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Food Handling Safety, and Why You Shouldn’t Trust Anybody.
I used to work at a restaurant, but long before that I took a food handling safety course. Some basics were common sense, and some basics were ‘oh yeah, that makes sense’, like putting raw food on the bottom shelf, or if you cut yourself you have to throw out the whole fricken tomato. But I noticed that when I worked at the restaurant some of these basics were not forgotten, but ignored. The chef often wiped a plate with her finger to give the dish that clean look, but would then lick her finger, and not wash it. No one wore hair nets until someone (me) got a hair in a salad and then everyone had to wear a hair net. There is also a common rule in a professional kitchen that everything needs to be labelled. The label needs to contain not only what it is but also when it arrived in the kitchen, so that the staff are aware if and when it has or will expire. Apparently, one day, the food inspector came in, saw the eggs, saw the eggs weren’t labelled, and then promptly told the owner/head chef, the eggs weren’t labelled. Now, I am pretty sure that they meant the expiry date was not on the label for the eggs, but now the clock in the kitchen has a label in the centre of it reading ‘clock’ because not only are most kitchen professional not happy to have pointed out that they have been ignoring food handling guide lines but are also very petty when it is pointed out. One of my favourite shows is called ’24 Hours to Hell’, which proves this point dramatically! Chef Gordon Ramsey takes a big transportable kitchen around the USA, finding restaurants who are frankly disgusting, and should be closing at any moment, and then the show has 24 hours to turn the whole thing around. If you were to watch the show you will see kitchen staff directly licking plates, rats and bugs in the kitchen, there is mould everywhere, nothing has been cleaned for years (or according to the owners, not since last week), spoiled food, and spoiled owners/kitchen staff/servers and just sad people. It is stomach turning and really makes me rethink eating out. Apparently, in the USA every year food born illnesses effect 76 million people. There are three major methods of contamination; biological, chemical, or physical. More than 90% of all food borne illnesses are caused by bacteria. Problems occur in the processing and preparation stages of food handling from; food preparers not washing their hands or not changing their gloves, to cross contamination of cooked and raw foods crossing paths. Physically, there can be foreign material that can end up in food, usually as a result of an accident, such as something happening in a food production plant or something like; dropping a pumpkin pie face down on the floor and then serving it to my mother which caused an illness and an unforgettable story that will last with me for the rest of my days. In Canada we have the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that oversees food safety in regards to production and processing. So, if you ever have a question or concern about your food supply and whether it is safe, that is where you need to direct it. The one thing that we have started to do in our kitchen is to use a thermometer. Using a kitchen thermometer enables us to be able to determine the internal temperature of our cooking process which enables us to make sure that the food has been properly cooked. For example, ground meats should be 160F as well as ground pork, as well as egg casseroles whereas poultry should be 180F, recommended. Also, it is important to refrigerate food in order to prevent food borne illnesses by placing your food in the refrigerator and not leaving it at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Keeping an ice pack in your lunch bag helps to maintain food for awhile but if available it is really good to place your lunch in a refrigerator when at work. You can also use frozen water bottles in your lunch pack, or frozen juice containers to help continue to cool your food throughout the day if you do not have a refrigerator at work available to you.
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Foods are made up of three macronutrients which are sources of dietary energy. Carbohydrates which are the sugars, starches, and fibres is one main macronutrient. Carbohydrates have two categories; simple and complex.
