Growing Boneset for Health Benefits

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), a member of the aster family, is also known as white Joe-Pye Weed, an herb that has long been used by both Native Americans and European settlers for its healing properties.

The tiny white flowers, which grow in clusters, blossom during the late summer and early fall seasons. Boneset is plentiful in fields and meadows but can be easily cultivated in gardens. A perennial, boneset grows in planting zones 4-8.

Boneset seeds can be grown indoors or outdoors once the last frost has passed. Growing boneset from seeds indoors instead of outdoors offers several advantages: being very tiny in size, the seeds will not be washed away by the rain or eaten by birds, and it will be easier for you to check the moisture level of the soil as the seeds enter the germination stage. The soil should always be kept moist once you plant boneset seeds.

To grow boneset from seeds indoors, start off with using dampened soil in your starting container. Gently tap the seeds into the surface of the damp soil. Do not cover the tiny seeds with a heavy layer of soil. You can either leave the seeds exposed, or covered with a very thin layer of damp soil. Place the starting container close to a window that has southern exposure, for the seeds require sunlight to germinate. Check the soil every 24 hours to make sure it remains damp so the seeds can germinate. If the soil gets dry, lightly water the soil. Once the seeds germinate into plants, they can be transplanted outside once the last frost of the season has passed.

Boneset will grow well in partial shade as well as full sunlight. The plants will grow from 2 – 5′ tall so allow between 18 – 24” of space for each plant. Boneset stalks are sturdy and will not require support of any kind. Water established plants once a week, and twice a week during dry periods.

Boneset tea is a diaphoretic, expectorant, tonic and febrifuge when taken for colds and influenza. As a diaphoretic, boneset produces perspiration, thus causing fevers to pass quickly. It is an expectorant as it removes excess mucus from the bronchial tubes should the patient have difficulty breathing. Boneset has tonic properties that strengthens internal and external tissue, which makes it suitable for healing bruises, cuts and scrapes.

To make boneset tea, use a proportion of one ounce of dried boneset leaves and flowers to a pint of boiled water. Strain the leaves from the tea. Drink 2 to 3 cups of boneset tea a day until the cold or flu has reached its end. The tea will also help individuals with emphysema, asthma, and bronchitis. For use as an internal tonic, mix a teaspoon of boneset powder in a cup of cold water for drinking and take several times a day.

A poultice can also be made from boneset for use on cuts, broken bones, or sprains. Use a tablespoon of dried boneset which has been crushed into powder form – a mortar and pestle can be used for this purpose – and thoroughly blend into a tablespoon of cocoa butter. Alternately, the powdered boneset can also be mixed with some warm water to form a poultice, then applied to sprains, broken bones, arthritic joints, or bruises.

Sources and Further Reading:

Could Eating a Low Fat Diet Make You Fat and Sick?

Low fat & low calorie diets aren’t just something that weight loss experts recommend. The Center for Disease Control even recommends that in order to stay healthy and lean you should eat a low fat, low calorie diet.

I am going to show you how eating a diet that is low in fat and calories could be making you fat, sick and frustrated!

Fat free foods, or low calorie foods are so easy to find at any grocery store these days. For just about every full-fat version of a food, there is likely to be a reduced version of the same food. And it is no secret that eating a diet lower in calories and fat is the key to weight loss, so why are obesity rates at an all-time high?

Let’s take a look at a pretty typical day of eating a low fat, low calorie diet. For this example you would be eating three meals per day and of course a low calorie snack for dessert, because everyone deserves a treat now and then, right? Since losing weight is the goal, I want to make sure this diet is fairly low in calories, so let’s aim for about 1,500 calories per day.

The meals that I found are random and were found by simply searching the internet for low fat or low calorie food options. These items would be present in any grocery store in the country and would generally be considered to be healthy by many shoppers.

