Flu season is upon us. It’s time to decide if you or your children will receive a flu shot this year. After all, 23,607- 35,000 people die from the flu each year, right? You don’t want to be included in this year’s statistics! But are those numbers accurate?

You’re not going to find any clear answers from the CDC. If you start drilling down, searching for the actual numbers of flu victims, flu deaths, and the efficacy of the vaccine on their website, suddenly nothing is clear – except the fact that the vaccine industry is a big business and the CDC does a superior job of hiding actual facts and figures under a mountain of doublespeak.

What are the actual numbers?

No one knows. The CDC uses statistical projections to estimate the number of flu cases based on any illness that may be related to secondary infections caused by the flu.

Why?

• States are not required to report flu deaths in adults.
• Influenza is rarely listed on the death certificate as a cause of death when patients die of flu-related illnesses.
• Many deaths occur weeks after the initial flu infection due to a secondary infection or complications of an existing chronic condition, but most of these people were never tested for the flu!
• Tests for the virus must be administered within a week of onset with another test taken later.
• False negative test results are common.

So how do they determine the number of deaths due to influenza?

The CDC uses pneumonia along with respiratory and circulatory illness as a cause of death to guess at how many actually died from complications of influenza that was never verified in the first place.

And then, they lump pneumonia and influenza together as one of the top leading causes of death in the U.S.

There are no real facts or figures to tell us how many cause influenza, how many died from influenza, or how effective the flu shot is in preventing the disease.

It is time for the CDC to publish actual facts regarding influenza. They can do this by publishing the following:

• What strains of influenza were used for the annual flu shot?
• How many actual verified cases of every type of influenza were reported? ?
• How many patients were confirmed with each type?
• Of these patients, how many of the patients were immunized with the correct vaccine?
• How many in each category died?

If this information was readily available to the public, we could decide for ourselves if the risks of catching influenza was greater than the flu shot itself – that is if we were also told the whole truth about the ingredients and the number of vaccine related injuries and deaths.

If you choose to avoid flu vaccination and rely on alternative care for the flu, remember that alternative care for any disease starts with prevention – in other words, a healthy diet and lifestyle. A healthy immune system requires a healthy gut and adequate exercise to circulate lymph throughout the body. Yes, there are tinctures and home remedies to stop viruses in their tracks, but they work the best when you provide the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.

At the first sign of illness, gargle – gargle a lot. Apple cider vinegar is a great choice, but you may need to dilute it at first; it works better if you don’t. Even if you use salt water, gargling reduces the viral load. Eat raw garlic and drinks extra fluids. Avoid all sugar! Sugar feeds bacteria and viruses. Check out Bullet Proof Your Immune System and Detoxify from Vaccinations & Heavy Metals.

Further Reading:

• How to Detoxify from Vaccines and Heavy Metals
• Bullet Proof Your Immune System
• What’s Missing From the Vaccine Debate
• Vaccine Side Effects and Why You Shouldn’t Vaccinate

Let’s face it, technology has made many food preparation tasks so much easier. While a mandolin is a thing of beauty, I just can’t seem to get comfortable with it. I’m too sure I am about to lose a fingertip to the blades. Give me a great food processor every time.

If you eat a conventional diet, you open cans, tear open boxes, pop things into the oven or the microwave. But if you eat right, there are a few kitchen gadgets you might truly enjoy. The best possible diet consists of 80% or more raw produce. You can interpret this the simple way – grab raw veggies out of the fridge and eat them. Nothing could be more simple, right? Or the complicated way: you must become a raw chef. I choose the middle ground. I make a lot of salads. A wide variety of vegetables is the preferred eating plan. This means a little prep time. A few gadgets minimize my time in the kitchen.

Food Processor

Most kitchens contain a food processor these days. But is yours a good one? The difference between a cheap food professor and a high end one is surprising. A high end food processor (Breville Sous Chef (16-cup) or Cuisinart Elite (14 cup) are excellent machines. Both have a smaller bowl (the Cuisinart has 2) for smaller jobs and both have seals to keep in liquids, unlike cheaper models. The Breville has an adjustable slicing disk with 24 settings; the Cuisinart, 6 settings.

The large capacity, the multiple disks, the wide mouth, and the ease of cleaning make these machines worth their hefty price tags. (Both are currently listed at $299.00).

Blender

The Vitamix is definitely the top contender when it comes to blenders. It is also the most expensive. But let’s face it, the Vitamix makes nut butters and soups from cold vegetables along with incredible smoothies. It even makes flour out of grains.

