Fruits & Veggies in a Capsule

Juice Plus+ is whole food based nutrition, including juice powder concentrates from 25 different fruits, vegetables and grains.  Everyone wants to eat right and maintain a healthier lifestyle - whether you're a busy mom hustling to feed on-the-go children, a business traveler trying to stay fit, or an active boomer keeping up with grandkids.   All of us try to eat better for good health, but a healthy diet is often a challenge. We simply don't eat enough fruits and vegetables and that hurts our health and wellness.  Juice Plus+ helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat every day.  Not a multivitamin, medicine, treatment or cure for any disease, Juice Plus+ is all-natural and made from quality ingredients carefully monitored from farm to capsule so you can enjoy improved nutrition and wellness.

There’s no complete substitute for eating the real thing. But shopping for and cooking fruits and vegetables every day takes a lot more time than most of us have.  How many people really consume the antioxidants and other nutrients they need in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains every single day?  Juice Plus+ is a convenient, inexpensive, less than $3.00/day, way to ensure you and your family receive the benefits over time from adding more nutrition from fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet. It’s an easy way to feed a healthier lifestyle.

Whole food based nutrition delivers powerful antioxidants that provide your body protection, because it relies on fruits and vegetables.   According to the National Cancer Institute, antioxidants are “substances that may protect cells from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals.  Examples of antioxidants include beta-carotene, lycopene, vitamins C and E and other substances.  Many of these antioxidant substances come from fruits and vegetables.” 

The Research

Clinical research has showcased the benefits of adding Juice Plus+ to your diet. More than 20 Juice Plus+ research studies have been conducted in leading hospitals and universities around the world.  The research has shown that Juice Plus+ delivers key phytonutrients that are absorbed by the body, reduce oxidative stress caused by free radicals, positively impacts markers of systemic inflammation, helps support a healthy immune system, helps protect the structural integrity of DNA and promotes cardiovascular wellness.   A study conducted at the Medical University of Graz, Austria showed that with following a standardized diet and extremely rigorous training program for 7 months with orchard (fruit) garden (vegetable) and vineyard (berry) blends compared to a placebo group,  had reduced markers of induced oxidative stress (protein carbonyls) and improvement of several indicators of immunity and inflammation. There was a trend for fewer duty days lost to illness in this special police forces of men (Cobras).

Healthy Children

In 1999 Juice Plus+® asked parents to share in a formal and quantifiable way what they experience in their own families as a result of beginning to take Juice Plus+®.   As an incentive to participate, we offer free Juice Plus+® to the child participant.  The Children's Health Study has since proven what we knew to be true all along: Juice Plus+® makes a real difference in family health and nutrition. 

The study is based on three important concepts:

1. Good nutrition is the foundation of health and inspires other healthy lifestyle choices.
2. The best time to establish good health and nutritional habits is in childhood.
3. The key to getting children to adopt good health habits is parental involvement.

How does it work?

The way the Children's Health Study works is simple. For every parent, grandparent, or other adult that signs up as a Juice Plus+® customer, the study provides Juice Plus+® Orchard Blend and Juice Plus+® Garden Blend free to a child, teenager, or college student for up to four years. At various intervals — after 4-8 months and then at the end of each year — adult participants are asked to fill out a voluntary survey to determine whether (and how) their families' health habits have changed as a result of taking Juice Plus+®.  The results of the first 150,000 families who have responded to our surveys are documented here — and the news is very, very good!  Including more consumption of fruits and vegetables, fewer days missed at work and school due to illness and less over the counter medication taken. 

