I've always had mixed feelings about the controversy over fluoride. While I am a fan of natural health, I am also measured in my approach and not swayed by hysteria. (For example, after researching the pros and cons of microwaves, I decided that microwaves are probably safe. Your mileage may vary.) So I haven't been overly fearful about the fluoride put into our drinking water.

However, some do have very strong reactions to fluoride. If you have vague symptoms and can't find relief, and no doctor seems to be able to help you, perhaps you have a fluoride "allergy." I'm terming it that because it seems some people have very strong reactions to it, while others, not so much. It's important to keep that in perspective, because I feel being fearful of every possible additive that might be in your food or water is stress-inducing - and that stress is possibly more harmful to your health than the actual additive!

Be on the lookout: Aspartame is being renamed "AminoSweet" and will be marketed as a "natural" sweetener:

"Over 25 years ago, aspartame was first introduced into the European food supply. Today, it is an everyday component of most diet beverages, sugar-free desserts, and chewing gums in countries worldwide. But the tides have been turning as the general public is waking up to the truth about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and the harm they cause to health. The latest aspartame marketing scheme is a desperate effort to indoctrinate the public into accepting the chemical sweetener as natural and safe, despite evidence to the contrary."

More here: http://www.puppetgov.com/2010/02/13/aspartame-renamed-aminosweet-and-is-...

When I hear of OSHA, I normally think of a government agency (The Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Osha is also an herb, which is used to fight colds and viruses. It has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. It is said to be especially good for upper respiratory infections, and it helps oxygenate the blood.

I had never heard of Osha until the other day, however. I had just moved across three states and was run down and experiencing some symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. It could have been a cold, or even allergies, but I was just bone tired and feeling like a truck hit me. Even though I do holistic healing, I forget sometimes to take care of myself using the tools available. I remembered there was a health food store across the street from my new apartment complex, and I went there to get some natural remedies.

I've been meaning to share this book: Eat Your Way to Happiness by Elizabeth Somer. While the book says it will help you "keep the pounds off," this is a great nutrition book for everyone. It is also especially helpful for anyone who has mood problems, because the author goes into great detail about how food affects our mood.

I liked the book because she made things easy to implement and doable. Rather than feeling like you had to go on a restrictive diet to the point of throwing out anything halfway yummy, the approach here is about adding better foods but also giving yourself a treat once in a while. You don't have to become vegan or a raw foodist or learn how to make your own tofu in order to benefit from her suggestions.

I've implemented a few of the suggestions in the book and found I do have more energy. Specifically, I make a point of eating whole grains every morning to give myself a continual source of energy during the day.

I left for vacation and when I returned, the water coming out of my faucets was brown when it first came out of the pipe. While the water eventually became "clear" for the most part, My Brita water filter did not totally remove all the rust, and the water in the pitcher has been a bit cloudy.

Curious as to whether this water was safe to drink or not, I searched online and found the answer. Is rusty water safe to drink? The short answer is yes, unless you have an extremely rare condition where iron accumulates in the body organs.

From the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter:

Is there some agency that is charged with reviewing all the foods we've been eating for centuries, for the purpose of driving us insane about what we can and cannot eat? Seems hardly a month goes by without some food being declared unfit for consumption. It started with coffee than went to milk and I've lost track of how many foods have been deemed unfit for consumption. Is this an industry? What's next apples?

Such is the lament of one commenter on Jill Richardson's article "Shrimp's Dirty Secrets: Why America's Favorite Seafood Is a Health and Environmental Nightmare."

And yes. Now the big bad food is shrimp. Shrimp!

Given all the scare and horror stories around about various types of food, you think something as seemingly benign as shrimp would be OK. Ooops. No, it's not.

I hate to sound like a stereotype, but ramen noodles were one of my staple foods in college. I also remember eating a lot of waffles and popcorn. Sometimes for lunch and dinner. That, and Hamburger Helper. It's a wonder I survived at all, now that I think about it.

My friends recently gave me some packaged food they didn't want, and it included one lone packet of ramen noodles. It was chicken "flavor," which really doesn't mean there's any actual chicken in it (though there is plenty of MSG).

Once I cooked the ramen, I noticed how lonely they looked sitting there in the bowl. Nothing green or colorful, just a bland mix of cloudy yellow water and yellow noodles. Kind of sad looking.

I remember I had some roasted seaweed in my cabinet, and when I put some strips into the soup bowl, voila, I suddenly had something that looked like actual soup!

I just picked up some wheat bran from the grocery store. I'm on a whole grain kick and looking to add more unprocessed grains to my diet. Wheat bran is chock full of vitamins as well as phytonutrients that you can't really get from a pill.

What do you do with wheat bran? Well, you can make muffins with it, for one thing. But I plan on putting some wheat bran on my whole grain cereal every morning.

Wheat bran is not the same thing as wheat germ, by the way. Wheat bran is what's on the outside of the wheat berry; wheat germ is what's on the inside. Both are very good for you. I've heard wheat become a bogeyman in some alternative health circles...but that's only if you are allergic to it. Whole wheat is an excellent source of nutrition otherwise.

Women in particular can benefit from adding more whole grains such as wheat bran to the diet. For one, whole wheat can help you lose weight:

Here in Los Angeles, "raw food" has become a big trend. Several raw food restaurants have opened up in recent years, where nothing you eat is cooked. It can be ground up, sliced, diced, and put in a blender, but never cooked.

Even the soups are cold. (I'll never forget my friend ordering a soup at a local raw food restaurant, only to realize that it - duh! - wasn't hot!)

I enjoy eating raw food, but I find myself only being able to stomach so much of it at a time. I suppose some raw food purists will accuse me of being too tainted by my Western diet...but personally, I need more carbs to survive.

So I like raw food as an addition to my regular diet, but not a lifestyle. I think it's always a good idea to add more raw fruits and veggies to a diet. I'd actually love to take a class in raw food "cooking" (an oxymoron!). But doing it 100% isn't my thing.

I stumbled across this article from the UK about some new wonder diet pills being tried over there. One of the drugs is so extreme that it causes some interesting side effects:

The drug, which is a £1.60-a-day diluted version of the prescription-only drug Xenical, works by reducing the body's ability to process fat by about 25 per cent.

The undigested fat passes straight through the body, creating what is described as "an urgent need to go to the bathroom".

Yikes! Well, I suppose that's one way to lose some weight.

What I found interesting about the article is how doctors were saying these pills were no replacement for lifestyle changes. You don't seem to hear that too much here in the U.S., except on the Biggest Loser.

Here is some sage advice from one of the doctors: