The Oasis

My Bioregion: Spring '06

Spring is here, in all her Southern splendor. Clouds of snowy dogwoods dance at the edge of the woods. Azaleas with their showy pink, white and red blooms, gather in colorful masses under the towering pines.

The oaks and sweetgums are adorned in new Spring green, that tender, almost translucent color that signifies the end of Winter and the return of the sun. Green chameleons bask on the backyard gate, the blue-tailed skinks rest themselves on the warm sidewalk outside the house and fireflies light up the dusk, their twinkling signals a sign of hope for the rest of the year.

Peepers croak in the small creek below the house and turkey vultures soar overhead. My spirits lift, flying higher, following the great birds upward in spiraling circles. Below, I catch a vision of my life, and my place in the scheme of a grander design.

This is my bioregion...the rolling Piedmont hills of Georgia. Look around you this Spring. Notice. Listen. Breath.

See.

Humpty Dumpty

According to a recent CDC (Centers for Disease Control) report, the epidemic of obesity in America may be leveling off. On the surface this is good news, but let's take a closer look.

The CDC is basing this on the percentage of women who are obese (33%). This percentage held steady, instead of increasing. This leveling off in women is seen as a good sign, as women influence the eating habits of their families. But the bad news is this...

the percentage of both men and children who are classified as overweight and obese increased substantially. And remember, the women only leveled off and did not lose weight.

Strange isn't it, in a country where the diet industry has been estimated at 100 billion dollars a year. Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture. The health of our children, and of our country, is at stake.

Quinoa Anyone?

Healthy food choices are one of the best things we can do for ourselves to move toward wellness.

But in spite of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommendations for Americans to eat six servings of grains a day, of which three should be whole grains, we still, on average eat only one serving daily.

But what exactly is a whole grain? Just what the term says...grains that are whole. That means they contain all three parts:

1. the bran: the tough outer layer that contains much of the grain's fiber
2. the endosperm: the carbohydrate filled starchy component that is often processed singly into white
flour
3. the germ: the grain's core, which contains fiber, minerals, antioxidants and vitamins.

Food labels can be very misleading. Look for the term "whole grains" as one of the first ingredients on the lablel. Beware of the terms "cracked wheat" or "wheat flour" which do not signify whole grains.

Now most nutritionists will tell you that breads and cereal products containing whole wheat flour count as whole grains...and technically that is correct, since whole wheat flour is made from whole grain. But this fails to take into consideration the fact, that even with whole wheat flour, the grain is finely crushed and pulverized into the final product. This grinding and processing of grains into the fine powder we know as flour, increases what is known as its glycemic index or G.I. The G.I. of a food measures how fast that particular food is absorbed into our bloodstreams. The higher the G.I., the faster the food is absorbed. The faster the absorption, the faster our blood sugar will rise after we eat that particular food and the more insulin our pancreas has to produce to get our blood sugar back to a normal level.

The thing to remember is this: whole foods are better for you than processed foods. And that goes for fruits and vegetables, as well as grains. Processed foods have a higher G.I., resulting in higher blood sugar spikes. This can ultimately lead to a condition known as insulin resistance, which means that our sugar levels don't respond as well as they should to the production of insulin from the pancreas. Increasing insulin resistance is a precursor to diabetes.

So add some whole grains to your daily food choices, such as:

-whole oats (as in oatmeal for breakfast, and skip the brown sugar and butter)
-quinoa (a wonderful, nutty tasting grain from the ancient Mayan culture that is easy to prepare)
-brown rice (brown basmati rice is wonderfully fragrant and tasty).

So don't be mislead by labels that say "whole grain". Even though they are better than foods that are made with wheat flour, and certainly better than those made with white flour, they are still highly processed. Whole is better.

Energy Crisis - It's Not What You Think

Whenever I hear the words 'energy crisis' my thoughts invariably turn to higher gasoline prices, depletion of oil supplies and unsavory political maneuvering. While of course the term can mean all of these things, there is another energy crisis going on and this one is right in our own backyards. Or rather, for the majority of us, right in our living rooms. On our sofas to be exact.

I'm referring to worldwide supplies of human energy, as evidenced by a global lack of exercise. Here in the U.S., insufficient exercise contributes in a big way to four of the six leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes...leading to a shocking 250,000 premature deaths every single year...deaths made all the more tragic because they are preventable.

Even though scientific studies conducted over the last fifty years have throughly documnted the beneficial effects of exercise, fewer than 25% of Americans get the exercise we need. So if we have this information, why don't we exercise?

There are no simple answers. Much of our exercise, which used to come from human labor, is now no longer necessary, due to industrializtion. The average U.S. adult spends 170 minutes a day watching TV and movies, 101 minutes a day driving and a scant 19 minutes exercising. Many of us were scared away from exercising by the aerobics revolution, that made it seem like we had to exhaust ourselves several times a week in a gym jumping around like mad to deafening music. But new research shows that moderate exercise produces great benefits...benfits that are remarkably similar to a harsh aerobic regimen. In addition, the guidelines are confusing. Is it 30 minutes three to four times as week or forty-five minutes a day? And what kind of exercise and at what intensity?

Dr. Harvey Simon, the author of The No Sweat Exercise Plan: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, and Live Longer (McGraw-Hill, 2006) advocates a simplified system of CME points, rather than the conventional number of minutes of exercise per week. His guidelines suggest aiming for 150 points daily for general overall health or 1000 points a week. And points can be earned by activities that we do not classify as formal exercise. For example, thirty minutes of digging in your yard at a moderate pace earns you a whopping 190 points. Even dusting, when done at a moderate pace for thirty minutes, get you a respectable 75 points. Plus, those activities that most people classify as exercise, such as walking, can be done at a moderate pace, rather than walking as fast as you can.

For those people who want to lose weight, Dr. Simon advocates cutting back on calories and/or aiming for 300 CME points a day. By the way, CME stands for cardiometabolic exercise, which takes into account all physical activity, from raking leaves, mowing lawns, dusting, sexual activity, walking, playing golf, aerobics class and everything in between. The point system concept has been very successful in at least one well known commercial weight loss program. I am hopeful that Dr. Simon's system will take exercise off most folks' least favorites list and make this life saving activity into something fun. Think Simple Simon..

Now if only that other energy crisis could be solved so easily!