People are seeking happiness. And yes, Virginia, there is a path, not one simple answer. Happiness is a state of mind, a state of being. If you are not happy, consider how you can improve your state of mind through optimum health, giving and receiving love, and becoming attuned to your own spirituality.

Be Healthy

There are lots of excuses when it comes to poor health. Most of them are self-defeating nonsense. Truly healthy choices reap immediate benefits. When we eat right, we feel better. Right then. In that moment. It’s hard to be happy when you don’t feel good.

What if you adopted a healthy lifestyle? What if you felt full of energy and vitality each and every day? Wouldn’t you be happier? It’s not that hard. It’s not a sacrifice. It’s a shift; one that’s well worth the change.

Diet

You argue about your lack of time, lack of money, lack of ability. You can’t cook. You can’t afford organic food. You don’t have time to shop carefully. Set aside the B.S. for a moment and consider the facts. Choosing and preparing a truly healthy diet can be easy and fast.

• Organic – Organic foods are grown with far fewer pesticides, in healthier soil. They taste better and are better for you. It’s a no-brainer. Fill your body with poison and toxins and you are poisoning yourself.
• Raw – Raw foods are full of enzymes and nutrients. A diet consisting of 80% (or more) fresh, raw, organic produce will nurture every cell in your body.
• GMO-Free – Studies conducted by biotech companies suggest genetically modified foods are safe. Long-term studies conducted by unbiased scientists tell a different story, one of reproductive difficulties and cancerous tumors. Avoid GMO foods. Learn where hidden GMOs lurk in food. Better yet, don’t eat processed foods!
• Stop Drinking – All that hype about alcohol being good for you. Come on. You know better. If may relax you a bit, but so does meditation.
• Eliminate Caffeine – It’s just another addiction. An expensive one.
• Additive Free Foods – Avoid all of the things that result in poor health! The list is long, but basically, avoid eating chemicals. Never eat MSG, artificial sweeteners (except stevia), artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, trans fats, refined sugar, and high fructose corn syrup.
• Gluten – Eliminate gluten if you suffer from any chronic disease, digestive disease, autoimmune issues, or allergies.
• Top of Food Chain – If you choose to eat meat, seafood, and dairy, you must consider the source. If those animals were fed antibiotics, GMO foods, and garbage, what are you putting in your body when you eat them? If diary is not organic, chances are it contains rBGH, a genetically modified growth hormone. If you eat seafood, make sure your purchase is not on the list of those with the highest levels of mercury. Don’t eat farmed fish. They are fed GMO feed and garbage. When it comes to meat, dairy and eggs, choose organic.
• Fresh – Check out your local farmer’s markets for the freshest foods.

So, let’s go back to the original pushback on healthy food – lack of time, lack of money, lack of ability…

Yes, organic food is more expensive. But when you stop eating processed foods, drinking coffee, drinking alcohol, and most of your diet consists of fresh, raw, organic produce, it’s very affordable. You will probably save money. Food prep is pretty fast and easy, too. Anybody can pick up an apple and eat it. Anybody can chop up veggies and make a salad. Anybody can throw stuff in a blender. Where you go from there is up to you; these three actions are the basics.

So why is a truly healthy diet so important? You put the nutrients in; you leave the toxins out. In addition, this kind of diet does two things: it continually detoxes the body and it builds a healthy gut.

A healthy gut is the key to a healthy body. Autoimmune diseases, allergies, and a poor immune system are all symptoms of poor gut health.

Detox and Build a Healthy Gut

Make sure your diet includes chelating foods. Eat lots of raw garlic and onions. Eat fresh cilantro and plenty of cruciferous veggies. In fact, a daily salad with 10-15 veggies is a great start. Not only will you be cleansing your gut, you will be aiding in the proliferation of healthy bacteria with a high fiber, veggie salad each day.

Fermented foods have been getting a lot of attention lately. Unfortunately, a lot of the probiotic benefit of fermented foods is neutralized by stomach acid. Yes, fermented foods help. Salads help more. So eat both! But focus on those daily salads. And skip the sugar filled yogurts.

You will never be healthy with a sick gut. It’s that simple. Learn about Candida, gluten, and leaky gut syndrome.

Exercise

Don’t have the time to go to the gym? Don’t have the money for a membership? Don’t know how to exercise on your own? Oh, come on! Walk!

Get outside and walk in the sun. A daily walk for a minimum of 15 minutes gets the body moving and provides a huge benefit – lymphatic circulation. Our lymphatic system is vitally important to our health. Lymph carries waste from the cells and is a basic part of our immune system. Lymphatic fluid has to circulate through our body to dump waste and for our immune system to find, identify, and eliminate viruses and bacteria. But the lymphatic system does not have a pump. Unlike the circulatory system that relies on the heart, the lymphatic system relies on physical movement, the contraction and relaxation of muscles in order to move through our bodies. So walk, run, dance, bounce on a trampoline. But move every day for your health.

Love

If you want to attract love into your life, give it, give it, give it. Stop focusing on what you don’t have and find a way to make the world a better place.

Whether you choose a cause or find a calling, make sure your choice involves positive change, not empty protest. You can denounce poverty or volunteer to teach literacy. You can rail against deforestation or plant trees. Find something positive and productive to do. If it is your passion, try to make it your work.

When you find a way to give to others or give to the world, you enrich your life and raise your self-esteem. You also meet like-minded people. It’s a win-win.

Spirituality

This is an area in which you need to be true to yourself. Whether you believe you should attend services every Sunday and Wednesday or believe your road to enlightenment is found through meditation, honor your beliefs.

