Health

I want to get down to the very basics of our health and talk about the importance of  healthy fats and your mitochondria. From our very first introduction to science in elementary school, we learn that the cell is the basic building block of all living things. Our bodies contain trillions of cells, which provide our structure, thrive (or not) on the nutrients we give them, turn those nutrients into the energy that enables us to live and move, and perform specialized functions. Within our cells is the hereditary material that makes you you.

Obviously, it’s really important that we take care of our cells. Let’s look at one of the specialized structures within the cell, the mitochondria—the powerhouses or factories of the cell. They act like a digestive system that takes in nutrients, breaks them down, and creates energy rich molecules for the cell. So important, but things that most of us know very little about.

How healthy your mitochondria is determines how healthy your organs and muscles are—indeed, how healthy you are! Most of us start life with very healthy mitochondria. But that health gets compromised by stress, sedentary lifestyles, free-radical damage, and exposure to infections, allergens and toxin. In this article, let’s talk about one of the chief reasons our mitochondria deteriorate—poor-quality foods and a deficit of healthy ones. More specifically—poor quality fats and a lack of enough healthy fats. We are the ones who determine what kind of fuel we are going to put in our mitochondrial tank, just as we determine if will put gasoline, diesel or something else in our car engines to get the best response.

What Fuel Works Best?

Our bodies use only two kinds of fuel—fats or sugars (glycogen). One groundbreaking expert in nutritional and metabolic medicine, Dr. Ron Rosedale, describes it this way:

Health and life span are determined by the proportion of fat versus sugar people burn throughout their lifetime and so the more fat that one burns as fuel, the healthier a person will be, and the more likely he or she will live a long time; and the more sugar a person burns, the more disease ridden and the shorter a life span a person is likely to have.

The fuel that is burned in your mitochondria (fat or sugar) for energy determines how healthy you will be. We need both kinds of fuel. Burning fat produces more energy and releases fewer free radicals than sugar. However, sugar burns very fast, so is useful during times of emergency. It is extremely critical to our health to learn how to balance the fats and sugars we supply to our mitochondria so they can continue to be the efficient factories that give us energy and health.

What the Wrong Fuel Does

Today’s Standard American Diet (SAD) has produced sad evidence that it has failed miserably at improving health and increasing longevity. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, 1 in 5 deaths is obesity-related, half have pre-diabetes, diabetes or other chronic illness, and 1 in 3 women and half of all men will develop some form of cancer. The reason? As Dr. Mecola states: “Most people simply eat far too many processed foods, net carbs and too few healthy fats, and too many unhealthy fats, which results in gaining and retaining extra body fat and becoming increasingly insulin resistant.” Let’s take a look at why the SAD diet is failing so miserably.

• Nearly 1,000 calories per day are added fats (unhealthy ones) and sweeteners.
• Although the mineral density of wheat has greatly deteriorated, we are consuming 45 percent more grain than twenty years ago.
• We’ve decreased fruit and vegetable intake
• Consumption of sugar has skyrocketed, most in the form of unhealthy additives.
• There’s been an increase in added hydrogenated oils and a decrease in saturated fat.
• Processed foods make up 63 percent of our calories.
• Unhealthy genetically modified foods are everywhere—in raw foods, oils, processed foods and more.

What the Right Fuel Does

Supplying  your body with a balance of more healthy fats for consistent energy and good health and limiting the carbs and sugars to just what your body needs in times of emergencies and high-energy activities will keep your mitochondria healthy.

1. Healthy fat helps control hunger
2. Healthy fat promotes a healthy metabolism
3. Healthy fat transports the right vitamin and minerals throughout your body.
4. Healthy fat insulates and protects your vital organs.

How to Fuel Our Body with Healthy Fats

Dietary fats are essential to healthy mitochondria, and therefore, to healthy people. They give our mitochondria the fuel it needs to supply energy and support cell growth. They allow our mitochondria to protect our organs and keep our bodies warm.

