Granite Girl – Life In The Cloud: How To Change Your Health In Four Steps

Apparently, using whatever hand you don’t use to write with to brush your teeth stimulates the production of something called BDNF which is a protein that can improve long term memory and even improve your mood. Professor Moses Chao from the NYU School of Medicine says that when you’re stressed out or very depressed, your body’s production of BDNF plummets. One of the things that antidepressants do is to raise your BDNF production. Obviously brushing your teeth with the opposite hand won’t raise it enough to get you off of your meds, but it can get you out of that mid-week funk.

If you’re already using a coffee filter, good for you! If you’re a big fan of the French press or can’t go without your morning espresso, think about this: Researchers say that unfiltered coffee contains more terpenes, which are compounds found in coffee bean oil. Terpenes have been known to be a contributing factor in higher cholesterol levels. Coffee filters filter out a lot of the coffee bean oil, thereby reducing the level of terpenes in your favorite cup of joe.

You’ve heard the old adage that an apple a day keeps the doctor away and now eating an apple every day 15 minutes before lunch can help keep the calories away, too. Researchers at Penn State had a group of people eat apples and a second group got their apple fix by eating applesauce or drinking apple juice. The group that ate the actual fruit consumed almost 200 calories less at lunch than those who ate applesauce or drank apple juice. That’s because apples contain a lot of fiber and more nutrients than processed apple products.

Our average diet contains a lot of fat and a lot of carbohydrates, and though you may not realize it, a poor diet can damage your liver. Eating walnuts can actually help your liver because they contain a high amount of Omega 3 fatty acids, which not only aid in liver function, Omega 3’s improve metabolism, stimulate blood circulation, regulate blood pressure and decrease cholesterol.