Think Right

No one can deny the fact that we are creatures of habit. What we do and what we think are patterns of behavior. If you’re not happy, these are patterns crying out to be broken.

Vengeance and Forgiveness

Let it go. Holding on to hate or anger hurts one person – you. Well, to be perfectly honest it may hurt those around you as well. Forgiveness does not mean making yourself vulnerable. You can forgive someone and never speak to them again. But holding onto the anger and the pain hurts you.

Forgiveness can be difficult. Sometimes forgiveness is a process rather than an outcome. If someone has hurt you that deeply, violated you so horribly that forgiveness is ongoing even though you no longer have contact, it is still better to work at forgiveness that wallow in anger and pain. Let the hurt go.

Gratitude

If you are not grateful for what you have, what you have achieved, and the people in your life, how can you possibly be happy? Practice gratitude. Whether you say the words aloud each day in private, write in a journal, or share your gratitude with your friends and family around the dinner table, make the expression of gratitude a daily ritual. This one act will create the fundamental shift from a glass half empty to a glass half full mentality.

Right Your Mind

If you’ve never seen it before, watch the Bob Newhart skit called Stop It. The skit is so famous, if you google “stop it”, the video is Google’s first hit. But we’ll also give it to you here.

This is a simple, silly take on a very real phenomenon. Unhappy people tend to dwell on their failures, live in the past, and fear the future.

Stop worrying about the things you can’t change. Stop keeping a tally of everything that’s gone wrong. Shit happens. It happens all the time, to all of us. Life is full of disappointments and tragedy. Everyone faces pain and hardship, challenges that sometimes seem too huge, too overwhelming to survive. But we do.

Instead of dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past, instead of fearing the future, recognize that you control today. Plan for your future. Make goals and achieve them. But live in the now.

Last but not least, be good to yourself. When you become an adult, you become responsible for you. In other words, you become your own parent. Be kind. Be compassionate. Become your better self. How could you not be happy?

Related Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• How To Be Happy
• How To Be Happy
• How Candida Leads to Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, and Other Mental Disorders
• How Candida Leads to Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, and Other Mental Disorders

(Algae Industry Magazine –Dr. Aaron Baum) The popular image of algae farming is bubbling green columns and white-coated scientists and seems out of reach for ordinary people. Is the experience of algae farming limited to professionals? A growing network of DIY algae farmers is proving that we can all participate, by creating successful algae ponds and growth tanks in our own homes.

These are not mere science projects. Because of the high rate of algae growth and their potential nutrient density, it is possible to produce enough in a single window to significantly supplement an ordinary person’s experimentalist’s diet.

Helping these folks is the mission of our lab and website, Algaelab.org. Although there are many kinds of algae, and we’re committed to helping people grow any strain they’re interested in, we believe that Spirulina is the best species for DIYers to start with, for three main reasons:

1. The unique health value of live, fresh Spirulina, even at small doses.

Just a few grams of Spirulina powder a day have been shown to have definite health benefits. Spirulina is by far the most-studied nutritional algae, both in terms of its benefits and lack of harm. It has been shown to make a difference in preventing and treating ailments from obesity to malnutrition, cancer to heart disease.

These studies are on powdered Spirulina. Though it hasn’t been studied, it seems obvious that the live, fresh stuff—which is only available if you grow it yourself—would be even healthier. Personally, I find that eating a few grams of Spirulina with every meal makes the meal more satisfying, smoothes out sugar highs and lows, and gives me extended endurance and stamina.

2. Spirulina is safe and easy to grow.

As innocent as it may seem, Spirulina is in fact an extremophile, capable of growing in extremely alkaline water inhospitable to almost every other organism. Most other algae grow in essentially pH-neutral water, which supports the growth of a vast range of algae—including types that produce toxins—as well as doing nothing to inhibit the growth of other potentially harmful organisms such as bacteria. In my biofuel-algae work, we’re constantly fending off invasive species. It’s not just an academic concern. Since it is generally hard to control the growth of possibly harmful stuff (and although it’s fun, we think you should look at your culture under the microscope every day), this aspect of Spirulina cultivation is pretty key to growing pure and safe cultures on a DIY basis. One of the best aspects of growing your own Spirulina is knowing that the product that you are growing is as pure and free of contamination as possible.

3. Ease of harvest, and no need for further processing.

Even when an algal culture looks nice and thick, it’s probably still about 99.9% water. Separating the desired .1% from all that water can be a real trick. As a general rule, algal cells are tiny, roughly spherical, and devilishly difficult to pull out of the water without some special (read: expensive) tech. This is where the corkscrew shape of Spirulina cells comes in; when a culture is poured through nothing more complex than a fine cloth, it filters out easily, leaving a thick paste, which can be consumed immediately. Contrast that with the need for cell rupturing, drying, and product extraction in typical algal production systems, and it’s easy to see why Spirulina is a good place to start.

So if you or someone you know wants to get involved, what is necessary? Nothing more than a sunny window, some sort of transparent container, and a kit of supplies. If you want to assemble your own kit, we can set you up with spirulina starter, growing tips, and any other equipment you might want.

Some FAQs about growing algae at home:

How long does it take to grow from the kit with the 1 liter starter bottle, until I can start harvesting from my tank?

Grow-up proceeds in stages—see the instructions; you put half the contents of the bottle into one quarter of the tank (2.5 gallons for a 10-gallon tank) to start with, which results in a very thin culture at first, which will thicken over time. After a couple of weeks, the algae should be thick enough that you can double the culture volume, then after a week or so, double again, so that the tank is full. Once the tank is full, the algae are thick (3cm Secchi or less, see below), and the pH has been at least 10 for 24 hours, you should be able to harvest. This process can take from 3 to 6 weeks.

