Friday, September 30, 2011

October Newsletter - Fruits and Vegetables is not One Word!

Welcome the Fall Season - perhaps my favorite time of the year. It is also a great time for the purification program, better known among my clients as “the cleanse”. I started mine this past Monday, after having a bit too much of a birthday celebration! Since I love to share its joy with others, I’m offering a $15 discount to anyone who starts the cleanse this month.


I am pleased to announce that I have just completed a new nutrition certification. I am now a Certified Clinician in Whole Food Nutrition (CCWFN) from the International Foundation for Nutrition and Health (IFNH). The IFNH is a great organization and well worth your support. You can read more about the organization and my certification at their web site http://www.ifnh.org/.

Last, but not least, I have a few workshops going on this month.

On October 1 @ 2:00 I’ll be at Haleybird Studios in Wauwatosa presenting my favorite and most popular workshop – Rejuvenation and Relaxation. On October 5 @ 7:30 I’ll be at GreenSquare Center in Glendale discussing “Ten More Foods You Should Have in Your Healthy Diet.” And, on October 29 at 1:00 I’ll be in West Bend leading a special yoga class and Yoga Nidra. For a complete listing of all events click here http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2010/05/rosen-wellness-news-and-events.html

ABCs of Nutrition

In looking back at all the past articles and blog posts I’ve done over the last few years I recently realized that I have neglected a most basic topic. While my articles have spanned a variety of topics this is one I missed, so here it is – a quick overview of the three critical macronutrients – protein, fat, and carbohydrates. What they are, what they do in the body, and from what food sources they are available. For the rest of the story click here: http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2011/09/abcs-of-nutrition.html

Fructose – Fruits and Vegetables is Not One Word

One thing I’ve learned about nutrition over these past few years is that there is always more to learn. I recently heard this line, “Fruits and vegetables is not one word.” I forgot exactly who to credit it to, but it is so true. While the many benefits to fruit and vegetables are highly touted, such as vitamins, minerals, and fiber, there is also one key difference. Fruit contains fructose or “fruit sugar” which is metabolized differently in the body than other sugars such as sucrose, maltose, lactose, or glucose. This is where the complications arise. While we can eat pretty much unlimited amounts of vegetables I am now of the strong belief that we should limit our consumption of fruit. The following article from Dr. Mercola provides all the information you need to know, plus a chart showing you how much fructose is in different fruits.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/29/is-this-simple-sugar-a-major-factor-in-the-failure-of-the-war-on-cancer.aspx?e_cid=20110929_DNL_art_2

Monday, September 19, 2011

The ABCs of Nutrition

In looking back at the past articles I realized I have neglected this most basic topic – a quick overview of the three critical macronutrients – protein, fat, and carbohydrates.


First we’ll look at protein. Protein is the structural basis for our body - our muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair, vital fluids (blood, hormones, neurotransmitters), and enzymes are all protein based. It builds and repairs all these tissues and cells.

Proteins come from both animal (meat, fish, poultry, milk, cheese, eggs) and plant sources (whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds). When we eat protein we are actually consuming amino acids. Different proteins will have different amino acid compositions. Since our body is constantly building and repairing itself, it requires a constant supply of protein. Therefore I recommend protein is consumed with each meal.

The human body is an amazing instrument. There are thousands of things happening simultaneously, every second. To do everything the body does requires energy. The source of the body’s energy is food. Without food the body simply cannot continue to operate for a significant period of time. Both fats and carbohydrates provide energy. But they do it differently. Think of a fire. A carbohydrate is like a piece of paper. You put it in the paper and it burns up quickly and to keep the fire burning more paper is needed quickly. Fat is like a log. It burns smoothly, steady, and for a much longer period of time.

Carbohydrates are one of the more controversial elements of food. You will see heated debates illustrating the benefits of both low carbohydrate diets and high carbohydrate diets. The Standard American Diet (SAD) has become a high carbohydrate diet. The infamous 2000 calorie diet the food pyramid is based on calls for 60% of calories from carbohydrates. We all know how successful that has been! I’m a believer in the low carbohydrate diet.

Carbohydrates provide quick energy. They are converted into blood glucose which feeds our brain and red blood cells. Ever notice how irritable you get when hungry? The brain does not operate very well without nourishment. When most of us think carbohydrate we think grains. They are not the only choice. Vegetables and fruits contain carbohydrates and roughly 30% of protein converts to carbohydrates. In my book, these are the best sources of carbohydrate.

