Fuel Up - With High Octane Nutrition

Hello…I’m Susan Phelps. I am a Registered Dietitian and a Certified Diabetes Educator. I am part of The Muscle Repair Shop “Fuel-Up” crew. I’m so excited about The Muscle Repair Shop’s “Tune-up for Life” series. We’ve got a great crew to help get you back on the road. In the “Fuel-Up” area, Malin Parker our master chef will join us in the kitchen to teach us some of his secrets about food and how to buy it and get the most for your money, and how to prepare and make it fun and easy for you and your family to enjoy. We are going to focus on the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle because of the proven benefits and delicious appeal.

We want to help you put some basic ideas in place that will
make a difference to you and your family’s health.

I’ve known intuitively as long as I can remember that the food we eat has a huge impact on our health. When I graduated there was still not a general consensus in the scientific community that poor diet, food additives, chemicals, pesticides and herbicides in our food and environment were responsible for the growing rates of many types of life-threatening chronic diseases. Now, however, the jury is in. It’s well established that

“WE ARE WHAT WE EAT.”

• According to C. Everett Koop…67% of all diseases are diet related.
• Senator George McGovern reports…6 of 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. are linked to our diet.
• In 2005, the World Health Organization announced that 80 percent of all chronic disease is preventable through low-cost strategies requiring no prescription drugs.

And if you look at the impact that obesity has on not only an individual’s health but on our nation’s economy, it is apparent that something has to change. And we would like to show you how to make those important changes that could make the difference in whether your body runs like a well-oiled machine or a rusty rattletrap falling apart one piece at a time. Or maybe you will get lucky and crash and burn with a fatal heart attack or stroke. And I say lucky because after 13 years practicing in long term care I saw too many slow, painful, lingering deaths and I think this can be avoided.

Our leading causes of death are Heart disease, Cancer, and Obesity. Now these are not fatal events. They are conditions that develop over time and end in death from organ system breakdown. This is not a pretty thing. And it’s costly. The major hardship that creates financial ruin is medical bills. That’s why everyone is so paranoid about being underinsured.

Some say that our society is obsessed with fitness. Well, I can’t think of a better obsession except for nutrition. Of course, I love to eat good food.

“Good Food is food that makes you feel good the next day”.

Some food may taste good but is it going to make you feel bad the next day? Are you going to have a reaction right away or are you going to suffer slowly while your vehicle slowly swerves into a ditch. And do you want to keep doing the same thing expecting different results? I had to ask myself this very question often until I determined that dairy, wheat, and sugar were not healthy for me. I suffered for most of my life with irritable bowel syndrome. I now call that condition “Food Sensitivity” ….. So, I know what it’s like to not be able to eat everything that I want. I had to learn what foods were problematic and then figure out how to change my mind about them. Never thought I would give up sandwiches or ice cream…..So, I may not relate to being overweight like Butch can, but I can relate to having to make some difficult changes that seemed impossible at the time.

We are going to cover many topics in our monthly newsletter, website and “Tune Up For Life” series. From basic nutrition principles to Supplements, to cooking and eating therapeutically so that you can make choices based on good information. This makes it easier to decide, knowledge is POWER. So, stay with us, learn with us, have fun, come “TUNE UP FOR LIFE.”