These are 2 articles from RealAge that talk about nuts and how good they are for you and I thought it tied in nicely with the facts on fat calories.  

Which Is Better: Nuts or Olive Oil?
Let’s pretend for a moment that you have two options for improving your health: Eat more nuts or eat more olive oil. Which should you choose?

Believe it or not, nuts could have a slight edge, especially if you’re concerned about metabolic syndrome, a combo of health conditions that raises heart disease risk.

Nuts for Your Health
In a 1-year study, people who ate a Mediterranean-style diet and added an extra ounce of nuts (roughly a small handful) had a lower incidence of metabolic syndrome compared with the people who ate the same diet but instead added 4 to 5 ounces more of olive oil every day.  Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of health problems that can lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.  See the end of this article for symptoms of Metabolic syndrome. 

The Whole Truth
Why the difference? Here’s one simple theory: Olive oil is a fat extracted from olives, but nuts are a whole food with more good-for-you stuff in them, including fiber, protein, and minerals. Both olive oil and nuts can -- and should -- have a place in a healthy diet. In the study, both seemed to help tamp down high triglycerides and abdominal fat better than a low-fat diet did. But the nut eaters also experienced better blood pressure, which is one reason their metabolic syndrome numbers were better.

A cluster of 5 factors. When grouped together, these five factors indicate the condition is present.
1. Abdominal obesity is the most obvious mark of metabolic syndrome.  For men, a waistline of 40 inches or more is a high-risk size. For women, a waistline of 35 inches or more is a high-risk size.

2. Elevated blood pressure --anything above 130/85 mm Hg 

3. High blood triglycerides  (150 mg/dL)  Some of these are American measurements so I'm not even sure if they correspond.  The key is to follow up with your doctor if you are concerned about any of these 5 factors.  And of course eat more nuts!!! 

4. Low blood HDL (good) cholesterol For women, low HDL is below 50 mg/dL.

5. Insulin resistance is the defining risk factor for metabolic syndrome. If your body is not able to process blood sugar efficiently, or if your fasting blood glucose level is at or above 110 mg/dL, then it is likely that you have insulin resistance.

Having 3 of these 5 characteristics can indicate the presence of metabolic syndrome.  As I was reading more on Metabolic Syndrome of course exercise was an important factor as well.  If you want any more information just let me know!

This is a quick note tied to fat calories which links nicely to nuts and olive oil since they are both fats.

True or False: Fat calories pack on pounds faster than carb calories.  
True, if the calories are excess calories -- that is, more than your body needs. What accounts for the difference? It’s really easy for your body to convert excess dietary fat into body fat -- the process burns as little as 3% of the calories involved. But converting the calories in carbs and protein to fat is far harder and burns up to 23% of the calories in the process. That’s why excess fat calories bulk you up faster than excess carb calories.  I think, as always, it comes down to eating a balanced diet of carbs, fats and protein

And of course I want to put a few words in as an update:
I'm doing a clothing exchange in Stavely, Saturday, April 25th at the Youth Hall.  So if you are interested please email me or call to register - I need to know how many will be there and I need your clothes before the exchange.  If you need more information on what a clothing exchange looks like, please let me know!

It finally feels like spring.  Seeds are started and I am creating a wonderful workshop for Saturday, June 27th in Stavely.  Watch for more details.  This is coming as a follow up to the Introduction to Living Creatively Workshop that I did Saturday at the High River library.  Amazing!  Everything is working perfectly!!  Thank you.

At the workshop one of my most powerful moments was to explain about living in this moment because this moment is the safest place to be.  So here is a great quote from Oprah Winfrey:

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.