A Great Alkaline Meal Idea

I’ve talked a little bit before about how I was really getting into the idea of eating an alkaline diet and the alkine ionized water and how these can improve your quality of life.  Well, I’ve started to try to incorporate more alkaline rather than acid foods into my diet to see if it really can make a big difference in how I feel, what my level of health is, and certain health issues I’ve suffered with suchs as allergies and asthma and acne my whole life on and off.  So far, I do think that it helps with all of that, but I admit I haven’t stuck to it all the time either.  I haven’t yet purchased by alkaline ionized water machine yet as I’m still shopping around, so of course I’ll have more on that for you as well when I do buy it.

One of my favorite meals so far which I believe from what I’ve read thus far is one that involves brown rice and two alkaline veggies.  The tomatoes aren’t the most alkaline veggie, since mostly the dark leafy greens and other green veggies are supposed to be the best for that, but they are ok and are not highly acid producing as long as they are not cooked and are eaten fresh, so I figured it was ok to incorporate them into this little recipe of mine.

Here it is.  It’s brown basmati rice, cooked in vegetable stock with no preservatives or sugar in it and a variety of spice such as sage and cumin mixed in.  I also added organic wild rice to the mix for a little more texture and that awesome extra nutty flavor that pure wild rice adds to your rice dish.  I had read that brown basmatic rice was ok, but regular brown rice wasn’t, and that wild rice was ok as well so I assume those are both all right to eat.

Once the rice is done cooking, I cut up about a fourth of an avocado (a very alkaline vegetable) into small pieces, and also about a fourth of a fresh tomato into small cubes and topped the rice with that as well as a little sea salt.  Sea salt is preferred over regular table salt on the alkaline diet, and I prefer it’s flavor anyways, so that was just an added bonus. I am hooked on this recipe, it’s so flavorful and completely meat free, plus I don’t feel any discomfort even after eating a fairly large plate of it, and it gives me lots of energy.  A great alkaline recipe!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m very excited to bring to you soon a review of whatever alkaline ionized water machine I end up with.  So stay tuned folks!

How Bad Feelings Can Harm Your Health

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) — A depressed emotional state — feelings of hopelessness and apathy — could have a direct effect on your physical health, new research indicates.

A study of stroke survivors found a slower rate of recovery among those experiencing apathy, caring little about themselves and the world around them. And a study of healthy middle-aged women found an association between hopelessness and unexpected thickening of the carotid artery, the main blood vessel to the brain.

Both findings are reported in the Aug. 27 issue of Stroke.

The apathy study was triggered by a 2006 paper on Parkinson’s disease in a different journal, said Nancy E. Mayo, a professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, and lead author of the apathy study. “It said that if patients were apathetic the best thing was just to leave them alone,” she said. “I was incensed that the author said we just shouldn’t care.”

So Mayo launched a study in which 408 family caregivers of stroke survivors filled out apathy questionnaires every four months, asking whether the survivor “waits for someone to do things that he or she can do for self,” or “just sits and watches” and the like.

It’s an admittedly imperfect method of measurement, Mayo said, “but we used what we had.” Reports indicated that a third of the stroke survivors had minor apathy through the first year, with 3% having high levels of apathy. Apathy worsened for 7% of the survivors, and eased for 7% during the year.

Measurements of physical function showed that “even very minor apathy had just as strong an impact on recovery as major apathy,” Mayo said. Answers about the quality of life of the stroke survivors, such as their engagement in social activities, found lesser improvement among those whose apathy worsened.

It’s not clear what can be done to help in such a situation, Mayo said, in large part because very little research has been done on apathy. “You can’t fix what you can’t measure,” she said. “This is a first attempt to sort things out. Since no one is paying attention, it is not surprising there are no treatments for it.”

Drug therapy is a vague possibility, along with behavioral therapy. “We don’t have anything that has evidence-based data other than being kind and enthusiastic,” Mayo said. “Were looking at clues from addiction research. There needs to be a lot of work.”

The report on the physical effect of hopelessness was an offshoot of a nationwide study of cardiovascular disease in women, said study author Susan A. Everson-Rose, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.

She and her colleagues singled out 559 menopausal women with no history of cardiovascular disease to answer a two-item questionnaire about their expectations regarding future goals.

A previous study led by Everson-Rose, using the same questionnaire in Finnish men, found an association between hopelessness and cardiovascular disease outcome, she said, as did another study in women with documented cardiovascular disease.

This new study found a direct relationship between rising hopelessness and thickening of the lining of the carotid artery, a risk factor for stroke. Overall, women measuring higher on the hopelessness scale had .02 millimeters more thickening, equal to the amount caused by one year of aging. Women with the highest hopeless scores had an average .06 millimeters greater thickening than those with the lowest scores.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean that hopelessness had a direct physical effect, since it could be operating through mechanisms we didn’t measure,” Everson-Rose said.

But there is a clinical message, she said: “Physicians should tell patients that emotional states can have a physical effect, and that they should seek appropriate treatment for them. Psychiatric treatment for severe depression and hopelessness is warranted.”

SOURCES: Nancy E. Mayo, Ph.D, professor, medicine, McGill University, Montreal; Susan A. Everson-Rose, Ph.D, associate professor, medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Aug. 27, 2009, Stroke