Health: A Wise Investment

The hardest thing to get rid of is the brainwashing that conventional wisdom has instilled into the modern American.

People have asked me how hard it is to cure cancer or diabetes. These are actually two of the easiest “incurable” diseases to rid your body of. The hard part is to change one’s way of thinking. The hardest thing to get rid of is the brainwashing that conventional wisdom has instilled into the modern American.

Eating right is simple, but it’s not easy. Not for most people. When I tell people what foods to avoid they say, “But that’s everything I eat!”

Yeah, and that’s exactly why you’re sick!

If you eat mostly raw, fresh organic vegetables and fruit and avoid refined foods, you will rid the body of nearly every disease. We need to stop thinking of disease as some bug that attacks us, some microscopic evil creature that comes into our bodies and takes over. A health body and a healthy immune system do not succumb to disease. Most of the diseases people fear these days are simply caused by the body breaking down. Microscopic organisms that prey on us are actually preying on decaying matter. Disease is a symptom of an unhealthy body, not the cause.

Though eating right is easy, learning how to eat right is extremely difficult for most people. And taking the time to properly prepare food rather than pop in a microwave dinner, an impossible challenge. Just because it’s in the health section or it has a green wrapper or is “made with organic ingredients” doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Learning to eat for the sole purpose of nourishing the body at its cellular level is such a paradigm shift for most people, the hard part is not what to do, but how to do it.

Medications are toxic chemicals that suppress symptoms while damaging the body at a cellular level. Many of them damage the immune system. This is a foreign concept if you’ve taken a pill for every ache and pain for thirty years.

Instead of investing in disease with your time and money, why not invest in health? Instead of medical insurance and over the counter and prescription drugs, co-pays, and sick days, what if you invested your time into learning about the best supplements? What if you spent your money on healthy food? What if you spent time preparing food and truly being involved with what fuels and nourishes you? What if what went into your body to nourish and heal you was one of the most important things in your life?

Does it seem like a radical concept? It is for most people. But consider this – would you rather take the time to learn about nutrition now? To gain the knowledge and the appreciation of how our bodies actually work? Or would you like to spend even more energy later on in life learning about your new disease and all of the drugs and allergies that come along with it?



How to Eat Healthy On a Budget

I have been asked how I shop, what I eat, and what people can do to eat healthy on a budget. I wrote this blog to address all of these issues.

Here is what I do for my family, three adults who all eat a lot:

In the morning we have a smoothie with strawberries, banana, fresh apple juice, kale and a raw egg. I also put in total nutrition powder, and UDO’s oil with DHA. The smoothie is delicious and will give you all of the nutrition you need for your whole day. Never ever eat raw eggs unless they are organic. I don’t mean free range, or cage free, they must be organic, or they are dangerous. Raw organic eggs are extremely good for you. Raw eggs are a super food, and a great way to get very easily digestible protein. Once you cook them they lose almost all of their value.

For lunch we have a big salad. I found a huge bag of organic spinach for $3.99 at my local farmers market and I get a bunch of other stuff too, like kale, rainbow chard, bok choy, beets (fresh beets are soooo good, but the canned kind, yuk!), carrots, onions, etc. I make my own salad dressing which I found saves me money and I found very cheap all natural sheep feta cheese I put into the salad sometimes, but not always.

Get to know your local farmer’s markets! Click here for a farmer’s market directory.

Read 80% Raw Food Diet for the salad dressing recipe and other information.

For dinner, three times a week, I try to make a new raw foods recipe. Since money is very tight for me I only experiment with one new recipe a week. I always spend more when I try something new, so I don’t do as much experimenting as I’d like. Some things on this week’s menu include raw pesto pasta (zucchini shredded for pasta), coconut curry pasta with Annie’s brown rice pasta, and a veggie stir fry with rice. I also make beens and rice a few times a week.

About 80% of my diet is raw, and about 70% or more (depending on availability) is organic. I snack on fruit and some raw nuts during the day (when you eat nuts and seeds they should be unpasterized and soaked).

