Nutrition Icon Breaks Down The Health Benefits

After a brutally cold winter for much of the country, it's time to embrace the changing season and cleanse and rejuvenate our bodies with lighter foods, juices and smoothies, says nutritionist and juicing pioneer Cherie Calbom, MS. ("The Juice Lady").

What's considered healthy and unhealthy seems to change on a regular basis, which is why it's helpful to recognize further studies that confirm previous findings. Most recently, a study by Georgia State University microbiologist Benoit Chassaing has further confirmed the destructive properties of an inflammatory diet.

Researchers found that common additives in processed foods including ice cream, margarine, packaged bread and many more may promote the inflammatory bowel diseases ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease as well as a group of obesity-related conditions.

"It's not only intestinal problems; low-grade inflammation caused by food additives has been shown to contribute to weight gain and blood sugar control problems, as well as a host of other chronic disease," says Calbom, author of "The Juice Lady's Anti-Inflammation Diet" (www.juiceladycherie.com), which offers healthy meal options, smoothies and robust juice recipes to help readers live an anti-inflammation lifestyle.

"No matter the kind of diet you may lean toward - vegetarian, vegan, low-carb, no-carb, Mediterranean, Neanderthal or any other kind of diet - any and all anti-inflammation efforts are well worth it!"

Healthy juices and shakes are a convenient way to reduce inflammation, revitalize your cells and lose some of those winter pounds.

"Yes, you can lose weight on the anti-inflammation diet and rejuvenate your body," says Calbom, who offers just a few of her recipes and discusses their health benefits.

•  Anti-Inflammatory Cocktail
1 green apple
½ large fennel with fronds
1-inch-piece ginger root
1 large broccoli stem
3 leaves kale
½ cucumber, peeled if not organic

Cut produce to fit your juicer. Start by juicing the apple and finish with the cucumber. Drink as soon as possible.

Benefits
Fennel: anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine, analgesic, and antioxidant
Apple: inhibits the development of allergies; rich in histamine-lowering quercetin
Cucumber: analgesic (pain killer); antioxidant that prevents the synthesis of the inflammatory compound prostaglandin
Broccoli: anti-carcinogenic, prevents gastric mucosal damage (suggesting potential histamine-lowering action)
Ginger: as effective as an H2 receptor antagonist prescription drug

•  Morning Energy
1 - 2 carrots, scrubbed well, tops removed, ends trimmed
½ small beet, with leaves
1 cucumber, peeled if not organic
1 handful spinach or several chard leaves
½ lemon, peeled
1-inch-piece ginger root, scrubbed, peeled if old

Cut produce to fit your juicer's feed tube. Juice all ingredients and stir. Pour into a glass and drink as soon as possible.

Benefits
Beets contain unique phytonutrients called betalains, which have been shown to provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and detoxification effects.

•  Antioxidant Power Smoothie
1 cup unsweetened plant milk such as hemp, coconut, or almond milk
½ cup blueberries
1 pear
½ cup baby spinach
1 tsp. Indian gooseberry extract (optional)*
1 Tbsp. flaxseed
Ice cubes (optional, depending on how cold you like your smoothie)

Add all ingredients to a blender and process until smooth.

Benefits
Berries help prevent damaging effects of free radicals and inflammation by turning off the inflammation signals triggered by cytokines and COX-2s, making them an ideal part of your diet.

Cherie Calbom, M.S.

Cherie Calbom holds a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University. She is author of 26 books including The Juice Lady's Anti- Inflammation Diet (www.juiceladycherie.com), The Juice Lady's Big Book of Juices and Green Smoothies, The Juice Lady's Turbo Diet, Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life, The Juice Lady's Living Foods Revolution, The Complete Cancer Cleanse, and Juicing for Life with over 2 million books sold in the U.S. and published in 23 countries. She has worked as a celebrity nutritionist with George Foreman and Richard Simmons, and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows and in scores of magazine articles. She appeared on QVC for more than 13 years with the George Foreman grill. Known as "The Juice Lady" for her work with juicing and health, her juice therapy and cleansing programs have been popular for more than a decade.

Best-Selling 'E-Myth' Author Michael E. Gerber Is Determined To Shock People Out Of Their Stupor

Michael E. Gerber is miffed and he doesn't care who knows it.

The best-selling author of the "E-Myth" book series says the American Dream has been waylaid - no different than if it had been besieged by robbers in a dark alley - and Gerber is intent on rescuing it.

The way Gerber sees it, the issue is our confusion about the American Dream and what every one of us believe to be true about it. And it's time to get it back on track, says the fiery 78-year-old small-business guru who vaulted to fame in 1986 with his original "E-Myth" book and has been engaged in realizing a dream of his own over the past 40 years.

"Somehow we've forgotten our roots and why there was an American Dream to begin with," Gerber says. "We've lost track of the reason why millions upon millions of people came here to try to make a better future for themselves. We've also forgotten that the dream never was a political one, but a personal one for each and every one of us.  It's the politicizing of it that's created all the trouble."

