Pain tells us we are doing something wrong. That’s how life is supposed to work. But we live on credit in every way. Even our health. Taking a pill for a headache is like using a credit card with interest you pay later.
ADHD is a diagnosis based on a combination of behaviors, mainly hyperactive behavior, an inability to focus attention, and poor impulse control. Food allergies, lack of sleep (or lack of quality sleep), and heavy metal toxicity are the primary causal factors.
ADHD is on the rise. One look at the diet of today’s children – processed food filled with high fructose corn syrup or sugar, artificial colors, preservatives, flavors and partially hydrogenated oils – and we wonder how they can function at all.
Today’s children are exhausted. Few get enough sleep, or good quality sleep, or enough exercise. They are injected with toxic vaccines. Add poor nutrition and their bodies are overtaxed, overstressed, and toxic.
Hyperactivity and an inability to focus or maintain impulse control is a result of a tired and malfunctioning brain. Drugs like Ritalin have a calming effect on ADHD sufferers because these drugs are stimulants. They stimulate an overtaxed, exhausted brain.
We are not saying ADHD is not real. On the contrary, we are saying ADHD, like cancer, diabetes, and most other diseases, is a symptom of an overtaxed and toxic body. And in today’s modern world of unhealthy food and electronic stimulation, getting enough quality sleep and nutrition in the formative years is becoming more and more difficult.
Artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, and refined sugar should always be avoided. Up to 95% of children with ADHD are allergic to artificial colors, and all of the aforementioned ingredients take a toll on anyone’s health.
I used to love to shop—especially at the farmers market. All those rows of beautiful, colorful, fruit and veggies. You could find anything—everything! It was paradise. But the last few times I went shopping, I didn’t enjoy the experience at all.
It wasn’t the long lines and the swarms of people; I avoid shopping on the weekends and during the “rush hour.” What makes me angry is the limited supply of organic produce and the outrageous prices.
One of the farmer’s m
arkets I frequent shelves all of its organic produce along one short wall. I’d estimate 23 linear feet of refrigeration and shelving. Turn around and you will see at least ten times as much conventional produce, at much lower prices. This particular market caters to the local Asian and Hispanic population, selling exotic greens and rare fruits, along with the staples we all use. I want to try cactus and funny looking eggplant, dragon fruit and star fruit, but none of these choices are organic.
In the farmer’s market where I do the bulk of my shopping, there was an entire row of peppers and an entire row of cucumbers, and not one of them was organic. And nearly every organic item was priced at twice the price per pound. If the conventional item was 99 cent a pound, the organic equivalent’s sticker read 1.99 per pound. There are exceptions of course. Organic watermelon was four times the price of conventional.
Why do we pay more to avoid being poisoned by our food?
Certified organic food is more expensive for several reasons. First and foremost good old supply and demand. Normally when we hear those magic words we think that the price was merely jacked up as high as the market will bear. But the truth is, when you only look at the short term costs, organic farming does cost more—at least in upfront labor costs, post harvest handling, marketing, and distribution.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this is true around the world. They state:
Organic certification also adds considerable cost to the small farmer, both in fees and labor.
When we buy organic meats and dairy, we know the animals’ care and treatment was considerably better than that of animals raised in factory farms. The conventional big business practice is to leave these pitiful animals standing in filth, crowded in bins. They are fed low- cost GMO laden feed and shot full of antibiotics and hormones to keep them alive until they can be butchered. Yes, of course, this inhumane treatment is less expensive than raising free range, organic fed, healthy animals. It is illegal to abuse a pet, yet when it comes to raising cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and turkeys, we allow horrific, unspeakable animal cruelty to be the accepted norm.
Farming is much the same. In the short term it is cheaper to grow huge fields of one crop, to dump chemicals into the earth and spray with pesticides, to strip the land, than it is to rotate crops, replenish the soil naturally, and grow healthy pest resistant and disease resistant plants. Instead, over time more and more chemicals are used to yield the same crops. But our fertile earth is dying, stripped of minerals and the healthy bacteria that ensures nutrient rich food.
Although the current costs of conventional food are low, the true cost is so much higher. It’s not just the little known fact that conventional farming is highly subsidized by the government, while organic farming is not. The true cost of today’s cheap conventional food does not reflect destruction of our farmlands, the health of the farm workers exposed to pesticides, or the effect on the health of every man, woman, and child eating foods with substandard nutrients contaminated with pesticides and herbicides, not to mention the genetically modified atrocities that disrupt fertility and damage our organs.
Once again quoting the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: “As demand for organic food and products is increasing, technological innovations and economies of scale should reduce costs of production, processing, distribution and marketing for organic produce.”
So let’s keep up the demand. But we can do more.
Once, several years ago, I was visiting a friend in Kansas City, Missouri. She took me to her favorite grocery store, Wild Oats. It was a medium sized store, the size of a regular grocery store back in the day before we super sized everything. Although all the prices seemed reasonable, there were no signs telling me which produce was organic. My friend laughed. All of the produce and meat sold in Wild Oats was organic. And not one of the foods on their shelves contained MSG, hydrogenated oils, or other known harmful additives. Can you imagine what a joy it would be to shop if every grocery store sold nothing but organic, healthy food?
We have the power to take this country back from big business, to protect our most valuable resources—our land, our seed banks, our future. Write to your senators and congressmen. Call for a ban on factory farming, conventional farming, and GMO foods. Tell them organic farmers should be subsidized, not giant corporations that are raping the land. Push for laws to protect and support family farms including a waiver of inheritance taxes. And above all, stop purchasing hormone laden, antibiotic laden milk and meat. Buy organic meat, dairy and produce, even though it is more expensive. Most importantly, grow your own organic food! We have the power to render these poisoned foods obsolete by refusing to purchase them.
There are many different trends now in the food industry. Many Americans are becoming more aware of the current state of public health in this country, as well as of the numerous issues surrounding conventional and factory farming. As a result, they have begun to buy more foods that are labeled all-natural, organic, vegan, non-GMO, vegetarian, and so on. Others are required to buy foods with these healthier-sounding phrases on their labels because of medical concerns such as Celiac disease.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease triggered by the consumption of gluten, which causes permanent damage to the intestinal villi. This negatively affects the body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients.This condition is diagnosed now more than ever before. Its prevalence has spread awareness about gluten in general since many people never even knew what gluten was before Celiac became such a buzzword. Non-diagnosed people have also begun to experiment with reducing or eliminating gluten from their diets to see if certain symptoms improve.
At first, gluten-free food choices were hard to come by in stores and restaurants. One could only find them in a tiny spot in the frozen-foods section or the pasta aisle in health food stores and healthier grocery stores like Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s. The prices were exorbitant. However, people paid them and began to demand more gluten-free foods. Consequently, the supply increased, and now many regular chain grocery stores feature gluten-free aisles. In addition, certain restaurants, like PF Chang’s, offer gluten-free menus. Even fast food chains and stadiums have caught on—Domino’s Pizza now advertises gluten-free pizza and many stadiums sell gluten-free snacks. While prices for gluten-free foods have come down due to increased supply, they are still quite expensive.
The majority of people interested in healthier eating, as well as animal rights, have seen the horrific videos about the treatment of animals in conventional factory farms. If you haven’t seen them, simply do a search for factory farming and you will get pages upon pages of graphic images and videos from organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and others who have exposed the truth of what actually goes on in these facilities. These images and videos have successfully turned many former meat lovers into hardcore vegans.
Cruelty aside, these videos and images have also exposed the truth about many issues including:
The media also now focuses more on the many benefits of plant-based diets. Multitudes of books, doctors, celebrity nutritionists and endorsers, documentaries, and other forms of media illustrate how consuming less (or no) meat can reduce obesity and improve many health conditions.
So whether it’s for the love of animals, for fear of eating chemically-altered food from diseased animals processed in filthy conditions, or for the love of clean arteries, more and more people are choosing to ditch meat or animal products altogether and eat only plants.
Awareness continues to spread about how toxic pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, and genetically-modified foods are to nearly every system of the human body. Accordingly, more people now choose to alter their families’ budgets in order to accommodate the lofty cost of organic, all natural, and non-GMO food and other products.
Many vegan and vegetarian foods contain high contents of soy. Soy appears on food labels as many different names (soy protein, hydrolyzed soy, soy lecithin, etc.), and many mistakenly believe it is a healthy alternative to dairy and animal products.
The soy industry has convinced the general public that soy is healthy. They point to Asian cultures, which have regularly eaten soy for thousands of years and look how healthy they are! This is only part of the story. These cultures have indeed consumed soy for thousands of years in their traditional diets. Those who have maintained these traditional diets do have higher levels of health and longevity. However, those cultures do not drink soy milk, eat soy burgers, soy cheese, tofurky, or other processed foods using soy products as binders, fillers, and protein substitutes. They eat small quantities of traditionally fermented whole soy foods like tofu, miso, tamari, natto, and seitan—the key words being: small quantities, fermented, and whole.
The highly processed soy food-like substances that would-be health-conscious Americans now massively consume are not healthier choices for the human body than the foods they are attempting to replace. According to Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story, “hundreds of epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory studies link soy to:
Healthy eating is not necessarily about reading labels on packages. It’s more about avoiding the packages in the first place by choosing whole, real foods that you prepare yourself. Michael Pollan’s words “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” really sum it up. The “eat food” part refers to actual whole foods that are part of nature: foods that grow, run, swim, or fly. Chemically-altered food-like substances that sit in boxes on shelves for five years are not included in this description of food.
If you choose a gluten-free diet, eat whole grains that don’t contain gluten like quinoa, amaranth, millet, and buckwheat. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, don’t eat “veggie” burgers from box in the frozen section. Instead you can easily make your own from wonderful nutrient-rich plant foods like whole grains, mushrooms, beans, and chopped veggies, and bind them together with cooked grains like millet or quinoa. Don’t use soy milk as a substitute for dairy. It is healthier to get your calcium and vitamin D from plant sources and small amounts of sunlight. Instead of “healthy” sodas and sport drinks, just drink water or freshly brewed teas or fresh juices.
If you eat meat, research where your meat comes from and how it is processed. Look for the words “organic, pastured, grass-fed” for beef and lamb and look for “organic” and “pastured” for poultry. If this type of meat is too expensive or is not available, then you should either get the very best you can afford and consider reducing your meat intake.
If you have a busy schedule (and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t), learn to plan ahead. Make big batches and freeze meals in healthy portions so that the frozen foods you take to work are ones you made yourself with ingredients you can pronounce.
It’s a wonderful thing that more people want to live healthier lives. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and other diets can be healthy. Reading food labels and knowing what the long words mean is a daunting task. Why not just avoid foods that need labels in the first place? That is the best way to start living a healthier life.
I belong to a CSA and I sometimes find myself overwhelmed when large amounts of vegetables come in all at once. Although there are a variety of ways this produce can be preserved, I have found that fermentation is the best one for me. Using this method preserves the vibrant colors, flavors, vitamins, minerals, and food enzymes since fermentation does not involve heat like with conventional canning methods.
In my explorations with food I have fermented beets, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, varieties of salsa, chopped jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, chopped garlic, and herbal blends including cilantro and chives.
Fermentation, drying, freezing, smoking, salting and sugaring foods were the methods used by our ancestors to keep food through seasonal shortages. Fermentation has been in practice for thousands of years and is still commonly used in other cultures throughout the world.
The art of fermenting vegetables is also becoming more common in the U.S. as more people are realizing the many health benefits of including fermented foods in the diet.
Do you suffer from food intolerance, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, yeast infections, allergies or asthma? All of these conditions have been linked to gut health. Fermented foods will help to restore the proper balance of gut flora, and since 80 percent of your immune system is located in your intestines, making gut health a priority can be a proactive defense against disease. Furthermore, since fermented foods retain their enzymes, your body will utilize them in the digestion and assimilation of nutrients.
I’m sure we have all experienced produce spoiling before it was eaten. By preserving your surplus you can avoid this common problem. As an added bonus, you can save money by purchasing and preserving your produce while in-season, thus ensuring that you are getting the highest quality at the lowest price.
Aside from the initial cost of your fermentation vessels, there are minimal expenses to this process. I have a crock for sauerkraut, and I use quart and pint size canning jars for fermenting and storing.
Typically, coarse sea salt and/or whey are used for the fermenting process. If you use whey, it can be obtained by draining plain cultured yogurt over cheesecloth or by pouring the accumulated liquid from the top of the yogurt container.
After deciding what to ferment, the typical process is to chop or finely grate the vegetables to increase the surface area which will be exposed to the brine.
Place the grated/chopped vegetables into a bowl and sprinkle with a coarse sea salt. The ratio is 2 T per 1 qt mason jar of vegetables, or 1- 1 ½ tsp of salt per 2 lbs of vegetables. Use clean hands or a utensil to work the salt in. It may take a few minutes to pull the liquid from the vegetables, but soon you will have enough to cover the vegetables thoroughly when placed into your mason jars.
Fill the jar with the vegetables and juice and continue to press firmly to release more liquid and to remove any air pockets.
Usually no additional water is needed; however it can simply be added to completely submerge the vegetables. If there is a need for water, you should use filtered or spring water only. If at any point in the fermentation process you notice that the vegetables have lost moisture, you can always add more and incorporate it in.
Cover the jar with a cloth or paper towel and secure with a rubber band to keep insects out. Sealing your jar tightly at this point would cause pressure to build up which could cause breakage.
Leave the jar at room temperature for 4 to 7 days. The warmer the area, the faster the fermentation will occur. When you are satisfied with the taste, you can secure a cover and store in a refrigerator or a cool basement.
Being submerged in the salted brine will prevent the vegetables from growing mold. However, if you find mold growing on the top it can simply be removed and you will find that the vegetables underneath are still fine. I have not found mold to be an issue, but I am in the habit of smelling the product before using.
Use non-metal utensils when mixing or when removing vegetables from the container.
(fills 2 qt jars)
This recipe includes whey. Read the above instructions on obtaining whey. If you don’t have whey, you will add more salt using the 2 T per 1 quart mason jar.
Place vegetables, ginger, red chili flakes, and salt and/or whey into a bowl and incorporate until you have released the juices. Fill 2 quart size glass jars with the mixture, while pressing down firmly until all the juices have risen to the top and cover the vegetables leaving 1 inch of space at the top of the jar. You can use a cabbage leaf over the top of the mixture to keep the vegetables submerged below the brine. Cover the jar lightly and keep at room temperature for about 4-7 days, then secure a cover and transfer to the refrigerator.
Toss tomatillos, peppers, garlic, lime juice, and salt in a food processor or blender and process until smooth, adjusting seasoning to taste. Transfer to a mason jar leaving 1 inch at the top of the jar, lightly cover and ferment at room temperature for three to five days, then secure a cover and store in the refrigerator.
See above for obtaining whey. If you don’t have whey, just add more salt using the 2 T per 1 quart size mason jar.
Run individual veggies through a food processor or chop by hand and combine in a large bowl. Add the salt and/or whey and stir well. Let sit for a few minutes and then put into jars leaving an inch at the top. Lightly cover and let sit at room temperature for 4 days, then cover and store in the refrigerator.
This recipe is to fill a mason jar about ½ of the way full of chopped garlic cloves. Separate the heads of garlic into individual cloves and peel the skin off of each clove. Combine 1 T sea salt with 1 cup of water and pour into a 1-qt. mason jar, stirring well to dissolve. Lightly chop the garlic in a food processor and add to the salted water, add additional water if needed and stir. Cover lightly and set it aside at room temperature for at least three days or up to a week or until the garlic achieves the desired flavor, then cover and store in the refrigerator.
I used to dry herbs but found they were lacking in flavor. Using the process of fermentation they remain vibrant in color and flavor and can be used to season your dishes.
Depending on the amount of herbs you are fermenting it may take a quart or a pint size jar. Start by placing the washed herbs in a food processor until they have reached a finely chopped consistency. Add some water to make your brine (this should have the consistency of thick salsa).
In this state, you can get a better idea of the amount of salt that you will need to add by following the 2 T per qt size jar. Incorporate the salt into the mixture thoroughly before transferring it to mason jar(s), then cover lightly. Allow to ferment for 3- 4 days, then secure a cover and store in the refrigerator.
The human body produces two categories of enzymes- metabolic and digestive. Metabolic enzymes are intra-cellular (in the cell), and are used for reproduction and replenishment of the cells as well as to maintain and rebuild the organs, tissues, and blood. Digestive enzymes are used to break down food for the proper assimilation of nutrients.
The importance of digestive enzymes resides in the fact that the human body cannot absorb nutrients found in food unless you have an adequate supply of enzymes available in order to break them down. In the book, Micro Miracles, Ellen W. Cutler writes about the important role that enzymes play in the digestive process. “Digestive enzymes assist with the digestion of food, the absorption of nutrients, and the delivery of those nutrients throughout the body. The most commonly known digestive enzymes are secreted from the pancreas into the small intestine, where each is responsible for breaking down a specific compound.”
Digestive enzymes are classified based on their target substrates, the three main are:
As food is digested, it gets broken down for absorption, and then transported by the blood through the power of enzymatic activity, with nutrients and enzymes working synergistically with each other, functioning as catalysts in countless biological reactions within the body.
The final category of enzymes comes from the foods we eat. When foods contain sufficient amounts of their own enzymes, digestion can begin at the very first bite. The act of chewing your food thoroughly and mixing it with saliva will activate some of the enzymes naturally found in food. However, research indicates that when food is cooked above 118 degrees, the heat will kill most of the enzymes resulting in diminished nutritional values. This deficit in enzymes is one of the major problems facing our modern-day society, which dines almost exclusively on cooked, fast, or processed foods.
Dr. Edward Howell, an early pioneer in the field, spent his entire professional life studying enzymes. He believed that people were born with limited enzyme-producing capabilities and that life expectancy depended on how well this “enzyme potential”was preserved. He believed that when we eat enzyme-depleted foods, our bodies must work harder to manufacture all of the enzymes necessary to support the digestive and assimilation processes.
Enzyme production related to digestion already consumes large amounts of energy, and the lack of enzymes from food will only curtail the availability of enzymatic activity to the rest of the body. For example, tissues such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and muscles won’t get all the enzymes they need in order repair and function properly. Dr. Howell believed that this resulting metabolic enzyme deficit was the root cause of most illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic health problems.
As we age, our bodies progressively lose the ability to produce enzymes, with major drops occurring every ten years of life. At the early stages of this process, you may not notice any differences, but as it continues, you may discover that you can no longer tolerate certain foods that you may have previously enjoyed. This intolerance may also be accompanied by feelings of fatigue, allergies, and digestive discomforts including heartburn, gas, constipation, bloating, and ulcers.
By incorporating some simple dietary strategies we can begin to make deposits into our enzyme stores instead of the constant withdrawals which have become the norm for many people.
Read How to Sprout Seeds and Legumes in a Jar and Soaking Nuts and Seeds to Increase Enzyme Potential.
As Americans, we are on the verge of a national health crisis. Not only are we fatter than ever before, but we are getting fatter faster than ever before. The obesity epidemic is spiraling out of control and if we don’t come up with some effective nationwide solutions soon, researchers believe that the United States may experience its first modern decline in life expectancy, as a result of obesity’s associated health problems. Obesity and the diseases that come with it – type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and many more – are the largest threats to our national health. We need solutions, and we need them fast.
One dietary factor that we seldom consider in our weight loss efforts is caffeine, which most of us regularly consume in the form of coffee, tea, soft drinks, and chocolate. How do these caffeinated beverages and foods affect our weight loss efforts? For years, the discussion of caffeine’s impact on weight gain has been confined to the dark corners of internet chat rooms and forums, where some coffee drinkers were beginning to make connections between their caffeine habits and weight gain. Now, we have access to a wealth of new research that proves their suspicions correct. Caffeine does make us fat, by contributing to overeating and by slowing metabolism.
Caffeine contributes to overeating and slows metabolism in a number of different ways. In this article, I will focus on caffeine’s impact on our stress levels, which causes an increase in hunger, muscle breakdown, and a relocation of fat stores to the body’s center. More precisely, caffeine raises our cortisol levels, and cortisol is one of the body’s chief stress hormones. With regular caffeine use, our cortisol levels become chronically elevated, making weight loss and the maintenance of a lean physique difficult.
First, elevated cortisol levels promote appetite, contributing to overeating. Second, elevated cortisol levels also lead to muscle breakdown, reducing our fat-burning muscle mass. Finally, elevated cortisol levels make our bodies prefer to store central and visceral fat, contributing to the “pot belly” look. By stimulating cortisol and its fat-promoting effects, caffeine contributes to positive energy balance and makes weight loss more difficult.
Since caffeine has these fattening effects, cutting back on our caffeine intake is helpful in maintaining a lean physique. While decreasing caffeine is advisable, given the difficulty in reducing caffeine intake and the centrality of daily caffeine use at the workplace, mitigating caffeine’s fat-promoting effects while continuing to drink coffee, tea, and soda may be a more practical strategy than eliminating our caffeine use altogether.
So what can we do to counteract caffeine’s effect on our stress levels without quitting caffeine altogether? The best way to keep your cortisol levels in check is by adopting and maintaining a diet that is high in vitamin C, which is effective in lowering cortisol and keeping this stress hormone under control. To maintain healthy levels of vitamin C in your body, you can eat fresh fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits, fresh greens, and berries. If you are under a lot of pressure at work and find yourself increasing your caffeine intake, then you can add an additional green salad or some citrus fruit to your diet in order to help blunt caffeine’s cortisol-raising effect. By making fresh fruits and vegetables a regular part of your diet, you will be reducing at least some of caffeine’s fat-promoting effects.
Eugene Wells discusses other ways in which caffeine causes us to overeat while slowing metabolism in his book, The Decaf Diet: Is Caffeine Making You Fat? available at Amazon.com. Wells also describes what we can do to blunt caffeine’s fattening effects when we choose to use it, and how we can reduce our overall level of caffeine consumption to achieve and maintain a lean physique.