The recent buzz around the spike mat forced me to try it out myself. This spiny object was obviously more than welcome into the Swedish home, which is the conclusion I make from reading all those colourful comments about its miraculous effects on the net lately: “the best invention since the wheel”, “the best thing that ever happened to me”, “I would really recommend this mat to anyone”. It seems like a product couldn’t get any better response than this in a new market, where sales have drastically risen since the first introduction of the mat.
What’s the entire buzz about? I borrowed one from the Casall office, tried it for two days, got home from work, took a shower and put on some nice, soft linen clothes and finally lay down. The instructions were the simplest; lie on the mat for 10-20 minutes. You can choose whatever position suits you best, either on your back or on your front depending on what muscles you want to stimulate. You can also choose whether to lie directly on it, or with some soft cloth between the skin and the spikes to adjust the level of intensity.
The spike mat has a history that stretches back thousands of years in time. There are ancient Chinese writings telling us about the use of spikes or needles for treatments of the body and the psyche, and yoga freaks have referred to the use of spikes for a long time now. My grandfather use to always walk on these slippers with spikes and scratch his back every night with a spiky back scratcher. I never understood but it was fun to play with when I was younger.
Apparently, the spike mat isn’t a miraculous invention of our times, but for some reason it really became a hit, especially in Sweden, this year. Some dramatic, high-impact trends you just can’t explain the reasons for, simply everyone just seems to be in desperate need of a spike mat at the moment...the TIPPING point!
So, I lay down on this spiny thing for about 20 minutes. It’s hard to give an objective description of its effects, because I heavily believe in placebo effects, i.e. I feel what I believe myself to feel after all those great things I’ve heard about its great effects…yeah, you get the point. Anyways, first I didn’t feel that much, but after a couple of minutes I felt a wave of relaxation passing through my body. Placebo or not – doesn’t really matter. The only thing that actually matters is the fact that I liked it.
It is not scientifically proven that this mat would cure diseases, so if this is your one and only reason for getting one, please don’t believe in what they tell you. There’s no magic involved, more than the spikes stimulating your nerve endings and the production of our harmony hormone oxytocin. This hormone is produced when we have a nice massage, take a warm bath, listen to the music we like, etc. and it has the magical effect of making us relax. Synonymously, our intrinsic stress factor is reduced. So, speaking about magical spikes, why miss a nice and relatively cheap opportunity to quickly relax after a stressful day, force your muscles to calm down and have a few minutes only for yourself and your thoughts.
I wouldn’t say this is a revolutionary thing, and I still believe the wheel did more to humanity than this spike mat. However, I like it and will definitely get one myself.
This blog post on algae will end my blog series on Super Foods. I hope you have appreciated this blog series, which was aimed at bringing you some new insights, or just reminding you of why and how you could eat healthier.
Algae are non-plant living organisms, found to be a good source of nutrients way back in time: Spanish explorers in South America learnt that the Aztec harvested blue-green algae from fresh water lakes and that’s how algae was first recognized as a living food.
Spirulina is commercially known as a human and animal dietary supplement as well as a whole food within the group of algae. It can be purchased in flake, tablet, and powder form. What makes it such a good dietary supplement is especially the high protein content, between 56-77% by dry weight, making it a complete protein containing almost all essential amino acids. Compared to the optimal protein-carriers such as meat, milk, and eggs, Spirulina lacks a couple of the essential amino acids (for your knowledge I’m referring to cysteine, lysine, and methionine) but in terms of being a plant protein it is a real superior protein source. Compared to other protein sources in general, algae carry a main health benefit in the sense that they are low in fat and high in fiber. Their high chlorophyll and phytochemical content make them effective antioxidants primarily preventing cell damage.
Apart from its protein, Spirulina is also a good carrier of several vital minerals including:
Potassium (good for your muscles and nervous system; also found in broccoli, potatoes, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables, and bananas)
Calcium (vital for building strong bones; also found in milk and other dairy products such as yoghurt and cheese)
Magnesium (for muscles and the nervous system especially; also found in whole grain breads, nuts, and seeds, potatoes, beans, avocados, kiwi, and chocolate)
Zink (for strong immunity and wound healing among others; also found in red meat, poultry, oysters and other seafood, whole grains and dairy products)
Iron (helps in the transportation of oxygen in the blood; also found in red meat, pork, poultry, beans, fish and shellfish, soy foods, and green leafy vegetables)
Phosphorus (vital for healthy bones and teeth; also found in dairy foods, fish, and meat)
Also, the nutritional value of algae in general is found in its content of omega-3. Even small amounts of this substance, also derived from fish oil, can help lower blood pressure.
