The John Tesh Blog

The Truth About Diet Soda

Everyone who listens to my radio show knows I'm not a big soda fan - mainly for health reasons.  I'm concerned we're too focused on what we eat, but not as fixed on what we're drinking. 

In fact, according to a study done at the University of North Carolina, if you watch what you're drinking, you could cut at least 450 calories a day from your diet.  This same study found out that Americans drink 192 gallons of liquid a year - about two liters a day.

How do we deal with this problem?  Some individuals have chosen to drink diet soda because it contains five or fewer calories per serving as compared to sweetened beverages. Yet, even by drinking a diet soda, you're still not solving your diet problems:

A diet soda low in calories can still lead to weight gain.

With a diet soda, you are still consuming a sugary-tasting beverage - even if they're artificially sweetened.  The more you drink sweetened beverages, the more you want to consume sweeter foods - cereal, bread, dessert, etc.

A diet soda becomes a substitute for all the healthy beverages you need.

Diet soda is 100 percent nutrition-free.  Perhaps one can of diet soda a day won't do too much damage, but we usually don't stop at one.  Some diet soda drinkers are guzzling five to six cans a day.  This large amount of diet soda takes the place of healthy drinks like water or tea.

A diet soda can contain aspartame, a chemical used to give diet sodas flavor.

Aspartame is 180 times sweeter than sugar.  Some research using rodents has linked consumption of high amounts of the sweetening chemical to brain tumors and lymphoma.  Side effects among humans include dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, memory loss and mood changes. 

A diet soda can interfere with your body's intake of calories.  Recent research has shown artificial sweeteners in soda may confuse your body's ability to estimate how many calories you've ingested. So you end up drinking more than you need.   The University of Texas Health Science Center has concluded that a person's risk of becoming overweight from drinking diet soda can rise 37 percent. 

You are much better off drinking low-calorie, high-nutrient beverages.  Check out your local grocery store and try some great tasting vitamin water (50 calories a bottle).  However, be sure these drinks don't contain any harmful chemical sweeteners.

Besides the fact soda contains zero nutrients, it is one beverage we can do without - diet or sweetened. Next time you get the urge for a carbonated drink, try some club soda or water with a twist of lime.  For a caffeine fix, you can also try green tea. 

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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New Ways To Improve The Environment

Thankfully, we're finding new ways to replace petroleum products and lessen our dependency on foreign oil.  According to USA Today one up-and-coming innovation is to use our cornfields as a natural resource to manufacture plastics.

Some of the corn-based products we can expect to see flood the market are food containers, plastic gift cards, and cellphone casings. NatureWorks, based in Minnesota, is one company that has developed a technology using plastic pellets to make clothing, diapers and food packaging materials. 

Already, one organic dairy Naturally Iowa whose motto is "we milk the cows and grow the bottles," has developed milk and water bottles out of pellets.

Though these biodegradable bottles cost 5% to 10% more than the plastic ones, the lesser cost for disposing a compostable bottle levels out the cost increase.  The down side is that compostable bottles need to be sent to a commercial composting plant and cannot be recycled along with regular petroleum based products. 

Of course, another negative to using corn as a plastic is that the farmers still need to grow the corn, extract the sugar and use pesticides to ensure the corn grows properly. 

One product, EarthBottles is being used to bottle pharmaceutical products which assures that no petroleum based chemistry mixes with the contents as with ordinary plastic bottles.  One added bonus is that EarthBottles contain natural antioxidants to protect the product inside. 

Another company Metabolix has developed a biodegradable plastic called Mirel that decomposes in soil, compost or even water. Presently, the company is using its product for packaging natural cosmetics or for making agricultural mulch.  You can also find biodegradable plastic razors made of Mirel that decompose in compost or water.

The use of bioplastics is on the rise, but the flaws need to be addressed. For example, water molecules can slip through corn-based plastic, which means the water would evaporate out of the bottle over time. Recently, a newer more durable bioplastic that holds liquids a lot better, has been created and is available in stores. 

The more development that goes into these products, the better the bioplastics are becoming. However, the best news is that it's all non-toxic.  You could actually grind it up and eat it.  Despite causing potential constipation, it would never kill you. 

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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The One New Year's Resolution You Must Keep

With the economy in a state of recession and major corporations needing bailouts, the financial condition of our country will trickle down to the average Joe.  Yet the shopping malls are bursting with people purchasing forty-two inch plasma screen TVs with surround sound, iPods, cell phones with limitless access to the Internet and laptop computers.

What's going on?  We are convinced that we are entitled.  We deserve to have everything our parents have , or everything you view on TV or in a magazine.  Our only problem is that we're not sure how we're going to pay for it. 

We only need one New Year's Resolution: I am not entitled to everything I want.  In his book 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School, Charles J. Sykes  labels today's generation: a modern day wealth-without-responsibility aristocracy. 

We have more access to food, clothing, gadgets, cars, jewelry, clothing, shopping malls and credit cards to pruchase it all than any previous generation.  Are we entitled to have all of it just because we have the money or the credit limit to cover our purchases? 

Today entitlement has taken on a whole new meaning.  There's a major collision between our entitlement mentality and the ignorance of how money works.  For example, Sykes estimates that teen spending will top $190 billion this year or next.  This figure eclipses the gross domestic products of many countries where people have to go to work to earn money.

Hand-in-hand with the entitlement mentality is the lack of any motivation to go out and get a job.  Most of the money spent by teenagers comes from their parents.  Fifty-eight percent of teens say they get their money from Mommy and Daddy. Twenty-one percent report having part-time jobs. 

What are we teaching our children with this entitlement attitude?

•Kids can want whatever they want without ever having to pay for it. Once these kids grow up and start thinking about marriage, they're in for the shock of their lives.  Regardless. many parents continue to give their sons and daughters hefty sums of money and keep their children dependent on them.  This is highly unhealthy since young men and women are growing up without a sense of financial responsibility.

•Kids are unable to delay their gratification. In repsonse to a lack of delayed gratification, the rising debt for college graduates is on its way upward.  Young men and women expect to live the way they were raised and they refuse to wait.  They want it now - the house, the cars, the lavish vacations and everything else. However, what kids today forget is that parents worked for years to get to their level of income.  A college degree does not automatically hand in a standard of living that matches that of the parents.  There're still many years of hard work ahead.

•Kids are enabled to be financially illiterate.  Young men especially are being raised without a sense of finances - what it means to save money, invest money and not get into serious credit card debt.  A lot of young men are not ready to become the financial head of their household.  They're not sure how to handle a checking account, to manage credit card debt, to invest in money for a pension and to purchase a car or a home loan.

One New Year's Resolution can change a lot.  Work hard to achieve success and do not expect advancement out of entitlement.  

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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Toy Shopping Tips for a Safer Holiday

Some toys sitting wrapped under your Christmas tree may be unsafe for your child. Ever since a 4-year-old boy died of lead poisoning in 2006 after swallowing a small heart-shaped locket, children's toys remain near the head of the list of consumer safety concerns.

According to Forbes magazine, one of every three toys tested in a study of 1,500 popular children's toys contained potentially harmful levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxic chemicals.

Based on the exposure a child has had to a dangerous chemical, all of the chemicals studied have been linked with serious health issues.  Arsenic is linked with cancer, blood disorders and damage to fetal development.  Cadmium can cause serious harm to the kidneys and lungs.  Bromine, a chemical used mostly in flame retardants has been linked to birth defects and reproductive problems.

Toxins are five times as likely to be found in jewelry than in any other category of children's products.  The Ecology Center, a consumer safety organization, reports that fifteen percent of the jewelry tested had lead levels above 600 parts per million.  One toy containing high amounts of lead is Disney's Hannah Montana two-heart necklace.

In 2007 the toy manufacturer Mattel Inc., had to recall more than 18 million toys made in China because they contained small magnets, which can harm a child’s digestive tract if swallowed, and lead paint.  High levels of lead paint contributed to the recall of 45 million toys and children's items during that year as well.  According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission roughly 80% of toys imported into the U.S. are from China.

