We know it's best not to miss breakfast. It's the meal that gives us energy for the day, increases metabolism, and helps our bodies burn fat faster and better. Since breakfast comes at the time of day when most of us are rushing and hustling to get going for the day, it becomes pretty easy to skip this power meal. In the spirit of putting breakfast back into your schedule, here are some simple Canyon Ranch ideas for getting the boost you need during the start of your busy days.

• Cottage cheese and fruit. Grab some low-fat cottage cheese and top with fresh fruit. Add your favorite nuts and seeds and some ground flax seed for a nutty flavor and a burst of omega-3. Add flax to any of the following ideas too.
  
• Scrambled egg or tofu with spinach and scallion in a whole wheat wrap.
• Whole grain bread with one tablespoon nut butter.
• Plain yogurt with fruit, cinnamon, or berries.
• Hot oat bran cereal or oatmeal (not instant) with cinnamon, dried figs or other fruit, and nuts.
  
• Smoked salmon with tomato and onion on whole grain bread.

If any of this sounds like too much to accomplish in the early morning, try preparing some items ahead of time so all you have to do is grab and go.

Thanks Canyon Ranch for the breakfast basics.

I promised two weeks ago when I wrote Sunday Seven: Seven ways to fine-tune your health that I'd be back to offer seven more grand ideas for optimizing your physical and emotional well-being. Here I am, with a mini-list of suggestions I gathered a while back from a newspaper article. If you don't already practice these strategies, then why not give them a try.

Eat breakfast

It's the most important meal of the day -- really. A breakfast high in complex carbohydrates and protein creates energy. Energy kick-starts metabolism and helps our bodies burn fat. We all know what fat does. It weighs us down and contributes to all kinds of health problems.

Get your sleep

Sleep restores our bodies. Sleep-deprived folks secrete more leptin, a protein hormone that increases appetite. Larger appetites increase food consumption. Increased food consumption spikes the risk of obesity. And so on. You know the drill.

Ever wonder what fish to eat, what fish to avoid, what fish is healthy, what fish is cancer-causing? I do.

I'm looking into this whole fish thing. And while my search for information is in no way exhaustive and my findings are far from conclusive, I have found some interesting fishy facts and figures.

Think about this:

Fish definitely has health benefits. It's low in fat, high in protein, and rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Americans love this. How do I know? Because on average, each of us eats a record 16.6 pounds of fish every year. Our intake of shrimp and salmon has doubled, in fact, since 1994.

Fish definitely has its drawbacks too. Headlines repeatedly warn us of dangerous contaminants in lakes, rivers, and oceans. Don't forget about mercury, the biggest fish health hazard. It's been linked to neurological problems in developing fetuses and children, making consumption of shark, swordfish, tilefish (aka golden snapper or golden bass), king mackeral, canned albacore tuna, and tuna steaks a no-no for hoards of women and children.

For just about everyone else, the benefits of eating moderate amounts of seafood greatly outweigh the risks. Just watch out for those PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) -- possible carcinogenic chemical compounds that end up in some seafood.

To avoid PCBs, steer clear of farmed salmon which contains high levels of these compounds or limit your intake to less than one single eight-ounce meal per month. Opt for the wild variety of salmon to avoid this concern altogether. Or take the side of the FDA. Their reports say salmon is a powerhouse when it comes to protecting heart and developing cancer from this source is much lower than the risk of heart disease.

Source: Good Housekeeping, April 2007

Women who include fatty fish -- salmon; herring; mackerel; lake trout; sardines; albacore tuna and seafood such as prawns, lobster, crayfish -- more than once a week into their diet significantly decrease the risk of developing kidney cancer, according to Karolinska Institutet researchers.

This is the conclusion of a 15 year study of 61,433 women who reported their eating habits of including fatty fish versus leaner fish. Fish classified as leaner fish are cod; haddock; hake; pollock; sole; turbot; dogfish and shark.

Lean fish does not appear to offer any cancer prevention benefit. However, fatty fish offers high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, which are considered important in functional food cancer prevention.

While this study focused on women partipants, it makes common sense that including fatty fish in more than one meal a week would benefit men and children as well. The study will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The abstract, Long-term Fatty Fish Consumption and Renal Cell Carcinoma Incidence in Women, is available now.

The typical Western diet is lacking in a healthy balance of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids, and for men with prostate cancer, this can have adverse consequences in controlling tumor growth and PSA levels. In this part of the world, our diet offers too little in the way of omega-3 and too much in the way of omega-6. Researchers found that by balancing the ratio in increasing omega-3 and decreasing omega-6 in the diet, there were able to slow tumor cell growth rates by 22 percent and lower PSA levels a whopping 77 percent.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in leafy green vegetables, nuts, vegetable oils such as canola and soy, flaxseed, flaxseed oil, olive oil, cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines and fresh tuna. Omega-6 fatty acids are found in corn, safflower oils, food products made with corn oil (think processed foods and fast foods) and red meats.

According to UCLA researchers, when the fatty acids are not in the right ratio to each other, omega-6 creates an inflammatory response in the body that can promote the growth of tumors, while omega-3 has the opposite effect in acting as an anti-inflammatory.

"This is one of the first studies showing changes in diet can impact the inflammatory response that may play a role in prostate cancer tumor growth," said principal investigator Dr. William Aronson. "We may be able to use EPA and DHA supplements while also reducing omega-6 fatty acids in the diet as a cancer prevention tool or possibly to reduce progression in men with prostate cancer."

These studies were done on animal models, and not humans, but the researchers did use a special mouse model for hormone-sensitive prostate cancer that matched closely prostate cancer in men.

University of South Australia researchers have good news for people trying to lose weight, or maintain a healthy weight, in improving their health and reducing their risks for diseases like cancer. With no other lifestyle changes, taking omega-3 fish oil supplements and engaging in moderate exercise helped people struggling with weight issues -- who are overweight or obese -- effectively burn off extra pounds.

The researchers used tuna oil and sunflower oil in the study, and compared the effects of the two oils with exercise to weight loss results. The participants engaged in exercise that is considered moderate exercise -- walking or running for 45 minutes -- three times a week for three months and were given either tuna fish oil or sunflower oil. The participants who were given tuna fish oil lost weight faster.

The researchers believe that fish oil, which is rich in omega-3, helps the body burn fat, and estimates that most people do not get enough omega-3 in their daily diet. Omega-3 is also found in wild salmon, flaxseed, and certain nuts and seeds.

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has issued a 264-page report Our Food Our Health, that is sure to create some heated discussion over which lifestyle habit -- smoking or diet -- actually contributes to the most disease and death. At the heart of the findings the Dutch indicate that a poor diet lacking in an abundance of disease prevention foods, like fish, fruit, and vegetables, cause more disease and death than smoking tobacco. According to these researchers, many scientists agree that at least 75 percent of diseases can be prevented by eating a healthy diet.

The study findings go on to state that each year, inadequate diet causes about 13,000 deaths in The Netherlands due to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Unhealthy diet habits are just as bad, if not worse, as smoking in terms of their effect on risk of disease and death. You hear that cancer diagnosis and death could be reduced by 50 percent with certain lifestyle changes. The emphasis is usually on smoking cessation. However, if these researchers are correct, and researchers worldwide are in agreement with them, then the conversation about cancer prevention will need to shift away from smoking and replace diet and obesity as the number one causes of diseases like cancer. Someone said, not too long ago, that obesity and diet would replace the spot smoking has dominated as the number one lifestyle risk for cancer. With research news like this, you can see the beginning of the new trend.

Today's consumer is becoming nutrition aware and wants more for their hard-earned dollar when they go to the supermarket. The multi-billion dollar food industry didn't make its money by being stupid -- or unobservant to trends. They are paying close attention to the educated consumer's increasing interest in foods that provide the most in health benefits and disease prevention. icWales is running an article about the marketing genius of farmers, food conglomerates and grocery stores featuring designer foods.

As an example, Vivaldi potato, with 26 percent less carbohydrate and 33 percent fewer calories than other varieties, is selling at record levels. Some other examples are eggs, milk, broccoli and biscuits. By feeding hens a diet rich in Omega-3, and cows a special fish oil, eggs and milk containing higher levels of omega-3 can be sold with claims of cancer prevention. Researchers in Norwich are working to create broccoli, cabbage, salad rocket and turnips, with higher than normal sulphoraphane, known as a cancer prevention compound.

I predict we will see more and more foods sitting on supermarket shelves packaged to appeal to the demand for superfood. I admit I have chosen, and paid more, for foods with packaging claims of enhanced health benefit. Sometimes I wonder though, if I am getting substantially more than I would from eating food in its natural version -- especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables -- or are dollars simply being coached out of my wallet by clever marketing campaigns. Are you willing to pay more, and do you believe enhanced foods are significantly different than foods that are not enhanced?

New research reveals yet another benefit to a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids. University of Pittsburgh researchers have found that  high concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids significantly inhibit the growth of liver cancer cells. Omega-3 is found in fish oils and certain seeds and nuts. Omega-3 decreased the levels of a protein known as beta-catenin, which has been linked to the development of various tumors.

"Beta-catenin is known to promote cell growth and also is implicated in tumor cell promotion. Therefore, our finding that omega-3 fatty acids can decrease levels of beta-catenin is further evidence that these compounds have the ability to interact on several points of pathways involved in tumor progression," stated Tong Wu, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the division of transplantation pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. According to the research, omega-3 is effective in both treating liver cancer and in the prevention of liver cancer. This is very good news, as liver cancer survival is currently not as promising as it is for some other cancers.