Gerber (www.michaelegerbercompanies.com) has a great deal of experience in how to restore faith in the American dream. He has worked with tens of thousands of small business owners over the past 40 years.

The trick, Gerber says, is giving small business owners and aspiring small business owners a splash of cold water to wake them up to see that the American Dream isn't dead, nor is their business. Instead, what they are missing is a lack of commitment to their own dream.

To bring his point home, Gerber began a nationwide campaign this year in Riverside, Calif., where the city's mayor, Rusty Bailey, helped launch Gerber's first city-sponsored Dreaming Room.

Gerber invented the Dreaming Room, which he describes as an "entrepreneurial incubator," in 2005, and has been delivering it to individuals worldwide ever since. It's a program where the unemployed, underemployed, self-employed or small business owners who find themselves stuck in their current unworkable circumstances join together, led by a facilitator.

In an intense, small-group setting they go through a step-by-step process where they create, collaborate and test ideas to develop or improve their current circumstances by inventing a new business.

Once developed, the concept for that new business is then put to work, with Gerber's team helping the new entrepreneur apply Gerber's entrepreneurial principles to design, build, launch and grow their new company.

Riverside was just a first step in Gerber's vision for city-sponsored economic development initiatives in cities and counties throughout the nation and the world. Having launched Riverside, it's on to Fresno and the 14 counties surrounding that California city of 509,000 people. In May, Gerber plans a Dreaming Room for the 96 mayors of all the cities in those counties "to awaken the spirit of entrepreneurship in them."

"We will be teaching people how to make it on their own in Fresno, San Mateo, and every U.S. city who invites us in, you name it," Gerber says. "In the process of inspiring and leading them and mentoring them, something remarkable will happen. Each and every individual will understand, many for the very first time, that he or she and no one else is responsible for their circumstances."

Even as he makes more Dreaming Room plans, the prolific Gerber is still pounding out books, with three he's working on simultaneously. They are "Beyond the E-Myth," "The 5 Essential Skills of Extraordinary People" and "Making It on Your Own in America."

The latter title has become an overriding theme for him of late. For Gerber, economic development is all about the individual and how personal responsibility is the key to making it in America.

"It happens with the individual or it doesn't happen at all," he says. "Every single individual is accountable for their own economy - an 'economy of one'".

"Our economic problem has been created through the belief that big government can solve our problems. We then created a monster of a government that presumes to think for us. That's why our economy is in tatters. It's why the number of people on food stamps has grown exponentially. It's why the number of people who are impoverished has grown, and the number of unemployed has grown exponentially. It's also why our federal debts and deficits have grown beyond the pale."

"The way forward is to go back", Gerber says. "Back to those inspirational days when the nation took its first awkward steps, the Constitution was written and the Bill of Rights was tacked on like a brilliant afterthought".

"If it becomes a political discussion, it misses the point," Gerber says. "It was never political back then, it was existential. It was an existential reality to liberate each of us to follow our own path."

About Michael E. Gerber

Michael E. Gerber (www.michaelegerbercompanies.com) is an entrepreneur, thought leader, speaker and best-selling author whose modern classic, "The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It," has sold more than 3 million copies. He is the founder of The Dreaming Room™, where entrepreneurs and others are provided the tools and facilitation to see, experience, develop and design their Dream, Vision, Purpose and Mission. His next book, "Beyond The E-Myth" is a passionate response to America's current inspiration deficit.

Former Miss Deaf America Says Act Helped Tear Down Barriers

The day the Americans With Disabilities Act passed in 1990, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin delivered a speech from the Senate floor in a way most of his colleagues didn't understand.

Harkin, the bill's sponsor, used sign language for the benefit of his brother who was deaf and had taught Harkin this lesson: "People should be judged on the basis of their abilities and not on the basis of their disabilities."

With the country marking the Act's 25th anniversary, Brandi Rarus, a former Miss Deaf America, remembers how important it was for people with disabilities to make it known they would no longer allow others to set limits on what they could achieve.

"Those of us with disabilities face many barriers," says Rarus, co-author with Gail Harris of the book "Finding Zoe: A Deaf Woman's Story of Identity, Love and Adoption." (www.brandirarus.com)

"Some of those are unavoidable. I can't listen to the radio as I drive to work in the morning. Often, because of communication barriers, I have to work twice as hard as a hearing person. Instead of taking me five minutes to make a doctor's appointment, it takes me 10."

But some barriers are avoidable, Rarus says. And that's why the Americans With Disabilities Act has played such an important role in people's lives for the last 25 years.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities when it comes to employment issues. The Act also requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for a disability unless it causes an "undue hardship."

Harris, a professional storyteller and Rarus' co-author, says that although Rarus is deaf, her life struggles are similar to everyone's.

"We can all relate to finding our place in the world and fitting in, about self-acceptance, about being judged and judging others, and how we must look past all that to fulfill our dreams," says Harris. (www.gailharrisauthor.com)

The U.S. Department of Labor says many concerns about the ADA never materialized. According to the department:

•  Complying isn't expensive. The majority of workers with disabilities do not need accommodations, and for those who do, the cost is usually minimal. In fact, 57 percent of accommodations cost nothing, according to the Job Accommodation Network, a service from the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.