Can I harvest multiple times?

Once you have a thriving culture (which typically takes a few weeks), you can harvest from it regularly (how often depends mostly on how much light the algae get, the more the better); each time you harvest, you add a little Make-Up Mix to the culture to make up for the nutrients that are taken out in the harvested algae.

What kind of water should I use to make the growth medium?

We use tap water, filtered through activated carbon (such as a Brita) or through a ceramic filter (such as a Berkey). Algae are quite sensitive to chlorine (which is why it’s used in the first place!), so tap water is only usable if the chlorine has been removed—which can be done using products sold for fish aquariums. The afore-mentioned filters, and de-chlorination, leave minerals in the water, which is generally a good thing; if you want to use de-mineralized water such as distilled or reverse osmosis water, or if your water is particularly soft, you may get better growth if you add some combination of 0.1 g/L magnesium sulfate, 0.5 g/L potassium sulfate, and/or 0.1 g/L calcium chloride (or lime or plaster). That said, we have yet to hear of anyone having trouble growing in non- or de-chlorinated drinking water of any kind.

How much Spirulina will I be able to harvest from my tank, how often, and for how long?

If you follow the instructions and thus provide proper temperature, pH, and nutrients, yield will depend mostly on the hours of bright light the tank receives. This generally means sunlight. (See below for a discussion of artificial lighting.) 
In a south-facing window with plenty of direct sun exposure, you can get roughly a tablespoon of live Spirulina harvest from a typical 10-gallon tank every other day. Two or three such tanks (or bigger) can fit in a window for daily harvest.

For how long? If the proper amount of make-up mix is added back to the tank after every harvest, the nutrient balance can be maintained for a high level of growth for about four to six months, at which point the pH will have risen too high (11+) for good growth. At this point you simply mix up a new batch of medium, harvest all your Spirulina, and immediately put them in the new medium.  After a couple of weeks your culture should be full, dense, and ready for harvest again, ready to start the 4-6 month cycle. So, you need enough starter mix to renew your culture every 4-6 months, though it’s a good idea to keep some on hand in case anything else might go wrong with your medium (though this is unusual). There is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to keep going this way indefinitely. The formulae for the starter and make-up mix are in the instructions if you want to make your own.

How do I use the Make-Up Mix?

As described above, the make-up mix is used only at harvest time (or when removing dead algae). Add an amount of make-up mix proportional to the harvested algae—one teaspoon of the mix per tablespoon of harvested algae, plus a dash of iron juice. This makes up for the nutrients lost in the harvested algae, thus the name.

How do I keep my Spirulina alive when I go on vacation?  Can they be “parked” for a while?

The trick is to slow down their metabolism by lowering the tank temperature. This can be done simply by turning off the heater. The tank should also be kept from strong direct light during this time as well, although it does need some light. If kept in this way, it should be fine for several weeks or more. When bringing it back from this state, raise the temperature and light in stages, over a few days, and the algae will be fine.

Can I use artificial lights to grow my algae?

Some algae-nauts have had good results from using artificial illumination, but it’s worth remembering that direct sunshine is about 100x brighter (~100,000 lux) than the light in what would be considered a very well artifically-lit room (1000 lux). It’s hard to compete with the sun. If using artificial lighting, it’s smart to take advantage of the heat generated by the light fixture as well. See below for a discussion of the optimal color for an artificial light source.
Do I need to tell you to be very careful about combining water and electricity? Watch for dripping water going along power cords – keep plugs high so you won’t get shocked!

What are the health benefits of eating Spirulina?

Too many to mention here; take a look around the Web for a more complete picture. In a nutshell, because it lacks a cell wall or any other indigestible components, Spirulina is a super-concentrated, highly available nutrient source, which enhances the nutrition of any food eaten with it. Spirulina is about 65% complete protein, and the remainder is packed with anti-oxidants, essential omega-3 fatty acids, and other compounds with healthful anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-cancer properties. As a blue-green algae, its nutritional value is unique, since blue-green algae split evolutionarily from green plants approximately a billion years ago.

My experience with Spirulina (I eat about 15 grams a day) is that it greatly improves my stamina, raises and levels out my mood, and speeds up all kinds of healing. The first two effects are consistent with clinical studies that show a large reduction (up to 50%)in the glycemic index of foods eaten with even a small amount (2.5%) of Spirulina.

Is live Spirulina better for you than the powder or pills I can get at the health food store?

All studies of the health benefits of Spirulina have been on the dead, powdered stuff. I believe that the live, fresh version of such a highly perishable food would have superior properties, and this is my experience, having eaten both. Purveyors of the powder claim that they take every precaution to preserve the nutritional properties of the algae, but what would you rather eat, a fresh blueberry, or a powdered blueberry?

How long does the live, fresh Spirulina last? How can I preserve it?

Fresh Spirulina, once removed from the preserving alkaline environment of the tank, is like raw eggs in its perishability—it should be eaten or refrigerated within an hour or so of harvest. It will last in the fridge for up to three days. If frozen, it lasts indefinitely; if dehydrated (and kept dry), it will last for about a year, longer if kept in an airtight container. It’s not hard to tell if it does go bad—it smells like rotten eggs.

Is there an optimal artificial light to use for growing Spirulina?