Remember this simple equation. To your body: CARBOHYDRATE = SUGAR! That’s all you need to know. If we consume lots of carbohydrates (like 60% or more of our diet) we consume lots of sugar. While sugar can be used for energy, excess sugar is converted into fat and stored. The bottom line - it is sugar that makes us fat!

Speaking of fat, it is fat that has been unjustly demonized. We have been suffering from a low fat craze for the last twenty years. Everybody (well not really everyone!) has been convinced that fat is bad for us and should be avoided at all costs. So what has happened? We got fatter! Obesity rates are going through the roof.

So, we need fats. They make up cell membranes and hormones, are required for absorption of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), are critical for infant brain development and the female reproductive system, and provide energy.

There are two types of fats – saturated and unsaturated (further defined as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated). Saturated fats are solid while unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. Unsaturated fats are much more sensitive to light and heat. When heated they oxidize forming “free radicals” that damage cells and are linked to a variety of diseases including cancer and heart disease. Therefore, particularly when cooking we want to use saturated fats such as butter or coconut oil. And, for salad dressing or other room temperature uses olive oil is best.

Another fat we hear of are trans fatty acids. These are formed during the process of hydrogenation. Polyunsaturated oils, usually corn, soybean, safflower, or canola, are heated to high temperatures and injected with hydrogen atoms. During the heating process the nutrients in the oils are destroyed, the oils become solid and have oxidized. Trans fats have been linked to many ailments, including cancer, heart disease, and reproductive problems. Trans fats are commonly found in commercial baked goods, cookies, crackers, margarines, vegetable shortenings, and processed dairy products.

Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create individualized nutrition and wellness programs. He has offices in Thiensville and Glendale, WI. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262) 389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

September Newsletter - Back to School for Kids and Adults

The summer sure went by quickly and the kids are back to school today. Hard to believe my son is a senior! Not only are the kids going back to school, but time for the adults as well! And, I’ve got lots of wonderful learning opportunities coming up this month and through the fall and winter.
This month my monthly nutrition and wellness talks begin at my new office at GreenSquare Center for the Healing Arts in Glendale. The talks are the first Wednesday of each month from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. We open with “Ten Foods to Have In Your Healthy Diet.” Let’s establish the basics of healthy eating and go from there. For a complete list of the programs click here http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2010/05/rosen-wellness-news-and-events.html

Later this month I’ll be making my annual trip to Cedar Falls, Iowa with some brand new workshops, including “From Head to Toe, What Your Body is Telling You.” If you are in the Cedar Falls area or know anyone there, please join us. There will also be a very special event. For more details click here http://www.fieldofyoga.com/index.php?p=1_22_Workshops-Events

On September 22 my schedule at the Mequon Recreation Center kicks off with “Know Your Nutrients” – an introduction to the major vitamins and minerals and what they do in the body. Mequon talks are Thursdays at 12:30.

While it is not technically September, on October 1 Haleybird Studios in Wauwatosa is hosting my “Rejuvenation and Relaxation” workshop. This is a fan favorite as participants learn easy techniques to energize the body and reduce stress. For more information click here http://www.haleybirdstudios.com/workshops.html

Back to School Nutrition

In the spirit of back to school below is an article on nutrition for kids. I also urge you to visit the website www.mequonkids.com for some great ideas and recipes.

In the spirit of “back to school” I thought I’d offer a few thoughts on nutrition for kids. (Of course this advice applies to adults as well.) In all honesty, it is probably the most challenging aspect of my private client practice. While it can be difficult to get adults to eat healthier, kids can be even more so. The food producers and manufacturers have developed special foods that they call “kid’s food”. If you take the time to read the list of ingredients you will find that most of it is not food and should not be consumed by anyone, particularly our children. Our children are growing and need the healthiest foods available to properly fuel their minds and bodies.

For the rest of the post click here http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2011/09/back-to-school-nutrition-ideas.html

Introducing Dr. Melvin Page, Nutrition Pioneer

While I’ve written in the past of the works of Drs. Price, Pottenger, and Lee, I’d like to introduce you to another of their contemporaries, Dr. Melvin Page. Dr. Page was also a dentist and he took the works of Dr. Price and expanded upon them. Their key finding was that in healthy human beings the serum calcium to phosphorus ratio should be 2.5 part calcium to one part phosphorus (10:4). This is what Price found in the native populations he studied and what Page later found with his patients. Page went on to show that those with higher calcium tended towards heart disease and atherosclerosis, while those with high phosphorus tended towards cancer. The underlying reasons are actually quite simple – too much calcium in the blood leads to clots and too much phosphorus weakened the immune system.