Impending US laws will be setting limits on the amount of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and other unsafe chemicals allowed in children's toys. Some laws take affect in 2009.  On a positive note Forbes Magazine reports that roughly 21 percent of all the toys tested in a consumer product safety study did not contain unsafe chemicals.

Still, according to Finding Non-Toxic Toys, government regulations are outdated and weak when it comes to the growing world of chemicals and their use in consumer products. You'll need to take matters in your own hands for the safety of your children. Check out two  helpful resources for finding out what harmful chemicals a toy may contain:  HealthyToys.org and MomsRising.org. 

Whether you're out doing last minute Christmas shopping or purchasing a toy for a nephew's birthday party, here are some toy shopping tips from Consumer Reports:

•Do not buy metal jewelry.  Stay away from the cheap metal jewelry marketed for children.  About 20 percent of children's metal jewelry has high levels of lead hiding beneath the surface.  

•Be careful of toys with magnets.   Many small toys include small magnets that can fall out and if swallowed can lead to serious health problems.  

•Try to stick with American made toys. Even though US government regulations are not perfect, there is some protection provided to the American consumer.

•Avoid no-name products and be cautious with toys bought at dollar stores despite the great deals you're getting.  The same is true for toys bought at street fairs and vending machines. 

•When buying arts and crafts materials, stay away from permanent paints and markers.   Use water-based glues and paints.

•Follow the age appropriate grading on the packaging. The age grade not only relates to play value but also to safety.

•Before you shop for toys, check recent toy recalls at www.recalls.gov and at www.notinmycart.gov.

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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Debunking Medical Myths For the Holiday Season

When families get together for the holidays, you're bound to hear favorite family medical myths. Here are some of these questionable facts:  Turkey makes you drowsy.  Dim lights ruin your eyes.  Every day drink at least eight glasses of water.

This year two professors from the Indiana School of Medicine have provided us with new medical myths for the Christmas season.  Even though the general public and a number of doctors believe these myths, further investigation of medical literature shows these myths lack any evidence.

Myth#1. Sugar makes children hyperactive. We've heard this statement our whole lives and I've probably said it about my children as well.  However, the researchers at the Indiana University cited 12 studies that couldn't detect any behavioral differences in children who ate sugar and those that did not. 

Kids previously diagnosed with hyperactivity problems did not behave differently whether they were on sugar-free or sugar-coated diets.  In fact, the effects of sugar may be more on parents rather than the kids. Parents who were told their children were overeating candy bars became more hyperactive - even when the child had not eaten any sweets.

Myth#2. Suicide increases over the holidays.  There is no peak of suicides during the holiday season even though feelings of loneliness may increase. In addition, studies show suicides are more common during warm and sunny times of the year.

Myth#3. Poinsettias are poisonous. Apart from pets and small children, I'm not aware of too many people who may be in danger of poinsettia toxicity.  Among 22,793 poinsettia exposures reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, there were no deaths due to poisonings.  Even with studies where poinsettia leaves were fed to rats in large quantities, there wasn't any sign of toxicity.

Myth#4. Eating Christmas treats at night will cause weight gain.  Before you embark on a midnight trek to sneak a few Christmas goodies from the fridge, recent medical studies show that eating at night does not contribute to obesity.  Eating more food at any time of the day can contribute to your weight gain if you ingest more calories than you need.

Myth#5. Hangovers are curable. Researchers found no scientific evidence to support any cure for drinking too much alcohol the night before.  If you want to prevent a hangover, then drink very little or not at all.  

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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How Effective Are Colonoscopies Anyway?

It is not uncommon among baby boomers to hear them discuss their latest colonoscopy procedure. After you reach fifty, your chances for colon cancer are greater. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2009 148,000 people will learn they have colon cancer and nearly 50,000 will die from it.

For years, doctors believed colonoscopies were the best way to screen for colorectal cancer.  The thinking is if you undergo this procedure and remove any precancerous polyps, you lower your chances for getting colon cancer.

However, last spring, according to the New York Times, researchers surprised the medical world by reporting the test can miss detecting a type of polyp, a flat lesion that rests against the colon wall.  Presently, a new Canadian study has found that a colonoscopy is even much less accurate than anyone expected.

In the newest study, the test missed just about every cancer in the right side of the colon, where cancers hide out and are harder to find, but about 40% arise.  It also missed roughly a third of cancers in the left side of the colon.  So, colonoscopies are not as foolproof as we believed and may actually end up preventing less cancers than we thought.

What is a patient to do in light of this newest breakthrough?

•Continue to use this screening test, but seek the best gastroenterologist you can find.  Make sure your doctor spends a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes during the procedure looking for polyps.  After the test, ask your physician how many polyps they found and removed.  

•Have a serious discussion with your doctor about the length of time between colonoscopies. Most doctors recommend a five year interim between tests.

Why do colonoscopies have a tendency to miss finding so many cancers, especially those growing on the right side of the colon?

•Some doctors suggest the bowel prep test was inefficiently done and that the polyps were obscured.  One director of endoscopy advises that half the prep test needs to be done the night before the screening, and the rest to be done on the morning of the test to be on the safe side. 

•It's possible that due to the nature of the right colon, test results will never be perfect.  Flat and indented polyps tend to cluster in the right colon which may turn into cancer more commonly than typical polyps.  This does not mean you should rush out and have 10 colonoscopies a year.  Your insurance company wouldn't pay for it and each time you take the test there's a slight possibility of bowel perforation. 

•One additional option is having a stool test between colonoscopies.  This test looks for blood in the stool, which can be a result of colon cancer. 

For those who heard about virtual colonoscopies, screening experts say they are not a solution and not effective as a real procedure.  A virtual colonoscopy would hardly pick up on a flat or serrated lesion. Sorry to break the bad news for those who thought they could get around going through the real thing. 

The good news is that colonoscopies carry the potential to prevent 60 percent of colon cancer deaths.  The test is not perfect, but it is good.

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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Using Hypocrisy To Your Advantage

Nobody wants to be accused of being a hypocrite. But seriously, how can you avoid being a hypocrite?  Unless you don't stand for anything or lack any moral values, you can't get away from being tagged a hypocrite.  Why?  Because none of us is perfect and you will eventually break your own rules.

Let me introduce a working definition of a hypocrite:  he is someone who says one thing, but does another.  But there is a good hypocrite and a bad one. 

The bad knows he's doing wrong and still sells himself as a good moral person to others.

The good hypocrite knows he is doing something wrong, struggles with his sin and knows how much he needs God's power to do the right thing.  The honest person acknowledges his error and seeks to correct his ways.  Once a person admits his wrongdoing, he is no longer a hypocrite.  Instead, he's aware of his faults and wants to correct them.  

Can you receive advice from someone who once lived as a hypocrite?

Is a person a phony if he warns someone against excessive drinking even though he drank heavily for many years?   An honest person, who is aware of his flaws,  draws on his own experience and uses them as an example of what not to do.  You don't have to be a perfect human to offer advice to others. After all, who understands the dangers of binge drinking better than someone who struggled with alcoholism for many years?

Be careful when labeling a person a hypocrite.  Why?  You're saying if someone examined your life, they would find no flaws?  If you judge a religion because you know some of its members are hypocrites, you're applying a standard of perfection to these people. At least they have a standard they're imperfectly trying to keep. Do you even have a moral standard? And do you keep it perfectly or are you a hypocrite too?

Here are two ways you can use hypocrisy to your advantage:

•Recognize hypocrisy in others to learn from their mistakes. If all you can do when you spot a hypocrite, is to condemn them, you've learned nothing.  Primarily, we are to take the beam out of our own eyes rather than pick the splinters out of the eyes of others. However, denying that others have splinters in their eyes is not a good option either.

•Congratulate yourself when you see your own flaws.   According to personal-development.com, a person who sees his own hypocrisy admires the virtues he pretends to have.  The trouble is, you don't believe you have the ability to practice the virtue you want.  This is where the power of God comes in to help us.