Breakfast: (Calories/Grams of fat)

1 cup Special K Cereal – 120 calories and 0.5 grams of fat

1 cup skim milk – 86 calories and 0.4 grams of fat

Starbucks 12oz cafe latte with skim milk = 126 calories and 0 grams of fat

Lunch:

Lean Pockets Ham and Cheddar – 280 calories and 7 grams of fat

Baked Lays BBQ potato chips – 123 calories and 3.1 grams of fat

Dinner:

Lean Cuisine Alfredo Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli – 270 calories and 4 grams of fat

Dessert:

Chips Ahoy 100 Calorie Thin Crisps – 100 calories and 3 grams of fat

I think this is a pretty light day of eating, but if you really had some willpower this would be totally doable. You have your three meals for the day, your protein, a coffee treat and even a snack! So let’s count up those calories and grams of fat and see where we are at.

Total Calories = 1105

Total Fat = 18 grams

This is pretty great news, right? Not only will this diet give you less than 20 grams of fat in a day, but your total calorie count is well below the 1,500 mark. At this rate, you could safely eat another 400 calories of food, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

The reason that this diet is going to fail and make you fat and sick is very simply because when you concentrate only on low fat, low calorie foods, you miss a really important part of the bigger picture. There is an ingredient that is added to more of your food than you may be aware of, and it is hiding in plain sight under the disguise of lower calories and healthy foods. And that ingredient is sugar. More specifically, high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup was introduced in the mid 1970’s as a cheap alternative sweetener that could easily be added to soft drinks. You may have heard that HFCS is a safe product because it is natural, and comes from corn.

While it is true that HFCS is made from corn, it should not be considered safe to consume in any quantity, let alone the quantities that many Americans and people from around the world are consuming it. The truth is, the human body could survive without HFCS without a single negative effect whatsoever.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) obesity rates in this country doubled between 1980 and 2000, to about 60 million adults.[1] While correlation does not equal causation, it is certainly something to think about when you consider this happened just a few years after high fructose corn syrup started being added to a large portion of our soft drinks and processed foods.

And since it is cheaper to add to food than traditional granulated sugar, it is safe to assume that you will be quite likely to find it in a lot of your food that you buy in the grocery store. Low fat, and low calorie foods are no exception to this.

So how much sugar, or high fructose corn syrup is in all of this wonderful low fat, low calorie food that you just ate for your recommended diet?

54 Grams which is about equal to 13.5 teaspoons!

The World Health Organization recommends that a person with a normal body mass index (BMI) consume no more than 25 grams of sugar per day, which is about 6 teaspoons. [2] So right from the start, when you eat a diet similar to this example, which is low in calories and fat, you are consuming twice the recommended daily allowance of sugar.

But that’s not all. Researchers at Princeton have found that high fructose corn syrup is actually worse for your health than regular sugar. In the study, researchers gave two groups of rats the same amounts of “rat chow”, but changed up their beverage a little bit.

One group got ordinary table sugar in a water solution, and the other group had access to high fructose corn syrup. What they saw was that the rats who consumed the high fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than their regular sugar-water rat counterparts [3].

But that’s not all. The researchers also found that the high fructose corn syrup rats had abnormal increases in fat in their abdomen, as well as a rise in their triglycerides. In other words, they were becoming fat and sick. And if that’s not all, they also noted that another group of rats who were given the HFCS over a period of six months began to show signs of metabolic syndrome in comparison to rats who only were given the rat chow.

It is estimated that about 20 to 25 percent of adult Americans suffer from metabolic syndrome. Below are some metabolic risk factors. While it is possible to have any number of these alone, you are considered at risk for metabolic syndrome if you have three of the following conditions:[4]

Abdominal obesity, or having an “apple” shape
High triglyceride levels
Low HDL (good) cholesterol levels
High blood pressure
High fasting blood sugar

Is high fructose corn syrup the smoking gun in the fight against obesity? The research is not in just yet on that, but researchers are tirelessly working on it. Do you think there may be enough data to show that it is a major contributor to obesity and a wide array of diseases that are costing our society billions of dollars to treat?

This is for you to decide, but you must also decide if it is worth the risk of taking the chance.

If you have ever wondered if weight loss and better health can really be easy, maybe it would be worth it to try a diet that is a way of life, and not the newest fad. Counting calories and grams of fat may mean you eat foods with low amounts of both calories and fat, but if there is even a small chance that you could be at risk for metabolic syndrome and the conditions that come with it, perhaps it is not the best answer.