Click here for more information on Juice Plus+ including more research and health professional videos or contact us at 780-699-8084 or robin@eliteinjury.com 

Follow us on Twitter @EliteInjuryMgmt or website at www.eliteinjury.com

Working with High Performance Minor Athletes - Part 2

Please check out part one of Working with High Performance Minor Athletes

It does not matter if the athletes are male or females, hormones are going to effect your interactions with them each and every day.  They effect their moods, their body, how they recover from injuries both physically and emotionally, how they react to their teammates, training partners and coaches.  I will break the myth right now, it is not only girls who cry and not only boys who want to hit things.  If you are dealing with young elementary aged children, they are still learning how to deal with disappointment, loss and success.  As the athletes grow older they are starting to discover who they are, and are having more expectations put on them.  Their role in sport can start to define them, if this role is suddenly changed, they may find it hard to cope.  You typically become their ally or enemy. If this role change occurs due to an injury, they see you as an enemy because you are what is holding them back.  If it is a coaching choice that changes their role you become the ally, they see you as someone to turn to who understands what is going on.  Typically at this age their relationships with their parents are changing and they may not feel they can go to them, you become their constant who they can trust.  It is this trust that will help you get through the enemy stage.  If you have built the trust when the time comes for you to remove them from play you remain their ally.  When removing an athlete from activity be prepared for anything.  As I said earlier girls hit and boys cry, you are messing with their identity in their minds, and they each have their own way of showing it.

At times you feel like a glorified babysitter.  You are the first one there, the last to leave, you pick up after the athletes, find out who's parents are always late, and do the room checks because the coaches are having strategy sessions.  Due to all this you become the gate keeper, you learn which athletes like to toe the line, which ones like to step over the edge a little and the ones who will ask you later "what line?"  Many coaches like to think they have their finger on the pulse of their athletes, but truly it is the Athletic Therapist.  We see all, here all and usually end up cleaning up the mess.  With minor aged athletes you try to help them keep the messes to a minimum, you become the teacher again in guiding them as to right and wrong.  You would be amazed at what these young minds can come up with to do on road trips.

For everyone involved in minor sports at a high level, we all must remember that these athletes are still kids.  Even as an Athletic Therapist it is hard.  We are trying to give them the structure and guidance they need to succeed.  Nutrition plans, treatment schedules, and expectations of how to act in the clinic or treatment room.  Let the kids be kids.  They will try to eat poutine before a game, use your athletic tape for their sticks and you will go through about ten sets of nail clippers each season.  It all becomes worth it though when they do something to show they have been listening, or when the truly show they care by carrying the treatment table and medical kit.  No matter the age of your athletes it is important to treat them all with respect and have their long term health and wellness in mind, because at times you will be the only one worrying about that.

Please follow us on Twitter @EliteInjuryMgmt  and our webpage at www.eliteinjury.com

Injury Prevention - Athletic Therapist at the Ready

To continue on with our What is an Athletic Therapist series, we will be focusing on their role in injury prevention.

Injury prevention is a major role for all athletic therapists, be it for initial injury or re-injury.  There are many aspects to injury prevention.  Two of the most important are physical preparedness and education.

Physical preparedness.  Athletic Therapists play a major role in helping ensure that their athletes can withstand the physical demands of their sport, both daily and from season to season.

Proper strength and conditioning involves everything from ensuring proper muscle balance, flexibility as well as proper aerobic and anaerobic conditioning for sport and position.  Their knowledge of biomechanics, anatomy and physiology enables each Athletic Therapist to work with each athlete on an individual basis to improve their performance.

On a daily basis the preparation for practice, game or event can range from stretching or muscle work, injury rehab, or taping and strapping all help prevent injuries.

Part of physical preparedness is also ensuring that the body is being provided with the proper nutrients and energy.  Ensuring that athletes have readily available nutritious food that will supply them with the proper energy reserves for their sport as well as educating all athletes in the area of nutrition.

Each day Athletic Therapists are educating athletes, coaches, parents and administrators.  Any time that as an Athletic Therapist you get to educate someone you are working towards injury prevention.  Even during the rehabilitation stage the knowledge you are passing on can help prevent further injuries.  From nutrition, injury care, concussion recognition, injury recognition, and beyond your Athletic Therapist is there to ensure that you have the knowledge and skills to stay healthy and in the game.

All Athletic Therapists are prepared to deal with any injury that may come their way, however their goal is to help you prevent those injuries from even occurring or reducing the time you are away due to injury.  Your success is always what every Athletic Therapist wants.

