MY HUSBAND DIDN'T LOSE ANY WEIGHT DESPITE PURGING FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!

Most of you by now would have known that my entire family was sick, with an extremely contagious Rotavirus ... including my husband. But despite all the purging, and vomiting, and not eating any solids for days, he never lost any weight! Everyone else in my family who caught the virus did. So what gives?

The culprit? Isotonic drinks!

At that time, my husband was alone at our place while I was at my parent's house taking care of everyone else. It was a mess. While he was unwell, he drank basically nothing and nothing for days except to guzzle down cans and cans of Isotonic drinks. Rotavirus is really a horrid virus. The stomach ache, the purging, the headaches, the vomiting .... home alone ..... who has the strength or energy to go out and buy food, or buy or make healthy fresh raw juice?

So what is in the Isotonic drinks that makes people gain weight or in my husband's case, didn't lose any weight? The answer we realise was sugar, and lots of it.

Isotonic drinks are touted to be good for you, but if you are trying to lose weight, may I suggest you go slow in consuming these sugary stuff. And if you are looking for natural drinks that have the perfect balance of electrolytes for your body, try fresh coconut juice.

There's an interesting article on the Internet about how Isotonic drinks can damage your teeth. Apparently, according to the article, Isotonic drinks can soften the teeth enamel. And brushing your teeth immediately AFTER drinking the Isotonic drink can wear down the teeth. Plus the drink is acidic so it can cause dental erosion, and the sugar in the drinks can cause tooth decay. Wow! triple whammy. Click here to read about it.

AND don't forget, please show this article to your family and friends who insist on guzzling down fizzy canned drinks all day long. You will be helping them in the long run. You know, I had a dorm mate who drank Diet Pepsi all day long. She had cans and cans of those stuff in her cupboard, which she bought cheap at Sam's Warehouse. She was on a heavy side, and could not shake off the weight the entire time we were there at school. You see, even though Diet Pepsi is low calorie, she drank lots of it, and you know, it adds up, calorie after calorie. Come to think of it, I never did see her drink any water at all, not even a sip from the water cooler on our floor.

Can drink ... bad. Clean, fresh water .... good.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

THE CONFLICT OF SUGAR AND STARCH

Sugar, whether a monosaccharide or disaccharide, is one of the simplest foods to digest. Even water dissolves it. It requires only vitamins and enzymes and spends very little time in the stomach. Starch spends more time in the stomach; but the problem with combining these two food elements begins in the mouth. As we discussed, starch depends on ptyalin in the saliva to start its digestion. But sugar inhibits the secretion of ptyalin. The signals read by the nerve endings and taste buds on the tongue become confused in the presence of sugar. Thus, even though you chew and mechanically break down your bread and pasta, little or no chemical digestion takes place. The bread has to wait until it gets into the small intestine before amylase can complete the process of starch digestion. This is a bad combination for the sugar food as well, since its passage is slowed down by the presence of the starch food. The longer sugar stays in the stomach, the greater the chance fermentation will take place. Fermentation is the breakdown of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide causes gas and distention and alcohol robs the body of B-vitamins.

Page 47
Food Combining And Digestion
101 Ways To Improve Digestion
by Steve Meyerowitz

ARE YOU A CHINESE NEW YEAR SUGAR ADDICT?

My parents, my younger brothers and I at my grandparent's house with our
Morris Minor car in the background

I used to always look forward to a celebration as a kid because I get to drink lots of sugary soda, lots of "air sirup" which is really nothing more than artificial rose flavored syrupy water and orange cordial.

However, this year, I plan to change things .... drink a lot less of these diabetic inducing drinks and drink more clean, fresh water and delicious raw juice. I would bet that just a simple change like this will likely help me keep my weight at bay.

So anyways, I was thinking about what drinks to serve to guests who come to visit this Chinese New Year aka CNY.

Soda?

Orange cordial?

What would you offer to your guests when they come to visit?


My two brothers. Sitting just long enough for a snapshot
Every since I was born, every CNY, my parents, me, my two brothers and practically 20 other people would congregate at my paternal grandparents' house in Seremban. We did this every single year without fail until my granny's passing a few years back. There, us kids would helped our self to granny's stash of cans of soda at the back of the kitchen and glugged down bottomless amount of choice stuff like 7 Up and Coca Cola. My brothers and I would all be so stuffed up from all that sugar in our bodies, not to mention sugar from cookies, cakes and sweets as well. Many a time, we would have a glazed look watching mindless Cantonese musical concerts on government tv channels, then known as RTM1 and RTM2. Later, my grandparents discovered the joys of the video machine, and mindless Hong Kong Cantonese serial dramas was all we could watch. To wear off all the sugar, our parents would dump us upstairs to bounce from wall to wall, maybe to play cards, scare each other with ghost stories or just whack each other until we collapse in exhaustion.

