Cortisol is also directly related to liver function. Obviously, cortisol is an important natural steroid hormone, but what does it have to do with losing weight. It helps to learn about how cortisol levels fluctuate over the course of the day.

For most people, cortisol levels are in a state of constant flux. However, there are certain patterns of production that can be noted in most people. Most people experience higher levels of cortisol in the early part of the day. As the day progresses, cortisol levels tend to fall. Cortisol levels are at their highest at the very beginning of the day, usually peaking in the first twenty to thirty minutes that a person is awake.

These patterns are common, but there are also certain triggers that can make your cortisol level rise and fall throughout the course of the day. The most prescient trigger is related to stress. Cortisol is, after all, a stress hormone. Whenever you feel stressed, your body releases a strong does of cortisol. Cortisol is directly related to the famous fight or flight syndrome that one experiences when caught in a particularly stressful situation.

Why should you be concerned with cortisol production in your own body if you are concerned with weight loss. Many health experts believe that there may be a connection between cortisol production and weight gain. The theory goes like this is every time you get stressed, your body releases a strong dose of cortisol.

This extra cortisol production, in turn, causes you to gain weight. In addition to being a strong stress hormone, cortisol is also related to fat building at the cellular level. Although cortisol is necessary at the cellular level throughout the body, some theorize that it may also be responsible for creating extra fat cells throughout the body.

How exactly is cortisol potentially responsible for production of fat cells in your body. When you get stressed, your body kicks into high gear. Your body senses the stress and the adrenal gland begins to produce extra cortisol. The cortisol that your body produces also causes sugar to be released into the bloodstream. Why is extra sugar released into the bloodstream. The extra blood sugar is released by the body as a way of preparing for the flight or fight syndrome. After all, it makes sense that your body needs more energy at this time. Recall a time in your life where you felt very stressed.

Maybe you could feel your heart pounding and felt your palms sweating before giving an important speech. Everyone has faced at least one such experience in his or her lifetime. Some people feel like they are constantly on high alert. Others have chronic feelings of restlessness and anxiety that is commonly termed nervous energy.

It makes sense that our bodies need more energy at moments of high intensity stress. At moments like this, your body needs to release extra blood sugar and a shot of cortisol. Sometimes cortisol is released at times of physical intensity, such as during a hard workout session.

How does extra release of cortisol and blood sugar into the bloodstream affect you if you are interested in weight loss. Extra cortisol release is not inherently a bad thing. But if you are prone to chronic stress, you may be prone to weight gain. When cortisol is out of balance, such as during moments of intense stress, your body may release excessive cortisol. This, in turn, may cause the production of extra fat cells.

Much has been written about the dangers of chronic stress, and indeed it is a serious problem. Now, it appears that chronic stress may also be a culprit in excessive weight gain. What can you do if you believe your body may be producing too much cortisol, resulting in excessive, stress related weight gain.

Available on the market today are special cortisol blockers that can help if you are indeed suffering from hormonal weight gain. Before taking such medications, you must consult with a medical professional to make sure that your weight problem is indeed hormonal in nature.

His experiments with rats showed that starches are digested in about two hours, proteins are digested in about four hours but a protein-starch mixture could still be digesting 13 hours later. With dogs, again the protein-starch mixture took over twice as long compared to the same food consumed separately.

Pavlov also showed that food taken on top (i.e. before digestion has completed) can lead to fermentation. This happens when you eat fruit after a meal; many people say that it gives them gas.

What could account for Pavlov’s results?

The enzymes essential for digestion only function at specific pH levels; proteins and carbohydrate enzymes require opposite pH levels. If you mix them together in the same bag, you won’t be able to digest either food properly.

“Most fruits go straight through the stomach into the duodenum for digestion, which means if you put fresh fruit on top of a big meal, it has to sit and wait in the top of the stomach until the other food is digested, during which delay bacteria attack the fruit and ferment it, gobbling up all the nutrients and leaving you with gas and metabolic wastes.”
Daneil Reid, Trophology: The Science of Food Combining, “The Tao of Health”.

In 1908 Dr Howard Hay after practicing medicine for 16 years developed High Blood Pressure, Brights Disease and a dilated heart. As there was no treatment available, Dr Hay decided to find a cure for his own symptoms. He looked at his food intake and the chemical process of digestion, the enzymes that are essential for this process and whether the food has an overall acidifying or alkalizing effect on the body.