As I said, whenever I try a new recipe, or change the menu, I spend more, every time. But then, if I buy the same kind of stuff, it gets cheaper and cheaper (practice). You start noticing what will work for less the more you get used to eating a certain way.

I spend about $160 to $180 a week, sometimes $200. I am lucky to have a local farmers market that has really good deals. I also get small apples instead of big ones, and I look for the sales, but I’ve never once used a coupon (I don’t know why, but . When I can’t make it to the farmers market and I choose Whole foods I can drop $300+ with thesame shopping list that would have cost me $180 or less at the farmers market. When I shop at Kroger the cost may be about $260.

This week I noticed that strawberries where 50% more but grapes were on sale. This week I am making my smoothies with grapes. If you have not been spending the last 6 months paying attention these kind of price fluctuations, it’s difficult to catch this kind of thing and make the adjustments.

With packaged processed foods that most people buy the prices don’t fluctuate. Thanks to subsidies and spoilage, organic fresh raw produce is typically much more expensive then a packaged processed dead food (ironically, it costs more to grow conventional, but subsidies have screwed up prices).

I also suggest you keep your receipts. When you need to go grocery shopping again take a look at the old receipt and figure out what you liked and what you didn’t finish, etc. This will not only save you money buy showing you what not to purchase and how much of certain items to buy, but it will also help to put you remember what the prices were on your last trip.

I hope this helps. It’s a tough issue, and there aren’t too many easy answers.

Be sure to check out Organic on a Budget



Sprouting to Remove Enzyme Inhibitors

If you were to leave a kernel of spelt, hard red winter wheat, rye, barley, or any other grain on your dining room table for the next five years, it wouldn’t rot or decompose. Grains were found  in the pyramids. Not only were they intact after two thousand years, but when water was added, some of the kernels grew. There is a reason why grains don’t easily decompose. Grains, seeds, tree nuts, and most beans, contain a live, biochemical agent called an enzyme inhibitor. Enzyme inhibitors stop enzyme activity until the right conditions exist for germination. This is nature’s way of preserving the life force in a seed so it can reproduce.

Foods with enzyme inhibitors are very difficult to digest, and they slow down the naturally occurring enzyme activity in your body. Every time you eat regular pasta, bread, cake, cereal, and all other grain products, or nuts, seeds and beans, you are slowing down the communication processes throughout your entire body and suppressing your body’s ability to function at peak performance. Ingesting enzyme inhibitors causes obesity, lethargy, gas, bloating, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal difficulties, an enlarged pancreas, diabetes, destruction of the body’s own natural production of enzymes, and an overall general condition of poor health.

Enzyme inhibitors make meat protein more difficult to utilize, while causing animal fats to concentrate, and cholesterol and triglyceride levels to rise.

So does this mean we should eliminate all of these foods because they’re bad for us? Absolutely not! All we have to do is to prepare them correctly to release the enzyme inhibitors. Once the enzyme inhibitors are gone, grains, seeds, tree nuts, and beans are some of the most perfect foods. They are very high in assimilable amino acids (proteins) and extremely rich in the exact kinds of enzymes
our bodies need to keep us in good physical condition.

So, how do you get rid of enzyme inhibitors? The answer is simple. Sprouting! Water unlocks enzyme inhibitors. Soaking these foods in water sends them into “sprout mode” and starts the germination process.

Put sunflower seeds in a sprouting jar, add water, and let them soak. Empty the water at the end of 8 hours and place the jar out of direct sunlight. Prop it at a 45 degree angle so it can drain. Rinse your seeds twice during the next 12 to 16 hours. To allow for air circulation, be sure the seeds do not cover more than half of the jar lid. After 24 hours, drain your seeds well and spread them on unbleached paper towels on a cookie sheet and let them dry. The enzyme inhibitors will be gone and your seeds will be bursting with flavor!

Sprouting not only eliminates enzyme inhibitors, it also turns acidic grains, nuts and seeds into alkaline foods.

Only eat breads and pasta made from sprouted grains. Soak and sprout your seeds, nuts, and beans. A great book with charts on germination times for various foods is Dining in the Raw by Rita Romano.

Recommended Supplements:


Homemade Papaya Enzyme Supplement

Our contributor, Dr. Shillington, tells us there are more enzymes in one papaya seed than in a whole store-bought enzyme capsule. The papaya seed also has all the nutrients necessary for almost instant assimilation.

Spread the seeds of an organic papaya (must be organic) on a wax paper covered plate or cookie sheet. Let them dry out for atleast a week. (If you have a food dehydrator it will take a few days). Then put them in a salt or pepper mill (or crush with a mortar pestle). Just grind them over your food as you would fresh pepper. In fact, papaya seeds are a bit spicy and taste similar to pepper, so they are an excellent substitute.

Fresh pineapple is another great source for enzymes. Buy one and eat it. Your body will thank you for days.

Enzymes in Food

Did you know your body is converting enzymes into other different enzymes all the time? By eating fresh, organic pineapple and organic papaya seeds, you’ll get all the enzymes you need, and your body will know how to convert
these enzymes into the ones it needs most.

Recommended Supplements:


80% Raw Food Diet

One of the most commonly asked questions we receive at OLM is, “What one thing can I do to be healthier?” A diet of primarily raw fresh vegetables and fruits is the foundation for good health. If you are not as healthy as you would like to be, there is nothing more important. Even if you smoke, or don’t eat organic, and/or don’t exercise, adopting a raw food diet is still our first recommendation. We even recommend eating a raw food diet before we recommend supplements.

This takes people by surprise, especially since I own a supplement store. I have plenty of supplements on hand for acute health issues and first aid, but I only take Total Nutrition Formula, SF722, and systemic enzymes regularly.

There is a lot of controversy as to whether or not eating 100% raw is healthy. We do believe that a 100% raw food diet can be very healthy if done right with enough variety. If you are interested in eating 100% raw this article can help you get started. We also recommend you get to know Raw Chef Dan (see next article). But we recommend going at least 80% raw for practical reasons. And, if you cut out junk food completely (this includes “organic” junk food) and make sure that two of your three daily meals as well as any and all snacks are raw fresh fruits and vegetables (1:4 ratio), you will achieve a significantly higher level of health. For many people, eating this way rids the body of disease and ailments. For individuals who have led a toxic lifestyle for too long, more help is needed to restore the body to health.

People often point to the fact that there is not enough variety in a raw food diet to maintain good health. If a raw food diet to you means carrot sticks, celery and apples, then you’re right. My daily routine consists of a salad for breakfast and sometimes for lunch and/or dinner. On the days I do not have two salads, I have a smoothie. How do I get variety if I eat almost the same thing every day? Each of my salads contains at least 10 different kinds of vegetables. I get more nutrition in one salad than most people get in a whole week, maybe a month. My smoothies are nothing to scoff at, either. One salad and/or smoothie and I know I am set for the day. I must admit I do still love to eat, so I actually eat too much. Though I also work out pretty heavily on a regular basis, I imagine I could do better with about half the calories I consume.

My Daily Salad

Want to know how to make an incredible salad? Here are the main ingredients for my salad:

  • Spinach
  • Arugula
  • Collard Greens
  • Spring mix
  • Dandelion
  • Leeks
  • Red onions
  • Red cabbage
  • Red bell pepper
  • Rainbow chard
  • Beet greens
  • Grated beet root
  • Graded carrots
  • Graded zucchini
  • Cucumbers
  • Cilantro
  • Pomegranate (seed)
  • Raisins
  • Sesame seeds
  • Ground papaya seeds
  • Avocado

I also throw in chick peas, a three bean salad combination, and/or some raw sheep cheese I get at my local farmers’ market. I always put two to three soft boiled eggs in my salad. Obviously I am not a vegan, but if you are, this salad is good enough without the cheese and eggs. The salad is also great with chicken or steak.

Update: Now I don’t do the cheese. I don’t do meat either. I still eat eggs, but am very considerate of where and how they are sourced. The avocado makes it so I don’t miss the cheese. But, for those who are not vegan, and concerned about getting enough calories, add what you want. Just please make sure all animal products were as humanely treated and healthy as possible.

There are tons of recipes for raw and healthy salad dressings. I love my own creation.

My Balsamic Salad Dressing Recipe

To make my salad dressing, I start with equal parts oil and vinegar (keep in mind that both olive oil and balsamic vinegar have a lot of imitators).

  • 3/4 cup of flax seed oil
  • 1/4 cup of coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • 6 tablespoons turmeric
  • 1 table spoon basil
  • Two teaspoons unrefined sea salt
  • Two teaspoons fresh ground pepper
  • Two tablespoons Dijon mustard

Do it all to taste if you want, but stay heavy on the turmeric; it’s very good for you, and it’s the most important ingredient to this recipe.

This salad dressing will have even the pickiest kids eating vegetables. It’s very versatile. Use it as a dip, a marinade, or whatever. It’s amazing.

Obviously this is not a 100% raw salad. But it’s mostly raw and very healthy. If you want to adopt a 100% raw food diet then find a great raw salad dressing and skip the peas, beans, eggs, and cheese. It’ll be healthier that way too.

Super Antioxidant Smoothie

I don’t have a smoothie every day. For health, nothing beats a great salad. But I do crave smoothies a few times a week.

  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1 cup fresh berries
  • ½ pomegranate (seeds)
  • 1 raw egg (organic only!)
  • ½ banana
  • 1 large kale leaf
  • 2 tablespoons nutrition powder (see below)
  • 1 tablespoon Udo’s Oil with DHA

Nutrition Powder

Total Nutrition Formula, is the best nutritional support available. You can also make your own.  I don’t do smoothies everyday (salads are better), but when ever I do, I add my nutrition powder.

Conclusion

It takes time to adapt to a healthy lifestyle. I don’t spend much on groceries, but that’s because I’ve learned where and how to shop for the best deals. Local organic farmers’ markets are the best places to get the healthiest produce for a fraction of the cost you would spend at a conventional grocery store. It used to take me a lot of time to make smoothies and salads but I’ve learned to make them very quickly. I still spend more time than most preparing food, but health is my priority, my hobby, my most important investment. I’ll take the time.



Lentils

There is no doubt that lentils are one of the most versatile of all the legume family. Indeed it is not only their culinary usefulness that they are well known for.

In Egyptian times they were used as bubble packing for ancient artefacts and sculptures for shipping. The word lens is the Latin for lentil and derives its name from the shape of these little nutrition packed wonders.

The cultivation of lentils as a food goes back to well before the Egyptians, to Neolithic times (roughly 10.000 years ago). It was during this time that farming came about and lentils were one of the earliest crops to be cultivated, originating in the Middle East. It is no surprise then that there are so many references to the lentil in the Bible. The French dish Esau potage is a lentil broth named after Esau. In the Old Testament, Jacob bought the birthright from Esau with a dish of stewed lentils. Then there is the arguable notion that Lent was named after the lentil as the majority of people were too poor to be able to afford fish at this religious time and therefore had to rely on lentils for sustenance.

But it is for their culinary uniqueness that we are looking to this humble legume. There are few foods that are so versatile. They can be made into anything from pates, dressings, soups, dhals, fritters and salads.

They are packed full of beneficial nutrients as well as being a very rich source of soluble fibre, and being the third richest vegetable source of protein there is.

A study of dietry patterns and risk of heart disease following 16,000 middle aged men in the U.S., Finland, Netherlands, Italy, former Yugoslavia, Greece and Japan over a period of 25 years, found that after analysing the data, diets with a high legume content were associated with a huge 82% reduction in risk of heart disease!

Another study published in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ confirms that a diet high in soluble fibre, such as lentils, helps prevent heart disease. Out of 10,000 adults, those eating the most fibre (21 grams a
day or more) had a 12% reduction in coronary heart disease and 11% less cardiovascular disease. Those that ate the most water soluble fibre fared even better.

The fact that lentils are excellent for heart health is not only in the fibre content, but also the significant amounts of folate (folic acid) and magnesium they supply. Folate has long been associated with heart health as it helps to lower levels of homocysteine. This is an amino acid that damages artery walls and is a serious risk factor for heart disease. When folate is present it converts homocysteine into cysteine or methionine, both of which are benign. Folate is also a crucial nutrient for pregnant women. Up to 70% of birth defects such as, spina bifida and  neural tube defects have been shown to be due to a lack of folate in the diet. Most doctors advise women of child bearing age to increase their intake of folate as it is not just during pregnancy but also prior to conceiving that there is a great need for folate.

The magnesium content in lentils adds another heart helping dimension. Magnesium is known to help the arteries and veins ‘relax’ which lessens resistance and improves the flow of blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Studies have shown that not only are low levels of magnesium associated with heart disease, but that after a heart attack low levels promote free radical injury to the heart.

It doesn’t stop there either. Lentils are an important source of B vitamins, particularly B-3. They are also high in iron, zinc and calcium, which is why they are so popular as a substitute for red meat. The iron is better absorbed by the body when eaten with vitamin C rich foods such as dark green vegetables. One of my favourite dishes is Indian spiced lentils, or dhal, with spinach stirred in at the last minute. A bowl of that with a hot naan bread makes a substantial and very healthy lunch for about a $1.00 a portion! Frugal food needn’t be bland and boring. It is high in protein too, being as good a source as some cheaper cuts of meat. Whilst they are deficient in only two amino acids, this is not the case once they have sprouted. When sprouted they contain sufficient amounts of all amino acids. In addition to this, their nutritional value goes up in sprouted form too.

Apart from the fact that they get a bad rap as being boring ‘hippy’ food, there is not a lot that you can say bad about the humble lentil.

Packed with goodness, nutrition and incredibly versatile as you will see in the following recipes. As with the acorn and mighty oak parable, these little guys should not be underestimated……

Lentil Varieties

There are numerous varieties of lentils but some of the most common are:

RED SPLIT (CHIEF)

These are perhaps the most common of all. They are good for soups and purees as they tend to puree when cooked and don’t hold their shape. A good use for them is to thicken stews or casseroles. Instead of reaching for the gravy granules or artificial thickener, try adding a good handful towards the end of cooking when making your next casserole. You’ll find it absorbs the excess liquid and provides a good protein boost to your meal.

BROWN LENTIL

Again these break down and become mushy if over cooked, but if cooked carefully they will retain their shape. They are good added to sauces or broths.

YELLOW LENTILS

These are actually split mung beans and are very similar to red lentils except they are a bit firmer.

BELUGA LENTILS

These are an incredibly attractive lentil, so called because when they are cooked they glisten like caviar. They retain their shape and remain firm when cooked. Excellent as an accompaniment to meals and also in sauces or dressings.

PUY LENTILS (FRENCH GREEN)

These to my mind are the king of lentils. Small and robust, they too keep their shape after cooking and are adaptable to a whole host of uses from pates to stuffing’s for vegetables to sauces and dressings. Green and brown lentils are also higher in nutrients than their red and yellow cousins.

BKACK LENTILS (URAD DHAL)

Again these are actually a bean and if they are shelled and split they become white lentils. These are widely used in Indian cooking. It is no surprise that India is the biggest producer of lentils in the world. But it may come as a shock to know that Canada is the second highest producer!



Clinical Trials and Scientific Studies

Clinical trials and scientific studies are held as the gold standard when it comes to health care, so how credible those trials and studies are ends up being a very important question. The truth, as it turns out, might surprise you.

The medical establishment likes to look at their studies as factual, evidence driven, and done with an impartial eye. But the truth is, the results of research studies can have multi-million or multi-billion dollar consequences for drug companies, so they can be about as biased as you can get.

It makes more sense when you understand that the drug companies with many millions or billions at stake are often funding the researchers or funding the universities for which the researchers work. And, of course, if the researchers’ studies produce the “right” results, they are more likely to continue to receive funding. Researchers who don’t get enough grant money from big pharmaceutical companies are likely to lose their university jobs. For some researchers, that can be reason enough to play along.

Playing along can mean a number of things. At its worst, playing along can result in complete fabrication or manipulation of the data and results.

It wasn’t long ago that Hwang Woo-Suk, South Korea’s once highly esteemed researcher, claimed a major breakthrough in stem cell research and his results were also published in a prestigious, peer-reviewed publication. It was later found that he fabricated the data, for which he publicly apologized. While his fraud made headlines around the world, the crime might not be as rare as you think.

In 2008, one in fifty scientists admitted they had fabricated, falsified or “doctored” a research study; that number is generally regarded as low since these researchers have an interest in keeping their frauds a secret. When these same scientists were asked if they knew a colleague who had fabricated the data or results, about one in seven said they knew someone who had done just that.

Questionable research practices fall below outright falsification of data and were found to be even more prevalent. When scientists were asked, about one in three admitting to having used questionable research practices; again, the number skyrocketed when asked if they knew a colleague who had. About seven out of every ten scientists said they knew a colleague who had used questionable research practices.

Questionable research includes practices like “changing the design, methodology or results of a study in response to pressures from a funding source” or cherry-picking the results for publication. To the FDA, the latter is even acceptable.

In fact, by FDA rules, pharmaceutical companies can conduct as many clinical trials as they want, and send only the favorable results to the FDA for review. To help you read between the lines, this means drug companies can bury the negative results of clinical drug trials so that you and your doctor Clinical Trials never know about them.

Eli Lilly was accused of hiding the risk of suicide and suicidal tendencies with their drug Prozac, a drug now accepted to increase suicidal risk. A Harvard psychiatrist alleged that during the clinical trials those with suicidal tendencies were asked to leave the study, so their results were not counted. The Harvard psychiatrist was able to produce Eli Lilly internal documents to support the accusation.

Internal documents also surfaced to support the accusation that Eli Lilly knowingly hid the risks of their drug Zyprexa. A former FDA official even testified in court that the drug giant hid the risks for the purpose of insuring profits.

Questionable research practices can also include tweaking the results to make them seem more definite than they originally were, ignoring conclusions that don’t meet the study’s needs, and concealing conflicts of interest.

Depending on whose numbers you trust, incidences of scientific fraud in the U.S., as counted by government confirmed cases, occur with one out of ten scientists at the high end, or at the low end, with one out of every hundred scientists. Either way, they’re high numbers, especially when you consider that millions of people trust this information then put unnatural chemicals inside their bodies.

Properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs have been found to kill 100,000 Americans and “seriously injure” another 2.1 million each year, and one has to wonder how much pharmaceutical and scientific manipulation and outright fraud is responsible.

To add to the dog pile, drug companies have been found to stoop to all sorts of tricks.

Merck was caught disguising in-house authors as independent researchers. To accomplish this, Merck wrote a key study used to popularize the now infamous Vioxx then paid a researcher to put his/her name on it.

In relation to Vioxx, the Wall Street Journal reported that “a prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist allegedly fabricated 21 medical studies that claimed to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex.” The studies were published in anesthesiology journals between 1996 and 2008.

Another tactic of the drug companies is to intimidate the scientists. Drug companies have been known to pressure researchers, even scientists at the federal agency that is supposed to regulate them.
Drug Overdose Pressure at the FDA to bow to the interests of their financiers, the drug companies, has gotten so out of hand that scientists at the agency recently wrote Congress and then president-elect Obama about the problems. They talked about being forced to “change their opinions and conclusions,” which is a pretty weighty accusation.

The medical world’s insistence that their drugs are both effective and safe, based on their “unbiased, evident-based” research and clinical trials, no longer sounds so reassuring, does it? Profit-driven would be a more accurate description.

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