Ask yourself where your own hypocrisy can be found.  Perhaps a person you judged as a counterfeit is struggling with his sin or working through a deep hurt or wound and making poor decisions at a temporary time of weakness. Welcome that person into your life, and stop expecting people to be flawless. Who among us is not a hypocrite - religious and non-religious?

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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Life Is Unfair. Better Get Used To It

If there was ever a rule you need to teach your kids, this is it:  Life is not always fair.  In his book 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School, Charles Sykes feels telling children that life is unfair, goes against the grain of a lot of thinking today because parents want to try to make life fair.

The issue of fairness and unfairness becomes especially prominent when kids enter their teens:  it's not fair that my best friend gets a brand new car; it's not fair I'm never on a winning sports team; it's not fair that I'm so short; it's not fair that my body is not like hers.

The matter of unfairness shows up in the softening of our educational system.  One reviewer of Syke's book, Michelle Malkin gives several examples: How abou the hand-wringing over whether using red ink to correct papers hurts kids' self-esteem?  What about the movement to ban dodgeball because it's too violent?  Should we continue with the practice of kids' sports teams giving trophies to kids for just showing up and playing?

The mindset today is that we cannot hurt anybody's feelings.  So we try to make everyone feel like a winner and we protect kids from anything that may be stressful.  No bumps, no bruises, no disappointments, but also none of the challenges of real life. 

Parents need to tell their kids that life is unfair and that they cannot change all the unfairness that takes place. It's not fair that life is unfair. Therefore, parents have a job to teach their kids how to respond to the unfairness so they will be able to deal with failure, disappointments and be successful in making difficult choices.

What can our children learn from the unfairness of life?

•Unfairness faces kids with their own responsibility. As children get older, they suddenly discover they're responsible for their behavior and there are consequences when they make poor choices.  Life makes it clear that if you want something, you have to work for it.  If you break something, you need to fix it and not automatically get a new replacement.  But if a child was given everything they wanted and never had to earn anything, they wouldn't be able to deal with the real world.  

•Unfairness puts suffering into perspective. World hunger is unfair. AIDS is unfair. Chronic pain and illness is unfair.  But not being able to wear a dirty T-shirt to school is not unfair.  Having to turn down a loud TV is not unfair. Being told by your parents that you cannot listen to explicit rap music or have a MySpace page is not unfair.  In this case, parents are exercising wise parenting skills.

•Unfairness can potentially lead to permanent complaining.  The danger of interpreting every disappointment as unfair results in a child always whining about everything they don't have instead of being appreciative for what they do have.  If Mom and Dad cannot afford to buy their child an expensive bike, the best thing for that child to do is to find a way to earn enough money doing chores and errands and purchase the bike himself.

•Unfairness prepares people for life. Children should not be protected from unfairness.  They need to know some people are born with disabilities, friends will betray them, their favorite sports hero will be out for the season due to an injury and the worst people do still win the lottery. Good people don't always get all the great stuff happening to them. 

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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Coffee or Tea: Which Is Better For You?

A coffee shop on every corner is not unusual.  However, other hot meeting places on the rise are tea spots.  You can find them springing up in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and a host of other cities.

While tea may not be as popular as coffee or soda, the assortment of teas on the grocery store shelves is growing. Still Americans have never been enthusiastic tea-drinkers like in India, China or the UK.  However, we have contributed to the tea industry with the tea bag and iced tea.  In fact, according to the Tea Association of the USA, 85 percent of the tea drunk in America is iced. 

The current interest in tea in America is actually tied into our desire to make health conscious choices. We are interested in the antioxidant benefits of tea - green tea being way up on the list. But the new interest in tea is not only for the health awareness crowd. True tea drinkers are after the assortments.  Some tea shops offer more than forty different kinds of teas on their menu.

Two kinds of teas actually exist-caffeinated brews from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant and herbal infusions which are made from seeds, barks, leaves and flowers of plants minus the caffeine.

What are the most popular teas?  Black tea, the most consumed tea in America and the most caffeinated, Oolong tea, having a wide range of colors and flavors, Green tea, high in antioxidants and mild in caffeine, White tea, a delicate tea with a mild flavor and Pu-Erh, not found in the US, but common in China. 

