Friday, October 25, 2013

You need Energy? So do I !



With everyday struggles and long days, it’s hard to stay focused and awake through out the day. I know sometimes I find myself starting my day at 8am and it may not end until 8pm. It’s especially hard when you spend most of your time sitting on your butt; whether that’s in class or at work. Well don’t fear, I have researched some good ways to regain the energy you need to make it through your day.

The most common thing to do these days is to take a ton of 5 hour energy shots, drink a gallon of coffee or shoot yourself up with energy drinks until you bounce off walls. This can be a quick fix at times, but most of these “energy enhancers” are load with either too much sugar, caffeine, or an unhealthy amount of Vitamin B. If you truly want to gain energy the health way, you have to do it the natural way.


When trying to find ways to get more energy, you must first look at what you are doing. You need to know what exactly is causing you to not have energy.

You want to look at:
  1. Sleep
  2. Eating habits
  3. Amount of exercise
These factors are important. If you’re not getting enough sleep at night, you’re not allowing your body to recuperate.  The “Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics" published a review about partial sleep deprivation and energy balance. Partial sleep deprivation is getting 6 1/2 hours to 5 hours of sleep a night. This review found that reduced sleep might: 
  • Disrupt appetite hormones
  • Promote greater food intake
  • Change body composition to favor more fat storage
Even though it may be hard, try fitting a solid nap in your day. If that’s not possible, you might have to give yourself a bedtime and go to sleep every day by a certain hour. In order for your body to function at it’s highest level, doctors say you need at least 7 hours of sleep a night.

Eating habits is another factor that can affect your energy levels. It’s important to look at what you are eating, how much, and how often you eat. Sports nutritionist Rebecca Scritchfield stated in her 2009 Washington Running Report that adequate levels of the mineral iron (which carries oxygen throughout the body) contribute to sufficient energy levels. Healthy, leafy greens, like spinach, are rich sources of iron. 
Besides iron, you also want to look at carbohydrates. Carbohydrates contain the most glucose and give the quickest form of energy. If you need a quick fix, crackers or some kind of whole grain bread would be the way to go, BUT you have to be careful. Any extra carbohydrates will be stored in your liver. If you put too many carbs in your body and you max out your liver, your body will then turn the carbs into fat.  If you want to have longer lasting energy, also try adding more brown rice, lentils, and beans to your diet. 

Protein is another mineral that is important to energy. Your body needs protein for cell replacement, maintenance, and energy. Protein is mostly stored and used by your muscles.  It takes about 3 to 4 hours to affect blood sugar levels, so protein is good for energy you want later after your meal. It would be a good idea to have a mix of carbohydrates and protein in your diet. That way you are getting the materials needed to make quick energy and energy for later use. 

You also want to look at how often you eat. It’ better if you spread out your meals. Instead of having 2 big meals a day, try have 3 meals a day with snacks in between. That way you’re allowing your body to have a steady flow of food and your energy will be spread out throughout the day. 

So now you’re aware of the importance of sleep and diet, but there’s one more thing to consider: exercise.  According to Jennifer Warner from WebMD Health News, expending energy by engaging in regular exercise may pay off with increased energy in the long run. 
Researcher Tim Puetz, PhD, of UGA says, "We live in a society where people are always looking for the next sports drink, energy bar, or cup of coffee that will give them the extra edge to get through the day, but it may be that lacing up your tennis shoes and getting out and doing some physical activity every morning can provide that spark of energy that people are looking for."

Any time you increase your circulation, you allow materials to get to viral parts of your body easier. It serves no good for you to fill your body full of rich carbs and protein if you have poor blood circulation. Getting up and moving could make a difference in your day. Luckily SFA has an amazing Rec Center to help us out. 







Just a thought - Devonte Hill


Resources:





Friday, October 4, 2013

What's with Microwaves?



