Health Blog by YinTeing

Nowadays, many companies advertised calorie reduced, less sugar and/or fat health food. These products costs much more than the usual biscuits, oats or cereals just because it is lower in fat and/or sugar content.

During the initial period of this blog, I used to get easily sucked into these offers- I buy health bar when I was either cutting down on sugar or going on the GI based diet. As such, I would buy the most reasonable health chocolate bar that I could find for RM6.90 or something like that. Even though the calories content were not low, it boasts of Glyceamic Index of only about 50. So, I paid more for an energy bar because I believed that it would make me less hungry.

But from travelling, being active, eating tones of carbs and losing weight, I realized that there is no need to resort to special products to lose weight. After all, a lot of product that claimed to have lower caloric content does not taste nice. And the fact that we have the mindset that it is low in calories would make us eat even more, thus probably making us gain more weight instead of losing it.

To prove my point, let me show you some examples:

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Is constant motion or travelling sickness disrupt your dream of being a traveller? You may not look forward to travelling, especially visiting highlands and the curvy roads because you may be throwing up your guts during the trip. Some would suffer while travelling on the plane or even on long road journeys.

I will always remember in one of my team building trips years ago, we charter a bus to a famous beach, Cherating located on the East Coast. Before we went, lunch was provided- there were lots of fried food like fried bread with tuna, fried sausages, and fried chicken- all which I helped myself happily (I used to love fried food and in the good old days, there’s always problem with the self-control).

How I suffered during the 6 hours bus trip there- my entire face turned pale, and all I wanted to do was to throw up the food. When they stopped at a rest area, I tried to throw up but only a small fraction of the food came out- because by the time the food already left my stomach and is in my intestines. Needless to say, I suffer and have always have strong reservations when it comes to travelling.  For a few years, travelling never interest me- just thinking of the potential motion sickness would put me off.

Food like this spells disaster for those with weak stomach prior to travelling

The same thing also happened years ago when I was studying for my degree at another state before I began working. The bus journeys used to cause me severe stomach spasms and pain.  Somehow, my system will suck in the cold air-con from the bus like a vacuum and these wind seemed to be playing and moving around my intestines- causing intense and sharp pain.

Eventually, I broke through these limitations- by taking care of my digestive health and improve my circulation. This change had enabled me to travel for a year throughout different places in Thailand, sometimes via the most uncomfortable and creaky buses through hills and highlands.

When travelling, I take special precautions to minimize motion sickness and wind/stomach spasms:

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Do you suddenly find that you develop skin rashes for no apparent reason? Probably you find that a certain area of your skin becoming itchy and when you give in to the urge to scratch it, a red patch formed- the rash seemed to have spread. Sometimes, it feels a little painful.

I wrote this article because when I recently participated in Yahoo Answers, I’ve noticed that a number of people suffer from unexplainable skin rashes and can’t figure out why.  I have this condition on and off and have learned to identify the triggers and quickly deal with it. But I could never resist the urge to give it a good scratch when it’s itchy- so it is not uncommon that my colleagues would stare at a spot on my neck, face or arms and ask me, ‘you scratched yourself again?’

It becomes a bit embarrassing if the rash and the red patch forms at your face. It looked awkward and others may wonder if you have a permanent skin condition or a fungal infection. If your doctor also could not figure out what’s wrong with you and only could prescribe some anti histamines, perhaps you may want to explore further:

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Over the past years, I have received some forwarded emails from friends about the dangers of instant noodles. Some people may not be aware of the dangers and just to save money or due to no time to cook, they may be slowly poisoning their systems. There is no harm to take precautions. Many kids love to eat instant noodles- so if you are cooking occassionally for your kids, you may want to take note of the correct way to cook instant noodles.

The content below are based on forwarded emails that I’ve received- I am not the original author:

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Are you in into strength training and wonder why you constantly suffer from chronic muscle soreness and dull pain?

