Fast Food Health

Fast food is an affordable and convenient way to fill yourself up when on the run. The majority of people can't avoid the occasional fast food. Although you shouldn't feel guilty for an occasional indulgence, regularly eating fast food can seriously damage your health. Coupled with low nutritional value, the calorie, sugar and sodium content of these foods can lead to a variety of health problems. With statistical associations to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and all-cause mortality, regularly eating fast food can be a dangerous thing.

Fast food is associated with an increased risk of death even after ruling out deaths due to cardiovascular conditions. In its 2005 study, the Canadian research team noted that regions high in fast food restaurant density are 2.52 times more likely to be extremely high in all-cause mortality. 

Health Craze

Healthy eating is a hot topic.  There are multiple diets that are gaining popularity like, low carb, high fat, all meat, no meat, and Paleolithic. Full disclosure, I follow the Gary Taubes diet methodology . Gary Taubes gained prominence in the low-carb diet debate following the publication of his 2002 New York Times Magazine piece "What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?". The article, which questioned the efficacy and health of a low fat diet and defended the Atkins diet against the medical establishment. 

The Best Bang for your Buck               

I'm finally getting to the topic of discussion, CHIPOTLE. The best option for fast food hands down is chipotle.  As you see by the graph below, nutritional facts of a normal burrito bowl follow a low carb high fat and medium protein diet with plenty of fiber and low sugar.

You Can Still F*** it UP

You can easily make Chipotle meals that are unhealthy.  To avoid an unhealthy Chipotle meal you should stick to a no tortilla rule.  Also, try to avoid extra or large portions of rice. Chipotle sides often have a lot of added salt.  So try to stay away for some of the salsas with large salt content items as well.

Living and Parting with a Smart Watch

Life with a Smart Watch

So it's official I bought, used, and then sold a smart watch.  It was fun while it lasted but I think I'll wait awhile until I jump on the smart watch bandwagon again.

I puchased the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Watch. A great watch in comparison to all the other smart watches on the market because of its long battery life, sleek design and multiple features.

I'm going to summarize three main points about my experience with this smart watch and hopefully my story will help you with your decision on whether or not to get a smart watch.  The first part is buying the watch...

Buying the watch:

I was excited, eager, and not worried about the cost.  So I bought the smart watch directly from Samsung's website.  The total came to $315 after tax.  A lot of money for something you wear on your wrist but not as much as the plain non-smart watch from NIXON that I wanted for $550.00, so I rationalized it as such. If I was to do it all over agian I would wait two months and buy a used watch on ebay for about $100 less.

 There are other smart watches on the market like the Android models from LG and Motorola.  Also, there's the Apple Watch, but for the features and build quality I would say that the Samsung Gear 2 is king for now, butttttt it has one major limitation which is that it only works with Samsung cell phones.

Using the watch:

The watch came in the mail all pretty and Apple like in beautiful packaging.  The instruction were easy to follow for setup and in no time I was stupidly using it to make phone calls and awkwardly take pictures.

After months of use the main functions of the watch that I appreciated and found beneficial were 1. The ability to glance at texts messages and email without digging for my phone and 2.  I could make audible text responses with very accurate results.  I also really enjoyed using the music player function with my wireless headphones for workouts and runs.  It allowed me to leave my phone at home and easily play my music without having to strap something around my bicep.  The final reason I loved the watch was because everyone looked at it.  It looks great around your wrist and everyone was curious about who was wearing it and what it was.  I mean that's like 95% why we wear watches these days anyways, but this watch actually does a lot of other stuff that can make your life a little easier.

Selling the watch:

Disclosure, I haven't used eBay in a long time.  That didn't stop me from selling my 6 month old high tech smart watch on it though.  I kind-of royally f*** my eBay posting when trying to sell the smart watch.  Lesson # 1 Do not sell high priced electronics using the auction style bidding.  Half the people bidding on these types of products are frauds and will not actually have the money to pay for the product.  Instead, list your item as a BUY IT  NOW option and go into advanced settings to select that you will only allow the product to be sold to paypal credit secure members that have funds automatically deducted from the buyer accounts when product is purchased.  I sold mine for $200.00 plus $13 for shipping.  I could have sold it for about $15 dollars more but was frustrated by the first several times with fraud eBay account members bidding on my original auction style post.  

