You betcha! But I am talking about the right kinds of fats such as the amazing Omegas. Omega 3’s in particular which are found in cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, cod and and oils made from flax and hemp seeds. Omega 3 fats raise your metabolism, help flush water from your kidneys, and lower your triglyceride levels. These fatty acids also increase the activity of carnitine to help your body burn fat better. (The Fat Flush Plan, Ann Louise Gittleman). Not only does this liquid gold burn fat but it also gives a feeling of fullness, satisfaction and more energy! And most of us do not get enough essential fatty acids from foods hence the increase in sales of these important fats among health conscious people.

Essential fatty acids are necessary for your body’s biochemical processes and without them your body senses a famine and begins to convert more carbohydrates into fat, turning it into a fat-producing machine (fatsforhealth.com).

Eating processed foods that contain hydrogenated trans-fats to further shelf life, consuming margarine, eating a diet high in sugar and alcohol all interfere with proper absorption of essential fatty acids, particularly the Omega 3’s.

Deficiencies in essential fatty acids not only help us burn fat but also aid in the following conditions:

• Memory loss
• High blood pressure
• Elevated triglycerides
• Dementia
• Chronic inflammatory conditions such as arthritis
• Cardiovascular disease
• Insulin resistance (syndrome X) leading to type 2 diabetes
• Itchy, dry skin and skin disorders such as eczema
• Hormone imbalances
• Behavior problems such as ADD, ADHD, bi-polar and depressive disorders
• Cardiovascular disease
• Fibromyalgia

It is important to maintain an appropriate balance of omega-3 and omega-6 (another essential fatty acid) in the diet, as these two substances work together to promote health. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and most omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. An inappropriate balance of these essential fatty acids contributes to the development of disease while a proper balance helps maintain and improve health. A healthy diet should consist of roughly 2 – 4 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. The typical American diet tends to contain 14 – 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, and many researchers believe this imbalance is a significant factor in the rising rate of inflammatory disorders in the United States.

So if you want to drop those extra unwanted pounds and enjoy a disease-free existence filled with vitality, cut those empty carbs down (sugar, white flour, white rice, etc.), reduce your intake of saturated fats (butter, fatty meats), avoid processed foods which contain hydrogenated fats and add some of these healthy fats back into your diet!

‘The road to better health will not be found through more drugs, doctors, and hospitals. Instead, it will be discovered through better nutrition and changes in lifestyle.’

(William G. Crook, M.D., author of the Yeast Connection)

Gas, bloating, intermittent lower abdominal pain . . . some days you can barely make it to the washroom with explosive diarrhea! Other days you are hard pressed to have a bowel movement – no pun intended! You have had every iscopy and oscopy known to medical science and all tests are negative. The diagnosis: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) also commonly known as a spastic colon.

Why are the tests negative? Because irritable bowel syndrome is a functional disorder with no evidence of structural damage to the intestinal tract. One thing is sure something is irritating the intestine and the long term solution is not to treat and ultimately mask the symptoms with an array of medications. There are many possible causes and equally as many possible solutions.

Masked Food Sensitivities

From my many years of experience with patients, I have learned that for any given individual just about any food can cause just about any symptom. For those who have never experienced this very elusive phenomenon, it is a difficult concept to grasp – especially when the culprits are foods such as dairy products or wheat. After all, dairy products are considered to be nature’s perfect food and wheat is the staff of life! For those able to tolerate them, they are, indeed, healthy choices. However, for increasing numbers of people, these foods create chronic, ongoing symptoms that range from mild to debilitating, an irritable bowel being only one of them. Other foods that are common culprits are sugar, corn, yeast, stimulants such as caffeine, artificial sweeteners and food additives.

Bacterial, Fungal, Viral, and Parasitic Infection

High sugar diets and the common practice of taking oral broad spectrum antibiotics at the first sign of a sore throat, sniffle or earache have created severe disturbances in the bacterial microflora of the bowel, encouraging overgrowth of pathogens such as Candida Albicans, amoebas, and other parasites, resulting in what is commonly referred to as a leaky gut. Restoring bowel integrity by supplementing lactobacillus acidophilus, herbal and/or homeopathic remedies that act as antifungals and antiparasitics in more serious cases medications to eradicate the pathogens – and adding adequate amounts of fiber can go a long way in correcting irritable bowel syndrome. Aloe vera, vitamins, minerals and specific amino acids can help to repair the damage. Essential fatty acids such as flaxseed oil also helps to heal.