Watching tv

The TV
I have a theory why my parents allowed us to "coked up" in sugar. It's not that they want us to drink these "poisons" because, think about it, it made us hyper, it made us unreasonable, it made us little terrors who made hell seem like a fun holiday place.

No.

I think, back then, my parents were just plain too tired to stop us. You see, every year, they had to drive 10 hours from Kelantan to Seremban through small winding roads to visit my grandparents with 3 lovely but ultimately stir crazy, yapping kids in a very small car by today's standards.

Fun stuff.

And on good days, the trip may even take up to 16 hours, many times because we were stuck behind slow moving vehicles or because of the endless pee stops. Now that I have kids of my own, I can imagine what a torture it was. See, in those days, there were no DVDs in cars. No air conditioning units. My dad would crank up his favourite Jim Reeves yodeling cowboy songs to drown out our voices squirming, crying, bored-out-of-our-minds throughout that mind numbing journey.

Oh joy!

I'm surprised my mum didn't turn bonkers from all that noise and complaints. I'm surprised my dad never uttered a curse word .... right till today, though mum did once or twice finally screamed .... SIT. DOWN. NOW.

There were no seat belts then.

I suppose they just grinded their teeth and accept this annual journey through hell as their karma! Now that I have kids of my own, I understand. Even a 3 hour trip to a shopping mall feels so exhausting. If I was in their shoes, believe me, all I would do is to sleep for the rest of the holiday and not come out from the bedroom. OK, maybe come out occasionally for some air, sustenance, beer and brandy. Who wants to deal with kids high on sugar and nothing much else after a long arduous journey?

So, where was I?

Oh yes, CNY.

Sugar.

The fact was, sugar did nobody any favors. Not for the kids, not for the adults.

During CNYs, my paternal grandparents would offer orange cordial and orange squash drinks to visitors who come for a visit. It's an auspicious thing, you know, and anything out of a bottle was an easy drink to make when you have like a hundred visitors to entertain during the first week of CNY. But the problem, as we now know, orange cordial is nothing more than sugar and artificial flavorings pack full of "chemical goodness". Frankly, those orange juice packs we get at the cold food section at the local supermarket aren't that great either. Some contain high fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners as well as artificial colors and preservatives. Many of the pesticides used for growing the fruit are in fruit juice as well, and in concentrated forms. By the way, not all fruit juices sold are 100% juice. If you look at some of the juice boxes, you will notice that many use reconstituted concentrate juice. That's really complicated English, isn't it? What it simply means is that those stuff are nothing more than processed drinks. Also, 100% organic bottled or boxed fruit juice that you find in health food stores is still pasteurized and stripped of most of the valuable nutrients and enzymes of fresh juice. What's left? Sugar! And don't let me start on my childhood favorite frizzy canned orange soda like F&N Orange or Mirinda Orange. All these sugary drinks are just totally bad for everyone's teeth, and can really spike the body's insulin levels.

I'm pretty sure the answer to the above is fresh, raw juice. Alternatively, there are raw, dried herbal teas that we can all serve as fabulous, fresh tasting teas. Easy to make, doesn't really need sugar of you use quality stuff. Let the fragrance and taste of the tea speak for itself.

But in those days, nobody knew what we know today. But since I do know, I'm cranking up my new blender this month. This baby can pulverize a carrot. Really awesome! My eldest kid and my niece think they are drinking juiced carrot when in reality, they are drinking the entire carrot, with the pulp, together with some flax seed thrown in to boost the drink's nutritional value!

Cool right?

Don't think I won't drink any soda, mind you. I will, cause I love them, and it's really hard to shake off this childhood comfort food, if you may. I'll just drink it in moderation.

So what's your drinks menu during a festive holiday?

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

START OF NEW YEAR HEALTH CHECK LIST

One mother on a raw food thread had an excellent health check list which she use to check the state of her child health. You could use this list for yourself, and your family as well.

Here's what she says:

There are some key indicators of an individual's health status that are quick and simple to check and help us to monitor our own health.

I've been teaching these gems of knowledge to my 7 yo son in order to help him learn to monitor his own health and teach him about the importance of eating food high in essential nutrients.