All in all it was a good experience and I know that smart watches are a interesting addition to our connected lifestyles.  I hope to get another one again soon but I will wait until the cell phone is no longer needed to sustain an internet connection with the watch. 

-Reese's Pieces

Broccoli Raw or Cooked

Broccoli Baby

What a staple item to have in your fridge.  Broccoli is AMAZING! You can pair it with multiple dishes or just eat it by itself. All it takes is 15 minutes and some salt, pepper, garlic powder and butter for seasoning and you have a great side dish for dinner. Or you can eat it raw with some ranch dressing for a snack. Broccoli is loaded with great nutritional properties.

What's New and Beneficial About Broccoli

Broccoli can provide cholesterol-lowering benefits if you cook it by steaming. The fiber-related components in broccoli do a better job of binding together with bile acids in your digestive tract when they've been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it's easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a lowering of your cholesterol levels. Raw broccoli still has cholesterol-lowering ability—just not as much.

Broccoli has a strong, positive impact on our body's detoxification system, and researchers have recently identified one of the key reasons for this detox benefit. Glucoraphanin, gluconasturtiian, and glucobrassicin are 3 glucosinolate phytonutrients found in a special combination in broccoli.

The Catch?

Awhile back I had a discussion with one of my best friends on the way to the super market.  We wanted to figure out which is more nutritious, raw broccoli or frozen broccoli.  My first thought was that fresh broccoli is better because its not processed.  But then I remembered that like any fresh produce, the nutrition found inside like antioxidants, start to deteriorate over time.... but when the produce is frozen right after its gathered from the farm, the natural oxidation process of organic compounds found in food can be significantly delayed.  So basically if you freeze the broccoli right after you take it out of the ground, you'll preserve the nutritional value better than letting it sit in a store for a week in its raw form. 

Well I thought I solved the problem, I was going to buy frozen broccoli until I die because it had more nutrition..... And then like most things I research, I continued to read more research, and I began to look up things about cooking veggies and how exactly does the frozen produce production process works.  And what I found out didn't change my purchasing of frozen broccoli but it did change how I would cook it!!!  

If you don't want to read further you can click the link to the right Cooking strategy for Broccoli  .  This will take you to a short 2 minute video explaining how mustard powder reacts with specific enzymes that convert all the good phytonutrients found in broccoli to their active forms.  In the frozen broccoli process, after the broccoli is picked the farmer will flash heat and freeze vegetable.  This flash heat turns off the necessary enzymes that convert the phytonutrients found in broccoli to there active states.  However, a trick has

Are Smart Watches a Smart Idea?

Smart Watches

Smart watches.... I'm just going to say it, there here to stay.  I know that statement might be premature but I want the people reading this to get ahead of the curve on the new trend towards wearable tech.  Smart Watches wont exactly replace your phone entirely but will become the main source of your WIFI and phone connection as the implementation of SIM cards and other phone components are adapted into the wearable devices. Currently, besides the newest Samsung S watch, all of the smart watches on the market are Bluetooth linked to your cell phone in order for Texts, emails and phone calls to be shown on the wearable tech.  But it looks like things are about to start changing.

Smart watches are going to become your main source of cell phone service, wifi, and internet.  I mean, it makes sense.  A watch can be always on you, they're small, most of these new smart watches are both water and dust proof to a certain degree.  Don't get me wrong people, we will still have a phone size tablet like device, but instead the phone sized device would be tethering its cell service from the watch.  Look on the bright side, this would make it a lot harder for you to lose or drop your cell phone.  So who has the best smart watches, what are the best features to look for and whats coming out next.

So lets start with a couple of the hottest smart watches on the market today.  There's the Moto 360, pebble steel, Samsung gear 2, and the LG g watch.  Each of these watches have there unique selling points but lets go over some general features that all of smart watches should have.

Features:

1. Water and dust proof

2.  Battery life of 3 or more days

3.  Easy charging, like inductive charging

4. On board memory storage of 4gb or more for music and more

5. Heart rate and multiple sensors to track health and movement data

6. SIM Card and WIFI capabilities

7. Metal face, better resell value and are more durable

8. Camera / infrared blaster 

If they don't have the majority of these features, then its probably not worth buying unless your just looking to use the watch as a talking point and to get some looks out at the bar, which you will....