Sources:

Diet Soda, Aspartame Linked to Premature Deaths in Women

(NaturalNews – Mike Adams) A decade-long study of 60,000 women has confirmed that drinking diet soda sweetened with aspartame is linked with a 30 percent increase in heart attack risk and a 50 percent increase in death risk.

The findings, presented at the American College of Cardiology(1), have already been partially swept under the rug with the false explanation that diet drinks don’t necessarily cause these risks but are instead merely correlated with them. “Women who toss back too many diet sodas may be trying to make up for unhealthy habits,” claims an article on CNBC,(2) while citing no evidence whatsoever to support the claim. Keep in mind that any time a synthetic vitamin is correlated with increased mortality, the entire scientific community immediately describes those synthetic vitamins as “causing” death. Correlation is causation only when industry-funded scientists say it is.

Aspartame is a neurotoxin

What scientists refuse to explore — even when the data clearly show a strong death risk association — is that aspartame is a neurotoxin. The reason why women who drink diet soda have a 50 percent increased death risk is, of course, far more likely to be caused by what’s in the diet soda rather than some lifestyle choice.

Aspartame, after all, is made from the feces of genetically engineered bacteria. It is not a natural sugar but rather a chemical compound created in an industrial lab. Used in diet sodas, it breaks down into a number of chemical compounds including formaldehyde and methanol. During digestion, the formaldehyde is oxidized into formic acid, a chemical known to cause toxicity in mammalian biology. Formic acid is also secreted by ants as part of their “chemical weapons” arsenal.

Aspartame linked to long list of neurological problems

Aspartame denialists try to pretend that all this formaldehyde, methanol and formic acid has no effect on human health. Their argument is identical to that of GMO denialists: “GMOs are harmless!” It’s even the same argument as mercury denialists: “Mercury is harmless!”

Why, then, is aspartame so frequently linked to blurred vision, headaches and neurological problems when repeatedly consumed in the form of diet drinks? In fact, there are over 90 side effects linked to aspartame consumption, including headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, rashes, depression, irritability, insomnia, hearing loss, vision problems, loss of taste vertigo and memory loss.

Soda companies and misinformed doctors all try to pretend none of these side effects are real — that people are all imagining headaches, blurred vision, numbness, insomnia and so on. That’s how unethical the soda industry is: they poison their own customers with a neurotoxic chemical, then call them delusional when they suffer neurological side effects.

If you drink diet soda, you are murdering yourself

The bottom line in all this? If you drink diet soda, you are essentially murdering yourself. Call it “slow suicide.”

There are a thousand beverages healthier than diet sodas: tea, fruit juice, mineral water, raw almond milk… even non-diet sodas are better for you than diet sodas! (And diet sodas have been conclusively proven to have no effect whatsoever on weight loss. So drinking them is a useless diet gesture to begin with.)

If for some reason you are still drinking diet soda, find a healthier beverage and stop poisoning yourself to death.

From the American College of Cardiology website:

[A] study led by Ankur Vyas, MD, of the University of Iowa found that postmenopausal women who consumed two or more diet drinks a day were 30 percent more likely to experience a cardiovascular event and 50 percent more likely to die from related cardiovascular disease than women who never, or only rarely, consumed diet drinks. The analysis of 59,614 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, who had an average age of 62.8 and no history of cardiovascular disease, saw that after an average follow-up of 8.7 years, the primary cardiovascular outcome occurred in 8.5 percent of the women consuming two or more diet drinks per day compared to 6.9 percent in the five-to-seven drinks per week group; 6.8 percent in the one-to-four drinks per week group; and 7.2 percent in the zero-to-three per month group. The difference persisted when researchers adjusted for other cardiovascular risk factors and co-morbidities. The association between diet drinks and cardiovascular disease warrants further study to define the relationship, Vyas said.

Sources for this article include:
1) http://www.cardiosource.org/en/News-Media/Pu…
2) http://www.cnbc.com/id/101536768

Loving Lemons – Ten Benefits and Tips

Lemons are incredible little yellow beings of love. While they may seem quite sour and acidic, each one is anything but a crabby little sourpuss. The acidic taste in lemons is actually alkaline.