Halloween Safety

With Halloween coming up tomorrow, we thought it pertinent to discuss some safety issues around the holiday.

Trick or Treating Safety

1. Make costumes out of bright visible colors or use reflective tape to help make children visible.
2. If children are going out without you, make sure you agree upon a route and to stay in well lit areas.
3. Have the children take a flashlight.
4. Remind the children not to eat any candy prior to you sorting through it.  

Sport and Halloween

If your child is allowed to wear their costume to their sporting event, it is important to keep in mind if it will restrict participation.  As when planning their trick or treating costume masks can restrict vision or breathing. How tight or loose fitting the clothing is will greatly effect your young athletes ability to participate fully.  Both baggy and tight fitting costumes pose safety hazards, the may restrict movement or become a tripping hazard.  Accessories such as wings, tails and head gear can throw off balance of the athlete as well as pose a risk to the other participants.  Depending upon the costume it may be wise to have two costumes, one for school and trick or treating, the other for sport related activities.  

Keeping up with Nutrition

Prior to heading out trick tor treating or to the local Halloween party, it is important to feed your young athlete a healthy supper.  This will help fuel them for the fun and excitement that they are about to participate in as well as decrease the urge to over indulge in their loot.  By no means do we think that young athletes are immune to wanting to consume the goodies they will gain from their evening of going door to door, but if they have had a filling meal before hand they will not use the candy as their meal.  Post trick or treating, moderation is key.  Having some candy each day will benefit them in the short and long term.  In regards to sport if they only have a small amount of candy each day will keep their energy on a more even level.  Long term advantage is their candy stash will last longer.  

Have a safe Halloween both at sport, school and play.  

Antioxidants and Sport

Why is it important for all of us to eat fruits and vegetables and other plant based whole food.  Well quite simply it is the nutrients that they provide.  The nutrients from these foods are special, they are called antioxidants and they help protect your body and cells from the damages that occur on a daily basis.

Antioxidants are found naturally in food and come in the forms of vitamins, plant chemicals such as flavonoids and carotenoids, and minerals.  The role that antioxidants play in the body is to protect cells from damage.  The damage that occurs to the cells is from free radicals.  Free radicals are produced during metabolism.  Free radicals can also be caused from environmental factors such as pollution, smoking and chemicals.  So with every breath we take, stress inducing moment, and exercise we complete we are producing free radicals in our body.  For athletes who are engaging in strenuous training their levels of free radical damage is huge.  The best way to counteract this damage is through diet.  

By consuming antioxidant rich foods they counter balance the free radicals in the body.  Antioxidants can be found in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, vegetable based oils, garlic and green tea.  By in large fruits and vegetables are great sources of antioxidants.  The Canada Food Guide recommends 4-6 servings of fruits and vegetables for children, 7-8 for teens and between 7-10 for adults.  The Food Pyramid recommends 2-4 servings of fruits and 3-5 servings of vegetables.  These recommendations are per day not per week, or for some people per month.  Typically raw is better than cooked when dealing with fruits and vegetables but in some cases cooked is better.  Spinach, kale and chard is better cooked as the cooking process releases more beta-carotene and lutein.

Of fruits and vegetables berries, broccoli, tomatoes, red grapes, spinach and artichokes are considered high in antioxidants.  As each food is created differently it is important to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to get all the nutrients and minerals available.  A good rule of thumb is fill your plate with the colors of the rainbow.  For many people, especially athletes finding time to eat the variety and amount of is hard.  If you are having difficulty achieving this level of consumption, you can consume a whole food based supplement made of a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Providing your body with the proper nutrition it needs to grow and perform is essential.  Knowing what you put in your body is key.

Pre-Season Nutrition

Proper nutrition during tryouts might not be what helps you make the team or prevent injury but poor nutrition can hinder your chances of success.  During tryouts the physical demands being put on the body are greater than normal.  Typically there are more sessions at a greater intensity than during the season, the body is going to need proper fuel to compete at its maximum potential.  

