A Dose of Health

I stopped by the grocery store last night to pickup cold cuts for my daughter’s school lunch. She told me she was tired of peanut butter and apple sandwiches (I was also tired of making them).

It was late and the cold cut counter was closed so I picked up a package of Sara Lee Honey Roasted Turkey Breast. Now, I know that there’s a lot of salt in processed meat, but for grins, I donned my reading glasses and decided to read the ingredients. I shouldn’t have done that. Here’s what I found:

Turkey Breast
Water
Honey
Contains 2% or less of:
Salt
Sugar
Sodium lactate
Sodium phosphate
Sodium diacetate
Sodium erythorbate
Sodium Nitrite

It gets me the way they package it as 2% or less of…

So, with 2% or less of 6 different types of salt, that means that the turkey package is potentially 12% salt.

Serving Sizes

The serving size for such chemicals are 4 slices which yield the following nutrition facts:

50 Calories of which 5 are from fat

.05g Fat
20 mg cholesterol
550 mg sodium
2g carbohydrates
2g sugar
10 g protein
2% iron.

The Truth of the Matter

The prepackaged slices are approximately 4 ½ inches in diameter and sliced so thin that it’s next to impossible to pull one slice off without it ripping. With such size and thinness, most folks use more than 4 slices to make a sandwich.

On the conservative side, let’s say you use 6 slices of turkey to make a sandwich. That means that you’re consuming 825 mg of sodium (and that’s not including the bread, mayo or mustard). Wow, that’s a lot of salt.

According to the MayoClinic adults shouldn’t exceed 1,500 to 2,400 mg of sodium a day. The requirement drops if you are over 50, African American and have any type of chronic diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

A long time ago, I used a homemade recipe for cold cuts. It’s time for me to stop being so lazy and get back to basics. Making my own turkey cold cuts is not only healthier, but it’s cheaper too (plus I can season the turkey any way I want).

As a result of one of my reader’s comments, I did a little research on Vitamin K. He suggested checking out vitamin K because I had shared my experience about my brain calcification scare. Thanks Stew for the heads up.

Apparently vitamin K helps the blood to clot normally, and helps to prevent heart disease. It also appears to help prevent calcification of the arteries. Does it help with brain calcification? I don’t know. I would think that since it prevents calcification in the arteries, it would help with the brain also.

According to the Health Encyclopedia, on the subject of Vitamin K “it has been hypothesized…it’s possible mechanisms include inhibiting brain calcification…”

Vitamin K also helps to prevent osteoporosis. Apparently it seems to be a facilitator in keeping the calcium in places where it’s supposed to be (the bones) and not deposited in places where it shouldn’t be (the arteries).

As if that wasn’t enough, Vitamin K also helps fight tooth decay. According to a study performed in the 1940’s by Dr. Leonard S. Fosdick , chewing Vitamin K coated gum for 10 minutes after every meal yielded a 60 to 90% decrease in new cavities over a period of 18 months. Vitamin K appeared to be more effective than fluorinated drinking water. Imagine that?

Where to get Vitamin K

Green leafy vegetables have an abundance of Vitamin K. Things like kale, spinach, collard greens, Swiss chard, mustard greens, broccoli and so on and so on. Go into your garden or your neighbor’s garden (with permission, of course) and start chomping away.

From what I’ve read, there are no ill effects of eating too much of the stuff. There might be ill effects if you choose to get your vitamin K through synthetic supplements. So, do yourself a favor and get it naturally.

Daily Recommended Dose of Vitamin K

I’ve read anywhere from 1-10 mg per day. To save yourself the headache of having to calculate how much to eat, just get your daily serving of greens each day. You’ll have your required amount of Vitamin K. According to The World’s Healthiest Foods, 1 cup of boiled kale gives you 1327.6% of the daily value.

Does Vitamin K Prevent Brain Calcification?

I can’t say that it does for sure, but it sure can’t hurt to get your daily required dose of vitamin K.

What do you do when you’ve reached a point in your life where the sum of your earlier actions is resulting in less than stellar health?  You find the numbers on the scale are a bit higher than you’d like and your energy level is lower than you’d like.   How do you begin to reverse the process?

Fortunately, the body is very forgiving.  The biggest obstacle standing between you and optimal health is you.  You can blame genetics, slow metabolism, or your second job, college, kids and spouse for taking up too much time to allow you to begin a fitness program.   More than likely all of these factors will make it more difficult for you to improve your health, but when it comes down to it, you can continue placing blame or take the bull by the horns and make a few changes.

Where to Begin?

Start small by substituting.  Whether you have 3 jobs, 18 kids and a slow metabolism, none of that stops you from drinking liquids.  Instead of drinking soda, try substituting it with water.  That’s not too tough, is it?

Soda is highly acidic.  Wait; let me back this up a bit so you will understand why drinking water instead of soda is so important.  I’m going to go through a very quick and simple pH 101.

What is pH?

pH is a means of measuring the “potential Hydrogen” of a substance.  For the purposes of this post, the ’substance’ is our body.  The higher the number the more alkaline and the lower the number the more acidic.  The range usually runs from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline or base).  The middle, 7, is neutral.

The human body operates optimally when our pH level somewhere between 7.35 and 7.45.  Certain organs in our bodies operate optimally at a lower pH level (such as the stomach because of the digestive acids) and others at a higher level (such as the pancreas and intestines – they have to neutralize the acidic food the stomach deposits into the digestive system).  Eventually it should work out so that the blood pH is maintained at an optimal level between 7.35-7.45.

What Does pH Have to Do with Health?

The body does everything it can to maintain the proper blood pH level.  If your system becomes too acidic (a state of acidosis), your body will try to increase the pH by pulling alkaline minerals from wherever it can.  Calcium (pH 12) and magnesium (pH 9) are great sources of acid fighting minerals.  Guess where there are loads of calcium and magnesium?  Yes, that’s right, your bones.  Wonder why our bones become more frail as we age?  Might be something more to do with your diet than the aging process.

Back to Soda

Soda is very acidic.  Most sodas hover around the 2 or 3 pH range. Don’t take my word for it.   To find out for sure, get yourself a pH strip and test the soda yourself.  The more acidic soda you put in your body, the more your body will fight to increase your pH.

If you’re having a difficult time flipping the soda switch overnight, ease into it.  After all, poor health didn’t develop over night and neither will good health.  Over a period of a few weeks, begin reducing your soda intake and increasing your water intake.  Your body will thank you for it.

The next small step towards health is… Taking Small Steps