What is alkaline, you ask? Alkaline and acid are the measurements of pH in your body. Optimally, your alkaline and acid ratios are balanced. Unfortunately, most standard diets are causing our internal systems to be too acidic, causing significant ill health and a terrain of disease. Don’t worry. There is good news! Many foods are alkaline and they can assist your body in maintaining the right levels. And guess what? Lemons are one such food. In addition to helping us achieve balance, lemons have many other great benefits.

Lemons are anti-bacterial and can protect against many types of infections. Think of these sunshine beings as a natural antibiotic.

Lemons are anti-viral. Starting to feel the flu invading your inner peace? Drink a glass of lemon water every two hours to help deter the virus and stimulate your immune system.

Lemons can assist in dissolving gallstones. Anybody who has ever felt the pain of a displeased gallbladder will adore this tidbit. Lemons help dissolve the calcification in your gallbladder and flush it from your system.

These yellow lovers also help improve mental clarity. They act as natural energy boosters and may even assist in improving focus. Do you have a big meeting or a challenging exam? Sometimes just the wonderful citrus smell of a lemon may elevate your concentration.

Lemons assist in detoxifying your liver. Think of your liver as a filtration system for your body. Because lemons are a natural cleanser and anti-oxidant they support the wonderful housekeeping job your liver does everyday.

They can even make you feel happy! Yep, that is right. Lemons are a natural mood enhancer. They can help reduce anxiety, diminish stress levels, and boost those feel good emotions.

Lemon water is a lovely choice. Yet, why stop there? Let the creativity begin!

How about adding lemon to balsamic and olive oil for a great dressing?

Thirsty? Add lemon juice, orange zest, and honey to a glass of warm water for a healthy and fulfilling drink. Take it to the next level with sparkling water and apple juice. Oh, so fancy.

Lemons can be squeezed over your favorite protein. For an added kick, combine lemon juice with coconut oil and garlic for a great marinade.

Love your greens? Of course you do! Add lemon to kale with a minced shallot and feel fabulous.

Enjoy! Healthy is fabulous.

Do You Have Sick Building Syndrome?

We have become concerned about the outside air we breathe, and legitimately so. With factories, automobiles, heavy machinery, chemtrails, and Fukushima to contend with, we have no shortage of clean air supply problems. But what if our inside air was as bad, or worse, than the pollution outside? It’s a very real question, one that we are about to answer.

The Causes of Sick Building Syndrome and the Increased Dangers

“Indoor air pollution in residences, offices, schools, and other buildings is widely recognized as a serious environmental risk to human health,” explains Michael Hodgson, M.D., M.P.H., of the School of Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Dr. Hodgson notes that most people in industrialized nations spend more than 90% of their time indoors, that indoor concentrations of pollutants are often substantially higher than those found outdoors, and that small children, the elderly, and the infirm are likely to spend all their time indoors, leading to permanent chronic exposure to low grade toxic factors.

In most cases, problems with a building’s engineering, construction, and ventilation systems are the causes. Studies suggest that symptoms occur 50% more frequently in buildings with mechanical ventilation systems. Among 2,000 office workers in Germany with work related symptoms, there was a 50% higher that average rate of upper respiratory tract infections that were directly traceable to problems with mechanically ventilated buildings. A U.S. study found that 20% of office workers had job-related SBS (sick building syndrome) symptoms, including a subjective sense of being less productive in their work.

Besides ventilation problems, other sources of indoor toxic pollution include volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) released from particleboard desks, furniture, carpets, glues, paints, office machine toners, and perfumes. All contribute to a complex mixture of very low levels of individual pollutants. Bioaerosols are also indoor contaminants that originate as biological agents from mild spores, allergy producing microbes, mites, or animal dander, and they are distributed through an indoor space by ventilation, heating, or air conditioning systems.

Of buildings classified as sources of SBS, one study showed that 70% have an inadequate flow of fresh outside air. It also found that 50% to 70% of such buildings have poor distribution of air within the occupied space, 60% have poor filtration of outdoor pollutants, 60% have standing water that fosters biological growths, and 20% have malfunctioning humidifiers.