Enzyme Deficiency and/or Inadequate Stomach Acidity

In cases where bowel dysbiosis occurs repeatedly, despite various protocols that normally would reestablish the bowel with good bacteria, a look at digestive enzymes and/or hydrochloric acid supplementation would be in order. Swedish bitters are a great way of stimulating gastric juices into action.

Emotional Stress

Need I say more? Taking steps to analyze and reduce stress in your life is critical.

How can you identify the cause(s) of IBS?

Eliminating the foods you most commonly eat for a two week period is one sure way of determining food sensitivities. It is very important to completely eliminate an entire food group – so for instance, if milk is suspect, you must also eliminate cheese, yogurt, casein, whey, and anything else that contains dairy products. Most complementary healthcare practitioners versed in the area of environmental sensitivities would be able to assist you with such a diet and remember, that for such a brief period of time, developing nutritional deficiencies is very unlikely. Other reliable ways of identifying problem areas are Applied Kinesiology or Muscle Response Testing used by increasing numbers of practitioners; electrodermal screening devices such as a Vega or Best system; the Elisa/Act blood test which tests over 250 foods; and laboratories in the U.S. such as Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory in North Carolina that test stool samples for pathogenic microorganisms as well as digestive function.

Keep in mind that although tests can identify culprit foods, very few of them will tell you how the particular foods affect your body, until you actually eliminate them from your diet for a short period of time. If you experience either a withdrawal for several days, or a gradual relief of symptoms, understand that it is a good sign that you have finally identified the substances that were responsible for causing your ill health. Always remember . . . the foods you love the most often cause the greatest problems.

So in summary, you eliminate the items that have been identified or suspected; treat any pathogens that may be underlying issues; work with restoring bowel integrity by taking a good quality brand of lactobacillus acidophilus; take steps to reduce stress levels in your life; increase your physical activity, and you’ll begin to feel better than you have in years!

Judit Rajhathy, BA, RNC, D.Ac. is the author of the best-selling Canadian health book Free to Fly: a journey toward wellness. She is also the owner of Change of Pace Fitness Center in Ajijic and specializes in detecting and treating hidden food sensitivities.

Did you know that overweight, active folks can actually be healthier than their thinner, inactive counterparts? And now, there is proof – magnetic resonance imaging, better known as an MRI – which create fat maps showing where people store fat. The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined, says Dr. Jimmy Bell, professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Just because someone is lean doesn’t make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease, says Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey.

The key: exercise!

Perry is on the thin side, watching his diet to a degree, and his favorite activity is using the remote and a mouse. Occasionally he plays golf and walks the dog on sunny days. Maria is chubby, watches her diet to the same extent as Perry, but plays tennis three times a week, works out regularly, doing a combination of cardio and weights. According to the latest findings, Maria’s fat, unlike Perry’s, is stored primarily under her skin, and not concentrated around vital organs.

The theory is that internal fat disrupts the internal communication systems and that the fat surrounding the internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs such as the pancreas and liver which in turn, can lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or heart disease. Because of Maria’s activity, she stands a much better chance of burning off her internal, visceral fat. There is actually a term for people like Perry, who are thin outside and fat inside (TOFI’s). Researchers who scanned 800 patients with MRI machines that plotted internal fat maps found that as many as 45% of women and 60% of men with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) had excessive levels of internal fat! (BMI is a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height) The worry is that being thin externally is not an indicator that you are not fat!

If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough, Bell says, but if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle. So everyone! Listen up! Time to crank up your levels of regular activity regardless of weight or age! No more excuses! See you at the gym!

(Judit Rajhathy, Change of Pace Fitness Center, Ajijic Mexico & author of Canadian best seller Free to Fly: a journey toward wellness)

It is never too late to improve your health. Research strongly suggests that exercise helps to restore and maintain your strength, endurance, flexibility and balance. But the best part of all is that those who exercise regularly not only look great but feel better than they ever have in their entire lives! And this applies to even those folks who have had inactive lifestyles – just ask your friends who have recently changed their lifestyles! I meet them every day in our fitness center.

