How many calories do you burn by doing nothing?

What's your RMR?

RMR stands for Resting Metabolic Rate (sometimes referred to as the Basal Metabolic Rate).

Your RMR is the energy that is required for you (or any animal) to stay alive with no activity.

When determining your RMR there are many variables that come into play such as your age, your sex, your weight, your height and your fat-free body mass.

The amount you exercise, living in a cold environment, some supplements, eating small regular meals each day are all things that will increase your RMR rate.

Things that decrease your RMR are growing older and crash-dieting.  The first is recommended.  The second, not so much.

So how do you determine your RMR?

If you put "Resting Metabolic Rate" in a search engine, you'll easily find websites that host RMR calculators.

Any easy way to approximate it is to times your weight by 11.  If you weigh 120 lbs. your RMR is 1,310 (your body burns 1,310 calories each day by just being idle.)  If you weigh 200 lbs your RMR is 2,200.

Quote: "To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent." - Buddha. 

Longevity advice from a 113 year old man.

Brazilian-born Bernando LaPallo turned 113 years old on August 17th, 2014.

And while a Guinness World Records consultant says verified records show him to be born in 1910 and not 1901 (his granddaughter says in the 1930's the Florida social insurance office incorrectly wrote down his date of birth as 1910 and not 1901) whether he is 113 years old or 103 years old, it's still pretty good.

So what does LaPallo attribute his longevity too?

"I eat plenty of fresh fruit and green vegetables, and I drink plenty of water. Water is very important. Exercise and sleep. Sleep is very important. Unless I am making a speech someplace, I’m generally in bed by 9:30.  I get up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning, go for my walk, take my shower, rub my body down with olive oil, make my breakfast," says LaPallo.

His five favorite foods are garlic, cinnamon, honey, chocolate and olive oil (although it appears he uses the olive oil more as a skin moisturizer than a food.)

Most of the advice LaPallo offers up comes straight from his father who lived to be 98 years old...

"He told me not to eat ordinary meat.  Lamb is ok.  But red meat, stay away from.  Hot dogs, French fries...all those things, don't eat," he says.

Another thing his father warned him about was stress telling him that it's "a killer."  LaPallo says "It’s important to take time to relax and exercise your brain, such as by doing crossword puzzles."

Quote:                 

"It's paradoxical, that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."- Andy Rooney

"By 2025 One in Two Children will be Autistic."

The above quote -- and shocking prediction -- was said recently by Dr. Stephanie Seneff a senior researcher at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her "one in two" prophecy is based upon the following pattern...

In 1975, 1 in every 5000 would develop autism. In 1985, it was 1 in every 2,500. In 1995, it was 1 in every 500, in 2005 in was 1 in every 166 and today it is approximately 1 in every 68 children.

In her June 5th 2014 report called Is Roundup the Toxic Chemical That's Making Us All Sick? she presents a chart that shows the correlation between the use of Monsanto's Roundup (which contains the active ingredient glyphosate) on crops and the rising rates of autism.

If that were her only proof it would be easy for critics to dismiss as one could overlap a chart of anything that has gone up over the years on the autism chart and make a similar case, but her case against Roundup (specifically the glyphosate found in Roundup) is well founded.

She notes that the well-known bio-markers of autism --low serum sulfate, disrupted gut bacteria, inflammatory bowel, serotonin and melatonin deficiency, mitochondrial disorder, zinc and iron deficiency (and more) "can all be explained as potential effects of glyphosate on biological systems."

From 1995 to 2005 the use of glyphosate in pesticides rose 1,500 percent.  Every year a 100 million pounds of glyphosate is used on more than a billion acres in the United States alone according to an article published in Science in Society in 2010.

In the summary of her Is Roundup the Toxic Chemical That's Making Us All Sick? report she says that we should be very worried about glyphosate contamination of our food supply and recommends that it be banned from agriculture.  She also suggests that, in addition to autism, its use can be linked to the risk of Alzheimer's disease, celiac disease and other intestinal disorders.

So how do you protect yourself against the effects of glyphosate?  Avoid consuming GMOs (At 13 parts per million, GMO corn contains more than 18 times the safe level of glyphosate set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and support GMO labeling efforts.

Quote:

"It is commonly believed that Roundup is among the safest pesticides… Despite its reputation, Roundup was by far the most toxic among the herbicides and insecticides tested. This inconsistency between scientific fact and industrial claim may be attributed to huge economic interests, which have been found to falsify health risk assessments and delay health policy decisions.” – R. Mesnage et al., Biomed Research International, Volume 2014 (2014) article ID 179691

Does the time of day you eat determine if you will gain weight?