E3Live is a dietary supplement using phytoplankton. It’s a liquid form of pure, nutritional blue-green algae. It has been shown to be a powerful nutritional supplement with a wide range of benefits, ranging from appetite maintenance, to regular digestion, to slow down the ageing process. It should be kept in frozen form until ingested to keep its nutritional value intact. I think the company actually goes to the bottom of the ocean with a submarine, freezes the miracle food and brings it to the surface. I recently started taking it in the morning after the recommendation from a dear girlfriend and have to admit, it’s fantastic! I haven’t figured out how to travel with it yet...
Eating algae has another important effect, apart from the effect on personal health, namely that on the environment: the high yield per acre of land and water used in the algae harvesting is undoubtedly an ecological aspect worth mentioning. In this way, algae could be discussed in terms of its role as a food for the future.
This fourth part of my series on Super Foods for a Super You will deal with what is known as good bacteria or probiotics found in yoghurt as well as different dietary supplements that promote the digestion of foods in your body. I will here try to explain both the chemical role of incorporating good bacteria into your diet, as well as give a few personal tips on how you could promote a healthy bacterial flora in your body.
What is meant by good bacteria, or the so called probiotics? Probiotics, which means “for life”, is the beneficial bacteria already found in the human gut. The good bacteria play the crucial role of fighting the bad bacteria that enter our bodies through the digestive system as we are eating and drinking during the day. The types of bacteria in our bodies vary greatly, but simply we can say that good bacteria work to keep the bad bacteria at bay. In the long run this could mean prevention of inflammations and diseases such as Crohn’s disease, arthritis, and maybe even certain types of cancer. Lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria are the most common types of microbes used as probiotics. Both are found in the gastrointestinal tract as well as in the vagina, and make up a significant part of the human gut flora. Live cultures of lacto bacilli in yoghurt will not remain in your digestive tract unless you continue eating yoghurt regularly on a daily basis.
Apart from eating yoghurt with live culture of these bacteria, kefir makes up another good alternative. This is a fermented dairy drink which is sold with a variety of tastes, an absolute ideal source of probiotics – even for the lactose-intolerant person! Kefir is a lactose-free yoghurt which makes it optimal for anyone who wishes to include good bacteria in his or her diet. Kefir is also an energy booster and health promoter in the sense that it contains many nutritional elements (vitamins and minerals) such as calcium and magnesium, phosphorus, folic acid, B and K vitamins. Because there are naturally occurring sugars in kefir, this dairy product further supports and assists in the regulation of blood sugar in our bodies. In fact, just a few spoons per day could result in significant differences in blood sugar levels.
Thus, by eating the right products on a daily basis it is possible to affect the gut flora of bacteria in your body. Promoting an optimal bacterial flora is furthermore synonym with boosting your immune system and digestion process, and it involves a consideration of both prebiotics and probiotics in your daily diet. Prebiotics, as separated from probiotics, are the non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and activity of bacteria in the digestive system. Well-known, popular dietary sources of prebiotics include: soybeans, raw oats, unrefined barley or wheat, beans, seeds, spices, tea, vegetables, and nuts for instance. They are usually consisting of carbohydrates like oligosaccharides naturally found in fruits and whole grains. Also, many prebiotic oligosaccharides are increasingly added to foods for the sake of their health benefits: fructooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides, polydextrose, and galactooligosacchardies.
Be friendly with yourself and your body. Through your diet you have every possibility to create a healthy and balanced environment within yourself that will have significant effects on your well-being, both on an everyday life basis as well as throughout your life.
I decided to start a positivity journal today. I used to keep a dairy (with a lock on it of course!) for 4 years throughout my high school years when I used to write everything from my hopes and dreams to boys, my summer loves and bad dates...girl friends, silly fights, sad days, etc. I was listening to a Soul Series that Oprah did on her XM radio last night and how she recently started a positivity journal and it's helped her tremendously to live in the present and manifest positivity. Ever since the books "The Secret" and Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth" were published, the world seem to be awakened to a new enlightened way of thinking. I have been reading quite a few things on this topic and it's really been such an exciting journey! While I was taking a power walk around Djurgarden today during lunch time, I made my decision: I will be writing down five positive things in my life each day...it's private of course! (the picture is from my friend and the super brilliant Gilles Bensimon)
With all this buzz around appetite suppressants including a new lip gloss I tried call “Huge Lips Skinny Hips” (yes there is a lip gloss out there that claims to plump your lips and suppress your appetite to help you get skinny hips!), I decided to do some investigation!
Why natural appetite suppressants?
