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While I typically use teas and the like for standard treatment, my usual stand-by comfort food would be chicken soup.  As it was and continues to be reported time and again, the origin of this food therapy can be found as far back as 800 years ago when the  Jewish physician Maimonides recommended the use of  chicken soup as a remedy for upper respiratory congestion which explains the cliche ‘jewish penicillin’ that persists today.

Why this particular remedy is so effective as a folk remedy for generations is substantiated by Dr. Stephen Rennard out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.  He discovered after testing multiple samples of his wife’s old-world chicken soup recipe revealed a decrease in inflammation of the mucous-membranes as a result of the slowing of certain white blood cells called neutrophils to the resperatory areas.  This inflammatory response results in a cascade of other symptoms from swollen airways and nasal passages to increased mucous that results in the obvious unpleasantness of a cold. The soup brings with it this decreased inflammation as well as increased hydration and increased air flow from the nasal passages from the heat of the liquids and the broth itself.

Similarly, another study showing further benefits from other substances such as curcumin (the key to the yellow color in turmeric) and black pepper, ingredient particular to the soup.  Black pepper was also found to decrease inflammation due to Caryophyllene, a substance that gives the pepper the distinctive ‘kick’.  Additionally, turmeric, which I’ve found makes the soup golden and all the more appealing, was found to stop melanoma by Dr. Bharat B. Aggarwal during a study done at MD Anderson Cancer Center  in 2005.

The benefits of various food additives and the combination of ingredients in familiar favorites comfort foods turn out to be some of the best medicine. Kids are less likely to turn up their noses to a warm bowl of comfort food than the typical over-the-counter and prescription remedies available.  If you have any favorite family recipes that have brought relief and comfort, please share them in the comments below.  Good health to you and yours!

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With diabetes however, it’s important to re-evaluate how to view meals and mealtimes diffently than before .  A study published in 2001 in the British Medical Journal explored this issue and despite the 15-minute discussion it evoked, the subject is just as relevant today. It’s difficult to re-think eating habits and bad ones still persist.  The idea of between-meal snacks in fact should be instead thought of as meals, just smaller, with a total of 5 to 6 meals distributed throughout the day. Ideally the suggestion from experts is having a small meal every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. This also has an added benefit of helping you lose weight by keeping you feeling satisfied throughout the day with your body’s blood sugars evened out. You’re much less likely to either binge in a rage of hunger or reach for that candy bar or coke while in the grips of a cold-sweat, nausea-inducing blood sugar drop. Not coincidentally, this same study also showed that eating these multiple smaller meals had a 5% lower overall cholesterol (including the LDL, the bad cholesterol) compared to those eating only one or two meals regardless of calories consumed.

Smaller meals during the day become a kind of "grazing" .

While at first it may seem all your focus is on food all day. It helps however to think of this routine like  ’grazing’ since the calories consumed are done so in smaller quantities but in a more uniform pattern.  The easiest way to do this is slashing each larger meal in half instead of just adding a couple of extra snacks. This way the calories you’re already consuming will result in less blood-sugar highs and lows and keep you sane all with minimal cravings.

Happy grazing!

Weight and mass. Pounds and kilograms. The most important thing is that your bathroom scale is useful for you as an individual user. From my clicking around online, l have found various digital and analog and combination scales which are similar but not all the same.

My family has had the benefit of the services of a professional nutrionist for 2 separate stints over the years, for 2 of our children who needed help in this area. Actually when the nutritionist’s client is a child, she works with the food preparer/server of the household. l’m the “food lady” at my house and l had the opportunity to have these 2 positive experiences with nutritionists. We talked about all sorts of things and in our case the topic was not weight reduction. When the child was weighed bi-weekly or monthly what the nutritionist looked for was using the same scale, in the same way, consistently over time. Weigh ins at the pediatrition were also part of the overall plan however we didn’t compare number to number from the doctor’s office with the nutritionist’s scale’s results like apples to apples. We did look at trends and percentiles to get the real picture of how much progress was being made at the time if any. A few ounces got us jumping for joy at this stage in our lives. Again, thankfully we met with very good success with hard work, moral support and proper use of a tool called a scale. This brings us back to the topic of useful bathroom scales.

What do you want to do with your bathroom scale? Let it be a conscious, proactive reason that you can keep consistently in your mind over a period of time. Then look online for types of scales. Talk to friends and family, too. Give away or trade your scale with them if you are ready for a new scale in your bathroom. Oh and here is an idea, you don’t have to keep your scale in your bathroom if you want to shake it up a little bit at home. But where ever you put it, use it in the same place, the same way, to get a useful number.

Considering the human factors in actual use vs. perfect use of bathroom scales, this tip of consistent circumstances during the use of your scale is the best advice l can think of to help you make your scale useful even if it doesn’t have expensive bells and whistles and electronics.

Another side note is to realize that, even outside the laboratory, IRL “in real life”, mass and weight are different concepts. So if you expect your body composition to change due to the changes you are making in lifestyle (increase muscle mass or release fat deposits) please consider this when you look at adding a new scale to your routine.

Prevention Magazine, Moshe Morris, and apartmenttherapy.com have done some homework for us on brands of scales for your perusal.

Natural treatments for the common cold

• Zinc: Research has shown that by giving zinc lozenges the duration of the cold can be reduced and severity can also be decreased.

• Echinacea: Commonly called Purple coneflower, echinacea can also reduce the duration of illness and decrease the severity of cough, headache, and nasal congestion.

• Garlic: A study found that a daily garlic supplement containing allicin, a purified component of garlic considered to be the major biologically active agent produced by the plant, reduced the risk of catching a cold by more than half.

• Vitamins: Different studies have found that large doses of vitamin C may reduce the duration of a cold.

• Chicken soup and fluids: It has been used for treating common colds at least since the 12th century. It may really help. The heat, fluid, and salt may help you fight the infection.

• Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids.

Note: No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

This is the largest one-year research grant awarded to the university and will involve the largest number of test subjects—1,000 participants over the next year.

The American Cancer Society writes that there is no reliable clinical evidence that quercetin can prevent or treat cancer in humans. However, with the large study beginning now, valuable science may be forthcoming.

Earlier this month, quercetin was a component found in one of these three prostate-specific dietary supplements: Trinovin, Provelex and ProstateRx, which were under scrutiny by American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO). Researchers determined these products were problematic for patients being treated for prostate cancer with radiation. The warning was to avoid use of the supplements during radiation treatment. This information was reported by Doctor’s Guide. View the 2 hour lecture sets yourself!

Again from the ACS: Quercetin is a common chemical pigment in the rinds and barks of a wide variety of plants. It is one of the main flavonoids in the diet, and is found in large amounts in apple skins, onions, teas, and red wines. It is also found in leafy green vegetables, berries, and in herbs such as ginkgo and St. John’s wort.

I took a health vitality quiz today, you can take it too, if you have the time. Thanks to my friend and neighbor Laura Palmore, of Palmore Health, I found out that at least I’m honest when I take health vitality quizzes. <smile>

I performed at 17 out of a possible 30, ranking me low but with “nowhere to go but up.”

It’s only one point away from the middle third of rankings, and if I can improve one point in one area, the results say “the good news is, you’re doing okay. The bad news is, you’re doing okay.” <maddeningly true>

The top third rank means “you obviously care about taking care.”

As a mom, wife, and a volunteer lunch lady (I’m in charge of lunch nutrition for 30+ students daily), small business owner, blogster, neighbor, friend, and oh so much more, I seem to care about taking care—of other people! If you know what I mean. I’d like that to change and maybe making one small change really could help.