Simple carbohydrates, means that they are easy for your body to access and mostly come from sugars that we add to our food. Complex carbohydrates, are more difficult for your body to access, higher in fibre, and therefore digest more slowly. Fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains have not been processed and so they are unrefined complex carbs. They are absorbed more slowly, keep your blood sugar stable, are full of nutrients, have fewer carb grams, and help control hunger. Refined complex carbs on the other hand, are processed foods like white bread or fruit juice which have been stripped of their fibre and have lost most of their nutritional value. The other two macronutrients are proteins and fats. Healthy fats are an important part of a healthy diet. A higher protein and fat regiment allows you to feel full, satisfied, improves weight loss, and also improves cholesterol. Along with the bodies need for macronutrients, comes the need for hydration, and so it is really important to be hydrated and helpful to your daily need for hydration is to eat foods that have high water content. When you eat foods that have a high water content this helps your daily diet regiment to maintain your hydration. For example, all of these foods that I am going to list have more than 90% water content; cucumber, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, cauliflower, watermelon, spinach, baby carrots, broccoli, and grapefruit. I think the key is to find a passion for these nutritional foods. The truth is, that these nutritional foods are actually filling, and tasty, and good for you. Unfortunately we associate certain foods that are high in carbohydrates with pleasure and comfort. When we smell certain aromas of foods we feel a sense of reliving child hood, feeling safe, and reliving a sense of family. These high carbohydrate and lovely smelling foods become a blanket for emotions that provide that sense of love and comfort and belonging that we crave. These foods are fine for celebrations, but they are not conducive to maintaining a healthy weight on a daily basis. The idea is that when we go to the grocery store we need to stay on the outside aisles which comprises your meats, dairy, your cheese, your fruits and vegetables. These are the daily constants of a healthy diet. Unfortunately, we spend the majority of our time walking up and down the inside processed food aisles looking for simple carbohydrates and refined complex carbohydrates. We do this because it has become habit. We also do this in order to fill that sense of food as a reward, food as friend, food as love, food as support, and a way to numb unwanted emotions. In order to actually feel good about eating healthy we actually need to develop a passion for it. It is the passion to be healthy and look good that keeps us directed to the foods that give us what we really need, which is a true reward of doing, feeling, and looking good. The Scale? Or the Mirror?
Body positivity is based in the notion that any size that you are you are accepted. Body positivity is an amazing movement that I fully support. The movement has a slogan that has come to my attention and that the slogan is ‘I am not just a number’. This is true, each of us is not based on a number. However, people do identify with the numbering system. Let’s think about age for example. Based on age we have an idea of whether a person looks their age or does not. You could look older (which is great for awhile) or be seen as younger (which works for a longer while). Unless you hate to continually be carded at the liquor store. Another number that is an important measurement tool is that of weight. ‘I am not just a number’ implies that there is an identification of worth that occurs based upon whatever that number is. A persons worth is not based on the number they are in age or the number that is identified on the scale. We can change the way that we look, with hair dye, cosmetics, and cosmetic surgery. We can change what we look like we weigh by the clothes we wear. Should we scrap the scale all together? I have never considered losing weight purely by looking in the mirror, because I find that I actually can’t tell the difference of what I weigh and if I have lost or gained in weight. I have always used a scale because a scale provides a measurement tool that I can rely on. When I was in school, my schools health class learned about what the BMI is, our ideal body weight, and some bullshit about how carbs are good for you. My goal for this year is to lose 50 pounds, and I am happy to say I have lost 20 of those 50 pounds (just 30 more to go, yay!). But if I had to base my weight loss on what I see in the mirror I don’t think I would be NEARLY as far along as using a scale to provide a number for my weight. I personally believe that using a scale has benefited me in a way that a mirror never could, it kept me on track, kept me hopeful, and it kept me accountable. If I scrapped the scale today I think that I would slowly go back to the habits that I had before because who can honestly tell? Dr. Laurie however states “That using the scale can actually go away at a certain point when you have achieved your management phase. You can actually start to ‘feel’ your body and then know exactly what weight you are by looking in the mirror and feeling your clothes and the way that they fit. At this point it is just a matter of feeling your way forward, no longer having to pay attention to the carb count specifically, and just being able to feel your weight each day to know what the next days carb count needs to be”. Oh, I would love to get to that point of body positivity! So What Is The Plan?
