Nearly everyone I know has disconnected the cause and effect of their food intake and their health, especially as they age

Memory is a funny thing. We think we remember the past, maybe even think we remember it well, and then we run across a letter, a journal entry, a list—and discover that our memories are woefully incomplete.

Worse yet is the tendency to downplay or ignore cause and effect when we are faced with making major changes in diet or lifestyle.  We don’t want to remember that there are patterns of pain or disease when we are faced with giving up foods we love.

I was reminded of these tendencies when I ran across a list of symptoms I put together for medical doctors back in the day when I wasted a few thousand dollars chasing a definitive diagnosis for my auto-immune “disease.”

Oh, I remember that it was bad—horrific, actually. I remember the day I stood at the bottom of a flight of stairs at work and cried because I just couldn’t make myself climb them. And I remember the day I sat with my accountant struggling with a mental fog so profound that my lack of short term memory made coherent speech nearly impossible. I remember how my joints, my bones, my muscles, and my organs hurt. But I didn’t remember half of the actual acute and painful symptoms on that list, like the blisters inside my mouth or the lumps in my salivary glands.

This started me thinking about my journey towards health. Once the worst of the  acute symptoms were under control and I felt significantly better, the denial of cause and effect took over. Sometimes when I ate bread or other wheat, my heel hurt so badly I could barely walk. Sometimes I broke out in weeping rashes. My joints ached. My muscles hurt. Sometimes the symptoms appeared within a few hours, sometimes the next day, sometimes in three days.

These discrepancies were enough to allow me to dig a deep, deep trench of denial—to crawl inside and eat my pizza, French bread, and cookies for years. It wasn’t until I mentioned these symptoms to a friend who sent me a link on Celiac disease that I stopped pretending the cause and effect wasn’t clear and convincing. It wasn’t until I understood that every time I ate gluten more of the cilia in my gut was destroyed, and it became harder and harder for my body to pull nutrients from the good food I was eating. That’s when I gave up gluten.

But I still hadn’t conquered sugar.

Now mind you, I always ate better than the Standard American Diet. For years I had eaten more fresh food than anyone I knew. I’d given up sodas and nearly every food with preservatives, food coloring, or flavorings except for the occasional bag of Cheetos.. I avoided MSG, except when I ate out (See how it works?).  I limited my chocolate intake, but I kept ignoring the fact that sugar feeds Candida, even though my ear and my gums hurt every time I ate it and other nasty symptoms popped up, too.

You see, I felt so much better than I had at the height of my illness, I ignored the pain and discomfort I still lived with every single day.

I am happy to say I finally adopted the motto, “If it makes you hurt, don’t do it dummy!” and I eliminated hidden gluten from my diet and really cut out sugar (almost completely). It was then that I discovered the third piece of the puzzle: I was vitamin D deficient. Wow! What a difference a little vitamin D made!

When you live with chronic pain, you learn to ignore it (as much as is humanly possible). You stop remembering what it feels like to actually feel good. When the day comes that you wake up pain free, cause and effect takes on a whole new meaning. Once I reached this level of health, I knew every single time a tiny bit of gluten slipped through my defenses. I could feel it in the stiff muscles of my back and neck as well as other muscles that tightened up or became inflamed. I discovered that every single time I ate refined sugar my glands, my ear, my sinuses or something else ached.

Nearly everyone I know (other than the majority of my Facebook friends who are health nuts) has disconnected the cause and effect of their food intake and their health, especially as they age. Most of my friends drink alcohol. They eat out of cans and boxes and nuke their food with a microwave. They hurt. They are sick. And they all accept their symptoms or illnesses as an inevitable side effect of aging.

I even have a dear friend recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s who told me there is no way she can eat a clean healthy diet of all fresh, organic food. The thought of giving up canned food and possibly shopping more than once a week was just too much to ask. So I didn’t even bother to talk to her about giving up alcohol. Cause and effect. Pure and simple.

If you are sitting on the fence in contemplating a healthy lifestyle, whether it is a radical change or just a further shift towards health, I strongly suggest you start a journal. Write down all of your symptoms—everything that hurts or isn’t optimal. Then do a cleanse and follow it up with a truly healthy diet until you are symptom free and pain free. Once again, write down how you feel and compare it to your first journal entry.

