- WEALTHY: What Gustav did to oil prices (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Health is the new wealth (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Ralph Waldo Emerson on wealth
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Are you getting enough feedback? (Howie Jacobson)
- Make a boring sentence sing (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Good to Know… about the safest route
- Add “fop” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
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Not for the Faint of Heart
While meteorologists were plotting Hurricane Gustav’s course, uncertainty about exactly where it would go and how strong it would be drove the price of oil up $7. When the storm ripped through the Gulf of Mexico with minimal damage to vulnerable oil platforms, oil dropped over $9 a barrel the next trading day. The old saying “Buy on the rumor, sell on the news” certainly held true in this instance.
With dramatic swings like these, the average investor should not be playing in this game. It takes experience and discipline to make money consistently in this kind of market.
My advice to the average investor is to steer clear of the oil market, especially for the rest of hurricane season. But if you feel that you have to play it, I encourage you to do so on a small scale and with only a small portion of your portfolio.
[Ed. Note: One major key to making money? Steer clear of investments you don't understand. Investment expert Rick Pendergraft can show you a simple system that will help you determine which ones are right for you... and which are best avoided. Get the details here.]
”The first wealth is health.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
How much is your health worth to you? For most people, the answer is quite simple: Everything.
But in this age of “pill and procedure” medicine, many wait until it’s too late to make an investment in their health. And with the rising cost of food, it’s tempting to scrimp and save wherever you can.
I have two important messages for you: (1) The time to invest in your health is now! Not when your quality of life has become compromised. And (2) the good news is that eating high-quality food – the finest Mother Nature has to offer – doesn’t have to break the bank.
Food, like anything, tends to be less costly when it is mass produced. Producing it the right way – with care and attention to the environment – often costs more. Still, there are many conventional foods that give you the same nutritional bang for the buck as organics. At the same time, there are some “superfoods” you should be eating – and willing to pay a little more for.
Here’s the scoop on five of them…
#1: Wild Salmon
Salmon has been heralded for its many health benefits (and deservedly so). The popularity of this fish has created wide demand. And to satiate consumers’ appetites, thousands of fish farms have arisen on the world’s coasts. Unfortunately, in this case, Mother Nature has not been successfully mimicked.
What was once touted as a health food for its robust levels of essential omega-3s has become a fishy substitute at best. At worst, farmed salmon will do you more harm than good. And that’s why I urge you to buy only wild salmon.
How does this superfood turn from friend to foe? Here are the facts:
• Farmed salmon contains endocrine-disrupting PCBs. Farmed salmon are fed fishmeal pellets that concentrate known cancer-causing pollutants called PCBs. While all salmon have some level of PCBs, farmed salmon have seven times higher levels than wild salmon.
• Farmed salmon are lower in powerful antioxidants. Wild salmon dine on krill, which contain a carotenoid called astaxanthin (pronounced: asta-ZAN-thin) – one of the most powerful antioxidants ever discovered. Astaxanthin is also the nutrient responsible for wild salmon’s beautiful red-orange color.
• Farmed salmon are treated with artificial coloring. Because farmed salmon are fed cornmeal, soy, and canola oil – not their natural diet of krill – they are gray in color. They turn pink only when given chemically synthesized astaxanthin or treated with artificial coloring agents.
• Farmed salmon promote inflammation. As a result of their diet, the flesh of farmed salmon contains up to four times the amount of inflammatory omega-6s than the flesh of wild salmon… and far less essential omega-3s.
• Farmed salmon are loaded with antibiotics. Due to the cramped quarters in fish farms, lice and disease spread rapidly. And, in fact, farmed salmon are administered more antibiotics by weight than any other form of livestock.
You can’t afford not to eat wild salmon. It is one of the few fish that is still remarkably unpolluted, it is sustainably harvested, and it’s one of the healthiest proteins you can put on your plate.
The additional cost per serving of wild salmon ranges between $0.50 (Target, Archer Farms brand) to approximately $2.00 (Vital Choice)… a very small price to pay for a huge improvement in quality.
#2: Coffee
If you love coffee, you’ll be glad to know that you can indulge yourself and promote your health too. Coffee is a rich source of age-defying antioxidants, and recent research even suggests it helps prevent Parkinson’s and fight diabetes.
But I have some jolting news. If the coffee you drink is not organic, you’re exposing yourself to cup after cup of high levels of pesticides. Some of the many chemicals commonly used against the “coffee borer” include highly toxic endosulfan, dursban, basudin, and disulfoton.
Get the most out of your morning java by choosing organic, shade-grown coffee. You can find it in most food stores, or buy in bulk online from a company like Cafe Altura. Expect to pay about $11 per pound for organic whole beans versus $7 for conventional whole beans.
#3: Grass-Fed Beef
Beef was once believed to be harmful due to its saturated-fat content. However, research now shows that the real culprit is the extremely high level of inflammatory omega-6 fats that are created when cattle are fed a steady diet of corn. Not to mention the hormones used to hasten the trip of mass-produced beef to the butcher.
