Sweet, Hot & Cool Salad Meal!

February 17, 2012

OurPlate Score: 10

This extra-tasty HumanaNatura salad meal combines simple and inexpensive ingredients to create a plateful of rich and complementary flavors. It starts with pan-fried tilapia and red onion seasoned with ginger, turmeric, red pepper, and tarragon. This spicy mix is then paired with a half-plate of arugula and the cool and sweet of julienne cucumber, diced cherry tomatoes, and slivered strawberries. It’s garnished simply but piquantly with pistachios, parsley, anise, and cracked black pepper. Delicious, different with almost every bite, and ready in under fifteen minutes!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals through OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s new healthy eating tool, and experience how this simple, science-based, and 100% natural approach to daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, we hope you will explore your other opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – through HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong and lifewide health and fitness at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell your friends about OurPlate & HumanaNatura…promote new health!

Living Without Unhealthy Stress

February 15, 2012

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By Mark Lundegren

Stress matters. Though it can seem purely psychological and abstract, stress is more deeply a physical phenomenon that tangibly affects our health, well-being, and even longevity.

A new study, published jointly by medical researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia, underscores this critical point and the importance of managing both intense and chronic stress for a long, happy, and healthy life.

In the new study, published in Circulation and summarized in the medical press, the research team found that people subject to extreme stress, in the form of the death of a loved one, were 21 times more likely to have a heart attack in the first 24 hours after the death and six times more likely in the first week. Both differences in heart attack rates are of course well above the threshold for medical significance.

Our Need to Focus on Chronic Stress

As important and perhaps surprising as these findings are, it is essential to add that the principal problem with stress today is its chronic or ongoing forms rather than its intense or acute varieties. Protracted conditions of stress in us reliably lead to significant biochemical and immunological disruptions in our bodies and then progressive reductions in our health and natural functioning across our lives. A list of important consequences from unaddressed chronic stress is available at The Effects Of Chronic Stress.

Continue reading “Living Without Unhealthy Stress”

Delicious Ahi Tuna Salad Meal!

February 12, 2012

OurPlate Score: 10

This HumanaNatura salad meal looks exotic but is actually fairly inexpensive and simple to prepare. It features a pan-seared and ginger seasoned ahi or yellowfin tuna fillet with a half-plate of raw greens, sautéed red onion, tomato and orange pieces, and fresh berries. It’s all garnished with roasted and lightly salted sunflower seeds, parsley, coriander, tarragon, and black pepper. And while we do recommend limiting fish from high in the marine food chain, it only makes an occasional treat like this that much more delicious..enjoy!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals through OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s new healthy eating tool, and experience how this simple, science-based, and 100% natural approach to daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, we hope you will explore your other opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – through HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong and lifewide health and fitness at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell your friends about OurPlate & HumanaNatura…promote new health!

Naturalized & Healthier Stir-Fry!

February 9, 2012

OurPlate Score: 10

This HumanaNatura salad meal takes the stir-fry to a whole new and far healthier level. It features a sauté (via a wok or pan) of sliced pork, red onion, ginger, and broccoli florets, a contrasting mix of sliced kiwi and blueberries, and our usual half-plate of mixed greens along with diced tomatoes and cucumber. It’s garnished with a few pistachios, parsley, paprika, coriander, grated lemon rind, and black pepper. While you can get healthier just by looking at the photo, why not try your hand at making this simple, quick, and perfect-ten salad meal today!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals through OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s new healthy eating tool, and experience how this simple, science-based, and 100% natural approach to daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, we hope you will explore your other opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – through HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong and lifewide health and fitness at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell your friends about OurPlate & HumanaNatura…promote new health!

Cancer Prevention & Treatment

February 7, 2012

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By Mark Lundegren

Cancer has been in the news these last few weeks, and the news has been decidedly more hopeful than in the past.

Based on a series of recent studies and meta-analyses, scientists are now increasingly and more definitively prioritizing our risk factors for many common and aggressive cancers, allowing us all to reduce our chances of getting these diseases by as much as half. And at least as importantly, long-envisioned immunotherapy regimes for treating existing cancers are entering clinical trials and showing early results that are promising if not remarkable.

Let’s begin a recap of recent cancer news by highlighting a new and quite extensive study of factors leading to common cancers that was recently published in the British Journal of Cancer (BJC). It concluded that readily alterable lifestyle choices accounted for over 40% of cancers in the UK, prompting calls there for urgent public action. These high-risk factors include: 1) smoking, 2) being overweight, 3) an unnatural absence of fruits and vegetables from our diet, 4) excessive alcohol consumption, and 5) immoderate sun and UV exposure. These new findings build on prior research showing that inadequate exercise also can be an important direct and indirect (especially by influencing body weight) lifestyle risk factor for cancer.