First off, I don’t begin with breakfast. I do believe in listening to my body, and if my body says not to eat first thing in the morning, then to me I actually really need to listen. There is a caveat to this though, and that caveat is when I’m waking up in a leisurely manner on the week ends or my day off or the days in which I start work late, I have family around me, all of a sudden it isn’t about breakfast, it’s about brunch. Brunch is that transitional time between breakfast and lunch. So with that said, generally speaking it will be something to do with eggs and something to do with some form of bacon. So, this is more to do with pleasure time and building relationship time, However, when I think of breakfast, that to me is simply coffee. When I complete the task of having my coffee, my coffee time is completed. I have cream in my coffee, and so that means when my coffee time is completed my cream time is completed. The rest of the day is coffee free and cream free. For those of you who are Tim Horton’s or McDonalds all day coffee people, not to mention Starbucks, CoffeeCultures, etc., unless you are drinking black coffee or black tea for that matter then unfortunately you might be adding in an overwhelming amount of carbs over your day. I think it is really good to pay attention also to your sleep patterns, to be able to know when to cut yourself off of caffein. Outside of the fact that I only have my coffee in the morning I also try very hard to have my pop with my lunch and I try to make sure that I stop sipping on that pop by mid afternoon, because I don't want the caffein to interrupt with my ability to get to sleep. For my water intake I make sure that I have my water bottle with me in my picnic bag everyday but, I also take my water bottle with me to bed because it’s a sexy water bottle, and the truth is if I wake up during the night and my throat is dry I have my water there and it helps me get back to sleep. If I don’t have the water then I will wake up with an uncontrollably itchy throat >:(. The next thing that I think is really important, is to be able to recognize how boredom plays a HUGE roll in regards to eating. It also plays a huge roll in regards to any addiction. It is so bizarre how it is that we have a million things to do everyday, we receive hundreds of emails, have a to-do list that is so long, and yet the moment we have 5 seconds to ourselves we’re like, ‘well what do I do? I have nothing to do’. So it is so easy to fill this space with things that don’t give you anything in return, accept to achieve avoidance. It is so easy to fill those few moments with addictions, being on the web, looking at your phone, talking about nothing, scarfing up odd bits of food that people have presented to you in nice little candy dishes. So, instead decide what it is that you are going to do with that boredom. DO something, take up something, re-direct yourself into something that means something! Read this blog! Find a new recipe to try! Take up a hobby! Bottom lining it, make sure you are feeling important and significant in what you do. Mindlessly eating is not something that you can write down as an achievement, “so what did you do this year?” “Why, I mindlessly ate for hundreds of hours and gained many pounds.” This just doesn’t look good on your year end report. Changing Hormones
There are so many unknowns and a lot of confounding information in regards to changing hormones. I remember when I was a teen, I had so much difficulty in regards to acne. Today on my drive home I saw a teenager that was WAY worse off then I remember myself being and I felt bad. There are three hormone driving organ systems in our body, one is ovarian, the next is adrenal, and the third is thyroid. There is an interconnectedness in regards to these hormones, which is both complex and confusing. There are imbalances that occur, and the symptoms of dysfunction can overlap with these three organ systems. So, these three systems generally speaking, have one dominating system, which reflects the organ system that is the weakest and therefore requires the most support. Those with ovarian dominance have generalized fatigue throughout the day, have a tendency to gain weight, and/or have an ability to lose weight and retain water. Those with ovarian dominance can have or complain of severe brain fog, mood swings, have oily skin or break outs, have menstrual symptoms and/or changes, or experience hot flashes. Those with adrenal dominance complain of having fatigue in the morning and mid afternoon and they can feel tired, yet at the same time wired. They too have a tendency to gain weight or the inability to lose weight. They can also have brain fog with the added frustration of memory and concentration difficulties as well as experience the feelings of overwhelm. They can experience irritability, anger and impatience, be heightened and hyperactive, and have sensitive and reactive skin, irregular bowls, and experience hypoglycaemia in which they can become ‘hangry'. Those with thyroid dominance experience low energy and sluggishness. They too have the tendency to gain weight or the inability to lose weight. They can complain of having slow thoughts, depression or low mood, be hypo-reactive meaning that they have slow responses. They have dry and brittle skin, hair, and nails, and have a tendency towards being constipated. Each of these dominances are in constant communication with one another. Either together they are working on strengthening synergistically, or weakening one another, in which disfunction can occur. The bottom line is, that when any of these three components are out of whack, so are weight difficulties. And if you think that any of these descriptions is indicative of your symptoms and presentations, then it is really good to have a comprehensive test done to identify if any of these three hormonal imbalances and/or functions are the culprit. I read that the former contestants on the Biggest Loser had thyroid problems when they were done the competition. Apparently, it was reported that when you lose a huge amount of weight really fast it screws with your hormones and messes with your thyroid. A lot of the contestants have had this resulting difficulty with their system and have complained that after their participation in the competition, that they gained weight after the show and felt that they became incapable of losing it because their thyroid was preventing them from doing so. Just something to think about. Water Flavouring!