There are four major dietary fats:

• Saturated fats
• Trans fats
• Monounsaturated fats
• Polyunsaturated fats

The healthiest food sources for good fats are those that are minimally processed. Here are four simple tips for making sure you are supplying your mitochondria with the healthiest fuel.

• Use healthier kitchen oils—get rid of regular vegetable oils like corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, or plain vegetable oil. Instead use extra virgin olive oil, and organic avocado oil and virgin coconut oil.
• Include small amounts of healthy high-fat foods—add nuts, avocado or olives in small amounts. Use nut butters, and full-fat yogurt or kefir (if you can tolerate dairy), dark chocolate, and pasture-raised organic beef, salmon, wild-caught tuna, and whole, pastured eggs.
• Include a good source of Omega-3 fat every day—add foods like fish, flax seed or oil, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts. Consider Omega-3 supplements like this one if you do not eat fish.
• Reduce less healthy fats—ditch the chips or crackers.  Avoid fried foods from fast food joints.

Make a Choice for a Healthy Eating Plan

There are dozens of healthy dietary plans to choose from, including vegetarian, low-carb, blood type, raw, Paleo, Ketogenic, and others. One thing that I find absolutely necessary for my sanity is meal planning. The important thing is to make a choice now to eat the real-food way. I can help you with some specific guidelines in my book, Everyday Natural. Learning to follow a healthy eating plan will ensure that you are supplying your body with the healthy fats it needs.

Be sure the eating plan you follow provides a healthy supply of the nutrients your body needs to be in optimal condition. These nutrients will include:

1. Alpha lipoic acid, which preserves mitochondrial function, and reduces cellular stress. You can find this in organic meats and vegetables like spinach and broccoli.
2. Coenzyme Q10, which is integral to the top function of your mitochondria. Get your supply from organic meats.
3. Acetyl-L-carnitine, which keeps the motors of your mitochondria running smoothly. It increases the fat-burning capacity. It can be found in organic meats and poultry. The redder the meat, the more carnitine.
4. Vitamin-D, a fat-soluble vitamin. It enhances energy production in the mitochondria of your muscles after exercise. It is difficult to get enough from diet alone, but it is formed when you are exposed to sunlight. You may need to supplement during the winter months.
5. Add seaweeds to your diet.
6. Increase your protein consumption with organic organ meats about once a week.

If you make a consistent effort to feed your mitochondria properly, you will be on the road to better health. The healthier your mitochondria are, the more efficient your cells are in processing nutrients.

Sources

1. https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/basics/cell.
2. https://experiencelife.com/article/the-care-and-feeding-of-your-mitochondria/.
3. http://health-inspiration.com/html/mitochondrial_fuel.html.
4. https://healthyforgood.heart.org/eat-smart/articles/dietary-fats.
5. http://www.return2health.net/articles/feeding-your-mitochondria/.

It’s hard to walk into a crowd anywhere without quickly noticing that nearly 85–95 percent of the people in that crowd are using their smartphones. Today’s technology—including Google, Twitter and Facebook—has become so addictive that a phenomena called “continuous partial attention” is severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ. Smartphone addiction is a real thing and it’s affecting families all over the world. 

Let’s get it closer to home—how has smartphone usage affected you and your family members? Let’s be honest here. I know for me and Frank and our little family, we have had to actually set up parameters for each family member that keep us off the smartphone and interacting in a much more meaningful way with each other. We even got extreme a few years back and completely got rid of our iPhones for a few years. You can read about that story here. We also have the Moment APP on our phones to keep track of how much time we are on it. And I am using a few of these apps that help control screen time on each of your family’s devices. 

A few statistics about smartphone addiction: 

Let’s look at just a few of the current statistics about smartphone usage:

• The average person checks a cellphone 110 times a day.
• 40 percent check their cellphones on the toilet.
• 1 in 5 people ages 18-34 have used their smartphones during sex.
• 61 percent sleep with their phones turned on under a pillow or next to bed.
• 77 percent of parents and teens have argued about smartphone usage.
• 26 percent of car accidents are caused by phone usage (source).