There’s more. The BJC published another new cancer study, this one based on research conducted by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Its findings were consistent with widespread and still growing research linking red meat and processed meats to increased cancers. The new study specifically suggested an almost 20% increased risk of deadly pancreatic cancer for each 50 grams (2 ounces) of processed meat consumed each day.

Continue reading “Cancer Prevention & Treatment”

Start the Week In Healthy Style!

February 6, 2012

OurPlate Score: 10

We never know what a new week will bring, but at least we can start each one with health and style! This quick and easy-to-prepare first meal of the week features a shrimp, turkey, and red onion egg scramble, a melange of orange bits and berries, and a half plate of mixed greens, lightly warmed broccoli, and diced tomato…all garnished with a few pistachios, parsley, paprika, coriander, and black pepper. Good morning, Monday!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals through OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s new healthy eating tool, and experience how this simple, science-based, and 100% natural approach to daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, we hope you will explore your other opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – through HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong and lifewide health and fitness at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell your friends about OurPlate & HumanaNatura…promote new health!

Healthy Cross-Quarter Greetings!

February 4, 2012

Greetings from HumanaNatura at the cross-quarter! In the natural year, we are at the halfway point between the extremes of light and darkness of the passing solstice and the relative balance and calm of the coming equinox.

Now is an ideal time to make added progress on your Natural Life Plan, taking steps to realize your goals for greater health and quality of life in the weeks ahead. In this way, you prepare yourself for our recommended review and renewal of your plan at the equinox.

If you do not have a Natural Life Plan – guiding your use and personal expression of Natural Living, the third HumanaNatura technique in our natural health system – the link above will take you to our planning worksheets and help you to begin more intentional, health-centered, and progressive life in the days and weeks ahead.

Our newest community newsletter was released today as well, which is published eight times yearly in harmony with the natural year. To receive future HumanaNatura newsletters and learn about the benefits of membership in our global practitioner-activist network, go to Join HumanaNatura.

Tell your friends about HumanaNatura…promote modern natural life!

Promoting Healthy Adolescence

February 1, 2012

University of California psychologist Alison Gopnik has written an excellent new article that summarizes our best scientific understanding of the changing nature and increasing disaffection of modern adolescence. The piece suggests why many teens and tweens today are struggling to achieve a naturally healthy, happy, and autonomous life. Importantly, she proposes what parents, community leaders, and yes, even adolescents can do to change this long-developing and seemingly pandemic trend, one now set in sharp relief by our global economic woes.

Rethinking adolescence

Gopnik’s simple but elegant distillation of developmental psychology’s current assessment of early 21st century adolescence first appeared as a submission to Edge.org and now has been re-printed by The Wall Street Journal in an expanded form, which we find the more valuable of the two.

Continue reading “Promoting Healthy Adolescence”

Tasty Red Snapper Salad Meal!

January 31, 2012

OurPlate Score: 10

Sautéed the night before, this gently re-warmed turmeric-ginger red snapper fillet is combined with a half-plate of  arugula, splintered celery bits, quartered grape tomatoes, and a melange of kiwi and orange pieces. It’s garnished with a scattering of pistachios and anise seeds, diced fresh ginger, parsley, paprika, and black pepper. Yummy and only about five minutes from first touch of the refrigerator door to ready to eat!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals through OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s new healthy eating aid, and experience how this simple, science-based, and 100% natural approach to daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, we hope you will explore your other opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – through HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong and lifewide health and fitness at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell your friends about OurPlate & HumanaNatura…promote new health!

Natural Look at Social Networking

January 30, 2012

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By Mark Lundegren

Do you marvel at the new internet-enabled social networks we all now have, or at least all now can have? And do you feel that your network, electronic or otherwise, reflects conscious decisions and preferences on your part?

A new study of modern-day hunter-gatherers by Harvard University and The University of California encourages a broader view on both points. It suggests: 1) that modern-day online social networks are more closely linked to earlier natural human social dynamics than we may realize, and 2) that our personal social networking preferences may be much more predictable than we believe.

The new study examines how human social networks are structured in our natural hunter-gatherer setting, focusing on how people with varying propensities for cooperation and individualism naturally mix and adjust to one another. This structuring of high and low cooperators is important, since in a predominantly cooperative species like Homo sapiens, incentives naturally exist for people who are more self-interested to take advantage of our generally cooperative social setting.

But highly individualistic “free-riders” must be naturally limited and made exceptional, since excessive or normalized individualism risks threatening essential cooperation and the entire society. This problem has been with us since the beginning of social life itself, and remains one of the most important social policy issues today.

Continue reading “Natural Look at Social Networking”