The other day I talked about flavouring your water with lemon, how healthy it is for you, and how it can help you lose weight. Today I want to branch off and talk about other water flavours, such as Tang. I absolutely LOVE Tang! Tang, used to be a powder (created for astronauts) that you could mix with water to make an easy, sugary juice, as my mom so eloquently puts it, “It was good as shit!”. Thankfully, now they have made an alternative to the sugary powder and provide an artificially sugary squirt flavouring by the same name. How Tang Has Changed My Life I made it my mission to drink lots of water. I find drinking at least 2L a day helps my skin, digestive system, and keeps my mind and my tummy away from food. Drinking plain water can be difficult though, after the first two glasses it feels like a chore and my body sort of reacts to it negatively “I have had enough!” and it or my brain will say this by making me be almost grossed out by the thought of drinking more. However, when I discovered Tang I could drink 2L and more without a second thought! It’s like a treat without the shame of sugar! It tastes like juice, it looks like juice, but in no way does it have the backlash that carbalicious juice (freshly squeezed or not) has! The Benefits of Drinking Tang What I Recommend So, if you are starting to increase your water consumption, I definitely recommend buying a little squirt bottle of Tang. But do I recommend only drinking water mixed with Tang? No. You should be training your body to accept and be grateful for any of the water it is given. Start by drinking a glass of plain water, then if you feel like you don’t want to continue, switch it up with Tang, then with lemon water and plain water again; you don’t want to develop a dependancy for the taste. You can also add it to diet Jello for an added taste sensation. Conclusion Overall, Tang is great, but at the end of the day it is the water that is the real star of this story. Water flushes out the toxins from your body, keeps your liver healthy, keeps your skin clear and vibrant, helps with digestion and avoid constipation, prevents muscle cramps, and most importantly, for your weight loss journey; helps you lose weight. Water is an amazing and essential part to your journey whether it really does keep you full during a craving wave or just keeps your mind off of eating (because how could you possibly eat, when you still have six cups to drink by 12pm??!!). Yummy Wine!
Wine is good for you! Wine can have some supportive positives in regards to weight loss and weight manageability. First, it is important to know that wine has a sugar rating system and it is really good to know the sugar rating system in order to be able to know what you are drinking. When the Atkins diet first came out, Dr. Atkins did not include carbohydrates for wine intake or hard liquor such as vodka, rum, and gin. All of these hard liquors have no sugar content. Later, Dr. Atkins actually did add in carbohydrates for alcohol consumption into his diet. Identifying carbohydrates of course, is different from calories, and so if you are a calorie counter, drinking alcohol will skew your calories for the day whereas wine and hard liquor carbohydrate numbers is different. Beer, is a totally different animal, because beer is made from hops, barley, wheat, and contains yeast. As such, beer is just like drinking sugar. There was actually a study done that showed that middle and older aged woman who drank wine moderately everyday gained less weight overtime and were less likely to become obese! The thought is, with this research results, that moderate drinkers actually take in fewer calories than from other sources. There is a huge difference between drinking dry red or white wine and drinking cocktails. Most cocktails are made with simple sugar (sugar dissolved in water), not to mention, can be made with fruit drinks which are high in sugar and liqueurs, which are extremely high in sugar. So, not all alcohols are created equal. Just like eating high fat foods, drinks loaded with carbohydrates increases blood sugar, which is then quickly followed by a crash that leaves you starving. Just a simple rum and coke is packed with sugar! If you do decide to have a mixed drink, make sure the mix is a diet pop, so; diet ginger ale, diet coke, diet pepsi, diet sprite, and lime (no carbs), for an added flavour to your rum and coke, don’t forget. It is also important to use a spritzer like carbonated water or carbonated flavoured water, as opposed to tonic water (tastes divine but is high in carbs). There is also a low carbohydrate beer as a good alternative, such as Corona Premier. When the Atkins diet first listed wine, it advised to choose dry white or dry red as they are the lowest/have zero carbs to them. However, researching the driest wines today, Pinot Grigio comes in at 2.5g and Cabernet Sauvignon comes in at 3.8g per 5oz glass. But get this! According to a study done at Oregon University in the US, red wine can help burn fat when consumed in moderation. When red wine was consumed, new fat cells in the liver were prevented from forming. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in January 2003, compared energy expenditure induced by four different meals rich in either carbohydrates, fats, proteins or alcohol. Researchers found that the alcohol-rich meal increased diet-induced thermogenesis; the calories burned by digesting and metabolizing food; by 27 percent; the runner-up was protein, generating a 17 percent increase in thermogenesis. An article in the Science of Weight Loss by Sunny Sea Gold quotes the author of The Hunger Fix, Pamela Peeke, in which she adds dark beer and wine together as the same. She writes that how you metabolize alcohol has no differential, that both dark beer and wine should be your go to drink. She says that beer makes you feel fuller longer. I think that’s crazy. She must be basing all of this on calories not on carbohydrates. Basically the goal is to choose alcoholic beverages low in carbohydrates and luckily red wine is an antioxidant and helps with thermogenesis and aids in your weight loss diet plan. References https://www.livestrong.com/article/459176-does-drinking-alcohol-slow-your-metabolism/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/red-wine-could-boost-the-metabolism-study/ar-AA9a4sN Eggs! Glorious Eggs!