Dehydrator

There is a lot you can do with a dehydrator but if your family is trying to kick the chip habit, veggies chips may be your best friend. Kale chips? Zucchini chips? If you bought the Breville food processor, you can make very thin crispy chips. Try flax seed chips, too. And of course you can make dried fruits and veggies. (Bananas? Tomatoes?) along with raw treats such as cookies, bars, and breads. Excalibur makes awesome machines.

Sprouter

Yes, you can grow sprouts in a jar. But it is a lot more fun to grow a whole bunch at one in a self watering sprouter. We park our Freshlife Sprouter on the table and grab sprouts to throw on our meals right there as they grow. You can buy an extra tier to grow twice as many at once!

Spiral Slicer

There are a few brands of spiral slicers or spiralizers out there. I have no idea why someone doesn’t make a serious one constructed out of stainless steel instead of these wimpy plastic ones. None are very expensive; they are all fun. Use spiral slicers to make long strings of veggies in the shape of noodles or ribbons. Very cool for those of us who eat a lot of veggies.

Coconut Opener

If you don’t open coconuts, you have no idea how grateful one could be for a simple kitchen gadget. Without this, opening a coconut is an exercise in both patience and precision as you try to whack the same 4 spots multiple times with a very heavy, very sharp blade. The Coco Jack is a quick, safe, and easy way to open a coconut in seconds.

Sources:

(These are not affiliate links)

• Breville Food Processors
• Vitamix
• Excaliber
• Sprouter
• Spiralizer
• Coco Jack

Butternut Squash Is Good For…

Eating as a side dish cubed or mashed, as a soup, as an addition to baked goods, as a stuffed main dish. Try mixing butternut squash with other vegetables, grains, pasta, or quinoa.

Nutrition Composition of Butternut Squash

Butternut squash is high in fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidants, carotenoids (especially beta-carotene), vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, folate, potassium, magnesium, and manganese.

Nutrition Facts for 1 Cup

Natural Remedies and Prevention with Butternut Squash

The high fiber content if butternut squash is a prebiotic that supports healthy bacteria in the gut and promotes regularity. High fiber helps to manage blood sugar, reduce inflammation and diseases associated with inflammation (cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity), and increased immune function. Beta-carotene, that the body turns into vitamin A, helps prevent colon cancer and asthma and helps maintain healthy eyes, hair, and skin, as it boosts immunity along with vitamin C. Its potassium content helps maintain a healthy blood pressure and overall health.

Things You Didn’t Know About Fruit

Technically, butternut squash is a fruit as its seeds are inside. This is true of all members of the gourd family, which includes winter squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons. Butternut squash is the most widely grown winter squash in the United States.

How to Store Butternut Squash So It Lasts Longer

Do not store whole butternut squash in the refrigerator. Store in a cool, dry, place for 1-3 months.

How to Pick Good Fruit

Choose firm, unblemished squash with a matte finish. Avoid shiny skin; it is a sign that it was picked too early.

Recipes

Squash Ginger Soup from Healing the Body

 Ingredients:

• 1-2 tbsp organic extra virgin coconut oil
• 1 acorn or butternut squash, skinned and chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 celery sticks, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• Large piece of ginger root (3 inches long)
• Water to cover
• Sea salt to taste

Directions:

In a large pot…

• Sauté carrots, onions, celery, and garlic in coconut oil
• Add squash and ginger
• Cover with water
• Simmer for 30 minutes
• Puree and adjust water to desired consistency
• Add sea salt and simmer for 10 more minutes

Or try this Curried Butternut Squash Soup from Healing the Body.

Further Reading:

Sources:

Power Foods: Butternut Squash – Whole Living

What Are the Health Benefits of Butternut Squash? – Medical News Today

So you’ve decided it’s time to get healthy, but you’re not sure where to start. You know you need to lose weight. And maybe, just maybe, you should stop being a couch potato.

So what now? Prepackaged meals? A gym membership? Less caffeine, chocolate, and alcohol?

There are a hundred things you can do to be a little bit healthier. There are 4 things you can do if you want to become truly healthy.

• Eat a truly healthy diet
• Detox
• Exercise
• Get good sleep

The Healthiest Diet

A truly healthy diet isn’t found in a package. It doesn’t have a fancy name. It is a diet that eliminates artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, MSG, trans fats, and GMOs. Stop eating sugar. A full 80% of the diet consists of fresh, raw, organic produce – more vegetables than fruit. It does not include processed, boxed, packaged foods. It is a diverse, organic diet filled with nutrient dense foods and plenty of clean water.

Eat salads. Make big salads (at least 6 cups) with at least 10 different vegetables. Add fresh garlic, turmeric, and fresh cracked pepper.

Detox

It is not enough in this day and age to simply eat the best food. Though diet will always be the foundation of health, our toxic environment requires us to cleanse our bodies of chemicals, heavy metals, parasites, and pathogens twice a year (or more) if we are to achieve optimum health.