When it comes down to coffee or tea, which one is better for you? 

•The benefits of drinking tea.  Tea relaxes the arteries and lowers your blood pressure.  This means drinking three to four cups of tea a day can cut the chances of having a heart attack!

Rather than dehydrate you, tea rehydrates (replaces fluids) you and includes the added benefit of antioxidants.  According to BBC News,  because of both these benefits, drinking tea is 'healthier' than water.  In addition, the polyphenol antioxidants found in tea leaves have been shown to prevent cell damage. 

Advocates of Green tea claim it can cut down your risk of Alzheimer's disease and may prevent kidney stones.  In contrast to coffee that has been linked to osteoporosis, Green tea may help to keep your bones healthy and strong. 

Both caffeinated coffee and tea will suppress your appetite and contribute to weight loss.  However, green tea may stimulate fat metabolism.  Since studies have  shown that a cup of tea contains fluoride, it can potentially prevent cavities.

•The benefits of drinking coffee.  Did you coffee drinkers know that drinking more than four cups of coffee daily lowers your risk of diabetes? Tea drinkers cannot make the same claim.

Seniors can take comfort in knowing that coffee protects you against Parkinson's disease. Coffee, says Psychology Today, is also linked to lowering the rate of liver and colon cancer.  The FDA says the results are not yet out on the benefits of tea when it comes to cancer prevention. Also, coffee prevents gallstones.

Can we draw a conclusion? Yes.  Drink coffee and tea! Both beverages contain disease-fighting antioxidants. However, if you had to choose one drink over another, tea wins hands down.

John

Email John:  johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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Stop Putting Everything Off Until Tomorrow

It's less than three weeks until New Year's Eve.  You know what that means - New Year's resolutions. 

According to Newsweek magazine, most of us will not follow through on these commitments.  It's not because we're not sincere.  We have a hard time getting to day one. 

Procrastination is a very costly trait to have.  Putting off commitments leads to lost productivity in our lives, unrealized goals and a damaged self-esteem. 

What psychologists have discovered is that when our goals are abstract, it's difficult to make plans and a lot easier to postpone our goals. The key to overcoming procrastination, according to a recent study is to keep focused on the how, when and where of doing a task.

If we concentrate on abstract ideas, we have a tendency to put off deadlines and assignments. Rather than thinking of ourselves actually performing a task, we may settle for thinking up questions:  What's the purpose? Does it make sense for me to do this?  This way we put the event far into the future. However, when we get closer to actually taking on a task, we start to think of the immediate how-to details. 

Here are some practical tips to help you overcome procrastination:

•Start changing your daily habits.  Your present daily habit may be the Someday, Someday syndrome. First, admit that you procrastinate. Next build a plan that will enable you to change your behavior and start accomplishing important tasks on a daily basis. Get into the habit of saying to yourself, "Today I am going to _________."  The more you accomplish various tasks, the more you'll be in the habit of doing the things you want to do.

•Examine the items you've been postponing.  Ask yourself, "Why am I putting this off?"  You may be procrastinating on a job project you're fully qualified to do, but it's not something you enjoy doing. Some tasks bring forth fear.  We're afraid to fail or fearful we may not do our best.  For example, you won't start an exercise program because you feel it'll take too long to see results.  Draw an accurate picture of your life, try to see what's holding you back, and face your fears.

•Recognize you cannot take on every item on your list. Make a list of priorities. What can you actually accomplish this week? What project will take several weeks?  Start with a task that you can get done in one or two days.  Knock off the easier tasks first and build your confidence so you are prepared to take on the tougher tasks.

•Work with a timeline.  Be realistic.  There are some items you need to get done quicker than others.  Tackle your tasks based on their deadlines. However, don't get bogged down in the "tyranny of the urgent" and neglect your big dreams. 

Put your greatest passion on the top of your list and then set out a timeline to determine how long it'll take to fulfill your dream.  Build a plan that will enable you to see your dreams come true.  Take it one day at a time for a full year and you will be a lot closer to fulfilling your life dreams.

John

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