Sick Building Syndrome Symptoms

In the early 1980’s, physicians began using the term sick building syndrome (SBS) to refer to a host of symptoms caused by low-grade toxic environmental conditions found in living, work, or office spaces. SBS symptoms are numerous and include:

Mucous membrane irritation (eyes, nose, and throat)
Chest tightness
Skin complaints (drying, itching, abnormal redness)
Headaches
Fatigue
Lethargy
Coughing
Asthma
Chronic nasal stuffiness
Temporary weight loss
Infections
Emotional irritability

All of these depress the immune system, rendering the individual susceptible to long-term chronic illness. Combat SBS by taking more breaks outdoors, investing in plants that filter the air, and by ensuring you support proper liver function to facilitate easier removal of these indoor toxins. Sources for this article include: Trivieri, Larry. Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 2002. Print.

The Most Common Mistakes Health Nuts Make With Their Diet

There are phases that people typically go through while learning to eat right and take control of their health. For me, the first step was choosing the fast food restaurant that makes those sandwiches fresh, right in front of you. I also switched from cola to the clear lemon and lime flavored sodas, because I decided to obey my thirst, as the old slogan went. Then, after multiple kidney infections, I finally gave up soda completely, switching to store bought fruit juices. I loved seeing my favorite snack food bar begin to appear at convenience stores. After all, what could be better than whole grains sweetened with brown rice syrup, marketed via a picture of a guy climbing a cliff?

The more I learn, the more I realize how simple achieving good health can be for most people. I have achieved a level of health that few people in this world will ever realize.

We tend to make things too complicated, and we tend to look to replace our bad habits with less harmful bad habits. We tend to use the word “healthy” when “healthier” would be more appropriate.

Here are the common pitfalls we health nuts often fall into that keep us from experiencing a level of health and vitality that we preach about and dream of.

1. Relying on Supplements

Some supplements are great. There are people who cannot get enough nutrition from food. There are people who live nowhere near a farmer’s market and cannot grow their own food. There are people who are very sick and need the targeted nutrition supplements can offer. Personally, I take Total Nutrition daily. It’s one of the few supplements I take regularly. I also use SF722 for Candida, but that’s only for the rare occasion that I ate too much sugar or drank a little alcohol.

In my experience, people tend to turn to supplements and tinctures for a quick fix. I know the tricks. I know what can stop a migraine in its tracks. I know what to do if I am experiencing nausea. If I were to have acid indigestion, I know exactly how to alleviate it naturally and immediately. If I were suffering from insomnia, I know what I could take that will knock me out, without the side effects of prescription drugs. And I can stop a cold or flu from happening quicker than other people even realize they’re coming down with something.

But none of these “cures” get to the root of the problem. And natural remedies that do not address the cause have a very important and overlooked side effect—they mask symptoms, allowing us to continue living our toxic lifestyles. This is not a good choice in the long run.

The foundation of health comes from the food you eat. Supplements should be used to supplement your diet, not to replace your diet.

2. Too Much Organic Junk Food

Just because it’s labeled organic, or vegan, or natural, does not mean it’s healthy. “Healthier” would be a better word for it. But the convenience of prepackaged food certainly has its allure and I understand how hard it is to let go of those all natural cheese doodles when the conventional ones were your favorite snack food.

Refined food, prepackaged food, “snack” food should be severely limited. I used to have a pantry full of organic chips, all natural snack bars, organic soda, and sugar free, vegan something-or-others. Now my pantry contains healthier staples such as dry beans, brown rice, lentils, and quinoa. There was a direct correlation to my health and well being and the elimination of processed foods.

I still eat junk food occasionally. If I go to a movie, I like to sneak in the organic chips and sugar cane juice sweetened chocolates (and fruit). The difference is, my pantry is not stocked with them. They are a special occasion treat. A rarity. And one that feels less and less worth it every time I indulge.

3. Too Much Eating Out

This is a tough one to get over. I loved going out to eat. I loved being waited on, relaxing, enjoying myself, have a good conversation, not having to cook. And these days, there are plenty of healthier restaurants to choose from. There is a problem though. Even the healthiest restaurants still produce food that is not good for you. I know of one restaurant, out of the thousands I have dined at, where I could eat regularly and still feel as healthy as I do now. And only about a third of their menu was what I would call truly healthy.

I realized that I was going out and eating at restaurants, in large part, to get some wind-down time. It was the only way I could have a simple, casual conversation with whichever woman I was dating. It was the only time I took for myself that forced me to slow down and enjoy life. In every other moment of my existence, I was rushing.