As a general rule, a plant or alga (or anything else for that matter) absorbs the wavelengths (colors) that are not present in its apparent color, which is made up of the wavelengths that it bounces out without absorbing. So, the chlorophyll of green plants absorbs mainly red and blue light, and bounces out green light. Green plants need both red and blue light to thrive. Blue-green algae, such as spirulina, have special accessory pigments called phycocyanins and allophycocyanins, which allow them to capture more red and orange light (and to a lesser extent yellow and green) than green plants. They do have chlorophyll (only slightly different from green plants’ chlorophyll), so they also use blue light.

For these reasons, ordinary “grow lights”, which are optimized for green land plants, are not particularly good for growing Spirulina or other blue-green algae (though they will work). A light with more red and orange light—i.e. a “warmer” color—would be more efficient for growth, as a higher fraction of the light will be absorbed. Another approach would be to use white light supplemented by a red-orange light source (peaking at 620-650 nm), to hit the phyco-pigments better. I have used the “warmer” colored compact fluorescents with some success, but haven’t done any side-by-side testing. In general, though, the color of the light source is not as important in my experience as getting the nutrients and temperature right, and providing LOTS of light, which is a lot easier using sunshine!

Related Reading:

•  Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula (with Spirulina and chlorella)
• Algae-Growing Nuns In Central African Grow Spirulina For Malnourished Children
• Health Benefits of Kelp
• The Weird Sustainable Foods We Could All Be Eating Soon
• Algae-Growing Nuns In Central African Grow Spirulina For Malnourished Children
• Health Benefits of Kelp

Sustainable is big buzzword with the brightest minds of today looking for ways to feed an ever growing population in the face of an increasingly unstable and degrading Earth. People ignoring the environmental factor of the sustainable equation claim that GMOs are the answer to feeding the world’s people, but if you believe where people live is as important as what they live on, there has to be another answer.

Those bright minds have to be good for something; they are presenting some unusual, innovative, thought-provoking solutions. There’s evidence that conventionally icky stuff like bugs, pond scum, and strange fish offer a new notion of edible while also opening up a potentially bountiful source of needed nutrients.

Edible Creepy Crawlers

The idea of eating bugs is not unusual. Bugs are popular street snacks in Asia, and bugs like crickets have long been an important protein source for farmers in Africa. In North America and Europe, the idea of eating bugs remains squirm-inducing. But can we see past the ick factor to the nutritional and sustainable possibilities?

Grasshoppers and crickets are a commonly eaten in many parts of the world thanks to their ability to live everywhere, their ease of capture, and their neutral taste. Mealworms are also very popular, and in some countries eating ants and cockroaches isn’t uncommoin. As the gateway bugs of choice in the U.S., crickets are showing up as protein powders, supplemental flours, and at an adventurous fast food chain that is introducing milkshakes with cricket powder. Crickets and grasshoppers are a great source of protein (including essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan that are hard to find in conventional protein sources) and are recognized by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization as a good source of heart-healthy unsaturated fats. While chicken, pork, and beef might have more protein, they also require more space to grow and are responsible for egregious environmental degradation through increased methane gases, deforestation, and massive amounts of toxic animal waste.

In contrast, growing edible insects are far more efficient. To raise one kilogram of beef, you need eight kilograms of food, and you usually only eat about 40% of the cow. Crickets are 80% edible and only need 1.7 kilograms of feed to arrive at one kilogram of food. If you consider that someone somewhere is going to come up with the idea feeding bugs the 40% of food we waste in the U.S., it’s a sustainable slam dunk.

Strange Seafood

Our oceans are in crisis mode as more and more species die off. Soon the yellowfin tuna and the king crab we’re accustomed to seeing on our plate at seafood restaurants will be gone due to overfishing, fluctuating water temperatures, and increasing pollution. We’ll have to learn to adapt… and eat the food that already have adapted.

While the fish populations we’ve become accustomed to eating are dwindling, other invasive yet edible creatures are thriving in spite of the environment changes. Asian shore crabs, Asian carp, blue catfish, and lionfish are all experiencing growth as they displace native species.

In an effort to focus on managing an unbalanced fish population, some restaurants are adding these invasive fish to their menu. Even grocery giant Whole Foods is getting in on the action, announcing plans to make lionfish available to their customers over the next six months. With its venomous spines, lionfish doesn’t look too appealing, though it is popular in other regions of the world like the Caribbean. But with female lionfish laying 30,000 eggs every four days and a population so voracious it’s eating itself, this fish is a prime example of a new, sustainable seafood.

Starting at the Bottom of the Food Chain

Algae is a huge group of organisms that, odds are, are already available at your nearest grocery store. Sheets of dried seaweed abound in the ethnic aisles of the grocery store and at sushi restaurants, kelp is aking off amongst the health enthusiasts, and nearly every green nutritional powder has spirulina and/or chlorella in it. The health benefits of those two particular algae are impressive. Not only do they detox heavy metals and toxins from the body, and they contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids,antioxidants, and all of the essential amino acids which makes them complete proteins.

Seaweed is also a fantastically sustainable food. It can grow at a rate of almost six inches a day, and it doesn’t require any other resources other than the ones readily available to it. It also leaves the environment cleaner than it was before the it grew. People who understand the benefits of crop rotation will also appreciate the idea of farming seaweed opposite of shellfish season, which pairs two of the only farmed products that leave their environment cleaner than they found it. With its rapid growth, abundant nutrients, and cleaning habits, seaweed is a uniquely sustainable food.

