Do You Really Need Eight Glasses of Water a Day?

We can exist without food for months, but without water we can only survive a few days.  Your body is made up mostly of water, which is essential for digestion, nutrient absorption and elimination, aids circulation, helps control the body’s temperature, lubricates and cushions joints, keeps the skin healthy and helps remove toxins from your body.  Every day you lose water from your body through urine and sweat and the fluid needs to be replaced.

I have often told my patients they need to drink at least eight eight ounce glasses of pure water per day.  Then in April, 2004 I read a story in Family Practice News(http://www.familypracticenews.com/) that suggested letting thirst be your guide may be the way to go. (I am unable to find the article at this time.)
Despite concerns that caffeine and alcohol are diuretic, they can count towards daily fluid intake.  For women, 2.7 liters (91 ounces) and for men, 3.7 liters (125 ounces) per day is the recommended total from all beverages and foods each day.  If it is hot outside, you have a fever or you are exercising, you will require more water than normal and should drink more in these cases.
As a person grows older, they sometimes can’t tell that they are thirsty,  so older adults will want to be sure to drink water regularly.
Dr. Joseph Mercola (mercola.com) recommends using the color of your urine as a guide to how much water you should be drinking.  As long as you are not taking riboflavin (B2, which in most cases turns urine bright yellow), then your urine should be a very light yellow.  If it is a deep yellow, then you are not drinking enough water.  
I often look for chapped lips, tenting (where skin on the back of the hand returns more slowly to its original position), complaints of constipation, or if the person has an occupation of real estate agent.
What type of water should you be drinking?  The answer is clean, spring water and filtered water.  I don’t recommend drinking unfiltered water, distilled water or fluoridated water.  Make sure to read the report from your local tap water supplier that’s usually mailed to you yearly.  This will help you determine what type of filter you need to make sure your water is free from contaminates such as heavy metals and bacteria.  That said, tap water in the United States is generally quite safe to drink.  (http://water.epa.gov/drink/guide/upload/book_waterontap_full.pdf)
The reason why filtering your own water is important  is that bottled water is a huge strain on the environment.  Plus, some bottled water may not be any cleaner than tap water and the bottles water is in can leach unsafe chemicals called BPA into your water.

My conclusion is that if you feel thirsty, have something to drink.  If you are not thirsty, don’t drink unless you want to. If you are older, bigger than normal, a real estate agent, suffer from constipation, diarrhea or chapped lips you may want to set up reminders to drink more water on a regular basis. Remember there are fluids in the foods you eat so you may not need to drink eight glasses of water per day.
Do you keep track of how much water or fluids you drink?  How much do you drink?

How to make Scotch Eggs

This recipe does not use any alcohol!
This recipe is NOT low fat.
But it sure is delicious.

A little over two years ago, my friend Laura was going to bring Scotch eggs to my best friend's 40th birthday party.  That was the first time I ever heard of them.  Unfortunately she didn't bring the eggs and I had to look up the recipe on the Internet, because I'm curious.
Every recipe I found used pork, which I rarely eat, and also deep fries the egg, which I don't do at home although I will eat onion rings from a burger place.  I made up my own recipe, which follows.  I'll also put the original recipe for all you deep fried pork lovers out there.
The first time I made these was around Easter and they were a big hit!  Now my step kids and  my friends want me to make them more often, but usually I just make them at Easter.

My Recipe:
4 hard boiled eggs-shelled
1 pound ground turkey (or better yet bulk turkey sausage)
seasonings to make turkey taste like sausage (if needed)
1 raw egg beaten
1/2 cup panko/dry breadcrumbs

These are all the ingredients I used.  I made a double batch, one with the turkey and one with sweet Italian pork sausage for Mr. Inappropriate.  Mr. Inappropriate would like to have pork at every meal.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Lightly grease a baking sheet. Combine the ground turkey and seasonings like garlic, fennel, Italian seasoning, rosemary, etc., to make the turkey taste like sausage.  Divide it into four portions and shape it into patties.
Place a hard boiled egg, without its shell, on top of the patty, shaping the patty around the egg until the egg is uniformly covered.  It should be about the size and shape of a baseball.

Dip the sausage covered egg in the beaten egg and then roll in the bread crumbs. Place the Scotch egg on your greased pan.  Repeat with the other 3 eggs.

Somehow I made one extra Scotch egg.  I think it was because my ground turkey came in a 1.25 pound package.

 Bake at 350 for 25 -30 minutes, until they are golden brown.  They can be eaten warm or cold.  They are the perfect picnic or on the go lunch food.  It's best to slice a Scotch egg in half before eating, as it's easier to handle it that way.

Don't these look soooooo delicious?  We'll have them tomorrow for Easter breakfast.

Original Scotch Egg Recipe:
from COOKS.COM

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Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved.

4 hard boiled eggs
1 lb. sausage meat
1 egg
1 tbsp. seasoned flour
1/2 c. crisp bread crumbs
Oil or fat to fry

Shell the hard boiled eggs. Press the sausage meat into meat squares on a floured board. Wrap the eggs in the sausage meat, making sure this is completely sealed without any air space on cracks. Brush with the beaten egg. Roll in bread crumbs. Heat oil and test it by placing a piece of stale bread with oil for 1 minute and it turns golden brown; 1 1/2 minutes if using fat. Put in the scotch eggs. Fry steadily for approximately 5 to 8 minutes until crisp and golden brown. Lift out, drain on crumpled paper and serve hot or cold. It is possible to bake these in the oven. Allow approximately 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

What a Naturopathic Physician Eats

For breakfast I had double bergamot Earl Grey, fresh pineapple, fresh mango, Activia yogurt and a home made banana nut bread made from Pamela's gluten free baking mix.

For lunch I had an organic hamburger with swiss cheese, baby carrots, celery sticks and a lovely salad of butter leaf lettuce, green onion, baby cukes, avocado, cherry tomatoes and ranch dressing. 

For dinner we had New England clam chowder with corn and garlic bread.  I did not make the clam chowder, it came from a can.  (I know, you're shocked, right?)

I felt satisfied all day.  Mr. Inappropriate and I are trying hard to get more servings of fruits and veggies into our daily diet.  I can do the veggies well, but rarely eat fruit.  However, the fresh fruit for breakfast really works for me.

How have you been doing with your daily intake of fruits and vegetables?

Maybe God is trying to tell you something .. about sleep!

Can't sleep at night and you wonder why

Maybe God is trying to tell you something

Crying all night long, something's gone wrong

Maybe God is trying to tell you something

I always liked that song from The Color Purple.  If you can’t sleep at night and God isn’t trying to tell you something, then your body definitely is trying to tell you something.
Sleep should be a priority in your life as it plays a dramatic role in your overall health.  Without enough sleep, your body may accumulate a sleep debt that affects your normal thinking abilities, and you might not notice!  Most people need at least six hours of sleep for peak memory.  Regular sleep makes you less forgetful.
Getting a good night’s sleep can release certain hormones that boost your immune response. Previous studies have made it very clear that not enough sleep will increase your insulin levels, increase your risk of diabetes, affect hormone levels and accelerate aging.
There are many reasons for insomnia.  Due to the demands of life, we often freely choose to cut back on our sleep.  I like to stay up a little later and read to wind down.  Some of you like to watch the late night talk shows or “farm” on Facebook for the same reason.
Other reasons for insomnia include:   a cluttered, too warm bedroom

loud neighbors, street, animals

exercising too close to bedtime

caffeine after noon

heartburn

chronic pain from arthritis, fibromyalgia, etc.

stress

Dr. Deepak Chopra has an insomnia protocol to which I often refer my patients.  These are the highlights:
*    The natural human biorhythm is to sleep between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.  This means you should be in bed, lights out by 10 p.m. and be up at 6 a.m.  (I always tell my patients they should get up and go to sleep at the same times every day.  Being on the same schedule, including weekends, helps your body know better when to pump out certain hormones that wake you up, help you sleep and deal with stress better.)
*    Decrease your mental activity after dinner.  Journaling may help with stress.
*    Take a hot bath 30 minutes before bedtime.  You can include calming fragrances, music and lighting to let go of your daily stress.
*    Use your bed for sleep and sex only.
I learned in medical school to tell my patients to go to sleep in a cool, uncluttered room, with no lights on and preferably no electronics like TV’s in the room.  Sometimes deep breathing and progressive relaxation can help you relax into sleep.
Skullcap, passionflower and valerian, in capsule, tea or tincture form, help promote a good night’s sleep for most people.  If tight muscles or anxiety is a problem, kava kava can often help.
If you go to sleep well and then wake at 2 a.m. for no apparent reason, you may have a cortisol issue.  I like to test a patient’s cortisol level four times throughout the day to see if it’s out of whack.  If it is, there are things that can help, depending just what and when things are wacky.
It is also helpful to remember that your sleep requirement can change with the seasons.  In the middle of the summer you might actually be able to get by on six hours of sleep or less.  In the winter you might require nine or more hours of sleep to optimize your health.
Do you have insomnia or other sleep problems?  What do you do to help yourself?