Although a full cleanse involves the entire body, the gut is the first and primary focus. The goal is to cleanse the intestinal tract of bad bacteria and Candida and repopulate it with good bacteria. Candida feeds on our body’s tissues as well as our nutrients as does bad bacteria. Both exude toxins. Cleaning up the gut also aids the immune system. Two of the best things you can do to aid in a detox is to drink a lot of cranberry lemonade sweetened with stevia, and eat salads with garlic.

Exercise

Exercise is crucial for a healthy body and a healthy immune system. If you are a couch potato, start slow. Walking and rebounding are gentle exercises that help the lymph circulate in the body. There is no pump for the lymphatic system.

Do bodyweight squats. It’s likely the best exercise there is. We are naturally built to squat. It does much more than just build leg muscles.

For those who cannot squat, “get ups” are a wonderful exercise that works out the whole body. Simply lie down on the floor on your back. Now roll to the left and get up. Lie back down. Roll to the right and get up. Each time be sure to use the other leg to push off the floor. Each day, do as many as you can. You will find the number rises quickly. This is a great work out for the beginner. If that’s not possible try getting in and out of a chair repeatedly. A chair that you can lower as you progress is great for this. As you get stronger, try using as little momentum as possible.

Sleep

Is coffee what gets you through he day? How many hours of sleep do you need? If you sleep more on your days off, catching up on lost sleep, you are not getting enough. How many hours do you need to sleep a night when you are on vacation? For most adults, eight hours is the absolute minimum. If possible, get off of any and all drugs, and that includes caffeine.

Recommended Supplements:

• Total Nutrition Formula

Further Reading:               

• Inexpensive Easy Detox – The One Gallon Challenge
• Raw Food Diet
• Natural Remedies for Insomnia

When you dip your toe in the water and consider a healthier lifestyle, any number of changes may take place. Perhaps you decide that all those reports about aspartame may be true and Diet Dr. Pepper, though it makes you look cool, is not your best friend. Or maybe caffeine is your nemesis. Or candy. Or chips.

It isn’t until you fall all the way down the rabbit hole and learn the truth about food and nutrition that things finally, truly make sense. And when they do, a paradigm shift will take place. You can’t go back.

When you fully accept that whole, unadulterated, fresh, organic produce is the basis of a healthy diet and a means to heal the body, you will realize that nearly every food from a can, box, jar, or other package is crap. And after you’ve been eating right for a while, eating wrong will lose its appeal.

But why is it rare and so hard for someone to switch from a conventional diet to a truly healthy one? Why does it so often take a major health crisis before we even entertain the thought of drastically changing what we eat?

To a large extent, we are creatures of habit. We tend to look back on our childhood as the good old days, believing that whatever was good enough for our parents is good enough for us. The foods we were raised with are often the foods we eat today.

Few people realize that the change in America’s eating, the switch to packaged and processed foods, began during WWII. Prior to this time, America’s diet was much more wholesome. The next generation, the baby boomers, were raised on Jello, Kool-Aid, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and every prepackaged adulterated food conceived by man. And with processed food came disease. Cancer deaths have tripled since 1900.

Habit isn’t the only hurdle. Eating healthy is so contradictory to our society, a radical change will affect leisure time, friendships, and extended family. Most, if not all, of our gatherings and celebrations include food as the focal point. And not just any food; sinful food seems to be the most revered. Once you truly embrace healthy eating, sugary foods and junk foods lose their appeal along with conventional restaurant food and most of the food still eaten by your friends and family. You have three choices:

• Be the host for every party you attend that involves food.
• Take your own food to every party or event.
• Make new friends.

Don’t let the logistics scare you off; you can do it. Your health and the health of your family come first. And if it gives you any comfort, know that the number of people who embrace health and healthy eating is growing.

Further Reading:

• 80% Raw Food Diet
• Inexpensive, Easy Detox – The One Gallon Challenge

(NaturalNews – Danna Norek) Baking soda has long been heralded as a multipurpose wonder. Even with this sort of reputation, there are still several ways most people haven’t even thought of that it can be used as a natural and inexpensive alternative to so many of the necessities we rely on every day.

It is prudent to choose a brand of baking soda which states it is aluminum free. Some brands may be contaminated with aluminum. Although some have the opinion that it is only baking powder that contains aluminum (as a rising agent), it doesn’t hurt to play it 100 percent safe and choose a brand that asserts itself as free of this contaminant.