Way back when, cattle ate grass. Not corn. And they weren’t pumped full of growth hormones (rBGH) and antibiotics and packed into pens. These few changes have turned a healthful food into one of your body’s worst enemies.
But there is a way to have your beef and stay well too. Choose grass-fed! When cattle graze on their natural diet of grass, they have a healthier lipid profile – with much higher levels of healthy omega-3s and very low levels of inflammation-causing omega-6s. These animals are also naturally healthier, which means they are given antibiotics sparingly and only when necessary.
You can expect to pay about 50 percent to 100 percent more per pound for grass-fed beef, but the higher quality of the meat and many health benefits are worth it. For amazingly sumptuous cuts of the finest naturally raised beef, go straight to the appropriately named source – U.S. Wellness Meats. The company is managed with the same dignity and honesty as the folks who did it “way back when.”
Looking for a bargain? Try buffalo! These animals aren’t kept in pens (Would you want to try to put a buffalo in a pen?) and it’s illegal to give them hormones. That makes buffalo a natural alternative to grass-fed beef that is relatively inexpensive (about $7 per pound) and available in stores nationwide through Maverick Ranch.
#4: Berries
It’s hard to believe that sweet and juicy berries are so chockfull of age-defying, disease-fighting substances. And despite their taste, they are very low in sugar and score low on the glycemic index.
But I do have some bad news to share. Berries are one of the crops most highly contaminated with pesticides. In fact, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries are on the top-12 list of contaminated crops (a.k.a. The Dirty Dozen) that you should always buy organic.
Escaping harmful pesticides isn’t the only reason to choose organic berries. Research shows that organic strawberries, for example, boast 25 percent more antioxidants and more cancer-fighting power than their conventional counterparts.
Expect to pay about $1 to $2 more per pound for frozen organic berries.
#5: Cocoa
The news that cocoa is good for you has folks gobbling it up… like candy. And as long as the cocoa products they choose aren’t packed with sugar or artificial ingredients, they’re probably doing their bodies a big favor.
In addition to its many mood-boosting and heart-healthy compounds, organic, natural cocoa has an antioxidant score higher than that of almost any other food. Measured in ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) units, cocoa’s is around 80,000. Compare that to “antioxidant-rich” blueberries, which have an ORAC of around 6,500.
But before you grab the first box of cocoa you see on the shelf, here’s something you need to know. Most cocoa is “alkalized” – treated with alkali, a harsh chemical base that cuts its considerable antioxidant capacity in half. The solution: Choose organic, non-alkalized cocoa.
NOW Foods makes a delicious organic, non-alkalized cocoa that’s easy on the wallet. At only $5.50 for 12 ounces (versus $3.15 for 8 ounces of Hershey’s), you’ll enjoy higher quality and a more valuable product for less than a dime more per ounce. Mix it into your coffee, whirl it in a smoothie, or add it to low-glycemic dessert recipes.
The Bottom Line
When you invest in your health by spending a little extra on the above superfoods, you’ll get many of the rewards – like more energy, a better mood, glowing skin, and a youthful vibrancy – almost immediately. Later, this investment will pay off by not only increasing your lifespan but your health span too.
Well worth the money, don’t you think?
[Ed. Note: Health should be your top priority - even if that means spending a little more on your food. Fortunately, keeping your body in tip-top condition doesn't have to be expensive... or difficult. Learn more about how to feel better and live longer here.
Do you love dessert, but not the sugar? Health and nutrition expert, Kelley Herring has created an all-natural, low-glycemic chocolate cake mix that is packed with protein, fiber, and antioxidants. And the best part is that this totally-good-for-you treat is sinfully delicious. Learn more and try a slice for yourself right here.]
== Highly Recommedned ==
Success Is as Easy as Flipping on a Light Switch…
Suppose that there was an almost magical switch you could flip that would put all your dreams within reach.
And I’m talking ALL your dreams…
Adding a few thousand bucks to your paycheck each week. (And who doesn’t want a little extra cash?) Turning your passion for gardening into a small business… or becoming a black-belt martial artist… or writing a book of poems.
Whatever you want to do…
Here’s your chance to get everything you want out of life.
You Sunk My Battleship!
Yesterday morning, my seven-year-old son and I played a rousing game of Battleship. Well, it would have been rousing if he hadn’t been too excited to mark the results of his guesses. He’d say “F-8″ and I’d say “Miss” and he wouldn’t put a white peg in the F-8 hole. Two turns later, he’d say, “F-8″ again.
Even though I was giving him two guesses to my one, I was still able to hold my own because he wasn’t registering the crucial feedback provided by the game. By the time he grew bored and started building lighthouses by stacking the white and red pegs vertically, I had a commanding lead.
I say this not to brag – well, maybe a little – but to point out a serious problem with most marketing: lack of attention to feedback. In the offline world of newspaper and magazine ads, radio and TV commercials, etc., feedback was reasonably hard to come by. But online, everything you need to know to make intelligent decisions is readily available to you, for free.
For instance, if you’re using Google AdWords and don’t have Conversion Tracking set up – both the code and reports scheduled to run on a regular basis and sent to your inbox – you’re shooting at battleships and ignoring the results. If you don’t have Analytics running, you’re throwing away profits on sub-optimal (a fancy direct-marketing term for “lousy”) Web pages.
Never before in the history of marketing has there been a feedback mechanism as immediate, precise, and statistically valid as a Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign. Use it fully… and may your battleships float in peace.
[Ed. Note: Google AdWords can do wonders for your marketing efforts. If you need step-by-step instruction for this powerful Internet tool, pick up a copy of Howie Jacobson's AdWords for Dummies.
And now you can meet Howie in person - and pick his brain about anything AdWords-related - at ETR's 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp. He and 11 other Internet marketing masters will be revealing strategies that can help you make $1.2 million or more in 2009. Find out more here.]
ETR Insider Report: The Words You Shouldn’t Use
Sometimes the perfect adjective can make a sentence sing. Sometimes it can strangle the life out of it and leave it – and your reader – dead on the floor.
This is a lesson every writer has to learn – usually more than once. Last Wednesday, in fact, after reviewing a lackluster article a staff member had written, Charlie Byrne reminded the editorial team just how deadly these “fluff” words can be.
The main problem with adjectives, Charlie pointed out, is that they often end up “telling” rather than “showing.” It’s nouns and verbs that give your writing real strength.
Take, for instance, this sentence: “The girl was nervous and sweaty.” Pretty boring, right?
But let’s say we change that sentence to this: “The girl’s skin glistened with perspiration. She chewed at the fingernails of one hand, while twisting a lock of hair with the other.” Now, you can “see” for yourself that the girl is nervous and sweaty.
Mark Twain had the following recommendation for avoiding one overused fluff word: “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very,’” said Twain. “Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
Try this trick with ALL your adjectives. Then go back in and see where you can supercharge your sentences with verbs and nouns.
[Ed. Note: The best way to fill your writing with powerful nouns and verbs is to improve your vocabulary. You can broaden your personal lexicon with ETR's Words to the Wise audio program. Add 100 new words to your vocabulary right here.]
It’s Good to Know: The Safest Route
Are the roads you travel every day safe… or prone to deadly accidents? Find out with Saferoadmaps.org. Type in your address to see where every local vehicle fatality has occurred. You’ll also learn such details as whether the driver was speeding or intoxicated.
The purpose of the website, created by the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS), is to make people aware of dangerous roads and intersections. The hope is that they will take alternate routes – or, if that’s not possible, will at least be more cautious when driving in high-fatality areas.
(Source: North Florida Daily News)
== Highly Recommended ==
Can I Make You $103,000 Richer This Year?
This is kind of embarrassing, but I have a ridiculously easy way of making money online that you can copy step for step. If you are into complex, time-consuming, technical-know-how programs for Internet money-making (and some of them are very good for the right person), this is definitely NOT for you. It’s just that some people hear “easy” and think it has no value.
But if you are like me, value means how much money this can make you. And $75,000 to $100,000 this year is well within reach. Maybe a lot more.
I guarantee this new program is exactly what I say it is. To learn all about it and to get started right now, just click here.
Word to the Wise: Fop
A “fop” (FAHP) – from the Middle English for “fool” – is a man who is overly concerned with or vain about his dress and appearance.
Example (as used by Po Bronson in The Nudist on the Late Shift): “He’s swaddled in a heavy black wool overcoat and his shoes are silver-buckled with cap toes, the black leather well taken care of. He’s a bit of a lounge lizard, a hip-hop fop.”
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Any online business is dependent on the powers and capabilities that Internet marketing can offer. Your business is bound to be doomed when it is not given the right amount of Internet exposure thru its marketing mechanisms.
My web-site is under construction yet, I learned in this article about conversion tracking and analytics running, which I will have to ask my coach. Coaches don’t tell many things.
WOW THIS IS GREAT NEWS!
NOW I CAN HAVE A COCOA BAR AND BIG CUP OF COFFEE
FOR MY BREAKFAST AND KNOW THAT NOT ONLY IS IT FUN AND TASTY ITS HEALTHY TOO
You are partially correct on the “Cocoa” information. The type of “cocoa”, and also, by the way “chocolate” to eat should be from “natural cocoa”. The “dutching” process aka “alkalized” cocoa AND chocolate liquor, the basis of sweetened chocolates, does destroy much of the antioxidant benefits of the cacao bean. The label “organic” will not guarantee that the cocoa has not been processed with alkali. The law does require, however, that cocoa or chocolate, if it is processed with alkali, be labeled as such. If the cocoa or chocolate mass aka chocolate liquor does not say “processed with alkali” it should be from a “natural” liquor or cocoa which will retain the antioxidants that are so valuable. The term “Organic” just means that it has been certified 95% from organic ingredients.
For me the best for marketing is
seek the need and fill it.
Berries! Great! I love them! Especially the ‘free’ ones growing wild! Blackberries,Blueberries,Winberries.Thanks Mother Nature!