I’ve had a coffee addiction for most of my adult life. When I say addiction, I mean ADDICTION! Once I start my first cup in the morning, I can’t stop. And I can’t drink weak coffee. I like high octane, dark roast, light a fire under your bum coffee. I’m not one of those people who can have a cup of coffee and then lay down for a nap. In fact I can’t drink coffee past 2 pm, or I’m up all night. This is a problem, since I already said once I start drinking coffee, I can’t stop.

I’m very committed to being healthy and consuming healthy foods. I tried to convince myself that since I drank organic coffee, it was healthy. I loved reading those studies about how coffee is good for you because it’s high in antioxidants. But, in the back of my mind, I knew better. Any health benefits were canceled out by the stress it caused my adrenals and kidneys. That all too familiar shaky feeling, the need to remind myself to breathe, the irritability.  While I can completely blame all of my irritation on my husband, the short temper with my kids was inexcusable.

So I finally hit rock bottom.  Coffee was making me way too manic, and my body way too acidic. My jaw was always clenched and my neck tight. I knew what I had to do. It took me months to finally make the attempt. I really didn’t think it was possible, not for me anyways. I had tried to stop in the past and it just didn’t work. It didn’t matter if I replaced my morning cup of coffee with tea or juice, I just wanted COFFEE!

Then I tried Teeccino. Teeccino is a non caffeinated coffee alternative made from roasted herbs. I had tried it in the past and it didn’t work for me. This time I was a little more committed and Teeccino had come out with different flavors. I tried their Maya CafféHerbal Coffee and after my first sip, I knew kicking my coffee habit was possible.

I weaned myself off the caffeine. I started out doing 3/4 coffee, 1/4 Teecino for about 3 days. Then I went down to half coffee, half Teeccino and so on and for 2 weeks until I had completely eliminated coffee. No headaches, no mood changes.  I had a little bit of brain fog for the first couple of weeks but it eventually subsided. I probably could have avoided the brain fog if I had weaned myself off the caffeine slower. It’s been about 2 months since have kicked my coffee addiction. When I get up in the morning my head is clear and I feel great. I still go straight to the coffee maker to brew my Teeccino, but that’s just psychological. My body is thanking me.

It’s unfortunate, but true. Medical doctors tend to attribute disease to a cause-and-effect paradigm that absolves the patient of responsibility. If you get sick, well, there’s a flu or a virus going around. If you get diabetes, sorry, but you are genetically programmed to get it. You can’t help it. If you have cancer, well, we never know why these things happen to some and not to others.

While these aren’t direct quotes from any specific doctor, this is the mindset of conventional medicine. There is very little accountability for health these days, along with a belief that most of our health issues are incurable and a resignation that we should accept the side effects of conventional treatment. While most people do resign themselves to this belief system, others, like Mark Hyman, M.D., do not.

Mark Hyman is a brilliant man, one of those people who can multitask, easily remember, and just plain excel in whatever task relies on his intelligence. But when he was in medical school, he did what many interns are forced to do—he pushed his body to unreasonable limits, working shifts up to 60 hours. Then he went to work in China for a year, breathing in the coal-soaked, mercury-laden air. After he came back to Massachusetts, he again lived with sleep deprivation when working crazy shifts in an inner-city emergency room. Then he realized he could no longer remember things easily. Sleep became problematic. He was drained—mentally, emotionally, and physically. Depression and anxiety became familiar parts of his life.

Unlike so many doctors who look for the “one thing” that caused the problem and the one treatment to alleviate the symptoms, Dr. Hyman recognized that his problem had more than one cause. In his book he says, “It was everything piled higher and higher until my brain and body couldn’t take any more.”

The Ultra Mind Solution title is a bit misleading, but at the same time, it’s perfect. If your brain is not working right, many health problems will arise. On the other hand, if your body is overburdened with toxins, lack of quality sleep, and a lack of nutrition, at some point the whole system is going to break down. Mark Hyman took a holistic approach. He decided if his brain was broken, his whole body was in trouble. He learned that many of today’s

No Sweeteners for You, and that Includes Agave!

We get asked about every new sweetener put out by the purveyors of unhealthy sweetness. Agave nectar or syrup is the most recent. Put a gun to our heads and we’ll tell you not to eat it. Actually, we’ll do that without the pistol and dramatics. We’re quite consistent that way.