Diets have changed radically over the last 50 years, and coincidentally so has the heart disease epidemic. So, it was really easy to make a correlation between the shift away from diets consisting predominantly of being plant based, to that of being animal based. Apparently 50 years ago the diet on average, consisted of grains, beans, peas, nuts, potatoes, vegetables, and fruit and transitioned by the 1940’s to that of meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. Thus there was a crusade against heart disease by the late 1940’s implicating cholesterol as the culprit. The blame was on cholesterol laden foods such as meat and eggs mostly. By the 1990’s it was identified that mono unsaturated fats lower LDL cholesterol and raised HDL. The irony is the principle fat in red meat, eggs, and bacon is not saturated fat. However, the very same unsaturated fat is in olive oil. In 1958 there was a book published called “This Slimming Business” in which the author noted that the treatment for obesity was in the carbohydrate restricted diet. Avoiding the calories of bread and potatoes, you could still eat meat, cheese, and eggs, increasing portion sizes as long as you don’t have bread, potatoes, or pasta. Obesity was determined by this author that the extra fat being consumed at that time was what was being mixed together in cakes and biscuits and ice cream and the author suggested “if you remove the carbohydrates obesity will no longer be an issue.”. So, by the 1980’s the idea of having a meat, egg, and cheese diet was presented as being unappetizing and couldn’t possibly satisfy the desire for food if the diet doesn’t allow for starches, flour, sugar, and beer. Unfortunately, the notion that obesity has to do with carbohydrate intake was overridden with the belief that it is actually the dietary fat consumed that is responsible for obesity and new diets were presented to the public that targeted fat alone, restricting butter, oils, meat, eggs, and dairy products. The average American diet of today includes 140-150 pounds of sugar and high fructose corn syrup intake each year, 200 pounds of flour and grain, 130 pounds of potatoes, and 27 pounds of corn. Gary Taubes book Good Calories, Bad Calories suggests that it would be very interesting to create a study to see if the consumption of these carbohydrates in the average American diet causes weight gain and chronic disease. He suggests that it would be very interesting to pit this average American diet against a diet containing mostly meat, fish, fowl, eggs, and cheese, and leafy green vegetables in order to be able to determine once and for all if a diet high in fat, saturated fat and calorie dense foods (as conventional wisdom of the medical community suggests) actually causes heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Essentially we are talking about the Keto diet. A main stay of the Keto diet that I have embraced is eating essentially that, eggs, cheese, and meat. I have cut out milk but I do drink cream. I am always on the look out for new ways to create delicious recipes for all of the above. So the other day when I was at Walmart I came across something called ‘Ggglets’. Little silicone cups to put an egg in to cook. I love poached eggs and this seems to be a combination between poaching an egg and boiling an egg. If you don’t like peeling eggs then this might be an interesting way to have an alternative. I find it was easier to get the egg out of the little silicone cup than it has been at times to get the egg out of the poaching cup. It also provides another way to make an individual omelette (if you screw the lid on correctly). I think that as a quick and easy source of egg making it is a bit more time consuming. It is an unconventional, good for a bit of kitchen fun, will go in a drawer and not be used often kitchen gadget. Lunch bag!