It Will Become The Norm

Bugs are gross. Most people would sooner smash them under their foot than put them in a skillet. The green sludge found in ponds or the weird spiny fish that looks like a zebra pincushion don’t seem any better. But in the next fifteen years, we’ll have an estimated 8.5 billion people living on a planet that virtually everyone agrees we’re in the process of destroying. The “weird” and the “gross” are just foods we’re not used to yet, and these foods can provide for so many while slowing our negative impact on the environment. It’s time to get creative and do what we can to present sustainable options for everyone that might be little out of the ordinary. Here’s a good start, check out Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula and How To Grow Spirulina at Home.

Related Reading:

• Algae-Growing Nuns In Central African Grow Spirulina For Malnourished Children
• Health Benefits of Kelp

Sources

• The Nutrition Values of Edible Bugs and Insects – sfgate.com
• Why Should We Eat Insects? It’s the Future of Food – nature.com
• 7 Restaurants Where You Can Eat Invasive Seafood  – azula.com
• Whole Foods Will Sell an Invasive Fish Species in Six Months – grubstreet.com
• Top 5 Foods That Detox Heavy Metals and Toxins – With Protocol – organiclifestylemagazine.com
• Seaweed is Easy to Grow, Sustainable, and Nutritious. But It’ll Never Be Kale. – washingtonpost.com

Aluminum is the Earth’s third most common element and our most common metal. It is lightweight, durable, and easily combines with other metals. Due to these characteristics, aluminum is used in a huge variety of products. It is essential to the aerospace industry and it’s used in other transportation applications, in construction, for electrical wiring, and a host of other manufactured products including pigments and paints, fuel, light bulbs, and most every conceivable type of metal product.

Unfortunately, its uses do not stop there.

Aluminum in Food and Over-the-Counter Medications

Aluminum is added to many processed foods as fillers, emulsifiers, and anti-caking agents. It is found in baking powder and preservatives. It is even added to soy-based baby formulas. Aluminum is also used in sugar refining, in the brewing process, and as an aid to water purification in water treatment plants. It is also found in antacids and other pharmaceuticals.

Antacids, buffered aspirins, anti-ulcerative, and anti-diarrheal medications contain enormous amounts of aluminum compared to foods. Antacids have been linked to bone density problems because aluminum interferes with calcium absorption.

Aluminum in Cookware and Food Containers

We also ingest aluminum that leaches into food and drink from aluminum cans and aluminum cookware. Just boil water in an aluminum pan and pour the water into a glass jar to see how gray it has become, or lay aluminum foil against spaghetti sauce and watch it dissolve into the food.

Aluminum in Body Care Products

Our skin, the largest organ of the body, absorbs whatever we put on it. Aluminum is an ingredient in many personal body products including antiperspirants.

Aluminum in Vaccines

Not only do we absorb aluminum and ingest it, we also inject it. Aluminum is commonly used as an adjuvant in vaccines as a means to increase the immune system’s reaction to the pathogen.

Aluminum Is Toxic

There are too many sources of aluminum toxicity to list, from cosmetics to plane exhaust particulates that fall from the sky.  However it enters the body, aluminum is highly toxic. While most of it is expelled, the aluminum retained is absorbed and accumulates in the bones, the brain, and other organs and tissues. Individuals with renal disease and premature infants have more difficulty expelling it.

The following quote is from Aluminum-Induced Entropy in Biological Systems: Implications for Neurological Disease. (Al is the abbreviation for aluminum.)

Al disrupts biological self-ordering, energy transduction, and signaling systems, thus increasing biosemiotic entropy. Beginning with the biophysics of water, disruption progresses through the macromolecules that are crucial to living processes (DNAs, RNAs, proteoglycans, and proteins). It injures cells, circuits, and subsystems and can cause catastrophic failures ending in death. Al forms toxic complexes with other elements, such as fluorine, and interacts negatively with mercury, lead, and glyphosate. Al negatively impacts the central nervous system in all species that have been studied, including humans.”

For more than 30 years we have known that aluminum is found in the brain tissues of deceased Alzheimer’s patients. Like every other scientific discovery that impacts big business in this country, this finding was refuted by additional studies and supported by others that defended the original conclusion that aluminum is a causal factor for Alzheimer’s. But Alzheimer’s is just one of the possible outcomes. Aluminum causes a cascade effect where the immune system and the central nervous system interact and spiral out of control. Results can include a number of autoimmune diseases (such as multiple sclerosis) or neurological diseases (such as Parkinson’s disease or encephalopathy associated with autism).

The step-by-step process of destruction from the article, Aluminum’s Role in CNS-immune System Interactions leading to Neurological Disorder, outlines the inflammation cascade due to aluminum exposure.

1. Aluminum disrupts water-based cellular homeostasis and causes a crisis for the exposed cell.
2. The cell sends out “death alarm” messages, which draw in macrophages and other immune cells, initiating an inflammatory cascade.
3. The highly stressed cell dies via necrosis rather than a “programmed cell death,” and releases its DNA into the interstitial tissues.
4. This extracellular DNA is picked up as an antigenic signal by immune cells and leads directly to autoimmune disease.
5. In parallel, sulfate synthesis and sulfate transport are disrupted due in part to Al contamination of the pineal gland and other sensitive nuclei in the midbrain.
6. The entire biological system switches from a sulfate-based to a phosphate-based management strategy for maintaining water interfaces, leading to hyperparathyroidism.