Has Your Mind (or your kid’s mind) Been Hijacked?

Hal Gatewood

Just how serious is your smartphone addiction? We all would find it hard to live without the convenience of having a cellphone. Today’s cellphones are the one miraculous device that handles all the things that used to require the use of as many as six or seven separate devices. But unfortunately, the real danger is when you find yourself using your phone to the exclusion of interaction with others. At that point you are becoming a smartphone addict. Take the “Are You a Phone Addict?” Test here to see where you fit in.

Smartphone addiction has a scientific name—Nomophobia, the fear of being without your smartphone. Nomophobia has some serious consequences, including:

• You’re wasting time.
• You become more anxious.
• You don’t sleep as well.
• Your kids pick up your naughty phone habits.
• Chemical imbalances in the brain (source)

This last consequence is probably the one that we fear the most. It’s hard to get some teens (or ever preteens) to put down their phone long enough to share a meal together as a family. Children are learning that always being connected is normal—and therefore missing out on the importance of human-to-human interaction.

How to End Your Smartphone Addiction

You can research this topic and find many resources that will help you find practical ways to end the addiction to your cellphones. I want to highlight a 5-step plan suggested by Dr. Axe. Whether you use this plan or a different one, it may be time to take action to reduce the smartphone addictions in your family’s life.

1. Turn off your cell phone at least an hour before bed.

Give your brain a chance to unwind and commit to turning off your phone an hour before bedtime.

2. Stop shacking up with your phone.

Get a real alarm clock. Turn your phone completely off overnight, and don’t turn it back on until your morning routine is finished—including morning family time.

3. Set certain times to check your phone.

Do you really need to look at every single email the second it’s receives? Give yourself a set length of time that you allow yourself to check anything work-related. I call this my “buffer” block and have a set 30-minute time in the morning and at night at that I check my email, phone, Facebook, and texts. 

4. Establish phone-free zones.

Mealtimes are a good place to start. Set some good examples for your kids. And please say no to phones in bed.

5. Engage in real human contact.

Try spending some real time with your family members. Instead of “liking” a friend’s status, call that person to hear the story firsthand. Set up some coffee dates to catch up with friends. Send cards to faraway friends with a personally written cursive note (just a little homeschool mom’s ranting there).

Establish Some Quality Family Time

One of the best ways to change a bad habit is to start a good habit. I think that can apply to getting free of smartphone addiction as well. There are so many good habits we can set within our families that will communicate the value we place on each family member—and how much we value our time together.

Here are a few ideas for things you can do together that do not require any time on the cellphones.

1. Go outside.

Take a long walk together. Visit a park you’ve never visited before. Plan a weekend camping trip. Do whatever you can to immerse yourself in the outdoors. It’s a fantastic way to connect with your family. Our family spent 25 weeks last year traveling the United States, and it was the best time we had ever spent together.

2. Read together.

Reading together provides a quiet and focused atmosphere that is free of distractions.

3. Play a game.

Family board game times can be some of your children’s favorite memories. There are dozens of appropriate games from which you can choose for a few of your family’s favorite games. We love this game and learn about different herbs while we are playing. 

4. Develop enriching mealtimes together.

Whether you choose a scheduled night for going out for a meal at your favorite restaurant, or schedule a night when your entire family cooks a meal together and then spends time around the table telling favorite family memories, it will be time spent that each family member will treasure.

Turn Off the Phone and Turn On the Family Time

Maybe you’ve read this article and said, “That’s not me…I’m not addicted to my phone.” Or maybe you know you are but really don’t think you can live without it. Try this 7-day digital detox! 

Whichever is you, commit to taking one first step to using it less. Let that one step inspire you to take the next…and the next…until you really have discovered that some life without technology is not only possible—but downright enjoyable!

The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.

—Nassim Nicholas Taleb