Here's a list below that I have trained him to look out for.

* Colour of wee (dark and dull means dehydrated, pale yellow and bright is good).
* Whites of the eyes (cloudy and yellow, dull, or bloodshot means not healthy, clear and white is good).
* Poo (easy to come out means good, at least once a day for poo is healthy).
* Tongue (white and furry is not good, clear and pink is good).
* Buzzy head, irritation (too much sugar, not enough sleep, need to eat something).

(Note: Some parts have been edited out for a better read)

Jasmin says:

This is an excellent, simple and effective indicator of one's health. I used to remember my mum marveling at how clear and bluish the whites of my eyes were when I was a kid. But they just look dull yellow and bloodshot nowadays. I really need more sleep and more structured exercise, which I will do once my baby is a bit older. What about your eyes?

I've also talked about poo previously. Before I had my kids, I never was into poo. We all go to toilet, and we get out of the smelly toilet as fast as possible, right? As kids, my brothers and I thought loud farts was a real fun thing to do, to aggravate adults. And the boys in the school bus used to fart, cup some smelly fart in their fists and toss the smell over to the nearest girl for kicks. But heck, now, stools are something I check on ... every single day. My eldest son went for 7 days without pooing even once as a breastfed baby, and every adult in family just went into a frenzied fear. I quote my husband's friend, "I never thought I'd be so interested in poo until I had my kid". Yup, as we grow older, poo is an important, if not fascinating, aspect of our daily lives. Of you want to know more about stools, go to this link if you have not read about it http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/identify-your-stools.html

Our tongue is also an important indicator of our diet. Certainly I have noticed that my tongue gets all fuzzy and more smelly when I eat more meat, more unhealthy food, more sugar and less raw, fresh fruits and vegetables. A little bit of fuzzy stuff is generally ok. But a very furry tongue is often not fine - especially if it's a thick and cheesy-looking white fur coating. Scrape a fingernail across your tongue and look at the path it carves. If you see a big groove, it could mean you have a serious problem. And one of the symptoms of a serious Candida overgrowth is very fuzzy tongue. Candida can cause a lot of health problems. If you think you have candida, please read 2 excellent article on this http://www.consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc096/candida0906.html and http://www.worldwidehealthcenter.net/articles-31.html. Also, please see your doctor to get a proper diagnosis, cut out all sugars, cut out food that has yeast in it and eat lots of yogurt to reintroduce good bacteria into your gut asap. Also, really important to show this email to your loved ones who have recently been battling bad breath. Let them read this, and see if they have a Candida problem.

Have a good year ahead and good health to you!

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

$10 OFFICE CHRISTMAS PRESENT CHALLENGE

No money to buy presents? Why not make your own?

I was listening to the radio just the other day while dropping my little son at school when I heard a guy bragging to the radio DJs that he decided to be an office Scrooge last year. You see, every year, his entire office staff would each buy a $10 Christmas gift, and place all these gifts together, do a draw and people would pick up a gift based on the number they pull out of a hat .. or a box.

Anyways, instead of buying something meaningful as the office Christmas present, he decided to just grab a bag of sugar from his mother's kitchen, wrap it up in newspaper, tie it with kitchen string and dump it under the fake plastic Christmas tree at the reception area. I think that's just terrible, terrible attitude. I'm sure many of you guys have this tradition at the office so you would know how the recipient of the awful gift felt!

I believe it's better not to give, than to give in such bad manner. He could have just opt out gracefully, but nah. But ok, what if he was on a very tight budget? We all are nowadays. It IS possible to give a meaningful gift which will not cost you $10, but is worth much, much more to the other person in value.

Take the sugar present for example. He could have just put the sugar into a nice manly looking glass jar and stick a couple of Cinnamon sticks (kayu manis) inside for fragrance. Perfect gift for the office coffee drinkers who love Cinnamon flavored coffee first thing in the morning (and we know quite a few coffee addicts don't we!), and really, does not cost much at all, and is so easy to make. Great for tea drinkers who like their chai with Cinnamon and milk too!

It IS possible to bring cheer and joy, even if your budget is less than $10. The point is to find something that is practical, usable and thoughtful.

One of the great DIY gift ideas from Erica

Really, there's lots of creative ways to stretch your dollar ..... just needs that little bit of imagination. If you need some ideas to crank up your creative juices, just visit http://lovelydiy.wordpress.com/ to see how Erica does it.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group