We are poisoning ourselves and our children. At the very least, common sense dictates removing aluminum from vaccines, food, and our water supply. What can we do? Obviously, limit ingesting and breathing aluminum, but that’s not enough. We’ve gone way too far down our modern industrial path to entirely avoid such toxins. The good news is, the body can handle a remarkable toxic load when the diet is right. Raw, fresh, organic produce helps pull toxins, including heavy metals, from the body. Amino acids in  protein and pectin found in the rinds of many fruits and vegetables are both found to chelate, but some foods are known for chelating heavy metals:

Chelating Foods

• Chlorella
• Spirulina
• Garlic
• Onions
• Cilantro, coriander
• Parsley
• Wheatgrass

Natural Chelating Supplements

• Activated charcoal
• Bentonite clay
• Medical Mushrooms
• Yellow dock leaves
• Algae (like spirulina and chlorella)

For a thorough heavy metal detox, check out the protocol in How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children and also see Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula.

Related Products:

• Shillington’s Intestinal Detox
• Reishi Extract – Host Defense
• Activated Charcoal • 100c – Integrative Therapeutics
• Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula

Related Reading:

• How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• How to Detoxify from Vaccinations & Heavy Metals
• More Doctors Against Vaccines
• Flu Shot Facts Everyone Should Know
• Is Your Deodorant Drugging You Through The Armpits Daily With This Neurotoxin?
• Alzheimer’s
• Top 5 Foods that Detox Heavy Metals and Toxins – With Protocol

Sources:

• Top 5 Foods that Detox Heavy Metals and Toxins – With Protocol
• Aluminum-Induced Entropy in Biological Systems: Implications for Neurological Disease, Journal of Toxicology – NCBI
• Aluminum’s Role in CNS-immune System Interactions leading to Neurological Disorders – MIT
• Human Health Risk Assessment for Aluminium, Aluminium Oxide, And Aluminium Hydroxide – NCBI

Summer is the most exciting time for cooking with food that has come straight from the earth, and the innate flavor of freshly picked vegetables make simple recipes like the below Zucchini and Tomato Tarts from my first cookbook, SAVOR: Rustic Recipe Inspired by Forest, Field, and Farm, an instant success. Eating food that is in season can be served simply, without lots of added spices or complicated dressings, and tastes delicious nevertheless. These tarts are a great way to use up fresh vegetables when you have an abundance of them in the summer.

Tomato Tart

Makes one 11- to 12-inch tart; serves 4 to 6

This tart makes great use of sun-ripened, fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes, so when your garden is overflowing with them, reach for this recipe. The dough is shaped into a free-form crust, making a beautiful rustic tart.

Ingredients

• 4 medium tomatoes, cut into thin slices, or 1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 tablespoon flaky sea salt
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• All-purpose flour, for shaping the crust
• Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Spread the tomato slices out over several layers of paper towels. Sprinkle them evenly with the salt and let drain for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, coat a medium sauté pan with the olive oil and sauté the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft and sweet, about 8 minutes.
4. Put the Savory Tart Dough on a baking sheet.
5. Lightly flour your hands and gently pull and stretch the dough into a 13- to 14-inch circle.
6. Spread the onions over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border.
7. Arrange the tomatoes over the onions; there should be no onions visible when all the tomatoes have been layered on top. Drizzle with the olive oil and top with the thyme sprigs.
8. Fold the border of the dough over the filling. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.
9. This tart can be served hot out of the oven but is just as delicious at room temperature. Keep leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 2 months. Bring back to room temperature before serving or reheat in the oven.

Zucchini Tart

Makes one 11- to 12-inch tart; serves 4 to 6

This tart is delicious at room temperature, making it a great picnic food. The dough for the tart can be made up to a week in advance and kept in the refrigerator. It also freezes well. With the dough on hand, this tart comes together very fast: simply slice the zucchini, combine the cheese with the herbs, spread the cheese mixture over the flattened dough, top with the zucchini, and shape it into a rustic free-form tart before baking.

Ingredients

• 1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
• Flaky sea salt
• Savory Tart Dough
• 8 ounces goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
• 1⁄8 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Place the zucchini slices in a strainer and sprinkle them evenly with teaspoon salt. Let drain for 30 minutes, then spread them out on paper towels to drain for another 30 minutes.
2. When the zucchini has almost finished draining, preheat the oven to 350°F.
3. Transfer the tart dough to a baking sheet.
4. Using a potato masher, mash together the goat cheese, chives, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, Parmesan, a pinch of salt, and pepper to taste in a small bowl.
5. Flour your hands and gently pull and stretch the dough into a 13- to 14-inch circle on the baking sheet.
6. Spread the cheese mixture over the crust, leaving a 2-inch border all around. Starting at the outside edge, layer the zucchini, overlapping the slices on top of the cheese mixture. Drizzle with olive oil.
7. Fold the border of the dough over the filling. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.

Savory Tart Dough

Makes dough for one 11- to 12-inch tart

A tart crust is a good vehicle for tasting the nuances of different flours. It’s a great way to see how flours can differ in texture, too. This recipe uses spelt or farro flour, which produces a firm, hearty crust.

• 1 cup organic spelt flour plus more for shaping the crust
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons white wine

1. Combine the flour, rosemary, and salt in a large bowl. Add the olive oil and butter and mix together by hand until the dough has the consistency of wet sand. Add the wine and mix together. If the dough is too dry and does not come together, add a little water.
2. Knead the dough by hand inside the bowl for a few minutes until it comes together as a ball. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

For the tart dough, it is worth buying organic grain with a non-GMO heritage instead of supermarket products made from flour whose origins are unclear, or even better, mill your own grains. You can find more information on learning to mill grains at home in my book, SAVOR: Rustic Recipe Inspired by Forest, Field, and Farm, and online at IlonaOppenheim.com.