You can not start eating right the night before and expect everything to work out great.  As with physical conditioning, you need to start fueling your body properly long before you step on the field for the start of the season.  When searching for an ideal diet to use for both athletics and everyday life follow the Canada Food Guide. Fill your plate with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats.  Milk products can work great post activity though typically not recommend prior to activity as they can unsettle the stomach once activity commences.   Athletes need to consume all three of the major macro-nutrients; carbohydrates, protein and fat to fuel the body properly as well as providing it with the proper nutrients for growth and development.  The body uses carbohydrates to create the energy needed for physical and mental activity, eliminating them is very counter productive for any athlete.  

A common question that is asked by coaches, parents and athletes is "when should I eat prior to my event?". It is not a cut and dry answer as every person has their own perfect balance as to when and how much they need to eat prior to activity.  A general rule of thumb is that as the younger an athlete is the closer to start time they should eat.  Their metabolism is faster and will use up the energy gained from eating quicker.  As we age our metabolism slows down, instead of eating a big meal a few hours before the game, the larger meal may need to consumed quite a few hours before with a small easily digestible snack closer to game time.  During pre-season and tryouts there are typically multiple sessions in one day making it hard to find time to eat a good healthy meal and allow the body to digest it.  Eating smaller meals that are easily digestible will give you the energy to compete but not weigh you down or cause cramps. 

Prior to your sessions eat low or medium glycemic index (GI) foods such as fruits and vegetables or beans.  Your body needs carbohydrates to be active so having a bowl of granola or oatmeal, with nuts and fruits would be ideal, a non dairy based shake full of fruits and veggies is an easy digestible option.  Post activity you need to provide your body with both carbohydrates and protein, depending on how long until your next session will decide on the size of the meal.  Protein shakes made with fruits and vegetables are great at this time, just be careful of the amount of dairy you are having.  A couple of other great meals would be a peanut butter sandwich and fruit or a bagel with a lean meat, wild salmon would be a great choice, with either spinach, sprouts or kale. Always drink water to stay hydrated, you can see our previous post on the importance of hydration. You might have heard that chocolate milk is a great post exercise drink, it is as it provides you with carbohydrates, protein, and two major electrolytes; sodium and potassium to help the body rebuild and refuel. Compare other beverages to chocolate milk to see how they stack up.

As tempting as it may be to go through the drive thru for a quick meal DON"T. Fast foods will not provide your body with the nutrients it needs, as well as there is a decrease in blood flow through the arteries and veins due to the vessels constricting.  When you will ask your muscles and heart to react to the physical demands you are going to put them through, they will not be receiving the necessary blood flow to do what you ask.  You will feel lethargic and unable to perform at your best.

Take a little time to plan your meals during this hectic time of the year.  You will enjoy the benefits of providing your body with the food it needs to perform at its best. 

A New Season and a New Beginning

For anyone who had read previous posts you are going to notice a bit of a change.  I am changing this from a personal blog to one more business centered. You are still going to receive great health tips just less about the life of being a mom, unless the children enlighten me on some sort of injury prevention tip.  Another change is that we will be adding guest bloggers, giving them a chance to share their injury prevention and management tips while giving you another perspective.

The basis will still be as our name suggests Eat Right and Ice.  Ask any of my athletes or patients and they will tell you that no matter their injury they were told to ice and if they wanted to achieve success they needed to fuel their body properly.  No matter your sport, activity or occupation the information here will help you achieve the success that is in you.

As we get closer to then end of summer and fall starts to get into full swing so do many sports and activities. Fall can be a very trying time for all those involved in sport.  Athletes are under both internal and external pressures during tryouts, you then throw in the beginning of a new school year and it can play a major factor in their on field performance.  Coaches are dealing with the expectations of their organization and parents as well as juggling work, sport and their own children's schedules.  Parents are now juggling back to school, multiple sport schedules on top of normal daily activities.  With increased stress levels and busy schedules proper nutrition typically goes out the window at a time when it is crucial for athletes to fuel their bodies properly. Proper rest and nourishment help combat mental and physical fatigue which plays a role in injury prevention.

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on how to get through tryouts healthy and injury free.