Baby boomers are falling apart – developing tendonitis, bursitis, arthritis and fix-me-itis, the idea that modern medicine can fix anything. It’s much better to prevent things than to have to try to fix them. (Dr. Nicholas A. DiNubile, orthopedic surgeon, University of Pennsylvania) And to be perfectly honest, a thirty minute walk on most days is just not enough to ward off the inevitable effects of an aging posture . . . a combination of stretching, cardiovascular endurance and strength training with a focus on balance is what works!

As we age, muscles tighten and weaken, decrease in size and number while oxygen to these same muscles diminishes. Flexibility declines as connective tissue throughout the body becomes less elastic often leading to a deterioration in balance which can culminate in all kinds of injuries. Nothing sets you back more than a broken bone or a strained/sprained muscle! According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), hospitals have 300,000 admissions for broken hips each year, many of them seniors, and falling is often the cause of those fractures. So . . . the ideal situation is in preventing these catastrophies from occurring in the first place. Need more convincing?

Do you feel stiff first thing in the morning or after sitting for long periods? Does walking a distance take longer than in the past? Is walking up a flight of stairs a strain? Have you noticed that your balance just isn’t what it used to be? Are you standing as tall as you once did or are you a little hunched now? How about bending over to tie your shoes? What about backing up the car and having to look over your shoulders? How was your last bone density test? not that great? Are the scales tipping out of favor?

Your solution? Exercise, exercise and more exercise!

Next month we will look at the many other benefits of regular exercise; so stay tuned!

(Judit Rajhathy, Change of Pace Fitness Center & author of Canadian best seller Free to Fly: a journey toward wellness)

So one day there you are looking down and there it is! Staring back at you is a huge round belly! When did this happen? It just seemed to grow overnight!

It is very important to know that abdominal fat accumulation is not just a cosmetic issue but can be a serious health risk. This type of fat, also known as android or “central” obesity is linked with cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, glucose intolerance, elevated insulin levels and many other health conditions such as stroke and cancers of the breast, ovary and prostate. One negative function of visceral fat, located deep in the abdomen and surrounding our vital organs, is that this fat is metabolized by the liver, turns into cholesterol and circulates in the bloodstream. LDL (low density lipoproteins), or bad cholesterol forms plaques and builds up in the arterial walls, gradually blocking arteries. Bad enough to have a major heart attack and die prematurely but worse would be to live the rest of our days (which could be many!) in poor health, unable to enjoy all of what life has to offer.

The saddest part is that now our grandchildren are growing these bellies! The tummies of US teens and children have 65% more fat than in 1999, say researches from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. (Health News on Forbes Internet site)

So right now go to a full length mirror and take a close look at your body. Are you what is termed as ‘apple shaped’ or ‘pear shaped’? Even though pear shaped people may find it more difficult to lose weight from their hips, thighs, and behinds, it is the apple-shaped folks who really need to focus their efforts because this central fat is far more dangerous.

By the way, for you daily drinkers out there, there is a very intimate connection between alcohol intake, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio. Hard liquor especially is closely related to abdominal fat in particular – and it is far worse in the aging population when one’s metabolism naturally slows down.

Regular Exercise is Essential

While letting deep layers of belly fat go unchecked can have lethal consequences, the good news is that regular exercise can keep this potentially dangerous form of fat at bay.

In their study published in the October issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, researches put 175 overweight sedentary men and women on supervised routines on treadmills, elliptical trainers and cycles. ”The control group that did not exercise saw a sizable and significant 8.6% increase in visceral fat in only six months . . . and a modest exercise program equivalent to a brisk thirty-minute walk, six times a week, can prevent accumulation of visceral fat, while even more exercise can actually reverse the amount of visceral fat,” says Duke exercise physiologist Cris Slentz, lead author of the study.

After all, is it not quality of life we want? We all need to take personal responsibility for our health and taking action is the first step. So come on in and party with us! We can help you propel you on your way to wellness. See you soon!

Judit Rajhathy, Change of Pace Fitness Center, Ajijic and author of Canadian best selling book Free to Fly: a journey toward wellness.