Sleep is one of the most important gifts we can give to ourselves. While everybody’s sleep requirement is different, I think we can all agree you cannot live without it. There are many over-the-counter and prescription medications available that claim they can help us have a restful night sleep. Taking one occasionally is fine, but you can become dependent on them and require larger doses to help you sleep. Also, most options include undesirable side effects. In the past couple of weeks several clients have asked me if I can help them with their sleep concerns through nutrition. Whether you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up refreshed, the following information can help.

What Affects Our Sleep:

Alcohol, caffeine (including chocolate or decaf), eating within a couple of hours of going to sleep, evening meal high in saturated fat, going to sleep hungry, exercising at night, simple carbohydrates, sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

For more helpful tips on sleep please contact us at info@personalwebnutrition.com.

September is always a busy month for everybody. Kids are back in school and parents are back in full swing at work and balancing their families’ schedules. It is the perfect opportunity to learn how to make HEALTHY grab and go choices for your family!

Why Weight?

Learn how you and your family can eat healthy for good! Join me, Rachel Lerner, certified nutritional consultant and Founder of Personal Web Nutrition.comfor a Life-Changing Teleclass on: The Secrets to Healthy Grab and Go Eating; including decoding nutrition labels, mastering grocery shopping, foods we should limit or avoid, product recommendations, foods we should be eating and many other wonderful tips and strategies to educate you about the right foods for you and your family.

“Food is a powerful medicine”

Let Personal Web Nutrition.com be your guide. I have designed this special workshop to teach you the importance of proper eating habits and nutrition for the whole family. The Secrets to Healthy Grab and Go Eating Teleclasses will be offered four different days and times to make it extremely convenient for everyone!

Monday September 15^th 12:00-12:45PM (EST) and 4:00-4:45PM (EST)

Tuesday September 16^th 10:00-10:45AM (EST)

Wednesday September 17^th 8:00-8:45PM (EST)

The Secrets to Healthy Grab and Go Eating teleclass is complimentary to Personal Web Nutrition.com members and extremely affordable to non-members. The cost is only $7.95, less than a nutritious lunch or dinner. Sign-up today, it is never too late to start eating healthy! To sign-up, please click on http://healthygrabandgoeating.eventbrite.com/. Once you sign-up for a workshop you will receive a call in number and access code via email. Then simply call in from wherever you are at the appropriate time, and participate or just listen along. I hope you will join me for this wonderful workshop!

I always urge my clients to use caution when consuming sugar and artificial sweeteners. Their response is always, “What should I use as a sweetener?” Stevia, a substance derived from the leaves of the Latin American herb stevia and hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, is one of the products on my list of approved sweeteners. Stevia is approved by the FDA as a dietary supplement, not a food additive. Opinions on stevia have varied over the years because in the 1960’s there were a couple of animal studies that suggested stevia might cause reproductive probelms or cancerous mutations. Although the studies were questioned and stevia was safely used and accepted in Japan, U.S. regulators put an import ban on it in 1991. In 1994 the ban was lifted and stevia was classified as a dietary supplement. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have recently developed a new line of beverages sweetened with stevia. Last month the U.S. News & World Report featured an article on Stevia. The article focused on the recent surge in interest on this product, especially among food and beverage companies. For more information on this article, please visit http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/living-well-usn/2008/07/28/the-zero-calorie-sweetener-stevia-arrives.html