Bread, cookies, croutons, cereal, crackers, and all other baked goods that are made from scratch with home-milled grains may lead the way to more sustainable living. If we can all teach our children this way of life, one that integrates nature on every level, we can change the perception of food, reduce our “foodprint,” and make the planet a healthier place.

Article excerpted from Savor by Ilona Oppenheim (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2016. Photographs by Ilona Oppenheim.

Recommended Reading:

• Book Review – A Wilder Life: A Season-by-Season Guide to Getting In Touch with Nature
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Powerfully Healing Raspberry Cream Smoothie Recipe
• Homemade, Vegan Nut Milk Recipes and More
• The Case for Carob – This Chocolate Alternative Has A Lot to Offer

Known as the golden spice of life, turmeric, or haldi, contains a plethora of healthy nutrients beneficial for the skin. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties have been known for centuries in the East. The spice is widely incorporated in the Indian cuisine and has been used in the Ayurvedic skin care for centuries. Indian women have traditionally used it in their beauty routines for radiant and healthy skin. It is a common practice for the Indian bride to brighten their faces for the wedding with a turmeric paste made of the spice and olive oil.

The main ingredient in turmeric powder is curcumin, which represses an excess of melanin production. Curcuminoids work great for treating skin irritations, sun damage, and chronic inflammation that can all cause premature skin aging.  Turmeric contains a handful of essential nutrients including:

• Vitamin C encourages the build up of collagen, preserving the skin elasticity and tautness.
• Vitamin B is vital for the new skin cell formation and for keeping the skin moisturized.
• Calcium helps heal dry and withered skin.
• Magnesium slows down the aging processes and maintains the youthful and glowing look of the skin.
• Potassium has outstanding hydrating properties.

Want To Grow Your Own Turmeric Plant?

You may want to try growing your own turmeric, especially if you are one of those hard-core gardeners. The hardy ginger relative will do best in humid and warm conditions. Although turmeric is better suited for planting in open fields, it can survive in a domestic environment, too. Gardening experts advise growing your plant from a small piece of rhizome bought from a nursery or gifted to you by another gardener. Pick a partly shaded place with morning sun exposure. The best time for planting is in spring. Dig the roots up in the late fall or the early winter, while the greenery is dormant.

Turmeric +Milk+ Honey Face Mask

Although turmeric has unquestionable benefits, the spice can stain fair skin with its natural yellow colouring and make it look sallow. Luckily, the colour does fade away after a couple of hours. With this in mind, here is an easy idea on how to use turmeric in your everyday skin care routine.

Why Is It Good for You?

Honey is known for its anti-bacterial, antiseptic, and moisturizing properties. It also helps even out the skin tone and removes any discoloration marks, acne scars, and dark spots on the skin. Milk smoothes the rough skin and nourishes it with vitamins and minerals.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Directions:

• Mix the above ingredients in a bowl.
• Use a gentle cleanser to remove any trace of dirt or makeup.
• Apply a thin layer of the turmeric face mask on your face and let it sit for five to ten minutes.
• Rinse off with a mild facial cleanser and water.

Bonus Tip:

With this mask, you don’t need to worry that the yellow powder will stain your skin. If it does stain your face, use a sugar face scrub.  To avoid staining your nails, wear gloves. To get rid of the turmeric nail stains, rub them with lemon juice using a brush.

For more interesting tips and ideas on how to grow an organic garden and make your own natural remedies, visit the London Gardeners blog.

Further reading:

• Turmeric – Learn More about This Ayurvedic Herb
• How to Optimize Curcumin Absorption – With Golden Milk Tea Recipe
• How To Use Turmeric To Kill Cancer
• Turmeric’s Anti-inflammatory Properties Explained
• Healthy Skin
• Get Naturally Gorgeous Skin with These 4 Home Remedies

Sources:

• 6 Fruits and Vegetables You Can Easily Grow Indoor – Alternet
• Skin Care Treatments – Bellatory

Many of us look forward to Spring. The weather warms up.  We start spending more time outdoors. Plants are growing, and flowers are blooming everywhere. When spring is in the air, so is pollen. For those of us with seasonal allergies, spring is not as lovely. Fortunately, nature has a way with timing and can really help us out if we pay attention.

In the spring, just as all those flowers, grasses and trees are blooming and releasing clouds of pollen, stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are popping up in full force, ready to come to the rescue.  Not only are they an amazing superfood and an all around useful medicinal plant, nettles work wonders for reducing inflammation.

This is an important thing to know because inflammation doesn’t stop with our sinuses and seasonal respiratory allergies. Food allergies and associated digestive inflammation are a huge problem for many people, and most of the over-the-counter treatments only make the situation worse.

Nettles are a safe, soothing treatment for inflammation, offering the added benefits of vitamins, minerals, and immune-boosting properties.  It’s time to make friends with the stinging nettle, folks. You won’t regret it.

Nettles and Seasonal Allergies

Stinging nettles have been used for centuries as a natural treatment for seasonal allergies,  hay fever, asthma, and hives. Research has shown that consuming nettles in freeze dried capsules effectively reduces histamine levels in the body, thus reducing inflammation of affected tissues. Even a simple nettle tea consumed daily throughout the pollen and allergy season will alleviate allergy symptoms.

Common symptoms such as itchy eyes, sneezing, runny noses, and stuffed up sinuses  are treated as effectively, if not more so, by stinging nettle than over the counter allergy medications. It has been suggested that nettles actually desensitize the body to allergens and decrease our reaction to the allergens over time. Nettles will also spare you the side effects that come with allergy medications, like drowsiness or irritation and ulcers of the digestive tract, which leads to a whole other set of inflammation issues you don’t want.