When you go and visit the physician or physiotherapist on suspicion of an injury or muscle tear, they could not find anything wrong with you. Nothing shows up in scans and tests. And yet, you find that you tend to fight constant muscle soreness, pain and even overall feeling of tiredness. What could be the cause?

The possible cause- toxins that got trapped as you built your muscles. These trapped toxins causes chronic discomfort and pain. Let me elaborate further and let’s see if my explanations make sense to you:

The cause of toxin accumulations in muscles and organs could be attributed to one or more of the following factors:

1. You do not have the habit of drinking enough of water or hydrating yourself. Keeping yourself sufficiently hydrated is crucial to ensure toxins are removed efficiently from your body.
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Many folks will take a glass of Orange Juice for breakfast. The juice normally comes in a cartoon in various brand names. Are those really good for you?

Question: How can a cartoon of alleged “pure orange juice” is cheaper and provide more volume that if you were to squeeze the real fruit?

Most of the fruit juices sold in bottles or cartoons are nothing more than flavoured sugar water, and we are not even talking about fructose (sugar in the fruit form). Years ago, taken by the advertising on packaged fruit juice, I drank lots of it only to find myself gaining weight- for nothing due to empty calories.

The best way to have your fruit is in its natural form. If you are too lazy to bite and chew, then go ahead and blend the fruit but drink both the juice and the fibre together. Else, if you want the real thing, you can order from the hawker stall where they blend the real juice together- tell the person no sugar (so that the sacharin or whathever artificial sugar concuction is not added). Months ago, I remember I had once resisted the tempation to order milk tea and ended ordering carrot juice (from the food court). After that, I felt more energy and not so sluggish.
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May used to be my mentor when I was starting out in the working world. By the time, she had already worked for many years, coming in at entry level and rising to managerial position. She always emphasized on work ethics and how we must do our best. She also shared lots of her own personal experience and given me lots of advise on how to deal with different colleagues, office politics, etc.

Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, undergone treatment and then, passed away when there were secondaries to her lungs (that time she did not complete the prescribed 6 course of chemo treatment). She was such a wonderful person.

Then, few years later, her younger sister Ling also contracted breast cancer. That was a few years ago. Ling took a very different approach compared to what her sister had taken after she recovered from the treatment (operation, chemo and radiotherapy):

• she chose not to go organic like May did.
• but she cut down on processed food- even till this day. This means, only once a few months, she will eat KFC or McDonalds. She also does not take sausages, ham or other type of processed meat
• she ate meat but in reduced amount- she did not become a vegetarian
• she took up exercising- joined the gym, did cardio and weights. Her fitness level is impressive- she was able to maintain a heart rate of about 150+ beats per min.
• she joined Qi Gong- she felt Qi Gong exercises are beneficial as it increases oxygen flow to the body and improves circulation. She also sleep better at night after practicing Qi Gong twice a week (she told me sometimes, she gets lazy to practice at home but she makes it to the classes)
• she learn to take things easy- no longer become too obsessed with work. Her mental and physical health is what matters. She does her best to eliminate all the stressors that goes on in her life
• she devotes herself to God, prays often and goes to church

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A number of studies done had linked free radicals towards development of cancerous cells and tumor growth. The higher the levels of free radicals in our body, there comes an increased risk of getting cancer, least the normal cell mutates.

Recently, while buying my favourite drink, tea with evaporated milk, I chanced upon a roadshow offering free radical test. Basically, you just need to stuck the side of your hand to a machine that looks quite sophisticated and the content of your free radicals will be displayed in a laptop connected to the machine.

My score is below average, ie 50%- which is considered as undesirable.

The lower the score, the better it’s supposed to be, with 0% indicating a person with no free radicals (which is actually not possible).

Factors that contributes to increase in free radicals in your body:

• Smoking or prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke
• High processed, BBQ, fried meat intake.
• Very low intake of vegetable and fruits (one should take at least 5 servings per day with one serving being a size of a fist)
• Lack of exercise
• High stress levels
• Constant exposure to sunlight (UV ray)
• Being overweight/ obese
• Lack of sleep

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