To the amazement of his colleagues, he had a complete remission of his symptoms in 3 months of changing his diet. He also reduced his weight by 20kg’s. In 1911 he introduced his Food Combining guidelines and gave lectures till his death about the need to combine foods properly and reducing acidifying foods from the diet.

If you think there’s nothing to acid-alkaline food combining, try this: one day for lunch eat a steak with chips, and monitor how you feel after an hour or so. Next day eat the same steak, but with a large vegetable salad. Which day did you feel more tired, drowsy?

Try feeding your dog meat and biscuits for a while, see how he feels!

Try an acidifying McDonald’s diet for a month.

If you’re still alive, try an alkaline diet of alkaline water, fruits, vegetables, juices and super greens for a month. You’re guaranteed to lose weight from this diet – it’s over 95% water!

Some doctors maintain that all food is acid in the stomach and becomes alkaline in the intestines from the pancreas secretions. The blood pH range is so narrow that any measurable change would cause death. Even a bottle of ant-acids won’t affect the acidity of the stomach for long.

These scientific facts don’t mean that an alkaline diet is useless or that the body can magically process food in any old combination!

Remember Pavlov’s results? Why are so many people that eat at McDonald’s fat and why did Spurlock nearly die? The fat content is not that high – a Big Mac apparently is 100% grilled beef, the chips are fried in vegetable oil and there’s no fat in the cola! Could it be the acid, the high glycemic load and the bad combinations?

Such foods play havoc on our blood sugar and pH levels. As Daniel Reid explains the sugary ’soft drink’ is an ‘acid bomb’:
“A 350 ml serving of Coke, Pepsi or similar drink delivers a sugar fix equivalent to about 9 teaspoons of sugar straight into the blood stream. This instantly acidifies the bloodstream to the extreme point that without an immediate emergency response from the body, it would kill you in a mater of minutes…you’d have to drink 32 glasses of alkaline water to neutralize the blood pH…to prevent death by acidosis, the body reacts swiftly by drawing huge amounts of organic calcium from the bones and teeth and pouring it into the bloodstream to neutralize the excess acid and quickly restore alkaline balance. Calcium is the body’s most potent alkalizing agent”

Are there any clinical studies to settle this issue?

A study called “Cola beverage consumption induces bone mineralization reduction in ovariectomized rats” (the rats were fed cola – acid, pH 2.5 – and the effects on bone density measured) suggests that “heavy intake of cola soft drinks has the potential of reducing femoral mineral density”.

Dr L. Frassetto’s team at the University of California discovered that as we age, starting around age 45, we lose the alkaline buffer bicarbonates in our blood:

“Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity.”

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that alkalizing diets improve bone density and serum growth hormone concentrations; the acidosis resulting from acidic diets contributes to bone and muscle loss.

Sang Whang in his book “Reverse Aging” proposed a Theory of Aging: we age because we gradually accumulate organic acid wastes. These wastes show up as uric acid, urate, sulfate, phosphate, kidney stones and other organic wastes often surrounded by cholesterol. Cellulite is a gel-like substance made up of fat in which are trapped acid wastes in pockets below the skin.

Dr Robert Young, author of “The pH Miracle” has been saying this for years – “Obesity is an acid problem, the fat is saving our lives.”

Should I eat alkaline foods and stop eating acidifying things like red meats?

Yes eat plenty of water-rich alkaline foods; but there’s no need to avoid any food that contains good nutrients in it like my favorites lamb kebabs and sashimi. As Patrick Holford, author of ‘The Optimum Nutrition Bible’ says “moderation in everything, including moderation”‘!

Acid-alkaline diet food charts come from the pH of the ash that results from burning food; it’s caused by the unburned minerals. However, just as burning petrol creates exhausts, over 97% of any food metabolized creates acid wastes. At less than 1%, alkaline minerals are a fraction of the nutritional content of food and the overall acidity produced.

Clinical studies show that alkaline mineral water is the best way to obtain alkaline minerals and acid waters like colas are the best way to quickly deplete them!