Whole foods have fiber, vitamins, and nutrients that enrich the body and in some cases slow down the sugar hit that comes from glucose and fructose. When a naturally sugary food like an apple or a generous hunk of agave cactus is processed into a syrup or nectar, everything good about the whole food is lost in the production vat.

In the specific case of agave, the debate comes down to whether glucose or fructose is more harmful to the body. Natural agave, the plant from which tequila is derived, is approximately half and half glucose to fructose. The nectar or syrup appears primarily to be all fructose, according to published statistics from agave distributors.

Now, is fructose better for you than glucose or sucrose? If you listen to the fructose manufacturers and some diabetes experts, then yes, fructose is better for you. Fructose doesn’t raise glucose levels in the bloodstream, which means there is less of an insulin response and a consequent benefit to diabetics because insulin Agave Plant management is the name of the game.

But is spiking up on fructose any better for anyone whether diabetic or not? We say No! And we’re not alone. Fructose has been linked to raised triglycerides, fatty liver disease, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and more belly fat, which can all be collected together as Metabolic Syndrome.

Agave seems to have other drawbacks as well. The first one that sets our teeth on edge is the fact that agave nectar you buy might not actually be agave nectar.

According to the Chicago Tribune, products labeled as being from the blue agave plant …may in fact be mostly corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup. may, in fact, be mostly corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup. Tequila manufacturers get first call on the expensive blue agave cactus that grows in Mexico. There are strict requirements for tequila to come from the blue agave in the same way the German Beer Purity Law says beer must be made from wheat or barley, hops, water, and fermenting yeast. So, when supply did not meet demand, some nectar producers cut what agave they had with similar corn-based fructose.

“Agave is really chemically refined hydrolyzed high-fructose syrup and not from the blue agave plant, organic or raw, asclaimed,” says Russ Bianchi, a food and beverage formulator.

So far the Food and Drug Administration sees no reason to regulate agave for any safety concerns, but admits that agave products may have been “economically adulterated and misbranded by adding corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup.”

The Chicago Tribune also reports some less well-documented effects of agave nectar consumption that may be a concern. Apparently, some agave products and other sweeteners may have botulism spores and thus shouldn’t be given to small children. There are assertions that agave may cause miscarriages and/or other harm to pregnant or lactating mothers, and agave, like many other sugary products, has also been linked to increased acne.

Agave does have some possible health benefits touted by its proponents. As stated, glucose levels aren’t raised. Agave is loaded with inulin, a complex sub-variant of fructose, which is broken down by friendly bacteria to make fatty acids that may fight colon cancer. Additionally, agave may have some anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. But, these effects are hotly debated.

“It’s almost all fructose, highly processed sugar with great marketing,” says Dr. Ingrid Kohlstadt of the American College of Nutrition and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “Fructose interferes with healthy metabolism when taken at higher doses. Many people have fructose intolerance like lactose intolerance. They get acne or worse diabetes symptoms even though blood glucose is OK.”

Even some agave proponents like Dave Grotto, a Registered Dietician and author of101 Foods that Could Save Your Life, will admit that “excess consumption of any sweetener is not wise. But, honey and agave are value-added sweeteners, if used moderately.”

If the best the pro-agave people can come up with for their product is “use in moderation,” we should translate that statement into “avoid as much as possible.” If sugar, fructose, honey, agave, and other sweeteners can lead to addiction, then how is the average person to know what in moderation actually means? How much is too much before a small dose of agave that may help with cancer and inflammation becomes a mainline hit of fructose to the bloodstream and liver?

Limit yourself to less than two teaspoons a day for any refined sweetener to avoid the many related health effects. We live in the same world you do, and we understand about occasionally falling off the wagon. But remember that any sweetener removed from its natural state is a refined sweetener that should be avoided as much as possible. Agave is no different. Now you know.

