Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I remember about ten years ago, I had a cold that seemed to linger and must have stayed with me for over a month. I had long coughing spells... at times coughing so much my chest would be in pain. That's why I feared getting another cold, because of how long it lasted in the past. But there's a difference between the colds I had back then and the cold I just recovered from; back then, I would use over the counter remedies, today, I  buy certain produce and recover so much faster.

This past weekend, I noticed I was getting somewhat of a sore throat, but nothing too bad. By Monday, I noticed I was also getting some congestion. I really shouldn't have worked out on Monday, but I did. By Tuesday, my cold had turned into a non stop runny nose all day! Finally, on Wednesday, i had pain in my face from the pressure of my sinuses and was feeling miserable.

When I started my health journey three years ago, I read many articles that stated that processed meats cause cancer. Dr. Fuhrman has been saying it for years. Dr. Oz just mentioned it in an episode last week. But when the World Health Organization (WHO) says that processed meats cause cancer, suddenly people are listening.

Processed meats include foods primarily in the beef and pork families, such as sausage, bacon, pepperoni and corned beef, but it can also include foods like chicken nuggets. Luncheon meats unless you are purchasing turkey or chicken breast, are probably processed meats.

I was at McDonald's today, not to order food but to get unsweetened iced tea, an excellent value and tastes good in my opinion. I have my own stevia packets in the car as opposed to sweetening it with Equal or Splenda. Anyway, whenever I'm there, it drives me crazy some of the choices people make when ordering there. I don't say anything to them, but it does give me good incentive to blog about how to make healthier choices. Here's an example.

A woman in front of me was ordering a cheddar something or other burger and asked if tomatoes are extra. The worker told her it would be 30 cents more so she didn't bother getting the tomato with it. She decided to save her money and go for... KETCHUP instead! Now how many of you would think that ketchup is the same as having a slice of tomato? I hope most of you will realize that ketchup is mostly high fructose corn syrup and like 30 other ingredients, very little tomato. It is not a healthy alternative.

I know a few people have said they thought I was on a low carb diet but I am not. I'm on a LOWER carb diet, as I cut down on the amount of carbs I was having. But, I think carbs are important and they get a bad rep.

The Atkins Diet, Paleo, etc, there are so many diets out there that want you to up the protein and fat and drastically reduce carbs. I don't get how it could be healthy to restrict so much that you can't incorporate fruits and certain veggies in the diet (like sweet potatoes). The nutrients are so important... think of all the antioxidants you're missing! I haven't had a cold in so long and I think it's because of all the antioxidants I get from the berries, pomegranates, etc.

It was just announced today that Pepsi plans to offer their once-popular Diet Pepsi without aspartame. You'd think I would be happy with this news. I was when I first read the headline, but then I read the article.

Apparently, Pepsi thinks people will accept sucralose as an effective substitute for the aspartame. People are smarter than this, Pepsi. It's been known for years that sucralose is not a natural sugar substitute and screws up digestion. I'm too young to remember much about this, but i's probably similar to when Coca-Cola introduced aspartame as an alternative to saccharine, which they used in their Tab product, I believe.  The difference is, Coca-Cola made a new product with Diet Coke containing aspartame and probably kept Tab, containing saccharine, on the market for a while. Pepsi is taking a huge gamble changing the formula for their soda without offering a different product.