With high levels of iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, sulphur, chromium, cobalt, magnesium, silicon, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K,  iron, and chlorophyll,  they will leave you feeling energized while assisting your immune system in overcoming the allergy response.

Nettles and Digestive Inflammation

Inflammation of the digestive tract has become a common reality that many of us deal with, and this isn’t really surprising when you look at the variety of culprits  and how common they are in our modern lives.  Food allergies, Candida imbalance, NSAID medications (ibuprofin, aspirin, etc.), chronic stress, sugars, highly processed foods, and environmental toxins are all potential sources of digestive inflammation and daily struggles for a lot of folks out there.

The most common go-to treatment tends to be over-the-counter NSAID medications that target pain and swelling, but they, in fact, contribute to the irritation and inflammation of the digestive tract, creating a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. Here is where the anti-inflammatory benefits of nettles come into play.

When the leaves and stems of stinging nettle are digested, either in the form of a tea, tincture, capsule, or culinary green, the chemical constituents interfere with the body’s production of prostaglandins, resulting in an anti-inflammatory response. Nettles also interfere with pain signals in the body, clean out the intestinal tract, and boost the immune system, providing relief and healing for issues of the digestive system.

Given these healing properties, nettles are beneficial in healing leaky gut syndrome and are listed as a therapeutic ingredient in the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet. Nettle tea has been noted as a successful treatment for individuals dealing with gluten intolerance and Celiac disease to reduce gastrointestinal inflammation and discomfort.

Ulcerative colitis and ulcers in other areas of the digestive tract can also benefit from nettles, as they stop internal bleeding  and re-build  the blood with their high iron content and aided absorption.

Nettles for Pet Allergy Care

Allergies are not only an issue for people; their canine companions suffer from them as well. Dog owners may associate the springtime with treating “itchy dog syndrome” along with their pet’s eye discharge, ear infections, and overall discomfort. Stinging nettle is a natural anti-inflammatory for dogs to reduce levels of histamines, detox their system, and help desensitize their body to allergens. By giving dogs regular nettle supplements during allergy season, their allergies have been shown to actually go away over time. Nettles can be administered to dogs by adding it in freeze dried form to their food or through supplementation.

Where to Find Nettles

If you are interested in wildcrafting your own nettles, you can find them growing in moist soils at the edge of forests, streams, marshy areas, and pastures. You may even find them growing in your own backyard. They are one of the first plants to come up in the spring. They are very distinct with square shaped stems and opposite, serrated leaves tapered to a point, so they are fairly easy to find. With a good plant ID guide and advice from local foragers, you can venture out and gather your own nettles all through the spring months.

You can also establish a nettle patch at home in your garden either with nettle seeds from an heirloom seed company or by transplanting rhizomes from wild nettle patches. If you are working with fresh nettles, be sure to wear gloves while picking and handling them in the kitchen. The prickly hairs on the skin contain formic acid and can cause an irritation to the skin, which is a nuisance but not harmful. Cooking, drying, and grinding will break down the hairs so they are no longer an issue.

Nettles are very easy to dry and use throughout the rest of the year when they aren’t found growing outside. For those of us who may not have access to foraging areas or garden space, you can always purchase dried nettle leaf and a variety of nettle supplements. Sometimes grocery stores will even carry fresh wildcrafted nettles in the spring.

Anti-Inflammatory Nettle Tea Recipe

• 3 fresh nettle tops (three leaf nodes down the plant) or 3 Tbsp dried nettle leaf
• 1 Tbsp dried marshmallow root
• 2 slices fresh ginger root

Boil 4 cups water, and pour over herbs. Steep for 7 minutes, covered. I prefer using a quart mason jar with a lid.

Hay Fever Relief Nettle Tea Recipe

• 3 fresh nettle tops (three leaf nodes down the plant) or 3 Tbsp dried nettle leaf
• 1 Tbsp dried elder flower
• 1 Tbsp dried chamomile

Boil 4 cups water, and pour over herbs. Steep for 7 minutes covered. I prefer using a quart mason jar with a lid.

Recommended Reading:

• Five Common Weeds to Cultivate for Health and Nutrition
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• The Amazing Benefits of Stinging Nettles, with Recipes
• Allergy Free in Five Days (foods, dander, dust, seasonal, etc.)
• What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good
• The Amazing Benefits of Stinging Nettles, with Recipes

Related Products:

• Gaia Herbs Nettle Leaf Capsules
• Gaia Herbs Nettle Leaf Liquid Extract
• Douglas Labs Nettle Capsules

 Sources:

• Nettles: The Sting—”Minor”; Healing Properties—”Major” – Idaho Observer
• Stinging Nettle – Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Legacy
• Stinging Nettle – University of Maryland Medical Center
• Stinging Nettle Benefits – Herb Wisdom
• What Causes Chronic Inflammation and How to Stop it For Good – OLM
• Nettle Tea: A Remedy for the Gluten-Free? – G-Free Foodie
• Gut and Psychology Syndrome – GAPS Diet
• Natural Anti-Inflammatory Agents for Pain Relief – NCBI 
• Nettles for Allergy Relief (In Dogs) – Green JuJu Kitchen
• Understanding Canine Allergies – The Whole Dog Journal
• Take a Walk on the Wild Side: Wildcrafting Nettles – A Mountain Hearth
• 10 Benefits of Stinging Nettle