There are many obvious signs that you need to detox and a few not so obvious signs. A brief and far from complete list of not-so-obvious indicators of a toxic body includes the following:

• Cold feet and/or hands
• Dandruff and/or itchy scalp
• Greasy and/or dry skin
• Greasy and/or dry hair
• Aches and pains Slow healing
• Zits, pimples, and/or blackheads
• Hair loss
• Attention deficit disorder hyperactivity
• Trouble sleeping
• Discolored teeth
• Vision deterioration
• Vision “floaters”
• Trouble urinating
• Body odor
• Bad breath
• Lower back pain
• difficulty concentrating
• Brittle and/or broken nails
• Dark cirlces under Eyes Chapped lips
• Having trouble staying warm
• Glasy or dull eyes

There are many who argue that a proper whole foods diet is all anyone needs to be healthy. OLM’s stance on this is that in today’s modern, toxic world, our bodies are constantly inundated with toxins. If you have eaten very well all your life, have avoided foods with toxins (like tuna with mercury and beef with hormones and antibiotics), have never taking drugs (prescription or otherwise), have never had vaccinations, and have never worked or lived in a heavily polluted environment, then you won’t need to detox. For that matter, you probably don’t need to supplement your diet with vitamins and minerals. If you are included in the other 99.9999% of the population, you need to detox, at least every few years. Dr Shillington recommends once or twice a year.When we talk about a ‘detox’ we mean detoxifying your body and ridding it of wastes and toxins. We do not mean “fasting” in a way that restricts your nutrition. While reducing your calories and eliminating certain foods may be fine under normal circumstances, we recommend you ingest vitamins, minerals, and enzymes during your detox. We do not feel that restricting nutrients is wise, especially when detoxifying.

This is especially true for anyone with a sign or symptom of any kind of ailment. For most people (and by most, we mean 97% or more) a proper detox, followed by a proper diet (and we mean an organic diet with 80% or more fresh, raw, fruits and vegetables), will rid your body of any and all problems. Very few people are too far gone to completely heal and get off of drugs. Some may need more supplemental support (in the form of high quality supplements) than others.

If you have cancer, diabetes, ADHD, migraines, Lupus, thyroid problems, or deteriorating eye sight, it’s time to quit blaming your genetics and take action.

A detox is a radical lifestyle change for a brief period of time. A proper detox will last a minimum of two weeks, and typically, much longer, depending on one’s health. If you have ailments but feel a “radical” detox is too inconvenient, consider the inconvenience of taking 5 to 15 prescription drugs. Consider the inconvenience of waking up stiff and sore with aches and pains every morning. Consider the inconvenience of headaches, fuzzy memory, or any of the chronic or “incurable” diseases that have become so common.

Check out our Cheap and Easy Detox.

Miranda trudges her way up the stairs to her second-story apartment, exhausted after a day’s abuse at a job that she grew tired of three years ago. Dropping her purse on the table, she hypnotically makes her way to the kitchen where, before she is even aware of it, she has opened the freezer, pulled out the triple-chocolate ice cream, and has downed a third spoonful. “There goes my diet.” Realizing her mistake three bites too late, she shrugs and skulks to the couch, hugging the ice cream carton closer as she settles down to start flipping through channels on the TV.

Sound familiar? How often have you stumbled to the kitchen, thrown wide the refrigerator door, and looked for something – anything – to put into your mouth as a way to feel better? At the top of this list are probably things like ice cream and chocolate, two “comfort foods” that typically taste great but pack more of an unhealthy punch than they are really worth. We know this. We’ve read it in magazines, heard about it on the radio, and have seen news reports all about the health dangers associated with the sweet treats we like to give ourselves when we need a fix. And yet, even though we logically know better, we continue to buy that candy bar or indulge in our favorite dessert.

Emotional Eating

Do you eat when you’re not hungry? Do you overeat on a frequent basis? Do you eat when you are bored, angry, sad, excited, or depressed? “Emotional eating” is the term given to a set of habits that all come down to the same point: food is consumed in response to feelings instead of hunger. This problem is widespread, but there is hope.

Several factors may contribute to emotional eating. A poor diet can lead to carbohydrate addiction and low levels of mood-boosting neurotransmitters. A depressed emotional state can affect energy and motivation to make healthy choices. A downtrodden spirit may not even recognize a need to pursue health. Just as any combination of these things – an ill body, mind, or spirit – can manifest as emotional eating, positively affecting one of them can cause a healthy ripple effect that helps heal the others. Healthy living is a holistic affair. Here are my suggestions for how to work with emotional eating.

Body

Good nutrition is always the basis of good physical health. Assuming your digestive system is in good working order, you really are what you eat. Additionally, your body is primed to crave more and more of what you give it. If you eat loads of sugars, that’s what it will want. Likewise, start feeding it fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and you’ll see a shift in your cravings toward these foods. A good nutritional consultant can help you determine what foods will help you turn around a cycle of poor food choices.