•  Lawsuits have not flooded the courts. The majority of ADA employment-related disputes are resolved through informal negotiation or mediation. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces the ADA's employment provisions, investigates the merits of each case and offers alternatives to litigation. The number of ADA employment-related cases represents a tiny percentage of the millions of employers in the U.S.

•  The ADA is rarely misused. If an individual files a complaint under the ADA and does not have a condition that meets its definition of disability, the complaint is dismissed. While claims by people with false or minor conditions may get media attention, the reality is these complaints are usually dismissed.
Rarus, who became deaf at age 6 when she contracted spinal meningitis, was making strides toward success even before the passage of the ADA.

Winning the Miss Deaf America crown in 1988 led to numerous opportunities. She signed the National Anthem at a Chicago Cubs game. She spoke at corporate conferences and traveled the country speaking out for deaf children and building awareness of what it means to be deaf. She was understudy for Marlee Matlin in the play "Children of a Lesser God."

Her latest project is "Finding Zoe." The book Rarus and Harris joined forces to write tells the story of Rarus' early years as she learned to live with being deaf, but the focal point becomes her effort to adopt Zoe, a deaf infant caught in the foster care system.

Harris, upon collaborating with Rarus on her story, was on a mission to help bring it forth, as everyone is deserving of basic human rights. "People don't realize what the deaf have gone through," she says.

Working with Rarus and the anniversary of the ADA have reminded her of the challenges all people face, whether black or white, deaf or hearing, gay or straight.

"It's how we deal with them that counts," Harris says. "Brandi's courage and tenacity can get us thinking about our own vulnerabilities and how they can make us strong."

About Brandi Rarus and Gail Harris

Brandi Rarus (www.brandirarus.com), who lost her hearing at age 6, has traveled the country speaking out for deaf children and building awareness of what it means to be deaf. She was Miss Deaf America in 1988. She and her husband live in Austin, Texas, with their three sons and adopted daughter.

Gail Harris (www.gailharrisauthor.com) is an award-winning writer and teacher of the intuitive process who also adopted a child. In addition to co-writing "Finding Zoe," she is the author of "Your Heart Knows the Answer." She lives with her husband and son in Framingham, Mass

3 Reasons A Fitness and Wellness Regimen Can Empower Women
Celebrity Trainer Holly Perkins Says Women Should Look Great To Please Themselves, Not Others

From an early age, women have foisted on them images of the "ideal" female body, and self-esteem can plummet when they fail to measure up.

But celebrity trainer Holly Perkins says it's time women stop buying into those societal pressures.

"There's this perception that all women need to look like perfect runway models," says Perkins, a leading national weight-loss expert. "They can feel the anxiety building when they are trying to meet someone else's expectations. That's when the effort to lose weight or get fit can add to the stresses of life instead of relieving them."

Certainly, women should want to improve their health, get fit and look gorgeous all at the same time, says Perkins, who recently released a home-exercise system designed specifically for women called baladea (www.baladea.com), with regimens she developed to fuse fitness and wellness exercises.

But getting in shape needs to be something women want for themselves, and not an effort to mimic some airbrushed image on a magazine cover at the supermarket, she says.

Perkins realized several years ago that her clients met their weight-loss goals faster when she created programs that addressed both their fitness and wellness needs at the same time.

They also felt happier about themselves. So she incorporated yoga and other stress-relieving and relaxation techniques into the baladea program.

Perkins offers three reasons why the right fitness and wellness regimen can empower women and emancipate them from society's image pressures:

•  Because looking good makes you feel good. That's especially true when you're trying to look good to please yourself and not others, Perkins says. "There's this sense of empowerment when you exercise, eat a healthier diet and lose weight because it's what you want and not because of peer pressure or societal pressures," she says.

Self-esteem rises when you improve your image on your terms, she says, and as a result "looking gorgeous never felt better."

•  Because the science says so. Research shows that stress can keep you from losing weight and might even cause you to add pounds. Even if you eat well and exercise, an excessive amount of stress can counteract all your efforts. That's why meshing fitness and wellness works so well, Perkins says.

"Stress reduction and relaxation can significantly improve weight loss," she says. "That allows you to look and feel your absolute best."

•  Because while improving your look, you also become healthier. You will feel amazing not just because of elevated self-esteem, but because your body really is functioning better because of the diet and exercise, Perkins says. Your energy level will rise and "you will feel ready for anything," she says.

"You can look awesome and you can feel happy at the same time," Perkins says. "It's all about letting your true self shine."

About Holly Perkins

Holly Perkins is a national fitness expert and developer of baladea (www.baladea.com), a customizable fitness and wellness system for women. She holds a bachelor's degree in Exercise Physiology and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), one of the most prestigious certifications in the industry. She believes that making fitness a fun lifestyle is the best way to achieve true change. As one of the nation's leading weight-loss experts and a highly sought-after celebrity trainer, she has been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and on national TV shows.