-To reduce cravings and emergency hunger without adding more calories
-A natural way to control your appetite
-To help you cut out snacking and sudden sweet tooth cravings
How do you suppress that sudden emergency hunger and craving for food without adding more calories? Is it even possible? Yes, definitely it is, with the aid from natural appetite suppressants. Divided into two major groups, food supplements and whole foods, these foods can help you regulate problematic appetite swings during the day and keep you on track still. Important to know is that a sudden feeling of hunger is usually not of such immediate emergency as you think in the first place. More important though; don’t move into that ridiculous habit of starvation, it won’t do you good on a long-term basis, and it might even result in you gaining weight instead – starving makes your body want to protect your fat stores and hence slow down the process of burning fat. Keep a diet based on variety, and turn to the natural appetite killers when the immediate need for something to chew on appears. Also remember that regular exercising and workouts is an excellent habit to keep your appetite low. An active lifestyle will help you from overestimating your hunger.
The benefits of such natural appetite suppressants are more than merely reducing your desire to eat. In the long run this means an improvement of one’s health in terms of reducing the risk of heart disease, helping to lower blood sugar levels and thus risks of diabetes, also improving the digestive system and the immune system, increasing your energy and thus promoting a healthy lifestyle.
The choice between turning to supplements or whole foods is personal. Two well-known supplements are the Hoodia Gordonii and whey protein. The former is a cactus-like plant, which has been used by hunting men in South Africa for centuries. Only a small piece is needed to prepare for long hunting hours, the story tells. Hoodia cannot be found as a raw food, but can be purchased in the form of Hoodia pills.
Whey protein provides your body with many essential amino acids, often used by athletes to repair and build muscles after heavy workouts. They are made from natural whey which is a complete protein, i.e. including the maximum amount of amino acids. You can find whey protein in the form of bars, concentrate, shakes, drinks, and powder depending on your preference and taste. I often get a shot added to my Jamba Juice in the morning after a tough workout!
In terms of whole foods as an appetite suppressant we might turn to high fiber foods such as whole grains (oatmeal preferably), beans, apples, salads, water-based soups, grapefruit, and fish. Usually it’s a matter of filling your stomach to get rid of that scream from the brain telling you to eat something quickly. Ways to keep your stomach full while drinking includes primarily green tea, water, and lemon juice, only to name a few. Drinking water is probably the cheapest way to suppress hunger. Drink frequently during the day and this will help to curb those immediate attacks of hunger in a natural way. It’s a well-known fact that hunger and thirst go hand in hand, implying that your brain believes you are hungry instead of thirsty. Some recommend a glass of water before each meal; this will naturally reduce your appetite.
Green tea is my personal favourite. You can drink it both before and after a meal. Matcha powders tea is what I usually have for that energy boost! Preferably you should skip the milk to cut down further calorie intake, or you might substitute with low-fat milk. Plus adding milk to a nice cup of loose leaf Chinese green tea is committing a serious sin! My new favourite team spot in London is called Yumchaa.A visit there reminds me of my MIT days sipping tea at TeaLuxe on Newbury Street during the cold months of New England! I have yet to find a nice tea shop in Stockholm, please do share if you have suggestions!
Green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, and all forms of lettuce are great appetite suppressants in their natural form. They are extremely low in calories and a great source of fiber. There’s a saying that these vegetables works as “negative calories” in the sense that the digestion requires more calories than the actual calorie content of these vegetables.
Apples. They only contain about 100 calories each, brings you those good fibers, and are definitely low in carbs. They are a good snack instead of those calorie traps you might fall into by eating candy bars, cookies, or potato chips. Also, eating an apple means chewing, chewing takes time and hence signals to your brain that you are in fact eating. It takes 20 minutes for the brain to realize satisfaction after a meal, so the longer it takes to eat the better it is and you will never feel too full.
Natural food suppressants generally help you regulate and control your appetite during the day. They save you from falling into sudden traps, when you feel like you’re losing the grip, you can’t think, you’re so intensely hungry. Usually it’s about routine, habit, and a little manipulation of the brain. Just give it a try – have some of the foods or beverages mentioned here next time when you’re considering a fast chocolate bar or candy bag. Natural appetite control foods and beverages make your brain think your stomach is full, when in fact you haven’t added any significant amount of calories at all.
For your reference and knowledge, let’s compare the effects on hunger and calorie intake between a cup of cashews and a cup of cabbage. Regardless of which one you choose to eat the hungry feeling will go away after a couple of minutes. What is important here though is the calorie content involved in achieving this feeling of satisfaction: cabbage carries approximately 20 calories versus cashews which contain up to 900-1000 calories. Huge difference!
The spike mat has a history that stretches back thousands of years in time. There are ancient Chinese writings telling us about the use of spikes or needles for treatments of the body and the psyche, and yoga freaks have referred to the use of spikes for a long time now. My grandfather use to always walk on these slippers with spikes and scratch his back every night with a spiky back scratcher. I never understood but it was fun to play with when I was younger.
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