The world has gone supplement-crazy. Almost overnight, nutritional supplements have become one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In 2012 alone, revenue from supplements was estimated at $32 billion and growing. It seems everyone is taking some kind of supplement these days, and the variety is nearly endless. [Read more…]
White Lies and Your Well-Being
We have a mentality crisis on our hands.
Everyone is either born with or develops imperfections in life. An allergy to this or that food. Difficulty sleeping. Chronic stomach issues. Back pain. Etc.
We also apparently are born with or develop a series of learning disabilities. ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, and what have you. It’s actually astounding how vast the Wikipedia page just for learning disabilities. Go ahead and take a look for yourself. if you read through the entire page and aren’t convinced you’re disabled in some way, congratulations, you’re not human. [Read more…]
Your Brain On Grains
Diet fads are exhausting. The latest and greatest diet crazes have become a virtual staple of today’s pop-culture. If you want to fit in and be able to contribute anything to the conversation among friends or coworkers, you had better know the gist (or at least the name) of the latest seven or so diet trends.
I’m as frustrated as you are, but I would also argue that the combined trajectory of the last decade or so of nutritional research seems to be pointing in a generally unified direction. At least in terms of body image, carbohydrates have become a near-unanimous nominee for food source most likely to add to our waistlines.
But our brains? For some reason we’ve always viewed our brains as a fixed quantity. Either you’re born with a great big powerful one or you’re stuck a shriveled lump of genetically-mutated neurons and synapses destined for disease. You were born with ADD or you weren’t. Your family’s predisposed to Alzheimer’s or they aren’t. Or not? [Read more…]
A Pound of Cure
A hospital is not the ideal place to go and get well. Think about it. A giant, sealed up warehouse with shared air circulation where sick people are stored. It’s essentially an enormous repository for germs.
And what about the effect of a hospital on your state of mind? The only people sitting around in hospitals are sick, injured, or both, or know someone who is sick, injured or both. The collective thoughts running through just about every person’s mind in a hospital can be boiled down to “Gee, this is depressing.” That’s not exactly a recipe for a positive, healing atmosphere. You wouldn’t go to funeral homes to cheer yourself up, and you shouldn’t rely on hospitals or even doctor’s offices as your one-stop-shop for curing all that ails you. [Read more…]