It's simple math right? 

If two people consume the same exact food, but one consumes a portion of their food late at night, the food will have the same impact on their bodies weight-wise... right?

Not according to a study done by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California.

The study involved two groups of mice.

One group was allowed only to eat within an eight hour period.  The second group were free to eat any time they wanted day or night.

The mice that ate at set times during the day did not become obese.  The second group of mice however was found to have 70 percent more fatty deposits.

The study's lead author Dr. Satchidananda Panda explains this by pointing out that at certain times of the day the liver, intestines and muscles are at peak efficiency.  Other times they are sleeping.  Panda says that every organ has a clock and their metabolic cycles are critical.

"When mice or people eat throughout the day and night, it can throw off those normal metabolic cycles," he adds.

In the journal Cell Metabolism, Panda's research team suggests that restricting meal time could help lower obesity rates.

Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum agrees...

"There's a pattern, which you should build up from childhood.  Three set meals a day.  Anything you do to upset that opens you up to problem with hormones that control your appetite."

Quote:

" My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people." 
- Orson Welles

This word helps sell $40 billion on food. Has it worked on you?

Research from Nielsen reveals that the word "natural" on food labeling is the second most powerful word or phrase in food marketing, helping to sell $40.7 billion worth of food in the United States alone. (First place belongs to "Fat Content" which was found on $64 billion of food packaging.)

So it was significant this past November when a U.S. court determined that General Mills could no longer use the term "100 percent natural" to describe food that contains processed ingredients.  Now the new packaging must specifically describe the part of the food that is indeed natural.  For example, instead of saying the entire product is "100 percent natural," they now must say "Made with 100 percent natural oats."  (Kellogg and Pepsi Co have also faced lawsuits around the use of the word "natural" many of them still in progress.)

This was the General Mills lawyer's defense explaining why they should be able to use the word natural:

"The word natural is completely meaningless.  Everything is natural.  Nature includes everything.  It's not just trees and flowers.  It's everything.  A chemical company's toxic waste is completely natural.  It's part of nature.  We're all part of nature.  Everything is natural.  Dog poo (censored) is natural.  It's just not real good food."

Actually I'm pulling your leg.  The above is from a comedy monologue by comedian George Carlin.  Carlin was making fun of people who think they are eating healthy by buying products with the word "natural" on them.  That said, it does make a pretty good defense for the use of the word.  A defense however that essentially renders the word meaningless.

If you have a young child who has trouble sleeping you'll want to read this.

A pool by the National Sleep Foundation found that two out of every three children ten years old or under have experienced some kind of sleep disorder.

If your child has trouble sleeping, a University of Oxford study is cause for hope.

Study findings showed that children who took 600 mg supplement of Omega-3 enjoyed 58 more minutes of sleep and seven fewer waking episodes each night then the children given corn and soybean placebos.

The study found that higher levels of the long-chain Omege-3 DHA were significantly associated not only better sleep, but less bedtime resistance.

Although further research is required because only a small number (362) of children were involved in the study, co-investigator Dr. Ale Richardson is optimistic...

"This randomized controlled trial does suggest that children’s sleep can be improved by DHA supplements and indicates yet another benefit of higher levels of omega-3 in the diet,” he says.

You can purchase high-quality fish and plant-based DHA supplements in most grocery stores and pharmacies.

Is this the only diet tip you really need?

Home cooking is on its way out.

Not tomorrow, or the day after - but years down the road. That’s the prediction of food consultant Harry Balzer.

Balzar believes the reason for this shift is because people don't want to spend time preparing and cooking their meals.  They want convenience.

However despite Balzar’s dire prediction about the future of home cooking, he also says that if you want to eat healthy you just have to do one thing...

Only eat food you prepare yourself.

Now this doesn't include foods that you buy and merely heat up obviously.  He's referring to foods where you actually assemble ingredients and then cook them all together to form a finished culinary masterpiece.

Bestselling author and nutritional expert Michael Pollan subscribes to Balzar's advice. Pollan uses French fries as an example of how this will help you eat right.  French fries are something that fast food chains know how to make extremely tasty.

But when was the last time you actually took the time to make them at home?

Six weeks ago?  Six months ago?  Longer?

The reason most people don't make their own french fries is it's too labor intensive.  You have to buy the potatoes, peel them, slice them, heat them up in a pot of oil, fry them and then finally eat them.

So not only will the "Only eat food you prepare yourself" rule save you from eating too many french fries which are generally acknowledged as not being the healthiest food on the planet, it will keep you from relying on processed foods as part of your daily meal.  And that can never be a bad thing.