Every time you feel sick or you hurt, or you have no energy, take an honest inventory of everything you ate for the previous 3-4 days and write it down. Be honest with yourself. I am willing to bet you will soon discover your own cause and effect. And with the proof right there staring you in the face, maybe you won’t waste years like I did fooling yourself. You’ll find the strength to heal yourself and live a happier, healthier life.

Why Mary’s Little Lamb Shouldn’t be at School

We live in a country where fried chicken tenders and grilled cheese sandwiches are typical children’s meals. It’s not surprising that many people pay little attention to where their meats come from and what is in them. Are they natural, or not? 

Healthy Lean Proteins Can Help Improve Your Diet

The building blocks of a healthy diet include five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein foods. The amount of protein people should eat each day depends on their age, gender, and activity levels.

While most Americans do eat a sufficient amount of protein, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) points out that most people need to make more varied selections to include leaner options. Lean cuts of lamb are a healthy protein food that is often overlooked.

Lamb and other lean meats can be found at many meat markets and grocery stores, but consumers receive very little information about the protein they place in their shopping carts. Unless labeled otherwise, meat products often come from animals that were raised in feedlots and fed grains. These meats often contain traces of growth hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs that the animals received during their lifetimes.

GMO Foods: The Dangers

Feedlots are used in commercial factory farming because they allow farmers to contain more livestock in less space. The animals live in incredibly cramped, inhumane quarters, essentially living in their own waste. As a result, they frequently succumb to illness and constantly receive antibiotics. In addition, they are fed a diet that consists mainly of genetically-modified (GMO) grain, which is unnatural for both humans and animals.

A variety of commercialized GMO crops are grown in the U.S., and meats and other animal products such as eggs often come from animals that have been fed GMO foods. Anywhere from 85 to 91 percent of grain crops have been genetically modified. The reasons for genetic modification are often to increase production and reduce cost. Commercial growers can spray weed killers over the entire crop, but the weed killer is unable to kill the GMO plants. The plants that have had their DNA toyed with in the lab have been dubbed “frankenfoods” by those who are concerned about long term health of consumers.

GMOs can lead to unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects and health risks. These include but are not limited to allergies, toxins, nutritional problems, and even new diseases that are yet to be determined.

Understanding Organic Claims

Purchasing naturally raised foods is the easiest way to avoid foods that contain genetically modified ingredients. The U.S. and Canadian governments do not allow companies to label foods and products 100% Certified Organic if they contain genetically modified foods or ingredients. Unfortunately, foods that are labeled Made with Organic Ingredients may contain up to 70% organic ingredients—which means some ingredients may not be GMO-free.

Grass-Fed, Pasture-Fed Meats: The Basics

Lamb and other meats are often labeled with stickers reading grass-fed, a USDA term that means the animal was fed nothing but grass from weaning to harvest. Pasture-raised meats come from animals that were held in pastures rather than feedlots. Meat from  animals that were grass-fed and raised in local pastures are the only meats that are certain to be GMO free. There are substantial nutritional differences between meats from pasture-raised animals and those raised in feedlots.

Pasture-raised meats are comparatively:

• Lower in fat.
• Higher in protein.
• Lower in calories.
• Four times higher in vitamin E.
•  Higher in beta-carotene.
• Contain two to four times the omega-3 fatty acids, which greatly lowers risk of heart problems. Eggs from pasture raised chickens have ten times the amount of commercially-raised hens.
• Contain three to five times the level of CLA, which is a potent cancer defense.

Kindness to Animals

Animals do not fear the future. They live moment by moment, experiencing life and emotion in the short term. Animals raised in feed lots suffer each moment of their lives. Everything about that existence is unnatural and frightening. When the mass butchering begins, the animals are frightened by the smell of blood and by being hustled about, not knowing what is happening. This fear results in the release of adrenaline, which causes meat to be tougher than it would if the creature died while relaxed.

When animals are raised naturally, out in the pasture, they enjoy each moment of life. Rather than standing in their own waste, they live in the outdoors with sunshine, green grass, shade trees, and fresh, clear water. When the age of processing comes, there is no feed lot to endure. Most of the smaller growers are keenly aware of each detail and do their utmost to cause little fear for the herd.

While food labels can be confusing, it’s important for us to understand what we are putting into our own bodies. Spend a few minutes learning more about the dangers of GMOs and the importance of purchasing organic products and grass-fed, pasture-fed meats. The truth will shock you.

Chemicals and Other Contaminants You Really Shouldn’t Be Drinking

If you’re like most people, you use tap water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and drinking. Also like a lot of people, you may not have given a thought to what could be in that water—things like chemicals, microorganisms, and bacteria. If you’re concerned about your health, you should consider purchasing and installing a home water filtration system to ensure that the water you and your family members use is safe and clean.

Contaminants in Drinking Water

Recently, the Environmental Working Group analyzed almost 20 million drinking water tests that had been done by U.S. water suppliers between 2004 and 2009. The results showed that there were hundreds of different pollutants in American drinking water. Most of those contaminants have no safety levels set by the government; others exist at levels higher than recommended by health guidelines.

These contaminants may come from chemicals added by water utilities for treating the water, from industrial or agricultural contamination of water supplies, from chemicals leached from water pipes and tanks, or from wastewater treatment plants.

Chemicals Intentionally Added

Just a few of the chemicals intentionally added to drinking water include , supposedly for oral health, but the World Health Organization  does not advocate the addition of this toxic substance to water supplies where people have a good health structure. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends the removal of fluoride from drinking water in first-world countries. Fluoride consumption is linked to certain cancers, lowered IQ, and diminished thyroid levels.

Other chemicals that may be intentionally added to drinking water during the water treatment process are potassium permanganate, aluminum sulphate, hydrated lime, chlorine, and polyphosphate. Some of these chemicals are added to disinfect the water. Some are added for other purposes.

Unintentional Contaminants in Drinking Water

In addition to industrial pollution, common sources of unintentionally-added contaminants to drinking water are agriculture, factory farming, and the water treatment (disinfection) process itself.

Nitrates from fertilizer can infiltrate groundwater and run off into rivers and streams, contaminating water supplies. Nitrates are particularly dangerous to infants and children. Other agricultural contaminants include perchlorate, bromochloroacetic acid, MTBE, and Di-n-butylphthalate.

Trihalomethanes, bromate, haloacetic acides, and chlorite are among more than 600 by-products of the disinfection process. Most of these by-products are not restricted, nor do water treatment plants test for them.

Yet another group of contaminants in our drinking water are microorganisms. These may come from factory farm run-offs and sewage treatment plants. Some include Cryptosporidium, Giardi lamblia, Legionella, E. Coli, and a variety of viruses.

For every contaminant we test for, there are thousands we don’t. We don’t know the dangers of these chemicals in our drinking water, and no attempts are made to remove or prevent the contamination.

Types of Home Water Filtration Systems

One of the best ways to protect yourself against these contaminants is to install a home water purification system. There are several different levels of filtration that you can use. It depends on how many of those contaminants you want to remove and how much money you want to spend.

If you have a limited budget, a carbon filter system (pitcher, faucet-mount, or large dispenser) will remove chlorine, mercury, lead, asbestos, and VOCs. It will not remove fluoride, nitrate, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, or perchlorate. Some carbon filters are better than others.

The very best (and most expensive) way to remove the most contaminants from your water supply is to install a reverse osmosis (RO) system combined with a top-level carbon filter. Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane that holds all particles larger than water molecules. This type of system will filter out perchlorate, hexavalent chromium, fluoride, arsenic, and nitrates. These types of filters are used for drinking and cooking water only.

To kill off bacteria and microorganisms, an ultraviolet light system works the best. These filters do not remove chemicals, but you can install a UV system to your reverse osmosis and carbon filtration system.

What if there was a health food that cleansed your blood, detoxified your liver, made your body more alkaline, built up your red blood cell count, contained 17 amino acids and 80 different enzymes, contained all known minerals, oxygenated your body systems, and provided a good boost of energy? Wouldn’t you want an ounce or two?

Wheatgrass juice, also called “liquid sunshine” is a superfood made up of 70% chlorophyll. It is about as close as you can come to hemoglobin, the compound in your blood that carries oxygen. It’s easy to digest (taking less than 5 minutes), and it can provide a boost of energy much more healthful than downing a can of Red Bull or any other energy drink.

Wheatgrass is unique. It builds and destroys simultaneously. It builds up your immunity and your red blood cell count, while it destroys (or neutralizes) toxins. It purifies and cleanses while strengthening and providing super-charged nutrition.

If you’re ready and raring to go on a wheatgrass juice kick, have at it, but know that you should start slowly. Wheatgrass juice can have an effect on some people almost immediately, so it is recommended that you ease into your new habit of healthy wheatgrass shots. A single ounce is plenty to get you started. Any more than that can cause you to become nauseated or give you a case of the trots (diarrhea). For the stout of heart, you can take two ounces, but work up to over a period of a couple of weeks, at least. Because of the many enzymes it contains, wheatgrass juice goes to work almost immediately, and if your system is the least bit toxic, it may do too good a job in eliminating those toxins.

One of the more noted pioneers of the use of wheatgrass juice was Anne Wigmore. Over a period of about three decades, Ann helped people recover from all types of chronic illnesses, including cancer by concentrating on regimens of raw foods and wheatgrass juice. She founded a health resort in the United States in the year 1968 called the Ann Wigmore Foundation, which was renamed the Hippocrates Health Institute after her death. While living, Ann was given the title of “the mother of living foods.”

One of the popular contemporary theories of disease is based on inflammation. Wheatgrass juice contains P4D1, a “gluco-protein” that acts like an antioxidant, reducing inflammation. There are a myriad of maladies that wheatgrass has been used to treat. Among those diseases and conditions that people have treated with wheatgrass juice are skin disorders, digestive disorders, arthritis, asthma, insomnia, kidney stones, ulcerative colitis, cancer, fatigue, allergies, diabetes, urinary tract infections, and many others.

If you’re ready for some wheatgrass, “the ultimate blood purifier,” you have the option of sprouting some of your own homegrown specimens or buying a swill of it every day at your local health food store. Wheatgrass is one of the more popular seeds for sprouting, and it is quite simple to grow on your own at home.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/IL0URJcZF8w

So easy!

The more I read, watch videos, and listen to testimonials, the more I believe in the power of raw foods. I’m still not convinced that a 100% raw diet is best, but there is no doubt in my mind that an 80-90% raw diet will result in better, if not optimal, health. To that end, I have been experimenting with raw kale salads for the past two weeks.

The first step in making a kale salad is the oil massage. Chop up a bunch of kale, put it in a bowl, and drizzle it with oil. Then dig in with both hands and massage the oil into the kale until the leaves soften. This is actually fun. Messy, yes, but fun.

Each of the following combinations begins with the oil massage, so add other ingredients as the second step.

Salad 1. Add raw beets cut with a spiral slicer. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Salad 2. Add raw beets cut with a spiral slicer. Juice two limes and stir in 2 tablespoons of honey. Drizzle over the kale and mix well.

Salad 3. Add pine nuts and a little bit of crushed garlic and a touch of balsamic vinegar (see image).

Salad 4. Add carrots strips (I used a potato peeler for this), a handful of raisins, and a handful of walnuts. Add balsamic vinegar and a squirt of honey. Mix well.

Salad 5. Add 2 finely chopped apples, a handful of raisins, and a handful of walnuts. Add balsamic vinegar and a squirt of honey. Mix well.

Salad 6. Same as salad 4 but substitute rice vinegar.

Salad 7. Add 2 finely chopped apples, two oranges cut into small pieces, a handful of walnuts, a handful of raisins, balsamic vinegar and a squirt of honey.  Taste. Add more honey!

Warning: The night I made salad number 7, I went back for seconds. I was too late.

Try your own variations, and let us know what you come up with!

B Vitamins, Stuttering, and Temper Tantrums

My four-year-old grandson was a hyperactive fusser with a low melting point. He seemed to be going through the terrible twos at four. Nearly every time he was told to do something he didn’t want to do, he shouted, “I don’t want to!” and followed his outburst with ear-splitting wailing.

Coming from a counseling background, I was pretty sure where that behavior came from: inconsistent parenting, giving in to bad behavior. You know the immediate judgments that come to mind. But this was not the case. When I moved in with my son and his family, I witnessed my grandson’s parenting first hand. More than that, I participated. No matter how consistent, no matter how calm and firm we were, the behavior continued. Worse than that, his inability to handle frustration was escalating.

One day, out of the blue, he began to stutter. Within a few days, it was full blown. “I…I…I…I  wa… wa…want… to go.”  Sometimes the stutter was on both ends of the sentence. It didn’t matter if he was having fun and playing or if he was calmly trying to relay information, the stutter took over his speech.