Page developed a specific diet – the Page Food Plan – that brought his patients blood chemistry into proper balance and they became healthy! The original plan was developed in the 1950’s and is available on my web site http://www.brwellness.com/docs/2011_Page_Food_Plan.pdf. However, there is a more up to date version taking into account some of the food availability and quality issues that are present today. If you’d like a copy of that, please call or e-mail me.

Page did more interesting work, but I’ll save that for next time. If you’d like to read about my favorite Pioneers of Nutrition, follow the links below.

For the Royal Lee article click here: http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2010/01/pioneers-of-nutrition-dr-royal-lee.html

For the Francis Pottenger article click here: http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2009/12/pioneers-of-nutrition-francis-pottenger.html

For the Weston Price article click here: http://brwellness.blogspot.com/2009/11/pioneers-of-nutrition-dr-weston-price.html

Back to School Nutrition Ideas

In the spirit of “back to school” I thought I’d offer a few thoughts on nutrition for kids. (Of course this advice applies to adults as well.) In all honesty, it is probably the most challenging aspect of my private client practice. While it can be difficult to get adults to eat healthier, kids can be even more so. The food producers and manufacturers have developed special foods that they call “kid’s food”. If you take the time to read the list of ingredients you will find that most of it is not food and should not be consumed by anyone, particularly our children. Our children are growing and need the healthiest foods available to properly fuel their minds and bodies.


The consumption of “kid’s food” and more sedentary lifestyles (lack of exercise, lots of television, computer, and video games) is greatly impacting the health of our youth. Here’s some scary statistics from the CDC. Obesity among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 25 years, increasing from 6.5% in 1980 to 17.0% in 2006. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, going from 5% to almost 18%. Keep in mind, before being classified as “obese” there is “overweight” classification, which I have seen estimates between 20 and 25%.

How do we get our kids to eat healthier foods? One successful strategy that I use is to make subtle substitutions to the foods they like to eat. Let’s take something as simple as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For the peanut butter use organic peanut butter that is nothing but peanuts and peanut oil. Most commercial peanut butters contain added sugar and hydrogenated oil (trans- fats). We know trans-fats are linked to cancer and that added sugar adds empty calories. I stress the organic because peanuts are one of the most highly pesticided crops, so non-organic peanut butter will contain potential chemical residues and toxins. Ever wonder why there are so many peanut allergies today? For the bread I recommend sprouted bread. It comes in a variety of flavors and is the healthiest bread option. It has more vitamins and fewer calories per slice. However, it is made from wheat so for those with gluten intolerance use another bread option such as flax and millet bread. For the jelly, find the most natural product you can. Look for spreads that do not add sugar or have less sugar added. The fruit already has plenty of sugar.

What are some other healthy substitutions? A major area to look at is the carbohydrates. Our kids eat a lot of them – bread, rice, pasta. Our goal here is to shift from the refined and processed white flour products to whole grains. In addition to the switch to sprouted breads, we can use brown rice instead of white rice and pasta from brown rice rather than refined wheat (the white pasta). All of these substitutions taste virtually the same. They just look a little different and that may turn off the kids. But, covered in tomato sauce they will never know the difference!

Then there are snacks. The kids get home from school and they are hungry and it is not quite dinner time. There are certainly some better choices than chips and dips. Another societal norm is this idea of “snack food.” Just like with “kid’s food” we need a little retraining. What is a snack? It is a small meal. So, think of something healthy that would be part of a meal. It can be a half of a sandwich, one hard boiled egg, a cup of yogurt, some fruit, something spread on a stick of celery, vegetables and dip. There’s nothing special about these foods, except that they are healthy. I like to tell people not to worry about if something is considered “breakfast” food or “snack” food – just eat healthy food when you are hungry!

A valuable resource is the web site www.mequonkids.com. It has lots of great ideas for school lunches and snacks. For more ideas and recipes go to the mequonkids.com web site and click on “Brown Bag Lunch Ideas” or “After School Snacks.”

Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create individualized nutrition and wellness programs. He has offices is in Thiensville and Glendale. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262) 389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.