Pursuit of Happiness- Definition: Happiness is an abstract concept which can mean many things to many people. For our purposes here, let’s say that happiness is simply “contentment”.

Since Pursuit can be defined as the act of pursuing or chasing, the pursuit of happiness is merely chasing contentment.

We’re all familiar that food is a popular “drug” used for many who are in pursuit of happiness. That’s the reason so many turn to sugar laden foods in an attempt to temporarily elevate their mood. However, there are healthy ways to use food to elevate your mood!

In an issue of Woman’s World (Volume XXIX Number 4, January 2008), according to Susan Kleiner, Ph.D. R.D., author of The Good Mood Diet: Feel Great While You Lose Weight, one way to flip on your happiness switch is to munch on popcorn!  It seems chewing crunchy foods help to stimulate a nerve that tells the brain to release a rush of mood altering chemicals.

Other ways to use food to achieve happiness in the article include starting your day with a glass of citrus juice (Orange Juice or Grapefruit Juice).  Turns out that vitamin C helps to lower the stress hormone cortisol and just one glass of OJ or Grapefruit juice is just enough to tame this stressful hormone.

Another tip is to sniff cinnamon!  Seems that cinnamon and vanilla scents also help to release feel good chemicals in our brains.  (Now you know why the smell of freshly baked cookies elevates your mood!)

While food can be used to lift your mood, probably the most important habit to acquire in the pursuit of happiness is to get enough sleep. Research abounds that not getting adequate sleep throws off the brain’s ability to regulate mood.

Get plenty of rest, eat healthy and stay away from refined sugar and you’ll find yourself well on your way to finding contentment and happiness.

Honey has long been a favorite food because of its sticky sweet goodness. However, honey is far more than just a tasty treat. Honey has a long history of a food that is used as a natural medicine.

It’s important to note that when you read about honey’s health benefits, most of these articles are referring to RAW honey and not the highly processed honey you’ll frequently find on your local grocery store shelves.

Tom Ogren in his article Local Honey and Allergies writes

Honey contains bits and pieces of pollen and honey, and as an immune system booster, it is quite powerful.

In honey the allergens are delivered in small, manageable doses and the effect over time is very much like that from undergoing a whole series of allergy immunology injections. The major difference though is that the honey is a lot easier to take and it is certainly a lot less expensive. I am always surprised that this powerful health benefit of local honey is not more widely understood, as it is simple, easy, and often surprisingly effective.

According to WHFoods.com the benefits of raw honey are preventative in nature. Raw honey can be useful for fighting off bacterial, fungal and even viral infections. Rod Moser, PA, PhD concurs in his post Honey, I Healed the Wound.

Lifescript website offers this on honey’s natural antioxidant properties.

According to the University of California, the consumption of honey tends to raise the body’s level of antioxidants in the blood. In one particular study, 25 people were asked to eat about four to 10 tablespoons of buckwheat honey a day for an entire month. They were not allowed to bake or dissolve the honey, but any other consumption method was allowed. At the end of the study, researchers found that antioxidant levels had risen in participants’ bloodstreams.

The standard warning about honey goes here - honey should NOT be given to infants or toddlers. In my house, I waited until my children were 5 or older before adding raw honey to their diets.

As with any advice offered here or anywhere else on the web, check with your doctor to make sure adding raw honey is safe for YOU!

According to recent studies at Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center, Watermelon may be nature’s own version of viagra.

It turns out that watermelon naturally contains citrulline, which researchers have discovered can trigger the production of a compound that relaxes the blood vessels in the body.

For those of you who didn’t know, that is how the popular ED drug Viagra works. Researchers warn that watermelon’s effect is much less pronounced than Viagra.

The highest concentration of citruline is found in watermelon rind, not the flesh.

My husband’s great aunt use to make pickles out of watermelon rind.  She lived to be 105 and was still mowing her own grass at 100 with a rotary blade lawn mower.  I’m going to have to find her recipe for watermelon rind pickles!

Watermelon also functions as a diuretic.  It’s been a homeopathic treatment for kidney patients for years.