And then I realized that the more I took time to cook, to slow down, to take time for myself (and now, my family) the better the meal. I became a really good cook. Now restaurants, even t he healthiest and best reviewed, generally disappoint me.

Restaurants, for a myriad of reasons, cannot prepare healthy nutritious meals as well as you can at home. The fact is, health food restaurants should be a treat. And conventional restaurants should be avoided.

4. Too Much Sugar

Typically, sugar is the last thing a health nut is willing to give up. Sugar cane juice, brown rice syrup, agave nectar, and every other natural sweetener that comes to mind, save stevia, have something in common; they are refined sugars. And refined sugars feed and/or promote viruses, bacteria, Candida and other fungi, and virtually all other parasites that affect us. They also contribute to cancer, diabetes, and all the other ailments that sugar can be attributed to promoting (which is almost every ailment we humans suffer from).

Sugar Is Sugar Is Sugar!

If you suffer from allergies, or if you’re battling that one last health issue that has been plaguing you since before you give up soda, try eliminating all the refined sugars from your diet for one week. Most are shocked to find that agave nectar was that one last thing making it impossible to get rid of those seasonal allergies, or the one thing they had to eliminate to finally heal their damaged knee they hurt in football 13 years ago (believe it or not, this is common; injuries do not heal well until sugar is given up). Allergies are also a sign of Candida overgrowth. SF722 and FloraMend will get rid of Candida in just a few days or less, faster than anything I know. But if you need constant support for your intestinal flora, your diet is off.

5. Too Much Juicing

The juices and the smoothies with the juice fall under the same category as sugar. When you juice fruits, and the sweeter vegetables, you loose a lot of nutrition. This includes fiber that helps slow the absorption of sugar. In effect, you are refining your own produce, turning it into simple sugars, when you juice.

Juicing regularly has its place. Juicing produce with very little sugar is a nice way to get a lot of nutrition into your body at once (it’s just not so pleasant to my palate). Also, there are people who are so sick that they cannot digest whole foods. Furthermore, when detoxifying, juicing can be a way to get in nutrition easily without making your body work for it while it is overburdened with the release of toxins.

I do juice occasionally. I do ginger and turmeric shots at least a few times a week. I also juice kale, carrots, beets, and granny smith apples a couple of times a month. I love juice. The difference is, it’s not a staple (unless I am detoxifying). Whole, unadulterated produce is my staple.

7. Too Little Produce

In my experience, this is the last step one takes to regaining their health and living a life full of vitality without aches and pains. Fresh, raw, and organic (whenever possible) produce is the key to health. Eighty percent of my diet is raw produce. I eat many more vegetables than fruit. I make myself a large salad almost every single day, containing a minimum of 10 different vegetables. I get a variety of produce, as opposed to sticking to just a few. I eat like a rabbit when I am snacking. For instance, I open the fridge and I pull out a stalk of kale.

I do not let a lack of organic food stop me. I prefer organic whenever possible. After all, I am the chief editor of a publication called Organic Lifestyle Magazine. But it surprises people to find out that I would sooner buy conventional raw produce than organic frozen produce, provided the food is not genetically modified. This means I avoid the following conventional produce at all costs: sweet corn, potatoes, Hawaiian papaya, alfalfa, and soy (sprouts, beans). Other than that, you’re safe from GMOs with produce.

And I am not saying don’t buy organic. Let me stress that. Buy organic whenever possible! Just don’t let a lack of organic produce turn you towards the less beneficial packaged foods.

Conclusion

It may seem like I have a very limited diet. I don’t. I eat very well, and anyone who comes to my home eats very well, too. Everyone is always blown away at how good, unusual, and healthy my meals are. It takes time, though. I take time to prepare my food. And it took time to get good at cooking (and often, not cooking, as in preparing raw dishes). It also took time to become reasonably quick at it.

There are few shortcuts in life that work, and this holds true for health as well. It takes time, patience, dedication, and discipline. I promise you this: it’s an investment that is well worth it. Health is a hobby for me. Other people live and breathe football, or reality television, or the nightlife. I learned, some time ago, to make family, health, food, and learning my passions. They all coincide nicely. I continue to simplify my life, to let go of the noise, the distractions, and the stuff that doesn’t really matter, so that I can keep my focus on those four passions.