Whats coming out next?

The two must anticpated smart watches are the Samsung galaxy Gear S Watch which is shown above and the Apple I Watch which is coming out tomorrow.

I was looking over the specs of Samsung's new Galaxy Gear S smartwatch and it struck me how similar some of the specs were to the first-generation iPhone that Apple released back in June 2007. But the Galaxy Gear S isn't an old iPhone hit.  Some of its features are far superior to that of the original iPhone. It supports 3G, 802.11n, and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, along with features such as a heart-rate monitor. It also features 512MB of RAM, beating the 128MB inside the original iPhone. Even on the battery front, the Galaxy Gear S has the iPhone beat, with a 300 mAh battery that should be able to last about two days of moderate usage (the iPhone would last about a day).

Hopefully the iWatch will have very similar feature as the new Galaxy Gear S watch when it comes out tomorrow but we can only speculate at this point.  I will be updating this blog post about smart watches after the iWatch has been released as well as a section about my own experience owning, using, and reselling a Samsung Gear 2 smart watch.

REESE's  PIECES

Nootropics and Brain Nutrition

Nootropics

Nootropics, also referred to as smart drugs, memory enhancers, neuro enhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers, are drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve one or more aspects of mental function, such as working memory, motivation, and attention.

I hate brain fog.  That feeling half way through the day when you feel like your head is on information overload. My productivity drops off the map and I literally feel like a zombie.  I thought that the brain fog was just a human limitation that everybody experiences unless you scored some Adderall from a roommate or you do blow on the regular.  I mean, I eat healthy, that's my thing, but it didn't seem to stop my brain from slowing down as the day became more stressful.  So of course I started to do some research on the infamous smart (limitless) drug. Of course there are tons of shady pills on the market that claim amazing results for brain performance. But I am all about the DATA and randomized double blind placebo studies, AKA the anti-bullshit studies. 

I prefer to use google scholar to find all the studies from medical journals and government websites like the NIH, national institute of health.  And what I found on nootropics was pretty amazing.  There are several well documented natural substances that have been and are currently being heavily researched for cognitive enhancement for sick and healthy people.  Most of the new research funding is actually coming from one of President Obama's initiatives to combat Alzheimer's and dementia, two of the most destructive diseases predicted by scientists in the 21st century to impact the majority of the population. Soooooooooo jumping to the good stuff!

If you want to read more about any of the list of natural nootropics that I will share with you below I urge you to either visit examine.com or research the substance on google scholar.  Below are some of the best Nootropics that you can take.  If you buy them individually, I suggest using NOW FOODS brand or Nutrigold.  But there are great companies like Onnit that sell Nootropic blends, with multiple nootropics in one pill like Alpha Brain.  And these are not stimulants, so they don't pump you up and then drop you off in a pool of depression, They steadily increase your brain function the longer you use them. Most of extracts have natural anti-stress, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety properties as well.

List of the most researched Nootropics for Brain Health

1. Fish Oil -DHA of 1g or more
2. Creatine 5g
3. Ashwagandha 450mg
4. Theanine 100- 200 mg
5. Bacopa Monnieri 500mg
6. Huperzine-A
7. 5-HTP
8. Vinpocetine
9. Alpha- lipoic Acid
10. Forsoklin
11. Artichoke
12. AlCAR
13. Magnesuim Threonate


My current stack:

1. 2 cups of broccoli sprouts and some 1/4 cup of orange juice in blender
2. 1.2 grams of vita Krill Oil
3. 5 grams of D-Ribose
4. 5 grams of BCAA
5. 3 grams of Ashwagandha in afternoon
6. 1 gram of Blueberry powder 4:1
7. 5 grams of inulin
8. 1 teaspoon of Natural Calms plus Calcium

Social Media Survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LH53M5J


YouTube Channel: Brain Powder Kid

Skype Effect

The Skype.....                                                                           Effect!

So, I've had long distance relationships in my past.  Who hasn't...?  And man is it amazing to live in a time and place where Skype exists.  I mean.... you get to see, talk, and travel anywhere with your computer or phone and communicate with the people you miss and love.  Some people sit down to dinner, sing songs, or even have sex over the Skype Network.  Although some people would argue that Skype takes the romance away from long distance phone calls and letters.  I would have to call BSSSSSSS, because much like Skype is taking the romance of calls and letters, I am sure that some amazing new technology will come along and steal the thunder from Skype chatting.

But let's get into the reason of this bloggity.  The Skype Effect, a phrase I have tried to coin over the years with little to no success, is when you spend months chatting on skype with your significant other and when you finally get to see them in person there facial features seem distorted.  Now, it might just be me..  But I think this Skype Effect is caused by the long term exposure of seeing someone on a 2D scale and then all of a sudden seeing them in person in 3D... This can confuse your brain and your eyes might have trouble focusing for the first hours of seeing someone after months of chatting over Skype.  Anyways, just thought I would share this interesting thought on such a great technology.

Tesla Tesla Tesla!

Now, if you know me personally you know that I am in love with Tesla.  And this all began long ago when people just thought I was speaking of a famous dead scientist.  But, these days people actually know that Tesla is a electric car company based in California and some people even know what the cars look like.  Yet, there are still many hurdles to be jumped by Tesla as it ventures into the main stream consumer market and tries to gain a larger share of the sedan and mid-size SUV market.

Tesla has been in the news consistently for both bad and good reasons.  Lately, consumer reports and other car survey sites have been highlighting some negative aspects on the Tesla's Model S and its reliability.  Although the reviews were overall positive, critics have touted about minor glitches that Tesla has already remedied quickly and free of charge for all of its customers. But that's not all!

Elon Musk made the announcement in a blog post on the company's website, saying that an 85kWh Model S now has an eight-year warranty for both the drive unit and the battery pack. Mileage won't matter as well because the warranties have been tagged to be of the "infinite mile" type. 

Elon Musk is a Boss#nowwhat

Cocoa Powder

Dark Chocolate and Cocoa Powder

I think its great that people are trying to eat healthier higher percentage dark chocolates instead of the traditional milk chocolate candies.  This is a great way to cut out most of the sugar associated with traditional consumption of chocolate in america.  Plus, by switching to dark chocolate you are also getting less milk consumption which means you are getting less exposure to growth hormones and the binding agents associated with animal milks that cancel out the good antioxidants found in cocoa. However, the best proven method of getting maximum benefits from chocolate is going right to the source, COCOA POWDER!

Consuming just a table spoon of Hershey's Cocoa powder in a glass of water or almond milk a day can dramatically improve brachial artery flow.  Basically, Cocoa powder improves endothelial function in humans, endothelium is the thin layer of cells that lines the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels .  Why is this good???  Because FMD and endothelial function is a powerful surrogate measure for cardiovascular-related mortality, in humans.

Its important to note that you can't just make a cup of cocoa powder drink with milk and sugar and expect it to be good for you.  Milk from animals directly binds with antioxidants found in the cocoa powder and completely destroy the benefits.  When I make my drink in the morning I use the following:

1. 1 1/2 table spoon of hershey's or trader joes cocoa powder

2.  4 oz of water

3.  8 oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk

NEW Recipe:     Better for the sweet tooth!

1.  2 oz of water

2.  2 oz of almond milk

3.  2 oz orange juice

4.  Hand full of spinach

6.  Table Spoon of Cocoa Powder

7.  Hand full of frozen strawberrys

8.  Hand full of frozen blueberrys

Check out the link below for other supplements and hemp protein powders from Onnit.com to add into your morning smoothies.

Onnit Supplements

Itch your ears for a healthy heart

Interesting news on heart health.

How often do you want to kill that itchy feeling in your ears? Well if we believe researchers, tickling your ears can actually improve the health of your heart! When they applied electrical pulses to the tragus – the small raised flap at the front of the ear immediately in front of the ear canal – they found that the stimulation changed the influence of the nervous system on the heart by reducing the nervous signals that can drive failing hearts too hard.

The technique works by stimulating a major nerve called the vagus that has an important role in regulating vital organs such as the heart. The researchers applied electrodes to the ears of 34 healthy people and switched on the standard TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machines for 15-minute sessions. They monitored the variability of subjects’ heartbeats and the activity of the part of the nervous system that drives the heart.

