Back To Reality

It's the beginning of a new week and I'm back in Los Angles time with Europe slowly waning away. So now it's time to get back to work- although met with a lttle resistance work is good for the body, the mind and the soul.

A Recipe for Health -Is Champagne good for your health?


Yes it is! You thought it was only red wine and now you know it’s also champagne. Wow we can now drink ourselves to health. Well not exactly. Studies show that those who drink a glass or may-be two of wine a day live longer, are healthier, have better cognition, improved sex life and are generally over all happier than those who either don’t drink or drink too much. There are many reasons for this conclusion.

Wine specifically helps you to relax. It is especially good when dining. It improves circulation and improved circulation is good for both the brain inside your head and the brain below the belt. Blood and good circulation bring nutrients to the organs of our body. So we do have the ability to both think and procreate at the same time; although few of us use both our brains when making “whoopee.”

Wine is high in antioxidants and phenols which are good for our health by helping the body to fight off free radicals. Free radicals bombard our being every day including pollution, poor diet, aging and stress. Wine and more specifically all alcohol may just in fact help to kill bacteria from food that could make us sick. After all alcohol is an antiseptic and as a drinkable substance it may in fact be true that a drink of wine with a meal keeps the gut free of bad bacteria. In Biblical times wine was drank instead of water because water was not sanitary and because both wine and beer provided sustenance.

Now champagne is also shown to be good for your health or more specifically good for the mind. Champagne according to a study in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry is packed full of those wonderful polyphenols, chemical substances derived from plants that are antioxidants which help cells avoid destruction from free radicals. The study showed that a group of neuron cells penetrated with champagne extracts demonstrated significant protection against damage to the brain.

The reason for this they concluded was the caffeic acid and tyrosol antioxidants in champagne contain anti-inflammatory characteristics. This keeps the cells protected against damage. Furthermore, caffeic acid and tyrosol also have the ability to remove toxic chemicals from the body. So although we think of champagne as a celebratory drink it actually may truly be a toast to your health.

My $300.00 bottle of champ age (given as a gift) Dom Pe’rignon 1996 may well have been worth the price. (See blog archives for more on the $300.00 bottle) Perhaps that is the question. Is a $300.00 bottle better for brain health than a $50.00 bottle or are they virtually the same? Does it count if you open a bottle….and well you know….once you open the bottle it needs to be finished? I think not. I think it also means a glass or two to your health and beyond that you’ve had too much to drink. But it is so much fun to drink champagne.

When I think of champagne I remember back to a couple of weddings I attended where the primary drink was champagne. Those were very jovial celebrations. Can you remember your champagne celebrations? Most likely they were some of the times we remember the most; weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, engagements and so on. So bring them on; Dom Pe’rignons, The Venue Clicquots and the Louie Roederers with all their healthful antioxidants and joyous bliss for it is always a time to celebrate when we drink to our health.

A Recipe for Great Sex – You are what you eat

According to an array of commercials great sex can be had through the ingestion of pills, shampoos, make-up, clothes, cars, vacation…you name it…sex sells. But the real truth is that great sex begins with good health and good health begins with a healthy diet.

On the scene arrive the avocado; a sexy fruit. I know you thought it was a vegetable but actually it is a fruit that is related to the same family as cinnamon and bay laurel. It is high in essential fatty acids, potassium and B vitamins; all nutrients that are good for sexual health. Native to Mexico it was called the fertility fruit. The name avocado actually means testicle; named because it was believe to make a man virile. In some ancient cultures at harvest time women were not allowed to come out of their homes while the men were harvesting the fruit.

However it take a more than an avocado to create great sex. Just like great guacamole, where the avocado must be fresh and mixed with a good salsa; great sex needs to be ripe and spicy. An avocado is just an avocado until it ripens and blends into a smooth and tasty dish. So how do you ripen into the mood and spice things up?

Oh the mood…that’s the secret to great sex. Without the right mood sex is, well just sex. It’s becomes an act of obligation. Is it any wonder we lose the desire for sex once it becomes as plentiful as a new crop of avocados? I live in Los Angles where avocados are a major fruit. When the avocados season is here we are inundated with cheap and plentiful green looking testicles things that are hard and bitter. They come in bunches and seem to all ripen at the same time. So even though they are cheap and plentiful buying one at a time and letting it ripen to perfection is better than paying less and then rushing through a half dozen or more ripened fruit.

If we let sex ripen slowly until it is soft and sweet we might just find that sex like the avocado becomes a sexy fruit. Start with the idea of sex and then let it ripen with several hours of foreplay. Tease it like you tease an avocado; slowly let the skin get dark and flush. Give it time.

Then gently slice open the moment, revealing the inner seed of desire surrounded by soft creamy fleshy goodness. Peel away the outer protective skin, softly massage the inner meat and then revel in the sweet taste of passion.

I bet you didn’t know that an avocado could be so sexy? Great sex is all about the interplay. If an avocado is just another thing to eat it becomes common place. But when an avocado is appreciated for all its nuances it becomes a thing of passion. Want great sex? Take your time, let things ripen and appreciate the passion of the moment.


A Recipe for Happiness- Go Fishing


Got the blues? Need a little happiness lift? Eat your omega -3 fatty acids or fish that is! When we think of eating fish we think of heart health but fish high in omega-3 fatty acids also appears to help with mild forms of depression. Studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids may help alleviate some of the symptoms of mild depression. When subjects were given omega-3 supplements along with their anti depressants there was a slight improvement in mood. Furthermore omega-3 fatty acids appear to be helpful with attention deficit disorder.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for human health. The body does not produce omega-3 so we must get them from our diet. Salmon and other cold water fish are an excellent source as well as flax seed oil and bean oils. I preferred flax seed oil as the fish oil gives me an after taste.

But can that little pink salmon sliver of essential goodness really bring us happiness? Well just ask a bear during salmon season or river dwelling people who have depended upon the salmon’s return each year.

Salmon typically (depending upon the particular species) spend one to five years in the open ocean where they sexually mature. Then they make the great migration back to their birth place to spawn. The exact understanding of how they do this is not fully understood but scientist believes it has to do with their keen sense of smell. Seems the olfactory system (sense of smell) locks into the memory system the exact route back home.

Now that’s a happy thought for someone like me who has no sense of direction. If I could just smell my way home I wouldn’t need to learn how to use that navigation system. I could be anywhere, anytime and simply smell my way back. Now I wonder; if I eat lots of salmon will I improve my smell brain and thus my sense of direction?

So tonight I decide to make salmon for dinner and give it a test. Will the thought and the smell of fresh poached salmon send my husband running home with amorous thoughts? Would it make us spawn? No that’s another thought – let’s just stick with happiness.

Ancient mythology tells us that Salmon was associated with wisdom and venerability. In Celtic mythology fish and more specifically salmon were consulted for their wisdom and eaten so that the wisdom would be imparted upon the hero. It was believed that the Salmon ate the nine hazelnuts of wisdom, the primary source of wisdom in Celtic lore. The Salmon is associated with prophecy and inspiration because of its ability to find it distance spawning grounds.

The Salmon’s flesh is pink, although sometimes white. The Atlantic salmon tends to be farm raised where the Pacific salmon tends to be wild. I live on the Pacific Ocean which makes me only too happy to eat the salmon on the West Coast. Artificial chemicals do affect mood.

Pink is a color that has a soothing effect. It is said to reduce anxiety, calm frazzled nerves and relieve stress. Pink is emotionally comforting. It makes us feel happy. Eat Salmon and be happy!

Doctorlynn
http://www.doctorlynn.com/