Mix baking soda with lemon juice as a natural gout remedy

Gout can be a painful and uncomfortable condition. Gout is caused when uric acid is overproduced by the body and builds up to high levels. It then is deposited into the joints, which causes painful swelling and inflammation. Mix roughly two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice with a teaspoon of baking soda for relief. It works by alkalinizing the urine and neutralizing uric acid.

Additionally, baking soda works as a general alkalinizing and pH balancing agent within the body. If the body is overly acidic, baking soda can actually provide a short term remedy to putting it back into an acid/alkaline balance. Health problems, disease and sickness typically abound when your body is overly acidic so it is important to keep it within a healthy pH range.

Of course you do have to be cognizant of the sodium content if you have any issues with high blood pressure. Usually a dosage of no more than a teaspoon at a time diluted in a glass of water is recommended.

As a natural cleaner

A mixture of lemon juice and baking soda also makes a wonderful semi-abrasive natural cleaner for surfaces such as bathroom and kitchen sinks, bathtubs and showers and other surfaces. The mixture of the two actually produces a bit of a fizz due to a natural chemical reaction. They also provide excellent natural antibacterial properties as well as serious cleaning capabilities.

As a natural itch remedy for bug bites and poison ivy

Baking soda may also be useful as an anti-itch remedy. Add just enough water to moisten the baking soda into a paste and rub on a bug bite, poison ivy, bee stings and even chicken pox to help with the itching.

Baking soda has the ability to absorb moisture and to draw toxins out of a bite or bump caused by an irritant under the surface. This can offer quick and effective relief when it comes to itching and the swelling that goes with it.

A natural yeast infection remedy

Women who suffer from yeast infections due to candida imbalances can use a baking soda douche to help kill the candida bacteria that causes the infection. It is also a natural remedy for itching, so you get not only an effective treatment for the infection itself but also treatment of the itching symptom.

Facial skin care uses

Baking soda makes a wonderful exfoliating scrub for the face and other parts of the body. It helps to smooth the skin and take the dead layers of skin off to reveal a fresher and more vibrant surface.

It also may be used in a paste to dab on acne. It acts as an antibacterial agent and helps to kill the bacteria that cause acne. It also helps to draw out excess oil and dry the acne out quicker while helping promote faster healing. It also may help with reducing redness.

Sources for the article include:

http://www.diet-for-gout.com
http://baking-soda.ezinemark.com
http://www.acnemagazine.com/good-natural-scrubs-for-acne-prone-skin/

Using a naturally grown bandage for minor skin cuts, scrapes, and burns has advantages over those generic bandages that can be bought in a box at a drugstore. Plants such as lamb’s ear and marsh woundwort have built-in antibacterial properties that can be directly applied to the skin, and an animal product like egg membrane can heal a burn faster than sutures. These natural bandages are a perfect alternative for protecting and healing skin wounds without leaving tape marks or pulling out small body hairs. To speed the healing process, add a drop of aloe juice or Manuka honey to the wound before placing a natural bandage over it. Use a small length of cotton yarn to tie the bandage in place without cutting off the blood flow.

Lamb’s Ear

Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina, see image above) is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae). The plant is a leafy, silvery-gray perennial with small purple or pink flowers that blossom during the summer months. The leaves are very soft and pliable, with a nap of woolly hairs that feel like a silk carpet when touched. Lamb’s ear contains a natural astringent that cleanses skin wounds in lieu of isopropyl alcohol. Blood clots quickly at the touch of a lamb’s ear leaf. The pliable leaves make it perfect for wrapping around a wound on a finger or arm.

Marsh Woundwort

Marsh woundwort(Stachys palustris) sometimes referred to as clown’s woundwort, which is also a member of the mint family, is related to lamb’s ear and possesses many of the same healing properties. The leaves of this plant are antibacterial and will cleanse any minor skin wounds. Use a small, narrow leaf and wrap it around the affected area of the skin.

Egg Membrane

A chicken egg membrane can also be used for healing minor skin cuts, especially cuts which result in tiny flaps of skin. Wash the skin wound under cold water to prevent any further bacteria from entering. Gently set the skin flap over the wound where it was cut. The egg membrane will seal the flap back into place as it heals. Crack open an egg and peel away the membrane from one half of the eggshell. Wrap the membrane around the skin wound. The membrane will stick to itself so there is no need to tie the bandage in place as with the lamb’s ear or marsh woundwort. Once the wound has healed, remove the hardened egg membrane by softening it with a little bit of warm water.

Sources: 

• Medicinal Garden Starter Plant: Wooly Lamb’s Ear – fig & honey
• Marsh Woundwort- Potential Use As Vegetable: History, Uses and Health Benefits of Marsh Woundwort –Herbs Treat and Taste
• Eggs as a Bandage: Prepper First Aid – The Great Northern Prepper