In today’s society, most people have no idea how everyday items work. We go about our daily lives using machines that we have no understanding of how they work. Earlier in the week I asked 50 people, “How often do you use a microwave for heating or cooking?” 33% of those people said they use a microwave 3 times a week. In the hope of shedding some light on our seemingly dark world, I decided to investigate microwave ovens (or microwaves for short).

Microwave ovens use microwaves; a concept not hard to understand. What’s interesting is how it uses microwaves to heat up food or water. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with alternating electric and magnetic fields. Since the electric fields alternate between positive and negative, when they hit a molecule they cause the molecule’s electric field to shift back and forth causing the molecule’s particles to move. The movement of the particles causes friction, and friction causes heat. Microwaves ovens basically use microwaves to make the molecules in food vibrate and make friction, which in return, heats the food up. This is why you sometimes have cold spots in your food. Microwave ovens can only “heat” the areas that the microwaves hit.

 
Hitting food with crazy waves seems kind of sketchy to me, so I wanted to figure out if it is safe to use or not. When looking up information on microwave ovens, it’s very confusing deciding which information is correct. On one hand, people say it’s bad and can cause cancer. On the other hand, people say it’s good and can help prevent cancer. It’s hard to make a decision when you have conflicting information. Here are just a few of the quotes I ran across during my research:

“While X-rays, gamma radiation, and even sunlight can cause cancer, microwave radiation cannot because it simply doesn’t pack enough power to damage your DNA.” - Gary Zeman of the Health Physics Society in McLean, Virginia

“I generally recommend that patients microwave their meats for 1-5
minutes and discard the juices before grilling.” [The juices are said to be linked to cancer]- Cyndi Thomson of the Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona

“If you microwave your food you’re zapping away nutrients and risking your
health,” says physician Joseph Mercola, who recommends that consumers
get rid of their microwave ovens and eat at least a third of their food raw.

“Actually, microwaving retains more nutrients than other forms of cooking, if you don’t use a lot of water and don’t overcook the food.” - Barry Swanson, food scientist

“There is a tendency for most microwave users to cook everything on high power, except when defrosting. High is the default setting. The higher the power, the stronger the electric field, and the more damaging it is to nutrients. So, the lower the power, the safer [it is]. But only some microwave ovens are capable of true low power cooking. The microwave ovens equipped with inverter magnetrons actually reduce the power instead of just cycling it between high and off.” – John Andrews, naturalnews.com

“Cooking food destroys nutrients, whether it's on a stove, or in the microwave oven. But microwaving food on high power can be more destructive than cooking on the stove. So if you use a microwave, use one with an inverter magnetron, and cook on low power. Cooking on true low power (not intermittent high) will greatly reduce the amount of damage done to the food. Even on low power, I still don't know if a stove or microwave is worse. It's like asking me if I'd rather get beat by a club, or shocked by a taser.” John Andrews, naturalnews.com

The information on this topic is very conflicting. I even ran across an article about a little girl’s scientific experiment of microwave water verses boiled water that has been recycled all over the web and doesn’t show any true scenes of origin:

Ten Reasons to dispose of your microwave oven:
1.) Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term – permanent – brain damage by ‘shorting out’ electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].
2). The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.
3). Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
-Unknown Origin (many users)

Is this experiment real or not? Who knows? In the world of the Internet, anybody can post information about anything and claim that it’s true. Even Youtube was divided on the issue. After 3 hours of watching microwave videos both pro and con, I still can’t tell you if it’s safe to use or not. That’s pretty ridiculous! I can only tell you how it works and the side effects of cooking with a microwave oven. Since water evaporates when exposed to high energies, your food can be dried out or even taste funny from being cooked in microwaves. As far as it causing cancer, I don’t know. The official U.S. Department of Health website had no information on microwave use, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did cause cancer. It seems like everything in America causes cancers these days. I guess we’re just forced to do what we think is right and see what happens afterwards.

-Just a thought, Devonte Hill

Resources: