That's Fit

Kinoki Detox Foot Pads claim to remove your cellulite through a pad you tape to the bottom of your foot while you sleep. When you awaken, it will be covered with icky brown junk -- these are the toxins your body needs to eliminate (apparently in the same way a tree eliminates toxins through its roots). In addition to removing cellulite, they are supposed to cure headaches, depression, and insomnia by helping your body detox through "Kinoki's Natural Power of Nature."

I'm not convinced. Not at all.

While there might be some merit in the ancient Japanese (or Chinese, depending on whether you're watching the infomercial or reading the website) secrets upon which these are based, they're not going to remove cellulite. This is one product I won't be spending my hard-earned cash on -- I'd rather use it toward a new set of running shoes or a healthy meal, both of which are more likely to yield real results.

12 "healthy" foods that really aren't:

Why? Click to find out!

If you live in an older home with original wood floors, listen up. The stain that was used on that beautiful wood floor may in fact be giving off toxic fumes right into the air you breath while enjoying that quiet time at home.

Research from the U.S. this week indicated that PCBs may be contained within the actual finish that nice wood floor received more than four or five decades ago.

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) were used in many products until the 1970s when its use was banned in the U.S. and elsewhere due to high toxicity. Now, if that original wood floor has been refinished or restored, chances are the original finish was removed and you may not longer have PCBs near your feet every day.

In the study, PCBs were detected in 31 percent of homes on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Yikes. If you have an older home with the original wood flooring and you're unsure if it's original, having it tested by a company specializing in hazardous material may be a sound idea.

Thanks to the human body's defense systems, we are able to fight off germs, infection and certain diseases. Additionally, some food additives, pesticides, herbicides and heavy metals are also contended with by this natural mechanism. With this ongoing struggle for health always taking place, it's vital that we do what we can to aid our bodies in the fight.

To do so, try to consume foods that are high in antioxidants to neutralize free radicals produced by toxins. Also, be sure to wash your fruits and vegetables, even if they are organic and locally grown. And lastly, consume green tea, for it acts as a chelator -- an agent that removes heavy-metal toxins from the body and replaces them with healthy elements.

To learn more ways to keep your body as healthy as you can, continue reading here.

Autism is a condition that has skyrocketed in children in recent years, and it's baffled researchers ever since. What's the cause? More importantly, how do we prevent it? Recent studies are pointing the finger at a widely-used technology: the cell phone. Well, not just cell phones -- cell towers, Wi-Fi and other mobile devices.

The key component of wireless devices that is thought to affect autism is the EMR (electromagnetic radiation) they transmit. Recent research has shown that it can negatively affect cell membranes, and this can cause heavy metal toxins to build up in the body. So, it's thought that these heavy metal toxins can get trapped inside nerve cells, which can lead to Autism. For more info, click here.

Cell phones have been linked to several health problems in the past. What do you think -- is it a case of hyperactive worry or are they really ruining our health?

It's not a secret that pollution isn't good for the planet or the many creatures that inhabit it, but still I find the results of the study reported on here are absolutely mind-blowing. According to a study conducted at Cornell University by a professor of ecology and agricultural sciences along with a team of graduate students, various forms of pollution can be blamed for up to 40% of deaths across the globe.

Numbers that large offer a pretty scary wake-up call. Water, soil and air pollution are the biggest killers, with air pollution alone being blamed for up to 3 million deaths a year. The piece points out that toxins in the environment can lead to a range of potentially deadly health problems including cancer, immune system defects, birth defects and more.

I think that this sort of news really brings home that fact that we all need to think more about not only what we put into our bodies but also what we're expelling into the environment, as eventally a lot of that junk will end up in our bodies anyway. What do you think?

Though we've made so much progress in the war against cancer in the last few decades, it seems today like the disease is more rampant than ever. So when Prevention Magazine asked the question Are we winning the war on cancer? I had to read.

The short answer: Yes. The disease might seem more prevalent, but the treatments and diagnosis have come a long way in recent years. And awareness is at an all-time high -- more and more people are adopting healthy habits that have been shown to prevent cancer, such as maintaining a healthy weight, eating a diet rich in fruits and veggies and low in fat, getting the recommended amount of exercise and limiting exposure to toxins and hormones in food.

For more info, read the full article.

What's the key to aging well and retaining your youthful vitality? Best-selling author Dr. Diana Schwarzbein has the answer, and she's shared it with everyone in her book, The Schwarzbein Principle. I haven't read the book, but if you do, you can expect to find lots of helpful tips on how to attain balance and have the healthiest life you can. True health revolves around five principles:

• Nutrition: Eating to be thin isn't the goal here -- eating well and maintaining a healthy body weight is
• Stress Management: Figuring out how to deal with stress is the key to attaining balance
• Tapering off Toxins: Tobacco, alcohol, refined sugars, caffeine and medications are toxic and should be weaned off of.
  
• Smart Exercise: Exercise is good, but too much exercise can be dangerous
• Hormone Replacement Therapy: HRT is not for everyone but for some who are lacking in a certain hormone, it can make a world of difference.
  

What do you think of the Schwarzbein Principle?

There's a belief out there that you shouldn't dye your hair during pregnancy because the toxins can affect the baby and potentially lead to childhood cancer. But if you look at the many celebrities out there, their natural hair colour doesn't seem to come out when they're pregnant so is this a hard-and-fast rule, or is it an urban myth that is safe to break?

There's no solid answer, according to the mayo clinic. So what should you do? I'm of the 'better safe than sorry' realm of thinking, but if it's really an issue for you, check with you doctor, and follow these tips from Fitsugar.

I live in a place known for it's ranches and its meat, where being a vegetarian is a sometimes bizarre and incomprehensible lifestyle choice. I'm not a vegetarian but I'm not much of a meat eater either. Basically, if it's served to me, I'll eat meat but I don't keep much of it in my house and I rarely cook it for myself. It's not that I don't like the taste of meat--I do--but I do lots of research about food and nutrition, and hearing about all the hormones that go into meat frankly grosses me out. Plus, I read Fast Food Nation and let's just say it does not paint a pretty picture of how meat is produced.

The Daily Apple has a great post on the safety of meat. Whether it's beef, pork, poultry or even fish, all meats have gone through questionable practices to get on your plate, including being exposed to toxins and injected with hormones. And chances are the hamburger is made from stripped spinal meat. Ewwwww.

But although I don't eat much meat, I would have trouble cutting it out of my life altogether. The key is buying free-range and organic meats that aren't exposed to the same conditions as regular meat. It's expensive, yes, but you have to be careful about what you're putting in your body, don't you think?

I saw something on my local morning show that kind of got me worried this morning -- it was about how drinking from plastic bottles can be dangerous because the type of plastic used in them can emit toxins. Now, I am a water-aholic and I am rarely seen without my Nalgene bottle. It's my way of ensuring that I get my 64-oz of water a day.

The ingredient in plastic that's dangerous is called polycarbonate and most plastics have it -- even tin cans and baby bottles have polycarbonate. Poly carbonates have been linked to infertility problems and miscarriages, as well as other problems. You can tell if your bottle has polycarbonate by checking the bottom -- if it read PC near the recycle symbol, it's in there. So what can you do? Drink from glass or stainless steel bottles. And if this isn't an option because of kids, many stores carry polycarbonate-free plastics.

What do you think -- is this paranoid mumbo-jumbo, or should I be afraid?

I get a little peeved when I see food labels that are somehow deceptive -- for example, a food label that has very few calories in a serving but if you look further, you'll find that their definition of a 'serving' is something ridiculously small. But here are some other ways that food manufacturers are deceiving us even further, courtesy of Fitsugar:

• Sugar is generally regarded as a bad ingredient, and on food labels, ingredients are listed from the most prevalent to least prevalent. So in the ingredients label, manufacturers will distribute sugar among several different ingredients so that it doesn't appear in the top three ingredients. How cheeky.
  
• They'll also 'pad' ingredient lists with healthy-sounding things
• They'll hide dangerous ingredients behind innocent-sounding ones
• They can name a food item whatever they want, whether it contains the appropriate ingredients or not. Fitsugar uses as an example Kraft's Guacamole Dip. It has hardly any avocado.
  
• Another reason for listing impossibly small serving sizes: if there's less than 0.5 trans fats in the serving size, they can list it as 0 trans fats.
• Keep in mind that currently there are no regulations ordering food manufacturers to list certain chemical contaminants and toxic substances. Yikes!

Do toxic chemicals accumulate in food? You bet -- from pesticides to nutrients in affected soil to other things, some of the most popular food these days may be tasty, but carrying amounts of components that are not healthy at all.

But, do current testing methods detect the presence of all these potential toxic products? Hard to tell, but with genetically modified procedures common in many foods and the possible outcomes that may happen, I have many suspicions. Do you? I won't even go into pollution's effects.

Tests that search for toxic substances in foods are mainly limited to aquatic life right now, but of course, way (way) more food products need to be tested for the possibility of toxic substance accumulation, right?

I'm a supporter of the organic movement and if I could, I would load my kitchen with organic, free-range and locally-produced items. Unfortunately, buying organic is more expensive than buying just the regular, run-of-the-mill foods, so I limit my organic-buying to mostly just some produce (the stuff you eat as-is, like apples and strawberries) and some dairy items. But I wonder -- should I be splurging on the organic version of other items? Or am I making the right choices when it comes to what organic items I buy?

This article lists what you should splurge on, organically speaking. Tip: start at the top of the food chain and make your meats and dairy free-range. The regular versions usually have hormones (ick!) As for produce, they list what items usually have the highest amount of pesticides, like apples, bell peppers, cherries, potatoes and strawberries to name a few.

What do you splurge on when buying organic?

Inflammation is the body's response to tissue damage and infection. There are many conditions that cause inflammation. Genetics play a role, so does the environment. Environmental factors include diet, exposure to toxins, germs, pollutants, and inhalants. Some people have a genetic predisposition to heightened inflammation which can cause them to have an illness such as rheumatoid arthritis. But a commonly overlooked cause of inflammation is poor diet.

Foods that cause inflammation are sugar, simple carbohydrates, and certain fatty acids and oils. To reduce inflammation avoid junk foods such as donuts, pastry, and sugared drinks. Insufficient consumption of fish, fruit and vegetables is as bad for human health as smoking.A diet that reduces inflammation consists mostly of vegetables and fish. In my opinion, the foods that cause the least inflammation and are the most anti-inflammatory are fish such as halibut and salmon, and all kinds of vegetables. Make changes slowly and accept the fact that there may be times when you binge on unhealthy snacks and foods.

There are many other herbs and nutrients that could be taken to reduce inflammation. For instance using curry and cinnamon when cooking is great. Use a variety of herbs and spices. Many of them have antioxidants and other beneficial compounds. For instance, curry has curcumin, rosemary has rosmarinic acid and ginger has vanillin and zingerone. All of these compounds have health benefits. Basil, bay leaves, cumin, chili powder, coriander, dill, fennel, garlic, ginger, oregano, pepper, rosemary, sage, thyme, and garlic appears to protect against fungal and bacterial infections, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, blood clots and even cancer. Bee pollen, pomegranate, goji, mangosteen, graviola, green tea extract, and spirulina, are great herbs and additions to add to the body. A calcium supplement is recommended for postmenopausal women.

Cutting down or cutting out your sugar intake is a must to cut down on inflammation. Stevia, a no calorie natural herbal sweetener, is available in liquid or powder in health food stores. Reduce your intake of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin also.

We can all take lessons from the natural remedies coming from the Indian heritage and other ancient cultures. They had to rely on what nature gave them and not bottled up drug store tablets. The first obvious remedy to reduce fatigue is getting enough rest and sleep. The next step should be to exercise every day so that you induce some perspiration. This naturally brings out toxins in the body that can cause fatigue. Eating organic foods reduces toxins that we can put in our body. Eating high fiber foods, fruits, vegetables, juices, sprouts, grains, nuts, seeds, and beans boost energy levels in t he body. Vitamins A, D, C, and E are important and if you aren't eating enough foods high in these vitamins then by all means resort to taking a multivitamin tablet twice to help boost your energy. But remember getting vitamins the natural way is better because the body absorbs them better. Make sure you are getting enough calcium, magnesium and potassium. Low amounts of these are common in patients experiencing fatigue. Tobacco and alcohol also drain the body of oxygen and energy so by staying away from those you will reduce toxins in your body and feel better.

Caffeine and sugar may give you a quick fix of energy but these are false energy boosters and when coming down off of these substances you feel even more tired. Getting sunshine and taking a walk outside helps in reducing stress so that the body can naturally relax. A cold morning shower invigorates the body and gets your blood flowing. This pumps oxygen to your system faster and rejuvenates you. A mixed green salad once a day adding parsley, alfalfa, dandelion, bean sprouts, and walnuts or pine nuts and using a light drizzle of vinegar and olive as the dressing is a great food to naturally boost energy.