Blog posts

The great news is that the list is short!

Over Easter, my sister in law expressed her frustration with all the different gurus out there, espousing so many different ways to eat which are all supposed to be ‘the’ answer.

“I wish someone would write a book that just simplified everything and said “This is how you should be eating”!!!’

I understand the frustration. I’ve gone through different ‘phases’ with my eating choices, too.

But success leaves clues, and people have been looking at both individuals and cultures who live 100 years or longer, and are healthy all the way along. In my opinion, it doesn’t do me much good if I live a long time but I’m sick most of the time. Quite frankly, if I can’t do what I want to do every day, I don’t know that I’d want to hang around that long!

I recently read terrific article which summed up what all these people and cultures are doing and I did a short video sharing their findings. Fortunately, the list of things ‘to do’ is quite short – Just 4 habits, and I think we can all manage that, right?

Another installment of ‘No, you aren’t losing your mind!’

Feel like you’ve been paying closer attention to what and how you are eating, and yet you still have health challenges/weight challenges/fitness challenges? It’s really easy to feel like we are ‘failing’ at this whole ‘health’ concept, right?

A nutritionist was struck by the same thought: why, if people are ‘eating better’ than ever, are they still gaining weight and struggling with health issues? He took a look at 30 years of data (that’s a lot), and did a study identifying that even if the ‘label’ looks ok, certain processed foods behave differently in the body than similar food which isn’t processed.

Another researcher at the NIH, very skeptical of the nutritionist’s findings, jumped in with his own research, only to demonstrate they were right. Not all food, even if it is ‘the same’ in terms of nutrients, is created equal.

I share the details in this short video, and if you’d like a copy of the article, just message me or comment, and I’ll be happy to send it your way!

https://vimeo.com/manage/808479773/general

One of the most surprising things I learned from my Dad’s physician was that, in many cases, cancer has a strong connection to ongoing, systemic inflammation. As I learned more about diet and prevention, doctors like Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn wrote how heart disease is a disease of inflammation, too, in many, many cases. The list of what has, at it’s root cause, inflammation, is a very long list.

But what was empowering to me was the fact that the body has a mechanism in place for reducing and eliminating inflammation. Think about it: If you get a cut on your finger, it swells up for a bit, you wash the cut, maybe put a bandaid on it, and then forget about it. The cut heals and the inflammation goes away.

In this video, I explain systemic inflammation and take a look at what it causes, but more importantly, look at the three primary reasons why so many are dealing with various expressions of inflammation, in the first place. The great news is that all three reasons are something we can, individually, do something about, which I find very empowering!

Ever wonder why the recommended servings of produce is so high? Currently, it’s 9-13 servings a day! I don’t know about you, but even on my best day, that’s a challenge to accomplish. For sure, I do not hit that mark every day of every week, all year long.

One of the reasons that the recommendation stays so high, even though the people making the recommendation realize most people can’t, or won’t, be able to do it, is because the nutrient density of produce has been steadily declining.

In this video, I share some of the reasons how and why that’s possible, and if you’d like to do some more reading about this, I encourage you to learn about regenerative farming. If you’d like to receive a copy of a great article discussing the hows and whys of diminishing nutrition in produce, send me an email at jenhagemann@mac.com or leave a request in the comments with your email. I’ll send you a PDF of the full article. I also reference a cool regenerative farmer in Vermont here in this video, Kerry Kurt, and her regenerative farm in Vermont, Sentinel Farm – check it out! Additionally, there’s a great documentary entitled Kiss The Ground – empowering stuff!

“But the biggest problem is not the junk we eat but the nutritious food we don’t eat.”

In a study looking at the global burden of disease, the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle, took a look at diet and unnecessary deaths. They summarized that unhealthy diets are responsible for 11 million preventable deaths each year. Yes – 11 million.

More than tobacco (which is the cause of 8 million preventable deaths each year).

I’m pretty sure we can all agree that tobacco isn’t healthy, and should be avoided. But when it comes to food, that’s when things get complicated.

My dad had a very forward-looking physician, who impressed upon me that the risks I was taking with food weren’t because of what I was choosing to eat, but were because of what I was choosing NOT to eat. That was a paradigm shift for me. In my video, I share what I did to make changes.

in this video, I share how food has morphed over my lifetime from food that we eat for sustenance, into food that we eat for entertainment. The food industry is very aware of how human brains work, chemically, and knows how to make ‘food’ highly satisfying, to the point where we will only buy a specific brand. Knowing some of these techniques may give you a ‘leg up’ on making difference decisions about your food. Below is my video, and below that, I am including a link to an article explaining more details.

As always, go research this topic – learn as much as you can. The more you know, the more empowered you will be!

You never quite know what is going to motivate you. When my Dad was sick, health suddenly became important to me. I was afraid of losing my Dad too soon, and was afraid my own odds had just changed rather dramatically. I didn’t know then what I know now. Education and learning the statistics really empowered me. In today’s video, I share a bit more about what I learned: