For the best nutritional health and benefits from the foods that you eat, it is important to become educated about their nutrients and properties. This is necessary for you to understand how to create the best anti-inflammatory and properly balanced diet – and to be able to understand and evaluate nutrition labels and any health claims made on the packaging of the foods.So, we have 2 issues to consider:(1) misconceptions about the way different foods you eat might affect you nutritionally(2) possibly misleading nutritional value from things not picked up on the nutrition label, or from the way a company might market its productsEating Fat Does Not Make You FatOne of the biggest misconceptions about food and nutritional health is with regards to fats – and that all fats are bad, or you need to stop eating fats because they will make you fat This is just not the case any more than categorically saying that protein or carbohydrates make you fat – you become overweight from any food if you are eating too many more calories than you are using, and you become fat from the way your body and cells store the foods that you eat.Fats are both necessary for metabolism and other functions, and can be very beneficial as natural anti-inflammatories. The problem comes from the kind of fats you eat; there are good fats and bad fats. The fats in your diet that are most often discussed are the omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids.If you are typical of most Westerners, you are eating 15 to as much as 30 times more omega-6 than omega-3 in your diet. This is something that is very nutritionally unhealthy, because the imbalance is highly inflammatory – and yes, eating too much of these fats are going to lead to being overweight and increased fat content.And do note that eating fats does not cause increased amounts of insulin, which is a primary cause for fat storage – making eating the same amount of sugars like high-fructose corn syrup which does cause more insulin to be produced, a far big problem for fat cells to be stored.Misleading Nutritional Claims On Labels And Food PackagesThere are many situations where a food nutrition label is misleading, and the same goes with different nutritional claims that may be used [intentionally] when marketing and promoting a product – below are a few examples of this:(1) Products labeled as being sugar-free and having no calories, but it contains carbohydrates. This is something that I saw when looking at a no calorie sports drink. I wouldn’t drink it anyway because it was sweetened with Splenda, which is also when I saw that it had 4 grams of carbohydrate per serving.It may not have calories from sugar, but carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, or 16 calories per serving. Not that big of a deal, until you drink 4 bottles because you like the taste better than water, which is 8 servings – and now you have 128 of extra ‘empty’ calories that you weren’t aware of.(2) Product claims that it is ‘extra’ nutritionally healthy because it has omega-3 added. This seems to be the claim de jour these days, and seems to have become even more prevalent than probiotics being added to everything.If you have been working to balance your omega-6:omega-3 intake and adopting a nutritionally health anti-inflammatory diet, you know that there are different types of omega-3 fats. And you know that the primary nutritional health benefits come from omega-3 DHA EPA, because these are such strong natural anti-inflammatories – and that the best source for this is the oil from cold water fish or green lipped mussels.However, the omega-3 being added is typically omega-3 ALA from a plant source, and this has virtually no anti-inflammatory properties. And the product could be a breakfast cereal that is using this ‘omega-3 added for extra nutrition’ marketing claim to get you buy it for your kids – saying nothing that one of the highest quantity ingredients is high fructose corn syrup that you definitely don’t want your kids eating.Not only is this a product that isn’t additionally healthy because it omega-3 has been added, it is very unhealthy because this is the worst sugar for fat storage, and a primary cause for child obesity.(3) Product claims that it is ‘extra’ nutritionally healthy because it has probiotics added. I mentioned this one above, and a great example of this misleading claim is Dannon paying a large false advertising lawsuit settlement fee, because they claimed that the probiotics added to their Activia and DanActive yogurt made it far better for digestive health than ‘regular’ yogurt.Probiotics added to yogurt and nutritional health benefits are always an issue, because there are no requirements or standards for what has to be added to call it a probiotic food. An additional problem comes from the probiotics being added to a pasteurized food, because for the probiotics to be beneficial they must be live cultures, and the heat used in pasteurization is going to kill most [all] of them.And since this is another product that may be using this nutritional claim to market to your children, the yogurt also has more sugar added to it to make it taste better – and as discussed previously, the sugar is going to offset any of the health benefits with an unhealthy problem.There are many other examples of these kinds of problems. And the best way to avoid then is through learning more about nutritional health benefits in foods, so you will not be making dietary decisions based on misconceptions – and especially so you will be able to understand the foods nutrition labels better, and also see through the different marketing claims that just aren’t going to provide their supposed health benefits.
S&P 500 Rallies As U.S. Dollar Pulls Back Towards Weekly Lows
Key Insights
The strong pullback in the U.S. dollar provided significant support to stocks.
Treasury yields have pulled back after touching new highs, which served as an additional positive catalyst for S&P 500.
A move above 3730 will push S&P 500 towards the resistance level at 3760.
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Pfizer Rallies After Announcing A Huge Price Hike For Its COVID-19 Vaccines
S&P 500 is currently trying to settle above 3730 as traders’ appetite for risk is growing. The U.S. dollar has recently gained strong downside momentum as the BoJ intervened to stop the rally in USD/JPY. Weaker U.S. dollar is bullish for stocks as it increases profits of multinational companies and makes U.S. equities cheaper for foreign investors.
The leading oil services company Schlumberger is up by 9% after beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Schlumberger’s peers Baker Hughes and Halliburton have also enjoyed strong support today.
Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna gained strong upside momentum after Pfizer announced that it will raise the price of its coronavirus vaccine to $110 – $130 per shot.
Biggest losers today include Verizon and Twitter. Verizon is down by 5% despite beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Subscriber numbers missed estimates, and traders pushed the stock to multi-year lows.
Twitter stock moved towards the $50 level as the U.S. may conduct a security review of Musk’s purchase of the company.
From a big picture point of view, today’s rebound is broad, and most market segments are moving higher. Treasury yields have started to move lower after testing new highs, providing additional support to S&P 500. It looks that some traders are ready to bet that Fed will be less hawkish than previously expected.
S&P 500 Tests Resistance At 3730
S&P 500 has recently managed to get above the 20 EMA and is trying to settle above the resistance at 3730. RSI is in the moderate territory, and there is plenty of room to gain additional upside momentum in case the right catalysts emerge.
If S&P 500 manages to settle above 3730, it will head towards the next resistance level at 3760. A successful test of this level will push S&P 500 towards the next resistance at October highs at 3805. The 50 EMA is located in the nearby, so S&P 500 will likely face strong resistance above the 3800 level.
On the support side, the previous resistance at 3700 will likely serve as the first support level for S&P 500. In case S&P 500 declines below this level, it will move towards the next support level at 3675. A move below 3675 will push S&P 500 towards the support at 3640.
Business Loans In Canada: Financing Solutions Via Alternative Finance & Traditional Funding
Business loans and finance for a business just may have gotten good again? The pursuit of credit and funding of cash flow solutions for your business often seems like an eternal challenge, even in the best of times, let alone any industry or economic crisis. Let’s dig in.
Since the 2008 financial crisis there’s been a lot of change in finance options from lenders for corporate loans. Canadian business owners and financial managers have excess from everything from peer-to-peer company loans, varied alternative finance solutions, as well of course as the traditional financing offered by Canadian chartered banks.
Those online business loans referenced above are popular and arose out of the merchant cash advance programs in the United States. Loans are based on a percentage of your annual sales, typically in the 15-20% range. The loans are certainly expensive but are viewed as easy to obtain by many small businesses, including retailers who sell on a cash or credit card basis.
Depending on your firm’s circumstances and your ability to truly understand the different choices available to firms searching for SME COMMERCIAL FINANCE options. Those small to medium sized companies ( the definition of ‘ small business ‘ certainly varies as to what is small – often defined as businesses with less than 500 employees! )
How then do we create our road map for external financing techniques and solutions? A simpler way to look at it is to categorize these different financing options under:
Debt / Loans
Asset Based Financing
Alternative Hybrid type solutions
Many top experts maintain that the alternative financing solutions currently available to your firm, in fact are on par with Canadian chartered bank financing when it comes to a full spectrum of funding. The alternative lender is typically a private commercial finance company with a niche in one of the various asset finance areas
If there is one significant trend that’s ‘ sticking ‘it’s Asset Based Finance. The ability of firms to obtain funding via assets such as accounts receivable, inventory and fixed assets with no major emphasis on balance sheet structure and profits and cash flow ( those three elements drive bank financing approval in no small measure ) is the key to success in ABL ( Asset Based Lending ).
Factoring, aka ‘ Receivable Finance ‘ is the other huge driver in trade finance in Canada. In some cases, it’s the only way for firms to be able to sell and finance clients in other geographies/countries.
The rise of ‘ online finance ‘ also can’t be diminished. Whether it’s accessing ‘ crowdfunding’ or sourcing working capital term loans, the technological pace continues at what seems a feverish pace. One only has to read a business daily such as the Globe & Mail or Financial Post to understand the challenge of small business accessing business capital.
Business owners/financial mgrs often find their company at a ‘ turning point ‘ in their history – that time when financing is needed or opportunities and risks can’t be taken. While putting or getting new equity in the business is often impossible, the reality is that the majority of businesses with SME commercial finance needs aren’t, shall we say, ‘ suited’ to this type of funding and capital raising. Business loan interest rates vary with non-traditional financing but offer more flexibility and ease of access to capital.
We’re also the first to remind clients that they should not forget govt solutions in business capital. Two of the best programs are the GovernmentSmall Business Loan Canada (maximum availability = $ 1,000,000.00) as well as the SR&ED program which allows business owners to recapture R&D capital costs. Sred credits can also be financed once they are filed.
Those latter two finance alternatives are often very well suited to business start up loans. We should not forget that asset finance, often called ‘ ABL ‘ by those Bay Street guys, can even be used as a loan to buy a business.
If you’re looking to get the right balance of liquidity and risk coupled with the flexibility to grow your business seek out and speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor with a track record of business finance success who can assist you with your funding needs.