A Dose of Health

I happen to be a fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Often times I make my own peanut butter by grinding peanuts, almonds or even cashews in my Magic Bullet. I add a drop or two of olive oil for consistency and there I have it…peanut butter.

Although I knew the peanut butter was healthy, the jury was still out on the jelly. Organic jelly is nice, but I still would prefer something a little more natural.

Dr. Oz to the Rescue

I was watching the Dr. Oz show the one day and he suggested using fruit on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of jelly. What a light bulb moment. Plain old fruit and peanut butter, what a nice combination.

After all, I love peanut butter and bananas, and my daughter likes putting peanut butter on her apples. Why go out and buy jelly when you can just slice fruit on a peanut butter sandwich?

Try it Out

So, to try it out, I packed my finicky daughter a peanut butter and sliced apple sandwich on whole grain bread for lunch. The healthy peanut butter and apple sandwich was followed by a healthy snack of peeled Clementines. I waited until she came home from school to hear the verdict. I wasn’t sure if she dumped the lunch and opted for school issued “hot fries.”

When she came home I asked her about her lunch. She said that she liked it and she ate everything I packed for her. Whoo hoo. I was so pleased to finally be able to prepare a healthy lunch that she would actually eat.

Isn’t it amazing how small things like peanut butter and fruit sandwiches can make a mom so happy?

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.

The other day at the grocery store checkout line, I got to watch the thin woman in front of me place her items on the conveyor belt. She was dressed in white shorts and an aqua blue top. All of her clothes were form fitting.

Although she had an attractive figure for an exceptionally thin woman, something struck me as odd. I did a quick glance up and down and realized what it was. This woman did not have a hint of a muscle anywhere on her body (at least from what I could see).

Her arms and her legs lacked muscle tone. Yes she was thin, but she probably had a high percentage of body fat. When she walked, her thin little calves jiggled.

You Are What You Eat (Or Don’t Eat)

I then looked at what she was purchasing. It gave me a clue as to how she developed such a physique. She had in her cart 4 cases of Diet Pepsi, two packs of gum and 3 boxes of something that I couldn’t figure out what it was.

If she had on long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, I probably would have thought her to be a fit individual. However by exposing her toneless arms and legs I quickly came to a different conclusion.

Thin at What Cost?

We live in a weird society that glorifies being thin. There’s no doubt that too much extra weight can tax the heart and other organs and systems in the human body, but being an unhealthy thin is no better. The type of thin the grocery store woman displayed made me wonder how long her bones were going to be able to carry her small frame without breaking.

Although she was very thin, I would bet that her body fat percentage was high. After all, she barely had any muscle. Muscular calves don’t jiggle, fatty ones do. Check out this article on skinny fat people and this one about being fat even when you’re not overweight .

Is there a purpose to this post?

Yeah, there is a purpose to this post somewhere in all the verbiage. What I’m getting at is that being thin isn’t the be all and end all. Being healthy is. If you’re packing a few extra pounds but you have healthy bones and muscle tone, I’d take that any day over being artificially thin (living on diet soda and cigarettes) and jiggly.

Just my opinion.