The most nourishing alkaline foods are nature’s super greens – spirulina, barley and wheat grass powders. Mix half a tea spoon in alkaline water daily. This will give you more nutrients then a basket full of vegetables. Other super foods are EFA oils and bee pollen.

So eat a nutritionally balanced diet of natural whole foods and combine them sensibly. Most of all drink lots of alkaline mineral water.

Your weight will take care of itself.

Positive role models in healthy relationships are important for teens to learn the necessary skills in dating relationships. Without positive role models teens may not realize their behaviors in dating relationships are abusive or that they are in an abusive dating relationship. If mom endured pain with dad, this type of scenario can be passed onto teens in their relationships. If dad hit, slapped or yelled at mom, then Charlie will be more likely to slap, hit yell or demean his girlfriend, Suzy. The same goes the other way around, if mom makes all the decisions, and rules the roost so to speak, or decides she can go where she pleases while dad sits home and babysits, then Suzy is more likely to behave much the same in her relationships. Abuse wears many hats and appears in many different faces. Abuse can be subtle or very obvious resulting in broken bones, bruises and even death.

When talking to teens, focus on what healthy relationships are. Partners should respect each other’s opinions, decisions and personal privacy. When decisions and choices are to be made both partners should be able to express feelings, desires and wants. It is never healthy for one person to have a great amount of control over another person. Each person needs space for personal and separate identities. No one should have to give up their individuality to be part of a couple. Each partner needs separate time and space to pursue independent activities and engage in other friendships. Healthy relationships have strong foundations of trust and honesty.

Discuss with your teen the reality that a true caring partner is concerned about the well-being of the other partner and wants what is best for that person. A caring partner is able to share joy about the success of the other partner instead of expressing jealousy. A true caring partner will be of support in times of trouble. Define healthy relationships to your teens as being a place where both partners feel safe emotionally and physically.

If you observe teens exhibiting behavior other than mutual respect in dating relationships give them the opportunity to talk about appropriate behavior toward significant others. Any indication of situations escalating into abuse or dating violence should quickly be reported to agencies that can help.

Review some of the tips below to help you build a strong and trusting relationship with teens:

• Always respect your teen. Avoid ridicule or humiliation. If you have more than one teen, avoid playing favorites between them. If you want cooperation, never allow a teen to perceive you do not like him or her.

• It is rude to talk about other people, whether it is family members, a friend, enemies or what have you. Be a role model in showing respect to other adults and everyone.

• In dealing with teens, be sure roles are well established and that it is clear you are the adult.

• Don’t pretend to be a teen yourself and just hanging out with other teens. Teens will see right through a pretense. They respect adults who act like adults, and they actually need this more from an adult than one who tries to be just one of the gang.

• If you tell a teen you will do something, by all means keep your word. They in turn will learn to keep their word with you and others. This is setting an example of “strong character.” Teens need to know they can depend on you in whatever circumstances they face.

• Be patient when trying to build a trusting relationship with a teen. Allow them to bond with you at their own pace.

• Take time to genuinely listen to a teen’s concerns and dreams. Develop skills that will help teens to solve their own problems and avoid telling what you think they should do in any given situation.

• Let your teen know you believe in him or her and in their own personal abilities. They will learn to believe in themselves and develop a strong self confidence within themselves.

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Ways to decrease violence

Talk to your kids

Keep good communication between both you and your children. Encourage them to be more involved, wether it be friends, sports, or an after school program. Its also never to early to start a serious discussion about drug use and alcohol.

Set Limits

Set limits in the household. Make sure they are pulling their end of the bargain. Homework, chores, and curfews. As they got older, you can start easing up some, but don’t give them complete control.

Warning Signs

Often, if not all of the time, theres warning signs, or a cry for help. It might be isolation from friends, decline in grades, or quitting sports or clubs they have always enjoyed. If you start seeing a odd change in behavior, talk to them first

Stay Involved

Show your children that education is important, get to know their teachers and keep an eye on homes,projects, and grades. If problems arises in a class, arrange a meeting with the teacher and discuss ways of handling the situation.

ZERO TOLERANCE

Many schools if not all, have some sort of zero tolerance rules. Wepaons and drugs can result in being expelled without question. The same should be at home, don’t allow either in your home, and if you have a gun, make sure you keep it locked up to where they can’t get it.