Allergy Free in Five Days (foods, dander, dust, seasonal, etc.)

I used to have allergies. Many foods were on my allergy list as well as pollen, dust, bug bites, bees, cats, and sometimes dogs. I was able to rid myself of all of these allergies. I can even eat foods that once put me in the hospital.

For many people, allergies are their only health issue. I know young people that have never known significant illness other than allergies. There are also plenty of health nuts who have learned all they could about natural health, brought their body to a healthier state, and still have allergies left to deal with.

Allergies tend to be thought of by even the most unconventional naturopaths as a genetic curse. If you have them, you have them, and you’re stuck with them. But in every single case that I have ever had where somebody asked me what they can do to eliminate their allergies, when the person followed through with my advise, they all were able to rid themselves of allergies.

Sugar Causes Allergies

In most cases, at least 9 out of 10, eliminating sugar does the trick. This includes agave nectar, carrot and beet juice, brown rice syrup, sugar cane juice, fructose, molasses, and any other refined sugar. Sugar feeds Candida. Candida multiply and poop. Their poop is toxic to us. It doesn’t matter what kind of sugar it is, Candida eat sugar.

Wheat Causes Allergies

Wheat is not what it used to be. The protein molecule is different. It’s been changed into a protein our bodies cannot digest. It’s toxic to us. It’s causing serious digestion problems. This leads to allergies. Also, bread is made with lots of refined ingredients that feed our parasites like sugar does.

Alcohol Causes Allergies

Alcohol is very toxic to the body. The damage that alcohol does feeds parasites like Candida and bacteria. Alcohol puts a toll on the liver, and an overtaxed liver almost always leads to allergies.

Alcohol contains fermented yeast and sugars – both ingredients that feed the Candida already living in your body. To top it off, alcohol acts as a stimulant that triggers the release of blood sugar stores, thus making sugar for the Candida.

Alcohol kills friendly bacteria.

There is another interesting aspect to alcohol and yeast. Every living thing that eats must create waste on the other end. Usually that waste is toxic (poisonous) to the organism. Not so with yeast. The alcoholic by –products it creates can actually serve as a fertilizer to help it grow further. This explains why various researchers have indicated that everyone who drinks alcohol regularly (daily or a few times weekly) is likely harboring Candida overgrowth. – What Causes a Candida Yeast Infection

Refined Foods Causes Allergies

White flour, any kind of flour, white rice, chips, and processed “healthy” junk foods are all refined sugars to the body.

Dairy Causes Allergies

Pasteurized and homogenized cow’s milk is hard on our liver and it feeds all parasites just as well as sugar.

Allergy Free in Just 5 Days!

If you’re someone who takes care of yourself, eating lots of produce and avoiding refined foods, maybe you simply need to make that last step into total health by eliminating some fruit and the few refined sugars remaining in your diet. If this is you, you’ll likely find yourself allergy free in just a few days of very clean eating.

If you think you eat very well but still have some allergies, take a week to eliminate all sweets (including fake sugars), even fruit, and see how things change. Then slowly introduce fruit back into your diet and find your tipping point.

But lots of people are not nearly so healthy. If you have an impaired gut, you’ll have to heal the gut microbiome to get rid of allergies.

You may be thinking to yourself, “Well what can I eat?” Whole foods. Fresh raw produce is the best. Vegetables are better than fruit, especially for those who suffer from Candida overgrowth. It won’t take long to feel remarkably better eating this way. It’s no more than a week out of your life to find out if this is right for you. Give it a try. And then you can slowly work with your diet to figure out your specific triggers that cause allergies. For me it’s alcohol. I rarely drink, but when I do, if it’s more than a couple of drinks, my allergies creep back.

Candida overgrowth is the most common cause of allergy reactions. For those with serious Candida overgrowth issues (such as dealing with candida for years or recent antibiotics use), we recommend SF722, FloraMend, and Intestinal Cleanse, and check out the further reading below. Give it a try and let us know how it goes for you. If you’re skeptical, that’s understandable, but know that Green Lifestyle Market offers a 100% 6-month money back guarantee on the supplements. But be careful, and as always, use your best judgment.