to produce growth hormone, and when you do this, fat loss and increased muscle mass is the result. The method the article focused on is gold, especially to those of us who have no time to exercise.


Before what I tell you what the articles contained, I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing every morning:  I walk my dog.  More accurately, Shrek, a really big and active fur ball, runs me…to the ground.  

The usual routine every morning is that we would burst out our front gate with both of us running at full sprint.  Not walking.  Not jogging.  Full sprint.  We’d keep this up for about several seconds and about half the street’s length.  He’d then stop and find a good place or two to sniff around and do his business, then after several seconds of that, we’d break out into a sprint once again to the next spot.  So my exercise and dog walking program consists of several periods of intense activity followed by rest.  In case you’re wondering, the subdivision we live in has lots of vacant lots, so there wouldn’t be any angry neighbors with poop filled lawns.

What does this have to do with producing growth hormone?  Well, the articles talk about high intensity interval training, which is just like what I described: periods of intense activitiy, the most you can do before getting out of breath, then periods of rest.  The site’s name for their particular program is Peak 8, meaning eight intervals of this routine, which in turn is based on the author’s interview and collaboration with fitness author Phil Campbell, who wrote Ready, Set, GO!

This practice will give you one heck of a workout for far less time you’d spend jogging or doing other cardio, which is awesome for guys like me who don’t have a lot of free time juggling our responsibilities of being dads, husbands, and bringing home the bacon.

Better yet, this kind of high intensity interval training naturally increases your body’s production of growth hormone.  The website I found the info from says that high intensity training engages the super-fast muscle fibers, which are the main ones responsible for the growth hormone production.  This, in turn decreases body fat, improves your muscle tone, and helps you reach your fitness goals much faster, among many other benefits.

So, I guess walking my dog has great payoffs.  I mean, who wouldn’t want, in your effort to have a poop-free lawn, increased growth hormone production, leading to less fat and increased muscle mass?  Plus, you get it done in less time to boot.  Now that people are noticing, maybe this is my cue to start hitting the weights again, after oh so long.   

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Grilling food isn’t good for you, unless…

One thing I find important for parents, especially dads, is health and wellness.  Firstly, since you have so much influence over your kids, you being a good example in this area will be a great start on the road to building happy healthy kids, then teens, then adults, themselves.  Second, well, I want the best for my kids, and poor health isn’t the best.  Third, I’d love to run circles around my grand kids one day.  That would be the coolest.  I’d love to live to see my great grand kids, too. 

And what a delicious way to start Lessons of A Dad’s articles on health with a delicious topic: the good ‘ol barbecue.  MmmmMmmm!

One thing that Filipinos and Americans have in common is that we love to grill our food.  Filipino cuisine has mastered the art of pork barbeque and chicken barbeque on a stick.  Americans, especially now that it’s summer on their shores and the 4th of July is coming up, love grilling up a steak and a burger…and who doesn’t love those?

I’ll tell you who doesn’t love those grilled foods: nutritionists and health conscious people.  Well, there’s a good reason why they don’t.  You have the double whammy of: cooking food in high temperatures and the smoke that makes that delicious…uh, smoky flavor.  Together, they put into your food some really bad guys named Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs).  I won’t go into what these guys do to you, but let’s just say they very significantly increase your risk of cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.

But can you have your health and still have that delicious grilled flavor too?  I believe you can.  I’ve looked around some of my favorite health resources and came up with eight healthy grilling tips for you.

1. This one starts long before you fire up your coals: make sure you marinate your meat.  Marinating your meat in alcoholic beverages such as beer or wine for six hours can reduce the HCAs by 90 percent (wow, there IS a healthy use for alcohol after all).  Using high antioxidant ingredients in your marinade, like fresh herbs, garlic, and other spices will also greatly reduce the HCAs and AGEs.  The juice of citrus fruits like lemon juice will tremendously reduce these bad guys as well.

So, making a marinade that contains all three will be a sure winner, like this one.  You can also find several recipes for marinades in The Best Little Marinades Cookbook (Best Little Cookbooks)

2.  Choose lean meats or trim the fat off your meat.  The fat drips into the coals, increasing the smoke around your meat, which increases the amount of PAHs too.

3.  Make sure your grill is clean.  This may seem obvious, but I’ve seen some people fire up their grill with the grate still having pieces of burnt meat on it.  Not nice.

4.  Cook your food with indirect heat, such as a rack or use a cedar plank.  The higher the temperature, the more HCAs form.

5.  Flipping your meat often also reduces the HCAs. 

6.  The meat you use is also very important.  Use the highest quality organic and grass-fed meats you can find.  The worst will be processed meat like hot dogs. 

7.  Mixing your meat for burger patties with high antioxidant ingredients like diced herbs or berries not only add flavor, but lower the formation of HCAs as well.

8.  Don’t overcook food, and if your cooking results in black and charred parts, remove them.

So go fire up the barbeque, and make things a lot healthier for you and your guests by following these eight tips.  Of course, since grilling is not the healthiest way to cook, you don’t want to grill too often.  Also, you’d want to have healthy sidings as well, like a great garden salad, to go with it.

Happy grilling!

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