We’d always had bedtime difficulties and they were getting worse. It was hard to get him down, hard for him to go to sleep, and hard for him to stay asleep. Add to that the fact that when his eyes popped open in the morning, he shot out of bed no matter how long he had slept.

Having raised two hyperactive children, I knew the drill. Perfect diet. Lots of sleep. But these kids were eating an organic diet with loads of fresh fruits and veggies. But sleep? Him? Not so much. The hyperactivity itself was interfering with his sleep, and everyone else’s.

When my hyperactive sons were young, B vitamins helped immensely. They helped all of us. They helped the kids sleep and they kept me from having a nervous breakdown. I discussed this with my son and his wife and we decided to give a B vitamin complex a try. We bought what we believe to be the best: Thorne Research’s vitamins. No additives or fillers.

Within four days, the stuttering was reduced by half. Within six days, it stopped altogether. Bedtimes became manageable. Within two weeks we experienced the first no-fuss bedtime and a smiling child who was willing to raise his arms in the air to yell, “Yay, bedtime!”

Now I don’t want to mislead anyone. It’s two months later, and he still fusses. But what was once a roar is now a moan or a whimper and fussing only happens a few times a day instead of 25 or 30 times a day. Redirection or an occasion time out is handling the behavior just fine. He is sleeping much better. Meltdowns are a thing of the past and so is stuttering, even when he went without B vitamins for several weeks.

After this success, it occurred to me to google B vitamins and stuttering. I found that one small study had been done that showed a positive correlation. But there was very little info out there on the subject.

Editor’s note: In a case like this, I recommended a good fat supplement in conjunction with high quality complex B vitamins. UDO’s 3-6-9 with DHA is one of the best out there. A B vitamin deficiency in someone who is eating well and not consuming stimulants is likely to involve a fat imbalance as well.

Recommended Supplements:

• B-Complex #12 – Thorne Research
• Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula

 Further Reading:

• B Vitamins, Nature’s Valium and So Much More

Saturday mornings, I have a standard food-acquiring routine pretty much down.  The farmer’s market is perused through for all of the basics.  Spring water is collected.  If needed, specialty stores are stopped by…and ‘Whole Foods Market’ meets the tail end of the stretch with its add-ins of anything that I couldn’t amass from the other locales.  I’m purposeful at each stop.  I know exactly what I want and where to find it.  My overall ‘game plan’ is to stock up on the freshest, most nutritionally dense foods and still square it all up within our weekly budget.  I go heavy on the greens, non-sweet fruits, and all varieties of veggies that will later meet with a transformation into some variety of smoothie, salad, steamed medley, or soup.  It’s all very satisfactory, yet repetitive…so when something extraordinary catches my attention, it tends to push my delight above and beyond the average.  This week, the extraordinary catch was one size-able container of freshly picked, ruby-red raspberries.

The first time that I recall eating freshly picked strawberries left the type of impression that almost demands that I still think about it from time to time several years later.  I questioned whether they were even strawberries.  They were incredibly juicy and flavorful– entirely different from the less intense store-bought berries that I was up until then familiar with.  Since then, I’ve developed a special interest in and appreciation for fruit that’s been separated from the plant for only hours, as compared to days or weeks.

These particular raspberries paralleled the strawberry incident of ’99 nicely. 🙂 There were plenty savored alone, and there were handfuls more that melded into various edible blends throughout the weekend. The following is our favorite flavor……a concoction that highlights the current seasonal flux– intertwining one of the last offerings of summer with a treasured fall staple. Enjoy!

(I don’t enjoy measuring, so I won’t be listing exact amounts– it’s a simple brew, however, and will likely turn out well if you adjust all amounts according to taste…)

Bottom (or top) crumble layer ingredients

• spoonful of coconut oil or ghee
• vanilla stevia (10-15 drops) (or unprocessed stevia powder and raw vanilla powder)
• coconut or almond flour (enough to make a creamy paste)
• sprouted flax, chia or hemp seed powder (mix in until crumble-like consistency)

Pumpkin blend

• pureed fresh pumpkin, or organic canned pumpkin
• cultured coconut (fermented at home, or store bought (I like So Delicious brand, unsweetened)
• vanilla stevia, to taste
• sea salt

Instructions

1. mix pumpkin blend well.
2. spoon out onto crumble mixture, or into bowl, adding crumble mixture over top.
3. sprinkle with raspberries.