‘The first positive effect we observed was increased variability in subjects’ heartbeats. We found that when you stimulate this nerve, you get about a 20 percent increase in heart rate variability,’ said lead researcher Jennifer Clancy from University of Leeds’ school of biomedical sciences. ‘You feel a bit of a tickling sensation in your ear when the TENS machine is on but it is painless. It does have the potential to improve the health of the heart and might even become part of the treatment for heart failure,’ claimed Jim Deuchars, a professor of systems neuroscience at University of Leeds.

The second positive effect was in suppressing the sympathetic nervous system, which drives heart activity using adrenaline. ‘We measured the nerve activity directly and found that it reduced by about 50 percent when we stimulated the ear. This is important because if you have heart disease or heart failure, you tend to have increased sympathetic activity,’ Clancy explained. A lot of treatments for heart failure try to stop that sympathetic activity – beta-blockers, for instance, block the action of the hormones that implement these signals. ‘Using the TENS, we saw a reduction of the nervous activity itself,’ researchers noted.

http://www.thehealthsite.com/news/tickle-your-ears-for-a-super-heart/

No Smoking Policy

 Smoke-Free apartments are important to property management companies and their tenants.

Air quality assurance for tobacco smoke is a relatively new industry. However, our society has become increasingly more aware of the negative health effects of poor air quality. Statistics now show residents are drawn to locations that offer smoke free living spaces as well as certified products and services. By combining these two offerings into a single package we create an opportunity for property management companies to further advertise their establishments to future tenants.
True Air is an air quality assurance company located in Cleveland, Ohio. We believe everyone has a right to live without the negative health effects of polluted air, especially when caused by others.  By utilizing a standardized air inspection and certification process, True Air partners with property owners to guarantee a certified smoke free living experience for their tenants. Upon certification, property owners have the opportunity to market their living spaces as smoke free and set themselves apart from their competition. True Air works with property owners to maintain these smoke free zones and provide the tools to help set certified standards. 

Finally, a way for apartments to up hold non smoking policy for their tenants! True Air LLC
trueairclean.com

probiotics

If your looking for info about what probiotics to get, look at the list below or go to the human biomass project site that the United States government worked on for the past 5 years.


list of good bacteria strains:

moBifidobacteria (Bifidobacterium bifidum), Lactobacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus), Propionobacteria, Peptostreptococci and Enterococci.

Range Anxiety! EV is for Electric Vehicle

Distribution graph of miles driven per day:

http://www.solarjourneyusa.com/EVdistanceAnalysis7.php

To interpret the graphs.. 98.5% of the population drives less than 140 miles per day... which translates into the vast majority of people not having to recharge the Tesla Model S in a garage other than every other day.... while you're sleeping...just like you do your phone.

So what is the problem?  Why are people so worried about running out of power while they are driving?  

Its because like it or not people are irrational beings that focus on insignificant factors.  For example, people assume that they are more likely to die in a plane than a car or people have a fear of the ocean because of sharks. The news highlights our natural fears and inflates our expectations of reality and probability of these events occurring to ourselves.  

Look at the facts

There are several ways to determine whether a electric vehicle is right for you and your family.  The key is to go over the facts and determine if having the ability to refuel at your house is something you want, having 80% less mechanical parts to break, better performance in acceleration, or better gas mileage is important to you.    

Got to start somewhere...

START

So this blog might be a little preachy at times but I will try to keep it well balanced, fun, and as scientific as possible.  For my first post I will start with some general suggestions for supplementation.


Supplementation:

These are standard (with or without good diet) supplements that 90% of people should take to ensure a quality rich and long lived life. A lot of these supplements can be found on amazon but another great company is Onnit:  onnit.com   They have many of the supplements listed below plus some products that can go beyond conventional health standards. Onnit has a large assortment of supplements that optimize brain chemistry and physical performance.  I would highly suggest checking out some of their products below.

Alpha Brian 2 capsules    Alpha Brain from Onnit

Vitamin D 2000 -5000    Nature-Made-Vitamin-Softgels-250-Count

Krill Oil 1g

Magnesium oxide 400mg  Nature-Made-High-Potency-Magnesium

Ubiquinol 100mg  Jarrow Formulas QH-Absorb

Vitamin Methyl b-12  Spring-Valley-Vitamin-Release