Winter Blues

January 15, 2016

Winter blues?


Healthy by Nature radio show this week
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A University of Florida study has found that stress not only causes a desire to eat, but that extra fat can keep the body’s stress response from shutting off. We’ll discuss what to do about that with Lisa Lewtan, author of *Busy, Stressed and Food Obsessed.* Lisa is a Healthy Living Strategist and founder of Healthy, Happy, and Hip, which provides one-on-one coaching, workshops, retreats, and support groups for clients. We’ll take listener questions and stories on the topics of comfort eating, cravings and the like. Call the live show with questions at 1-800-281-8255. Click here to find podcasts, show archives and how to listen nationwide.
Winter Blues?

“Winter blues” are more than the letdown of going back to normal life after the excitement of the holidays. We know that the shorter days and less sunshine lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder with the convenient abbreviation SAD. Because we make vitamin D from sun exposure and vitamin D insufficiency is linked to depression, it makes sense to seek out the sun, take supplements or at the very least get tested to make sure you are in the optimum range. SAD is also the acronym for the Standard American Diet. I’m pretty sure the two are connected. Our holiday eating binge may well have put a kink in our chemistry and here are a couple of examples regarding the diet mood connection: Four weeks of supplementation with a multivitamin resulted in significantly improved mood when compared to subjects on a placebo pill. STUDY A review of other studies revealed interest in green tea, cocoa, omega 3 fats, resveratrol and B-vitamins as an alternative to medication for depression. The abstract noted of course that more study is needed, but also that the prescription drugs for the condition are often not completely effective and have serious side effects. STUDY For garden variety blues, what could it hurt to eat better, drink green tea and supplement with a multivitamin, vitamin D and fish oil while they continue the research?
COMING ATTRACTIONS
SAVE THE DATE. Saturday May 7! Spring Natural HealthFest* will be in RICHARDSON, TX.*
Last Week Follow-up
LISTEN to that show in the archives. Just as his name implies, Bobbi Vitality is a bundle of positive energy. He has spent most of his life successfully searching for natural approaches to improving health and I have learned a lot from him! We quickly previewed some pieces of innovative health, beauty and fitness equipment that will be topics in some future shows. (He deals with health professionals on them, but I think you’d be interested.) Also, I’ve been losing weight without really trying and I want to ask Bobbi if that could be due at least in part to taking Vitality FX liquid. I was taking this supplement just for the nutritional value, but I can see from the ingredients why it might burn fat. We also talked about the detoxifying Ion Foot Spa which is one of many new services being offered in the Vitality Center at HealthWorks in Plano, TX.