Exercise in proper amounts will energize you on many levels. It helps stabilize the appetite and boost the metabolism. A stronger, healthier body will also help you feel good about yourself and motivate you to stay active and make positive food choices. Even a small amount of exercise can make a big difference.
Mind

Mental and emotional concerns are at the center of emotional eating. Negative emotions tend to fuel overeating and poor food choices. Our modernized food production capabilities have changed our relationship with food. Now a growing number of people view it as a reward, compensation, or activity, rather than what food actually is meant to be–fuel.

If you find yourself repeatedly craving certain foods in direct relation to an emotion, chances are you could use a bit of healing.

Fortunately, emotionally-based addictions are now very treatable. A growing body of techniques centered in the field of Energy Psychology can help transform the emotional energy around addictions. Therapies such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are becoming widely accepted and practiced as powerful tools to retrain the mind and constructively manage emotions. In conjunction with traditional counseling or other therapies such as hypnotherapy or the use of positive affirmations, energy psychology techniques can be incredibly effective for curbing emotional eating.

Spirit

Connecting with something deeper than yourself can have a very healing effect. The rapidly growing technological world has had an isolating effect and the resulting disconnect is one that many people feel on a deep or even subconscious level. Yet research continues to suggest that a healthy sense of personal spirituality is a powerful ally in making and sustaining positive lifestyle changes. As you work to transform patterns of emotional eating into healthy living, developing a deeper sense of self and spirituality can only strengthen your resolve, boost your results, and provide calm direction in moments of temptation.

Whichever spiritual path you choose, the result is well worth the effort! An active prayer life or meditation practice can help calm internal dialogue and help you connect with your deeper self. Frequent journaling or artistic expressions (such as painting, singing, or dancing) are wonderful ways to explore your truest feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Active people enjoy yoga, tai chi, and martial arts as spiritual disciplines, which also engage the body and mind. Whatever your choice, taking the time to connect with and expand your inner landscape and relationship to something greater than yourself can help you find your center and utilize untapped strengths and resources to help you overcome emotional eating.

Recommended  Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases
• Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid
• The Power of Our Hormones and How To Balance Them
• Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste recipes included

Binging on candy and other sweets during the holidays seems almost as inevitable as death and taxes. Pick your poison. Do you prefer the chocolate Easter bunny? The heart-shaped box on Valentine’s Day? The red, white, and blue cupcakes of Independence Day? The green and red sugar coma that comes with Christmas? Or Halloween smorgasbord?

Perhaps Halloween is the worst of the bunch since the primary tradition is to send costumed children out to scam candy from the neighbors, while the other holidays do provide some ability to say, “No.”

Halloween originated as a pagan holiday. It was both a harvest festival and a day to remember the spirit world that lurked just outside your door if you were dumb enough to walk at night. The healthy, communal meal of whole fruits, vegetables, grains, beer, and animal protein, if not hoarded by the local lord, was made from the best produce in the village.

The villagers’ practice of dressing up as whatever most scared them was viewed either as a cathartic release of fear or as a sound way to be passed over by the spooks. This practice led to “trick or treat” when dressed up kids hit up the neighbors for bribes to keep evil from the door. This was all well and good when the treat was an apple or a pear.

Somewhere along the line, sugar entered our diet. For years no one knew sugar kills. But now that we do know, how can we protect our children’s health and still participate in the biggest candy holiday of them all?

The first decision you have to make is, “What do we give out from our house?”  Knowing sugar is bad, don’t get caught in the ultimate hypocrisy: withholding sugar from your kids while you poison the neighbors’ offspring. Your first thought might be to revert back to the traditional Halloween fare of apples or some such whole fruit, but we’ve all heard variations of the urban myth about razor blades or injected drugs in apples. These days kids are taught to throw away anything that doesn’t come in a package, so fresh apples will get tossed. Fear not! There are plenty of inedible gifts that are almost as cool as candy and most can be found at the 99-cent store.

Balloons are a great gift. A child given a pack of balloons will be almost as happy as the child coked up on Snickers bars. They might even like it more since you’ll be arming them for the water balloon wars that rage every Halloween.