People today are working more and longer hours. As such, people are spending more time at work then being at home, compared to working the 9 to 5 of the 1980’s days. Generally, these days, people work not only longer than 9-5 but are working 6-7 days a week and are so “plugged in”, that work can take place anywhere at anytime. This presents unique food challenges, because if you are always on the go not only are you being inundated by outside food influencers, food cues, and just plain stress. It is so easy to think and feel like you are actually doing physical labour, when the truth is ,you might just be sitting at a computer. Because you are taxing your brain, it feels like a work out. It is so easy to confuse this type of stress with physical stress. This is actually really just emotional stress. The day can be filled with anxiety, disappointment, frustration, and that can just be happening when you are pulling into the parking lot and trying to find a parking space! Never mind having a boss that is a micro manager who looks over your shoulder constantly. There are actually, two types of stress. Eustress and distress. Eustress, or positive stress, has the following characteristics: Motivates, focuses energy. Is short-term. Is perceived as within our coping abilities. Feels exciting. Improves performance. Still stress though! On the other hand, Distress, or negative stress, has the following characteristics: Causes anxiety or concern. Can be short- or long-term. Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities. Feels unpleasant. Decreases performance. Can lead to mental and physical problems. We under plan in regards to the amount of stress that we are going to come across during our day. It is so easy to stop in at a fast food place, have someone stop in at a fast food place for you, go to a vending machine, or nibble somebodies candies from the bowl on their desk. Right outside my office door there is a coffee bistro and not only does it smell DELICIOUS but the woman that runs it puts out free treats! Cutting up brownies and cake and cookies in a bowl and placing on the counter as a promotion to buy her food. Which is way too easy to grab when I am on your way to the washroom…It is important to have a plan and stick to it during your workday! So talking about Jennifer Hudson, apparently she loves enormous, oversized purses, probably because she travels a lot. So, in order to help Jennifer to stop struggling with all of the temptations of room service and airport goodies and all of that free food that famous people seem to get in the green room, something had to be done! So, her food coach (Liz Josefsberg) suggested that her purse was actually her travelling home environment and as such she needed to prepare that oversized purse as a lunch bag. Stalking it with water, almonds, gum, banana, cheeses, and single servings of food such as popcorn, and nutrition bars. All she had to do was reach down into her purse to grab a snack or drink whenever stressed, and as such she could relax, not having to think twice about making a decision of what to eat when at work. I must admit, that I have a picnic bag which I got from Chapters that I take to work with me everyday, and in it I have my water, my diet pop, and I have my hard boiled eggs. Sometimes I add cheese, and sometimes I add my leftovers from my food from the night before. Every single morning I pack it, that is my routine, no matter what. Every weekend, I make sure I have a bowl full of hard boiled eggs in my fridge to pick from and when I grocery shop every Saturday, I buy a large selection of cheese so that I know I have some good eats all week long. The one thing that I have found to be a really great taste sensation is the flavour of lime, whereas I used to use condiments, I have a tendency now just to add freshly squeezed lemon or lime. Also, it works really well to flavour cold and hot drinks. Squeezing lemon on fish really adds a punch of taste, baking it in roasted chicken, also provides a great taste sensation, adding either lemons or lime to pop or alcoholic drinks really gives them a freshness without the sugar.
It is thought that lemon and water actually helps with weight loss. The idea is, that lemon or lime flushes out toxins. It is also thought that the addition of lemon or lime to your fluids, cuts your appetite and blocks bad absorption. The goal is actually to not only add the juice of the lemon or lime, but to add the rind as well. Lemon and lime is a great source of vitamin C and they have something called pollyphenel, which are micronutrients with antioxidant properties. They also contain pectins which is a fibre that can lower LDL and has anti-inflammatory benefits, this comes from the flesh of the fruit. Most importantly lemons and limes have zero carbohydrates. Anytime when I add the lemon or lime to my drink I like to squeeze in the juice and throw in the slice and then I like to chew on the flesh of the fruit when I pull it out of my drink. There is no proof that adding lemon or lime to your water actually helps you lose weight. It does however create a taste to your water so that it might actually propel you to drink more, stay hydrated and reduce thirst which can trigger food cravings. It is good to remember that when you are dehydrated the dehydration slows down your metabolism, which can lead to weight gain. Some other benefits of drinking water is in the treating of kidney stones! Kidney stones are created from calcium build in the urine. Lemons contain citrate which is used to prevent the formation of kidney stones. Drinking more lemon water increases the citrate in the urine and helps prevent stones from forming. Lemon water can also relieve constipation. I personally love lemon water! I used to want to be a lemon ginger tea girl, but I found that no matter what I did; lemon ginger tea, lemon tea, ginger tea, I would vomit after! So now I stick to cold lemon drinks and for some reason I am just fine. Now I will say, I have not noticed any difference due to the lemon HOWEVER I am more enticed to drink the water when it is flavoured. When I am on pure water I will drink a little over 1 liter. When I drink flavoured water I can drink double! And water is great! My skin is clear, everything works efficiently (no constipation), and I get so busy with drinking water that I forget if I’m hungry or I’m so full of fluid it doesn't matter. Bottom lining it, water is good for you! And if you are hoping it will help you lose weight, it will, maybe it’s more in an effect rather than cause way, but it still works! |
Emerald HillOn the quest to lose 50 pounds in a year. Can she do it? Only time will tell....with the help of this blog. Archives
October 2019
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