Kids like lots of things: pencils, pads of paper, and small toys. Glow bracelets and glow sticks are favorites. Kids love them, especially if they get a cool color other than that standard DayGlo green.

Glow sticks are cheap. You can find them and other novelties online.

Checkout flashingblinkylights.com.

So what do you do with your own kids to keep them from experiencing a sugar coma?  You could host a Halloween party or have the coolest haunted house in the neighborhood and have your kids be part of the act. But if your kids want to go door to door, it seems a bit cruel and wasteful for them to collect a big bag of candy for you to throw away. At the very least, make an agreement about how much candy they can eat. But a better alternative might be Trick or Treat for UNICEF.

If they Trick or Treat for UNICEF they’ll collect change, mostly pennies, instead of candy. The money goes to needy children around the world. If you aren’t familiar with Trick or Treat for UNICEF, ask your parents. Chances are, they did it when they were kids. Back then many schools handed out little orange UNICEF boxes right before Halloween and the kids would bring their filled boxes back to school. Those pennies added up.

You could ask the PTA if they want to participate, but if they don’t your kids don’t need to be part of a group to help UNICEF. You can go online to order boxes or to download and print a wrapper to tape on a can. Your children can have the fun of trick or treat and take pride in helping others at the same time. Trick or Treat for UNICEF also gives older children an excuse to go trick or treat without being teased about being too old. Check out UNICEF online.

If the fact that sugar is poison is still new to you, it’s time to educate yourself. Please read the August issue of Organic Lifestyle Magazine, then educate your children. If they don’t understand what sugar and sugar addiction will do to their bodies, they won’t make good choices when they are out of your sight. Talk about nutrition and tell them how sugar helps cause very serious illnesses. Be sure to include these high points:

• Sugar is empty calories with no vitamins, minerals, protein or anything else healthy.
• Sugar is addictive, requiring that you come back for more.
• If you eat more than you can work off, you will gain weight.
• Sugar suppresses the immune system, which makes you sick more often.
• Sugar contributes to acne.
• Sugar can contribute to falling asleep in class or after meals.
• Have your child read labels with you in the grocery store. When given a choice between products, choose the one with less sugar. Better yet, teach them why you aren’t buying that canned or boxed processed food.
• Consistently remind your children that they will feel better when they don’t eat sugar.

Don’t be afraid to make changes in your family’s diet. Start by telling your children you love them too much to feed them foods that make them sick. Maintaining good health is

1. Stock Up On Alternative Healthier Choices For Sweets

Refined sugar wreaks havoc on your immune system and acidifies your body. The less refined the sugar is, the less damage you will do to your body. See our sugar alternative page at www.greenmagazines.com/organic/alternative-sugars.php for some ideas. There are lots of sweets that are made with better sugars than the white refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup most candy manufacturers use.

2. Educate Your Kids

Remind them what it felt like the last time they got sick. Prepare them ahead of time. Prime them to be ready to make better decisions with you.

3.   Limit Your Sweets Consumption

Even Agave nectar and raw honey should be limited. Stevia is not a sweetener you need worry about, but any others, even unrefined sugars, should be eaten in moderation.

4.   Do a Trade—Negotiate

When they get back from their trick or treating expedition, offer them a trade. Make it a game. Teach them how to negotiate. It can be fun! You may also want to keep healthier alternatives with you while trick-or-treating in case you or your kids get the munchies during your adventure.

5.   Cook With Them

Bake healthier choices (organic cookies—stevia, raw honey, or fruit juice sweetened treats).

6.   Offer Your Kids Money For Their Hard Earned Candy

You can always bribe them. Hey, it’s better than making them sick! Just make sure they don’t go and buy more candy.

7.   Offer Your Kids Toys Instead of Candy

Try squirt guns, games, movies, anything they would rather have than candy. And you can give them toys that will last, as opposed to candy that will be gone quickly.

8.   Offer Trick-Or-Treaters Toys Instead of Candy

They get enough candy from everyone else. Try squirt guns, glow bracelets, or jacks. There are a lot of inexpensive small toys you can give away.

9.   Make Your Own Costumes

You can make your own costumes out of items you don’t need, and you can do it with your kids and make it fun. Reusing is even better than recycling.

10.   If All Else Fails, Set a Time Limit

If healthier sweets are not an option, you can give them a time limit. Let them know they have one day or x-amount of hours to consume as much junk as they want. Throw the rest away.